THE CARVED PANEL
We will leave the Boy Scouts puzzling over the tremendous problem of
getting in touch with headquarters and releasing Professor Morris and
the others, while we visit a magnificent home far up in the residential
part of the city, where the beautiful parks, wide streets and fine
buildings all told of great wealth.
Many of the places lay in ruins, but here and there arose a dazzling
white marble building that had happily escaped the destruction of the
iron rain that had poured over the ill-fated city. Many of these were
occupied by the officers and men of the invading army. Destruction of
the worst sort went with them, and the unhappy owners had, whenever
possible, secreted the most valuable of their belongings. Pictures,
jewels, silver, furs and even rugs were hidden in secret vaults or
buried in gardens and cellars. For the people of Warsaw, as well as
their fair city, were ruined, although sooner or later the scraps saved
could be converted into money. Rich and poor fared alike; for the
present, at least, everyone needed food and safe shelter.
In the dining-room of one of the finest places saved from the destroying
shells sat a group of officers. They were big, blonde men, and they
talked roughly and rapidly in their native German. It was plain to see
that they were quarreling. One of them, rising from the great carved
chair in which he had been lounging, kicked it from his path and walked
nervously up and down the room. He was scowling ferociously while with
his saber point he jabbed little holes in the Russian leather covering
the back of the chair opposite him.
He shook his head as the man who was walking up and down neared his
chair.
"I tell you, Otto, you can't do it," he said. "You can't burry things
so. Those people are Americans. You can't execute that old man on a bare
suspicion. What if his notes are a code? We have them, at all events;
and we have him; and we must wait until the General returns."
"That's not my idea at all!" scowled the other man. "This is war. I am
in command, my friend, and if I think I have a spy, and see that it is
my duty to stand this man up against a wall, then what? Bang! Bang! It
is all over. What can be said?"
"What is your idea exactly?" asked the man at the table. "What is the
use of hurrying things so? It sounds like murder to me. I think the old
man is perfectly harmless. He is probably just what he claims, a
professor in one of the American Universities. I've heard of this
Princeton. It is a place of some size and standing."
"That is just it, Gustav!" cried the other.
"That is one reason for suspecting him. He is too glib with his
Princeton. Himmel! Did you ever hear a man talk so fast and so much and
use such words? I can speak as good English as any man my age, but there
were words, dozens of them, that I had never dreamed of."
"Is that the real reason why you are going to shoot him as a spy?" asked
Gustav, coming back to the main point once more.
"I don't suppose I shall shoot him at all," answered Otto grimly. "I
want to, that's all, but I can't do it unless I have sufficient cause,
no matter how much I would like to remove him. He is in the way."
Gustav stared, and laid down his saber. "I see!" he said, nodding his
head slowly. "The girl?"
"Yes! The girl!" said Otto. He frowned and continued to walk up and
down, while the other laughed.
"What would you?" he demanded. "You would get yourself into all sorts of
trouble. There is no kidnapping of young women in this campaign,
remember!"
"I would like to marry her," said Otto coolly. "She is so pretty and
sweet."
"So are the German girls," declared Gustav, loyally.
"What a romantic episode!" sighed Otto, rolling his eyes in a
sentimental manner. "I discover this beautiful American here in Warsaw,
in the heart of the war; I love her; I marry her. It is wonderful!"
"It certainly is," said Gustav. "Wonderful indeed! And in order to bring
her to a proper idea of your goodness and charm, you shoot her father
and brother-do you shoot her brother, by the way?"
Otto scowled. "You are coarse, my friend," he said. "I do not shoot
anyone. Germany merely destroys a spy. As for the brother, he is small,
I think he disappears."
"Does the German army cause that too?" asked Gustav.
"Don't jest," said Otto. "I am in earnest."
"In truth, so am I!" answered Gustav. "You are crazy, just plain crazy.
The man is no more a spy than I am, I'll be bound!"
Otto shrugged his broad shoulders. "You don't know whereof you speak,"
he said. "You have not heard him talk, have you?"
"No, I'll grant that," Gustav acknowledged. "Have him brought in and let
me hear him."
"Very well," said Otto, "but speak English to him. His German is so bad
that he ought to be shot for that if for nothing else."
He turned and summoned an orderly. The two men sat in silence. At a
nearby table two lieutenants were busy writing. They did not speak but
looked eagerly as the door opened, and the prisoners entered. The
lieutenants shifted in their chairs and smiled at each other in
anticipation. Gustav caught their fleeting grins and dismissed them from
the room with a curt command, then turned his attention to the group
standing just within the door.
Professor Morris stood with a protecting arm around each of his
children. He looked broken and old, and wore the air of a man who has
been rudely wakened from a secure and comfortable sleep to view some
unimagined horror. The War, the bombardment and the fall of Warsaw, had
at last become something more than a spectacle to be transferred to the
pages of his book. It was a frightful fact, a living reality in which
men died by thousands, and little children perished, where women's
hearts broke with their anguish and despair.
He found that War recognizes but few laws, and even fewer obligations.
It seemed that his standing as a man of learning, his claim as a citizen
of the United States, availed him nothing. Standing there, a prisoner,
with a helpless child on either side, the ivy-covered walls of his
beloved Princeton seemed far away indeed. As he closed his tired eyes
for an instant he could see a clear and lovely picture of the velvet
green campus and the great iron gates opening on the smooth and level
streets shaded by lofty trees. He heard the chimes, the laughter of
happy young fellows passing to and fro. There were rows and rows of
peaceful homes, stately mansions and simple cottages. On level,
perfectly kept tennis courts, here and there, men and girls all in white
played tennis. He saw his friends--
But opening his weary eyes, he saw a gorgeous, tumbled room whose
princely draperies were torn and full of saber cuts, a sideboard where
priceless glass had been a target for the rough play by rougher men.
Before him were the two hard, blonde German faces, and there he stood, a
prisoner, with his two children clinging to him. Warren and Elinor were
gone, he knew not where.
Captain Handel stood motionless, but Captain Schmitt rose civilly and
bowed when he saw Evelyn. He could not help it. The girl was so noble,
so lovely, and hid her fright so gallantly, that he was compelled to pay
her the slight courtesy that he did.
"Captain Handel tells me that this notebook is yours, Professor Morris,"
Gustav commenced in almost perfect English.
"It is," said the Professor. He eyed it hungrily, and reached a hand out
without thinking what he did.
Gustav drew the book back.
"It has a suspicious look," he said. "So many plans and measurements and
specifications. Will you not explain?"
The Professor reddened. He shut his mouth stubbornly.
"Those are private notes," he said. "I was sent over here to make what
discoveries I could along certain lines."
"What, did I tell you, Gustav?" broke in Otto, turning to his brother
officer and speaking in a low tone. "There is the whole thing! He was a
spy sent to make discoveries along 'certain lines.' He confesses that.
He has succeeded in doing so. The book tells us that."
"Wait, wait!" begged Gustav. "Professor Morris, do you understand that
you are here facing a most serious charge?"
"It is a silly, trumped up charge," declared the Professor, irritably.
"Silly trumped up charge! I absolutely will not answer your questions.
Wait until you hear from the American Consul."
"We won't hear from him," said Gustav gently. "You are in our hands,
bearing suspicious documents, and you refuse to answer our questions. Do
you realize the seriousness of this affair?"
"Certainly not!" declared the Professor, "and let me tell you, my young
friend, I shall write this thing up in the papers when I return to
America. I shall make public your personal attitude in the matter. At
the present all I demand is release and that manuscript on the table
beside you. Also my notebook." He bowed slightly and stood waiting as
though he fully expected the officers to do his bidding, as indeed he
did.
"Will you explain your notes?" asked Gustav quietly.
Otto was nervously biting his small moustache, his eyes fixed on
Evelyn's lovely face.
"No! No!" cried the Professor loudly, "a thousand times no! I refuse to
share with you the results of my researches. What, and have you get the
credit of all my labor? Never!" He clenched his hands.
"Father--" began Evelyn pleadingly.
"Be silent, Evelyn!" commanded her father sternly. "I know what I am
about! I refuse to say anything, whatever happens."
"You had better think this over, Professor," said Gustav. "We will leave
you here alone for half an hour. Talk it over with your children and
decide if you wish to give up your life for the sake of these notes.
Explain them to us, and we will promise you safe conduct out of the
country. The girl and boy will have to remain as guarantee of your good
faith. They will not be harmed. In case you will not do as we suggest--"
He tapped his saber, and started to the door.
Otto spoke abruptly.
"The windows are barred," he said. "Two men guard the door. You cannot
escape. Decide!"
He looked longingly at Evelyn and followed Gustav from the room. The
heavy door shut silently behind them but not before they had a glimpse
of the two soldiers standing at attention in the hallway.
While they stood looking at it, it opened and Otto entered, closing it
after him.
"I may as well tell you," he said. "You will shoot as a spy if you do
not explain your charts and figures and leave the country."
Then as though he could not conceal his triumph, he added, "In any case,
you know your daughter remains here."
"Remains here?" cried the Professor. "How is that? What do you mean?"
Otto shrugged his shoulders.
"I like her," he said coolly. "I might marry her. You are very lovely,"
he added, turning his bold, cold eyes on Evelyn.
She hid her face against her father's shoulder.
Otto laughed.
Jack sprang at him with a shrill cry. The big man caught the boy, and
flung him contemptuously to the floor.
"Be careful, little sparrow!" he said. "A second time and I will crush
you! I'm going now," he said, turning to the Professor. "In half an hour
we will come and you will tell us which you prefer--death or safe
conduct." He bowed. "Good-bye for a little, Mees Evelyn, he said and
closed the door behind him."
Evelyn threw herself on her father's shoulder and burst into sobs. "Oh,
father, father, what shall we do?" she cried.
The Professor was silent, then he said, "Well, my dear, I actually
believe that young man meant what he said."
"Of course he did!" sobbed Evelyn.
"In that ease," said the Professor firmly, "I would as lief be dead as
to have the work of a lifetime destroyed by those rascals."
He hastened to the table and took up the portfolio enclosing his book.
"It's all here," he said after a glance.
"But father, whatever they do to you, they are going to keep me here.
What will I do? What will I do?"
She ran to the windows and looked out. It was just as they had been
told. The casements were heavily barred and there was but one door, the
one through which the officers had passed. The walls were paneled half
way up with old oak. The room was solid as a dungeon. There was not a
chance for escape. In a few minutes the soldiers would return and tear
her father from her.
Her father was speaking. She listened.
"All here," he said, "every page! That is fortunate indeed."
He looked searchingly at Evelyn. "I have a plan, my," he said. "This is
a very dreadful affair, but on second thought a scheme occurs to me. I
will explain somewhat of my notes, but not enough so they could amplify
them. Then, with my safe conduct, I will go over to Germany, explain the
whole affair, and demand your release. You will doubtless be absolutely
safe here, absolutely safe. This young Handel seems rather a
rattle-brained youth, but Captain Schmitt looked conservative and sane.
I will place you in his Charge. John is with you, and you will be
perfectly safe, I am positive."
Evelyn grew deathly pale. She kissed her father's cheek, then listlessly
approached the table. A revolver was lying there.
"Yes, I know that I will be safe," she said firmly. She took the weapon
in her hand and looked up.
As she raised her eyes, she looked straight into the face of a girl
about her own age, who stood motionless against the wall, one hand
outstretched its though to call her. Evelyn stared in unbelief. An
instant before they had been alone in the room! Were her senses leaving
her? She looked at her father and brother. They, too, were staring,
speechless and wild-eyed. So she did not imagine the graceful figure and
lovely face with its dark troubled eyes.
The stranger pressed a finger on her lips in a gesture of silence, then
she beckoned, and as they approached, tiptoeing over the thick rug, she
turned and pressed a finger on a carved rosette in the oak panel.
Without a sound it slid open, and they found themselves in a narrow,
stone passage. Once more the strange girl motioned for silence. Then she
slid an iron grating across the secret door through which they had come,
and turning ran lightly down the passage. Without a moment's hesitation,
Evelyn started after, her hand still clasping the revolver which she had
taken from the table. The Professor, clutching his recovered manuscript,
followed, while Jack brought up the rear.
As they turned a corner, a faint shout reached them. The officers had
returned to the empty room!
The way was long, with many sharp turns. It seemed to be a space between
rooms. Once or twice shouts and laughter were faintly heard, as they
seemed to pass near a room full of soldiers. It was dark. The girl ahead
felt in her pocket, and brought out a tiny flashlight. They came finally
to a steep flight of stairs.
Now for the first time the girl spoke. In a cautious whisper she said,
"Be careful!" and holding the flash behind her for their guidance, went
swiftly and lightly down, with the manner of one who is familiar with
every inch of the way. The stairs were wide and shallow. There were a
great many of them and they seemed to go down a long way. Evelyn
wondered if the place was built on a hillside, making it a long way to
the underground regions she suspected beyond or below. She afterwards
found out that this was correct. A door barred with iron was at the foot
of the stairs. Indeed, they ended right against it. The girl pushed the
door open, and when they had entered, closed it behind them and dropped
a massive bar across it. They were in a large, stone chamber, empty save
for a few scraps of furniture.
Their guide swiftly crossed the room and opened another forbidding
looking door. The second room was like the first, but was filled with
casks and huge barrels. Beyond this again they entered a narrow passage,
so very narrow that their garments brushed the walls at either side. The
stones underfoot were rough and uneven.
Professor Morris walked carefully, picking his steps by the aid of the
flashlight. Evelyn and Jack, more careless, stumbled frequently, but
still the girl, light as a feather, flitted on, swift and sure footed.
Once more the flash revealed a wall ahead. As she approached it the girl
turned and smiled. Evelyn stared. There was no sign of any opening in
the rough wall and the great stones seemed fast in their cement, but the
girl, stooping, pressed a corner of one of the paving stones. To their
amazement it slid from its place, revealing another very narrow flight
of steps. The girl descended, and when they were all down, pressed
another spring, and the stone slid in place. Another flight of steps
exactly like the ones they had just descended rose against the flooring;
and when the girl had led the way, they one by one stepped into a large
and brightly lighted room.
Professor Morris blinked; Jack turned red; Evelyn gasped with surprise.