FRANCIS TAKES UP THE NARRATIVE
I saw the lights flash up in the room. I heard Desmond cry out:
"Grundt;" Instantly I flung myself flat on my face in the flower bed,
lest Desmond's shout might have alarmed the soldiers about the fire. But
no one came; the gardens remained dark and damp and silent, and I heard
no sound from the room in which I knew my brother to be in the clutches
of that man.
Desmond's cry pulled me together. It seemed to arouse me from the
lethargy into which I had sunk during all those months of danger and
disappointment. It shook me into life. If I was to save him, not a
moment was to be lost. Clubfoot would act swiftly, I knew. So must I.
But first I must find out what the situation was, the meaning of
Clubfoot's presence in Monica's house, of those soldiers in the park.
And, above all, was Monica herself at the Castle?
I had noticed a little estaminet place on the road, about a hundred
yards before we reached the Schloss. I might, at least, be able to pick
up something there. Accordingly, I stole across the garden, scaled the
wall again and reached the road in safety.
The estaminet was full of people, brutish-looking peasants swilling neat
spirits, cattle drovers and the like. I stood up at the bar and ordered
a double noggin of _Korn_--a raw spirit made in these parts from
potatoes, very potent but at least pure. A man in corduroys and leggings
was drinking at the bar, a bluff sort of chap, who readily entered into
conversation. A casual question of mine about the game conditions
elicited from him the information that he was an under-keeper at the
Castle. It was a busy time for them, he told me, as four big shoots had
been arranged. The first was to take place the next day. There were
plenty of birds, and he thought the Frau Gräfin's guests ought to be
satisfied.
I asked him if there was a big party staying at the Castle. No, he told
me, only one gentleman besides the officer billeted there, but a lot of
people were coming over for the shoot the next day, the officers from
Cleves and Goch, the Chief Magistrate from Cleves, and a number of
farmers from round about.
"I expect you will find the soldiers billeted at the Castle useful as
beaters," I enquired with a purpose.
The man assented grudgingly. Gamekeepers are first-class grumblers. But
the soldiers were not many. For his part he could do without them
altogether. They were such terrible poachers to have about the place, he
declared. But what they would do for beaters without them, he didn't
know ... they were very short of beaters ... that was a fact.
"I am staying at Cleves," I said, "and I'm out of a job. I am not long
from hospital, and they've discharged me from the army. I wouldn't mind
earning a few marks as a beater, and I'd like to see the sport. I used
to do a bit of shooting myself down on the Rhine where I come from."
The man shrugged his shoulders and shook his head. "That's none of my
business, getting the beaters together," he replied. "Besides, I shall
have the head gamekeeper after me if I go bringing strangers in...."
I ordered another drink for both of us, and won the man round without
much difficulty. He pouched my five mark note and announced that he
would manage it ... the Frau Gräfin was to see some men who had offered
their services as beaters after dinner at the Castle that evening. He
would take me along.
Half an hour later I stood, as one of a group of shaggy and bedraggled
rustics, in a big stone courtyard outside the main entrance to the
Castle. The head gamekeeper mustered us with his eye and, bidding us
follow him, led the way under a vaulted gateway through a massive door
into a small lobby which had apparently been built into the great hall
of the Castle, for it opened right into it.
We found ourselves in a splendid old feudal hall, oak-lined and
oak-raftered, with lines of dusty banners just visible in the twilight
reigning in the upper part of the vast place. The modern generation had
forborne to desecrate the fine old room with electric light, and massive
silver candlesticks shed a soft light on the table set at the far end of
the hall, where dinner, apparently, was just at an end.
Three people were sitting at the table, a woman at the head, who, even
before I had taken in the details I have just set down, I knew to be
Monica, though her back was towards me. On one side of the table was a
big, heavy man whom I recognized as Clubfoot, on the other side a pale
slip of a lad in officer's uniform with only one arm ... Schmalz, no
doubt.
A servant said something to Monica, who, asking permission of her
companions by a gesture, left the table and came across the hall. To my
surprise, she was dressed in deepest black with linen cuffs. Her face was
pale and set, and there was a look of fear and suffering in her eyes
that wrung my very heart.
I had shuffled into the last place of the row in which the head keeper
had ranged us. Monica spoke a word or two to each of the men, who
shambled off in turn with low obeisances. Directly she stopped in front
of me I knew she had recognized me--I felt it rather, for she made no
sign--though the time I had had in Germany had altered my appearance, I
dare say, and I must have looked pretty rough with my three days' beard
and muddy clothes.
"Ah!" she said with all her languor _de grande dame_, "you are the man
of whom Heinrich spoke. You have just come out of hospital, I think?"
"Beg the Frau Gräfin's pardon," I mumbled out in the thick patois of the
Rhine which I had learnt at Bonn, "I served with the Herr Graf in
Galicia, and I thought maybe the Frau Gräfin ..."
She stopped me with a gesture.
"Herr Doktor!" she called to the dinner-table.
By Jove! this girl had grit: her pluck was splendid.
Clubfoot came stumping over, all smiles after his food and smoking a
long cigar that smelt delicious.
"Frau Gräfin?" he queried, glancing at me.
"This is a man who served under my husband in Galicia. He is ill and out
of work, and wishes me to help him. I should wish, therefore, to see him
in my sitting-room, if you will allow me...."
"But, Frau Gräfin, most certainly. There surely was no need ..."
"Johann!" Monica called the servant I had seen before, "take this man
into the sitting-room!"
The servant led the way across the hall into a snugly furnished library
with a dainty writing-desk and pretty chintz curtains. Monica followed
and sat down at the desk.
"Now tell me what you wish to say ..." she began in German as the servant
left the room, but almost as soon as he had gone she was on her feet,
clasping my hands.
"Francis!" she whispered in English in a great sob, "oh, Francis! what
have they done to you to make you look like that?"
I gripped her wrist tightly.
"Frau Gräfin," I said in German, still in that hideous patois, "you must
be calm." And I whispered in English in her ear:
"Monica, be brave! And talk German whatever you do."
She regained her self-possession at once.
"I understand," she answered, sitting down at her desk again; "it is
more prudent."
And for the rest of the time we spoke in German.
"Desmond?" I asked.
"Locked up in Grundt's bedroom," she replied. "I met them pushing him
along the corridor--it was horrible! Grundt won't let him out of his
sight. Oh, it was madness to have come. If only I could have warned
you!"
"What is Grundt doing here?" I asked. "And those soldiers and that
officer?"
"My dear," she answered, and her eyes flashed mischief in a sudden
change of mood, "I'm in preventive arrest!"
"But, Monica...."
"Listen! Gerry and that spying man-servant of his made trouble. When Des
went off that evening and didn't come back, Gerry insisted that we
should notify the police. He made an awful scene, then the valet chipped
in, and from what he said I knew he meant mischief. I didn't dare trust
Gerry with the truth, so I let him send a note to the police. They came
round and asked a lot of questions and went away again, so I thought
we'd heard the last of it and came up here. Gerry wouldn't come. He's
gone off to Baden-Baden on some new cure.
"About a week ago the Chief Magistrate at Cleves, who is an old friend
of ours, motored over, and after a lot of talk, blurted out that I was
to consider myself under arrest, and that an officer and a detachment of
men from Goch were coming over to guard the house. The magistrate man
would have told me anything I wanted to know, but he knew nothing: he
simply carried out his orders. Then the lieutenant and his men arrived,
and since that time I have been a prisoner in the house and grounds. I
was terribly scared about Des until Grundt arrived suddenly, two nights
ago, and I saw at once by his face that Des was still at large. But,
Francis, that Clubfoot man came here to catch Des ... and he has simply
walked into the trap."
"And Desmond?" I asked. "What is Clubfoot going to do about him?"
"He was with Des for about an hour in his room, and I heard him tell
Schmalz he would 'try again' after dinner. Oh, Francis, I am frightened
of that man ... not a word has he said to me about my knowing
Desmond--not a word about my harbouring Des in Berlin ... but he knows
everything, and he watches me the whole time."
I glanced through the open door into the hall. The candles still burnt
on the dinner-table, where Clubfoot and the officer sat conversing in
low tones.
"I have been here long enough," I said. "But before I go, I want you to
answer one or two questions, Monica. Will you?"
"Yes, Francis," she said, raising her eyes to mine.
"What time is the shoot to-morrow?"
"At ten o'clock."
"Are Grundt and Schmalz going?"
"Yes."
"You too?"
"Yes."
"Could you get away back to the house by 12.30?"
"Not alone. One of them is always with me out of doors."
"Could you meet me alone anywhere outside at that time?"
"There is a quarry outside a village called Quellenburg ... it is on the
edge of our preserves ... just off the road. We ought to be as far as
that by twelve. If it is necessary, I will try and give them the slip
and hide in one of the caves there. Then, when you came, if you whistled
I could come out."
"Good. That will do excellently. We will arrange it so. Now, another
question ... how many soldiers have you here?"
"Sixteen."
"Are they all going beating?"
"Oh, no! Only ten of them. The other six and the sergeant remain
behind."
"Have you a car here?"
"No, but Grundt has one."
"How many servants will there be in the house to-morrow?"
"Only Johann, the butler, and the maids ... a woman cook and two girls."
"Can you contrive to have Johann out of the house between 10 and 12:30
to-morrow morning?"
"Yes, I can send him to Cleves with a note."
"The maids too?"
"Yes, the maids too."
"Good. Now will you do one thing more--the hardest of all? I want you
to send a message to Desmond. Can you arrange it?"
"Tell me what your message is, and I may be able to answer you."
"I want you to tell him that he must at all costs contrive to keep
Grundt from going to that shoot to-morrow ... at any rate between ten
and twelve. He must manage to let Grundt believe that he is going to
tell him where Grundt may find what he is after ... but he must keep him
in suspense during those hours."
"And after?"
"There will be no after," I said.
"I will see that Des gets your message," Monica replied, "for I will
take it myself."
"No, Monica," I said, "I don't want..."
"Francis," ...she spoke almost in a whisper ... "my life in this country
is over," ... and she touched her widow's weeds.... "Karl was killed at
Predeal three weeks ago.... You know as well as I do that I am involved
in this affair as much as you and Des ... and I will share the risk if
only you will take me away with you ... that is if you ..." She
faltered.
I heard the chairs scrape in the corner of the hall where the
dinner-party was breaking up.
"The Frau Gräfin has only to command," I said. "The Frau Gräfin knows I
have been waiting for years...."
Clubfoot was crossing towards the open door.
"... I never expected to find the Frau Gräfin so gracious.... I had
never hoped that the Frau Gräfin would be willing to do so much for
me ... the Frau Gräfin has made me very happy."
Clubfoot stood on the threshold and listened to my halting speech.
"You can bring your things in when you come to-morrow ..." Monica said.
"The keeper will tell you what time you must be here."
Then she dismissed me, but as I went I heard her say:
"Herr Doktor! Can I have a word with you?"