VON ERSTEIN
Baron von Gratzen was away some minutes; and exceedingly unpleasant
minutes they were for me. At first I could see nothing but checkmate to
all my plans. That the doctors would pass me as fit for service in the
field was beyond question; and, as Germany wanted as many men as
possible in the fighting line, I was certain to be packed off without
any delay.
But then I needed only a delay of a couple of days--the papers would be
ready by then--and it was still possible that something might happen
which would give me just enough time to get away. It was a devil of a
mess, however; and it cost me no end of an effort to pull myself
together by the time the Baron came back and himself took me to the
doctors.
They had been primed about the case, and all three of them were as
deeply interested in me as the others had been in Rotterdam. One of
them was a specialist in such cases, and he conducted the first part of
the examination--that in regard to my memory. He put numberless
questions on all sorts of subjects, endeavouring in every conceivable
way to get me to admit that I could remember something; but I had no
great difficulty in answering him. He appeared to lay most stress on
everything that had occurred immediately before the explosion on the
_Burgen_; and was still on that when the Baron came back to us,
listened to his concluding questions and suggestions, and then took him
out of the room.
The physical examination followed. I stripped to the buff, and a very
few minutes sufficed to satisfy them about my fitness. I was, of
course, in the pink of condition and as hard as nails.
"You must have had military training," said one of them.
"That can't be so, so far as I know. I understand I've been travelling
about the world for a long time."
"I'm sure of it," was the positive verdict. "Every muscle tells the
tale too plainly for any one to be mistaken. Just stand over there; I
want to look at your back;" and he placed me close to the wall, and
stepped back some distance himself.
"No, perhaps not," he murmured, and just as I was chuckling at his
blunder, he suddenly yelled at me in English, "'Shun!" with military
abruptness. Instinctively, being for the instant quite off my guard, I
brought my heels together and straightened up. He chuckled, and I could
have cursed myself for an idiot in having given the show away.
The doctor who had trapped me couldn't contain his delight. "I knew I
couldn't be mistaken. You can put your clothes on," he told me, rubbing
his hands gleefully, and after another chortle to his colleague, he
hurried off to report the result of his experiment.
I was mad at having made such a blithering ass of myself just when
things had been going so well. The game was up, of course, and there
was nothing for it but to face the music. It was now a toss up whether
I should be packed off to the front or popped into prison, and it
didn't need a Solomon to see that the odds strongly favoured the latter.
The Baron and the two doctors came back in about five minutes, and the
man who had bowled me out was laughingly rubbing it in to the
specialist.
"I can't imagine how it escaped you, Gorlitz," he said as they entered;
and the specialist looked about as pleased as I felt.
"Try it again," he growled in a half-whisper.
"He may be prepared this time," was the reply in an undertone, but not
low enough to prevent my hearing it. I couldn't get the hang of things
for the moment; but when, after a few desultory questions, the doctor
pretended to take some measurements and then turned me with my back to
him again, I knew what was coming, and I thought I would do a little
bit of pantomime of my own.
They spoke together in low tones, and in the middle of it the doctor
yelled "'Shun!" at me once more. I started, hesitated and then came to
attention, but not nearly so smartly as before.
"Just turn round," called the specialist. "Now, march across the room."
I obeyed, and was halfway across when the doctor shouted "Halt!" I
stopped instantly.
"There you are," exclaimed the doctor. The specialist nodded, told me
to sit down, and plied me with all sorts of questions about the army,
appearing rather pleased than otherwise when I failed to answer them.
A long pow-wow followed between the three doctors and was developing
into a pretty hot wrangle whether my having obeyed the word of command
was really a recurrence of memory or not, when the Baron intervened and
I was sent back to his room with his subordinate.
"You have set them a difficult problem, Herr Lassen," he said to me
when he joined me after some ten minutes; "and given me one also. But
it will do no harm to postpone the decision about you for a few days,
at any rate. You have no idea how you come to know the English words of
command?"
I affected to think deeply. "Can I have been in the army there?" I
asked, looking blankly at him.
He smiled and then nodded. "Yes, you are a deserter. Your report says
that you joined it to obtain certain information."
"It's very odd, sir."
"Very," he replied a little drily. "It makes it a little difficult in
regard to a suggestion Dr. Gorlitz threw out; he's the mental
specialist, you know. He thinks it not improbable that if you were
placed again in the surroundings immediately preceding the shock which
deprived you of your memory, it would greatly facilitate its recovery.
Perhaps your only chance of doing so. But you might not care to run
such a risk. You should understand that I wish to help you in any way I
can," he added kindly.
"I am very much obliged to you, sir. Of course it would be a risk, but
my great wish is to get my memory back."
"Does that mean you would like to go back to England?"
I could scarcely believe my ears and tried to conceal my overwhelming
delight under the cover of frowning consideration. "The risk wouldn't
frighten me, sir."
"Very well. I'll see about it. That's about as far as we can get
to-day; but there's one thing I should tell you. There is some one in
Berlin who knows you and declares that your loss of memory is a mere
pretence, and that you have assumed it because of some exceedingly
sinister business in which you were involved a year or two ago."
I could smile at that sincerely. "Can you tell me his name?"
He paused a moment. "There will be no harm, if you keep it to yourself;
I don't believe the story, but then I know the man too well. It is
Count von Erstein."
"He's a scoundrel, I know that; but it may be the truth, of course."
"We won't discuss him," said the Baron, rising. "I only told you to put
you on your guard because of the genuine interest I take in you;" and
with that he shook hands and was sending me away, when I remembered my
difficulty that morning about papers of identification. I explained it
to him and he sent for von Welten and instructed him to do what was
necessary.
I left the place feeling pretty much as any one would feel who had
rubbed his back against a prison door and by the merest squeak escaped
finding himself on the wrong side of the bars. The whole business
baffled me. Knowing as I did so well the usual methods of German
officialism, the Baron's treatment was incomprehensible; and rack my
wits as I would, I could not hit on a clue to explain it.
And then the luck of it! Actually to be sent back to England with
official credentials! I could have whooped for joy! But as it was
already passed the time I was to lunch with von Erstein, I rushed back
to the Falkenplatz, made sure of the little flat, and then cabbed it to
von Erstein's address.
What a rotter the brute was, I reflected as I thought of the story he
had already spread about me. He meant to make things hot for me and no
mistake, and had lost no time in setting to work. And what a brick the
old Count, to have given me that warning. If I had been going to stop
in Berlin, I might have taken von Erstein's enmity seriously; but as it
was I could afford to laugh at him, for a few days at the most would
see both Nessa and me out of the country, if the luck only held.
I was so late in reaching the Gallenstrasse, where von Erstein had his
sumptuous flat, that he had already begun lunch. "I'd given you up,
Lassen," he said as I entered. "Thought something might have happened
with old Gratz to detain you. He's a downy old bird. Sit there, will
you. Everything all right?"
"Why shouldn't it be?" I knew what he meant.
He turned the question off and we talked about nothing in particular
until lunch was over, except that every now and then he shot in a
question which might have committed me if I had not been on my guard.
But I had been through the mill so thoroughly that morning that the
part I was playing had grown into my bones, so to speak.
"Now we can chat at our ease," he said as we settled into easy chairs.
"Is it still your habit to smoke a cigarette before a cigar?" he asked,
grinning, as he held the box toward me.
"Was that one of my habits, then?" I countered, declining the little
trap.
"All right, you do it very well. Ought to be on the stage, on my word
you ought," he said with a broader leer. "But now, let's get to grips.
How do we two stand?"
"About what?"
"Don't fool about in that way. You know what I mean."
"I shall when you tell me."
"Do you want to have me for a friend or the other thing?"
"I told you yesterday I wasn't likely to quarrel with any one who has
such influence as you have."
"And I told you that it would be a bad day's work for you if we did
quarrel; and quarrel we shall if you try to beat about the bush, as
you're doing now. I believe in plain talk; and you'd better bear that
in mind, not only now but always."
"Then let me have some plain talk now."
"You shall," taking his cigar out and flicking off the ash. "I've only
to utter a word or two and I can flick you out of my way as easily as I
flicked that ash off. Mind that, too."
I laughed. "You have a pleasant way with you, von Erstein."
"I don't care a curse about pleasantness or unpleasantness. When I want
a thing, I have it. And what I want now is that English girl at the von
Reblings', and you'd better be careful not to get in my way about it."
"How am I likely to be in your way?"
"Because you're a relative of the von Reblings, my friend, and you're
going to marry the fair Rosa, whom, by the way, I can tell you as an
old hand you'll find a handful. But she likes the English girl and will
try to influence you, and if I know her, as I certainly do, she'll
succeed, if I don't stop it."
"Stop it? How?"
"By showing you on which side your bread has the butter. Now look here.
I know a heap about you; quite enough to queer your pitch with the von
Reblings and put an end to your engagement and lose you the coin on
which you're counting. All this rot about a loss of memory is just----"
and he waved his cigar in the air to emphasize his meaning.
"What do you know about me?"
"Oh, don't try that fool's game on me."
"But I should be intensely interested in the story. I'm itching to know
all about myself," I persisted, seeing how this line provoked him.
"Where did you go from Goettingen, my young friend?" he asked with a
meaning nod, as if the question would confound me.
"How the devil do I know?"
"You went to Hanover. You know that perfectly well."
"Did I? And do I? You're getting me regularly mixed, you know." I was
delighted to see that he was fast losing his temper.
"You did. And when you were there you had a friend, who called himself
Gossen; but was in reality a Frenchman, named Gaudet. Don't say you
don't remember, because it will be a lie," he snarled.
"That's an ugly word, von Erstein."
"And the whole thing was an ugly business. He was a spy and wanted some
secrets; you were able to find them out; and you were suddenly found to
be in possession of a big sum of money. How did you get it?"
"Honestly, I hope," I answered with intentional flippancy.
"How did you get it? And how did you get the information, too? That's
the question; and if you won't answer it, I can. But you'd better not
force me to open my lips."
"I'm beginning to get awfully interested. Like a story, isn't it?" and
I laughed.
"You'd better laugh while you can," he rapped, swearing viciously.
"Of course you mean I sold the information to the Frenchman and that
that accounts for my having that sudden money."
"I not only mean it, I can prove it. Prove it, do you understand that?"
I gave him another grin and shook my head. "Some one's been pulling
your leg, von Erstein. The whole thing's just bosh."
"It's no good, Lassen. I've got you here;" and he held out his hand and
clenched it. "Here! And no wriggling humbug about loss of memory will
help you to get out."
"I must be an infernal blackguard, then."
"That's the truest thing you've said since you came. It's just what you
are; and the von Reblings ought to know it."
"You haven't told me how I got that valuable information yet. I should
like to know that."
"If you'll let that lost memory of yours wake up for a second, just
long enough to remember the name of Anna Hilden, you'll know all about
it without a word from me." His sneering suggestive tone clearly showed
that this was one of his trump cards, and he fixed his eyes on me,
keenly watching for the effect.
"But my memory won't oblige me by waking up, you see. Had she anything
to do with it?"
"To the devil with all your pretended innocence! You know she had, and
that you induced her to worm it out of the man she was to have married,
if you hadn't come in the road; just as you're trying now with me," he
cried, scowling at me threateningly. "But you've got a man to deal with
this time, not a woman, and the wrong sort of man too."
I dropped the bantering tone and answered seriously. "Of course all you
say may be the gospel truth, but I give you my word that I haven't the
faintest recollection of anything you've mentioned."
He laughed scornfully. "That's a lie," he growled with an oath.
I had had more than enough and I got up. "If this weren't your own
place, I'd cram that word down your throat; and the next time we meet,
wherever it is, I'll do it," I told him.
He seemed to understand that I meant it, and a change came over his
face. "I'll take that back," he muttered. "Sit down again."
I didn't sit down, but I stopped. Either he was as arrant a coward as
such a brute was likely to be and I had scared him, or some thought had
struck him which accounted for the change.
He let his cigar drop; made a to-do in finding it, pitching it away,
and lighting another; and it was an easy guess that all this was to
gain time. Then he sat thinking, fiddling nervously with a very
singular ring he wore on his middle finger. He saw me looking at it
and, no doubt to get a little more time to think, he spoke of it.
"You're looking at this," he said, holding up the hand. I nodded, and
he drew it off and handed it me. "It's a puzzle ring I picked up in
China," he explained, showing how it was really a little chain of rings
which fitted very ingeniously to form a single ring.
I examined it and, still to gain time, he told me to try and put it
together. I did try and failed, and when he had thought out his
problem, he took it back and showed me the fitting.
"I'm sorry I lost my temper just now, Lassen," he said in a very
different tone from his former angry one. "It's always a fool's game.
But I did really believe you were shamming about your memory. What I
told you about the Hanover business is quite true, however, and the
fact that you don't remember it, wouldn't make an atom of difference
with our people. But now, what about the English girl?"
I hesitated a second and then resumed my seat. "I'm willing to listen
to you," I said; and he couldn't keep the satisfaction out of his fat,
tell-tale face. He reckoned that he had frightened me, of course.
"What are you going to do about her?" was his next question.
"What _you_ want to do is the point, man."
"She's a spy and ought to be interned."
"And why are you so keen about that? You said a little while back that
you wanted her; how's the internment going to help you there?"
"She'd be sent to Krustadt and the Commandant---- Never mind; you can
leave the rest to me. You won't know anything."
I couldn't trust myself to speak for a time, I was so furious at the
suggestiveness of the leering brute's words and manner. But there was
probably more to learn yet, so I choked down my rage and at last even
forced myself to nod and smile meaningly. "And my part?" I asked.
"Two things; both easy enough. Old Gratz has shoved a spoke in the
wheel so far, curse him, and as you're in the house you can tell him
you know I'm right that she is a spy and you can give him proofs."
"Proofs?" I echoed, with a start.
"I said proofs, didn't I? I'll give you some papers and you can plant
one or two on her and give the rest to him saying you've found them in
her room or somewhere. He'll be obliged to order a search then, and
that'll do the trick."
"Confound the thing!" I exclaimed, jumping up and wringing my fingers
as if I'd burnt them with my cigar.
"Here, take another," he said, and by the time I had lit it, I had
myself in hand again.
"But if she was caught red-handed like that, she might be shot, and
that wouldn't help you much."
"You leave that to me," he replied with a leer and a wink. "The
question is, are you going to help me?"
"I don't like it, von Erstein, and that's the truth," I said.
"I didn't ask you that."
"And if I do help you?"
He put his fat finger to his lips. "Mum about that Hanover business."
"And if I don't?"
He paused, squinting hard at me. "I think you will."
I affected to consider the proposal. "But why take this roundabout
trouble to get her? If you want to marry her, why not ask her?"
That touched his Teutonic sense of humour and he burst into loud and
evidently genuine laughter. "Why didn't you marry Anna Hilden? Because
you could get her without, wasn't it? Same here, of course."
"It comes to this, then," I said after a pause. "You think you know
that I played the traitor in that Hanover business in a way that
renders me liable to be shot; but that you're willing to hush it up if
I'll help to put Miss Caldicott into your power. That about it?"
"Put it how you like," he growled, not relishing the bald statement.
"But you'd better toe the line, my friend, and at once. Now, what are
you going to do?"
"I'll toe the line, von Erstein."
He chuckled. "I thought you'd see wisdom," he sneered.
"Not quite as you think, however. What I'm going to do is"--and I
paused--"to give you forty-eight hours to clear out of Berlin; and if I
find you here then, I'll not only tell the von Reblings the whole of
your confounded scheme, but I'll tell Baron von Gratz as well. And I'm
thundering glad you've put that card in my hands."