THE PRETENDER
Mr. de Valentin led the way to a secluded corner of the smoke-room, and
laid a well-filled cigarette case upon the table. He beckoned to the
steward.
"You will take something?" he asked.
I ordered a whisky and soda and lit a cigarette. I had tasted nothing
like them since I had left England. Mr. de Valentin leaned across the
table towards me.
"Mr. Courage," he said, "I am going to ask you to accept a confidence
from me. You are an English gentleman, and although I have not the honor
to be myself an Englishman, my associations with your country have always
been very close, and I am well aware that a special significance attaches
itself to that term."
He paused and looked across at me somewhat anxiously. His speech was slow
but very distinct. He had little accent, but I had known quite well that
he was not an Englishman.
"I shall be very glad to hear anything that you have to say, Mr. de
Valentin," I answered.
He beat with his forefinger upon the table for a few moments absently.
I found myself studying him critically. His appearance was without doubt
distinguished. His sallow face, his pointed black beard, his high,
well-shaped nose, and almost brilliant eyes gave him the appearance of a
Spaniard; but the scrupulous exactness of his plain dinner clothes, his
well-manicured nails, and the ring upon his little finger, with its
wonderful green stone, were all suggestive of the French aristocrat. His
eyebrows were knit just now, as though with thought. Presently he looked
up from the table and continued:
"If you will permit me," he said, "I should like to introduce myself. My
name is not Mr. de Valentin. I am Victor Louis, Comte de Valentin,
Marquis de St. Auteuil, Duc de Bordera and Escault, Prince of Normandy."
I nodded gravely.
"And according to some," I remarked in a low tone, "King of France!"
He looked at me in keen surprise. He was evidently taken aback.
"You knew me?" he exclaimed.
"I felt very sure," I answered, "that you were the person whom you have
declared yourself to be. I have seen you twice in Paris, and you must
remember that this is an age of illustrated papers and journalistic
enterprise."
"You have not mentioned your recognition of me?" he asked quickly.
"Certainly not," I answered. "It was not my affair, and in your position
I can conceive that there may be many reasons for your desiring to travel
incognito."
He smiled a little wearily.
"Yet it would tax your ingenuity, I imagine," he continued, "to account
for my travelling in company with Mrs. Van Reinberg and her daughters."
"It is not my affair," I answered. "We Englishmen are supposed to have
learnt the secret of minding our own business."
"You Englishmen, certainly," he answered, "but not always your servants."
I looked at him a little puzzled. His words had seemed to possess some
special significance.
"You will not, I am sure, take offence at what I am about to say, Mr.
Courage," he continued; "but may I ask if you have confidence in the
manservant who is now travelling with you?"
It was a shock, but I fancy that I remained unmoved.
"You mean my man Peters?" I inquired. "I can guarantee his honesty
certainly."
"Can you also guarantee," Mr. de Valentin asked me, "that he is simply
what he professes to be--a valet, and not, for instance, a spy?"
"My dear sir," I protested, "we scarcely know the meaning of that word in
England. To say the least of it, such a suggestion would be wildly
improbable."
He sighed.
"In France," he said, "one looks for spies everywhere. I myself have
suffered painfully on more than one occasion from espionage. One grows
suspicious, and, in this instance, I have grounds for my suspicions."
"May I know what they are?" I asked.
"I was about to tell you," Mr. de Valentin answered. "I have with me in
my cabin certain papers, which are of great importance to me. I had
occasion to look them through last night, and although none were missing,
yet there was every indication of their having been tampered with. I
questioned my servant, who is a very faithful fellow, and I found that
the only person with whom he had made friends, and who had entered my
cabin, was your man, Peters I think you called him."
Mr. de Valentin was watching me closely, and the test was a severe one. I
was annoyed with Guest for having kept me in ignorance of what he had
done.
"I do not see how your private papers could have been of the slightest
use to Peters," I said; "but if you like to come down to my state-room
you can question him yourself."
"That," he answered, "I will leave to you. I take it then that you have
no suspicion that your servant is any other than he professes to be?"
"I am perfectly convinced that he is not," I declared.
Mr. de Valentin bowed.
"For the moment," he said, "we will quit the subject. I have another
matter, equally delicate, which I should like to discuss with you."
"I am quite at your service," I assured him.
"You have a saying in English," he continued, "which, if I remember it
rightly, says that necessity makes strange bedfellows. I myself am going
into a strange country upon a strange errand. I do not consider myself a
person of hyper-exclusive tastes, but I must confess that I do not find
myself in sympathy with the country-people and friends of Mrs. Van
Reinberg!"
I shrugged my shoulders.
"Then why go amongst them?" I asked. "You are surely at liberty to do as
you choose!"
Mr. de Valentin took up his case and chose another cigarette.
"In this instance," he said coldly, "I am not entirely my own master.
There were powerful reasons why I should have taken this voyage to
America, and there are reasons why I should have done so with Mrs. Van
Reinberg. Which brings me, by the bye, to the second matter concerning
which I wished to speak to you."
I accepted another of Mr. de Valentin's excellent cigarettes, and
composed myself once more to listen.
"I am going to Lenox," he continued, "to meet there a few American
friends, with whom I have certain affairs of importance to discuss. You,
also, have been invited to Lenox. My request is that you defer your visit
there until after my departure."
I raised my eyebrows at this. It seemed to me that Mr. de Valentin was
going a little too far.
"May I inquire," I asked politely, "in what respect you find my presence
there undesirable? We are not bound, I presume, to come much into contact
with one another."
"You misunderstand me," Mr. de Valentin declared. "It is not a personal
matter at all. My visit to Lenox has been arranged solely to discuss a
certain matter with certain people. The presence of those who are not
interested in it would be an embarrassment to all of us. Further, to
recur to a matter which we have already spoken of, I cannot divest myself
of certain suspicions concerning your servant."
I considered my reply for a moment or two.
"As regards the latter," I said after a pause, "I can not take you
seriously. Besides, it is very unlikely that my servant would accompany
me to Lenox. If my presence there would be an embarrassment, I really do
not see why Mrs. Van Reinberg asked me."
"She did so thoughtlessly," Mr. de Valentin answered. "Her reasons were
tolerably clear to me, perhaps to you. With regard to them, I have
nothing to say, except that your visit could be paid just as well, say in
a fortnight after we land."
"Unfortunately," I answered, "that would not suit me. To be frank with
you, Miss Van Hoyt would have left."
"If I can arrange," Mr. de Valentin continued, with some eagerness, "that
she should not have left!"
I hesitated for a moment.
"Mr. de Valentin," I said, "I cannot conceive what cause for
embarrassment could arise from my presence in Lenox at the same time as
yourself. I do not ask you to tell me your secrets; but, in the absence
of some more valid reason for staying away, I shall certainly not break
my present engagement."
There was a silence between us for several moments. Mr. de Valentin was
fingering his cigarette case nervously.
"I am perhaps asking too much of a stranger, Mr. Courage," he said. "The
matter is of the deepest importance to me, or I would not have troubled
you. Supposing Miss Van Hoyt should herself fix the date of your visit,
and engage to be there?"
"That," I answered, "would, of course, be sufficient for me."
Mr. de Valentin rose from his seat.
"We will leave it like that then," he said. "I must apologize, Mr.
Courage, for having troubled you with my private affairs, and wish you
good-night!"
We separated a few moments later, and I went down to my state-room. I
found Guest busy writing in a pocket-book, seated on the edge of his
bunk. I told him of my conversation with Mr. de Valentin.
"I knew it was risky," he remarked when I had finished, "but it was an
opportunity which I dared not miss."
"You might have told me about it," I protested. "I was altogether
unprepared."
"The less you know," he answered, "the better. If you like, I will show
you tracings of some letters which I discovered in Mr. de Valentin's
portfolio. They were quite worth the journey to America, apart from
anything else. Personally, I should advise you not to see them until our
return to England."
"Very well," I answered. "Don't show them to me. But I shouldn't try it
again. Mr. de Valentin is on his guard."
Guest smiled a little wearily.
"I am not likely to make such a mistake as that," he answered. "Besides,
I have been through all his papers. His secrets are ours now, only we
must know what is decided upon at Lenox. Then we can return to England,
and the first part of our task will be done!"