“You mean seriously that I am to impersonate His Majesty?”
“For this purpose, M. Denver, that is my serious meaning.”
“Well, it’s a most extraordinary proposition.”
“The occasion itself is quite an extraordinary one, of course. But I
repeat, you will be doing His Majesty and his Ministers a service of
extreme importance. I have asked you, of course, as I said before, only
because I understand you deem yourself under a deep obligation to my
master.”
“You heard us speaking to-night of the incident. I owe him probably my
life, and certainly an escape from serious injuries. We Americans don’t
go back on a call, and I admit it’s up to him to call now. But this is
such an odd thing.”
“Think it over. It is a national characteristic of your countrymen to
be prompt. Shall I return, say, in an hour?”
“Wait a minute, Prince,” I said as he rose, and pushing my chair back I
took a few turns up and down the room.
We were in the apartments which had been assigned to me in the Palace,
and the Prince had interrupted me as I was planning out my projected
journey to Khiva. It was nearly midnight, and my maps and papers lay
open on the table.
“I am quite at your disposal, M. Denver,” he replied courteously as he
resumed his chair and watched me.
“Let me see that I’ve got the hang of the thing right,” I said after a
while. “You say this man, Boreski, is really dangerous; but I thought
you had a quick method of dealing with dangerous men in Russia.”
“It is not a case for ordinary methods, M. Denver, or I should not
have come to you. I wish to deal with you with complete frankness, and
have spoken unreservedly as to a personal friend of my master.”
“We shan’t pull very far together if you don’t.”
“To be candid, I am not sure what the man’s secret object
is--presuming, that is, he has one. We know little of him beyond the
fact that he is an adventurer and a musician of exceptional brilliance,
and that the Duchess Stephanie has conceived a great--I suppose, I
should say--fondness for him. She declares she will marry him--in
defiance of the Emperor’s prohibition: a marriage of the kind being
outside the pale of possibility, of course, owing to her relationship
to the Imperial Family.”
“You think he’s after her money?”
“What other conclusion can one draw? The Duchess is twenty years older
than he; she is the reverse of prepossessing in appearance; and he is
young, handsome and certainly clever. Apart from other reasons the
marriage would be a tragedy.”
“And then there are these papers?”
“And then there are these papers, as you say. She is entirely dominated
by him, and there is no doubt she acted at his instigation and--well,
purloined them and carried them to him.”
“He is certainly a daring fellow.”
“A daring scoundrel, unquestionably,” assented the Prince, accenting
the “scoundrel.”
“But knowing this, why not have arrested him?”
“I thought I had made that clear. I tried it, but he met me too
cleverly. Indeed, I believe he actually angled for the arrest.”
“Angled for it. How do you mean?”
“That he might get face to face with me and let me realize how far he
could go, and would if pressed. It was then he told me of these papers,
and that he had placed them in reliable hands to be given, if he were
detained, to those who must of course never see them. Never, at any
cost.”
I smiled at the frank avowal.
“They are very awkward, then?”
“They might mean even war with the Powers chiefly concerned. They are
extremely confidential documents. You understand, of course, M. Denver,
that in diplomacy, any more than in poker, we cannot always lay the
cards on the table.”
“It was a fine bluff.”
“Too dangerous for me to see him,” returned the Prince with a smile,
falling readily into the language of the pool room. “And the worst of
it was he knew it and claimed the jack pot.”
“He’s a smart man. And his terms are?”
“Preposterous, absolutely; monstrous. The Imperial consent to his
marriage; a special dowry of a million roubles; a patent of nobility;
and a private interview with His Majesty. It was then I thought of you,
His Majesty having told me you were coming here, and that you bore so
striking a resemblance to him. I arranged the scene at the station this
evening to test that.”
“And you wish me to go to this interview, fool the man, and get the
papers?”
“Precisely. Counting upon your obligation to the Emperor, I have indeed
fixed the interview for to-morrow.”
“The deuce you have. Isn’t that rather sharp work?”
“The matter does not admit of delay; but it is of course open to you to
decline.”
“In which case?”
“I have not yet considered any alternative.”
His coolness staggered me. But he was keen enough to see that I rather
enjoyed the prospect of the adventure.
“Now as to the risks?” I asked after a pause.
“I cannot even pretend to gauge them, M. Denver. I don’t think they
should be considerable; but there is naturally the chance that the
deception would be discovered. I don’t think it is probable. Those who
are constantly with His Majesty would know you in a moment of course;
but these people only see my master on public occasions, and, as you
have had evidence, are quite ready to be deceived.”
“But the risk is there.”
“Unquestionably,” he assented. “The incident with the lady in the train
which you described is, however, very promising. Still, as you say, the
risk is there, and it is enough to make any ordinary man unwilling to
run it.”
“You flatter me, Prince.”
“No, I try to judge you. An ordinary man would not be eager to rush off
to Khiva. Besides, you are an American.”
The appeal to my vanity was put astutely.
“If I were discovered I should have to get out the best way I could?”
“There might be some little trouble, but I don’t think it would be
really serious--to a man of resource, that is. You would be quite
authorized to put the blame on me.”
“And if the deception were not discovered?”
“It would be a short interview, and you would at the worst have to
postpone your departure for one day.”
“You don’t anticipate any treachery? No assassination business, for
instance?”
“Boreski has too much at stake. He would lose everything--including
his worthless life, of course. About the strongest guarantee for your
safety that you could have.”
He put the amazing proposal bluntly and argued the case with as much
coolness as if it had been little more than a simple conventional
matter of almost everyday routine.
“You would naturally like to think it over,” he said, after I had paced
the room a while in thought.
“You have told me everything?”
“Yes, I think so, except, perhaps, that, of course, I don’t for a
moment believe Boreski made the proposition seriously.”
“Yet it’s an odd sort of joke, isn’t it?”
“I don’t mean that. I mean that no man in his senses would believe the
Emperor would consent to his conditions for the interview--that my
master should go to it absolutely unattended, that the place should be
determined by Boreski and known to him alone, and that my master should
meet a lady at the railway station, get into a strange carriage with
her and be taken wherever they pleased to take him. Even in democratic
countries monarchs don’t act like that.”
“Then what do you mean?” I asked, puzzled.
“That he intended to have his terms rejected in order that he might use
the rejection to raise them. When I agreed--I only did so with you in
my thoughts--I saw that his surprise amounted almost to embarrassment.”
“There’s this woman in it then, beside the Duchess Stephanie? Who is
she?”
“I haven’t an idea--some accomplice no doubt.”
“Since the conditions are, as you say, so ridiculous, may he not be
suspicious when we agree to them?”
“It is very possible. But on the other hand he knows that my master is
as anxious as I am about those papers.”
“And he may think the Emperor would take the risk. I see. Well, I guess
I’ll do it, Prince, but I should like to think it over.”
Prince Kalkov rose at once.
“Naturally. I need only say, monsieur, that you will be doing His
Majesty and Russia a service which we shall not forget. Shall I have
your decision in the morning?”
“To-night, if you’ll come back, say, in a couple of hours. You won’t
find me asleep after all you’ve said.”
He smiled pleasantly, and as he went to the door, said--
“You are just the man I would have chosen for such a task, M. Denver.”
“That remains to be seen,” I replied; “but there’s just one more
question, by the by. Which are the countries concerned in those
papers?”
He paused and gave me a sharp swift look, which broke to a smile.
“Not the United States, monsieur, but European Powers.”
“That’s the assurance I wished,” said I, and then he went.
I had virtually made up my mind before the Prince left the room, and
save for one consideration I should have consented right away. But I
could not quite size up the Prince himself.
I was almost British in my distrust of certain classes of Russian
officials. I had lived in Petersburg for some years as a boy, and my
father, who was at the Embassy, had inculcated this prejudice.
I could never resist the feeling that they had some subtle undercurrent
motive which made for duplicity; and I could not now shake myself free
from the belief in regard to Prince Kalkov.
I had no tangible reason for it. He stood high in the confidence of the
Czar; he had gone out of his way to make himself agreeable to me; he
had treated me apparently with signal frankness; and had admitted the
possible risks and complications of the very tangled business.
I had another slight qualm. My sympathies were rather with than against
the man Boreski. I was not a Russian aristocrat; and from my American
point of view I was disposed to admire the pluck of a man who was
fighting single-handed against the powerful Russian Court, and giving
that autocratic body a real bad time. His methods were not nice, but
his adroit use of them was so smart that I could not help enjoying
them. Whereas, if it came to a mere question of ethics, I couldn’t
see that, taking into account the shady episode of the secret papers,
either side had much pull over the other.
What really decided me was my old obligation to the Czar. My
inclinations were all on the side of going in for the thing; and
probably I gave more weight to that consideration than it deserved. But
anyway I convinced myself that I could wipe out the old debt by doing
what was asked of me, and when the Prince came back, I met him with the
statement that if the details of the thing could be fixed, I was his
man.
He was manifestly delighted.
“I cannot tell you what pleasure your decision gives me. We shall
now circumvent him completely. This is Boreski,” and he handed me a
photograph.
The man was certainly handsome and distinguished-looking. Dark as a
raven, with large, deep-set, thoughtful eyes under straight brows, a
broad ample forehead, straight nose, very shapely mouth with curved
mobile lips, and a narrowing chin.
“A handsome fellow, and that’s the truth,” I said.
“So the Duchess thinks,” he returned drily, handing me her portrait.
“You said she was twenty years his senior. This is a young woman.”
“It was taken last year: a Court photograph,” and he smiled. “She’s all
but fifty.”
“Love at fifty may be a very serious passion, Prince. Have you no
scruples about blighting it? She might take it badly and pine away.”
“She might do much worse, monsieur, and marry that rascal.”
“Her fortune is her own, I presume?”
“She would forfeit much of it if she married without the Emperor’s
consent. Boreski knows that well enough, and trades on it. I do not
think we shall find him a really strong man. He has the whip hand of
us for the moment through those stolen documents; but when we once get
those, we shall be able to frighten him, I am convinced.”
“Ought I not to know the nature of the documents?”
“I have been expecting that question. Do you press it?”
“Not if it embarrasses you to answer. But how shall I know them when
they are given up to me?”
“They are very confidential,” he said, his face wrinkling in perplexed
thought. He paused, and then with a sigh added, very slowly, the words
seeming to be wrung from him almost: “I suppose there is no other way.
They affect Germany and Austria. They include a secret treaty with
Austria and a number of plans of fortresses, and the army mobilization
schemes, etc., of our neighbours.”
“I can understand your anxiety, Prince,” I said drily.
“They _must_ be recovered, M. Denver, at any cost or sacrifice,” he
answered with intense earnestness.
“I will do my best,” I replied, and then we turned to discuss the
details of the project. He told me his arrangements, the chief of which
was his scheme to secure my safety.
“I shall take exactly the same precautions as if you were His
Majesty himself,” he said. “The carriage in which you travel will be
followed; its description will be telephoned everywhere, so that it
may be instantly recognized by our agents who to-morrow night will be
stationed at the corner of every street of the capital. Within a minute
of your entering the house, wherever it is, a large force will commence
to converge upon it; and if there is any delay or treachery the place
will be carried by force.”
“Isn’t that a breach of faith with Boreski?”
“Of course I gave him an official pledge the carriage should not be
followed.”
“Official? Rather a nice distinction, isn’t it?”
He laughed. “One has to do these things officially.”
“You mean you have to give a pledge and--break it.”
He shrugged his shoulders. “We are dealing with a scoundrel.”
“Does that justify unclean methods?”
“Unclean?” He caught at the word angrily.
“I said unclean. Please understand me. I am neither a courtier nor
a diplomat, but just a plain American citizen; and when we Americans
pledge our word we keep it, whether it be given to an honest man or a
rogue. This pledge of yours must be kept, Prince Kalkov.”
He grew excited for the first time, and gesticulated vehemently as he
answered.
“It is impossible, impossible!” he cried. “You cannot appreciate the
importance of those papers, M. Denver. Hitherto we have been unable to
learn their whereabouts, but we know that to-morrow night they will
be in the house to which Boreski will drive you; that is why this
appointment is to be kept. And when we once know where they are, not
this Boreski nor ten thousand Boreskis shall prevent my recovering
them.”
This cast a somewhat fresh light on the thing, and annoyed me.
“Then you must get some one else to keep the appointment, Prince
Kalkov,” I answered.
“But your promise,” he cried, angry and embarrassed.
“My promise was to play the part of the Emperor in the matter, and I’ll
either be obeyed as Emperor or we’ll call it off, and I’ll remain plain
Harper C. Denver. You can choose, right now.”
He sat gnawing his moustache in perplexity, and wanted to expostulate
and argue the point.
“But----”
“There are no buts in this. You can call it off or on--but on my terms.
You can choose.”
This was just what he did not wish to do, however.
“Your own safety----” he began again.
“You can leave that to me,” I cut in. “Is it to be on or off?” And I
looked him fair and square in the eyes.
He gave a deep-drawn sigh, twisted his moustache ends, made as if to
expostulate, but stopped on meeting my looks, and then with a shrug of
the shoulders gave way.
“It’s an enormous responsibility, but if you insist I must yield.”
“Good; then we’ll be off to bed and leave the rest until to-morrow.”
He rose and gave me his hand.
“Good-night, M. Denver. You are a strong man,” he said.
“Good-night, Prince. We’ll talk about strength when the job’s finished.
I’ll do my best, as I said.”
He paused by the door and turned.
“After all the whole thing is only tricking Boreski. I wish you’d let
me do it my way.”
“It’s only a trick, of course; but the cards are on the table so far as
the personation is concerned. I can’t give in to the rest.”
“As your Majesty pleases,” he returned with a slow smile as he left the
room.