THE PLOT HAS FAILED
The Russian appeared to be a young man, some thirty years of age
perhaps. His dress was after the French fashion. He wore a shirt with a
soft embroidered front and a tousled black cravat which added a shade of
pallor to his unusually pale face. When he spoke in the German tongue,
his voice had a pleasant musical ring, even while it narrated the story
of his friend's misfortune.
"We have failed, mein Heir," he said, "I come to you with grievous news.
We have failed and there is not an hour to lose."
Gessner heard him with that self-mastery to which his whole life had
trained him. Betraying no sign of emotion whatever, he pulled a chair
toward the light and invited the stranger to take it.
"This is my young kinsman," he said, introducing Alban who still
lingered in the garden; "you have heard of him, Count." And then to
Alban, "Let me present you to my very old friend, Count Zamoyaki. He is
a cavalry soldier, Alban, and there is no finer rider in Europe."
Alban took the outstretched hand and, having exchanged a word with the
stranger, would have left the place instantly. This, however, Count
Zamoyski himself forbade. Speaking rapidly to Gessner in the German
tongue, he turned to the lad presently and asked him to remain.
"Young heads are wise heads sometimes," he said in excellent English,
"you may be able to help us, Mr. Kennedy. Please wait until we have
discussed the matter a little more fully."
To this the banker assented by a single inclination of his head.
"As you say, Count--we shall know presently. Please tell me the story
from the beginning."
The Count lighted a cigarette, and sinking down into the depths of a
monstrous arm-chair, he began to speak in smooth low tones--a tragedy
told almost in whispers; for thus complacently, as the great Frenchman
has reminded us, do we bear the misfortunes of our neighbors.
"I bring news both of failure and of success," he began, "but the
failure is of greater moment to us. Your instructions to my Government,
that the Boriskoffs, father and daughter, were an embarrassment to you
which must be removed, have been faithfully interpreted and acted upon
immediately. The father was arrested at Alexandrovf Station, as I
promised that he should be--the police have visited the school in Warsaw
where the daughter was supposed to reside--this also as I promised
you--but their mission has been in vain. So you see that while Paul
Boriskoff is now in the old prison at Petersburg, the daughter is heaven
knows where, which I may say is nowhere for our purpose. That we did not
complete the affair is our misfortune. The girl, we are convinced, is
still in Warsaw, but her friends are hiding her. Remember that the
police knew the father, but that the daughter is unknown to them. These
Polish girls--pardon me, I refer to the peasant classes--are as alike as
two roses on a bush. We shall do nothing until we establish
identity--and how that is to be done, I do not pretend to say. If you
can help us--and it is very necessary for your own safety to do so--you
have not a minute to lose. We should act at once, I say, without the
loss of a single hour."
Thus did this man of affairs, one who had been deep in many a brave
intrigue, make known to the man who had employed him the supreme
misfortune of their adventure. Had he said, "Your life is in such peril
that you may not have another hour to live," it would have been no more
than the truth. Their plot had failed and the story of it was abroad.
This had he come from Paris to tell--this was the news that Richard
Gessner heard with less apparent emotion than though one had told him of
the pettiest event of a common day.
"The matter has been very badly bungled," he said. "I shall write to
General Trepoff and complain of it. Do you not see how inconvenient this
is? If the girl has escaped, she will be sheltered by the
Revolutionaries, and if she knows my story, she will tell it to them. I
may be followed here--to this very house. You know that these people
stick at nothing. They would avenge this man's liberty whatever the
price. What remains to discover is the precise amount of her knowledge.
Does she know my name, my story? You must find that out,
Zamoyski--there is not an hour to lose, as you say."
He repeated his fears, pacing the room and smoking incessantly. The
whole danger of a situation is not usually realized upon its first
statement, but every instant added to this man's apprehensions and
brought the drops of sweat anew to his forehead. He had planned to
arrest both Boriskoff and his daughter. The Russian Government, seeking
the financial support of his house, fell in readily with his plans and
commanded the police to assist him. Paul Boriskoff himself had been
arrested at the frontier station upon an endeavor to return to Poland.
His daughter Lois, warned in some mysterious manner, had fled from the
school where she was being educated and put herself beyond the reach of
her father's enemies. This was the simple story of the plot. But God
alone could tell what the price of failure might be.
"It is very easy to say what we must do," the Count observed, "the
difficulties remain. Identify this girl for us among the twenty thousand
who answer to her description in Warsaw, and I will undertake that the
Government shall deal well by her. But who is to identify her? Where is
your agent to be found? Name him to me and the task begins to-night. We
can do nothing more. I say again that my Government has done all in its
power. The rest is with you, Herr Gessner, to direct us where we have
failed."
Gessner made no immediate answer. Perhaps he was about to admit the
difficulties of the Count's position and to agree that identification
was impossible, when suddenly his glance fell upon Alban, waiting, as
he had asked, until the interview should be done. And what an
inspiration was that--what an instantaneous revelation of possibilities.
Let this lad go to Warsaw and he would discover Lois Boriskoff quickly
enough. The girl had been in love with him and would hold her tongue at
his bidding. As in a flash, he perceived this spar which should save
him, and clutched at it. Let the lad go to Warsaw--let him be the agent.
If the police arrested the girl after all--well, that would be an
accident which he might regret, but certainly would not seek to prevent.
A man whose life is imperilled must be one in ten thousand if any common
dictates of faith or conduct guide him. Richard Gessner had a fear of
death so terrible that he would have dared the uttermost treachery to
save himself.
"Count," he exclaimed suddenly, "your agent is here, in this room. He
will go to Warsaw at your bidding. He will find the girl."
The Count, who knew something of Alban's story already, received the
intimation as though he had expected it.
"It was for that I asked him to wait. I have been thinking of it. He
will go to Warsaw and tell the lady that she may obtain her father's
liberty upon a condition. Let her make a direct appeal to the
Government--and we will consider it. Of course you intend an immediate
departure--you are not contemplating a delay, Herr Gessner?"
"Delay--am I the man to delay? He shall go to-morrow by the first
train."
A smile hovered upon the Count's face in spite of himself.
"In a week," he was saying to himself, "Lois Boriskoff shall be flogged
in the Schusselburg."
In truth, the whip was the weapon he liked best--when women were to be
schooled.