"Hush!" Rigaux exclaimed, glancing at the book at his elbow. "The
British Admiralty station at Cleethorpes are calling the battleship
_London_."
The big wireless code-book--a book which could be bought in Berne for
five francs--lay open before him. There was a quick response in the
'phones.
"The _London_ is off the west coast of Ireland," he remarked, bending
with interest. "There's the reply. Here is `London.'"
He touched the "tuner," one of the round ebonite handles upon a long
mahogany box, and next moment a little "click" of quite a different note
was heard in the head 'phones.
"Listen?" Rigaux exclaimed, and then for a moment he was again all
attention. "Marseilles is speaking to one of your North German Lloyd
liners on her way from Alexandria." Then he paused. "Are you satisfied
that I am leaving to your army a complete set, quite in working order--
eh?"
"Entirely. Why, it is splendid," declared the captain, who, though he
had no expert knowledge of wireless, had seen quite enough to convince
him that the secret installation was practically perfect. "This," he
added, "will surely be of great use to us before many weeks are over.
It is splendid!"
"Let us descend," Rigaux said. "Michel may now be back. This part of
the house is, of course, unknown to my servants."
When they were again back in the financier's snug little business-room,
wherein he received visitors privately, he asked earnestly:
"Tell me, Count, is all complete?"
"Everything. We shall advance to-morrow, or next day. We have
mobilised secretly, though Europe is in entire ignorance. First Belgium
is to be occupied--then we shall cross to England. Paris is only a
secondary affair. London is our chief goal. We shall crush for ever
the arrogant English with our Zeppelins and our submarines. Oh! what an
unpleasant surprise they will have?" and he laughed.
"But you will not conquer Belgium--eh?"
"Not if she offers no defence. If she does, then I tell you--in
confidence--the Kaiser means to sweep this country with fire and sword;
we shall wipe villages and towns completely out of existence, so as to
strike terror and horror into the heart of Europe. War is war, you
know."
"Do you advise me to leave Brussels?"
"Well, not yet--wait and see. Your safety is assured. You already have
your safe-conduct, have you not?"
"That has already been arranged."
"His Majesty told me to give you his Imperial assurance. The final
draft in your favour on the Dresdner Bank has been passed, and you will
receive it in due course, paid into your bank in London," replied the
German officer.
"But what do you advise me to do, my friend? Remember, I may yet be
discovered as having assisted you. And it will be awkward--very
awkward?"
"Remain here for a time, and then go back to the coast. You can, as a
patriotic Belgian, always cross from Ostend to England as a wealthy
refugee--when the time arrives. And that will not be very long, I
assure you," he added, with a grim smile. "The brave Belgians have
to-day ended their career. Our big howitzers will come along. Pouf!
and Belgium is no more. In a few days we shall be at the mouth of the
Scheldt, and at Ostend--in front of Dover. Besides, our grand fleet of
Zeppelins are ready in their secret sheds. Later, when Belgium is
devastated, they will glide forth for the conquest of our dear, sleepy
friends, the British--whom God preserve. Meanwhile, we have a very
satisfactory army of secret agents over yonder making ready to undermine
any poor, puny defence that they--with all their vaunted might of
Empire--can possibly put up."
Both men laughed heartily as they stood there together, conversing in
low tones.
"The intention, then, is first to destroy Belgium?" asked Rigaux,
suddenly growing serious.
"Yes. To seize this country, notwithstanding any defence which may be
offered. The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg we shall only march through.
But the General Staff know that, in Belgium, there may be a desperate
resistance, if Britain--the broken reed--is to be relied upon. Hence we
shall smash her--and Britain afterwards."
"But is Great Britain, with her splendid navy, really a broken reed?"
queried the financier very seriously.
"Personally, I do not at all agree. I only tell you the declaration of
our General Staff."
"Britain has a very mysterious way of asserting her own superiority,"
said the banker, shaking his head dubiously. "France is still, as she
has ever been, a nation of great emotions. But Great Britain, with her
enormous Colonial possessions, her deep-seated loyalty, and her huge
wealth, is a tremendous power--a power which I believe the Kaiser has
never yet estimated at its true value."
"Bah! my dear Arnaud. We, in Berlin, know all that is in progress.
Surely you must know, you must feel, the irresistible power of our
militarism--of our great and formidable war-machine. Germany is the
greatest nation at war that the world has ever seen, and--"
"And England still rules the seas," interrupted the financier in a hard
voice.
"The seas! Bah!" declared his dusty, travel-worn visitor. "We shall
first win on land; then our grand fleet will face those overbearing
British. We shall, like the Dutch, place a broom upon the mast-head of
the flag-ship of Grand Admiral von Tirpitz, and sweep the British clean
off the seas."
"You are optimistical--to say the least."
"I am, my dear Arnaud," he admitted, "because I, as one of the General
Staff, know what has been arranged, and what is intended. I know the
great surprises we have in store for Europe--those great guns, which
will smash and pulverise to dust the strongest fortresses which man can
devise, and aircraft which will hurl down five tons of high explosive at
a time," he added, with an exultant laugh. "But, I had almost
forgotten. Have you had any report from our friend Van Meenen, in
Ostend?"
"It came yesterday, and is included in the papers you have there. Our
friends in Liege have been warned, I suppose?"
"They have been warned to-day. Doctor Wilberz, brave Belgian, of
course, has a secret wireless in his house, while sixty of our trusty
agents are living there, quite unsuspected."
"Wilberz was here in Brussels a month ago, and told me what he was
doing. Truly the ring of forts will stand a very poor chance when you
make the attack."
"Belgium will never dare to resist, we feel sure," declared Captain von
Silberfeld. "In a month the Crown Prince will enter Paris. But I must
get away at once. I have to be back in Cologne with the dawn. The
Staff are awaiting your reports with eagerness, especially those upon
the financial position."
"I have supplied every detail," responded the banker. "The position is
not good, and even my friend the Baron de Neuville cannot, I happen to
know, come to the rescue at the present moment."
"Good," exclaimed the Captain, dropping into German. "Adieu!" he said,
placing the bulky envelope beneath his cotton dust-coat. "What
excitement there is in the streets--eh?"
The banker laughed grimly.
"It will increase very soon, I suppose," he said.
"Yes," whispered the other, as they descended to the front entrance
together, where the long, powerful, low-built car stood with its glaring
headlights, in charge of a smart chauffeur, who saluted in military
fashion. "Adieu, my dear Arnaud. I must hasten," he whispered, "for
to-morrow's dawn will bring to us `The Day'!"
And with a triumphant wave of his hand he mounted beside the driver, and
a moment later the car moved swiftly and silently down the hill on its
long journey to the German frontier, carrying with it the final secret
report of the many made through the last ten years by the traitor Arnaud
Rigaux to the Prussian General Staff.
The man who had sold his country for German gold stood for a few seconds
watching the car disappear into the night, and then, as the roar of the
crowd making a demonstration before the French Consulate farther up the
Boulevard fell upon his ears, he turned, and with a bitter laugh of
triumph, went within and closed the great oaken door.
A silence fell. No one was near. Suddenly, a few moments later, the
dark figure of a man, who had evidently been watching the departure of
the car, as he stood back in the deep shadow of the trees in the centre
of the boulevard, emerged, crossed the road, and hurried down the hill
in the direction the car had taken.