It was not until four days later that Victor's friend in the Ministry
of War was able to procure an appointment for him with General Ducros.
Pressure of business was Captain Gaston Leraulx' explanation, and it
was an honest one. What he did not know was that on the evening of the
day when Count Valdemar and his daughter paid their visit of
condolence to Adelaide de Conde, General Ducros dined with them.
They had no other guest, for the best of reasons. Countess Sophie, the
omniscient, by means of a happy accident, had got a fairly clear idea
of the outlines of the Great Storage Scheme. The servants of the White
Tzar are everywhere, known or unknown, generally the latter. A Russian
trapper happened to meet a French-Canadian voyageur in Montreal when
Shafto Hardress was making his negotiations with the Canadian
Government. They had a few drinks and a talk over the extraordinary
deal that he had made with the Canadian Government, a deal which had
been reported and commented on by the Canadian and American journals
with the usual luxuriance of speculative imagination. The same night
the voyageur and the trapper, both men who were living on the products
of their season's hunting and trapping, cabled practically the same
details to Paris and Petersburg.
The voyageur's telegram had gone to General Ducros; and he, with the
instinct of a soldier and a statesman, had instantly connected it with
the greatest mistake that he had made in his life, his refusal to
entertain the proposal which Doctor Emil Fargeau had laid before him.
He saw that he had refused even to examine a scheme which this
Anglo-American syndicate had somehow got hold of and thought it worth
their while to spend thousands of pounds even in preliminary
development. As he said to himself when the unwelcome news came to
him, "I have committed a crime--for I have made a mistake, and for
statesmen mistakes are something worse than crimes."
As soon as the Russian trapper's message had reached Count Valdemar,
he immediately discussed it with his daughter, who over and over again
had given proof of an almost clairvoyant insight into the most
difficult and intricate concerns of international diplomacy. The
moment she saw it her instinct led her back to the reception at the
German Embassy in Petersburg.
"It was all very easy, after all, general," she said, when the dinner
was over, and the coffee and liqueurs were on the table. "If you will
pardon me saying so, it is in cases like this that the intuition of
the woman outstrips the logical faculty of the man. You have asked me
how I discovered the connection between the interview between yourself
and Doctor Fargeau, which, as you say, ended somewhat unhappily for
France, and this extraordinary purchase of a seemingly worthless
landed property by Viscount Hardress."
"Ah yes," said the general, knocking the ash off his cigarette.
"Statesmen are not supposed to make mistakes, but to you, Ma'm'selle,
and Monsieur le Comte, I must confess, to my most intense chagrin, the
man was an Alsatian, and had accepted the new order of things in the
provinces, he was a German subject, and his son was a German officer
on the general staff. What could I think?"
"My dear general," replied Sophie, after a long whiff at her yellow
Russian cigarette, "your conclusions were perfectly just under the
circumstances. But when you have had your interview with Captain
Fargeau and my dear friend the marquise, I think you will find that,
after all, they were erroneous. Do you not think so, papa?"
"I fancy," replied the count, slowly, "that when you have made your
explanations to the general, he will agree with you."
"Very well, then, general, I will spin my little thread before you,
and you shall see whether it holds together or not. First, there was
that snatch of a conversation that I heard at the German Embassy
reception in Petersburg. Captain Fargeau was talking with the late
Prince de Conde, and he was called away by one of the servants. From
another source I knew afterwards that he had received a telegram from
Strassburg. He came back, and made a pretence of dancing with my very
dear friend, Adelaide de Conde. They went out into the winter garden,
just in front of myself and my partner. I heard him tell her that 'he'
had succeeded, and gone to Paris.
"You have told me of his father's visit to you. The chief part of his
scheme was the building of these works round the Magnetic Pole in
Boothia Land. The prince and Adelaide go to a little out-of-the-way
place in Germany, called Elsenau. The fashionable papers told us that.
They also told us that Lord Orrel and his daughter were there; and
almost the same day arrives this Viscount Branston, Lord Orrel's son.
The prince suddenly and mysteriously dies--as they say, from the
bursting of a blood-vessel on the brain. Of course, all the papers
tell us of that, and also that Viscount Branston goes to Vienna and
brings back Madame de Bourbon, who is here now, in Paris, with
Adelaide.
"Before this, you and my father have the telegrams from our good
friends out yonder in Canada. Then the Canadian and American papers
confirm this, and tell us that this same Viscount Branston has leased
this very spot of seemingly worthless land, which was, as you tell us,
essential to the carrying out of Emil Fargeau's scheme, and that a
great Anglo-American syndicate has been formed to build an observatory
there, or a central station for the control of wireless telegraphy
throughout the world; and so on. No doubt the newspaper stories are as
familiar to you as they are to us. Now, general, do you see the
connection between that scrap of conversation I heard in Petersburg,
and the purchase of that patch of snow-covered rock in Boothia Land?"
"Ma'm'selle," replied the general, "it is not a thread, but a chain,
and there is not a weak link in it. It is perfectly plain now that
there is a connection between this German officer, at present on leave
in Paris, and these English and Americans who have somehow become
possessed of the details of the scheme which I so unfortunately
rejected. Still, until we have heard what Captain Fargeau and your
friend the Marquise de Montpensier, whom I am to have the honour of
receiving to-morrow, have to say, it would not, I think, be wise to
conclude that they have entered into a conspiracy with those whom I
may describe as our common enemies."
"That, general, I do not believe for a moment," said the count. "All
their interests lie the other way. They have as much reason to dislike
England and America as we have; and, until I know to the contrary, I
shall prefer to believe that the Marquise de Montpensier, a daughter
of the Bourbons, is a friend to France, and therefore, through France,
to Russia."
"And I believe that too," said Sophie. "As far as England and America
are concerned, the interests of France and Russia are identical. If
these arrogant Anglo-Saxons are ever to be put into their proper
place, Russia and France must do it: and, to begin with, by some means
or other, this scheme must be frustrated. And now, general, I have
given you a little information to-night, and I am going to ask a
little favour in return."
"It shall be granted, if possible. Ma'm'selle has only to ask it."
"There is, I believe," said Sophie, putting her arms on the table, "a
little apartment leading out of your own bureau at the Ministry of
War?"
General Ducros could not help raising his eyelids a little, for he
knew that neither Sophie nor her father had ever been in that room,
but he dropped them again instantly, and said:
"That is perfectly true, ma'm'selle; it is a little apartment, devoted
to my own private use. In fact, to tell you the truth, I am sometimes
there when it is convenient for my secretary to prove by ocular
demonstration to some more or less important personage that I am not
at home, and that, in consequence of my unavoidable absence, an
undesirable interview has to be postponed."
"Exactly," laughed Sophie. "Such things are not unknown elsewhere; and
I am going to ask you, general, for the use of that room during your
interview to-morrow with the Marquise de Montpensier and Captain
Fargeau. In other words, I wish to be present at the interview without
doing anything to interrupt the smooth course of the proceedings."
"Ma'm'selle knows so much already that there is no reason why she
should not know more," replied the general, not very cordially; "but,
of course, it is understood, as a matter of honour between ourselves,
that in this matter we are allies, as our countries are."
"Undoubtedly," replied the count. "It would, indeed, be mutually
impossible for it to be otherwise."
"Then," said Sophie, "we will consider that a bargain. My father and I
will call shortly before the captain and Adelaide reach the Ministry,
and afterwards----"
"And afterwards, my dear general, if you will allow me to interrupt
you," said the count, "I would suggest that we should have a little
dinner here, to which Sophie will invite Madame de Bourbon and the
marquise, as well as Captain Fargeau; a dinner which, if you will
permit me to say so, may possibly be of historic interest; an occasion
upon which, perhaps, the alliance between France and Russia will be
cemented by a mutual agreement and arrangement to outwit these
English-Americans, and secure the world-empire for France and Russia."
General Ducros assented. He saw that, owing to the fatal mistake he
had made when he rejected Emil Fargeau's scheme, he was now, thanks to
the subtle intellect of Sophie Valdemar, forced to share the
possibility of obtaining that world-empire with Russia, the ally whose
friendship had already cost France so dearly, an ally to whom France
had paid millions for a few empty assurances and one or two brilliant
scenes in the international spectacular drama. No one knew better than
he did how worthless this alliance really was to France, and that
night he reproached himself bitterly for letting slip the chance of
making France independent of her blood-sucking ally. Still, by an
extraordinary combination of chance and skill, Sophie Valdemar had got
the necessary knowledge of the great secret, and, perforce, he had to
share it with her and Russia.
Punctually at eleven o'clock the next morning Adelaide de Conde and
Victor Fargeau were admitted to the bureau of the Minister of War. The
interview was very different from the one that he had granted to the
man whom his scepticism had practically driven to his death, and so
placed the great secret in the hands of his country's enemies. It was
also much shorter. When, at the outset, the general had addressed
Victor as Captain Fargeau, he replied:
"Pardon, general, I am captain no longer, nor am I any longer a
German. I have resigned. Henceforth I am a Frenchman in fact, as I
have always been in heart. You would not believe that of my father,
but I will prove it to you of myself."
"My dear sir," replied the general, "no one could be more delighted to
hear such news as that than I; and I can promise you that, in that
case, an appointment--not, of course, an acknowledged one, since you
are not now legally a Frenchman--shall be placed at your disposal."
Adelaide turned her head away as he spoke, and her lips curled into a
smile which made her look almost ugly. "So now he is to become a paid
spy," she thought. "And he still considers that I am pledged to him.
But what can I do till we have either succeeded or failed? Ah, if it
were only the other one! If he were a Frenchman, or if only I could
make him love me as I could--well, we shall see. After all, patriotism
has its limits. France has broken its allegiance to my house. What do
I owe it?"
General Ducros saw at a glance that the specifications which Victor
handed to him were the duplicates of those which he had so unwisely
and so unfortunately for himself and for France refused to accept from
his father. If anything had been needed to convince him of the
terrible error that he had made, Adelaide's story of the last night of
her father's life would have done it.
"Monsieur," he said, laying his hand upon the papers, "I will confess
that I have made a great mistake, even that I have committed a crime
against France and your father. Alas, as we know now from the story
that Ma'm'selle la Marquise has told us, he is dead; and it is I who,
innocently and unknowingly, sent him to his death. I can do no more
than admit my error, and promise you that every force at my command
shall be used to repair it, if possible. These other documents, which
you have been good enough to hand to me, I take, of course, as an
earnest of your good faith and your devotion to France."
"I wonder what they are," said Sophie Valdemar, in her soul, as the
Minister's words reached her ear through the closed door of the little
private room. "An Alsatian, a German officer, Military Attache at
Petersburg, he resigns his commission, goes back to his French
allegiance, and gives the general something which proves his good
faith! Ah, perhaps a scheme of campaign--sketches of routes--details
of mobilisation--plans of fortresses! We must fight Germany soon. I
wonder whether I could persuade the good general to let me have a look
at them, if they are anything of that sort."
While these thoughts were flashing through Sophie's mind, the general
was saying:
"And now, monsieur, you mentioned a short time ago that you had a
scheme for repairing the error which I have confessed. May I ask for
an outline of it? I need hardly say that, if it is only feasible,
France will spare neither money nor men to accomplish the object, and
to regain what I have so deplorably lost."
"My scheme, general," said Victor, "is exceedingly simple. These
English-Americans are going to erect storage works round the Magnetic
Pole, which, as of course you know, is situated in the far north,
in a sort of No-man's Land, untrodden by human feet once in
half-a-century. Let France fit out an Arctic expedition of two ships.
Let them be old warships--as the _Alert_ and _Discovery_ were in the
English expedition. Their mission will, of course, be a peaceful one,
and their departure will cause no comment save in the scientific
papers, but in their holds the ships will carry the most powerful
guns they can mount, ammunition, and----"
"Excellent!" interrupted the general, rising from his seat. "My dear
monsieur, I congratulate you upon a brilliant idea. Yes, the
expedition shall be prepared with all speed; the newspapers shall
describe the ships as old ones, but the Minister of Marine and myself
will arrange that they shall carry the best guns and the most powerful
explosives that we have. They shall be manned by picked crews,
commanded by our best officers; they shall sail for the North Pole, or
thereabouts, as all these expeditions do, and they shall make a
friendly call at Boothia Land. It will not be possible now before next
summer because of the ice; but the same cause will delay our friends
in building the storage works; and when our ships call and the works
are well in progress--well, then, we will see whether or not our
friends will yield to logic; and, if not, to force majeure. Is that
your idea?"
"Exactly," replied Victor. "We will wait till the works are finished,
say this time next year, or two years or three years, it matters
nothing, and then we will take them. The expedition will carry men
trained to do the work under my orders. I have the whole working of
the apparatus in those papers. Once we possess the works we are
masters of the world, because we shall be possessors of its very life.
But before that there may be war--the nations of Europe fighting for
the limbs of the Yellow Giant in the East. Germany, as you will see
from those papers, is nearly ready. It is only a matter of a few
months, and then she will make her first rush on France. England and
America can be rendered helpless if we once seize the works, and
Russia can, I presume, be trusted?"
"Without doubt," said the general. "Russia is our true and faithful
ally."
"Yes," said Sophie again, in her soul; "provided she has a share in
that Polar expedition, as she shall have."