"Yes," she said under her breath.
"Dear----"
"Please don't say that!"
"I want to ask you one thing."
"What?"
"You're not married, are you?"
"No."
"Then----"
"It's a more hopeless barrier than that!" she interrupted with a sudden
catch in her breath. "I can't let you make love to me. I can't let you
love me! I c-can't love you--let myself--do it----"
Her voice was drowned in a terrific roar. All the thunders of the skies
seemed to unite in one tremendous outburst.
Deafened, almost stunned, we sat there partly stupefied by the mighty
concussion which lengthened into bellowing thunder until the bank of the
stream trembled under our feet, and the umbrella wiggled in my hand.
"Good Lord!" I whispered; but Thusis sprang up with a little cry of
dismay.
"Don't be afraid, darling!" I cried, preparing to gather her to my
breast. But she was excitedly adjusting her field-glasses and focussing
them on the Bec de l'Empereur.
And then I perceived that the rain had ceased; that the sun was already
blazing through the pass below.
"The devil!" cried Thusis, stamping her pretty foot. Then, in a fury of
despair, she turned to me and stretched out one arm, pointing toward the
valley pass.
And I saw that it had been utterly obliterated by the mighty avalanche,
the earth-shaking thunder of which had petrified us.
Suddenly the gray eyes of Thusis filled with tears of fury and
disappointment.
"Oh, Michael! Michael!" she faltered, "what shall we do now! We had
them all in the trap! We were ready to spring it to-night! Oh,
Michael! Michael! M-my heart is b-broken----"
She walked blindly into my arms--she didn't know what she was about, I
suppose. I petted and soothed her; she hid her face on my breast.
"Darling," I said, "I can't bear to see you suffer. I suppose that you
and Clelia and Josephine and Raoul had some scheme cooked up to kidnap
that bunch of huns at the house and get them over the frontier into
France. Didn't you, dear?"
"Y-yes. And just l-look what's happened! Look at this act of God! Why
has God let it rain? Why has He let loose this avalanche at such a
moment!--at such an agonizing moment when we had all the rats trapped!
And our own agents on the frontier to let us through! ... Doesn't God
realize that all civilization--all Christendom is tottering? Doesn't He
know what hell threatens it? Why has He done this thing to us! Can He
not see France bled white!--England reeling!--Italy agasp!--America only
half ready!--Naxos prostrate under the Greek tyrant's usurping
heel!--Tenedos thrown to the Turk! I--I have begun to lose my faith in
God!" she cried violently; "the old gods were less cruel--less
indifferent. And at least they displayed enough interest to take
sides!"
I continued to pet and comfort and soothe her as I would a half
hysterical child.
"God is on duty," I said. "Who are we to divine His strategy? Why take
even General Foch. His own officers can't penetrate his purpose; much
less can the huns. But he drives the spirits of evil before him; he
hustles the hellish legions toward destruction in his own way. The
maddened swine are stampeding, Thusis! God's ocean waits."
"Y-yes. I--shall pull myself together.... I'm ashamed."
"No, you're all right, Thusis. Take heart. And, if there's any comfort
in knowing I'm with you, always, loyally, through life to death----"
I thought, against my breast, there was the slightest pressure in
response, but concluded that Thusis had merely braced herself to get
away and stand on her own legs. Which she now did, resolutely, but
keeping her face averted.
We stood so, gazing down in silence at the snow-choked pass which now
cut us off from the world entire.
"After all," said I, "it pens in the huns as well as it cages us. We
may get them yet."
The girl straightened up and turned toward me. Her features were
radiant, transfigured.
"Nous les aurons!" she cried, throwing her arm out toward the valley
with the superb gesture of some young goddess launching thunderbolts.
*XIV*
*THE MYSTERIOUS MR. SMITH*
The distinguished company at the chalet had already gathered on the
veranda apparently to contemplate the flaming sunset when, separating
from Thusis in the woods behind the barn, I sauntered into view with rod
and creel.
Instantly I became a target for Teutonic eyes of the several sorts
peculiar to the hunnish race,--cold disapproving eyes, narrow
bad-tempered eyes, squinting eyes, gimlet eyes, pale pig-eyes,--all
intent on my approach.
"Hello!" cried King Constantine in his loud, bluff way, "have you had
any luck, O'Ryan?"
The fat Princess Pudelstoff began to pant cheerfully in anticipation of
finny food:
"I hope you've caught some trout," she said in a thick, good-natured
voice which the rolls of fat on her neck rendered husky and indistinct.
"I like to eat mine _Meuniere_ and _Blaue-gesotten_. I like 'em breaded
and fried in butter. I like plenty of melted butter." She pried open
the creel cover as I passed. "Where are the fish?" she asked with a
gulp of disappointment.
"I'm sorry, Princess----"
"Droly!" she exclaimed in English, turning to General Count von
Dungheim, "he ain't caught a fish! And me smackin' my lips like I was
eatin' onto a fat filet! Oh my God!"
Astonished to hear such east-side accents spurting from the lips of the
Princess Pudelstoff, I politely explained that the stream was in flood,
and that trout wouldn't take hold in high water. In the midst of my
apology Baron von Bummelzug uttered a disagreeable laugh and said
something rude to Admiral Lauterlaus who stared at me insultingly as he
replied: "Skill is not to be expected in a Yankee. Instead of a rod he
should have used a net. That's the way our peasants fish for trout."
I turned red and looked hard at the Admiral. "There's a net in the
barn," said I, "if you want to try your skill!" which infuriated that
formidable sea-warrior whose ancestry was purely peasant. He glared at
me angrily and his bushy eyebrows worked up and down like the features
of a mechanical toy.
"I said our peasants fish with a net!" he began, a far, hollow roar
audible in his voice like the sound of the sea in a big shell.
"I heard you," said I. "You're welcome to use the net in your own
fashion. Gentlemen fish otherwise."
I think everybody was astounded. Only the pretty Countess Manntrapp
shot an amused glance at me.
The others were dreadfully shocked. As for the Admiral he got to his
feet almost dazed with rage; but before he could expel the bellowing
fury which was congesting his features I lost my own temper and walked
over to him.
"Behave yourself!" I said sharply. "I tolerate no bad manners under my
roof. And if you show me any further disrespect you'll have to leave my
house!"
I think he was too amazed to roar. King Ferdinand waddled over to him
and plucked him by the arm, restraining him. King Constantine burst
into a heavy laugh:
"Here, gentlemen! This will never do! It's all a misunderstanding. No
offense was intended, Mr. O'Ryan----"
"Monsieur Xenos," said I, "it is difficult, I fancy, for a Prussian
Admiral to avoid taking the offensive--except at sea."
And I walked into the house amid the most profound and paralyzed silence
that ever assailed my ears.
Smith, in the living-room, having heard it all, was doubled up with
laughter, but I was in no mood for mirth.
"Did you hear what Admiral Lauterlaus said to me!" I demanded, still
hot. "Did you hear what that Prussian had the impudence to say to me
under my own roof?"
"Yes, and I heard what you said to him, Michael!" And off he went into
another fit of laughter.
"You don't know how funny it is," he said. "They've all been conspiring
and perspiring all day long shut up in Tino's apartment with those two
smelly Bolsheviks. And just when they'd come to some agreement about
slicing up the world and ruling it among themselves, along you come and
take all the joy out of life by sitting on a Prussian admiral!"
"I certainly shall put him out of the house if he's impudent to me
again," said I, wrathfully. "And it will be tough on him if I do,
because an avalanche has blocked the pass and we're all sewed up here
together!"
"What!" exclaimed Smith with lively interest.
"It's a fact, Smith. The entire snow-field on the south shoulder of the
Bec de l'Empereur let go about an hour since. Didn't you hear it?"
"I heard what I took to be thunder. Do you mean we're blocked from the
outside world?"
"Completely."
"We can't dig out?"
"Who's to dig?"
"Good business!" he said, plainly delighted by the news. "How long will
it last?"
"Thusis says they'll start digging from the other side, but that it may
take weeks."
"Thusis knows about this?"
"She was with me at the time," said I, blushing.
He looked at me absently: "I wonder," he mused, "what Thusis thinks
about the situation now."
"Our sudden isolation here?"
"Exactly."
"She doesn't seem to like it.... Tell me something, Smith?"
"What?"
"Do you know why Thusis and Clelia and Josephine Vannis and Raoul
Despres are here?"
"I can guess," he replied, coolly.
"They came here," said I, "to nab Tino and that murderous ass,
Ferdinand, and spirit them across the frontier into France."
"I believe so," he said in a serene but preoccupied voice.
"Now they can't do it," I added, "because the only way out of this
valley is blocked."
"Quite so."
"Smith?"
"Yes."
"What do you think of their doing such a thing?"
"It's all right but they can't get away with it."
"Would you--help them?"
"They haven't asked me."
"_Would_ you?" I persisted.
"Would _you_, Michael?"
"Well, if I do, the Swiss Government would confiscate my property. If
Thusis and I succeeded in kidnapping this bunch of Kings, I'd lose this
place."
"And if you failed to bag your Kings," remarked Smith, "the Swiss
Government would still confiscate your estate and lock you up besides."
"And if _you_ went into this affair," said I, "the Swiss would cancel
your forestry contract."
"That," said he with a grin, "would be ruinous, wouldn't it?"
"What are you, anyway, Smith?" I demanded bluntly.
"A Viking. What do you think I am?"
"An agent," I replied darkly.
"Timber agent," he nodded.
"Timber nothing. Much less a Viking. I'm on to you, Smith."
"Do you think you are?"
"Well, do you wish to know what I believe you to be?"
"You probably have guessed. So don't say it too loud, Michael.
Besides, I have taken no pains to conceal my business from you."
"I think you are an agent of the United States Secret Service," said I.
"And I think you learned, somehow or other, that this bunch of Kings was
coming here to conspire. And I think you very cleverly picked me up in
Berne with a view to being invited here so that you could watch their
activities and keep your government informed. How near right am I?"
"You ought to know," he retorted, laughing.
"Well then--if I do know--what are you going to do about this enterprise
of Clelia and Thusis? Help them collar this royal gang and smuggle them
across the frontier into France?"