AN ABORTIVE ATTEMPT
Immediately I arrived at my brother's hotel I rang up the hall-porter
of the Milan and informed him of my whereabouts. Afterwards Ralph and
I between us concocted a cable to Dicky, for which I was thankful that
I had not to pay. I had now taken Ralph into my entire confidence, and
I found that he took very much the same view of Delora's behavior as I
did. This is what we said,--
Have seen Delora. Behavior very mysterious. Is living apart from
niece in secrecy. Seen several times with Chinese ambassador.
Offered me large bribe refrain cabling you till Thursday. Fear
something wrong.
"Do you think that you could give me a bed here to-night, Ralph?" I
asked.
"By all means, old fellow," my brother answered. "To tell you the
truth, I think you are better here than at the Milan. You can have the
rooms you had the other night."
I had had a tiring day, and I dropped off to sleep almost as soon as
my head touched the pillow. I was awakened by the sound of the
telephone bell close to my head. I had no idea as to the time, but
from the silence everywhere I judged that I had been asleep for
several hours. I took up the receiver and held it to my ear.
"Hullo!" I exclaimed.
"Is that Captain Rotherby?" a familiar voice asked.
"Yes!" I said. "That's Ashley, isn't it?"
"Yes, sir!" the man answered. "I am on night duty here. Will you
excuse my asking you, sir, if you have lent your room to any one?"
"Certainly not!" I replied. "Why?"
"It's a very odd thing, sir," he continued. "A person arrived here
with a small bag a little time ago and presented your card,--said that
you had given him permission to sleep in your room. I let him go up,
but I didn't feel altogether comfortable about it, so I took the
liberty of ringing up Claridge's to see if you were there. I thought
that as you were here this evening, you would have told us if you had
proposed lending it."
"You are quite right, Ashley," I declared. "I have lent the room to no
one. You had better go and see who it is at once. Shall I come round?"
"I will ring you up again, sir," the man answered, "as soon as I have
been upstairs."
"By the bye," I asked, "he didn't look like a Frenchman, did he?"
"I could not say so," Ashley replied. "I will ring you up in a few
minutes. I shall go up and inquire into this myself."
I sat on the edge of the bed, waiting. In less than ten minutes the
telephone bell rang again. Once more I heard Ashley's voice.
"I am ringing up from your sitting-room, sir," he said. "There is no
one here at all, but the room has been opened. So far as I can see,
nothing has been taken, but a bottle of chloroform has been dropped
and broken upon the floor in your bedroom, and I have a strong idea
that some one left the room by the other door as I entered the
sitting-room."
"I'll come along at once, Ashley," I said,--"that is, as soon as I can
get dressed."
"I was wondering, sir," was the quiet reply, "whether I would advise
you to do so. I did not like the look of the man who came, and I am
afraid he was not up to any good here. He is somewhere in the hotel
now."
"You say that nothing has been disturbed?" I asked.
"Nothing at all, sir. It wasn't for robbery he came!"
"I think I can guess what he wanted, Ashley," said I. "Perhaps you are
right. I won't come round till the morning."
"If anything fresh happens, sir, I will let you know," the man
said. "Good night, sir!"
"Good night, Ashley!" I answered.
I got back into bed, but I did not immediately fall off to sleep
again. There was no doubt at all that my visitor had come at the
instigation of Delora, and that his object had been to prevent my
sending that cable, which was already on its way. I got up and saw
that my door was securely fastened. I am ashamed to confess that at
that moment I felt a tremor of fear! I no longer had the slightest
doubt that Delora, if not an impostor, was engaged in some great
criminal operation. And Felicia! I thought of the matter in every
way. It was impossible that Delora could be an impostor pure and
simple. Felicia was content to travel with him. She knew him for her
uncle. He must be her uncle, unless she herself had deceived me! I
felt my blood run cold at the thought. I flung it from me. I would
have no more of it. Felicia, at least, was above suspicion! Delora
had, perhaps, been led into this enterprise, whatever it might be, by
Louis and his friends. At any rate, the morrow was likely to clear
things up. I was the more convinced of that when I remembered that it
was one day's grace only that Delora had begged of me. I went off to
sleep again soon, and only woke when my brother's servant called me
for my bath. At half-past ten, after a consultation with my brother, I
drove to the Brazilian Embassy. I sent in my card, and asked to see
Mr. Lamartine. He came to me in a few minutes.
"Captain Rotherby!" he exclaimed, holding out his hand. "You have some
news?"
"I am not sure whether you will call it news," I answered. "I came to
see you about this man Delora."
"Sit down," Lamartine said. "I only wish that you had given me all
your confidence the other day."
"To tell you the truth, I am not sure whether I have any to give now,"
I answered. "There are just one or two facts which seem to me so
peculiar that I decided to look you up."
"I am very glad indeed to see you, Captain Rotherby," Lamartine
said. "Something is happening in connection with this person which I
am afraid may lead to very serious trouble. I know now more than I did
when I hung around you and Miss Delora at Charing Cross Station, and
in the course of the day I hope to know more."
"I should have washed my hands of the whole affair," I told him,
"before now, but from the fact that I have received a cable from my
brother, who is in Rio, concerning these very people. He had first of
all, in a letter, asked me to be civil and to look them up. His cable
begged me, on behalf of an elder brother out there, to look after
Delora, find out what he was doing, and report. I gathered that he was
over here on some special mission as to the progress of which he
should have made reports to his brother in Brazil. He has not done so,
nor has he used the private code agreed upon between those two."
"This is very interesting," Lamartine said,--"very interesting
indeed!"
"I came to you," I said, "because, since the receipt of this cable, I
have convinced myself that Delora is engaged in some sort of
underground work the crisis of which must be very close at hand. I
found him last night in a miserable, deserted sort of building down
near the river in Bermondsey. He offered me ten thousand pounds not to
reply to his brother's cable, I think that he would have done his best
to have detained me there but for the fact that I had taken
precautions before I started."
"Have you any idea," Lamartine asked, "what the nature of this
underground business is?"
"I cannot imagine," I answered. "In some way it seems to me that it is
connected with the Chinese ambassador, because I have seen them
several times together. That, however, is only surmise. I can give
you one more piece of information," I added, "and that is that the
Chinese ambassador and Delora have recently visited Newcastle."
Lamartine smiled.
"I know everything except one thing," he said, "and that we shall both
of us know before the day is out. Our friend Delora has played a great
game. Even now I cannot tell you whether he has played to win or to
lose. Since you have been so kind as to look me up, Captain
Rotherby," he went on, "let us spend a little time together. Do me,
for instance, the honor to lunch with me at the Milan at one o'clock."
"With Louis?" I asked grimly.
"I do not think that Louis will hurt us," Lamartine answered. "There
is just a chance, even, that we may not find him on duty to-day."
"I will lunch with you with pleasure," I said, "but there is one thing
which I must do first."
Lamartine looked at me narrowly.
"You want to see Miss Delora?" he asked.
It was foolish to be offended. I admitted the fact.
"Well," he said, "it is natural. Miss Delora is a very charming young
lady, and, so far as I know, she believes in her uncle. At the same
time, I am not sure, Captain Rotherby, that the neighborhood of the
Milan is very safe for you just now."
"At this hour of the morning," I said, "one should be able to protect
one's self."
"It is true," Lamartine answered. "Tell me, Captain Rotherby, at what
hour did you send that cable last night?"
"At midnight," I answered.
Lamartine glanced at the clock.
"Soon," he said, "we shall have an official cable here, and then
things will be interesting. Shall we meet, then, at the Milan?"
"Precisely," I answered. "You don't feel inclined," I added, "to be a
little more candid with me? My head has ached for a good many days
over this business."
"A few hours longer won't hurt you," Lamartine answered, laughing. "I
can promise you that it will be worth waiting for."