The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 22, 1904, Page 3

THE SAN FRANCISCO SUNDAY CALL. keeping my One w ing t friend walting.” rsisted Laura, follow- “Is—is this who is be- and he ran do question coul if his spirited out the whole scene in the Princess the [ 4 @ «r 1 by subseq known te el s Yes, I got the merest fluke yugh you were good e pilment me on it sai “] saw him off the day before yester- s> the morning. The same after- was shown to me by the English trequented also knew that I had Delaval.” ou the code?” asked ng his eagerness that by e, conceal ector’s reply was the pro- @uctior a bulky pocket-book, from which he extracted a greasy sheet of folded foolscap and threw it over to Fortescue “There is the confounded thing,” he 1d. “Not much use, is it—with me of-thelr correspondence to decipher Fortesc ren his eye over the code with undisguised interest. “I don’t know to what extent Vol- borth has incurred your displeasure,” he sald, “but if you will relent so far &s to let me make & copy of this for him it might be very serviceable.” “Oh, I've got nothing against Vol- borth beyond his stem,” replied the 4nspector. “Copy it by all means. Only I can’t wait while you do it, as I have to meet one of our men by the afternoon boat via Calais. Keep the code end give it to me in the morning. { shall see you before you leave, and if 1 excuse me now I will be off.” No sooner was Melton gone than For- tescue took out the draft telegram which he had despatched for the prin- cess &t Amiens, and compared it with jpher code. The latter, a very ny showed him, was applic- 2 few minutes sufficed to e the instructions sent to Poste Restante, Copenhagen,” the sense being: don attempt in Denmark. Du- nder suspicion, and useless for nck Olga Palitzin.” ¥Folding up the code and the draft telegram he placed them in his pocket- book, well pleased with the prompt re- forthwith sult of his chance meeting with the Princess. It was good to jJearn, for a Vassili's sake, that her foolish lover was 1o be discharged from his Jous bondage; and to have flut- tered the dove-cotes of the conspira- tors med to make for the safety of the Tsar. The delay of having to ini- tiate fresh attempts would have that effect, Fortescue thought, and the con- spirators, discouraged by previous failures, might even give up their vile \ projects altozether. “Though I am not so sure that Vol- borth would be best pleased at having to face a rearrangement of their th Dubrowski left out of his calcu ations,” he reflected as he rose fr the table. “I must salve my con- science by sending him a copy of De- laval's code—as a set-off against my interference. He had nearly reached the door of the restaurant when at table at a con- from the at lton had hed he the Princess Oiga Palitzin He was sure that she had not n there on his entering, and he had not seen her before owing to the in- detective i ct having him to appropriate the seat the room. Fortescue had thus s back to the Pri And now, 1 her table, she seemed to s of his presence. nt did she relax her at- ing conversation a tall, spare-framed beard and pair of spector’s a long white hing a the vesti- waiter. 7 in the jle from the door her are able to oblige Neither the ¥ staying tronized 18 the dinner franc, 1 be- % ¥ ith a ro T in hi in Vol tter of Dubrow- s f t could not ed. Reinforced with > lair, Volberth might a watch on the miscreants one,” he ground late. The cavalier t, and, as a same walter from the hotel r e. T e was profar but he \ 1 tive at his A n s innocence m while ing promising on the it the and \nswer I E ad he schooled himself to sup I elation, which was great. rate here, ready to hand to pick the thread that he had dropped the d The sense that he Volborth for de. w through Du- ors had been promised him- nture through. The er did not oc had to deal with ¢ ur. termined resourceful criminals, and thoug naturally fearless he would not have trusted himself among them if he had believed them to regard him as an active anta nist. But be- yond the fact of his having been seen in Melton’s company there was nothing to connect him with their natural foes, and he did not think that a connection had been made that way. The English detective had certainly not recognized Oilga Palitzin and her companion in the restaurant, though sitting where he had & good view of them, and the pre- sumption was that he was equally un- known to them. All this passed through Fortescue's mind in a flash, and by the time he had folded up the Invitation he was ready to meet the challenge of in- quiry in Laura’s eyes. This he did by an answering glance that hinted at the postponement of open curiosity, but the moment Lady Metcalf had been made comfortable after dinner he drew Laura aside. “That note was from the Princess Palitzin,” he sald, placing it in her hand. “I am rather inclined to go. I have no idea what the woman wants, but through her I may be able to turther improve Ilma Vassili's pros- pects.” “Then go by all meanys” replied Laura, quickly skimming the Iletter. “I can’t say I caught on to the lady, after the first—she seemed bloodless and insincere. “Well, I shall not be trusting her with any secrets,” said Fortescue. “I am going to try to get at hers. And look here, little woman. Here are two documents—neither clean nor interest- ing, but highly important—which I do not care to carry about me. Will you take charge of them and not deliver them up to any one but to myself in person, on any representation?” And he took out and handed to her the cipher code and the draft of the Prin- cess’ telegram to Serjov. Laura took them and perceiving their cabalistic nature, made one of her ex- pressive grimaces. ’ “The heathen Chinee isn’t in it with _you, Spencer, for ways that are dark and tricks that are vain,” she sald, as she locked the papers away into her traveling-bag, that lay close at hand n a console-table. “There must be something very nice about you, I think, to be able to indulge in all these mys- terious carryings-on without shaking the confidence of yours truly.* “I expect there’'s something very nice about both of us—in you chiefly, r, for your loyal faith,” was the re- p And, as by this time they were out of the salon and no one about, the mutual compliment was ratified In a fashion that concerns no one but them- Laura having intimated that she should not go to bed till he returned, went back tc her mother, and Fortescue sought his own room to fetch an ver- coat, for the night was chilly. Having made the addition to his attire,-he was about to leave when an after-thought struck him. He opened his Gladstone bagfand extracted a small . revolver, which he placed in his pocket. The train of ideas bred of this action lasted him all the way downstairs and cab which he had ordered. It to him for the first time s a spice of knighterran- in the course on which he had em- 'ked, and, since he had prided him- tr self on being a prosaic person, he laughed at himself accordingly. From that, as the cab rattled over the cobbles away from the smells of the waterside toward the Haute Ville, he fell to anal- yzing the motives which had induced him to plunge into an affair that made ession of a pistol seem desir- “Laura’s enthusiasm and a feeling that that poor beggar Dubrowski was being treated unfairly started me. And now, having, I trust, relieved him at Volborth’s expense, I am smitten with a desire to furnish the astute Paul with a quid pro quo in the way of in- formation. . And—yes, I have a taste for this sort of thing. It is good train- ing.” So he reflected as the cab began to climb the steep streets of the old town, and he knew that he must_be nearing his destination. The garish lights of shops and hotels—the noisy watering- place racket—had long since been left behind, and they were threading a net- work of narrow, fll-lighted thorough- fares, curiously quiet by contrast, in which the dark old houses had an alr of shy retirement. Fortescue was more at home in capitals than pleasure resorts, but he remembered hearing that the Rue St. Pol bore a none too savory reputation. Buddenly the cab drew up at a house which, but for a glimmer in the fan- light over the door, might well have been vacant, so dark were its windows and uncared for its approach. For- tescue, who knew the exterior of the Palitzin palace on the Great Morskala at Petersburg, felt Instinctively for his pistol. That the owner of that splendid pile should be domiciled in this dingy abode struck home to him the possi- bilities he might find on the other side of the threshold. Bidding the driver wait, he mounted the moldy steps and tugged at an old- fashioned fron bell-pull, which caused a long-continued clangor far away’in some distant basement. But, as evi- denciug that a janitor was ready and waiting, the door was swiftly and si- lently opened almost as soon as the bell began to ring, and an under-sized, shock-headed man whom he had never seen before confronted him. No words passed. The doorkeeper, who must have been furnished with a description of the expected visitor, looked him up and down, admitted him and closed the door instantly with a metallic snap that somehow got on Fortescue's snerve. “Sounded like the click of a mouse- trap,” he thought, as the small man turned the handle of a doof on the right of the passage and motioned him to enter. And the next moment, when he passed into’the room, conviction came to him that it was a trap into which he had walked so easily. For, seated at the head of a shabby table was Olga Palitzin, having on her right the flerce-eyed old man who had been with her at the restaurant, and on her left Delaval—very far from being on his way back to Amefica. One quick glance round showed why the house from the outside appeared to be in ut- ter darkness. The windows were fur- nished with thjck (wcoden shutters, which were closed and barred. The trio looked up on Fortescue’'s entrance. the Princess deliberately folding & map over which they had been poring. Her first words were ad- dressed, not to her visitor, but to De- laval and Fortescue was startled to hear them spoken in crisp English. In the train she had carefully concealed all knowledge of the language, and’ this open use of it implied that she had ne WA EZ FOoUrR TOU AXST A further need for concealment bedase him. There was a further deduction from that ominous inference which he tried to put from him. “Is it the same?"” asked the Princess, in her even, expressionless tone. “It is the same,” Delaval replied, re- garding Fortescue with an ugly sneer. “Pray be seated,” said the Princess, acknowledging her visitor for the first time, and pointing to a chair facing her from the other end of the table. “There are one or two questions I would ask of you, and after that—yes, after that I think we shall have fin- ished with him, eh, gentlemen?” In response the Irish-American emitted an unpleasant grating chuckle, and the graybeard nodded his head thrice, his cavernous eyes glowing flercer than ever. Fortescue was pro- ceeding to seat himself with as great an assumption of careless ease as he could muster when stealthy footfalls— not of one man, but of several—in the passage caused him to move the chair £0 that he could see the door as well as his interviewers. Every sense in his body was on the alert, and he did not ‘mean to be taken In the rear. “Two things, Mr. Fortescue, have combined to put a new complexion on our relations since this morning,” be- gan the Princess. “In the first place, have since met my friend Colonel De- laval here, and he has told me some in- teresting facts about my kind fellow- trav-lers from Paris. That they or some of them deprived him of the hos- pitality of the Baroness von Lindbgrg at Breslau, for instance.” All this candor had a nasty signifi- cance for Fortescue, but he answered coolly enough: “The reason for that was sufficlently explained to Colonel Delaval at the time. He readily asquiesced in it. I do not imagine that he was seriously inconvenienced In having to leave that house just then.” The Princess waved her hand impa- tiently. “7.at may be,” she replied, “I only cite it as an Instance of want of friendliness. I presume that Colonel Delaval also has to thank your party for interfering with certain property left by him at the Baroness von Ling- berg’s?” “Really, Princess Palitzin, I don’t un- derstand the tone or the dritt of your 7 AN BAC, o= EES 7 cross-examination,” replied Fortescue boldly. “I heard something about the removal of a portmanteau by a German gentleman—a Herr Winckel, I think, was the name.” There was a putting together of the three heads in whispered discussion. “Herr Winckel” was evidently a puz- zle. “Can you inform me whether Res- tofski, the Russian police agent, took part in the discovery?”’ asked the Princess, looking up. “I have not the honor of M. Restof- ski’s acquaintance,” replied Fortescue, glad thus to learn that Volborth's in- cognito was still Intact. “And now, Princess,” he added with a determina- tion to test his own pcsition,-“as I do not seem able to give you much infor- mation, perhaps you will allow me to take my leave.” Delaval laughed coarsely, and the tall old man’s eyes blazed like live coals, as the visitor rose to his feet. “Not so fast, Mr. Meddlesome Eng- lishman, if you please—tne house door is well guarded,” cried the Princess, throwing off all disguise. “This is the chief matter on which I desired your attendance. Restore at once the cipher code which you got from the English police cZicer this morning, also the HITAZY - draft of the telegram which I foolishly confled to you. It is useless to deny that you had the code. I saw the man Melton hand it to you, and I saw you compare it with the telegram.” No one knew better than Fortescue that 1o was in danger of his life, for after this they would not dare to let him go, but at that moment his upper- most feeling was one of irritation with himself at the false step he had made in not allowing for a recognition of Melton by one or other of the conspira- tors. Or it might be—he hoped it was so—that Melton had been recognized from Delaval's description, and that the nature of the document handed to him had been an after-conclusion. Either way the situation was the same, and had to be faced. “I have not the code or the telegram with me,” he replied, feeling his pistol with the hand which he had kept in his pocket. .. second later the weapon was out and leveled straight at the beautiful head of the Princess, as in response to her signal half a dozen men filled the doorway. They were veno- mous-looking ruffians of the continen- tal anarchist type, and held knives in their hands. “Keep your ruffians back or you are a dead woman!” cried Fortescue. “Hands on the table, Delaval, if you don’t want your leader shot!” he added, as the Irish-American began to fumble at his hip. “Now see here,” he went on, speaking in Frebch so that those at the door might understand, “it is very probable that all you people will succeed In killing me, but on one point I am quite decided. At the first move- ment toward that amiable intention— at the lifting of a finger—I send a bul- let into the Princess.” If he had been lax in taking care of himself at the outset, his promptness now had him, temporarily at least, master of the situation. With that shining barrel threatening the most important life in the room he had got the whole gang “bai’-d up.” The bearded veteran was gibbering like an ape, and Delaval muttering oaths. Ol- ga Palitzin alone preserved her calm. “You are a brave and a capable man, Mr. Fortescue,” she sald, “too brave and clever to go hence alive. I regret it on some grounds, but I must employ other means to put an end to this deadlock,” And raising her voice, but still in the same unimpassioned tones, she spoke rapidly in Russian to the men at the door. What she sald was unintelligible to Fortescue, but the re- sult was immediately apparent in the slamming of the front door, followed by the sound of wheels. He gathered that a messenger had been despatched on some errand, and that his walting cab had been used for the purpose, “In the meanwhile and {n any ecir- cumstances the same conditions pre- vail,” he sald. “At the first sign of violence I fire.” So the minutes sped by, Fortescue covering the Princess with his revolver, the three leaders at the table whisper- ing, and the men in the doorway fin- gering their knives, but no one ventur- ing to alter the grouping of that strange party. About the time that Fortescue raised his weapon Laura Metcalf was saying good-night to her mother, who was re- tiring for the night. Then, being like all nice girls an inveterate novel reader, she settled down to pass the time till her lover's return over the joys and sorrows of her hero and heroine of the moment. She had read for perhaps half an hour when a waiter announced that a messenger from Mr. Fortescue was inquiring for her, “Show him up instantly,” sne said, tossing the book aside, and a minute later she was trying to understand the bad French of an under-sized man with a shock head of hair topping a most forbidding countenance. “The monsieur wants me to bring him the . papers? Is that what you mean?’ she said, eying him sharply. “What papers?” This was a poser which it seemed could bnly be met by inarticulate gurg- lings. “Where is Mr. Fortescue—in the Rue St. Pol?” Laura asked qulckly. It was not like her “sucking ambassador” to set her such a task at that time of night, and she became conscious of a vague uneasiness about him, which was not lessened by the evil smile with which the man replied in the afirma- tive. “Very well, then, I will come,” she said. “You have a cab? Good! Go downstairs; I will follow immediately.” Running to her room for a cloak and hat she was down in the hall at his heels, and entered the cab, which, by the way, was not the one which had brought the messenger. Throughout the drive she did not speak, not be- cause she was in the least afrald of her unkempt companion, but out of an innate aversion for him. The man smelt of drink and some vile com- pound of tobacco. Only when they drew up at the door she asked, not lik- ing the look of the house: “The Princess Palitzin is here?” A moment later, when the front door snapped behind her, she found herself in the narrow hall, with a group of forbidding looking men clus- tered round a doorway. They parted right and left for her to enter, which she did without hesitation, and then they closed up In solid phalanx in the rear, as the tableau of her lover with his pistol aimed at the head of the Princess was revealed. Fortescue, out of the corner of the eye which he was keeping on the door, saw with a thrill of, horror what had happened, and it was nearly his undoing. Delav: (] hand began to fumble again. That braced Fortescue and he steadied his pistol. Olga was the first to speak: “You have brought the papers, Miss Metcalf?” Laura laughed in her most engag- ingly impudent manpner. “Was it lkely?” she sald. “I wanted to ses what was up first, and It seems as well that I took that precaution. Are you the person who made the mess between Ilma Vassill and Captain Dubrowski? If so you'd better let her have it, Spencer, and end this tomfoolery.” Thé three heads at the table bent low together In conclave, and Laura moved to Fortescue'’s side. “Leave it to me, darling,” he mur- mured. “I'm going to. You appear to have 8ot the drop on her, as the Yankees say,” was the reply. And then sudgenl while the whis- pered conference was still in progress, an Interruption occurred. The fromt door snapped, there was a stir among the rascals at the room door, and a handsome, wild-eyed pushed through them. Murm “Anna— Anna Tchigorin!" arose. “Efface yourselves—if you have the means,” she cried in French. “I have come to you straight from prison, and only here—at door—I find that I am followed! The sples of the section are outside. Our future movements will be traced.” tetire all, and rendezvous at Center 5!" said Olga look at the revolv ered from her h later, save f with his pistol g with a nervous which never wav- And ten seconds ira and Fortescue, still pointing at the door whither hi ad followed the exit of the P , the room empty. Somewhere at the t banged, and all wa CHAPT THE PU} “Play Whitechs white Wallop! That's d cried Laura Metcalf. her in the rack sh: who, from a open French die billlard-room, ¥ the velvet lawn birch trees tow of Lochnagar. v us playe af to brush the table and put e balls. ¥ dear thing, sood to have you here, and aw good of the Tsarina to I sald Laura, perching hers end of the set- re simply dyin have been going. f-honor s ched led her tee. “Spencer and I to know how th The Russian maid out her shapely hand, British friend’s b 1a had been 4 n over oral that morning, and arrjvi half an hour before, whe billiard-room was filled with Sir James Metcalf's nd now her first oppor- dences. “There is very little to tell, and I suppose I ought to it good news,” replied Ilma with a faint sigh. “That say, nothing suspicious happened penhagen, and I do not think that M. Volborth pays so much atten- tion to Boris as formerly ‘And Captain Dub ki himself— does he show signs of coming to his senses”™ pursued Laura eagerly. “If you whe we are any 1 answer that >te chance of nearer mak there is not that,” said i “It does not now ar onger depend wupon Boris,” she continued, with a brighten= ing of the proud eyes. I could not marry a man > has forfeited all claim to my respec 2n should he do me the honor to change his mind again, All that I hope for—for old love's sake —Is that he may not suffer for his rashr - “But how is Laura, feelir matters h ess. behaving?” persisted hat if it would mend uld like to take the he scuff of his back to his allegi- 1 is that silver mist st urple mountain,” sald Ilm as Fortescue, having put rights, came forward to join the two girls. His face wore its al ex sion of good-humored alertness, but semehow he did not look very well. There were blue circles un- der his ey d his cheeks had fallen in a litt! good reason, of which more prese Now 1l nstantly perceived In- tention to change the subject at For- tescue P h, by its implied want of cc came as a sharp little heart-stab to hon Laura, and she determined to that matter right once for all » by 1 1 agree- ment, she er 1 kept thelr perilous adventure at Boulogne te themselves, and, E al conse- quence, the events that to it, the only exception being Volborth, te whom Fortescue had forwarded a full report to Copenhagen. But it had been thought safer in Ilma’s own interest to write nothing of what happe: and she was therefore ignc what had been done to divert Dubrow- ski's peril. So, when Fortescue came up, Laure said: “Ilma has been telling me thas nothing jumpy happened at Copen~ hagen, and I think she ought to know to whom that is due.” And turning te Ilma she added: “Do you know, deam that by an extraordinary chance we met the Princess Palitzin In the train, and this astute young man played hew so diplomatically that I doubt if she'd be seen In the same street with Captain Dubrowskl. Established a funk, you know.” * And Laura procesded to de- scribe how Fortescue had imparted te the arch-Nihilist the rumor of a staff officer of the Tsar being under sus- picion. There she stopped short, leave ing it to her lover, if he chose, to nar- rate the scene in the Rue St. Pol. But the immediate effect was for the moment to Increase Ilma’s alarm. She knew that she had not mentioned Olga Palitzsin by name in her letter to Laura, and the latter’s identification of her fellow-passenger with her own um- named rival could only have one sig- nificance—that Fortescue was deep In the counsels of Volborth, and was to be proportionately mistrusted. The look which she cast at her friend’s lover was In truth a mute ap- peal to remove her doubts of him. “That was indeed most generous, most skilliful—if only,” she was begin- ning when Fortescue, who, with quick intuition, had divined the cause of her fear, cut her short. “In plain English, if only T aid it In your service, and not in that of the Russian secret police,” he sald genially. “One moment, Mademoiselle Vassill, ™ he went on, as Ilma ralsed her hand In Pprotest at having been read so literally, “I am glad of an opportunity of making this quite clear. My first object in all that I have done in this matter has been to help you, as Laura’s friend, to the attainment of your purpose—the relief of Captain Dubrowski from fur- ther implication and suspicton. My see- ond object has been to help my own old friend, Paul Volborth, to the at- taloment of his purpose, but always in L S {