Mysterious Mr. Sabin by E. Phillips Oppenheim (read novel full .TXT) 📖

hide himself in one of the most remote quarters of the civilised world? In any case it was a dreary outlook for him. Not only had this dearly cherished scheme of his come crashing about his head, but he had very seriously compromised himself with a great country. The Emperor’s gracious letter was in his pocket—he smiled grimly to himself as he thought for a moment of the consternation of Berlin, and of Knigenstein’s disgrace. And then the luxury of choice was suddenly denied him; he was brought back to the present, and a sense of its paramount embarrassments by a pealing ring at the bell, and the trampling of horse’s feet in the street. He had no time to rescind his previous instructions to Foo Cha before Knigenstein himself, wrapped in a great sealskin coat, and muffled up to the chin with a silk handkerchief, was shown into the room.

The Ambassador’s usually phlegmatic face bore traces of some anxiety. Behind his spectacles his eyes glittered nervously; he grasped Mr. Sabin’s hand with unwonted cordiality, and was evidently much relieved to have found him.

“My dear Souspennier,” he said, “this is a great occasion. I am a little late, but, as you can imagine, I am overwhelmed with work of the utmost importance. You have finished now, I hope. You are ready for me?”

“I am as ready for you,” Mr. Sabin said grimly, “as I ever shall be!”

“What do you mean?” Knigenstein asked sharply. “Don’t tell me that anything has gone amiss! I am a ruined man, unless you carry out your covenant to the letter. I have pledged my word upon your honour.”

“Then I am afraid,” Mr. Sabin said, “that we are both of us in a very tight place! I am bound hand and foot. There,” he cried, pointing to the grate, half choked with a pile of quivering grey ashes, “lies the work of seven years of my life—seven years of intrigue, of calculation, of unceasing toil. By this time all my American inventions, which would have paralysed Europe, are blown sky high! That is the position, Knigenstein; we are undone!”

Knigenstein was shaking like a child; he laid his hand upon Mr. Sabin’s arm, and gripped it fiercely.

“Souspennier,” he said, “if you are speaking the truth I am ruined, and disgraced for ever. The Emperor will never forgive me! I shall be dismissed and banished. I have pledged my word for yours; you cannot mean to play me false like this. If there is any personal favour or reward, which the Emperor can grant, it is yours—I will answer for it. I will answer for it, too, that war shall be declared against France within six months of the conclusion of peace with England. Come, say that you have been jesting. Good God! man, you are torturing me. Why, have you seen the papers to-night? The Emperor has been hasty, I own, but he has already struck the first blow. War is as good as declared. I am waiting for my papers every hour!”

“I cannot help it,” Mr. Sabin said doggedly. “The thing is at an end. To give up all the fruits of my work—the labour of the best years of my life—is as bitter to me as your dilemma is to you! But it is inevitable! Be a man, Knigenstein, put the best face on it you can.”

The utter impotence of all that he could say was suddenly revealed to Knigenstein in Mr. Sabin’s set face and hopeless words. His tone of entreaty changed to one of anger; the veins on his forehead stood out like knotted string, his mouth twitched as he spoke, he could not control himself.

“You have made up your mind,” he cried. “Very well! Russia has bought you, very well! If Lobenski has bribed you with all the gold in Christendom you shall never enjoy it! You shall not live a year! I swear it! You have insulted and wronged our country, our fatherland! Listen! A word shall be breathed in the ears of a handful of our officers. Where you go, they shall go; if you leave England you will be struck on the cheek in the first public place at which you show yourself. If one falls, there are others—hundreds, thousands, an army! Oh! you shall not escape, my friend. But if ever you dared to set foot in Germany——”

“I can assure you,” Mr. Sabin interrupted, “that I shall take particular care never to visit your delightful country. Elsewhere, I think I can take care of myself. But listen, Knigenstein, all your talk about Russia and playing you false is absurd. If I had wished to deal with Lobenski, I could have done so, instead of with you. I have not even seen him. A greater hand than his has stopped me, a greater even than the hand of your Emperor!”

Knigenstein looked at him as one looks at a madman.

“There is no greater hand on earth,” he said, “than the hand of his Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of Germany.”

Mr. Sabin smiled.

“You are a German,” he said, “and you know little of these things, yet you call yourself a diplomatist, and I suppose you have some knowledge of what this means.”

He lifted the lamp from the table and walked to the wall opposite to the door. Knigenstein followed him closely. Before them, high up as the fingers of a man could reach, was a small, irregular red patch—something between a cross and a star. Mr. Sabin held the lamp high over his head and pointed to the mark.

“Do you know what that means?” he asked.

The man by his side groaned.

“Yes,” he answered, with a gesture of abject despair, “I know!”

Mr. Sabin walked back to the table and set down the lamp.

“You know now,” he said coolly, “who has intervened.”

“If I had had any idea,” Knigenstein said, “that you were one of them I should not have treated with you.”

“It was many years ago,” Mr. Sabin said with a sigh. “My father was half a Russian, you know. It served my purpose whilst I was envoy at Teheran; since then I had lost sight of them; I thought that they too had lost sight of me. I was mistaken—only an hour ago I was visited by a chief official. They knew everything, they forbade everything. As a matter of fact they have saved England!”

“And ruined us,” Knigenstein groaned. “I must go and telegraph. But Souspennier, one word.”

Mr. Sabin looked up.

“You are a brave man and a patriot; you want to see your country free. Well, why not free it still? You and I are philosophers, we know that life after all is an uncertain thing. Hold to your bargain with us. It will be to your death, I do not deny that. But I will pledge the honour of my country, I will give you the holy word of the Emperor, that we will faithfully carry out our part of the contract, and the whole glory shall be yours. You will be immortalised; you will win fame that shall be deathless. Your name will be enshrined in the heart of your country’s history.”

Mr. Sabin shook his head slowly.

“My dear Knigenstein,” he said “pray don’t misunderstand me. I do not cast the slightest reflection upon your Emperor or your honour. But if ever there was a country which required watching, it is yours. I could not carry your pledges with me into oblivion, and there is no one to whom I could leave the legacy. That being the case, I think that I prefer to live.”

Knigenstein buttoned up his coat and sighed.

“I am a ruined man, Souspennier,” he said, “but I bear you no malice. Let me leave you a little word of warning, though. The Nihilists are not the only people in the world who have the courage and the wit to avenge themselves. Farewell!”

Mr. Sabin broke into a queer little laugh as he listened to his guest’s departing footsteps. Then he lit a cigarette, and called to Foo Cha for some coffee.

CHAPTER XXXIX THE HEART OF THE PRINCESS

When Wolfenden opened his paper on Saturday morning, London had already drawn a great breath, partly of relief partly of surprise, for the black head-lines which topped the columns of the papers, the placards in the streets, and the cry of the newsboys, all declared a most remarkable change in the political situation.

“THE GERMAN EMPEROR EXPLAINS!

THERE WILL BE NO WAR! German Consul ordered Home!

No Rupture!”

Wolfenden, in common with most of his fellow-countrymen, could scarcely believe his eyes; yet there it was in plain black and white. The dogs of war had been called back. Germany was climbing down—not with dignity; she had gone too far for that—but with a scuffle. Wolfenden read the paper through before he even thought of his letters Then he began to open them slowly. The first was from his mother. The Admiral was distinctly better; the doctors were more hopeful. He turned to the next one; it was in a delicate, foreign handwriting, and exhaled a faint perfume which seemed vaguely familiar to him. He opened it and his heart stood still.