WE dallied with the question and I thought he was going to repudiate my suggestion; but after a slight pause his manner became official.
“If you recognize me, there is no reason for further concealment. We are in possession of the house and my object was to learn the purpose of your visit. I invite you to tell it me plainly.”
“It is merely personal and private. If I leave Warsaw to-morrow, I shall not have another opportunity to see my friend.”
“A mere friendly call? At such an hour as this? On one of the leaders of the conspiracy which is threatening the whole city?”
“It is no novel experience for me to make a statement which at the time is not believed by the agents of your Department and to have the truth proved later.”
“Where have you come from?”
“I dined at the Hotel Vladimir about a couple of hours ago; since then I have been in the streets.”
“Also for private and personal purposes?”
“I am an Englishman and always interested in watching the results of misgovernment. A mere personal interest, of course.”
He liked this no better than I intended. “Your visit here to-night is full of suspicion, sir, and the account of your movements very difficult to believe.”
“In England such a remark would be treated as an impertinence; but there we manage matters differently, and even police officials speak the language of courtesy.”
“This is not England,” he said with a sneer.
“Thank God that at least is true. But all the same, need we ruffle one another’s tempers? I am ready to do what you wish, I can’t help myself, of course.”
“What is your address?”
“The night before last I was a guest of your Department in the fortress of Kreuzstadt. Last night I stayed at the house of my friend, General von Eckerstein. To-night I meant to ask Ladislas to put me up; and to-morrow I might be on my way to God’s country once more. As it is, I shall return to the Hotel Vladimir, unless of course you have any——” and I waved my hand to indicate that he might like to finish the sentence.
“My instructions are to send all who come to this house to the Department. One of my men will accompany you.”
“I am ready,” I answered, curtly. “It is a pity you did not act on your instructions before and save time, instead of trying to trick me into admissions.”
“You can make your explanations there, sir, and lodge any complaint you please,” he replied; and in a few minutes I was on my way to the Department in charge of one of his subordinates.
“You are an Englishman?” he said, after he had been eyeing me very curiously for some time.
“Yes, with no great opinion of your methods of government.”
“From London?”
“Yes, from London.”
“I have been in London,” he answered in excellent English.
“I wonder you ever came back here, then.”
“I was some time there, in Soho. It was in London, I suppose, you met Count Ladislas Tuleski?”
“There and in other places. Has he been arrested to-night?”
“No. He would have been, but some one gave him notice that his house was to be raided; and of course he fled.” He laughed as though this were a joke.
“Strange how these official secrets get tapped?” I said.
“The Fraternity has friends in many quarters.”
“Has it?”
He laughed again, rather drily, this time, and answered with a shrewd glance. “Of course you don’t know. Any one calling at the Count’s house at such a time would not.”
What was he driving at? His manner suggested more than a mere desire to pump me. I made no reply, waiting for him to develop the thing.
“My name is Christian Burski. You may know it,” he said next.
“How should I, an Englishman, know the names of the Warsaw police?”
He laughed at this first and then said meaningly, “Not of all the police, of course. But mine is well known.”
“Is it? I don’t envy you your reputation, all the same.”
“Ah, you have no sympathy with the police.”
“A kind of sport in which I’d rather be hunted than hunter.”
He smiled. “That’s good. I like your way,” he replied; and then lowering his voice and speaking earnestly, he added: “Is this visit to Headquarters likely to be serious for you? Are you suspect?”
“One would scarcely go to such a place on a night like this from choice, I suppose?” I answered lightly.
“There’s a lot of trouble brewing in the streets and it would be easy for a man to get away from a single guard.”
After a bribe, I concluded. “Will you smoke?” I asked him and handed him a cigar. We stood to light up and as the match flared between us our eyes met. “Why do you say this?”
“As a peasant farmer, friend,” he laughed.
I held the match to his cigar and he pulled at it, keeping his eyes the while on me. “You seem in a hurry,” I answered, laughing in my turn.
“Immediate,” came the due response.
“Your name?”
Up went his left hand as he gave me the sign. “In the eye of God.”
I thrust out my hand.
He looked at me steadily and would not take it. It was proof enough.
“Did you give notice of the raid?”
He nodded. “Yes. If you don’t wish to go to the Department, we’ll get into one of these crowds; you can knock me over and get away.”
I thought quickly. “I don’t think it matters. But you can help me in a much more important affair. Have we a friend in Colonel Bremenhof’s house—his private house?”
“I am there myself,” he answered, with his dry smile.
“Could you get me admittance?”
“No, impossible.”
“If I were once inside could you help me?”
“At the risk of both our lives.”
“When will you be there?”
“To-morrow, I expect. To-night, the raids on the Fraternity leaders have brought every special among us on duty. To-morrow, the military will be called out.”
“If I am not detained at the Department to-night, could you bring me a police uniform to the Hotel Vladimir?”
“Yes. One of mine. We are pretty much the same height. By whose orders?”
“To serve Count Tuleski. There are certain papers in Colonel Bremenhof’s safe which we must have.”
“Impossible,” he said, with a shake of the head. “He carries the key always; and when he is absent a man is always posted in the room.”
“Which room is it?”
“The library. The room at the back of the house on your left as you enter. But there are usually half a dozen men on guard in the house.”
“At what time after dusk does the Colonel return home?”
“At six—he dines with his mother and sister.”
“If you see me in the house to-morrow you will contrive to be on hand, should any one be called by him. That is all. God keep us all,” I said, remembering Jacob Posen’s parting salutation at Kervatje.
“God keep us all,” he repeated.
We reached the Department soon afterwards and after a short delay I was taken in to Bremenhof, who received me with a half-suppressed, malicious chuckle. My guard, Burski, reported that I had called at Ladislas’ house and the explanation I had given.
Bremenhof sent him out of the room. “I scarcely expected to see you here again so soon,” he said, when we were alone. “We have another charge waiting for you.”
“I can answer any charge.”
“Do you wish to communicate with your friends this time?” he sneered. “Scarcely so, I imagine. General von Eckerstein pledged himself that you were no revolutionary. Why then did I find you at the Drakonas’ house this afternoon; why did you aid the escape of a suspect; and follow it with this night visit to the house of a Fraternity leader?”
I smiled. “You are not alarming me, Colonel Bremenhof. I am no revolutionary. I went to the Drakonas’ house because my friend Count Ladislas Tuleski urged me to help him in protecting from you the woman he hopes to marry—Volna Drakona; I helped her to escape when you sent to arrest her; and I went to my friend’s house to tell him what I had done.”
“The woman he is to marry?” he exclaimed with a scowl. Then with a vicious curl of the lip: “So you admit that you helped in this escape?”
“Why should I deny it? You have the proofs. Your man would identify me. You can charge me with the offence, but of course in that case the reasons for the suspect’s arrest must be gone into fully. And you see I know them thoroughly.”
He saw his dilemma. “I did not say I should charge you, only that you have now committed an act which at such a time of crisis carries serious consequences.”
It was my turn to chuckle; but I had more to gain than merely turn the tables on him.
“I have done nothing which I am not perfectly willing to make known publicly anywhere. When I learned my friend’s sentiments and hopes in regard to Miss Drakona, my own object was instantly changed. But for his persistence, I should probably have left Warsaw to-day.”
This drew a long, keen, searching look on me. “Does Miss Drakona know this?”
“Of course.”
“Are you aware of the charges against Count Tuleski? That if made good, they may involve a life sentence, or at least, Siberia?”
“Why do you tell me this?”
“You are shrewd enough to understand, Mr. Anstruther.”
“I will not discuss such a question.”
“If this matter against you is not pressed, will you leave Warsaw?”
“How can I? I have agreed to be examined to-morrow about the Bratinsk matter.”
He waved an impatient hand. “I can arrange that, of course.”
“I will go on condition that Madame Drakona is at once set at liberty and the evidence you are holding back is placed in my hands, and that Miss Volna Drakona is absolved from all responsibility for the affair at Bratinsk.”
I looked for an outburst of anger at this; but he listened closely and then sat thinking, a heavy frown on his dark face.
“What is behind that?” he asked after the pause.
“That Miss Drakona must be a free agent to become the wife of my friend if she will.”
“Free to go to Siberia?” he sneered; “or perhaps you mean to England?”
“There is an end of the thing. I have no use for a man who doubts my word.”
“You forget how grossly I have been deceived already.”
I made no reply, but leant back in my chair, crossed my legs, and shoved my hands into my pockets with a great show of unconcern.
“Where is Miss Drakona?” I took no notice. “Can you communicate with her?” I took a paper from my pocket and began to read it. “If I agree, when will you leave Warsaw?” I made a pencil note on the paper, folded it up and put it away with a sigh of weariness.
“I did not mean to doubt your word. I retract what I said.”
“That’s another matter. We can resume. Provided you keep faith with me throughout. Then, as soon as Madame Drakona is free and you have handed me the evidence against her and satisfied me that the charge against her daughter is settled, I will go by the next train?”
“On your word of honour?”
“On my word of honour.”
He thought for a moment. “You can arrange to leave to-morrow night. There will be certain formalities to settle of course. I will see to them to-morrow. Come to my private house to-morrow at six o’clock and I shall be prepared with everything. Are you still with General von Eckerstein?”
“No. I shall stay to-night at the Hotel Vladimir.”
“You can go. Oh, by the way,” he added in a tone of indifference; “your manservant has been brought here with your luggage from Bratinsk.”
Something in his manner struck me. His indifference seemed forced. “Is he a prisoner?” I asked.
“Oh, no. Not now.”
“Let him bring my things to the Vladimir.”
He struck his table bell. “This gentleman has been brought here needlessly,” he said to the man who came. “He has certain instructions to give about his manservant. See that they are carried out. Good-night, Mr. Anstruther.”
I left the message for Felsen, and as I was passing out I saw Burski. He gave me a quick glance of congratulation.
“I am going, you see,” I said.
“I did no more than my duty,” he answered, for those about us to hear.
“I have no grudge against you. I hope you will always do no less than your duty.”
He noticed the equivocal phrase. “I think I can be depended upon,” was his equally ambiguous reply.
“Good-night. I am going to the Hotel Vladimir.”
“It is nothing to me. Good-night.”
I moved off; and just then some one called out—“Burski, the chief wants you.”
I turned my head at the call; and was just in time to catch his eyes fixed upon me with an expression which set me thinking as I stepped into the street and started for the hotel.
It was a look which suggested that the mask was off in that moment.
Had he been just fooling me?