CHAPTER IV
“THE WEB IS WIDE, THE MESHES HARD TO BREAK”
“AS beautiful as an angel, and with the heart of a vampire.”
This bitter description rushed to my thoughts as I gazed at the Princess Christina. Surely never had treachery, cruelty, and ambition a fairer guise than hers, if treacherous and cruel she could be.
But the thought started another suspicion. Had this scene all been planned by her to catch me in the toils? It was a dramatic enough entrance for me into her circle, and certainly clever. It had been made to appear as if I had forced my way into the house, had overheard a compromising secret, had had my very life placed in danger, and then at the critical moment it was to her coming I owed my safety. If this were so, I could understand why the less hot-headed of my two assailants had first rushed to the assistance of his comrade, but had then refrained from pressing the advantage of the odds against me in the fight, and had not attempted even to wound me.
Could that lovely, ingenuous-looking woman have laid such a scheme, and then have carried it out with such shrewd stage-management, putting that little ring of anger into her voice at all the clatter of the fight?
If so the danger that had seemed to threaten me had never existed, and I might as well do as she bade, and put up the sword which had never been needed in earnest. With a smile at the notion I sheathed it, and waited for the next development of the comedy.
Yet the anger in her eyes seemed sincere enough, and if she was only acting she understood her business well; for the indignation on her face and the liquid notes of her perfect voice moved me to regret even my share in the fracas, though it had been none of my seeking.
“Major Zankoff, have you such poor command of your subordinates that they must seek to shed blood almost in my very presence?” At the rebuke the eldest of the three men winced and bit his lip, but made no reply except a bow. “You know my will, sir!” she continued, with the mien of an empress; “and any repetition of this forgetfulness will find me deeply angered even against you.”
“Madame, I am already punished,” replied the major, with the bow of a courtier and the shrewdness of a diplomat.
“As for you, gentlemen,” she said, turning to the other two, “I shall use my influence to see that you are relieved from duties which you must surely find irksome, since you seek relaxation in this cut and thrust work. Be good enough to leave me.”
This was a somewhat embarrassing request, for I was by the door, and still held my foot on the fallen sword. I was not disposed to have the door open lest others should be brought in, and they were not willing that I should have a chance of escape, carrying their secret with me. The three exchanged looks, and then the major came to the rescue.
“There is a matter that needs explanation to you, madame——” he began, when she cut him short.
“I will hear nothing, Major Zankoff, until these gentlemen have left me.”
Another embarrassing pause followed, in which she let her eyes glance toward me and rest a moment on my face, with an effect I cannot describe. In an instant it seemed as if all my doubts of her sincerity dropped from me like a cloak. I felt absolutely assured, not only of her purity and truth, but of my own complete safety in trusting her, and with an impulse that was as irresistible as it was instantaneous, I cut the knot of the difficulty.
I picked up the fallen sword, left my place by the door, and handed it back to the owner.
He flashed a curse at me out of his eyes that I should have been the cause and witness of his humiliation, and muttered in a tone too low to reach other ears than mine, as he bent his head in sheathing the weapon:
“I will find you out, sir.”
“Count Benderoff, Hôtel de l’Europe,” I whispered, meeting his look with one as stern as his own, and then stood aside for him and his companion to pass out of the room.
The Princess waited in silence until the door had closed behind them, and then addressed me:
“Why have you come to bring your quarrels here, sir?”
“I think I can best explain——” began Major Zankoff.
“I have asked this gentleman for his explanation, Major,” she broke in, and I liked her calm assertion of authority.
“I have brought no quarrel here, Madame,” and I explained very briefly the facts up to the moment of her entrance.
She bent her dark eyes on me during the recital, and gradually the colour of her cheeks deepened, until at the close, with a flush of indignation and anger, she cried:
“You have been shamefully treated, sir—shamefully and outrageously. Because by chance some hot-headed idler cannot keep his tongue still, but must blab of matters he does not understand, shall murder be attempted? Major Zankoff, what had this gentleman done that you should sanction this atrocious act? We owe you an ample apology, sir; and I, the Princess Christina of Orli”—drawing herself to her full height—“tender it to you. I do not ask your name. I ask nothing, but only tell you I am profoundly sorry and deeply grieved that this should have occurred. Major Zankoff, it is my express wish that you will see this gentleman safely out of the house, and conduct him to any part of the city he desires. His safety will be your personal charge.”
And with this she swept across the room and herself held open the door for me to leave.
Her beauty and grace, and, much more, the instinctive justice of her act and implied trust in my honour, conquered me. I did not wish to leave her, and lingered gazing at her in admiration. This was the Countess Bokara’s vampire. If this was how she gained her victims, I, at any rate, was ready to be one of them. As we stood thus, she holding the door and I unwilling to go, our eyes met, and I was filled with one consuming, burning impulse to serve her.
Then came an interruption, which I for one welcomed profoundly.
An old man, in the uniform of a high Russian officer, entered through the door which she had used, and in a high-pitched voice said sharply:
“This is a somewhat unusual scene. What does it mean?”
I was watching the Princess closely, and saw an expression of some disconcertment and alarm rush into her eyes, to be as quickly forced down and followed by what I half dared to hope was a look of solicitude on my account. The eyes seemed to beg me to leave while the way was still open.
But I would not have gone for a fortune. I was ten thousand times more eager to stay.
Major Zankoff gave an expressive shrug of the shoulders as he said in reply to the question: “There has been a little misunderstanding, General.”
The small, alert, piercing eyes seemed to take in the situation at one sweeping glance that dwelt lastly on my face.
“Princess, can I have a word with you? Major Zankoff, close the door and guard it. We want no one in—or out,” he let the last two words drop from his lips as though they were an after-thought and not intended to be spoken aloud.
“I am telling this gentleman that he is at liberty to leave here, General,” she answered, lifting her head with what I read as an intentional assertion of authority, not made, however, without an effort.
“Very good of you, very good indeed,” he replied drily. “But as the gentleman does not seem disposed to go, suppose we close the door. There is a draught for one thing, and pretty situations should never be strained. Besides, I wish to have a word with him myself.”
My wits had been somewhat mazed by the unexpected character of the meeting with the Princess and the whirl of strange and disturbing thoughts which she had started, but these last words of the old soldier recalled me to myself quickly enough.
“With me?” I said in surprise.
“Certainly, with you,” he answered sharply.
The suggestion of solicitude for me still lingered on the Princess’s face as she left the door and went to the old man.
“I have passed my word for his safety, General,” and she looked meaningly at him.
“Do I look so fierce and terrible an object, madame, that the gentleman will be afraid to trust himself alone with me, think you?”
“I have passed my word for his safety,” she repeated, and turning to me, she added, “You may depend upon that, sir,” and as she left the room she gave me a look from her glorious eyes which seemed to say much more than even her words.
The old soldier smiled sardonically, and bowed low to her as she passed him.
“Umph! And now, sir, will you come with me; or are you, as madame was disposed to think, afraid to trust yourself with me? Zankoff, I do not wish to be disturbed,” he said abruptly to the Major.
He led me to a room beyond and motioned me to a chair, near the table at which he seated himself.
“You know, I presume, where you are, who I am, and who that is we have just left!” he began.
“I do not know all, but I can make a shrewd guess. She is the Princess Christina; you, I presume, General Kolfort, and this house, either yours or hers.”
“As you say, a very shrewd guess—even for one known to have such quick wits as the Count Benderoff, of Radova.” He intended to surprise me, as indeed he did, by the mention of my name; but I showed no sign of this, although he looked for it.
“Why did you force your way in here—unless, indeed, you had an object which I shall only be too glad to welcome?”
“I will make another guess,” I answered. “I came through your own contriving, General;” and this time it was he, not I, who had to conceal surprise—for my guess was right.
He looked at me and nodded his head.
“It is my business to know all newcomers to Sofia,” he said. “And you are too notable and have started too much comment for me not to know of you. My agents serve me well, and I thought it was full time for you to declare yourself. There are only two courses open to a man making a career in this country, as you have said you intend to do. Only two sides, one of which a man must take. You must be either for or against the interests of Russia—which is it to be?”
This was plain talking in all truth.
“I have been in the country too short a time to have weighed the considerations which must determine me.”
“Good; evasive but politic, though not, of course, convincing.”
“Yet true,” said I shortly.
“Very well. We’ll take it at that;” and he looked at me as if he were pondering carefully the arguments he should use to convince and win me. “Yet you’ve not been quite inactive, have you, although here so short a time?”
“You mean——?”
“What should I mean?” he asked, throwing up his hands with an indifference that was belied by the sharp glint of his eyes.
Did he know of that night adventure, after all? If so, I had indeed walked into the spider’s web.
“No, I have not been inactive, certainly not,” I answered carelessly. “I have had to find a house suitable for my position and my means. I am a man of some wealth, and the work has taken time and care.”
“No doubt. But I did not mean that kind of activity, Count. My sources of information are many—and secret. Few things are done in Sofia without my knowing them, as well as those who do them.”
“Through your spies, you mean?”
He waved the term aside and passed over the question.
“We have had an accident lately, rather an awkward affair, which resulted in the death of a couple of our agents; but a third escaped and tells a strange story. Even your short acquaintance with Bulgarian affairs will tell you that the consequences may be serious for those concerned in their death.”
“I can understand that. But with what object do you make me the recipient of such a confidence?” I asked coolly.
“You have made some shrewd guesses during our talk; I will leave you to make another in that matter. It may be only a parable; or, on the contrary, a matter of life or death for those concerned. In any case, the person concerned is known to me.” The threat was conveyed with unmistakable significance. I understood him well enough, and he knew that I did; but I answered lightly:
“I don’t see that this affects me.”
“I hope with all my heart that it never will,” he said quickly, “for nothing would please me better than to have you enrolled on our side!”
He paused to let this, his first argument—an appeal to my fears—have due weight, and watched me keenly to note results. Apparently he was not too well satisfied with them.
“You have probably asked yourself why I am anxious, as I confess I am, that you should be with us, and yet if you reflect you will readily understand the reason. I have told you that there are but two courses open to a man who mixes in politics here. He must take a side. There is no possible alternative—no possible alternative. Well, I know much about you—more than you think, and I do not wish that a man who has shown such courage as you, on other occasions than to-day,” he put in meaningly, “who has those parts of head and heart that carry a man far in troubled times like these; a man wealthy, daring, shrewd, honorable, ambitious, resourceful, and bound to wield influence, should enter the lists against me. Such a man must make a leader, and these Bulgars readily follow when the right man leads. It is all against our cause that such qualities should be devoted to the service of a craven Prince.”
“You speak with great frankness.”
He smiled and raised his eyebrows, giving a slight toss of the head.
“I can be frank with perfect safety. You are in my power, Count.”
“I have the word of Princess Christina——”
“I do not mean in this house, I mean in this country,” he interposed. “If you do not know the reach of my hands, it is time you learnt it. No man crosses this frontier without my knowledge, and no one recrosses it against my will. Do not mistake me; I don’t speak at random, nor am I uttering a mere empty boast. I am stating a plain fact. And the power which I wield you can share, if you will.”
It was skilfully turned and cleverly put, and for the moment I was silent.
“The web is wide, the meshes hard to break, Count; and I brought you here that you might see how wide and how hard. You were right just now in that shrewd guess of yours—I did bring you here. First, for that little dramatic test of your courage; next, that you should see for yourself the glorious woman in whose cause we fight; and lastly, that you should understand the obstacles that lie in the path of those who would oppose us. You say you seek a career. Well——” He paused here and looked most keenly at me as he added, “Englishmen have done the same before——”
I could not repress a start of surprise at the thrust, and he stopped to enjoy it.
“Yes, Englishmen—and Roumanians. But it is very rare for a Roumanian to combine the qualities which distinguish you, Count Benderoff. You perhaps know the English. If I mistake not, your father was an Englishman, and you may have met a certain Hon. Gerald Winthrop. I have such a man in my mind when I speak to you.”
I sat gnawing my lip, my brows knitted in thought, and had no reply, while he looked at me with a smile at my evident consternation.
Then he gave a sudden and unexpected turn to the matter.
Pushing his chair back, he rose, and said in a frank and apparently friendly tone:
“I have taken you by surprise. Of course I know that, and do not wish to push the advantage unfairly. Don’t decide now. I want your decision to be deliberate and the result of judgment, and not mere embarrassment. I will make you a fair offer. The frontier is free for you for three days—nay, for a week. Join us within that time, or let my agents report to me that you have crossed it. I want your services because I value them, but I do not intend my enemies to have them. If you really wish to make a career, I can help you as no one else can. I want no oaths; they don’t bind me, and in this place bind no one beyond the limits of self-interest. If you join us, you would have to be faithful, or your life would be a mere candle-flame to be snuffed out at will. That is a better guarantee than any mere oaths. If you decide to throw in your lot with us, I shall be glad to see you at any time. If not, I hope we shall not meet again.” And he held out his hand.
I took it, not over cordially, and left him, dismayed, perplexed and anxious, but with an appreciation of his power keen enough to have satisfied even him.