CHAPTER XXIII.
A PLAN OF DEFENCE.
It was some time before I could even bring myself to ask Nikolitch for details of his visit to Gatrina.
“You saw the Princess?” I asked at length.
“I would not come away without. She had been at the Palace, I think. She received me graciously at first—she does all things prettily—and listened while I warned her that grave troubles were coming. Then something I said suggested to her that I had come from you; and her manner changed suddenly.”
“It would, I suppose,” I interjected, bitterly.
“She put the question point blank, and I admitted it, of course. Then she refused to hear any more. I said that you were very anxious to see her; and she got up and was for dismissing me on the spot. But I hung on and managed to get out the contradiction of the engagement, as she was hurrying away. At the door she turned, her face very pale, her manner and tone cold as ice. ‘Under the circumstances, Captain Nikolitch, your presence is an insult,’ she said. And never in my life have I felt the lash of a woman’s tongue more keenly. I suppose she was mad you had told me anything of how matters stood with you. I felt like a whipped cur as I stumbled out of the room.”
“Well, it’s just a devil of a mess, that’s all, and we’ll have to find some way of helping her against her will.”
I told him of the result of my visit to Petrosch and of the confirmation of the news from Elma. His view of the outlook was even darker than my own; and when I let drop a hint of the suggestion which Elma had made, he was disposed to freeze to it as the best and readiest solution of the difficulty.
But I shook my head. “The Princess would never trust herself to them,” I said. “I know her too well to think that for a moment.”
“She would be safe. Other things would settle themselves afterwards. The hours of peril will be few, whatever happens; and when they are once passed, the itch for violence will be appeased.”
“No,” I said again. “I say no, emphatically no. If she believed the danger were really so acute, she would go to the Queen and stand or fall with her. She would regard it as cowardly to think of herself at such a time; and nothing would induce her to set foot inside the Russian Minister’s house merely to save herself. It would but drive her into greater peril that if she remained in her own. It is there she must be protected. Would God I could but learn when the devilment is to be done?”
“I think I could learn that. Not here, of course, where if I were recognised I should be clapped straight away under arrest; but at Jagodina. They will know there.”
“Then for Heaven’s sake get back to Jagodina at once and send me word. I will do the rest. I begin to see a way at last—if she will but stay in her own house.”
“What is it?” he asked eagerly.
“No, no. Don’t stay another minute in the city. Get to your regiment and send me the news I want. Just the time; that’s all; that’s all. It may not be safe to send more;” and seizing a time table I found there was a train he could catch at once, and I hurried him off.
“My uniform,” he said. “I’m in mufti.”
“Leave it. It may be useful.”
“What do you mean?” he asked, anxiously.
“If I don’t tell you, you can’t be compromised. Do as I ask; that’s all. And for Heaven’s sake be off at once.”
I infected him with a degree of my own energy and bundled him off to the depot, and sent Buller with him with instructions to get him a special train if he missed the regular one.
Then I gave word that the instant Karasch arrived he was to be shewn to me; it was close to the hour at which he was accustomed to come for instructions; and having done that I set to work to think out my plan as I ate a hasty dinner.
The plan was a very simple one—to raise immediately a band of men numerous enough to protect Gatrina’s house in case of emergency, and to find some place close to it where they could remain in readiness under Karasch’s leadership.
The idea took a more daring form at one time, and I was much tempted to adopt it. It was to have the men in the uniform of one of the regiments and to act the part of guarding the house, as if at the army’s command; but the risk which the men would run if the thing were discovered was too great. I might not be able to protect them even with Petrosch’s influence; and I had, therefore, to abandon the notion. But from it came another idea which I saw at once was practicable.
“There is work for you at last, Karasch,” I said to him as soon as he arrived; “difficult, and perhaps dangerous; and I am going to trust to you.”
“I will do my best, Excellency, whatever it be,” he answered, with his customary directness.
“Ugly things are going to occur in the city; a revolution accompanied probably with violence is on the eve of taking place; and no one can say for certain what will or will not happen. But it is very probable that the Princess—Mademoiselle, you know—will be exposed to great danger, and I wish you to help me in protecting her. You will do this?”
“With my life, Excellency. Of course you have a plan.”
“Yes. I mean you to get together a strong band of resolute men to be instantly available to form a guard round her house. They must be men on whom we can depend; and we will pay them liberally. How many can you get?”
“I could get a thousand to take your money and promise; and I might find fifty or less who might keep their promises; and, perhaps, five or six who would be absolutely reliable. It would depend.”
“On what?”
“On whom Mademoiselle had to be defended against. If against the mob it would be easy, but not against soldiers, Excellency.”
“It will probably be against the soldiery.”
He shook his head doubtingly. “It would be very difficult,” he said.
“It has to be done, Karasch,” I declared firmly. “The Princess’s life may depend upon it.”
“Where twenty men would face the sticks and stones of a mob, scarce one of them would stand before the bayonets or bullets of the troops, Excellency. Should we be inside the house?”
“No, outside.”
“Ah,” he exclaimed with another very grave shake of the head.
“You would do it?”
“I am different; but I would not do it for money. I have been in similar troubles before; and for those who resist the soldiers at such times, there are many roads to death and all short and pretty certain. Men know this, Excellency. Belgrade is not like the hills in the Gravenje district. I might count on five or six, as I say; but what are they against the troops in the city?”
I thought a moment. “Could you trust them absolutely?” I asked.
“Yes; as you may trust me. But, I beg your Excellency’s pardon, why cannot the Princess remove to a place of safety?”
“She will not, for reasons I cannot explain to you. For one thing she does not know of her danger, and will not believe in it.”
“Mademoiselle has a strong will, we know,” he said, with a shrug of his broad shoulders.
“She has, therefore, to be saved despite herself. Stay, I have it,” I exclaimed as a thought struck me. “You say these five or six men are to be relied upon. Could you procure half a dozen uniforms for them to wear?”
“I could get half a hundred, but——”
“This is my plan then. Get the other men, fifty or a hundred of them—as many as you can—to be available if the only trouble comes from the mob. The six we will make up as soldiers, and at the worst we will force our way with them into the house and bring off the Princess as though she were our prisoner.”
He chewed the notion for a moment and then his grim face relaxed into one of his rare smiles. “It is good,” he said; and we set to work and threshed out the plan in as much detail as practicable at that stage.
I decided that the half dozen men who with Karasch and myself were to take the risk of making the pretended arrest of Gatrina, should wear the uniform of soldiers and over that loose civilian’s clothes which could be easily slipped off in case of need. The men would in this way be available for both parts of the work before us; as civilians to resist the mob, or as soldiers to mislead the regular troops.
I based my plans on the calculation that in making any attempt on Gatrina’s house the troops were not likely to be in any considerable force. The movement would be more in the nature of an arrest; and if we could manage to get into the house before the soldiers sent to make the arrest, they would be likely to conclude, if they saw Gatrina in our hands, that in the confusion some mistake had been made in doubling the parties told off for the purpose.
I should be in command and should wear the uniform which Nikolitch had left behind him; and in the event of any complication arising, I should have to trust to my wits to explain it away.
My intention was to march with Gatrina straight to the house of the United States representative, where, of course, she would be safe. I knew him already for a man on whom I could rely implicitly.
Karasch went off to find the men and was to return at midnight to report progress; and I was to go out into the neighbourhood of Gatrina’s house to look for a place in which they could be placed. I was getting ready when my eye fell upon Nikolitch’s uniform and I tried it on. It was anything but comfortable after the freedom of civilian’s dress; and as I was much the broader man of the two, it was an uncommonly bad fit.
But I had to get used to it; so I resolved on a dress rehearsal of the part, and throwing on a long overcoat, I put a revolver in my pocket and set out on my quest, with Chris in close attendance at my heels.
The night was fine but moonless; and as the streets of Belgrade were very badly lighted, there was not much chance of my being recognised. The restaurants and supper houses were busy enough, and the flare of their lights streamed across the streets here and there; but they were easy to avoid; and there were none of them in the neighbourhood of Gatrina’s house.
As it was of course necessary that I should make myself as familiar with the entrances to the house as possible, I had a good look at it, being careful to keep well in shadow.
A massive stone house, it stood by itself at a corner and was almost surrounded by a high wall. The main door let out on to a broad thoroughfare; a strong massive door with a deep portico. In the wall at the side there was a smaller doorway—the servants’ entrance, I concluded; and this, also, was very heavily and strongly fashioned. All the lower windows were heavily barred, a custom I had observed to be general in the large houses in the city.
It was altogether a house capable of offering stout resistance to any attack; and I saw in a moment that if I could once get inside, with a few resolute men, it would be possible to hold it for a long time against either mob or troops; and I concluded that, in common with many others in the city, it had been strengthened in view of the turbulent outbreaks which had been frequent enough in Belgrade.
The strength of the house reassured me somewhat until I found a weak spot. Some fifty yards along the smaller street were the stables; and I remembered that when I had been in the house on the previous day waiting in my vain attempt to see Gatrina, I had noticed a newly made door at the end of the garden, just at the point where, as I could now see, it would lead to the stables; while from the room where I had been placed, a French window quite unprotected led down a flight of steps to the garden path.
That was a weak spot indeed. But if it would render the house open to attack, it would also provide the means by which I could gain access if the need arose.
I was weighing all this in my mind most earnestly as I stood opposite the entrance to the stable, when Chris moved and growled. I silenced him, laying my hand on his head, and drew back with him into the deep shadow of a tree which stood in front of the portico of a house, and listened.
He never warned me without cause; and soon I caught the sound of approaching footsteps. I had no wish to be seen, so I slipped into the portico and pressed close against the wall, while I kept watch on the newcomer. He came along at a quick pace until he reached the stable, when he paused.
My first idea was that he was a servant who had overstayed his hours of leave and was puzzling how to get into the house without attracting notice.
But I was wrong. Presently he came out into the roadway and stared at the upper windows of the house. Then he went round to the front and again he paused and stared up at the windows there; and apparently not seeing what he sought—for the whole house was now in darkness—he scratched his head as if in perplexity, and came sauntering back toward the stables.
He was very slow in his movements, and his slowness irritated me. Presently a light shewed for an instant in one of the top windows at the back, and was almost instantly extinguished. This was repeated twice, at short intervals; and I heard the window raised very cautiously.
It was evidently the signal for which the man in the street had been waiting, for he whistled, just two notes softly, shewed himself in the roadway and then stepped back in the shadow of the stables and waited.
A vulgar assignation, I thought then, not without disgust; and I wished that he and his sweetheart would be quick over their love-making. It was well past eleven. At midnight I had to be back to receive Karasch’s report; and yet could not venture to be seen.
But it was no sweethearting. After some minutes, a small door in the large stable gate was opened and a man looked out. I could see all that passed by the light of a lamp over the gates. The two whispered together a moment; and then the man from the house came out, turned the key in the lock, and put it in his pocket.
They both crossed the road toward where I stood, and I pressed yet closer against the wall and kept my hand on Chris’s head lest by a sound he should betray our presence. They did not enter the portico, but stood in the shadow of the tree where I had first concealed myself.
“This will do,” I heard one of them say; and then strain my ears as I would I could not catch any other than isolated words. But they were enough to set me on fire. “Army,” “Arrest,” “Three hours,” “Yes, two o’clock—” this was louder and in an impatient tone. After that there was a chink of money passing; and then silence. It lasted so long that, unable to contain myself, I peered out cautiously and looked at them.
The man who had come from the house was counting a quantity of paper money, and trying to read the value of each bill by the flicker of the lamp across the road. It was a tedious business; and his companion whispered something to him and they both walked away along the street.
My first inclination was to follow them at once and force an explanation; but I checked the impulse. I resolved to wait for the return of the servant. He was sure to come back, if I read the thing aright. I could deal with him alone much more satisfactorily.
I took Chris across to the stable gates and making him understand that he was on guard and must let no one pass in, I returned to my hiding-place.
The minutes were leaden as I stood waiting. The man was so long away that I began to fear I had blundered and to regret I had not acted on the impulse to follow the two.
But he came at length hurrying from the opposite direction; and he glanced up at the house windows as he passed, with a gesture of uneasiness. When he reached the stable gates, Chris received him with a low growl, and he started back in some dismay at the most unexpected interruption.
He was trying to pacify the dog with a little coaxing when I crossed to him and, assuming a tone of authority, asked, at a venture; “You have seen the sergeant? Why have you been so long?”
He was obviously in much perplexity and some fear, and glanced from Chris to me. The good dog looked formidable enough to have frightened a braver man.
“Who are you?” he asked.
I threw back my long coat and shewed my uniform.
“The plan is changed. You are to come with me. We can’t trust you out of sight again.”
He glanced round as if meditating flight.
“The dog will pull you down if you move,” I said, sternly.
“I must get in,” he murmured. “I shall keep my word.”
“Did you hear what I ordered you?” I rapped back with an oath. “Come,” and I linked my arm in his to drag him away. He resisted at first; but at a word from me Chris shewed his fangs and snarled so angrily that no resistance was left in him. I let go his arm then. “A false step or a single word, and the dog’s fangs will close on your throat,” I muttered fiercely.
He came then, keeping pace anxiously with my quick stride and glancing ever and again over his shoulder at Chris who stalked behind him like a black shadow.
I got him to my house without trouble; for the streets were now all but deserted, and I chose a way which avoided the main roads.
I led him into my study, taking Chris with me, and then turned a lamp full on his face. Then I drew my revolver and held it in his full view as I considered how best to question him, so as to get the truth out of him.
It was a vital matter, and they were anxious moments; for upon his answers Gatrina’s life might depend.
He found them anxious, too. I could see that by his pallor, the nervous twitchings of hands and features, the sweat that stood on his swarthy forehead, and the wild look on his fear-filled eyes.