Promising the General to return and make his adieu, Hubert followed the artillery officer out into the corridor to a room on the opposite side.

Waldron opened the door, and at once a soldier, aged about thirty, with a thin face and rather crooked nose, sprang to attention. He wore the dark blue uniform with crimson facings of the renowned Bersiglieri, or riflemen, with his large, round hat with c.o.c.k's plumes at the side.

"You are Corporal Tonini?" asked Waldron kindly, as he closed the door and advanced into the bare, severely furnished room, which smelt of stale cigars, as do all the rooms in the Italian Ministries.

"Yes, signore," replied the soldier, looking askance at the civilian foreigner who had come to question him.

"Sit down," Waldron said, taking a seat himself. "I had better explain.

I am acting on behalf of His Majesty your King, in order to clear up the mystery of the theft of those plans from His Excellency's room."

"The plans?" gasped the man, and by his accent Hubert knew that he was not a Roman. "Then you know, signore?"

"You come from Tuscany, Tonini?"

"_Si, signore_."

"What part?"

"My home is at Signa, near Firenze."

And from that moment Hubert Waldron, whose knowledge of Italian was practically perfect, spoke in the Tuscan tongue, using all the aspirated "c's" and subst.i.tuting the "r's" for "l's" which is the betrayal of the true Florentine or the Livornese.

"I want you, Tonini, to put yourself at once at your ease," the Englishman said. "First, there is nothing against you, not the slightest breath of suspicion. His Excellency the Minister has told me that you have been an excellent soldier. You fought in Tripoli with distinction, as your medal shows, and you have, I see, the medal for saving life. But I want you to be perfectly frank with me--to help me, as His Majesty wishes you to do."

"Has His Majesty been told that I was on sentry duty?" asked the corporal.

"Yes, it has been reported to him, and you, as a loyal soldier of your Sovereign, must a.s.sist in every way to help me to clear up this mystery.

You know the value of those doc.u.ments, I presume?"

"Yes. They are plans of our new fortresses against Austria," replied the man in a changed voice, for Hubert's words had greatly impressed him.

"Then you know it must be a spy of Austria who has stolen them?"

Waldron said. "Either a spy in person, or an individual who has sold them to a spy. Which, we do not yet know. Now you were on duty outside His Excellency's private cabinet, were you not?"

"_Si, signore_. From noon till four o'clock."

"The Council of Defence met at noon--just at the time you went on duty.

Now tell me exactly who entered or left His Excellency's room."

"I will tell you, signore, exactly. I have nothing whatever to conceal," replied the soldier frankly.

"Of course you have not. If you tell me everything you will greatly a.s.sist me in my inquiries."

"Well, signore, His Excellency came out of the room just as I went on sentry duty, and for half an hour no one else entered. Several clerks and others came to the door, but I did not permit them to go in, and told them His Excellency was absent. At half-past twelve Colonel Pironti, whom I knew as His Excellency's secretary, came up the stairs, and of course I allowed him to pa.s.s in. He was there about ten minutes, when he came out again with a large orange-coloured portfolio in his hand."

"That contained the papers," Waldron remarked.

"I suppose so, signore. Then n.o.body entered the room until Colonel Pironti came back again at half-past two. He had the same orange-coloured portfolio in his hand, and took it inside. When he came out I saw that he had left it within. He had evidently placed it in the safe, for as he came out of the door he was putting a key attached to a chain into his trousers-pocket."

"And after that?" asked Waldron, his dark eyes fixed intently upon the man he had under examination.

"Well, signore, several gentlemen came to interview His Excellency the Minister, but I, of course, allowed no one to pa.s.s. His Excellency himself came back at three o'clock. He remained about ten minutes and then left. His chauffeur came up and told me his car had arrived. I went in and announced the fact."

"His car!" sniffed Waldron suspiciously. "He was in a hurry to get away--eh?"

"His Excellency had an appointment at the Tivoli--so his chauffeur told me."

Waldron made a mental note of that curious fact.

"And then?" he asked.

"His Excellency had left about ten minutes when Colonel Lambarini, the secretary of the Council of Defence, came up to the door, which I opened for him, as he always had access to His Excellency's private cabinet.

He was inside for a few seconds when he suddenly rushed out wildly and asked: `Who has been here since Colonel Pironti?' I replied that only His Excellency himself had been there, and had just gone. `There has been a theft! Some very important papers have been stolen; and you, as sentry, are responsible!' I stood aghast. Then he dragged me inside the room, and showed me the safe open, and the drawer was empty."

"Then you are sure--quite sure that n.o.body entered that room after His Excellency had left?" asked Waldron earnestly, for that was an extremely important point.

"n.o.body, signore. I will swear that as a soldier of Italy, before His Majesty my King--if necessary."

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

BEHIND THE THRONE.

After Hubert Waldron had left the corporal of Bersiglieri he entertained a distinct feeling that His Excellency the General knew more of the theft than he had admitted.

On his return to the Minister's private cabinet he found His Excellency in consultation with his secretary, Pironti, a tall, thin-faced, black-haired man, with whom he presently held a long discussion regarding the theft. The secretary of the Council of Defence was also called, and the quartette sat for nearly an hour putting forward various theories as to how the doc.u.ments could have been extracted. Up to the present it was a dead secret. But how long it would remain so was a question.

"Secrecy is all-important," Waldron declared at last. "We must allow no word of this to leak out. It is His Majesty's express command."

"That sentry may possibly gossip," remarked His Excellency, drawing slowly at his cigar stump, for he smoked perpetually.

"I have already impressed upon him the necessity for silence," replied Waldron.

"In my own opinion the man knows something of the affair," the General went on. "He was on sentry duty, and tells us that n.o.body whatsoever pa.s.sed in here except we three. Yet, notwithstanding, the papers were stolen! He must have neglected his duty in some way--without a shadow of a doubt."

"Yes," replied his secretary, "I quite agree with Your Excellency that if he were continuously on duty, as he alleges that he was, then he must have seen the thief."

"Probably bribed to remain silent," His Excellency grunted suspiciously.

Waldron uttered no word. He watched the General's face keenly and kept his own counsel.

"The affair is a complete mystery," remarked Lambarini, who had spoken but little. "I, too, incline towards the opinion that the man, Tonini, knows the ident.i.ty of the thief, but will not speak."

"If I have him arrested then we might get him to open his lips," His Excellency exclaimed. Waldron at once said:

"No. His arrest would betray the secret of Your Excellency's loss.

Besides, such an injudicious action would place a very serious obstacle in the channel of my present inquiries."

"Then you are against his arrest. Why?"