I didn't like his tone. "But I can remember all that's pa.s.sed since the _Burgen_."

It did not draw him, however. He just laughed. "I mustn't antic.i.p.ate him, of course; but I'll give you a tip. Be at his office on the stroke; he hates nothing so much as unpunctuality."

With that we rejoined the rest, and again the conversation was about matters in which I had no interest. I studied Feldmann carefully. He was a handsome fellow; fair, blue-eyed, rather round-faced and weak; but he had a very pleasant smile which I saw often, for he smiled every time he looked at Rosa. But not once did he address me; and his dislike and hostility were plain each time he glanced in my direction.

He certainly wasn't the man I would have chosen to trust; but beggars can't be choosers, and I had to be satisfied with the fact that both Rosa and Nessa herself were ready to vouch for him.

Hoffnung did not stay long, and when he had gone Rosa reminded me about going to the tailor's, and as I was leaving the room, she said to Nessa: "You might show it to Johann now, dear."

"Rosa has asked me to show you the portrait of your mother, Herr La.s.sen, as she hopes it may perhaps help you to remember things."

"Please do," I answered eagerly, her look telling me this was merely an excuse; and we went to the library together.

"It's all right with Rosa," she whispered then; "but only if Herr Feldmann is told and agrees. I am to go back and tell her what you say."

"Are you quite sure of him?"

"Yes, quite, in the altered circ.u.mstances. So is Rosa."

"Carry on, then; and if there's anything wrong, let me know the moment I get back;" and off I went, not letting Nessa see how it worried me to have this infernal suspense kept hanging round my neck like a millstone.

CHAPTER VII

BARON VON GRATZEN

I was very curious to have a look at Berlin in war time; but as I am not writing a chronicle of the struggle, my impressions need not be laboured, except as they touched me personally.

The struggle had been going on for about eighteen months when I reached the capital, and, except in one respect, matters were pretty much as I had known them. There were more soldiers about, perhaps; there seemed to be as much bustling activity as usual, and certainly there was universal confidence that the result would be a glorious victory.

The one genuine surprise I had was when I came upon an unwontedly demonstrative crowd shouting that they were short of food. They were chiefly women, and a boisterous, vociferating lot they were. It was not so much the crowd that impressed me, however, or the row they kicked up, as the fact that the police didn't interfere. In my experience, a crowd might look for a very short shrift at the hands of the police of Berlin.

I referred to the matter when I was at the tailor's--where, by the by, I succeeded in getting a very pa.s.sably fitting suit and other things I needed--and he explained the reason. There was no real scarcity of food, he declared, but much grumbling at the distribution; and the police had had orders not to resort to drastic measures.

"It will have to be stopped, however, or the trouble will grow. There has already been some window smashing. Imagine it, window smashing in our beautiful, well-organized city!" he cried, as if it were akin to impiety and sacrilege.

"Very shocking," I agreed gravely.

"If it is not put down with an iron hand, it will not be safe for a well-dressed person to be in the streets. My own wife and daughter, only yesterday, were all but mauled in the Unterga.s.se. But the English will pay for it!"

I cut short that subject by speaking about the business in hand; it wasn't prudent to talk about the war, and I took care not to give him an opportunity of returning to it before I left the shop.

On my way back to the von Reblings' house in the Karlstra.s.se, I could think of nothing except the news I was to hear and what I should do if the scheme I had suggested was turned down. I could see nothing for it but to make a bolt almost at once, take Nessa with me, and trust to our wits and luck to get away.

Not a hopeful job at the best, and at the worst involving no end of risk and danger for us both. I knew my Germany too well not to be painfully conscious of all that; and the knowledge made me profoundly uncomfortable. But I've a sanguine streak in me and am generally lucky, so I put off the consideration of the disagreeables until they had to be faced in earnest.

I need not have worried, however, for I found everything running as sweetly as a well-oiled engine when I reached the house. I knew it instantly by the manner in which Feldmann greeted me.

Instead of the previous sullen angry looks, he was all smiles, gripped my hand cordially, nearly fell on my neck, and I rather dreaded that he would wind up by kissing me. Rosa and Nessa were in much the same hilarious mood, and might have been arranging the details of a wedding rather than a little conspiracy against the Government.

They had it all cut and dried, and my crude plan was hailed as if it had been a piece of the most wonderful strategy in the world.

"Oscar will help us all he can," said Rosa, blushing a bit as she used his christian name; "and he can get the pa.s.sports and everything without any trouble. He has his already, and suggests that we shall have one for Hans as well. I've seen Hans, and he has consented to go if he can get leave. He doesn't think he can, but agrees we had better get one in case. That will be for you."

"Won't there be some sort of description of him on it?" I asked.

"I can arrange that," declared Feldmann. "Luckily it is in my department. It will do for you, and, of course, he'll never see it."

"I shall take charge of everything," said Rosa. "And Oscar says he can get everything through in three days at the latest, perhaps in two."

There was a great deal of Oscar would do this and Oscar could do that, in it all; but everything seemed as good as the best, and I was soon in as high spirits as the others. It was settled that we should travel by the morning express, which would get us across the frontier in time for me to let Rosa have my confession the following day.

"Oscar" wrung my hand again at parting, as if I was his dearest friend; declared he was not among the English haters; that he thought I had acted splendidly in risking so much to rescue Nessa; and that he hoped we should be great friends after this abominable war.

My next move was to prepare for leaving the house the next day, and at supper I announced my determination. The Countess was very much against it, but afterwards I went with her alone into the drawing-room and gave her my "official" reasons.

"I want you to open your cabinet drawer, aunt; but before you do it, I'll tell you that you will find some one has been to it----"

"Nessa?" she broke in excitedly.

"I'll tell you in a moment. You are quite right that there is some one in the house who is playing the spy, and, of course, you'll understand that if I am to join the Secret Service, it is a sheer impossibility for me to remain here with any one like that about the house."

"They shall leave it at once, Johann."

"We'll discuss that directly. You will find that the letters you so neatly put away here are just flung in anyhow in order to suggest that whoever did it was surprised and had to act in a hurry."

She unlocked the drawer then with shaky fingers and there lay the letters as I had told her. "Nessa shall leave the house to-morrow, Johann," she cried immediately.

"But it wasn't Miss Caldicott at all, aunt; it was Gretchen;" and I described what I had witnessed and went on to advise her not to take any open notice of the matter at all. "You know now who it is and can be on your guard, keeping such papers as are of no account here and putting others in a safer place."

"But to have such a person in the house, Johann!"

"She can't do any harm now; and you must remember this. You don't know who has put her here nor the reason. It might do much more harm than good if you were to make any disturbance about it. These are curious times, and the fact that you have an English girl in the house may be the reason. By sending Gretchen about her business you may only have some one else put here, or one of the other servants bribed or forced to take her place;" and I hammered away at this until I persuaded her to adopt the suggestion.

I had a strong object in taking this line. I was sure that Gretchen was von Erstein's creature, and that if she remained in the house, we might find her very useful in putting him off the scent by letting her find out some false facts in case of trouble.

During the night I thought carefully over our conspiracy scheme. It looked good; very good indeed; perhaps too good, and in the end I decided to prepare for a possible hitch in case the unexpected happened.

I couldn't see one anywhere; but you can never be prepared for an air pocket, as I knew well enough; so I resolved not to be caught unawares.

If anything went wrong on the journey, it was on the cards that we might be able to dodge the trouble and get away, if we were provided with good disguises. I worked on that idea and thought of several other items which would probably come in handy.

I adopted the notion of turning myself into an aero mechanic and changing Nessa into my young a.s.sistant. There wasn't much about any sort of flying machine I didn't know--except Zeppelins, of course; so I could keep my end up all right, and could easily coach "my a.s.sistant"

well enough to pa.s.s muster.

We should have to dodge the beastly German system which makes every workman carry his record card about with him; but if we couldn't get things of the sort, we must put up a bluff--have lost them or something--and trust to my skill with the tools to see us through.