The Island Mystery Part 18

"Yes, but why? Why? The island isn't worth having. As well as I can make out it's simply a rock with a little clay sprinkled on top of it.

What can it matter to the Emperor who owns the place? It isn't as if it were his originally or as if it would become his. It belongs to Megalia. With all the fuss that's being made you'd think there was a gold mine there."

The puzzle became more complicated and Gorman's curiosity was further whetted before he started for Salissa. After leaving my rooms he went to c.o.c.kspur Street and called at the office of the Cyrenian Sea Steam Navigation Company. Steinwitz was expecting him and received him in the most friendly manner.

"Sir Bartholomew Bland-Potterton," said Steinwitz, "rang me up this morning, and told me that you'd undertaken our little negotiation. I need scarcely say that we're quite satisfied. We feel----"

"By we," said Gorman, "you mean yourself and the Emperor, I suppose.

Now what I want to know is this: Why is the Emperor so keen on----?"

Steinwitz waved that question away with a motion of his hand.

"I do not discuss the policy of the Emperor," he said.

"You must be the only man in Europe who doesn't," said Gorman.

"However, I don't mind. I suppose the Emperor must have some pretty strong reasons for wanting to get Donovan out of Salissa, or he wouldn't offer to pay a fancy price--it was a fancy price, you know."

"King Konrad Karl will pay," said Steinwitz.

"No, he won't. He can't. He hasn't got it. There's a cool ten thousand gone on a pearl necklace, as well as----"

"Goldsturmer is prepared to buy back the necklace," said Steinwitz. "I have arranged that."

"Well," said Gorman, "it's your affair, of course. But I wouldn't be too sure. I don't think Madame Ypsilante will sell at any price."

"Madame Ypsilante will do what she must," said Steinwitz. "The Emperor----"

"I don't envy the Emperor the job of tackling her," said Gorman. "He won't find it a bit pleasant. I daresay he doesn't know Madame Ypsilante. He wouldn't be so c.o.c.ksure of himself if he did. She's the kind of woman who throws things about if she's the least irritated. If the Emperor suggests her selling those jewels there'll be a riot. But it's no business of mine. If that Emperor of yours really enjoys a rag with a woman like Madame Ypsilante--I should have thought a man in his position wouldn't care to be mixed up in the sort of scene there will certainly be."

Steinwitz stiffened visibly. His hair always stands upright on his head. It actually bristled while Gorman was speaking.

"I do not," he said, "discuss the Emperor in that way. It is enough for you to know this. Madame Ypsilante will sell. Goldsturmer will buy. I myself will settle these matters."

Gorman was enjoying himself greatly. Nothing in the world gives him more pleasure than intercourse with a man who takes himself seriously.

Steinwitz was a real delight. He was solemnly and ponderously serious about himself. He was pontifical about the Emperor.

"Goldsturmer," said Gorman, "is a Jew, and the Jews are a cautious race. However, if you go to him and say 'The Emperor' in an _Open Sesame_ tone of voice he'll no doubt give in at once."

"Exactly," said Steinwitz gravely.

Gorman collapsed then. Steinwitz' portentous solemnity was too much for him. Sticking pins into a man or an ape is a pleasant sport. They have skins of reasonable density. It is dull work p.r.i.c.king a rhinoceros, even with a rapier.

"About going to Salissa," he said meekly. "Can you manage to send me there?"

"Certainly," said Steinwitz. "How soon can you start?"

"At once," said Gorman. "I'll buy a tooth-brush on my way to the steamer. I realize that I must waste no time when conducting business for the Emperor."

"That is so," said Steinwitz, "but you cannot start before to-morrow.

To-morrow at 9 a.m. the _Ida_ leaves Tilbury. She is the steamer which Mr. Donovan chartered from us. She returns to the island according to his orders. If you care to sail on her----"

Steinwitz took up the receiver of the telephone which stood on his desk.

"Is Captain Wilson in the office?" he called. "Captain Wilson of the _Ida_. Oh, he's not, but Mr. Phillips is. Very well. Ask Mr. Phillips to come up and speak to me here. Mr. Phillips," he explained to Gorman, "is first officer on the _Ida_. I shall give him orders to be ready for you to-morrow."

There was a brisk tap at the door. Phillips walked in.

"Mr. Phillips," said Steinwitz, "Mr. Gorman will sail with you to-morrow on the _Ida_. You will see that a cabin is prepared for him, and tell Captain Wilson, with my compliments, that Mr. Gorman is to be made as comfortable as possible. If there are any particular directions you'd like to give, Mr. Gorman----"

"I prefer Irish to Scotch," said Gorman, "but I don't insist on it."

"Irish? Scotch?" said Steinwitz. "Ah, yes, whisky, of course. Make a note of that, if you please, Mr. Phillips."

"And I detest tinned salmon," said Gorman.

"You need not be uneasy," said Steinwitz. "On our s.h.i.+ps no pa.s.senger is ever asked to eat tinned salmon. As the guest of the company----"

"Of the Emperor," said Gorman.

He deliberately winked at Phillips when he mentioned the Emperor.

Phillips has a nice, round, sun-burned face, clear eyes and curly hair. Gorman felt that it would be easy to make friends with him.

Phillips laughed and then checked himself abruptly. He saw no joke in a reference to the Emperor, but Gorman's wink appealed to him strongly. Steinwitz frowned.

"That will do, Mr. Phillips," he said.

He turned to Gorman when the young man left the room.

"You will let me hear from you," he said. "I shall expect a letter.

The _Ida_ will, no doubt, return after she is unloaded. You can give your letters to Captain Wilson."

"I suppose there's no other way of sending letters?"

"A coasting steamer, perhaps," said Steinwitz, "or a fis.h.i.+ng boat might put in at the island; but the _Ida_ will be your best means of communicating with me."

"All right," said Gorman. "I'll let you know how things go on. But don't be too sanguine. Donovan may refuse to sell."

He rose to go as he spoke. Steinwitz made one more remark before the interview closed.

"One way or other," he said, "I hear very often from the island."

The words were spoken in a colourless tone; but Gorman felt vaguely that they were a kind of threat. Steinwitz said that he heard frequently from the island. Gorman thought the statement over.

Evidently Steinwitz had a correspondent there, some one who made use of the _Ida_, of any coasting steamer which turned up, of the fis.h.i.+ng boats which put in. Steinwitz would not be entirely dependent on Gorman's account of his mission. He would hear about it from some one else, would know whether the sale had been pressed on Donovan.

Gorman left the office a little puzzled. The threat suggested by Steinwitz' last words was veiled but hardly to be mistaken. It certainly seemed to Gorman that he was to be watched by some one on the island, his life spied on, his actions reported to this perfectly absurd German s.h.i.+powner; by him, no doubt, again reported to the Emperor. The thing seemed almost too good to be true. Gorman, himself a clever man, found it difficult to believe that another clever man--Steinwitz certainly had brains of a sort--could possibly be such an idiot as to practise melodrama, spies, secret reports and all the rest of it, quite seriously.

Gorman found himself wondering what on earth Steinwitz expected to learn from his correspondent in Salissa and what use the information would be to him when he got it. Would Donovan be threatened with the implacable wrath of the Emperor? Would he himself, Michael Gorman, M.P. for Upper Offaly, incur some awful penalty if he did not persuade Donovan to sell, if he did his best--he certainly meant to do his best--to prevent a marriage between Miss Donovan and King Konrad Karl?

He chuckled with delight at the prospect and was more than ever glad that he had promised to go to Salissa.

The voyage turned out to be a very agreeable one. Captain Wilson was not, indeed, a cheerful companion. He maintained the att.i.tude of stiff disapproval with which he had all along regarded Salissa and everything connected with that island. He gave Gorman to understand that he meant to do his duty to his employers, to obey orders faithfully, to carry ridiculous things and foolish people to and fro between Salissa and England; but that he in no way approved of the waste of a good s.h.i.+p, quant.i.ties of coal and the energies of officers like himself over the silly fad of a wealthy young woman.