Mrs. Fitz Part 17

"Fourteen minutes to nine," said he. "At nine o'clock I shall drive alone to No. 300 Portland Place, in a taxi. At four minutes past nine Coverdale and Arbuthnot will follow. They will ask for the Amba.s.sador, Coverdale giving the name of General Drago, and Arbuthnot the name of Count Alexis Zbynska. You will be shown into a waiting-room while your names are taken in to his Excellency. If he is in, he will receive you; if he is not, Grindberg, or one of the other secretaries, or one of the Attaches will have a word with you. Keep your m.u.f.flers up to your ears and have the collars of your overcoats turned up. If von Arlenberg is not in, say you will wait for him. You can use Illyrian, or French, or broken English. Of course your object, in any case, will be to gain time and keep in the house until you receive further instructions. Am I clear?"

"Reasonably clear," said Coverdale. "If we gain access to the house we are not to leave it until we hear from you?"

"That is so."

"And what about Alec and Bra.s.set and me?" The earnestness of my relation by marriage was wistful.

"O'Mulligan will leave four minutes after Coverdale and Arbuthnot. He will merely give his name as Captain Forbes, who desires to fix an appointment with von Arlenberg upon a private matter of importance. He won't be able to fix it; but they will send a chap to talk to you, O'Mulligan. You must be very long-winded and you must use your best English, and you must waste as much time as you can. Understand?"

O'Mulligan beamed like a seraph.

"And Bra.s.set and me?" said the pleading voice.

"Bra.s.set will leave four minutes after O'Mulligan. He will be Mr.

Bonser, a messenger from the Foreign Office, with a letter for von Arlenberg. Here you are, Bra.s.set, here is the letter for von Arlenberg."

With a matter-of-factness which was really inimitable, Fitz tossed across the tablecloth the missive in question, copiously daubed with red sealing-wax.

"Bra.s.set," said Fitz, "you will be careful not to give this most important letter into the keeping of anybody save and except his Excellency, Baron von Arlenberg, Amba.s.sador and Plenipotentiary Extraordinary to his Majesty the King of Illyria, at the Court of Saint James."

"I hope the superscription is correct," said I, misguidedly.

Fitz looked me down with the eye of a Frederick. The sympathy of the table was with him entirely.

"Somebody will want to take it to the Amba.s.sador," said Fitz. "But Bra.s.set, your instructions are that you deliver this doc.u.ment to his Excellency in person."

With an air of reverence, Bra.s.set inserted the letter with its portentous red seal in his cigar-case. The most exacting of ministers could not have desired a more trustworthy or a more eminently discreet custodian for an epoch-making doc.u.ment than the Master of the Crackanthorpe.

"How shall I know old von Thingamy when I see him?" inquired the messenger from the Foreign Office.

"You won't see him," said Fitz. "But you must make it appear that you want to see him particularly."

"But if I should happen to see him?"

The Master of the Crackanthorpe was awed into silence by a Napoleonic gesture.

"Where do I come in?" said the pleading voice from the wilderness.

"You come in, Vane-Anstruther," said Fitz to my relation by marriage, "four minutes after Bra.s.set. You are Lieutenant von Wildengarth-Mergle from Blaenau, with a letter of introduction to the Illyrian Amba.s.sador.

Here is your card, and you can give it to anybody you like."

The recipient was immensely gratified by the card of Lieutenant von Wildengarth-Mergle of the Ninth Regiment of Hussars when it was bestowed upon him. His manner of disposing of it was precisely similar to that adopted by Bra.s.set in the case of the letter from the Foreign Office. His bearing also was modelled obviously upon that of that ornament of high diplomacy.

"I a.s.sume," said I, "that we are all to bluff our way into the Illyrian Emba.s.sy; and once we are there we are to take care to stay until we are advised further?"

"That is so."

"But let us a.s.sume for a moment that we get no advice?"

"If I do not come to you by ten minutes to ten, or you are not sent for by then, you are all to leave any ante-room you may be in, and you are to walk straight up the central staircase, taking notice of n.o.body. If they try to stop you, merely say you wish to see the Amba.s.sador."

"And if they use force?"

"Make use of it yourself, with as much noise as you can. And if you still fail to hear from me, then will be the time to think about retirement. Does everybody understand?"

Everybody did apparently.

"It is seven minutes to nine. Time we began to collect our taxis."

Fitz rose from the table, and in a body we went in search of our coats and hats. For my fellow conspirators I cannot speak, but my heart was beating in the absurdest manner, and my veins were tingling. There was that sense of exaltation in them which is generally reserved for a quick twenty minutes over the gra.s.s.

"Give me that revolver," said I.

As Fitz smuggled the weapon into my hand, I could feel my pulses leaping immorally. This sensation may have been due to my having dined at Ward's; although doubtless it is more scientific to ascribe it to some primeval instinct which has resisted civilisation's ravages upon human nature.

As I stealthily inserted the weapon into the pocket of my trousers, I stole a covert glance at the solemn visage of the Chief Constable. The great man was smiling benignly at his thoughts, and smoking a big cigar with an air of Homeric enjoyment.

As Fitz, tall-hatted and fur-coated, picked his way delicately down the slush-covered steps to where his taxi awaited him, he turned to offer a word of final instruction to his followers.

"Coverdale and Arbuthnot 9.4; O'Mulligan 9.8; Bra.s.set 9.12; Vane-Anstruther 9.16. If you hear nothing in the meantime, at 9.50 you go upstairs."

"Righto," we chorussed, as Fitz boarded his chariot with a self-possession that was even touched with languor.

We watched him turn into Piccadilly, and then proceeded solemnly to invest ourselves in coats and m.u.f.flers. Four minutes is not a long s.p.a.ce of time, yet it is quite possible for it to seem an age. Before the hall clock pointed to 9.4, one might have had a double molar drawn, or one's head cut off by the guillotine.

"300 Portland Place," said the Chief Constable in tones which somehow seemed astonis.h.i.+ngly loud, while I squeezed as far as possible into the far corner of the vehicle for the better accommodation of my stalwart companion.

"Dirty night," said the Chief Constable. "Not fit for a dog to be out.

Have the gla.s.s down?"

It may have been an overwrought fancy, but I thought I perceived a slight, but unmistakable tremor in the voice of the head of the Middles.h.i.+re Constabulary.

"Not for me, thanks," said I. "These things are so stuffy."

The head of the Middles.h.i.+re Constabulary agreed with me. The impression may have been due to a disordered fancy, but I thought I detected a note of embarra.s.sment in the Chief Constable's laugh.

From Saint James's Street to Portland Place is not far, and this evening we seemed to accomplish the journey in a very short time.

Having dismissed our taxi at the door of the Amba.s.sador's imposing residence, we each looked to the other to ring his Excellency's door-bell.

"General," said I, "you are my senior, and I feel that your Illyrian, or your French, or your broken English or any other language in which you may be moved to indulge, will carry more weight than mine."

"Oh, do you! By the way; I have forgotten my name."

"General Drago."

"And yours?"

"Count Alexis Zbynska."