Elusive Isabel Part 25

"It was of no consequence," said Mr. Grimm simply.

The president glanced at Mr. Campbell and the chief shrugged his shoulders.

"You are certain, Mr. Grimm," and the president spoke with great deliberation, "you are certain that the representatives of the Latin countries have not met since and signed the compact?"

"I am not certain--no," replied Mr. Grimm promptly. "I am certain, however, that the backbone of the alliance was broken--its only excuse for existence destroyed--when they permitted me to learn of the wireless percussion cap which would have placed the navies of the world at their mercy. Believe me, gentlemen, if they had kept their secret it would have given them dominion of the earth. They made one mistake," he added in a most matter-of-fact tone. "They should have killed me; it was their only chance."

The president seemed a little startled at the suggestion.

"That would have been murder," he remarked.

"True," Mr. Grimm acquiesced, "but it seems an absurd thing that they should have permitted the life of one man to stand between them and the world power for which they had so long planned and schemed. His Highness, Prince Benedetto d'Abruzzi believed as I do, and so expressed himself." He paused a moment; there was a hint of surprise in his manner. "I expected to be killed, of course. It seemed to me the only thing that could happen."

"They must have known of the far-reaching consequences which would follow upon your escape, Mr. Grimm. Why _didn't_ they kill you?"

Mr. Grimm made a little gesture with both hands and was silent.

"May they not yet attempt it?" the president insisted.

"It's too late now," Mr. Grimm explained. "They had everything to gain by killing me there as I stood in the room where I had interrupted the signing of the compact, because that would have been before I had placed the facts in the hands of my government. I was the only person outside of their circle who knew all of them. Only the basest motive could inspire them to attempt my life now."

There was a pause. The secretary of state glanced from Mr. Grimm to Mr.

Campbell with a question in his deep-set eyes.

"Do I understand that you placed a Miss Thorne and the prince under--that is, you detained them?" he queried. "If so, where are they now?"

"I don't know," was the reply. "Just before the explosion the three of us entered an automobile together, and then as we were starting away I remembered something which made it necessary for me to reenter the house. When I came out again, just a few seconds before the explosion, the prince and Miss Thorne had gone."

The secretary's lips curled down in disapproval.

"Wasn't it rather unusual, to put it mildly, to leave your prisoners to their own devices that way?" he asked.

"Well, yes," Mr. Grimm admitted. "But the circ.u.mstances were unusual.

When I entered the house I had locked a man in the cellar. I had to go back to save his life, otherwise--"

"Oh, the guard at the door, you mean?" came the interruption. "Who was it?"

Mr. Grimm glanced at his chief, who nodded.

"It was Mr. Charles Winthrop Rankin of the German emba.s.sy," said the young man.

"Mr. Rankin of the German emba.s.sy was on guard at the door?" demanded the president quickly.

"Yes. We got out safely."

"And that means that Germany was--!"

The president paused and startled glances pa.s.sed around the table. After a moment of deep abstraction the secretary went on:

"So Miss Thorne and the prince escaped. Are they still in this country?"

"That I don't know," replied Mr. Grimm. He stood silent a moment, staring at the president. Some subtle change crept into the listless eyes, and his lips were set. "Perhaps I had better explain here that the personal equation enters largely into an affair of this kind," he said at last, slowly. "It happens that it entered into this. Unless I am ordered to pursue the matter further I think it would be best for all concerned to accept the fact of Miss Thorne's escape, and--" He stopped.

There was a long, thoughtful silence. Every man in the room was studying Mr. Grimm's impa.s.sive face.

"Personal equation," mused the president. "Just how, Mr. Grimm, does the personal equation enter into the affair?"

The young man's lips closed tightly, and then:

"There are some people, Mr. President, whom we meet frankly as enemies, and we deal with them accordingly; and there are others who oppose us and yet are not enemies. It is merely that our paths of duty cross. We may have the greatest respect for them and they for us, but purposes are unalterably different. In other words there is a personal enmity and a political enmity. You, for instance, might be a close personal friend of the man whom you defeated for president. There might"--he stopped suddenly.

"Go on," urged the president.

"I think every man meets once in his life an individual with whom he would like to reckon personally," the young man continued. "That reckoning may not be a severe one; it may be less severe than the law would provide; but it would be a personal reckoning. There is one individual in this affair with whom I should like to reckon, hence the personal equation enters very largely into the case."

For a little while the silence of the room was unbroken, save for the steady tick-tock of a great clock in one corner. Mr. Grimm's eyes were fixed unwaveringly upon those of the chief executive. At last the secretary of war crumpled a sheet of paper impatiently and hitched his chair up to the table.

"Coming down to the facts it's like this, isn't it?" he demanded briskly. "The Latin countries, by an invention of their own which the United States and England were to be duped into purchasing, would have had power to explode every submarine mine before attacking a port? Very well. This thing, of course, would have given them the freedom of the seas as long as we were unable to explode their submarines as they were able to explode ours. And this is the condition which made the Latin compact possible, isn't it?"

He looked straight at Mr. Grimm, who nodded.

"Therefore," he went on, "if the Latin compact is not a reality on paper; if the United States and England do not purchase this--this wireless percussion cap, we are right back where we were before it all happened, aren't we? Every possible danger from that direction has pa.s.sed, hasn't it? The world-war of which we have been talking is rendered impossible, isn't it?"

"That's a question," answered Mr. Grimm. "If you will pardon me for suggesting it, I would venture to say that as long as there is an invention of that importance in the hands of nations whom we now know have been conspiring against us for fifty years, there is always danger.

It seems to me, if you will pardon me again, that for the sake of peace we must either get complete control of that invention or else understand it so well that there can be no further danger. And again, please let me call your attention to the fact that the brain which brought this thing into existence is still to be reckoned with. There may, some day, come a time when our submarines may be exploded at will regardless of this percussion cap."

The secretary of war turned flatly upon Chief Campbell.

"This woman who is mixed up in this affair?" he demanded. "This Miss Thorne. Who is she?"

"Who is she?" repeated the chief. "She's a secret agent of Italy, one of the most brilliant, perhaps, that has ever operated in this or any other country. She is the pivot around which the intrigue moved. We know her by a dozen names; any one of them may be correct."

The brows of the secretary of war were drawn down in thought as he turned to the president.

"Mr. Grimm was speaking of the personal equation," he remarked pointedly. "I think perhaps his meaning is clear when we know there is a woman in the case. We know that Mr. Grimm has done his duty to the last inch in this matter; we know that alone and unaided, practically, he has done a thing that no living man of his relative position has ever done before--prevented a world-war. But there is further danger--he himself has called our attention to it--therefore, I would suggest that Mr.

Grimm be relieved of further duty in this particular case. This is not a moment when the peace of the world may be imperiled by personal feelings of--of kindliness for an individual."

Mr. Grimm received the blow without a tremor. His hands were still idly clasped behind his back; the eyes fastened upon the president's face were still listless; the mouth absolutely without expression.

"As Mr. Grimm has pointed out," the secretary went on, "we have been negotiating for this wireless percussion cap. I have somewhere in my office the name and address of the individual with whom these negotiations have been conducted. Through that it is possible to reach the inventor, and then--! I suggest that we vote our thanks to Mr. Grimm and relieve him of this particular case."

The choleric eyes of the president softened a little, and grew grave as they studied the impa.s.sive face of the young man.

"It's a strange situation, Mr. Grimm," he said evenly. "What do you say to withdrawing?"

"I am at your orders, Mr. President," was the reply.

"No one knows better what you have done than the gentlemen here at this table," the president went on slowly. "No one questions that you have done more than any other man could have done under the circ.u.mstances. We understand, I think, that indirectly you are asking immunity for an individual. I don't happen to know the liability of that individual under our law, but we can't make any mistake now, Mr. Grimm, and so--and so--" He stopped and was silent.