agleam of admiration flashed into the eyes of the queen. here was a man after her own heart. and lechmere had done marvellously well. true, he could not stamp out the lie, he could not prevent the thing being reported from one end of europe to another, but he could refute it. the mere fact that king erno had started for asturia would naturally create a great impression.
"it shall be done," the queen cried. "i will go back to merehaven house and fetch the king. he shall travel without delay under the care of captain alexis. i would that i had another trusty friend to accompany him, but it seems to me that i need you all in london.
"you do not need me, madame," said maxwell earnestly. "i mean you don't need me here. for the moment the good friends you have here will suffice. it is necessary that i should be out of the way for a time, and nobody would guess where i have gone. let me go to asturia."
the queen thanked maxwell with a look of gratitude from her dark eyes. then she turned to lechmere. "how can all this travelling machinery be put in motion so quickly?" she asked.
"fortunately you have come to the right quarter for information," lechmere said. "as an old queen's messenger, there are few services for getting over the ground that i do not know. before now[217] i have been despatched at a minute's notice to the other end of europe with instructions to reach my destination in a given time. in an hour or so, the programme will be complete. i will see to the special train to dover and the special steamer to cross the channel. after that it is a mere matter of using the cables. if the king does not care to undertake the journey——"
the queen laughed in a strange metallic fashion. her eyes were gleaming with intensity of purpose.
"the king is going," she said between her teeth. "you may be quite sure about that. if he declines, or shews the least infirmity of purpose, he will be drugged and taken home that way. he will shew himself in the capital. a manifesto will be issued directly he gets there. there is one thing yet to be done."
the queen paused and looked significantly at lechmere. he smiled and shook his head.
"i know exactly what your majesty means," he said. "it is useless for us to take all this trouble if we are to be confronted with a mystery which will enable certain people to say that the king of asturia is still in london. i have taken a step to entirely obviate that business. if your majesty has a few minutes to spare i shall be able to render your mind easy on that score."
the queen expressed her willingness to stay, and lechmere left the room. he paused to light a cigar in the corridor and don his overcoat again. then he walked casually to the outer door of the next suite of rooms and strolled calmly in. the second door of the suite was locked and lechmere gently tried the handle.
"so far so good," he muttered. "there is[218] another door into the corridor leading to the back stairs. i need not worry about the back stairs as my ferret is there. if the thing were not so serious, what a fine comedy it would make! now for it!"
lechmere tapped smartly on the door, a murmur of voices within ceased and the door was opened and shewed the face of prince mazaroff himself. he turned a little pale as he saw lechmere and stammeringly asked what the latter wanted. lechmere laughed in an irritating kind of way.
"well, that's pretty cool," he said. "i come to the suite of rooms of my friend bevis to smoke a cigar and i find you here demanding why i come. is bevis here?"
"no, he isn't," mazaroff said curtly as he came into the front room and closed the door behind him. "and, what is more, he is not likely to be in. i have a friend in there if you must know."
mazaroff grinned with an assumption that lechmere could understand that the situation was rather a delicate one. but lechmere knew better than that for the voice in the inner room had been unmistakably that of a man. but it served the purpose of the old diplomat to let the thing pass.
"very well," he said. "i will take your word for it. but where is my friend bevis?"
"i haven't the remotest idea where your friend bevis is or where he has got to," mazaroff said with a sneer in his voice. "bevis is a young man who has lately outrun the constable. he inferred to me that he was going to retire to the country for a time. he offered me this little place on my own terms and i am to give it back to our friend if i get tired of it. it is a more swagger pied à terre[219] than my own and i jumped at the chance. now you know everything."
lechmere nodded as if perfectly satisfied, though he did not know everything by any means. he sat down and helped himself to a cigarette to mazaroff's annoyance. but lechmere appeared not to see it. he had his own game to play and he was not to be deterred.
"i want to have a little chat with you," he said. "we shall never get a better chance than this. i want if possible to enlist your sympathies on the side of the queen of asturia. if i could gain your assistance and that of madame saens i should be more than satisfied."
mazaroff muttered something to the effect that he should be delighted. but his aspect was uneasy and guilty. he could not shake off his air of fear. from time to time he cocked his ears as if listening for something in the inner room. lechmere sat there grimly smoking and looking at the ceiling. he was not quite sure what card he should play next.
"i am thinking of going to asturia myself," he said. "i'm not quite old enough to get rusty yet. and there is a fine field for intrigue and adventure yonder. i understand that the king returns to-morrow. it will be in all the papers in the morning."
"the deuce it will!" mazaroff exclaimed blankly. "why that will upset all our plans——i mean, that it will be a checkmate to russia. considering all that we have done ... is that a fact, lechmere?"
"my dear chap, surely i have no object in telling you what is false!" lechmere said. "of course[220] it is a fact. the king ought never to have come away, he would not have come away if the queen could have trusted him. she thought that she could do her country good by visiting london. but the king will be looked after much better in future, i promise you. have you seen peretori lately?"
the latter question was shot dexterously at mazaroff like a snap from a gun. the latter glanced swiftly at lechmere, but he could make nothing of the other's inscrutable face. the russian began to feel as if he had blundered into a trap; he had the same fear as a lying witness in the box under the horror of a rasping cross-examination from a sharp barrister.
"i don't know that i am acquainted with the man you mention?" he faltered.
"oh, nonsense. take your memory back, man. not know peretori! think of that night five years ago in paris when you and i and scandel and the rest were supping with those oderon people. and you say that the name of peretori is not known to you!"
mazaroff laughed in a sulky kind of way. he said something to the effect that his memory was not as good as it might be. from time to time he glanced at the inner door of the suite, he seemed as if he could not keep his eyes off it.
"do you think that you could find his address for me?" lechmere persisted. "i have every reason to believe that he is somewhere in london at the present moment. ah, look there. to think of it! and you pretending all this when the very man in question is in the next room. what a coincidence!"
[221]
"call me a liar at once," mazaroff said thickly "how dare you insinuate that i am not—not——"
"telling the truth," lechmere said coolly. "that stick yonder belongs to peretori. nobody else possesses one like it, as i have heard peretori boast. if you can deny what i say after—but i shall make no apologies for seeing into the matter for myself."
with a sudden dart lechmere was by the door leading into the inner room. mazaroff started after him crying out something in russian at the top of his voice. but he was too late to prevent lechmere from entering the inner room. the place was quite empty now save for a hat and a pair of gloves on the table, both of which tended to prove that the room had been occupied a few moments before.
"this is a most unpardonable outrage," mazaroff cried. he had quite recovered himself within the last minute or two, he was his cunning self again. "i did not ask you to come here at all. and as to the evidence of that stick it is worth nothing. i could get a copy of it made that—but after what has happened i think you had better give me the benefit of your absence."
"quite so," lechmere said pleasantly, "i apologise. i'll go out this way, i think. awfully sorry to have ruffled you so much. good-night."
lechmere departed into the corridor by the far door, which he closed swiftly behind him. as he did so there came a sound of stumbling and falling from the region of the back stairs and curses in a ruffled voice that had a note of pain in it.
"got him," lechmere said triumphantly. "i was certain of my man. now for it!"
