X A QUESTION OF VENEER
The Archduke Armand tossed the end of his fourth cigar into the grate andlooked at the big clock in the corner. It was only a bit after eleven,and that was, he knew by experience, the blush of the evening at theAmerican Embassy, where there were no women-folk to repress theyoungsters nor to necessitate the closing of the house at conventionalhours. Courtney had only bachelors in his official family; and he housedthem all with him in the big residence on Alta Avenue, and gave them freerein to a merry life, fully assured they would not abuse the liberty; hehad known every one of them as boys, and their fathers before them.
The Archduke reached over and pressed a button.
"Bring me a cap and a light cape," he said to the servant;--"and astick."
The man went out, and Armand crossed to a window and drew aside thecurtain.
"Put them on a chair," he said without looking around, as the door openedagain. "You may go."
The door closed. For a little while he watched the gay street, stretchingsouthward for half a mile to the center of the city, where the lightsblazed variegatedly and brightest. The theatres had tossed out theircrowds, and below him the van of the carriage column was hurryinghomeward, to the fashionable district out the Avenue, or to the HangingGarden above the Lake. Occasionally a face, usually a woman's, would leanclose to the door and look at the Epsau curiously--it housed the man whowas likely to be King. And the man smiled with half bitter cynicism, andwondered what words followed the look, and who spoke them, and to whom.Once, he recognized Count Epping's lean visage, and in that carriage, atleast, he felt that the words were friendly; a moment later, the snakeeyes of Baron Retz went glittering by--but never a glance did he turnaside.
"You little reptile," the Archduke muttered aloud, "you ought to crawl,not ride."
He dropped the curtain and turned away--then stopped, and his lipssoftened; and presently he laughed. Just inside the door, and standingstiffly at attention, was Colonel Bernheim, holding the cape and cap andstick the servant had been sent for.
"Now what's the trouble?" Armand demanded.
"Your Highness desired these?" said Bernheim.
"Yes--but I didn't send for you." The tone was very kindly.
"But you are going out, sir?"
"Yes."
"And I'm on duty to-night."
"You're excused--go to bed."
The old soldier shook his head. "I'm going with you."
"Nonsense," said Armand, "nonsense! I'm for only a short walk up theAvenue."
"I must go with you, sir," the Aide insisted.
The Archduke looked at him in some surprise.
"Positively, Bernheim," he said, "if you keep this up you will havenervous prostration. Quit it, man, quit it." He flung on the cape, andtaking cap and cane went toward the door. "Good night."
The Colonel stood aside, hand at the salute. "Your pardon, sir--but Imust go with you--it is the Regent's personal order."
"What!"
"She telephoned me this evening always to see that you had an escort,after dark."
The Archduke sat on the end of the writing-table and laughed until thetears came--and even old Bernheim condescended to emit, at intervals, agrim sort of chuckle.
"What hour are you to put me to bed, nurse?" Armand asked.
"The orders did not run to that point, sir,"--with a louder chuckle--"butI should say not later than midnight."
"Then I've a few minutes' grace, and I'll spend them playing on thesidewalk, while you warm the sheets and get the milk," and with anotherlaugh he went out. "Don't forget the milk," he added over his shoulder.
Bernheim held open the door.
"I'll not, sir," he said, and followed him.
At the street, Armand stopped.
"Where are you going, Colonel?" he asked.
The heels clicked together and the hand went up.
"For the milk, sir."
He recognized the futility of further opposition; with the Regent'scommand to sustain him, Bernheim would not be denied.
"Come, along, then," he ordered--"and if they have a cow at the AmericanEmbassy I'll set you to milking it, or I'm a sailor."
The old fellow answered with the faintest suggestion of a grin.
All Dornlitz was familiar with the features of the Great Henry, and so itwas quite impossible for the Archduke Armand to escape recognition--andto-night, as he and Bernheim went out the Avenue, the people made way forhim with a respect and deference that even he could not but feel washonest and sincere, and of the quietly enthusiastic sort that is mostdependable.
"Does it look as though I had need for an escort?" he asked.
"Not at this moment," the Aide agreed.
"Nor at any moment on Alta Avenue;" he put his hand on the other'sarm--"you know, Bernheim, it's not you I object to, it's the idea. Ialways like you with me."
The Colonel's face flushed, and for an instant he did not reply; when hedid, his voice was low and faintly husky.
"Sire!" he said, "Sire!"
The Archduke glanced at him in quick surprise, and understood; sometimesBernheim's intense devotion overflowed.
"Brace up, Colonel," he exclaimed, with sudden gayety, "brace up! youwon't have to milk that cow."
Then both men laughed, and the normal situation was resumed.
The bells began to chime midnight, as they reached the Embassy.
"Don't wait for me," Armand said; "I may be late. Go back and send anorderly."
The other smiled. "I'll wait, myself, sir, if you will permit; they havea game here I rather like."
"Take care, Colonel; those boys will skin you out of your veryuniform--better look on."
"I do, sir, when I've a poor draw;" he answered seriously, and wonderedat the Archduke's chuckling laugh.
Courtney greeted his friend with a nod and a wave of his hand.
"I'm glad you came in," he said. "I've been thinking about you--sitdown.... Scotch?"
"No, rye--and seltzer, please." He took the chair across the desk fromCourtney and waited until the man had placed the decanters and glassesand retired. "And I've been thinking about you, too," he said. "You gotme into this infernal mess, and now it's up to you to help me out."
Courtney slowly lit a cigarette and scrutinized the coal, critically.
"I see," he remarked, "that you have already developed the ungratefulnessof kings--I have high hopes for your reign ... if you live to reign."
The Archduke put down his glass and regarded him in exasperated surprise.
"Damn it, man, you too?" he exclaimed. "If I were given to nerves I wouldbe seeing daggers and bullets all around me--Bernheim croaks death; andso does Moore; and now you join the chorus--pretty soon the boys will bewhistling it on the Avenue."
Courtney picked up an Embassy official envelope that lay before him, andtossed it across to the Archduke.
"I've done a little work on my own account, lately," he said, "and hereis what I got this evening. I have always found this--agent, reliable."
It was only a few words, scratched hastily in pencil on a sheet torn froma small note-book:--
"Danger very imminent--under no circumstance go out at night without an escort."
"Nice sort of country this, you brought me to," said Armand.
"It's not the country, my dear boy," Courtney observed; "it is beyondreproach. The trouble is that one of your own family still is abarbarian; and you insist upon treating him as though he were civilized.For my part, I have no patience with your altruism; you've had quitesufficient warning--he tried twice to kill you at the Vierle Masque; andhe has told you to your face that you would never be king. Yet youpersist in regarding him as fighting square and in the open. Bernheim andMoore are wise--they know your dear cousin--and you,--well, you're a foolif you don't know him, too."
It was a very long speech for Courtney, and Armand had listened insurprise--it was most unusual for his imperturbable friend to growe
mphatic, either in voice or gesture, and it impressed him as Bernheimand Moore never had. In truth, he had no particular scruples againstmeeting Lotzen in the good, old-fashioned, cloak-and-dagger way; but whatirked him was the necessity of being always on the qui vive to resistassault or to avoid a trap; and the seeming absurdity of it in Dornlitzof the twentieth century. It made him feel such a simpleton, to belooking for bravos in dark alleys, or to wear steel vests, or to beeternally watchful and suspicious of every one and everything.
"What do you want me to do," he asked; "go down to Lotzen's palace andstick my sword through him?"
"It's a pity you may not--it's what he would do to you, if he could--butthat's not our way; we're civilized ... to a certain point. But what youmay do is to take every precaution against him; and then, if you get thechance in fair justification, kill him as unconcernedly as he would killyou."
The Archduke sat silent, his cigar between his teeth, the smoke floatingin a thin strand across his face, his eyes upon the desk before him.
"Of course, my boy," Courtney went on, after a pause, "I assume you arein the game to the end, and in to win. If you're not, the whole matter iseasy of adjustment--renounce the Crown and marry the Princess ... andlive somewhere beyond the borders of Valeria--come back to America,indeed; I'll see that you have again your commission in theEngineer's----"
Armand's lips closed a bit tighter on his cigar, his fingers began toplay upon the chair-arm, and his glance shifted for an instant to theother's face, then back to the desk. And Courtney read his mind andpressed on to clinch the purpose.
"But if you're in to win--and it's your duty to your friends to win; it'syour duty to your friends to win, I repeat--your first obligation is tokeep alive; a dead archduke is of no earthly use in the king business wehave in hand. You may go straight to Glory, but that won't help out thepoor devils you leave here in Lotzen's clutches, and who have been trueto you, never doubting that you would be true to them. Your life belongsto them, now; and you have no right to fritter it away in silly, stubbornrecklessness.... There, I've spoken my mind, and quite too frankly, maybe; but I'll promise never to bother you again. After all, it's for youto decide--not for a meddling friend."
The Archduke smiled. "And just to prove that the friend isn't meddling, Ishall accept his advice--bearing in mind, however, that this isparticularly an exigency where prudence must be subordinate to daring.Prudence is all very well in the abstract, but it is more dangerous toour success than recklessness. I'm playing for a Crown and a Nation'sfavor--let my personal courage be questioned for an instant, and the gameis lost as surely as though I were dead. As for my dear cousin of Lotzen,I assure you I've not the least scruple about killing him, under properopportunity. In fact, I'm inclined to think I should rather enjoy it. Iadmit now that there have been times when I regret I didn't run himthrough at the Vierle Masque."
Courtney nodded. "It would have saved you all this trouble--I wanted tocall to you to make an end of him."
"I can't do murder; I had disarmed him. Next time, I'll make a differentplay."
"There won't be a next time, if the Duke has the choosing. He isn't thesort to seek death, and he knows you are his master. You'll have to killhim in a melee, or manoeuvre him into a position where he has no optionbut to fight."
"He is manoeuvring himself into a position where he will have to contendwith a far more formidable blade than mine."
Courtney's eye-brows lifted expressively. Than the Archduke himself therewas but one better swordsman in the kingdom.
"What has Lotzen been doing to Moore?" he asked.
"Insulting Elise d'Essolde."
"By making advances?"
Armand nodded. "And in a particularly nasty way."
"He isn't bothered about Moore," said Courtney. "He thinks he is safefrom any one that isn't of his station."
"He doesn't know the Irishman--Moore would kill him without a thought."
"I'm not so sure," said Courtney. "Moore is bred to respect for royalty;he would hesitate to use sword against one of the Blood except indefense."
"Lotzen would best not bank much on that for immunity if he pursued'Essolde."
"Well, so much the better; between you, the trick should be turned;though, as a matter of abstract justice, it's your particular work."
"And I shan't shirk it," said Armand--then he laughed--"on the whole, I'msomething of a savage myself; Lotzen hasn't got all of it for the family,it would seem."
Courtney shrugged his shoulders. "We all are savages at the core--it'sonly a question of the veneer's thickness."
"Of its thinness, I should say. However, now that you have saved myprecious life, and dedicated me to care and prudence and to killing myenemies, we can get down to business. You had something to tell me."
"I have told you," said Courtney. "I wanted to show you that note andsave your precious life."
The Archduke picked up the paper, and read it again.
"May be the party who wrote this," he said, "can help you answer thequestion I came to ask: what brought Lotzen to the Summer Palace, thisafternoon; and, in particular, why did he go into the King's library?"
Courtney lit a fresh cigarette and watched the match burn to a cinder.
"Isn't your second question the answer to the first?" he asked.
"Doubtless; but what's the answer to the second?"
Courtney shook his head. "I pass--unless you can give me some details."
"Here's everything I know," said Armand. "Moore, as Adjutant to theRegent, occupies part of the King's suite as his quarters. Thisafternoon, he went out, leaving open the corridor door of the library. Alittle later Mademoiselle d'Essolde saw Lotzen come from thelibrary--subsequently he met Moore and casually remarked to him that, ashe passed his quarters, the door being open, he had taken the liberty oflooking at His late Majesty's portrait, which he wished to have copied."
Courtney considered a bit.
"It's really most interesting to study your cousin's methods," he saidpresently. "He seems to take particular pleasure in telling one what heknows will not be believed. It was quite absurd to offer such a foolexplanation, if he really wished to explain--and none knows it betterthan Lotzen. It was just as though he had said to Moore: 'Tell theArchduke Armand, I've been in the library, I've accomplished what I wentfor, and he may go to the devil, with my compliments.'"
"That's very well, as an exposition of Lotzen's methods," said Armand;"but what concerns me is his motive; what was it he went for?"
"The Book of Laws, possibly," Courtney replied.
"Nonsense--he knows it's not in the library--if it were, I would have hadit days ago."
"And how does he know you haven't got it?"
"How! Because I'd have produced it to prove my title."
Courtney smiled. "Certainly you would--if it proved your title; but if itdidn't?"
"You overlook Frederick's decree."
"No, I don't--you overlook the fact that no one has ever seen thatdecree, and that Lotzen is entitled to assume it was not executed--thatthe whole story is fabricated, and that you have made away with the Bookin order to throw the election into the House of Nobles; and so to have achance for the Crown, when, in reality, you are entitled to none."
"Lotzen understands perfectly that Dehra told the truth," said Armand;"and that I've not got the Book--for my part, I'm almost ready to accepther notion that he has it."
Courtney leaned back in his chair, and studied the smoke rings he sentwhirling upwards.
"I can't agree with you," he said; "indeed, since his visit to thelibrary, I'm more convinced than ever that he hasn't the Book. Hepretends to have it, so as to mislead you in your search."
"More likely, in your view of him," said Armand, "it is to decoy me intoa trap where he can make an end of me."
"I believe you've guessed it," said Courtney, after a moment's thought;"and what is more, it's the key to Lotzen's plan of campaign, and itproves conclusively his murderous purpose. I'd be very shy of informat
ionthat points Book-ward, unless you know the informant; above everything,don't be fooled by the device of a rendezvous, or a tattling servant."
"True enough; and yet I must not let slip any chance that might lead tothe recovery of the Book; my equivocal position demands that it be found,both to vindicate Dehra's story and to justify my own claim to theSuccession. Indeed, to my mind, I have no chance whatever unlessFrederick's decree is produced. However, Lotzen won't use such hoaryartifices; he will have some simple little plot that will enmesh me byits very innocence. As a schemer against him I'm not even an 'also ran.'"
"And, therefore, my dear Armand," said Courtney quickly, "you must beprepared to cut the meshes when they close; an escort--a sword--apistol--a steel vest--there's where you get your chance at him. Betweenthe schemer and the ready fighter, I'll gamble on the fighter everytime.... It's a pity you've lost Moore--you and he would make a famouspair. Bernheim is a good sort, but Moore is worth twenty of him in thisbusiness."
The Archduke's eyes brightened--the Irishman and he together could make amerry fight--an altogether worth-while sort of fight--a fight that theGreat Henry himself, in his younger days, would have sought with eagerblade and joyful heart--a quick, sharp fight that gave the enemy no restnor quarter--a thrust--a fall--a careless laugh--a dripping point wipedon a handkerchief. He saw it all, and his fingers tingled and his eyeswent brighter still.
And across the table Courtney blew ring upon ring of smoke, and watchedhim curiously, until the intent look waned and passed.
"Well," he said, "did you kill him?"
"Yes, I killed him ... and even wiped my sword--much ground have I tocast reproach at Lotzen." He got up. "I'm going; if I sit under yourtutelage any longer, I'll be jabbling holes in the good citizens I meeton the Avenue."
"With that stick?" Courtney asked.
"I forgot--the good citizen is safe to-night."
"But you're not. Let me give you a sword or a revolver." And when bothwere declined, he held up the paper: "Danger imminent," he warned.
"Bernheim will take care of me," said Armand; "and a light stick isn't abad sort of rapier, if it is handled properly. I'm glad for this talk,and to have learned how very thin my veneer is.--I'm going back to theEpsau now, and teach Bernheim the scalp dance. Good night."
"And trade him to the Regent for Moore, the first thing in the morning,"Courtney urged.
The Archduke paused at the threshold:
"Well, may be I shall," he said; "I believe he is a bit more the savage."He faced about. "As for you, my dear Dick, you're cut out for a typicalmissionary--you would have the natives killing one another within an hourafter you landed."
"Danger imminent!" called Courtney, and the door swung shut.
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