Would his own, he wondered, pass muster?
Monsieur speaks French like an Englishman, the police officer suddenly rapped out.
Luckily Dick was prepared.
Yes, he answered readily, I was brought up in England. I was at school at Rugby. My friends in our French Air Force nicknamed me The Englishman.
The officer, it appeared, had also been an airman and proceeded to talk interestingly on the subject of aero engines. He was perfectly courteous, but none the less Dick had an uncomfortable suspicion that he was beneath a human microscope. Fortunately the subject was on one which he could not possibly be stumped and try as he would the police official found he had met his match.
Dick was intensely interested and amused by his skill and courtesy. None the less the position was most dangerous. He realised fully that as was indeed the fact the officer might be one of Mestichs lieutenants, and unless he could be satisfied their chances of getting away from Langengrad were trifling.
At length he seemed satisfied that Dick was really what he pretended to be, and finally left them with a courteous farewell, having accepted a glass of slivovitza or plum gin the liqueur of the Galdavians and chatted for a time on ordinary topics.
That man is dangerous, Dick, whispered Yvette when he had gone. We shall have to be most careful. I wish I knew how much he knows, or suspects.
They were soon to learn how acute this visitor really was!
Shortly after, Dick, smoking an exquisite cigarette such as can only be bought in Langengrad, a dark coat thrown over his evening dress, left the hotel quite openly, but keenly on the alert. He suspected he might be followed, a premonition that was to prove useful.
He strolled idly through the broad Kossowska agog with evening life, gradually working his way towards the rendezvous, and keeping a sharp look out. Soon he picked out the figure of a man who always seemed to be about fifty yards behind him. A few turns through side streets confirmed his suspicions; clearly, he was being shadowed!
Dick Mantons brain always worked rapidly in a crisis. Obviously the man must be got rid of. So he speedily formed a plan.
Strolling down the alley behind the old storehouse, Dick marked the exact locality of the clematis-grown doorway, passed it and then turned, so timing his movement that he and his pursuer met exactly outside the door. It was the agent of political police who had interrogated him after dinner!
Further pretence was useless, and Dick came straight to the point.
To what am I indebted for Monsieurs very polite attentions? he demanded bluntly.
The stranger shrugged his shoulders insolently.
Langengrad at night is not too healthy for foreigners, he replied with an obvious sneer, and of course we feel responsible for
He got no further. Dicks clenched fist jerked upward with every ounce of his strength and skill behind it. Taken utterly by surprise the police agent was caught squarely on the point of the jaw and went down like a log.
Dick tapped at the door, which was instantly opened by Fédor, and together they dragged the unconscious officer inside. A moment later he was securely bound, gagged and blindfolded.
Dick was now thoroughly alarmed about Yvette. Would she be followed, and if so, could she win clear?
Here fortune favoured them. Apparently the police official, whatever his suspicions were, had meant to make sure of Dick, knowing that Yvette alone could not escape him. A few minutes later they heard her knock, and soon all three were in the house.
Safe enough now, said Fédor laconically as he led the way through piles of stored goods to an upper room at the top of the building.
The room was faintly illuminated by a gleam of moonlight which came through a skylight in the roof, and when a small lamp was turned on Dick looked around him with keen interest. Filthily dirty, and apparently unused for years, the room was crammed with a heterogeneous mass of canvas packages and wooden boxes. The only window was covered with shutters through which circular holes had been bored to admit light, but these were covered over with flaps of felt. The dust of years lay thick everywhere.
Dicks attention was instantly centred on a large, square table in the middle of the room.
Upon the table stood what appeared to be a big camera, its lens pointing to the window, with a screen of ground glass at the back of the camera exposed. A few feet behind, on a tripod, stood a small cinema apparatus with the lens aperture directed at the ground glass plate of the camera. To each ran electric wires from a bracket on the wall of the room. The whole of the electrical apparatus was weird and complicated.
There were also on the table two head telephones connected by wires to the horn of what looked like a large phonograph.
Now, Mr Manton, said Fédor in a low, intense voice, I will show you my new apparatus. Mademoiselle Pasquet knows about it.
Dick was breathless with excitement. Yvettes story of Fédors wonderful invention had filled him with keenest curiosity.
If you will look through one of the holes in this shutter, Fédor went on, you will see, directly opposite, the window of Mestichs dining-room. The curtains are drawn, but you will see the room is lighted inside. He and his friends have been there for some time; apparently they have been awaiting Horst. Dick looked through the hole and saw the lighted window. Now, come and look at the screen, urged the Count.
As he spoke he touched an electric switch. Immediately a soft purring noise came from the camera and on the screen there showed a vivid well-focused picture of a room with about a dozen men seated round a long table. The interior of the closed room was revealed by the new invention. At the head of the table, facing the camera, sat a big, soldierly man whom Dick at once recognised, from his published photographs, as General Mestich.
Fédor rapidly named the others Bausch, Horst, Colonel Federvany, leader of the Parliamentary Opposition, several officials of the Galdavian Government and War Office, and two or three Jew financiers, one of whom named Mendelssohn Dick knew to be of international reputation.
The marvellous picture was framed in a solid black outline. It gave a curious effect, just as though one were looking from the darkness into a fiercely lighted cave.
Dick was almost stupefied with astonishment.
Do you mean to say that that is the room in the house on the opposite side of the road? he asked.
Certainly I do, said Fédor with a grim smile.
But how is it done? demanded Dick, aghast. The shutters are closed here and the curtains drawn on the other side.
Its a new electric ray I stumbled upon quite by accident, Fédor explained. I was experimenting, and found it. It passes quite readily through wood, fibre and fabric, in fact through almost anything except stone, mica, and metal. That is why you see only part of the room; the walls cut off everything except the space directly behind the window. If the table were in the corner of the room they would be safe enough if they only knew!
Marvellous! Dick ejaculated.
This new ray is projected from these two rods of silenium, the Count went on, and for some reason which I cannot explain it follows the direction of the longitudinal axis of the metal. Thus any object at which the rods are pointed is rendered luminous by the ray on the screen, which is coated with the barium sulphate used in X-ray work. It can be photographed by the cinema and we shall have evidence enough to hang the lot.
Then he paused for a few seconds.
Now we must begin, he said suddenly. They are just about to start. Hold the telephone receivers to your ear. Mademoiselle will look after the cinema.
Picking up the receiver, Dick heard a voice speaking clearly and earnestly. It was evidently that of General Mestich, who, as he saw by the screen, was on his feet and speaking. The language, of course, he did not understand, but Fédor, who was also listening, became excited and snapped on a switch which started the phonograph. In the meantime Yvette was turning the handle of the cinema camera.
Here it comes, Fédor ejaculated a moment later, and Dick saw General Mestich take from his pocket a big blue document which he unfolded and spread on the table before him. Bausch at the same time produced a similar paper.
Then Bausch got to his feet and also spoke briefly. Immediately after the documents were passed round and signed by all present. The treaty was made! But every action of the plotters had been caught by the eye of the camera, and every word they uttered was recorded by the phonograph! The evidence was complete!
Now, Manton, said Fédor, we have all we want except Mestichs copy of the treaty which will be signed by the German Secretary of State, as well as Bausch and Horst. To get that and get away is your work. I have to stay in Langengrad and I dare not risk being seen and identified. You understand?
Of course, answered Dick. You have done wonders absolute wonders! But just tell me how this telephone works.
That is Mademoiselle Pasquets invention, replied Fédor. It is really a secret change-over switch which projects an electric ray which sets the Generals transmitter working even when the receiver is on the hook and the instrument would in the ordinary way be dead. It can be put in in three minutes; as a matter of fact I slipped it in one day when I called to see the General and was kept waiting. The main wire from the Generals phone to the Exchange passes over the house and it was easy enough to tap it with a fine wire that can be pulled away so as to leave no cause for suspicion. I shall do that now; we shall not want it again.
Soon after, the party opposite began to break up and finally, on the screen, they saw the General standing alone, the treaty in his hand, and a look of triumph and elation on his handsome face. It was the picture of a man who had very nearly reached the summit of his ambitions. A moment later he crossed to the big, high stove, lifted a heavy picture, and slid aside a small door in the panelling of the wall. This disclosed a recess in which the treaty was deposited, the slide was closed, and the picture replaced.
Clever, said Dick, but easy now we know. I thought he would put it in a safe. But how are we going to get it?
Yvette, who had been silent, interposed.
I think the Generals house might unexpectedly catch fire, she said quietly. That will give Dick a chance to make a dash for the treaty in the confusion.
I dont see any better plan, Fédor agreed. It can easily be managed. I have plenty of petrol here, and there is a small leaded window on the ground floor that can be pushed in without making too much noise.
Excellent! exclaimed Dick. Ill manage that. Ill see theres plenty of confusion.
Very well, that is settled, answered Fédor. Now I will take Mademoiselle to your car and have everything ready for you to start. It will be touch and go. Here is the phonograph record, with the cinema film rolled up inside it. Take care of them; they are priceless. The film must be developed in Paris.
Then Fédor produced a can of petrol and thoroughly soaked the room.
This place is going up to-night, he explained. That police agent will know all about it and it will be searched at once. I cant get my camera away and I dont want it found.
As he spoke Fédor was laying a long strip of fuse from the room to the ground floor. Striking a match he lit the end.
In half an hour the place will be a furnace, he said coolly.
What to do with the police agent was a problem.
I cant kill the fellow in cold blood, remarked Fédor, and I cant leave him here to be burnt alive.
Finally they dragged the man outside and left him lying in the darkest corner of the alley they could find.
Some one will find him when the fire starts, was Fédors conclusion.
But some one found him much earlier, and their clemency nearly cost them their lives!
Yvette and Fédor started for the Mohawk and Dick walked swiftly over to the Generals house. It was very late and not a soul was stirring in the now deserted streets. Without difficulty Dick found the leaded window and scarcely troubling about the slight noise he made, forced it partly in, poured in a liberal supply of petrol and flung after it a lighted match. Instantly there was a most satisfactory sheet of flame.
A moment later Dick was hammering at the front door, shouting at the top of his voice. He aimed at making all the confusion he could.
Instantly the street was in an uproar. People poured half-dressed from the houses, and from General Mestichs residence came a stream of frightened domestics, screaming in terror and half-choked with smoke.
Slipping unnoticed into the house, Dick made straight for the salon. As he entered, General Mestich was in the very act of withdrawing the treaty from the secret receptacle. He turned towards Dick and their eyes met.
Traitor though he was, the Galdavian General was a cool and brave man. His hand dropped to his pocket and a revolver flashed out. But he was just a fraction of a second too late. Dicks hand was ready on his automatic, and as the Generals revolver came out Dick fired from his pocket and the leader of the Galdavian revolution fell dead with a bullet through his heart.
A moment later Dick, the precious treaty in his pocket, had joined the shouting throng in the crowded street. As he did so, a burst of flame from the old storehouse announced the success of Fédors plan and added to the general confusion.
Dick worked himself clear of the crowd and dashed off at top speed for the Mohawk. Yvette was already seated at the wheel, with the engine started ready for instant departure. As Dick sprang into his seat Fédor laid beside him a loaded rifle.
Ten shots, explosive bullets, he said coolly. It may be useful if you are followed.
Then hastily they shook hands and the Mohawk leaped forward for the hill road and safety.
The moon was unfortunately very bright, and it was not until they had gone five or six miles that Dick ventured to draw a breath of relief.
We ought to be safe now, he said. We must find a place to fly from.
The words were hardly out of his mouth when the roar of a big car behind them caught his ears. They had forgotten the bound and blindfolded police agent.
That very astute individual had been found and released by a passer-by a few minutes after they had left the warehouse! Frantic with rage and determined to catch Dick at all costs, he had acted with wonderful promptness. His first step was to send out cars loaded with armed policemen to block all three roads leading from Langengrad so that Dicks motor should not get away. Had he been found a few moments earlier Dick and Yvette must have been hopelessly trapped. But the delay of a few minutes had given them a priceless advantage.
Looking back as the big car came swiftly on, Dick caught the gleam of rifle barrels in the moonlight. His plan was swiftly made.
At the top of a steep slope, where the road made a sharp curve and dipped into a small depression, Dick bade Yvette halt. Blessing Fédors foresight, he took the rifle from the car and in the shadow flung himself down on the grass bordering the road. For five hundred yards below him the road stretched in a smooth unbroken descent.