Danger Beckons

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXV, Issue 12390, 30 July 1937, Page 4

Danger Beckons

INSTALMENT NO. 14. “No, my friend, all that General the Marquis of Marby did was to procure at some trouble and expense which he did not pass on to Bolba, an aeroplane! Now by the most extraordinary good fortune the Marquis, who I may add was in bad odour with our Government since his retirement, (though they are now ready to fall down and worship him) happened to be in Paris just now! He suddenly remembered, as one does a far off memory, the incident of that flying machine, and of the then young savage chief. He sent the now great man a letter, welcoming him to the City of Light, and Bolba, enraptured, and full of gratitude, for fl his one-time benefactor. Our Foreign Office heard of this 'piece of good fortune; they coached the old gentleman—and he did the trick!” And then Popeau burst into laughter, in which George Adams could not forbear joining, though more quietly. And then he exclaimed, “Why it is I, or rather my sister, who have got the concession for France! But for us the Marquis de Marby would never have seen King Bplba! The Countess de Fletury lias the pleasure of being connected with him, for her husband was his tenth or twentieth cousin, and you know how these folk stick to one another. It was owing to a letter my sister Helen wrote to the Marquis’s wife, that the Marquis came to Paris and saw Bolba—” Hercules Popeau laughed again, a mighty roar of laughter. “The great Republic ought to know all they owe to your charming sister! But Ido not suppose she would wish me to say a word for the present?” “Good heavens, no!” cried Adams in genuine alarm. “I was only joking, of course. No doubt the Marquis de Marby would have got at Bolba in one way, if not in another.” ' ' “And now for the other event I have come to anonunce to you?” “Yes?’ said Adams kindly, for Popeau had become very grave, and even sad. “I, Hercules Popeau, have had what the British call ‘The Order of the Boot.’ ” “What do you mean?” “I mean that at a moment’s notice, at the request, courteously conveyed I admit, of the Prefect of Police. I have resigned my post. All the arrangements made by me to secure the personal safety of Bolba and of his exquisite Consort have been given over to another man.” ' “What an extraordinary thing!” “I confess- —” and a look of anger and pain passed over Popeau’s powerful face. ‘I do not mind .confessing to you, who have become my friend, that I have been not only hurt, but, surprised, by the way I have been treated. It is fortunate for my successor that what has been an anxious and onerous job, as you well know, is so nearly at an end.” “But whatever made the Prefect of Police behave in so strange a fashion?” “It is not his fault, and no one is more sorry than he is, the more so that if anything should happen before Bolba leaves the soil of France, it is he, the Prefect, who will be blamed. As for the reason—there is no secret about that at all! Although Bolba’s concession may make all the difference during the next, hundred years to France, the French Treasury now grudges the few hundred thousand francs which insured the potentate’s safety. I am supposed to have spent a great deal too much, and my successor has been informed that Bolba henceforth, will be so. safe-not only in Baris but also in Lyons and Marseilles, that' ft ''will be hardly necessary to guar.d him at an:” • : fr ■ ; “I Fear She” is-DooniecP’ Popeau spoke with bitter sarcasm,; but. George Adam's, though / full of sympathy and even indignation a£ the way the noted ex-secret agent of la Surete had been treated, now, as always, regarded? his views as to the dangers run by Bolba with .something like inward amusement. He could - not forget the first' conversation he had had with Hercules Popeau, when the Frenchman had'made it clear that he was full of suspicions not pnly.of the Germans, which after all was natural, but of the British and the Italians. George Adams also remembered that Popeau had appeared to believe that Paris was full of foreign assassins hired to knife or shoot his country’s important guest. ’ Hercules Popeau rose and said in a melancholy tone, “From now onwards I am once more a private citizen; and my first thought was to come and bid you farewell, and to convey my warm thanks for the courtesy you and your charming sister have shown;: me during these ‘difficult and dangerous days.” Before George Adams could an-swer,-there came a roar from the seething crowds in the vast square far down below. The two men rushed instinctively to the edge of the terrace, and there'they saw advancing to their left, in the Rue de Rivoli, a cavalry squadron,, huge men in shining silver breast-plates and nodding plumes. Following bn the .squadron, and also " shining brilliantly in the sun, was what appeared to be a gold chariot, in which sat a small man, dressed in evening dress, with a broad blue riband across his chest, while by his side-loomed up a huge figure in a y§llow and black uniform. A smile glimmered across Popeau’s set ‘face. “That one of the ancient' state carriages should be brought from Versailles, and used to-day was my suggestion,” he observed with a

by MRS BELLOC LOWNDES

chuckle. “I hear that a ride in the gold coach enchants that horrible savage!” Adams felt somewhat surprised. Hercules Popeau, up to this last moment, had always spoken with respect of King Bolba; but now that be was just an ordinary private Individual again, he had evidently thrown off all seeming of respect for the man for whose fate he had been so solicitous. “Ah!” he exclaimed. “Civilisation is an ugly thing, Mr Adams. You do not see one of the old Romans or Greeks kowtowing to such a biute as that, just because he had in his first the power to sell a concession which may bring a civilised country much money—money which—alas! —as we know, means power. No, the old-Romans would have tied Bolba to their chariot tails, and stolen his concession!” Following the gold coach, came another fairy-like looking chariot. ‘The panels on Madame la Presidente’s carriage,” observed Popeati, “were painted by Watteau. It is pleasant that they are now seeing, if only for once in a hundred years, the light of day!” The procession was now passing across the Place de la Concorde and, as the open landau containing a Marshal of Prance and the Comtesse de Pleury appeared, the crowds gave it an even more enthusiastic greeting than it had done to the Royal personages which had preceded it. Popeau and Adams watched in silence while the soldiers, the chariots, and the carriage.', dashed up the Champs Elysees to their right, while below them the sightseers began rapidly dispersing. Hercules Popeau held out his hand “And now", mon ami, farewell!” George Adams took that powerful hand in a firm and kindly grasp. “We will meet again before I leave Pari,~. Lunch with me the day I go back to England?” But Popeau shook his head. “No, let this be our farewell. But next time you are in Paris, aye and at any other time, if you want help about any matter touching your good self, I hope you will recall that I am your friend, and that I will do anything in my power for you.” He waited a moment. “I still have a good deal of power left,” and he smiled a grim smile. “There is not an individual in the Surete who would hesitate to do me, or any friend of mine, a good turn.” From a pocket in his quaint grey alpaca jajcket he produced a shabby bulging Russian leather wallet, bound in gold. “This was given me more years ago than I like to think of, when I was a very young man,” he observed. "You will remember, maybe, that the Czar and Czarina were for a time at Compiegne? Well, I was deputed to watch over the personal safety of the poor Empress of Russia, and on the last day of the Imperial visit the Empress sent for me, and presented me with a miniature of herself, which I cherish as my choicest treasure, and then to my surprise she presented me also .with this wallet, which she explained she had also brought from Russia.” v Adams looked with interest at the object which had once been held in the hands of the last Czarina of all the Russia.'. Meanwhile the Frenchman took a card out of the wallet. “Here is my private address — Hotel Paragon—also my personal telephone number, 99-99-Cluny. Take this card and cherish it my friend, for my address, by my own wish, is kept entirely secret. I have not given a card like that to six people in all since I retired from my official position. But I am more indoors than out, for I have none of the curious love of fresh air which is so usual nowadays, though in hot weather I keep my window always open. As to exercise, I go a long walk each evening after dark, and that is all.” . He sighed, and a wave of sympathy came over George Adams’ generous heart. . “I think you’ve been treated shamefully!” he exclaimed. “After all .what.are a few hundred thousand francs to France?” Popeau shook his head sadly. “A great deal just now,’ he said seriously. “No, Ido not object to their being angry at my extravagance, what I object to « that they seem not to. realise that even now Bolba is still in danger! 'What is more he will be in greater danger ihan he was before, after the news of his having sold France the concession has become official.” “Why that?” exclaimed Adams. “Because it will be now to the interest of a great many people all over Europe that Bolba should disappear from this earth before the sale of his concession is actually ratified!” Though George Adams did not in the least agree with this, to him, extraordinary view, it did not at all affect his feeling of indignation at the way Hercules Popeau was being treated. “The only thing I really regret,” went on the Frenchman thoughtfully, “is that I can no longer watch over the safety of beautiful Queen Magia.” His‘listener remained silent. It gave him a feeling of unendurable pain even to hear Magia ’.s name mentioned. Popeau went on—“I fear that this most lovely 1 creature is doomed, as the English poet put it, to ‘one crowded hour of glorious life,’ and then —it makes me shudder —to perhaps fifty miserable years spent in a savage’s harem!” .■ Hercules Pbpeau’s words pierced George Adams’ heart. He told himself fiercely that that awful fate should not be the fate of his beloved. (To de continued)