THE ADMIRALTY'S SECRET,

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15834, 3 February 1915, Page 10

THE ADMIRALTY'S SECRET,

BY CARLTON DAWE. ' Author of " Tbo Prime Minister." " Cleo- '■ dora," "Straws in the Wind." "The '. Grand Duke," " One Fair Enemy," " The Shadow of Evil," ; .c. (COPYRIGHT.) CHAPTER (Continued.) As she spoke the wonder deepened in I his eyes, wonder not unmixed with shame and horror. He almost doubted that he could have heard correctly. Was it ail true, this terrible self-accusation? " And. I trusted you," he said. She started as though suddenly struck deeply by some sharp instrument.; a wave of pallor swept over her face, and for a moment she groped convulsively with her fingers as if searching tor support. Then, and it needed the strong effort of a singularly strong will her little teeth came together, and she smiled indifferently. "That was exceedingly foolish of you." " I see it now," ho said bitterly. The little teeth went into the lower lip, and when she released it he thought there was blood on it. After a pause he Mid : " It was to tell me this that you scut for me'; Don't you think that you might have spared "us both a very disagreeable interview if you had written it? I admit the foolishness of my conduct, and it's likely to cost me dear ; but I would rather pay my debt to the service than yours to your own conscience. I suppose you have one' They say that no matter how black a soul may be there's some streak of white running through it somewhere. I wonder if you have that streak in yours ? If you have I don't envy you. It was easy enough to make a fool of me, but it will not be so easy for you to forget yourself. I trusted in you, believed in you—loved you. With you I did not associate any fault. Oh, yes. I admit the fool. It's so easy to laugh at a fool ; and how yon must have laughed. But it was rash to come here and taunt me with my folly. Don't you think you might have remained content with your triumph'.' It's just possible I might visit on you the punishment you deserve, though it would be difficult to find a punishment fit for you or your class. What you did to me I may one day hope to forget, or at least not to remember toe vividly; but the crime against your country, that I do not envy you." " My country." she said coldly : " what has my country done for me that I should put it before my own interest-;'. What dees it matter to me who rules England since I gain no benefit by it'.'" "If that is your outlook." he answered in a tone equally unemotional, '' I am afraid it's no use further discussing the matter with you." " I did not say that mi my outlook. But suppose it were, am I to sacrifice myself for a callous monster that would let me die in the putter for all it cares? Do' men love their enemies, or pray for them that spitefully ill-use them? Talk patriotism to the rich, the well-fed. the smug, but not to one who is shivering in rags and has no idea where the next meal is coming from. - ' " I can see that too." h" said : " also that every day men are betraying their ; country in a hundred way..." I But only one way count* ? It'.-; the one way that counts alone. Please don't think . that. I'm here to ask your forgiveness, or to find excuses for what I've done. I see quite plainly that you wouldn't under- ' stand: you can't even imagine any cir- [ enmstanee that miffht extenuate a crime. ' You spoke just now of a 'white streak'' ' I can quite believe that you scarcely credit 1 me with the possession of stub a thing; and yet. it's on account of that ' white 1 streak' that I'm here. I've not come to ' throw myself on your mercy. Mr. Padley, - but to make restitution. I robbed you . of your ' plans; I now return them" to JOU."-

" Then you haven't sold them to Germany?" he cried excitedly, his face flushing with hope and happiness. "Germany wouldn't pay my price," she answered coldly. He watched her with an uncertain gaze 1 as she put her hands up to her hat and deftly removed the pins. His look grew intense as he saw her unfold the lining and extract a slip of pink paper therefrom. He also noticed that her face suddenly blanched, that her lips trembled, and that a look of horrified bewilderment crept into her great eyes. The paper slipped from her nerveless fingers and fluttered to the floor. He sprang forward and picked it up. "What's this?" he asked: "what does it mean ?" " Let me look again," she whispered in a hollow, incredulous voice. I He handed her the paper, watching her | intentlv as, bewildered, she stared at it. j It seemed as though she could not believe her own eyes. " It's gone." she gasped. "What?" " The voucher '." '• What voucher?" " The voucher for the bag which I left in the cloakroom at Victoria. "Explain." He was scarcely less excited than she. ~ " After I had taken your plans, she bec.an excitedly, "1 placed them in a handbag and left them, for safety, at the station. The voucher I meant to give yon so that vou could redeem them. That's whv I came here. This," and she held out tin" pink paper, " has been substituted for ;steadilv he looked at her. hut unflincli-in-lv she" bore the scrutiny. There was terror in her eves, and a bewilderment that might have "convinced the most sceptical "Vet, remembering how he. had believed in her once, and suffered for that belief, ho could not wholly dissociate her from trickery. " You're quite sure?" he said. •' Sure ! Look! This paper is blank. There was no doubt of it. n " How do vou account for it? "I can't account for it; I'm bewildered." "Yet it's gone?'' She looked" at him, and be saw a new sort of tenor spring to her eyes. '•You don't believe' Why should yon. Of,course? Yet it's true— swear it s true. ' If you never believed me before believe, me now." " When did you see it last? " Last night. I looked at it before coins to bed." ... , -,•> " You did not leave the hat anywhere . '• It has not been out of my sight since the moment I placed the paper there' He came close in and looked into her eves She shuddered as she realised that never before had he looked at her in such a. manner. It was the look of one who doubted, and it stunt: deeper than the most violent denunciation. _ •■ You're telling the truth' \ deep flush overspread her pallid face, and for a moment it seemed as though some hot retort bubbled to her lips. " I am telling the truth." she answered with an effort. " though I fully realise that vou have good cause to doubt me," " " Let us understand," he continued coldlv "You saw this paper last night, the hat it was in has never left your possession therefore vou could not well have ' been robbed. Don't you think you might have invented a more plausible stOTy ? Is such a childish concoction worthy of you, or the occasion" Or do you think that any simple tale is good enough to convince a. fool ?" ... , ■■ Whv should I come to you with such a tale if it were not true?" '• I am not the keeper of your conscience It's iust possible that von had a motive which "I fail to see. But whatever it was you have tricked me for the last time." If ho had been less sure of himself the look of horror she. turned on him would • have melted him to instantaneous belief. "You think that'" she said, and her voice was choked with amazement. " What am I to think' Once I trusted ; von as T would have trusted myself. Even ' you could scarcely expect to cheat me a > second time." " And you think I came here to cheat ! you'' Why should I? Doesn't it strike > you that you are the one person in the world I should naturallv wish to avoid? If

I had not the wish to make all the reparation in my power, should I Have come to you and made a confession of my guilt? It was because I thought I had the power to make such reparation that I came. I swear to you that last night. in my room in tins hot-el, I saw and read that voucher, and that before going to bed I replaced it in the lining of my hat. Even this morning when I awoke 1 looked to make sure it was there." "And it was not I understand: you wished to work up th© dramatic moment ? Very effective, no doubt, but scarcely convincing now." " You are wrong," she answered in the same calm, steady tone, as though realising that he had the right to doubt. " I saw that this pink paper was there, and naturally concluded that it was the right one. How it disappeared, or by whom it was stolen, I haven't the faintest notion. I knew, of course, that the German | people would leave no stone unturned to recover those plans. I did not doubt that my movements would be watched from the moment they set me free at Captain von Austermann's; but from that moment to this I have had no reason to believe that I was in positive danger." A new and strange look crept into his eyes as he said: "What do you mean by ' setting you free at Captain von Austermann's ? ' " She told him of her going to the HenCaptain, of her subsequent interview, of the search by the baroness, if her imprisonment and the manner of her escape. Again that doubting look came over his lace. Was this true, or but a further and deeper fabrication? "Why did you ask such a vast sum as fifty thousand pounds? " " Because 1 knew he would not pay it." " Whv should you ask a sum you knew ho would not pay? " She looked at him as if to say, would any but a man ask such a question? Then she answered it in a low ton©: " Because from wavering his manner finally decided me. Of course vou don't believe this either? Why 6hotild you'— why should you believe a single word I say, the word of a spy and a thief? I don't ask you to. I realise that in your estimation I have sunk too low for words. Yet what I'm telling you is true. I had that paper la.*t. night, and 1 have been loblwd of it in this hotel." Though still In doubt he could not wholly disbelieve. What if she were Mime the truth after all! Was there j still a chance, though ever so remote, of intercepting the stolen voucher? "Just tell me," he said, "exactly what happened on your arrival here. Was there no suspicious circumstance attaching to anything that- happened, to anybody with whom you came in contact?" She thought for a moment, and then said: "I can think of nothing.' "At dinner, for example." " I did not dine. I had some sandwiches and cocoa brought to my room." "By whom?" he asked sharply. " The foreign waiter." "So there is a foreign waiter here? A German? " " He calls himself Italian." " And 'he brought the food to your bedroom? " Yes." " You had nothing to drink but the cocoa'? " " Nothing." " You are sure? " "Quite." "And how did you sleep after it?" " Heavily, wretchedly. I awoke with a splitting headache." " But you did not awake durinc the night'" ' "No." " 1 wonder? " She too was wondering now. for she saw the, thought that was running through his mind. "Drugged?" she whispered. He nodded. " I'm assuming that your story is true." "It is true." " What time did you give this man the letter to post'.'" "Shortly alter my arrival." That would have been" Before nine o'clock." He took her envelope from his. pocket, looked at it, and then handed it to her. 'Took, this was not posted till after midnight." (To be continued on Saturday next.)