Chapter IV The Click of the Telegraph.

Otago Witness, Issue 2241, 11 February 1897, Page 41

Chapter IV The Click of the Telegraph.

When at nooD, in accordance with the urgent and strangely-worded telegram I had received from the Earl of Warnham, I alighted at Horeham station, in Snssex, I fonnd one of the • carriages from the Hal) awaiting me. As I entered it I was followed by a man I knew slightly — Superintendent; Fray ling, chief of the Criminal Investigation department at Scotland Yard, who had apparently travelled down by the same train from Victoria. Greeting me, he took the place beside me and a moment later the footman sprang upoi tbe box, and we sped away towards tho open country. To my question as to his business with the Earl he made an evasive reply, merely stating that he had received a telegram requesting an mmediate interview. "This summons is rather Ticna^s!,' he added, smiling, "tins a.vtytWf>g sojloub occurred, do you know ? " " Not that lam aware of. Perhaps fare's beon a burglary at the Hall 1 " I snggested. " Hardly that, I think," he replied with a knowing look, stroking his pointed brown beard. "IE burglars bad visited the place he would have asked for a clever officer or two, not for a personal interview with me." With this vi«w I was compelled to agree ; then lighting cigarettes, we sat back calmly contemplating the beautiful fertile country through which we were driving. The road, laaving the Quaint old town, descended

jbarply for a short distance, then wound uphill through cornfields lined by high hedges of hawthorn and hoily. Past a quaint old watermill we skirted Warnham pond, wbereon Shelley in his youthful days sailed paper boats, then half a mile further entered the handsome lodge gates of Warnham Park. Through a fine avenue with a broad sweep of park on either side wall stocked with deer, emus, and many zoological specimens we ascended, until at last, after negotiating the long winding drive in front of the Hall, the carriage pulled up with a sadden jerk before its handsome portico. As I alighted, old Stanford, the whitehaired butler, came forward hurriedly, saying : , "His lordship is in the library awaiting , T ou, sir. He told me to bring you to him the l loment you arrived." " Very well," I said, and the aged retainer, hading the way along a spacious but rather cheerless corridor, stopped before the door of the great library, and throwing it suddenly open, announced me. '♦At last, Deedes," I beard the Earl exclaim in a tone that showed him to be in no amiable mood ; and as I entered the long handsome chamber, lined from floor to ceiling with book?, I did not at first notice him until he rose slowly from a large writing table, behind which he had been bidden. His face, usually wizened and pale, waß' absolutely bloodless. Its appearance startled me. " I wired last night, and expected you by the 9.18 this morning-. Why did you not come? "was his first question, uttered in a sharp tone of annoyance. " The sudden death of a friend caused me to lose the train I intended to catch," I explained. " Death 1 " he snapped in the manner habitual to him when impatient. "Is the death of a friend any account when the interests of our country are at stake 2 On the night my wife was dying I waß compelled to leave her bedside to travel to Balmoral to have audience of her Majesty regarding a document I had sent for the royal assent. When I returned Lady Warnham had been dead 14 hours. In the successful diplomat there must be no sentiment — none." " The five minutes 1 lost when I discovered my friend dead caused ma to miss my train from Staines to London," I explained. "But you received my telegram, and should have Btrictly regarded its urgency," be answered with an air of extreme dissatisfaction. "The fact of its being In cipher was sufficient to show its importance." " I was out dining, and my man brought it Along to me," I said. "Why did he do bo 2 "ho inquired quickly. 11 Because he thought it might be urgent." " Did he open it 2 " " No. Even if he had it was in cipher." "Is your man absolutely trustworthy 1 " he BSkeri. "He bas been In the service of my family for 15 years. Ho was my father's valet at the Hague." •' Is his name Jucke* 2 " he inquired. "Yes." "Ah I I know him. He is absolutely trustworthy ; a most excellent man." The Earl's manner surprised me. His face, ÜBually calm, sphinx-like, and expressionless, betrayed the most intense anxiety and suspicion. That my delay bad caused him great annoyance was apparent, but the anxious expression upon his ashen, almost haggard faca wag such that even in moments of extreme perplexity, when dealing with one or other of the many complex questions of foreign policy, it had never been so intense. Standing with his back to one of the great bay windows that commanded extensive views ot the picturesque park, he was silent for a moment, then turning his keen grey syes upon me, he suddenly exclaimed in a tone of extreme gravity : "Since yesterday, Deedes, a catastrophe \&t occur* sd." "You briefly hinted at it in your telejram," I answered. " What is its nature 2 " " The most serious that has happened during the whole of my administration," he ' said in a voice that plainly betrayed his agitation. " The clauses of the secret defensive jilliance which Hammerton brought from Berlin yesterday are known in St. Petersburg." " What I " I cried in alarm, remembering }he Earl's wards and his elaborate precautions to preserve its secrecy. " Surely they )annot be already known 2 " "We have been tricked by spies, Deedes," ne answered sternly. " Read this," and he handed me a telegram in the private cipher known only to the Minister himself. It's branscript was written beneath, and at a glance I saw it was from a Russian official In the Foreign Office at St. Petersburg who HCted as our secret agent there and received % large sum yearly for his services. The despatch, which showed that it bad been banded in at Hamburg at 6 o'clock on the previous evening — all secret messages being lent in the first instance to that city and retransmitted — read as follows :— " Greatest excitement caused here by receipt by telegraph an hour ago of verbatim copy of secret defensive alliance between England and Germany. Have seen telegram, which was handed in at 869 Strand, London, at 3.30. Just called at Embassy and informed Lord Strathavon. Council of Ministers has been summoned." " It is amazing," I gasped, when I had read the despatch. " How could our enemies have learned the truth 2 " Without replying, he took from his writing table another message, which read :—: — " From Strathavon, St. Petersburg. To the Earl of Warnham, London.— Defensive alliance known here. Hostilities feared. French ambassador has had audience at Winter Palace, and telegraphed to Paris for instructions. Shall wire hourly." One by cne he took up the telegraphic flespatches that during the night had been retransmitted from the Foreign Office over the private wire to the instrument that stood upon a small table opposite us. As I read each of ihem eagerly I saw plainly that Russia sr.d France were in complete accord, »nd that we were on the verge of a national disaster, sudden and terrible. With such lecrecy and rapidity were negotiations being carried on between Paris and St. Petersburg that in Berlin, a city always well-informed in nil matters of diplomacy, nothing unusual was Buspected. A telegram from our secret agent in the '

Russian Foreign Office, received an hour before my arrival at Warnham, read i " The secret is gradually leaking out. The Novosti has just issued a special edition hinting at the possibility of war with England, and thin has caused the most intense excitement everywhere. The journal, evidently inspired, gives no authority for its statement, nor does it give any reason for the startling rumour." I laid down the despatch in silence, and as I raised my head the Minister's keen, penetrating eyes met mine. " Well," he exclaimed, in a dry, harsh tone. " What is your explanation, sir ? " " My explanation 2 " I cried in amazement, noticing his determined demeanour. "I know nothing of the affair except the telegrams you have shown me." " Upon you alone the responsibility of this catastrophe rests," he said angrily. "It is useless to deny all knowledge of it and only i aggravate your offence. Because you come of a diplomatic family I have trusted you implicitly, but it is evident that my confidence bas been utterly misplaced." " I deny that I have ever, for a single instant, betrayed the trust you have placed in j rae," I replied hotly. " I know nothing of I the means by which the Czar's army of spies have obtained knowledge of our secret." i He snapped his bony fingers impatiently, saying j "It i« not to be expeoted that you will I acknowledge yourself a traitor to your, country, Bir ; therefore we must prove your I guilt." " You are at liberty, of course, to act in what manner you please," I answered. " I tell you frankly, however, that this terrible charge you bring against me is as startling as the information that I have just read. I can only say I am entirely innocent." " Bah 1 " he cried, turning on his heel with a gesture of disgust. Then, facing me again, his eyes flashing with anger, he added : "If you are innocent tell me why you were so long absent yesterday when registering the dispatch — tell me why, when such an important document was In your possession, yon did not remain in the office instead of being absent over an hour." " I went out to luncb," I said. " With the document in your pocket 1 " " Yes. But surely you do not su6pßCt me of being a spy," I cried. " I do not suspect you, sir. I have positive proof of it." " Proof I " I gasped. " Show it to me 1 " " It is here," he answered, his thin nervous hands turning over the mass of papers littering his writing table, and taking from among them an official envelope. In an instant T recognised it as the one containing the treaty. "This remains exactly as I took It from the safe with my own hands and cut it open." With trembling fingers I drew the document from its envelope and opened it. The paper was blank 1 i I glanced at him in abject dismay, unable to utter a word. " That is what you handed me on my return from the Cabinet Council," he said with knit brows. " Now, what explanation have you to offer?" " What can I offer ? " I cried. " The envelope I gave you was the same that you handed to me. I could swear to it." " No, it was not," he replied quickly. " Glance at the seal." Taking it to the light I examined the seal carefully, but failed to detect anything unusual. It bore in black wax the Warnham coat of arms impressed by the large, beauti-fully-cut amethyst that, the Earl wore attached to the piece of rusty silk ribbon that served him as watchchain. " I can sac nothing wrong with this," I said, glancing up at him. " I admit that the imitation is so carefully executed that it is calculated to deceive any eye except my own." Then, putting on his pince-nez, he made an impression in wax tvith his own seal and pointed out a slight j flaw which, in the impression upon the envelope, did not exist. " And your endorsement. Is it not in your own hand 2 " he inquired. I turned over the envelope and looked. It bore the designation " B 27, 893," just as I had written it, and the writing was either my own or such a marvellously accurate imitation that I was compelled to confess my inability to point out any discrepancy. " Then the writing Is yours, eh ? " the Earl asked abruptly. "If it is, you must be aware who forged the seal." "The writing csrtainly contains all the | characteristics of mine, but I am not absolutely sure it is not a forgery. In any case I am confident that the document you gave j me I handed back to you." Then I explained carefully, and in detail, the events which occurred from the time he gave the treaty into my possession up to the moment I handed it back to him. "But how can you account for giving back to me a blank sheet of paper in an envelope secured by a forged seal 1 " he asked, regarding me with undisguised suspicion. "You do not admit even taking: it from your pocket, neither have you any suspicion of the friend with whom you lunshed. I should like to hear his independent version." " That is impossible," I answered. "Why?" he asked, pricking up his ears and scenting a mystery. " Because he is dead." At that moment our conversation was interrupted by the sharp ringing of the bell of I the telegraph instrument near us, and an instant later the telegraphist in charge entered and seated himself at the table. Click — click, click, click, click began the needle, and next moment the clerk, turning to the Earl, exclaimed : "An important message from St. Petersburg, your lordship." " Read it as it comes through," the Earl replied breathlessly, walking towards the Instrument and bending eagerly ovar it. Then, aB the rapid metallic click again I broke the silence, the clerk, in monotonous tone?, exclaimed : " From fcobetaki, St. Petersburg, via Hamburg. To Earl of Warnham.— A w proclamation signed by the Czar declaring war against England has just been received at the Foreign Office, but it is as yet kept secret. It will probably be posted in the streets this evening. Greatest activity prevails at the War Office and Admiralty. Regiments, in the j

military districts of Charkoff, Odessa, Warsaw, and Kieff have received orders to complete their oadres of officers to war strength, recalling to the oolours all officers on the retired list and on leave. This is a preliminary step to the complete mobilisation of the Russian forces. All cipher messages now refused." The Earl with frantic effort graspsd at the edge of the table, then staggered unevenly, and sank back into a chair rigid and speechless. (To he continued,.)