Books: In the Fog
R >>
Richard Harding Davis >> In the Fog
The servant bowed to the Baronet.
"Your hansom is waiting, Sir Andrew," he said.
"The necklace was worth twenty thousand pounds," began the Queen's
Messenger. "It was a present from the Queen of England to celebrate--"
The Baronet gave an exclamation of angry annoyance.
"Upon my word, this is most provoking," he interrupted. "I really
ought not to stay. But I certainly mean to hear this." He turned
irritably to the servant. "Tell the hansom to wait," he commanded,
and, with an air of a boy who is playing truant, slipped guiltily into
his chair.
The gentleman with the black pearl smiled blandly, and rapped upon the
table.
"Order, gentlemen," he said. "Order for the story of the Queen's
Messenger and the Czarina's diamonds."
CHAPTER II
"The necklace was a present from the Queen of England to the Czarina
of Russia," began the Queen's Messenger. "It was to celebrate the
occasion of the Czar's coronation. Our Foreign Office knew that the
Russian Ambassador in Paris was to proceed to Moscow for that
ceremony, and I was directed to go to Paris and turn over the necklace
to him. But when I reached Paris I found he had not expected me for a
week later and was taking a few days' vacation at Nice. His people
asked me to leave the necklace with them at the Embassy, but I had
been charged to get a receipt for it from the Ambassador himself, so I
started at once for Nice The fact that Monte Carlo is not two thousand
miles from Nice may have had something to do with making me carry out
my instructions so carefully. "Now, how the Princess Zichy came to
find out about the necklace I don't know, but I can guess. As you have
just heard, she was at one time a spy in the service of the Russian
government. And after they dismissed her she kept up her acquaintance
with many of the Russian agents in London. It is probable that through
one of them she learned that the necklace was to be sent to Moscow,
and which one of the Queen's Messengers had been detailed to take it
there. Still, I doubt if even that knowledge would have helped her if
she had not also known something which I supposed no one else in the
world knew but myself and one other man. And, curiously enough, the
other man was a Queen's Messenger too, and a friend of mine. You must
know that up to the time of this robbery I had always concealed my
despatches in a manner peculiarly my own. I got the idea from that
play called 'A Scrap of Paper.' In it a man wants to hide a certain
compromising document. He knows that all his rooms will be secretly
searched for it, so he puts it in a torn envelope and sticks it up
where any one can see it on his mantel shelf. The result is that the
woman who is ransacking the house to find it looks in all the unlikely
places, but passes over the scrap of paper that is just under her
nose. Sometimes the papers and packages they give us to carry about
Europe are of very great value, and sometimes they are special makes
of cigarettes, and orders to court dressmakers. Sometimes we know what
we are carrying and sometimes we do not. If it is a large sum of money
or a treaty, they generally tell us. But, as a rule, we have no
knowledge of what the package contains; so, to be on the safe side, we
naturally take just as great care of it as though we knew it held the
terms of an ultimatum or the crown jewels. As a rule, my confreres
carry the official packages in a despatch-box, which is just as
obvious as a lady's jewel bag in the hands of her maid. Every one
knows they are carrying something of value. They put a premium on
dishonesty. Well, after I saw the 'Scrap of Paper' play, I determined
to put the government valuables in the most unlikely place that any
one would look for them. So I used to hide the documents they gave me
inside my riding-boots, and small articles, such as money or jewels, I
carried in an old cigar-case. After I took to using my case for that
purpose I bought a new one, exactly like it, for my cigars. But to
avoid mistakes, I had my initials placed on both sides of the new one,
and the moment I touched the case, even in the dark, I could tell
which it was by the raised initials.
"No one knew of this except the Queen's Messenger of whom I spoke. We
once left Paris together on the Orient Express. I was going to
Constantinople and he was to stop off at Vienna. On the journey I told
him of my peculiar way of hiding things and showed him my cigar-case.
If I recollect rightly, on that trip it held the grand cross of St.
Michael and St. Greorge, which the Queen was sending to our
Ambassador. The Messenger was very much entertained at my scheme, and
some months later when he met the Princess he told her about it as an
amusing story. Of course, he had no idea she was a Russian spy. He
didn't know anything at all about her, except that she was a very
attractive woman.
"It was indiscreet, but he could not possibly have guessed that she
could ever make any use of what he told her.
"Later, after the robbery, I remembered that I had informed this young
chap of my secret hiding-place, and when I saw him again I questioned
him about it. He was greatly distressed, and said he had never seen
the importance of the secret. He remembered he had told several people
of it, and among others the Princess Zichy. In that way I found out
that it was she who had robbed me, and I know that from the moment I
left London she was following me and that she knew then that the
diamonds were concealed in my cigar-case.
"My train for Nice left Paris at ten in the morning. When I travel at
night I generally tell the _chef de gare_ that I am a Queen's
Messenger, and he gives me a compartment to myself, but in the daytime
I take whatever offers. On this morning I had found an empty
compartment, and I had tipped the guard to keep every one else out,
not from any fear of losing the diamonds, but because I wanted to
smoke. He had locked the door, and as the last bell had rung I
supposed I was to travel alone, so I began to arrange my traps and
make myself comfortable. The diamonds in the cigar-case were in the
inside pocket of my waistcoat, and as they made a bulky package, I
took them out, intending to put them in my hand bag. It is a small
satchel like a bookmaker's, or those hand bags that couriers carry. I
wear it slung from a strap across my shoulder, and, no matter whether
I am sitting or walking, it never leaves me.
"I took the cigar-case which held the necklace from my inside pocket
and the case which held the cigars out of the satchel, and while I was
searching through it for a box of matches I laid the two cases beside
me on the seat.
"At that moment the train started, but at the same instant there was a
rattle at the lock of the compartment, and a couple of porters lifted
and shoved a woman through the door, and hurled her rugs and umbrellas
in after her.
"Instinctively I reached for the diamonds. I shoved them quickly into
the satchel and, pushing them far down to the bottom of the bag,
snapped the spring lock. Then I put the cigars in the pocket of my
coat, but with the thought that now that I had a woman as a travelling
companion I would probably not be allowed to enjoy them.
"One of her pieces of luggage had fallen at my feet, and a roll of
rugs had landed at my side. I thought if I hid the fact that the lady
was not welcome, and at once endeavored to be civil, she might permit
me to smoke. So I picked her hand bag off the floor and asked her
where I might place it.
"As I spoke I looked at her for the first time, and saw that she was a
most remarkably handsome woman.
"She smiled charmingly and begged me not to disturb myself. Then she
arranged her own things about her, and, opening her dressing-bag, took
out a gold cigarette case.
"'Do you object to smoke?' she asked.
"I laughed and assured her I had been in great terror lest she might
object to it herself.
"'If you like cigarettes,' she said, 'will you try some of these? They
are rolled especially for my husband in Russia, and they are supposed
to be very good.'
"I thanked her, and took one from her case, and I found it so much
better than my own that I continued to smoke her cigarettes throughout
the rest of the journey. I must say that we got on very well. I judged
from the coronet on her cigarette-case, and from her manner, which was
quite as well bred as that of any woman I ever met, that she was some
one of importance, and though she seemed almost too good looking to be
respectable, I determined that she was some _grande dame_ who was so
assured of her position that she could afford to be unconventional. At
first she read her novel, and then she made some comment on the
scenery, and finally we began to discuss the current politics of the
Continent. She talked of all the cities in Europe, and seemed to know
every one worth knowing. But she volunteered nothing about herself
except that she frequently made use of the expression, 'When my
husband was stationed at Vienna,' or 'When my husband was promoted to
Rome.' Once she said to me, 'I have often seen you at Monte Carlo. I
saw you when you won the pigeon championship.' I told her that I was
not a pigeon shot, and she gave a little start of surprise. 'Oh, I beg
your pardon,' she said; 'I thought you were Morton Hamilton, the
English champion.' As a matter of fact, I do look like Hamilton, but I
know now that her object was to make me think that she had no idea as
to who I really was. She needn't have acted at all, for I certainly
had no suspicions of her, and was only too pleased to have so charming
a companion.
"The one thing that should have made me suspicious was the fact that
at every station she made some trivial excuse to get me out of the
compartment. She pretended that her maid was travelling back of us in
one of the second-class carriages, and kept saying she could not
imagine why the woman did not come to look after her, and if the maid
did not turn up at the next stop, would I be so very kind as to get
out and bring her whatever it was she pretended she wanted.
"I had taken my dressing-case from the rack to get out a novel, and
had left it on the seat opposite to mine, and at the end of the
compartment farthest from her. And once when I came back from buying
her a cup of chocolate, or from some other fool errand, I found her
standing at my end of the compartment with both hands on the
dressing-bag. She looked at me without so much as winking an eye, and
shoved the case carefully into a corner. 'Your bag slipped off on the
floor,' she said. 'If you've got any bottles in it, you had better
look and see that they're not broken.'
"And I give you my word, I was such an ass that I did open the case
and looked all through it. She must have thought I _was_ a Juggins. I
get hot all over whenever I remember it. But in spite of my dulness,
and her cleverness, she couldn't gain anything by sending me away,
because what she wanted was in the hand bag and every time she sent me
away the hand bag went with me.
"After the incident of the dressing-case her manner changed. Either in
my absence she had had time to look through it, or, when I was
examining it for broken bottles, she had seen everything it held.
"From that moment she must have been certain that the cigar-case, in
which she knew I carried the diamonds, was in the bag that was
fastened to my body, and from that time on she probably was plotting
how to get it from me. Her anxiety became most apparent. She dropped
the great lady manner, and her charming condescension went with it.
She ceased talking, and, when I spoke, answered me irritably, or at
random. No doubt her mind was entirely occupied with her plan. The end
of our journey was drawing rapidly nearer, and her time for action was
being cut down with the speed of the express train. Even I,
unsuspicious as I was, noticed that something was very wrong with her.
I really believe that before we reached Marseilles if I had not,
through my own stupidity, given her the chance she wanted, she might
have stuck a knife in me and rolled me out on the rails. But as it
was, I only thought that the long journey had tired her. I suggested
that it was a very trying trip, and asked her if she would allow me to
offer her some of my cognac.
"She thanked me and said, 'No,' and then suddenly her eyes lighted,
and she exclaimed, 'Yes, thank you, if you will be so kind.'
"My flask was in the hand bag, and I placed it on my lap and with my
thumb slipped back the catch. As I keep my tickets and railroad guide
in the bag, I am so constantly opening it that I never bother to lock
it, and the fact that it is strapped to me has always been sufficient
protection. But I can appreciate now what a satisfaction, and what a
torment too, it must have been to that woman when she saw that the bag
opened without a key.
"While we were crossing the mountains I had felt rather chilly and had
been wearing a light racing coat. But after the lamps were lighted the
compartment became very hot and stuffy, and I found the coat
uncomfortable. So I stood up, and, after first slipping the strap of
the bag over my head, I placed the bag in the seat next me and pulled
off the racing coat. I don't blame myself for being careless; the bag
was still within reach of my hand, and nothing would have happened if
at that exact moment the train had not stopped at Arles. It was the
combination of my removing the bag and our entering the station at the
same instant which gave the Princess Zichy the chance she wanted to
rob me.
"I needn't say that she was clever enough to take it. The train ran
into the station at full speed and came to a sudden stop. I had just
thrown my coat into the rack, and had reached out my hand for the bag.
In another instant I would have had the strap around my shoulder. But
at that moment the Princess threw open the door of the compartment and
beckoned wildly at the people on the platform. 'Natalie!' she called,
'Natalie! here I am. Come here! This way!' She turned upon me in the
greatest excitement. 'My maid!' she cried. 'She is looking for me. She
passed the window without seeing me. Go, please, and bring her back.'
She continued pointing out of the door and beckoning me with her other
hand. There certainly was something about that woman's tone which made
one jump. When she was giving orders you had no chance to think of
anything else. So I rushed out on my errand of mercy, and then rushed
back again to ask what the maid looked like.
"'In black,' she answered, rising and blocking the door of the
compartment. 'All in black, with a bonnet!'
"The train waited three minutes at Aries, and in that time I suppose I
must have rushed up to over twenty women and asked, 'Are you Natalie?'
The only reason I wasn't punched with an umbrella or handed over to
the police was that they probably thought I was crazy.
"When I jumped back into the compartment the Princess was seated where
I had left her, but her eyes were burning with happiness. She placed
her hand on my arm almost affectionately, and said in a hysterical
way, 'You are very kind to me. I am so sorry to have troubled you.'
"I protested that every woman on the platform was dressed in black.
"'Indeed I am so sorry,' she said, laughing; and she continued to
laugh until she began to breathe so quickly that I thought she was
going to faint.
"I can see now that the last part of that journey must have been a
terrible half hour for her. She had the cigar-case safe enough, but
she knew that she herself was not safe. She understood if I were to
open my bag, even at the last minute, and miss the case, I would know
positively that she had taken it. I had placed the diamonds in the bag
at the very moment she entered the compartment, and no one but our two
selves had occupied it since. She knew that when we reached Marseilles
she would either be twenty thousand pounds richer than when she left
Paris, or that she would go to jail. That was the situation as she
must have read it, and I don't envy her her state of mind during that
last half hour. It must have been hell.
"I saw that something was wrong, and in my innocence I even wondered
if possibly my cognac had not been a little too strong. For she
suddenly developed into a most brilliant conversationalist, and
applauded and laughed at everything I said, and fired off questions at
me like a machine gun, so that I had no time to think of anything but
of what she was saying. Whenever I stirred she stopped her chattering
and leaned toward me, and watched me like a cat over a mouse-hole. I
wondered how I could have considered her an agreeable travelling
companion. I thought I would have preferred to be locked in with a
lunatic. I don't like to think how she would have acted if I had made
a move to examine the bag, but as I had it safely strapped around me
again, I did not open it, and I reached Marseilles alive. As we drew
into the station she shook hands with me and grinned at me like a
Cheshire cat.
"'I cannot tell you,' she said, 'how much I have to thank you for.'
What do you think of that for impudence!
"I offered to put her in a carriage, but she said she must find
Natalie, and that she hoped we would meet again at the hotel. So I
drove off by myself, wondering who she was, and whether Natalie was
not her keeper.
"I had to wait several hours for the train to Nice, and as I wanted to
stroll around the city I thought I had better put the diamonds in the
safe of the hotel. As soon as I reached my room I locked the door,
placed the hand bag on the table and opened it. I felt among the
things at the top of it, but failed to touch the cigar-case. I shoved
my hand in deeper, and stirred the things about, but still I did not
reach it. A cold wave swept down my spine, and a sort of emptiness
came to the pit of my stomach. Then I turned red-hot, and the sweat
sprung out all over me. I wet my lips with my tongue, and said to
myself, 'Don't be an ass. Pull yourself together, pull yourself
together. Take the things out, one at a time. It's there, of course
it's there. Don't be an ass.'
"So I put a brake on my nerves and began very carefully to pick out
the things one by one, but after another second I could not stand it,
and I rushed across the room and threw out everything on the bed. But
the diamonds were not among them. I pulled the things about and tore
them open and shuffled and rearranged and sorted them, but it was no
use. The cigar-case was gone. I threw everything in the dressing-case
out on the floor, although I knew it was useless to look for it there.
I knew that I had put it in the bag. I sat down and tried to think. I
remembered I had put it in the satchel at Paris just as that woman had
entered the compartment, and I had been alone with her ever since, so
it was she who had robbed me. But how? It had never left my shoulder.
And then I remembered that it had--that I had taken it off when I had
changed my coat and for the few moments that I was searching for
Natalie. I remembered that the woman had sent me on that goose chase,
and that at every other station she had tried to get rid of me on some
fool errand.
"I gave a roar like a mad bull, and I jumped down the stairs six steps
at a time.
"I demanded at the office if a distinguished lady of title, possibly a
Russian, had just entered the hotel.
"As I expected, she had not. I sprang into a cab and inquired at two
other hotels, and then I saw the folly of trying to catch her without
outside help, and I ordered the fellow to gallop to the office of the
Chief of Police. I told my story, and the ass in charge asked me to
calm myself, and wanted to take notes. I told him this was no time for
taking notes, but for doing something. He got wrathy at that, and I
demanded to be taken at once to his Chief. The Chief, he said, was
very busy, and could not see me. So I showed him my silver greyhound.
In eleven years I had never used it but once before. I stated in
pretty vigorous language that I was a Queen's Messenger, and that if
the Chief of Police did not see me instantly he would lose his
official head. At that the fellow jumped off his high horse and ran
with me to his Chief,--a smart young chap, a colonel in the army, and
a very intelligent man.
"I explained that I had been robbed in a French railway carriage of a
diamond necklace belonging to the Queen of England, which her Majesty
was sending as a present to the Czarina of Russia. I pointed out to
him that if he succeeded in capturing the thief he would be made for
life, and would receive the gratitude of three great powers.
"He wasn't the sort that thinks second thoughts are best. He saw
Russian and French decorations sprouting all over his chest, and he
hit a bell, and pressed buttons, and yelled out orders like the
captain of a penny steamer in a fog. He sent her description to all
the city gates, and ordered all cabmen and railway porters to search
all trains leaving Marseilles. He ordered all passengers on outgoing
vessels to be examined, and telegraphed the proprietors of every hotel
and pension to send him a complete list of their guests within the
hour. While I was standing there he must have given at least a hundred
orders, and sent out enough commissaires, sergeants de ville,
gendarmes, bicycle police, and plain-clothes Johnnies to have captured
the entire German army. When they had gone he assured me that the
woman was as good as arrested already. Indeed, officially, she was
arrested; for she had no more chance of escape from Marseilles than
from the Chateau D'If.
"He told me to return to my hotel and possess my soul in peace. Within
an hour he assured me he would acquaint me with her arrest.
"I thanked him, and complimented him on his energy, and left him. But
I didn't share in his confidence. I felt that she was a very clever
woman, and a match for any and all of us. It was all very well for him
to be jubilant. He had not lost the diamonds, and had everything to
gain if he found them; while I, even if he did recover the necklace,
would only be where I was before I lost them, and if he did not
recover it I was a ruined man. It was an awful facer for me. I had
always prided myself on my record. In eleven years I had never mislaid
an envelope, nor missed taking the first train. And now I had failed
in the most important mission that had ever been intrusted to me. And
it wasn't a thing that could be hushed up, either. It was too
conspicuous, too spectacular. It was sure to invite the widest
notoriety. I saw myself ridiculed all over the Continent, and perhaps
dismissed, even suspected of having taken the thing myself.
"I was walking in front of a lighted cafe, and I felt so sick and
miserable that I stopped for a pick-me-up. Then I considered that if I
took one drink I would probably, in my present state of mind, not want
to stop under twenty, and I decided I had better leave it alone. But
my nerves were jumping like a frightened rabbit, and I felt I must
have something to quiet them, or I would go crazy. I reached for my
cigarette-case, but a cigarette seemed hardly adequate, so I put it
back again and took out this cigar-case, in which I keep only the
strongest and blackest cigars. I opened it and stuck in my fingers,
but instead of a cigar they touched on a thin leather envelope. My
heart stood perfectly still. I did not dare to look, but I dug my
finger nails into the leather and I felt layers of thin paper, then a
layer of cotton, and then they scratched on the facets of the
Czarina's diamonds!
"I stumbled as though I had been hit in the face, and fell back into
one of the chairs on the sidewalk. I tore off the wrappings and spread
out the diamonds on the cafe table; I could not believe they were
real. I twisted the necklace between my fingers and crushed it between
my palms and tossed it up in the air. I believe I almost kissed it.
The women in the cafe stood tip on the chairs to see better, and
laughed and screamed, and the people crowded so close around me that
the waiters had to form a bodyguard. The proprietor thought there was
a fight, and called for the police. I was so happy I didn't care. I
laughed, too, and gave the proprietor a five-pound note, and told him
to stand every one a drink. Then I tumbled into a fiacre and galloped
off to my friend the Chief of Police. I felt very sorry for him. He
had been so happy at the chance I gave him, and he was sure to be
disappointed when he learned I had sent him off on a false alarm.
"But now that I had found the necklace, I did not want him to find the
woman. Indeed, I was most anxious that she should get clear away, for
if she were caught the truth would come out, and I was likely to get a
sharp reprimand, and sure to be laughed at.
"I could see now how it had happened. In my haste to hide the diamonds
when the woman was hustled into the carriage, I had shoved the cigars
into the satchel, and the diamonds into the pocket of my coat. Now
that I had the diamonds safe again, it seemed a very natural mistake.
But I doubted if the Foreign Office would think so. I was afraid it
might not appreciate the beautiful simplicity of my secret
hiding-place. So, when I reached the police station, and found that
the woman was still at large, I was more than relieved.