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  CHAPTER XII

  It was not until four days later that Victor's friend in the Ministryof War was able to procure an appointment for him with General Ducros.Pressure of business was Captain Gaston Leraulx' explanation, and itwas an honest one. What he did not know was that on the evening of theday when Count Valdemar and his daughter paid their visit ofcondolence to Adelaide de Conde, General Ducros dined with them.

  They had no other guest, for the best of reasons. Countess Sophie, theomniscient, by means of a happy accident, had got a fairly clear ideaof the outlines of the Great Storage Scheme. The servants of the WhiteTzar are everywhere, known or unknown, generally the latter. A Russiantrapper happened to meet a French-Canadian voyageur in Montreal whenShafto Hardress was making his negotiations with the CanadianGovernment. They had a few drinks and a talk over the extraordinarydeal that he had made with the Canadian Government, a deal which hadbeen reported and commented on by the Canadian and American journalswith the usual luxuriance of speculative imagination. The same nightthe voyageur and the trapper, both men who were living on the productsof their season's hunting and trapping, cabled practically the samedetails to Paris and Petersburg.

  The voyageur's telegram had gone to General Ducros; and he, with theinstinct of a soldier and a statesman, had instantly connected it withthe greatest mistake that he had made in his life, his refusal toentertain the proposal which Doctor Emil Fargeau had laid before him.He saw that he had refused even to examine a scheme which thisAnglo-American syndicate had somehow got hold of and thought it worththeir while to spend thousands of pounds even in preliminarydevelopment. As he said to himself when the unwelcome news came tohim, "I have committed a crime--for I have made a mistake, and forstatesmen mistakes are something worse than crimes."

  As soon as the Russian trapper's message had reached Count Valdemar,he immediately discussed it with his daughter, who over and over againhad given proof of an almost clairvoyant insight into the mostdifficult and intricate concerns of international diplomacy. Themoment she saw it her instinct led her back to the reception at theGerman Embassy in Petersburg.

  "It was all very easy, after all, general," she said, when the dinnerwas over, and the coffee and liqueurs were on the table. "If you willpardon me saying so, it is in cases like this that the intuition ofthe woman outstrips the logical faculty of the man. You have asked mehow I discovered the connection between the interview between yourselfand Doctor Fargeau, which, as you say, ended somewhat unhappily forFrance, and this extraordinary purchase of a seemingly worthlesslanded property by Viscount Hardress."

  "Ah yes," said the general, knocking the ash off his cigarette."Statesmen are not supposed to make mistakes, but to you, Ma'm'selle,and Monsieur le Comte, I must confess, to my most intense chagrin, theman was an Alsatian, and had accepted the new order of things in theprovinces, he was a German subject, and his son was a German officeron the general staff. What could I think?"

  "My dear general," replied Sophie, after a long whiff at her yellowRussian cigarette, "your conclusions were perfectly just under thecircumstances. But when you have had your interview with CaptainFargeau and my dear friend the marquise, I think you will find that,after all, they were erroneous. Do you not think so, papa?"

  "I fancy," replied the count, slowly, "that when you have made yourexplanations to the general, he will agree with you."

  "Very well, then, general, I will spin my little thread before you,and you shall see whether it holds together or not. First, there wasthat snatch of a conversation that I heard at the German Embassyreception in Petersburg. Captain Fargeau was talking with the latePrince de Conde, and he was called away by one of the servants. Fromanother source I knew afterwards that he had received a telegram fromStrassburg. He came back, and made a pretence of dancing with my verydear friend, Adelaide de Conde. They went out into the winter garden,just in front of myself and my partner. I heard him tell her that 'he'had succeeded, and gone to Paris.

  "You have told me of his father's visit to you. The chief part of hisscheme was the building of these works round the Magnetic Pole inBoothia Land. The prince and Adelaide go to a little out-of-the-wayplace in Germany, called Elsenau. The fashionable papers told us that.They also told us that Lord Orrel and his daughter were there; andalmost the same day arrives this Viscount Branston, Lord Orrel's son.The prince suddenly and mysteriously dies--as they say, from thebursting of a blood-vessel on the brain. Of course, all the paperstell us of that, and also that Viscount Branston goes to Vienna andbrings back Madame de Bourbon, who is here now, in Paris, withAdelaide.

  "Before this, you and my father have the telegrams from our goodfriends out yonder in Canada. Then the Canadian and American papersconfirm this, and tell us that this same Viscount Branston has leasedthis very spot of seemingly worthless land, which was, as you tell us,essential to the carrying out of Emil Fargeau's scheme, and that agreat Anglo-American syndicate has been formed to build an observatorythere, or a central station for the control of wireless telegraphythroughout the world; and so on. No doubt the newspaper stories are asfamiliar to you as they are to us. Now, general, do you see theconnection between that scrap of conversation I heard in Petersburg,and the purchase of that patch of snow-covered rock in Boothia Land?"

  "Ma'm'selle," replied the general, "it is not a thread, but a chain,and there is not a weak link in it. It is perfectly plain now thatthere is a connection between this German officer, at present on leavein Paris, and these English and Americans who have somehow becomepossessed of the details of the scheme which I so unfortunatelyrejected. Still, until we have heard what Captain Fargeau and yourfriend the Marquise de Montpensier, whom I am to have the honour ofreceiving to-morrow, have to say, it would not, I think, be wise toconclude that they have entered into a conspiracy with those whom Imay describe as our common enemies."

  "That, general, I do not believe for a moment," said the count. "Alltheir interests lie the other way. They have as much reason to dislikeEngland and America as we have; and, until I know to the contrary, Ishall prefer to believe that the Marquise de Montpensier, a daughterof the Bourbons, is a friend to France, and therefore, through France,to Russia."

  "And I believe that too," said Sophie. "As far as England and Americaare concerned, the interests of France and Russia are identical. Ifthese arrogant Anglo-Saxons are ever to be put into their properplace, Russia and France must do it: and, to begin with, by some meansor other, this scheme must be frustrated. And now, general, I havegiven you a little information to-night, and I am going to ask alittle favour in return."

  "It shall be granted, if possible. Ma'm'selle has only to ask it."

  "There is, I believe," said Sophie, putting her arms on the table, "alittle apartment leading out of your own bureau at the Ministry ofWar?"

  General Ducros could not help raising his eyelids a little, for heknew that neither Sophie nor her father had ever been in that room,but he dropped them again instantly, and said:

  "That is perfectly true, ma'm'selle; it is a little apartment, devotedto my own private use. In fact, to tell you the truth, I am sometimesthere when it is convenient for my secretary to prove by oculardemonstration to some more or less important personage that I am notat home, and that, in consequence of my unavoidable absence, anundesirable interview has to be postponed."

  "Exactly," laughed Sophie. "Such things are not unknown elsewhere; andI am going to ask you, general, for the use of that room during yourinterview to-morrow with the Marquise de Montpensier and CaptainFargeau. In other words, I wish to be present at the interview withoutdoing anything to interrupt the smooth course of the proceedings."

  "Ma'm'selle knows so much already that there is no reason why sheshould not know more," replied the general, not very cordially; "but,of course, it is understood, as a matter of honour between ourselves,that in this matter we are allies, as our countries are."

  "Undoubtedly," replied the count. "It would, indeed, be mutuallyimpossible for it to be otherwise."

  "The
n," said Sophie, "we will consider that a bargain. My father and Iwill call shortly before the captain and Adelaide reach the Ministry,and afterwards----"

  "And afterwards, my dear general, if you will allow me to interruptyou," said the count, "I would suggest that we should have a littledinner here, to which Sophie will invite Madame de Bourbon and themarquise, as well as Captain Fargeau; a dinner which, if you willpermit me to say so, may possibly be of historic interest; an occasionupon which, perhaps, the alliance between France and Russia will becemented by a mutual agreement and arrangement to outwit theseEnglish-Americans, and secure the world-empire for France and Russia."

  General Ducros assented. He saw that, owing to the fatal mistake hehad made when he rejected Emil Fargeau's scheme, he was now, thanks tothe subtle intellect of Sophie Valdemar, forced to share thepossibility of obtaining that world-empire with Russia, the ally whosefriendship had already cost France so dearly, an ally to whom Francehad paid millions for a few empty assurances and one or two brilliantscenes in the international spectacular drama. No one knew better thanhe did how worthless this alliance really was to France, and thatnight he reproached himself bitterly for letting slip the chance ofmaking France independent of her blood-sucking ally. Still, by anextraordinary combination of chance and skill, Sophie Valdemar had gotthe necessary knowledge of the great secret, and, perforce, he had toshare it with her and Russia.

  Punctually at eleven o'clock the next morning Adelaide de Conde andVictor Fargeau were admitted to the bureau of the Minister of War. Theinterview was very different from the one that he had granted to theman whom his scepticism had practically driven to his death, and soplaced the great secret in the hands of his country's enemies. It wasalso much shorter. When, at the outset, the general had addressedVictor as Captain Fargeau, he replied:

  "Pardon, general, I am captain no longer, nor am I any longer aGerman. I have resigned. Henceforth I am a Frenchman in fact, as Ihave always been in heart. You would not believe that of my father,but I will prove it to you of myself."

  "My dear sir," replied the general, "no one could be more delighted tohear such news as that than I; and I can promise you that, in thatcase, an appointment--not, of course, an acknowledged one, since youare not now legally a Frenchman--shall be placed at your disposal."

  Adelaide turned her head away as he spoke, and her lips curled into asmile which made her look almost ugly. "So now he is to become a paidspy," she thought. "And he still considers that I am pledged to him.But what can I do till we have either succeeded or failed? Ah, if itwere only the other one! If he were a Frenchman, or if only I couldmake him love me as I could--well, we shall see. After all, patriotismhas its limits. France has broken its allegiance to my house. What doI owe it?"

  General Ducros saw at a glance that the specifications which Victorhanded to him were the duplicates of those which he had so unwiselyand so unfortunately for himself and for France refused to accept fromhis father. If anything had been needed to convince him of theterrible error that he had made, Adelaide's story of the last night ofher father's life would have done it.

  "Monsieur," he said, laying his hand upon the papers, "I will confessthat I have made a great mistake, even that I have committed a crimeagainst France and your father. Alas, as we know now from the storythat Ma'm'selle la Marquise has told us, he is dead; and it is I who,innocently and unknowingly, sent him to his death. I can do no morethan admit my error, and promise you that every force at my commandshall be used to repair it, if possible. These other documents, whichyou have been good enough to hand to me, I take, of course, as anearnest of your good faith and your devotion to France."

  "I wonder what they are," said Sophie Valdemar, in her soul, as theMinister's words reached her ear through the closed door of the littleprivate room. "An Alsatian, a German officer, Military Attache atPetersburg, he resigns his commission, goes back to his Frenchallegiance, and gives the general something which proves his goodfaith! Ah, perhaps a scheme of campaign--sketches of routes--detailsof mobilisation--plans of fortresses! We must fight Germany soon. Iwonder whether I could persuade the good general to let me have a lookat them, if they are anything of that sort."

  While these thoughts were flashing through Sophie's mind, the generalwas saying:

  "And now, monsieur, you mentioned a short time ago that you had ascheme for repairing the error which I have confessed. May I ask foran outline of it? I need hardly say that, if it is only feasible,France will spare neither money nor men to accomplish the object, andto regain what I have so deplorably lost."

  "My scheme, general," said Victor, "is exceedingly simple. TheseEnglish-Americans are going to erect storage works round the MagneticPole, which, as of course you know, is situated in the far north,in a sort of No-man's Land, untrodden by human feet once inhalf-a-century. Let France fit out an Arctic expedition of two ships.Let them be old warships--as the _Alert_ and _Discovery_ were in theEnglish expedition. Their mission will, of course, be a peaceful one,and their departure will cause no comment save in the scientificpapers, but in their holds the ships will carry the most powerfulguns they can mount, ammunition, and----"

  "Excellent!" interrupted the general, rising from his seat. "My dearmonsieur, I congratulate you upon a brilliant idea. Yes, theexpedition shall be prepared with all speed; the newspapers shalldescribe the ships as old ones, but the Minister of Marine and myselfwill arrange that they shall carry the best guns and the most powerfulexplosives that we have. They shall be manned by picked crews,commanded by our best officers; they shall sail for the North Pole, orthereabouts, as all these expeditions do, and they shall make afriendly call at Boothia Land. It will not be possible now before nextsummer because of the ice; but the same cause will delay our friendsin building the storage works; and when our ships call and the worksare well in progress--well, then, we will see whether or not ourfriends will yield to logic; and, if not, to force majeure. Is thatyour idea?"

  "Exactly," replied Victor. "We will wait till the works are finished,say this time next year, or two years or three years, it mattersnothing, and then we will take them. The expedition will carry mentrained to do the work under my orders. I have the whole working ofthe apparatus in those papers. Once we possess the works we aremasters of the world, because we shall be possessors of its very life.But before that there may be war--the nations of Europe fighting forthe limbs of the Yellow Giant in the East. Germany, as you will seefrom those papers, is nearly ready. It is only a matter of a fewmonths, and then she will make her first rush on France. England andAmerica can be rendered helpless if we once seize the works, andRussia can, I presume, be trusted?"

  "Without doubt," said the general. "Russia is our true and faithfulally."

  "Yes," said Sophie again, in her soul; "provided she has a share inthat Polar expedition, as she shall have."