21 Greatest Spy Thrillers in One Premium Edition (Mystery & Espionage Series). E. Phillips Oppenheim
Читать онлайн книгу.
have a very particular friend over in London just now. I thought of trying to see if I could locate her.”
“The Princess di Vasena?” his brother enquired casually.
Micky stared at him.
“How the mischief did you guess?”
Fawley smiled a little sadly.
“This is not like home, you know, Micky. Here you have to picture to yourself nations and individuals all standing on tiptoe and crazy to get to know everybody else’s business. The whole place is like a beastly whispering gallery.”
“Still, I don’t see how—” the boy began, with a puzzled frown.
“Go and get your bath and dry up,” his brother interrupted. “I will send Jenkins in with a cocktail.”
“Jove, that sounds good,” Micky admitted. “I sha’n’t be longer than twenty minutes. Awfully decent of you to wait dinner.”
* * * * *
The cocktails tasted good, as indeed they were, for granted the right material, the American touch on the shaker is after all the most subtle in the world. The dinner was excellent and the bottle of Pommery ‘14 iced to perfection was a dream. Michael Fawley, a rather loosely built but pleasant-looking lad, drew a deep sigh of content as he lit his pipe.
“Well, I don’t know what you were in such a devil of a hurry to see me for, Martin old chap,” he observed, “but it is pretty well worth it, even if they dock me the three days off my leave. French champagne tastes all wrong in Italy, and though the food is good enough for a time it’s monotonous—too many pâtés and knickknacks for my taste. This is like New York again.”
“You always were fond of New York, weren’t you, Micky?” his brother remarked speculatively.
“I’ll say so,” the boy assented. “New York and the summer life on Long Island should be good enough for anybody.”
“I’m glad.”
“What the devil do you mean?” Micky demanded, with a match hovering over the bowl of his pipe.
“I mean that I think you would be better out of this diplomatic business, young fellow,” his brother said. “I want you to post your resignation to Washington to-night.”
The match burnt out between the lad’s fingers. He laid down his pipe and stared.
“For the love of Mike, what are you talking about, Martin?”
“You are too susceptible for our job, Micky,” was the grave reply. “A little too credulous.”
“Gee!” the young man muttered under his breath.
“I came across the Princess di Vasena last night,” Fawley confided. “I am not going to say hard things about her because, after all, I am in the same job myself, and if we take it on at all, we have to go right through with it. It happens that there is something she wants very badly from me just now and she tried to bargain for it with a copy of those cables you sent her, Micky.”
“Are you telling me,” the boy cried in horror, “that the Princess di Vasena—”
“Come, come,” Fawley interrupted. “Don’t make such a tragedy of it, Micky. It isn’t worth it. I could have told you directly I heard her name that you would have to be careful. She is in our Black Book but, of course, that doesn’t come round to the juniors. We don’t think that they ought to know everything. There is no actual mischief done, I am glad to say, but that—to put it plainly—is not your fault.”
Micky was petrified into a stark and paralysed silence. His hands were gripping the side of the table. He was ghastly pale. Fawley leaned over for a cigarette and lit it.
“There is just one rough word to be said, Micky,” he continued, “and you can guess how I hate to say it, but it is better to get it over. You have offended against the code. You have to pay. It will be my business to see that no one knows anything about it, but you must post your resignation to Washington to-night and you must catch—let me see, I think it is the Homeric the day after to-morrow for New York.”
Micky picked up his pipe, relit it and smoked for a moment or two in silence. He came of good stock. He showed no signs of whimpering.
“You are dead right, Martin,” he blundered out at last. “I cannot think how in hell I came to do it. It was not as though she vamped me, made any promises or that sort of thing. I was simply almighty crazy.”
“Never mind, old chap,” his brother remarked consolingly, “the thing is over and done with and so, perhaps fortunately, is your diplomatic career. You were not cut out for it. Fortunately, those cables did not tell the Princess what she wanted to know. There is no real harm done—only a great principle broken. I hope we will see you over this side again, Micky, for the Walker Cup next year. You are a good lad, but I think you are better at golf than at diplomacy.”
Micky walked over to the writing table and drew out a sheet of paper.
“Dictate, Martin,” he invited.
Fawley stood at the window looking out, with his hands behind him. He knew precisely how much of his brother’s composure was assumed and he took care to keep his face averted.
TO Q.D.A.S. DEPARTMENT 137,
WASHINGTON.
MICHAEL FAWLEY THIRD SECRETARY ROME BEGS LEAVE TENDER RESIGNATION IMPORTANT FAMILY BUSINESS STOP CONFIRMATION BY LETTER FOLLOWS STOP LEAVE OF ABSENCE ALREADY GRANTED.
“Who has given me leave of absence?” the boy asked, looking up.
“Douglas Miller over here is able to deal with all these slight matters. Your Chief, as you know, is on the high seas. I told Miller what is quite true—that your family affairs at home were in the devil of a mess. You have far too much money, you know, Micky, like all of us, and he agreed to your getting out at once. There has not been a suspicion of anything else. There never will be, unless you give it away yourself.”
“And the Princess?” the boy faltered hopelessly. “Sha’n’t I ever see her again?”
Fawley made no reply for the moment, then he swung slowly round in his chair. Micky, the personification of rather sulky boyhood, was leaning back on the divan with his hands in his pockets.
“How old are you, Micky?” he asked.
“Twenty-two.”
“The Princess is thirty-two,” Fawley confided. “There is nothing in the world to be said against her. She is noted throughout Europe as a woman of great charm and many accomplishments. She has, also, a little more brain than is good for her. I do not fancy that she has much time for boys, Micky, except when she can make use of them.”
“Rubbing it in, aren’t you?” the other muttered.
“For your own good, young fellow.”
“I can look after myself,” the boy grumbled.
“On Long Island, yes. At Newport, very likely. At any petting party at Bar Harbor I think you might be a star. But over here, you are a trifle out of the game, Micky. We experienced ones have to don our armour when we come up against women like Elida.”
“Hello!” Micky exclaimed. “Do you call her by her Christian name?”
“A slip of the tongue,” Fawley confessed. “All the same, we have met quite a number of times lately. I don’t mind telling you, Micky, in confidence, that she is the only woman who has ever tempted me to wish that I had never taken on my particular branch of work.”
The younger man whistled softly. He was rather a cub in some matters but he was honestly fond of his brother.
“Why don’t you chuck it and marry her, then?” he asked.
Fawley smiled a little sadly.
“Mine