"I know what I say to be true, Baron; just as I am convinced that you went there to protest against any violence at all."
"Ah, you know that. Yes, that is true. I swear that," he cried eagerly. "I should have prevented it. My authority as leader would have prevented it. Would to Heaven I had been in time!"
"You have great influence with your associates, then?"
"I am the leader of the whole movement. My word is absolute."
The declaration was made with a singular mixture of pride and simpleness. It was obvious that he believed it. "You think those men last night would have obeyed you?"
"They would not have dared to disobey," he replied in the same tone. "I went there to inquire into a charge of treachery against Ziegler--that he had betrayed some of our plans to an Englishman---- Why it was to you, of course." He said this with a little start as if he had just recalled it. "I was called to Berlin on that very matter."
I began to see light now. Althea was right in one respect--his mind was so affected and his memory so clouded that consecutive reasoning was impossible. He was not responsible for either words or deeds. But there was more behind. Some one was using him as a stalking horse for very sinister purposes.
"You arrived in the capital yesterday and were told to come to the house of a man believed to be about to betray your schemes?"
"Yes," he said simply, almost pathetically.
"No. I didn’t understand it. I forgot until this moment, indeed, that you were the suspected Englishman."
It was obviously useless to question him any more about that. "Now, as to this other purpose--the bigger plan of your associates?"
"Have I not proved to you that I know things? But I am not a traitor, Baron."
He smiled childishly. He had become almost like a child, indeed, now. "It will be a grand stroke against the Government. We shall destroy the vessel, of course; but there will be no loss of life. I will not sanction the taking of lives, Herr Bastable."
So this was the scheme. To blow up one of the Kaiser’s warships. I repressed all signs of astonishment and tried to look as if I had expected the reply. "But you cannot avoid loss of life, Baron."
It proved a very fortunate remark. With a very cunning smile he looked up and nodded his head knowingly. "I shall not allow it to be done until I am sure of that. I keep the bomb in my own possession till then"; and he hugged the little bag closer than ever to his side.
