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"By-the-by, you had better look after your papers there, Herr Selingman. Just as I woke up I saw a small slip fluttering along the seat. You made a most infernal draught by opening that door, and I almost fancy it went out of the window." Herr Selingman's face became suddenly grave. He went through the papers one by one, and finally locked them up in his bag. "Nothing missing, I hope?"
Is your name, too, upon that long roll of those who are pledged to assist his country?" "It is," he admitted. She drew a little away. "You admit it? You have already consented?" "I have drawn a quarter's salary," Norgate confessed. "I have entered Selingman's corps of the German Secret Service." "You mean that you are a traitor!" she exclaimed.
Norgate asked. Herr Selingman's face was troubled. "I am not sure," he said. "It is my belief that I had with me here a list of my agents in England. I cannot find it. In a sense it is unimportant, yet if a rival firm should obtain possession of it, there might be trouble." Norgate looked out into the night and smiled.
Behold! here in London, we are welcomed by a German maître d'hôtel; we are waited on by a German waiter; we drink German wine; we eat off what I very well know is German crockery." "And some day, I suppose," Norgate put in, "we are to be German subjects. Isn't that so?" Selingman's denial was almost unduly emphatic. "Never!" he exclaimed.
I do not like to hurt anybody's feelings, and I know that Captain Baring would like very much to dine with me to-night himself. I was obliged to throw him over last night because of Mr. Selingman's arrival." "You have not always been so considerate," he persisted. "Why this especial care for Baring's feelings?" She turned her head a little towards him.
"Supposing Germany takes the plunge, and then England, contrary to anticipation, decides to support France?" Selingman's face darkened. A sudden purposeless anger shook his voice. "We choose a time," he declared, "when England's hands are tied. She is in no position to go to war with any one. I have many reports reaching me every day.
Norgate shook his head. "As a matter of fact," he said, "I have worked rather hard during the last five or six years. It is only just recently that I have lost my occupation." Herr Selingman's curiosity was almost childlike in its transparency, but Norgate found himself unable to gratify it.
Your interests are drawn into ours. You have now a real and great reason for throwing in your lot with us. Let me look at you. Let me think whether I may not venture upon a great gamble." Norgate did not flinch. He appeared simply a little puzzled. Selingman's blue, steel-like eyes seemed striving to reach the back of his brain.
Now, if I were you, I would arrest the master-spy for whom I have been working. Most of the information he has picked up lately has been pretty bad, and I fancy he'll get a warm reception if he does get back to Berlin, but if ever there was a foreigner who abused the hospitality of this country, Selingman's the man." "We'll see about that presently," Mr. Hebblethwaite declared, leaning back.
Francis Norgate save what I saw this morning. He is one of that type of Englishmen, clean-bred, well-born, full of reserve, taciturn, yet, I would swear, honourable. I know the type, and I do not believe in such a man being your servant." The shadow of anxiety crossed Selingman's face. "Have you any reason for saying this?" he repeated.
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