The Dark Star Part 68

"If there is to be war, can't you understand the importance to us of those plans?" asked the Princess in a low, quiet voice.

"To--'us'?" he repeated.

"Yes, to _us_. I am Russian, am I not?"

"Yes. I now understand how very Russian you are, Princess. But what has Turkey----"

"What _is_ Turkey?"

"An empire----"

"No. A German province."

"I did not know----"

"That is what the Ottoman Empire is today," continued the Princess Mistchenka, "a Turkish province fortified by Berlin, governed from Berlin through a Germanised Turk, Enver Pasha; the army organised, drilled, equipped, officered, and paid by the Kaiser Wilhelm; every internal resource and revenue and development and projected development mortgaged to Germany and under German control; and the Sultan a n.o.body!"

"I did not know it," repeated Neeland.

"It is the truth, _mon ami_. It is inevitable that Turkey fights if Germany goes to war. England, France, Russia know it. Ask yourself, then, how enormous to us the value of those plans--tentative, sketchy, perhaps, yet the inception and foundation of those German-made and German-armed fortifications which today line the Dardanelles and the adjacent waters within the sphere of Ottoman influence!"

"So _that_ is why you wanted them," he said with an unhappy glance at Rue. "What idiotic impulse prompted me to put them back in the box I can't imagine. You saw me do it, there in the taxicab."

Ruhannah said:

"The chauffeur saw you, too. He was looking at you in his steering mirror; I saw his face. But it never entered my mind that anything except idle curiosity possessed him."

"Perhaps," said the Princess to Neeland, "what you did with the papers saved your life. Had that chauffeur not seen you place them in the box, he might have shot and robbed you as you left the cab, merely on the chance of your having them on your person."

There was a silence; then Neeland said:

"This is a fine business! As far as I can see murder seems to be the essence of the contract."

"It is often incidental to it," said the Princess Mistchenka serenely.

"But you and Ruhannah will soon be out of this affair."

"I?" said the girl, surprised.

"I think so."

"Why, dear?"

"I think there is going to be war. And if there is, France will be concerned. And that means that you and Ruhannah, too, will have to leave France."

"But you?" asked the girl, anxiously.

"I expect to remain. How long can you stay here, Jim?"

Neeland cast an involuntary glance at Rue as he replied:

"I intended to take the next steamer. Why? Can I be of any service to you, Princess Naa?"

The Princess Mistchenka let her dark eyes rest on him for a second, then on Rue Carew.

"I was thinking," she said, "that you might take Ruhannah back with you if war is declared."

"Back to America!" exclaimed the girl. "But where am I to go in America? What am I to do there? I--I didn't think I was quite ready to earn my own living"--looking anxiously at the Princess Naa--"do you think so, dear?"

The Princess said:

"I wanted you to remain. And you must not worry, darling. Some day I shall want you back---- But if there is to be war in Europe you cannot remain here."

"Why not?"

"In the first place, only useful people would be wanted in Paris----"

"But, Naa, darling! Couldn't I be useful to you?" The girl jumped up from the sofa and came and knelt down by the Princess Mistchenka, looking up into her face.

The Princess laid aside her cigarette and put both hands on Rue's shoulders, looking her gravely, tenderly in the eyes.

"Dear," she said, "I want James Neeland to hear this, too. For it is partly a confession.

"When I first saw you, Rue, I was merely sorry for you, and willing to oblige Jim Neeland by keeping an eye on you until you were settled somewhere here in Paris.

"Before we landed I liked you. And, because I saw wonderful possibilities in the little country girl who shared my stateroom, I deliberately made up my mind to develop you, make use of your excellent mind, your quick intelligence, your amazing capacity for absorbing everything that is best, and your very unusual attractions for my own purposes. I meant--to train you--educate you--to aid me."

There was a silence; the girl looked up at her, flushed, intent, perplexed; the Princess Mistchenka, her hands on the girl's shoulders, looked back at her out of grave and beautiful dark eyes.

"That is the truth," said the Princess. "My intention was to develop you along the lines which I follow as a--profession; teach you to extract desirable information through your wit, intelligence, and beauty--using your youth as a mask. But I--I can't do it----" She shook her head slightly. "Because I've lost my heart to you.... And the business I follow is a--a rotten game."

Again silence fell among those three; Rue, kneeling at the elder woman's feet, looked up into her face in silence; Neeland, his elbows resting on his knees, leaned slightly forward from the sofa, watching them.

"I'll help you, if you wish," said Rue Carew.

"Thank you, dear. No."

"Let me. I owe you everything since I have been here----"

"No, dear. What I said to you--and to James--is true. It's a merciless, stealthy, treacherous business; it's dangerous to a woman, body and soul. It is one long lifetime of experience with treachery, with greed, with baser pa.s.sions, with all that is ign.o.ble in mankind.

"There is no reason for you to enter such a circle; no excuse for it; no duty urges you; no patriotism incites you to such self-sacrifice; no memory of wrong done to your nearest and dearest inspires you to dedicate your life to aiding--if only a little, in the downfall and destruction of the nation and the people who encompa.s.sed it!"

The Princess Mistchenka's dark eyes began to gleam, and her beautiful face lost its colour; and she took Rue's little hands in both of hers and held them tightly against her breast.

"Had I not lost my heart to you, perhaps I should not have hesitated to develop and make use of you.

"You are fitted for the role I might wish you to play. Men are fascinated by you; your intelligence charms; your youth and innocence, worn as a mask, might make you invaluable to the Chancellerie which is interested in the information I provide for it.

"But, Rue, I have come to understand that I cannot do this thing. No.