The Secrets Of Potsdam Part 24

"No. The letter I found upon my dressing-table, but I have not discovered who placed it there," he said. "The fellow evidently intends to carry out his threat and expose me to the Emperor."

"What can he expose?" I queried.

But "Willie" was not to be caught like that. He merely replied:

"Well--something which must at all hazards be concealed. How this Spaniard can know I cannot in the least imagine--unless that woman gave me away!"

For the next two days I was mostly out with his Highness in the car, and in addition the Kaiser reviewed the Prussian Guard, a ceremony which always gave me much extra work.

On the third day I had in the morning been out to the Wildpark Station, and, pa.s.sing the sentries, had re-entered the Palace, when one of the footmen approached me, saying:

"Pardon, Count, but there is a gentleman to see his Imperial Highness.

He will give no name, and refuses to leave. I called the captain of the guard, who has interrogated him, and he has been put into the blue ante-room until your return."

At that moment I saw the captain of the guard striding down the corridor towards me.

"A bald-headed man is here to see His Highness, and will give no name,"

he told me. "He is waiting now. Will you see him?"

"No," I said, my suspicions aroused. "I will first see the Crown-Prince."

After some search I found the latter lolling at his ease in his own smoking-room in the private apartments, reading a French novel and consuming cigarettes.

"Hulloa, Heltzendorff! Well, what's the trouble?" he asked. "I see something is wrong from your face."

"The man Aranda is here," I replied.

"Here!" he gasped, starting up and flinging the book aside. "Who let him in?"

"I don't know, but he is below demanding to see you."

"Has he made any statement? Has he told anybody what he knows?" demanded the Crown-Prince, who at that moment presented what might be termed a white-livered appearance, cowed, and even trembling. In his slant eyes showed a look of undisguised terror, and I realized that the truth, whatever it might be, was a d.a.m.ning and most disgraceful one.

"I can't see him, Heltzendorff," he whined to me. "See him; hear what he has to say--and--and you will keep my secret? Promise me."

I promised. And I should have kept that promise were it not for his brutal and blackguardly acts after the outbreak of war--acts which placed him, with his Imperial father, beyond the pale of respectable society.

I was turning to leave the room, when he sprang towards me with that quick agility of his, and, placing his white, manicured hand upon my arm, said:

"Whatever he may say you will not believe--will you?"

"And if he wants money?" I asked.

"Ascertain the amount, and come here to me."

A quarter of an hour later Martinez Aranda sat in my room opposite my table. I had told him that unfortunately His Imperial Highness was engaged, for the Emperor had come over from the Neues Palace for luncheon. Then I inquired the nature of his business.

"Well, Count, you and I are not altogether strangers, are we?" was his reply, as he sat back calmly and crossed his legs, perfectly at his ease. "But my business is only with His Highness, and with n.o.body else."

"His Highness sees n.o.body upon business. I am appointed to deal with all his business affairs, and anything told to me is the same as though spoken into his ear."

The Spaniard from Montmartre was silent for a moment.

"If that is the case, then I would be glad if you will obtain his permission for me to speak. He will remember my name."

"I already received orders before I invited you up," I said. "His Highness wishes you to deal with me. He knows that you are here to settle some delicate little piece of business concerning that secret visit of his to Rome--eh?"

"Yes," he answered, after a few seconds' pause. "I am well aware, Count, that for mention of the reason I am here you might call the guard to arrest me for blackmail. But first let me a.s.sure His Highness that such action would not be advisable in the interests of either himself or of the Emperor. I have already made arrangements for exposure in case His Highness endeavours to close my mouth by such means."

"Good. We understand each other. What is your complaint?" I inquired.

"I know the truth concerning the mysterious death of the woman, Claudia Ferrona, in Rome last December," he said briefly.

"Oh!" I exclaimed. "Perhaps you will tell me next that the Crown-Prince is an a.s.sa.s.sin? Come, that will be really interesting," I laughed.

"Perhaps you will tell me how it all happened--the extent of your knowledge."

"Why should I do that? Go to the Crown-Prince and tell him what I allege--tell him that the girl, Lizette Sabin, whom he knows, was a witness."

"Well, let us come to business," I said. "How much do you want for your silence?"

"I want nothing--not a sou!" was the hard reply. "All I want is to reveal to the Emperor that his son is responsible for a woman's death.

And that is what I intend doing. You hear that! Well, Count von Heltzendorff, please go and tell him so."

Quickly realizing the extreme gravity of the situation, I returned to the Crown-Prince and told him the startling allegation made against him.

His face went as white as paper.

"We must pay the fellow off. Close his mouth somehow. Help me, Heltzendorff," he implored. "What can I do? He must not reveal the truth to the Emperor!"

"Then it really is the truth!" I exclaimed, astounded.

The Crown-Prince hung his head, and in a low, hoa.r.s.e voice replied:

"It is my accursed luck! The woman must have told the truth to this scoundrel of a Spaniard before--before she died!"

"And Lizette?" I asked. "She is a witness, the fellow says."

"No, no!" cried His Highness wildly, covering his white face with his hands as though to hide the guilt written upon his countenance. "Say no more! Ask the fellow's price, and pay him. We must not allow him to go to the Emperor."

Three minutes later I went back to my room, but it was empty. The Spaniard had walked out, and would, no doubt, be wandering somewhere in the private apartments.

At that instant the telephone rang, and, answering it, I heard that His Majesty had just arrived by car, and was on his way up to the room wherein I stood--the room in which he generally met his son.

For a moment I was perplexed, but a few seconds later I held my breath when I saw coming down the corridor the Emperor, and walking with him the adventurer, who had apparently met him on his way downstairs.

I confess that at that most dramatic moment I was entirely nonplussed. I saw how cleverly Aranda had timed his visit, and how, by some means, he knew of the internal arrangements of the Marmor Palace.

"Yes," the Emperor exclaimed to the Spaniard. "You wish to have audience. Well?"