Ambrose Lavendale, Diplomat - ebook

CHAPTER I. THE MAN WHO COULD HAVE ENDED THE WAR

It was a few minutes after one o’clock–the busiest hour of the day at the most popular bar in London. The usual little throng of Americans, journalists, men of business and loiterers, were occupying their accustomed chairs in one corner of the long, green-carpeted room. Around the bar, would-be customers were crowded three or four deep–many of them stalwart Canadians in khaki, making the most of their three days’ leave, and a thin sprinkling of men about town on their way to lunch in the grill-room adjoining. On the outskirts of the group was a somewhat incongruous figure, a rather under-sized, ill-dressed, bespectacled little man, neither young nor old, colourless, with a stoop which was almost a deformity. His fingers were stained to the tip of his nails as though by chemicals or tobacco juice. He held the glass of vermouth which he had just succeeded in obtaining from the bar, half-way suspended to his lips. He was listening to the conversation around him.

‘The most blackguardly trick that has ever been known in civilized warfare!’ a Canadian officer declared indignantly.

‘It’s put the lid on all pretence of conducting this war decently,’ another assented. ‘What about the Hague Convention?’

‘The Hague Convention!’ a young journalist from the other side repeated sarcastically. ‘I should like to know when Germany has ever shown the slightest regard for the Hague Convention or any other agreement which didn’t happen to suit her!’

The little man on the outskirts of the group, who had been listening eagerly to the conversation, ventured upon a question. His accent at once betrayed his transatlantic origin.

‘Say, is there anything fresh this morning?’ he inquired. ‘I haven’t seen the papers yet.’

The Canadian glanced down at the speaker.

‘We were talking,’ he said, ‘about the use of poisonous gases by the Germans. They started pumping them at us yesterday and pretty nearly cleared us out of Ypres.’

The effect of this statement upon the little man was, in its way, extraordinary. For a moment he stood with his mouth open, the glass shaking between his fingers, a queer, set expression in his pale face. Then his lips parted and he began to laugh. It was a mirth so obviously ill-timed, so absolutely unaccountable, that they all turned and stared at him. There was no doubt whatever that for some reason or other the news which he had just heard had excited this strange little person almost hysterically. His lips grew further apart, the whole of his face was puckered up in little creases. Then, just as suddenly as his extraordinary impulse towards mirth had come, it seemed to pass away. He drained his glass, set it down on the edge of the counter, and, turning around, walked slowly out of the place. The remarks that followed him were not altogether inaudible and they were distinctly uncomplimentary.

‘All I could do to keep my toe off the little devil!’ the Canadian exclaimed angrily. ‘I’d like to take him back with me out into the trenches for a few days!’

A young man who had been talking to an English officer on the outskirts of the group, turned around. He was a tall, well-set-up young man, with a face rather grave for his years and a mouth a little over-firm. He, too, had watched the exit of the stranger half in indignation, half in contempt.

‘Who was that extraordinary little man?’ he inquired.

No one seemed to know. The waiter paused with a tray full of glasses.

‘He’s staying in the hotel–arrived yesterday from America, sir,’ he announced. ‘I don’t know his name, but I think he’s a little queer in his head.’

The young man set down his glass upon the counter.

‘A person,’ he remarked, ‘who can laugh at such a ghastly thing, must be either very queer in his head indeed, or––’

‘Or what, Ambrose?’ his companion asked.

‘I don’t know,’ the other replied thoughtfully. ‘Well, au revoir, you fellows! I’m going in to lunch. Sure you won’t come with me, Reggie?’

‘Sorry, I have to be back in ten minutes,’ the other replied. ‘See you to-morrow.’

Ambrose Lavendale strolled out of the room, crossed the smoke-room and descended into the restaurant. At a table in a remote corner, seated by himself, the little man who had been guilty of such a breach of good-feeling was studying the menu with a waiter by his side. Lavendale watched him for a moment curiously. Then he turned to speak to one of the maîtres d’hôtel, a short, dark man with a closely-cropped black moustache.

‘I shan’t want my usual table this morning, Jules,’ he announced. ‘I am going to sit in that corner.’

He indicated a vacant table close to the little man whom he had been watching. The maîtres d’hôtel bowed and ushered him towards it.

‘Just as you like, Mr. Lavendale,’ he said. ‘It isn’t often you care about this side of the room, though.’

Lavendale seated himself at the table he had selected, gave a brief order, and, leaning back, glanced around him. The little man had sent for a newspaper and was reading it eagerly, but for a moment Lavendale’s interest was attracted elsewhere. At the very next table, also alone, also reading a newspaper, was the most striking-looking young woman he had ever seen in his life. Lavendale was neither susceptible nor imaginative. He considered himself a practical, hard-headed person, notwithstanding the fact that he had embraced what was for his country practically a new profession. Nevertheless, he was conscious of what almost amounted to a new interest in life as he studied, a little too eagerly, perhaps, the girl’s features. She was dark, with hair brushed plainly back from a somewhat high and beautifully shaped forehead. Her complexion was pale, her eyes a deep shade of soft brown. Her eyebrows were almost Japanese, fine and silky yet intensely dark. Her mouth, even in repose, seemed full of curves. She appeared to be of medium height and she was undoubtedly graceful, and what made her more interesting still to Lavendale was the fact that, although her manner of doing so was stealthy, she, too, was watching the little man who was now commencing his luncheon.

Lavendale, after a few moments’ reflection, adopted the obvious course. He summoned Jules and inquired the young lady’s name. The man was able at once to give him the desired information.

‘Miss de Freyne, sir,’ he whispered discreetly. ‘She is a writer, I believe. I am not quite sure,’ the man added, ‘whether she is not the agent over here of some French dramatists. I have seen her sometimes with theatrical parties.’

Lavendale nodded and settled down rather ineffectively to his lunch. Before he had finished he had arrived at two conclusions. The first was that Miss de Freyne, although obviously not for the same reason, was as much interested in the stranger as he was; and the second that his first impressions concerning her personality were, if anything, too weak. He ransacked his memory for the names of all the theatrical people whom he knew, and made mental notes of them. It was his firm intention to make her acquaintance before the day was over. Once their eyes met, and, notwithstanding a reasonable amount of savoir faire, for the moment he was almost embarrassed. He found it impossible to glance away, and she returned a regard which he felt in a way was semi-committal, with a queer sort of nonchalant interest in a sense provocative, although it contained nothing of invitation. At the end of the meal Lavendale had come to a decision. He signed his bill, rose from his place and approached the table at which the little man was seated.

‘Sir,’ he said, ‘I am a stranger to you, but I should like, if I may, to ask you a question.’

Even in that moment’s pause, when the little man laid down his newspaper and was staring up at his questioner in manifest surprise, Lavendale felt that his proceeding had attracted the strongest interest from the young woman seated only a few feet away. She had leaned ever so slightly forward. A coffee cup with which she had been toying had been noiselessly returned to its saucer. It was genuine interest, this, not curiosity.

‘Say, how’s that?’ the little man exclaimed. ‘Ask me a question? Why, I don’t know as there’d be any harm in that. I’m not promising that I’ll answer it.’

‘I was in the bar a moment ago,’ Lavendale continued, ‘when they were talking of these poisonous gases which the Germans are using. I heard you ask a question and I heard the answer. You were apparently for the first time informed of this new practice of theirs. Will you tell me why, when you heard of it, you laughed?’

The little man nodded his head slowly as though in response to some thought.

‘Sit down, young fellow,’ he invited. ‘Are you an American?’

‘I am,’ Lavendale admitted. ‘My name is Ambrose Lavendale and I was attached to the Embassy here until last August.’

‘That so?’ the other replied with some interest. ‘Well, mine’s Hurn. I don’t know a soul in London and you may be useful to me, so if you like I’ll answer your question. You thought my laugh abominable, I guess?’

‘I did,’ Lavendale assented,–‘we all did. I dare say you heard some of the comments that followed you out!’

‘It was a selfish laugh, perhaps,’ the little man continued thoughtfully, ‘but it was not an inhuman one. Now, sir, I will answer your question. I will tell you what that piece of information which I heard at the bar, and which I find in the paper here, means to me and means to the world. Hold tight, young man. I am going to make a statement which, if you are sensible enough to believe it, will take your breath away. If you don’t, you’ll think I’m a lunatic. Are you ready?’

‘Go ahead,’ Lavendale invited. ‘I guess my nerves are in pretty good order.’

Mr. Hurn laid the flat of his hand upon the table and looked upwards at his companion. He spoke very slowly and very distinctly.

‘I can stop the war,’ he declared.

Lavendale smiled at him incredulously–the man was mad!

‘Really?’ he exclaimed. ‘Well, you’ll be the greatest benefactor the world has ever known, if you can.’

The little man, who had arrived at the final stage of his luncheon, helped himself to another pat of butter.

‘You don’t believe me, of course,’ he said, ‘yet it happens that I am speaking the truth. You are thinking, I guess, that I am a pitifully insignificant little unit in this great city, in this raging world. Yet I have spoken the solid truth. I can stop the war, and, if you like, you can help me.’

Lavendale withdrew his eyes from his new acquaintance’s face for a moment and glanced towards the girl. Something that was almost a smile of mutual understanding flashed between them. Doubtless she had overheard some part of their conversation. Lavendale raised his voice a little in order that she might hear more. He felt a thrill of pleasure at the thought that they were establishing a mutual confidence.

‘I’ll help, of course,’ he promised. ‘In what direction are your efforts to be made?’

The little man paused in the act of drinking a glass of water, squinted at his questioner, and set the tumbler down empty.

‘Wondering what sort of a crank you’ve got hold of, eh?’

Lavendale began to be impressed. The little man did not look in the least like a lunatic.

‘Well, it’s rather a sweeping proposition, yours,’ Lavendale remarked.

‘Everything in the world,’ the other reminded him didactically, ‘was impossible before it was done. Your help needn’t be very strenuous. I guess there’s some sort of headquarters in London from which this war is run, eh?’

‘There’s the War Office,’ Lavendale explained.

‘Know any one there?’

‘Yes, I know a good many soldiers who have jobs there just now.’

‘Then I guess you can help by saving me time. Do you happen to be acquainted with any one in the Ordnance Department?’

Lavendale reflected for a moment.

‘Yes, I know a man there,’ he admitted. ‘It’s just as well to warn you, though, that they’re absolutely fed up with trying new shells and powder.’

The little man smiled–a queer, reflective smile, filled with some quality of self-appreciation which seemed at once to lift him above the whole world of crazy inventors.

‘Your friend there now,’ he asked, ‘or will he be taking his British two hours for lunch?’

‘He never leaves the building after he gets there in the morning,’ Lavendale replied.

Mr. Daniel H. Hurn signed his bill and laid down an insignificant tip.

‘You through with your luncheon?’ he inquired. ‘Right! Then what about taking me along and letting me have a word with your friend?’

‘I don’t mind,’ Lavendale agreed, a little doubtfully, ‘but he hasn’t very much influence.’

Again the other smiled, and again Lavendale was impressed by that mysterious contortion. He glanced towards the adjoining table. The girl was still watching them closely. Jules, whom she had apparently just summoned, was standing by her side, and Lavendale was convinced that the questions which she was obviously asking, referred to him. He left the room with reluctance and followed his companion through the hall and into a taxi.

‘Not sure whether I told you,’ the latter remarked, as he seated himself, ‘that my name is Hurn–Daniel H. Hurn–and I come from way out west.’

‘Glad to meet you, Mr. Hurn,’ Lavendale murmured mechanically. ‘You are not taking anything with you to show the people at the War Office, then?’

Mr. Hurn shook his head.

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