The Cage of the Wild Birds'Why, Mr Ivery, come right in,' said the voice at the table.
There was a screen before me, stretching from the fireplace to keep off the draught from the door by which I had entered. It stood higher than my head but there were cracks in it through which I could watch the room. I found a little table on which Icould lean my back, for I was dropping with fatigue.
Blenkiron sat at the writing-table and in front of him were little rows of Patience cards. Wood ashes still smouldered in the stove, and a lamp stood at his right elbow which lit up the two figures.
The bookshelves and the cabinets were in twilight.
'I've been hoping to see you for quite a time.' Blenkiron was busy arranging the little heaps of cards, and his face was wreathed in hospitable smiles. I remember wondering why he should play the host to the true master of the house.
Ivery stood erect before him. He was rather a splendid figure now that he had sloughed all disguises and was on the threshold of his triumph. Even through the fog in which my brain worked it was forced upon me that here was a man born to play a big part. He had a jowl like a Roman king on a coin, and scornful eyes that were used to mastery. He was younger than me, confound him, and now he looked it.
He kept his eyes on the speaker, while a smile played round his mouth, a very ugly smile.
'So,' he said. 'We have caught the old crow too. I had scarcely hoped for such good fortune, and, to speak the truth, I had not concerned myself much about you. But now we shall add you to the bag. And what a bag of vermin to lay out on the lawn!' He flung back his head and laughed.
'Mr Ivery -' Blenkiron began, but was cut short.
'Drop that name. All that is past, thank God! I am the Graf von Schwabing, an officer of the Imperial Guard. I am not the least of the weapons that Germany has used to break her enemies.'
'You don't say,' drawled Blenkiron, still fiddling with his Patience cards.
The man's moment had come, and he was minded not to miss a jot of his triumph. His figure seemed to expand, his eye kindled, his voice rang with pride. It was melodrama of the best kind and he fairly rolled it round his tongue. I don't think I grudged it him, for I was fingering something in my pocket. He had won all right, but he wouldn't enjoy his victory long, for soon I would shoot him. Ihad my eye on the very spot above his right ear where I meant to put my bullet ... For I was very clear that to kill him was the only way to protect Mary. I feared the whole seventy millions of Germany less than this man. That was the single idea that remained firm against the immense fatigue that pressed down on me.
'I have little time to waste on you,' said he who had been called Ivery. 'But I will spare a moment to tell you a few truths. Your childish game never had a chance. I played with you in England and I have played with you ever since. You have never made a move but I have quietly countered it. Why, man, you gave me your confidence. The American Mr Donne ...'
'What about Clarence?' asked Blenkiron. His face seemed a study in pure bewilderment.
'I was that interesting journalist.'
'Now to think of that!' said Blenkiron in a sad, gentle voice. 'Ithought I was safe with Clarence. Why, he brought me a letter from old Joe Hooper and he knew all the boys down Emporia way.'
Ivery laughed. 'You have never done me justice, I fear; but Ithink you will do it now. Your gang is helpless in my hands.
General Hannay ...' And I wish I could give you a notion of the scorn with which he pronounced the word 'General'.
'Yes - ****?' said Blenkiron intently.
'He has been my prisoner for twenty-four hours. And the pretty Miss Mary, too. You are all going with me in a little to my own country. You will not guess how. We call it the Underground Railway, and you will have the privilege of studying its working.
... I had not troubled much about you, for I had no special dislike of you. You are only a blundering fool, what you call in your country easy fruit.'
'I thank you, Graf,' Blenkiron said solemnly.
'But since you are here you will join the others ... One last word. To beat inepts such as you is nothing. There is a far greater thing. My country has conquered. You and your friends will be dragged at the chariot wheels of a triumph such as Rome never saw. Does that penetrate your thick skull? Germany has won, and in two days the whole round earth will be stricken dumb by her greatness.'
As I watched Blenkiron a grey shadow of hopelessness seemed to settle on his face. His big body drooped in his chair, his eyes fell, and his left hand shuffled limply among his Patience cards. I could not get my mind to work, but I puzzled miserably over his amazing blunders. He had walked blindly into the pit his enemies had dug for him. Peter must have failed to get my message to him, and he knew nothing of last night's work or my mad journey to Italy. We had all bungled, the whole wretched bunch of us, Peter and Blenkiron and myself ... I had a feeling at the back of my head that there was something in it all that I couldn't understand, that the catastrophe could not be quite as ****** as it seemed. But I had no power to think, with the insolent figure of Ivery dominating the room ... Thank God I had a bullet waiting for him. That was the one fixed point in the chaos of my mind. For the first time in my life I was resolute on killing one particular man, and the purpose gave me a horrid comfort.
Suddenly Ivery's voice rang out sharp. 'Take your hand out of your pocket. You fool, you are covered from three points in the walls. A movement and my men will make a sieve of you. Others before you have sat in that chair, and I am used to take precautions.
Quick. Both hands on the table.'
There was no mistake about Blenkiron's defeat. He was done and out, and I was left with the only card. He leaned wearily on his arms with the palms of his hands spread out.
'I reckon you've gotten a strong hand, Graf,' he said, and his voice was flat with despair.
'I hold a royal flush,' was the answer.
