Warner discovered him still standing where she had left him, the white blossom hanging from his clenched fist.
"Well," he said, "how did you sleep after that villainous business of last night?"
"Thanks, I slept," replied Halkett, rousing himself.
They went into the arbor together, and presently Linette came out of the house carrying their coffee.
"Where is your little friend Philippa?" inquired the Englishman with an effort.
"In bed, I fancy. Linette has just taken up her cafe-au-lait. I think the child is feeling the reaction."
"No wonder. Plucky little thing!"
"Yes. But what on earth am I going to do with her, Halkett? Ought I to wait until that old scoundrel Wildresse comes here or telephones? Ought I to try to persuade her to go back to that cabaret? Ought I to telephone that she is safe here?"
"The wires are cut."
"I know. Somebody will fix them, though. Do you think I'd better try to persuade Philippa to let me drive her over to Ausone in the trap? If I'm to keep her, I ought to have an interview with Wildresse, or she and I will get into trouble."
"Oh, Lord!" said Halkett. "That's your affair. Listen, Warner, I'm so worried about Gray I can't think of anything else. Something serious certainly has happened to him. And until those wires are repaired, I shan't know what to do. Is there any other way we can communicate with Ausone?"
"None that I know of, unless somebody goes over to Ausone. I can do that if you like. I can drive over in the trap. Of course the telephone people already know that there's a break on the line, and no doubt they're out now looking for it. We'll be in communication with Ausone by noon, I expect."
For a little while they exchanged views concerning the attack of the previous night, and Halkett was of the opinion that the order for mobilization would now restrain any further violence on the part of those who had been following him, if, indeed, it did not entirely clear them out of France. And he expressed a desire for the envelope.
So Warner went into the house, lifted the partly hardened skin of white lead from the canvas, disinterred the envelope, wiped it clean, and brought it out to Halkett. The Englishman put it into his breast pocket.
"It was perfectly safe where it was," remarked the other. "It's an invitation to murder where it is now."
"Yes, but it's no good to anybody unless Gray turns up. I wish I knew what had become of that man. I think I'll try the telephone again----"
He rose and walked swiftly toward the house, Ariadne trotting at his heels. Even as he approached, he heard the telephone bell ringing, and hastened his steps toward the house.
But as he entered, the girl Philippa stepped into the hallway, and he caught a glimpse of a slim, barefooted figure, holding with one hand the folds of a shabby chamber robe around her, and with the other the receiver.
"What?" she cried in answer to a question. "Yes, I am Philippa.... Oh! It's _you_. I thought so.... What do you desire of me?"
What Wildresse desired of the girl Philippa intimately concerned Halkett. He coolly remained to listen.
"No!" she said in her clear, emotionless voice. "I shall not come back! ... Very well; if the Government agents want me, they can find me here.... You may threaten me with arrest by the Government if you choose, but I know that you are more afraid of the Government than I am.... _Why_ shouldn't I say it! Yes, I know quite well that we are going to have war.... You say that the Germans are already across the Duchy? Skirmishing before Longwy? Very well; why don't you inform _one_ of your Governments? ... No, I won't keep quiet! No, no, _no_! ... What you say does not frighten me.... I refuse to return! ... Because I am now in an honest business for myself.... Yes, it is an honest business. I am permitted to pose for an artist of great distinction.... What you _say_ does not frighten me; but what you _are_ does cause me some apprehension. And knowing as much as I do know about you, I seriously advise you to leave France.... No, I haven't said such a thing to anybody else, but I am likely to, so you had better hasten to leave for America. Yes, I will tell you why, if you wish. It is because there are always two millstones when anything is to be crushed. War is now beginning to bring those two stones together. The mill wheel already is turning! When the two millstones meet, the little meal worm that has remained between them so long in safety is going to be crushed.... Oh, yes, you _do_ know what I mean! You also know whom I mean. Very well, then, if you don't I'll tell you this much: _double wages_ never are paid by a _single_ master. I learned that yesterday when you gave me the _wrong_ paper to forward to Paris with the others. Fortunately for you, I read it. I then burnt it to ashes and took my clothes and my punt and my departure! I might have continued to endure what you had accustomed me to. But _two_ masters! Faugh! The horror of it! ... Fear? If you really think _that_ of me, then you have never really known me. It was disgust and shame that drove me toward liberty.... Yes, this that I say is final.... You _dare_ not interfere! ... Then I'll say this: if you do not leave France now, _at once_, in this moment of her peril, I _will_ tell what I know to the first soldier of France who crosses my path! ... I am not afraid of you, I tell you.... Believe me, you are well rid of me.... I warn you, in God's name, to let me alone!"
She hung up the receiver, turned, and mounted the stairs with flying feet, but at the top landing Halkett's quiet voice halted her.
"I was listening, Philippa. What that man says or does may cost me dear. What did he want of you?"
"Mr. Halkett," leaning swiftly toward him over the handrail above--"he is the most ignoble of creatures! And after five years I learned only yesterday that he sells his filthy secrets in _two_ markets!--Three, perhaps; _I_ don't know how many! And I no longer care! It ceases to interest _me_!"
"Wait! It interests _me_!"
"But I can't say any more to you than I have----"
"Why not?"
"I don't know. _Can_ I? You know better than I. But I don't wish to betray anybody, even such a man as--as----"
"Wildresse?"
"Yes."
"Is he also betraying France?"
"I--I don't know. I suppose it is that. I haven't yet tried to comprehend it----"
"What was the paper you started to forward, then read, and finally burned?"
"It was a letter directed to a Mr. Esser. He is a German."
"The head of the Esser Cement Works?"
"Yes."
"What was in the letter?"
"A list of the guns in the Ausone Fort and a plan of the emplacements on tissue paper.... Perhaps I am stupid, but I could guess what a German wanted with a plan of a French fort! It was enough for me! I took my punt and my effects and I departed!"
"You burnt the letter?"
"In my candle. Also, I wrote on a piece of paper, 'You damned traitor!' and I pinned it on his door. Then I went out by the garden door with my leather trunk on my head!"
"Come down when you are dressed," said Halkett, and walked back through the hallway to the garden.
"Warner," he said, "this old spider, Wildresse, is certainly a bad lot. I'd have him arrested by French gendarmes if I were certain that England is going in. But I dare not chance it until I'm sure. Perhaps I dare not chance it at all, because if he has had anything to do with Gray's disappearance, as I am beginning to suspect, it would not do to have the French authorities examine my papers."
"Why?"
"Because--if they have already seized Gray's papers, they will secure military information which perhaps my Government might not care to have even an ally possess. I don't know whether Gray is living or dead; I don't know who has Gray's papers at this instant. That's the trouble. And I'm hanged if I know what to do! I'm stumped, and that's the devilish truth!"
He took a few quick, uncertain steps along the flower beds, turned, came back to the arbor where Warner was seated:
"It's a mess!" he said. "Even if agents employed by Wildresse have robbed Gray--murdered him, perhaps, to do it--I don't know what Wildresse means to do with Gray's papers."
"What!"
Halkett nodded:
"Yes, he's _that_ kind! Pleasant, isn't it? If he has Gray's papers, it may be France that will pay him for them; it may be that Germany has already bought and paid for them. In either case, carrying the papers I carry, I hesitate to ask for his arrest. Do you understand?"
"Very clearly. If there is any way you can think of to get hold of this scoundrel, I'll be glad to help. Shall we drive over to Ausone and try?"
"You're very kind, Warner. I don't know; I want to think it over----" He turned and walked back to the house, entered the hallway, unhooked the telephone, and finally was given a connection--not the one he had asked for.
A voice said curtly:
"During mobilization no private messages are transmitted." Click! And the connection was severed. Again and again he made the attempt; no further attention was paid to his ringing. Finally he hung up the receiver and started to go out through the front doorway.