“Good. This mountain air is excellent for the nerves. I shall sleep
late tomorrow and do not wish to be called. You will go personally to
Windenberg at eleven o’clock with a closed carriage. You will meet Herr
Rizzio, whom you will recognize by his tall, distinguished appearance
and excellent clothing. He will be accompanied by a young lady. It is
my wish that they be brought to this house and given separate rooms on
the upper story and placed under guard until I summon them. No one must
see them enter this house. To accomplish this purpose, Herr Hammersley
must go to the hangar. The means I leave to you. Captain von Winden
will be of service. Do you understand?”
“Perfectly.”
“For the present that is all. I shall go to my room. Good night.”
“Good night, Excellenz.”
* * * * *
Meanwhile, upstairs in his room, Hammersley, after having eaten, was
preparing for bed. For a tired man he went about it in a very leisurely
way, smoking a cigarette, and wandering about the room stretching his
long limbs and yawning between whiles. Then, after a time, he took
off his clothes and bathed. It was perhaps an hour before he blew out
his candle, and even then he did not get immediately into bed. He sat
on the edge of the couch for a while, listening and watching the cold
moonlight outside his dormer window, or the dim line of light that came
from beneath the door into the hall. Then, apparently satisfied that he
was to be quite free from interruption, he straightened and stood up,
waiting again. Still no sound. He reached for the table, where he had
put his watch and the things from his pockets, and picked up a large
pocket-knife, carefully opening the large blade. Then, with quick,
noiseless footsteps, he crossed the room to the fireplace and felt with
the fingers of one hand carefully along the edge of the chimney breast.
His fingers reached a spot where there was an unevenness, and feeling
carefully, thrust the knife-blade its full length beneath the paper,
slowly withdrawing it. Something protruded which was quickly taken
into the palm of his left hand. With great care he smoothed the broken
wallpaper back into its place and noiselessly closing the knife got
softly into bed.
He lay on his back for a while, his eyes wide open, watching the window
and the door and then, pulling the heavy blankets up, slipped lower
and lower under the covers until he disappeared from view. In the
room all was dark, but under the blankets he read by the light of an
electric pocket torch some writing in German upon a thin slip of paper.
Papers arrive tomorrow night, eleven--from
Berlin--automobile--by Schöndorf road.
CHAPTER XIII
THE UNWILLING GUEST
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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