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Page 45
"That, even," I retorted, "is not conclusive."
Clubfoot's mind was extraordinarily alert, however gross and heavy his
body might be.
He paused for a moment in reflection, his hands crossed upon his great
paunch.
"Why not?" he said suddenly, reached out for his cigar-case, beside him
on the table, and produced three slips of paper highly glazed and
covered with that unforgettable, sprawling hand, a portion of a gilded
crest at the top--in short, the missing half of the document I had found
in Semlin's bag. Clubfoot held them out fanwise for me to see, but well
out of my reach, and he kept a great, spatulate thumb over the top of
the first sheet where the name of the addressee should have been.
"I trust you are now convinced, Herr Doktor," he said, with a smile that
bared his teeth, and, putting the pieces together, he folded them
across, tucked them away in the cigar-case again, and thrust it into his
pocket.
I must test the ground further.
"Has it occurred to you, Herr Doktor," I asked, "that we have very
little time at our disposal? The person whom we serve must be anxiously
waiting...."
Clubfoot laughed and shook his head.
"I want that half-letter badly," he said, "but there's no violent hurry.
So I fear you must leave that argument out of your presentation of the
case, for it has no commercial value. The person you speak of is not in
Berlin."
I had heard something of the Kaiser's sudden appearances and
disappearances during the war, but I had not thought they could be so
well managed as to be kept from the knowledge of one of his own trusted
servants, for such I judged Clubfoot to be. Evidently, he knew nothing
of my visit to the Castle that evening, and I was for a moment
unpatriotic enough to wish I had kept my half of the letter that I might
give it to Clubfoot now to save the coming exposure. "A thousand
dollars!" Clubfoot said.
I remained silent.
"Two? Three? Four thousand? Man, you are greedy. Well, I will make it
five thousand--twenty thousand marks...."
"Herr Doktor," I said, "I don't want your money. I want to be fair with
you. When the ... the person we know of sends for you, we will go
together. You shall tell the large part you have played in this affair.
I only want credit for what I have done, nothing more...."
A knock came at the door. The porter entered.
"A telegram for the Herr Doktor," he said, presenting a salver.
Somewhere near by a band was playing dance music ... one of those
rousing, splendidly accented Viennese waltzes. There seemed to be a ball
on, for through the open door of the room, I heard, mingled with the
strains of the music, the sound of feet and the hum of voices.
Then the door closed, shutting out the outer world again.
"You permit me," said Grundt curtly, as he broke the seal of the
telegram. So as not to seem to observe him, I got up and walked across
to the window, and leaned against the warm radiator.
"Well?" said a voice from the arm-chair.
"Well?" I echoed.
"I have made you my proposal, Herr Doktor: you have made yours. Yours is
quite unacceptable. I have told you with great frankness why it is
necessary that I should have your portion of the document and the sum I
am prepared to pay for it. I set its value at five thousand dollars. I
will pay you the money over in cash, here and now, in good German
bank-notes, in exchange for those slips of paper."
The man's suavity had all but vanished: his voice was harsh and stern.
His eyes glittered under his shaggy brows as he looked at me. Had I been
less agitated, I should have noted this, as a portent of the coming
storm, also his great ape's hands picking nervously at the telegram in
his lap.
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