May 16, 2025 • 26 mins
When the British Consulate in Leghorn falls victim to a puzzling burglary, and an enigmatic English yacht pays an unexpected visit, it sparks an enthralling journey of espionage and hidden criminal machinations. This thrilling tale sweeps the reader from London to Scotland, and finally to the oppressed lands of Finland, under the harsh rule of imperial Russia. Our protagonist is a man of exceptional acumen, a precursor to the likes of Double O Seven, who finds himself pushed to his limits as he navigates this web of intrigue and deception to uncover the truth. - Summary by Nicholas Clifford
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter fifteen of The Tsar's Spy. This Liebervox recording is
in the public domain recording by Tom Weiss. The Tsar
Spy by William Lee qu chapter fifteen. Just off the Strand,
A week had gone by. The Nord Express had brought
(00:22):
me posthaste across Europe from Petersburg to Calais, and I
was again in London. I had left Elma in the
care of Princess Zulov, who I knew would conceal her
from the horde of police agents now in search of her.
The mystery had so increased until now it had become
absolutely bewildering. The more I had tried to probe it,
(00:46):
the more inexplicable had I found it. My brain was
a whirl as I sat in the wagon lit rushing
across those wide, never ending plains that lie between the
Russian capital and Berlin, and the green valleys between the
Rhinelands and the sea. The maze of mystery rendered me
utterly incapable of grasping one solid, tangible fact. So closely
(01:09):
interwoven was each incident of the strange life drama in which,
through mere chance, I was now playing a leading part.
I was aware of one fact, only that I loved
Alma with all my soul, even though I knew not
whom she really was or her strange life story. Her
sweet face with those soft brown eyes, so tender and intense,
(01:32):
stood out ever before me, sleeping or waking each moment
as the express rushed south increased the distance between us.
Yet was I not on my way back to England
with a clear and distinct purpose. I snatched at any clue,
however small, with desperate eagerness as a drowning man clutches
at a straw. The Spy from a Bow had seen
(01:54):
me on the railway platform on my departure from Petersburg.
He had overheard me buy a ticket for London, and
previous to stepping into the train, I had smiled at
him in glad triumph. My journey was too long a
one for him to follow, and I knew that I
had at last outwitted him. He had expected to see
(02:15):
Elma with me, no doubt, and his disappointment was plainly marked.
But of woodruff I had neither seen nor heard anything.
It was a cold but dry November night in London,
and I sat dining with Jack Dernford at a small
table in the big, well lit room of the Junior
United Service Club. Easy going and merry as of old,
(02:37):
my friend was bubbling over with good spirits, delighted to
be back again in town after three years sailing up
and down the Mediterranean from gyp Tsmyrna, maneuvering always yet
with never a chance of a fight. His well shaven
face bore the mark of the southern suns, and the
backs of his hands were tanned by the heat and
the sea. He was indeed as smart an officer as
(03:00):
any at the Junior, for the Marines are proverbial for
their neatness, and his men on board the Bulwark had
received many a pleasing compliment from the Admiral. Glad to
be back, he exclaimed, as he helped himself to a peg,
I should rather think so, old Chap. You know how
awfully wearying the life becomes out there, Lots going on
(03:22):
down at Palermo, Malta, Monte Carlo, or over at Algiers,
and yet we can never get a chance of it.
We're always in sight of the gay places, and never land.
I don't blame the youngsters for getting off from Legrn
for two days over here in town when they can.
Three years is a bigger slice out of a fellow's
life than any one would suppose. But by the way
(03:45):
I saw Hutchinson the other day, we put into Spezzia
and he came out to see the Admiral got dispatches
from him. I think he seems as gay as ever.
He lunched at mess and said, how sorry he was.
You've deserted lake. I haven't exactly deserted it, I said,
but I really don't love it like he does. No,
(04:07):
a year or two of the Mediterranean blue is quite
sufficient to last any fellow of his lifetime. I shouldn't
live in Legrn if I had my choice, I prefer
somewhere up in the mountains beyond Pizza, or outside Florence,
where you can have a good time and winter. Then
a silence fell between us, and I sat eating on
until the end of the meal, wondering how to broach
(04:30):
the question I so desired to put to him. I
shall try if I can get on the recruiting services
at home for a bit, he said, Presently, there's an
appointment up at Glascow vacant, and I shall try for it.
It'll be better at any rate than China or the Pacific.
I was just about to turn the conversation to the
visit of the mysterious Lola to le Gorn, when two
(04:52):
men he knew entered the dining room, and, recognizing him,
came across to give him a welcome home. One of
the newcomers was Major Bartlett, whom I at once recollected
as having been a guest of Life Courts up at Rennoch,
and the other a younger man whom Dernford introduced to
me as Captain Hanbury. Oh, Major, I cried, rising and
(05:14):
grasping his hand. I haven't seen you since Scotland and
the extraordinary ending to your house party. No, he laughed.
It was an amazing affair, wasn't it? After the Life
Courts left. It was like pandemonium let loose. The guests
collared everything that could lay their hands upon. It's a
wonder to me. The disgraceful affair didn't get into the papers.
(05:37):
But where's Life Court now? I asked anxiously. Haven't the
ghost of an idea? Replied the Major, standing astride with
his hands in his pockets. Young Paget of ours told
me the other day that he saw Muriel driving in
the Terminus road at Eastport, but she didn't notice him.
They were a query shlot, those life Courts, he added. Hello,
(05:59):
what do you saying about the life Court's charlie, he
exclaimed Dernford, turning quickly from Hanbury. I know some people
of that name, Philip Lifecourt, who has a daughter named Muriel.
Well they sound much the same. But if you know them,
my dear old chap, I really don't envy you your friends,
declared the Major with a laugh. Why not, Well, Greg
(06:21):
will tell you, he said. He knows perhaps more than
I do. But he added, they may not, of course
be the same people. I first met them yachting over
at Algiers, Jack said, and then again at Malta, where
they seemed to have quite a lot of friends. They
had a steam yacht, the Iris, and were often up
and down the Mediterranean. Must be the same people, declared
(06:45):
the Major. Life Courts spoke once or twice of his yacht,
but we all put it down as a non existent vessel,
because he was always drawing the long bow about his adventures.
And how did you first come to know him? I
asked of the Major. Eager Oh, I don't know somebody
brought him to mess and we struck up an acquaintance
across the table. He seemed like a good chap and
(07:07):
when he asked me to shoot I accepted. On arrival
up at Rannock, however, one thing struck me as jolly strange,
and that was that among the people I was asked
to meet was one of the very worst black legs
about town. He called himself Martin Woodruff up there. Although
I'd known him at the Old Corinthian Club as Dick Archer,
(07:29):
he was believed then to be one of a clever
gang of international thieves. When I first met him, he
gave me the name of Hornby. I said it was
in leg Gorn, where he was on board a yacht
called the Lola, of which he represented himself as owner.
He left Rannoch very suddenly, remarked Bartlett. We understood that
he was engaged to marry Muriel. If so, I'm sorry
(07:53):
for her, poor girl. What cried Dunfert, starting up that
man to marry Muriel Lifecourt? Yes, I said why? But
his countenance had turned pale, and he gave no answer
to my question. If these life courts are really friends
of yours, Drnford, old fellow, I'm sorry I've said anything
(08:13):
against them, the Major exclaimed, in an apologetic tone. Only
the end of my visit was so abrupt and so
extraordinary in the company, such a mixed one, that well,
to tell you the truth, the people are a mysterious
lot altogether. Perhaps our life courts are not the same
as those, Jack knows, I remarked, in order to escape
(08:35):
from a rather difficult situation, whereupon Drnfort, as though eager
to conceal his surprise, said with a forced laugh, oh,
probably not, and reseated himself at table. Then the Major
quickly changed the topic of conversation, and afterwards he and
his friend passed along to their table and sat down
to eat. I could not help noticing that Jack Drnfort
(08:59):
was upset at what he had learnt, Yet I hesitated
just then to put any question to him. I resolved
to approach the subject later, so as to allow him
time to question me if he wished to do so.
After smoking an hour, we went across to the Empire,
where we spent the evening in the Grand Circle, meeting
many men we knew, and having a rather pleasant time
(09:20):
among old acquaintances. If a man who had lived the
club life of London returns from abroad, he can always
run across some one he knows. In the circle of
the Empire. About ten o'clock at night, Jack was, however,
not his old self that he had been before dinner.
His brow was now heavy and thoughtful, and he appeared
(09:42):
deeply immersed in some intricate problem, For his eyes were
fixed vacantly when opportunity was afforded him to think, and
he appeared to desire to avoid his friends rather than
to greet them. After the theater, I induced him to
come round to the Cecil, and in the wicker chair
in the big port before the entrance, we sat to
(10:02):
smoke our final cigars. It is a favorite spot of
mine when in London, for at afternoon, when the string
band plays and the Americans and other Cosmopolitans drink tea,
there is a continual coming and going, a little panorama
of life that, to a student of men like myself,
is intensely interesting. And at night it is just as
(10:24):
amusing to sit there in the shadow and watch the
people returning from the theaters or dances, and to speculate
as to whom and what they are. At that one
little corner of London, just off the Strand, you see
more variety of men and women than perhaps at any
other spot. All grades pass before you, from the pushful
(10:46):
American commercial man interested in a patent medicine, to the
proud Indian rajah with his turban suit, from the variety
actress to the daughter of a peer or the wife
of a millionaire port wucher doing Europe. You've been a
bit down in the mouth to night, Jack, I said, presently,
after we had been watching the cabs coming up depositing
(11:07):
the home coming revelers from the Savoy or the Carlton. Yes,
he sighed, and surely I have enough to cause me
after what I've heard from Bartlett. What did the facts
he told us convey any bad news to you, I inquired,
with pretended ignorance, Yes, he said, hoarsely, after a brief pause.
(11:28):
Then he added, Bartlett said, you could tell me what
happened up in Scotland where Lithecourt had shooting. Tell me everything,
he added, with the air of a man in whom
all hope is dead. Well, I began. The lithe Courts
took Rannock Castle, close to my uncle's place near Dumfries's.
I got to know them, of course, and often shot
(11:50):
with his party. One day, however, I was amazed to
notice in one of the rooms the photograph of a lady,
the exact counterpart of that picture which I recollect. I
told you when in Leghorn I had found torn up
on board the Lola. You recollect what I narrated about
my strange adventure, don't you? I remember every word? Was
(12:11):
his answer, go on, what did you do? Nothing? I
held my tongue. But when I discovered that the fellow
who called himself Woodruff, the man who had represented himself
as the owner of the Lola, and who no doubt
had had a hand in breaking open Hutchetson's safe in
the council it was engaged to Muriel, I became full
(12:32):
of suspicion. Well Woodruff, after meeting me, disappeared, went to Hamburg,
they said, on business. Then other things occurred. A man
and a woman were found murdered up in the wood
about a mile and a half from the castle. The
man was made up to represent my man Olinto. I
believe you've seen him in Leygorn. What they've killed Olinto,
(12:56):
he gasped, starting from his chair. No, the fellow was
made very much like him, but his wife Armita was killed.
They killed the woman and believed they had also killed
her husband. Eh, he said bitterly through his teeth. And
I saw that his strong hands grasped the arms of
his chair firmly. And Martin Woodrup is engaged to Muriel lifegourt.
(13:18):
Are you certain of this? Yes, quite certain. And there
is no suspicion as to who is the assassin of
the woman Santini and this mysterious man who posed as
her husband, none whatever. For some time Jack Drnford smoked
in silence, and I could just distinguish his white, hard
face in faint light, for it was now late and
(13:40):
the big electric lamps had been turned out and we
were in semi darkness. That fellow shall never marry Muriel,
he declared, in a fierce, forced voice. What you have
just told me reveals the truth. Did you meet chatter?
He appeared suddenly at Rannoch, and the life courts fled
precipitately and have not since been heard of. Ah, No wonder,
(14:03):
he remarked, with a dry laugh. No wonder, But look
here Gordon, I'm not going to stand by and let
that scoundrel Woodruff marry Muriel. You love her, perhaps, I hazarded. Yes,
I do love her, he admitted, And by heavens, he cried,
I will tell the truth and crush the whole of
their ingenious plot. Have you met Elma Heath, he asked, yes,
(14:26):
I said, in quick anxiety. Then listen, he said, in
a low, earnest voice. Listen, and I'll tell you something.
There is a greater mystery surrounding that yacht, the Lola,
than you have ever imagined. My dear old chap, declared
Jack Dernford, looking me straight in the face. What you
told me about it on the quarter deck that day
(14:47):
outside le Gorne. I was half a mind to tell
you what I knew. Only one fact prevented me, my
disinclination to reveal my own secrets. I loved Muriel life court,
yet afloat as I was, I could never see her.
I could not obtain from her own lips the explanation
I desired. Yet I would not prejudge her. No, and
(15:09):
I won't now, he added, with a fierce resolution. I
love her, he went on, and she reciprocates my love.
Ours is a secret engagement made in Malta two years ago.
And yet you tell me that she has pledged herself
to that fellow Woodruff, the man known here in London
as Dick Archer. I can't believe it. I really can't,
(15:30):
old fellow, she could never write to me as she
has done, urging patience and secrecy until my return, unless,
of course, she desired to gain time, I suggested, But
my friend was silent. His brows were deep knit. Woodruf
is at the present moment in Petersburg, I said, I've
just come back from there, in Saint Petersburg. He gasped, surprised.
(15:53):
Then he is with that villainous official, Baron Oberg, the
Governor General of Finland. No Oberg is living shut up
in his palace at Helsingford's, fearing to go out lest
he be assassinated, was my answer. And Elma, what has
become of her? She is in hiding in Petersburg, awaiting
such time as I can get her safely out of Russia.
(16:16):
And then, continuing, I explained how she had been maimed
and rendered deaf and dumb. What he cried fiercely, have
they actually done that? To the poor girl. Then they
feared that she should reveal the nature of their plot,
for she had seen and heard, seen and heard what.
Be patient, we will elucidate this mystery and the motive
(16:37):
of this terrible infliction upon her. Muriel wrote to me
saying that poor Elma, her friend, had disappeared, and she
feared that some evil had also happened to her. So
Oberg had sent her to his fortress, his own private bastille,
the place to which, on pretended charges of conspiracy against Russia,
he sends those who swart him to a living tomb.
(17:00):
I have seen him, and I have defied him, I said,
you have man alive. Be careful, He's not a fellow
who sticks at trifles, said Jack, warningly. I don't fear,
I replied, Alma's enemies are also mine. Then I take it,
old fellow, that notwithstanding her affliction, you are actually in
(17:20):
love with her. I intend to rescue and to marry her,
I answered, quite frankly. But first we must tear aside
this veil of mystery and ascertain all the facts concerning her.
He said, At present, I only know one or two
very vague details. The Baron is certainly not her uncle,
as he represents himself to be. But it seems certain
(17:42):
that she is the daughter of Anglo Russian parents, and
was born in Russia and brought to England when she
was a child. But from whom do you expect I
can obtain the true facts concerning her and the reason
of the Baron's desire to keep her silent? Ah, he said,
twisting his mustache thoughtfully, That's just the question. For a
(18:02):
solution of the problem, we must first fathom the motive
of the life courts and the reason they fled in
fear before that man chatter that Muriel is innocent of
any complicity in their plot, whatever it may be. I
feel convinced she may be the victim of that black
leg Woodruff, who, as Bartlett has told you, is one
of the most expert swindlers in London, and who has
(18:25):
already done two terms of penal servitude. But what was
the motive in breaking open the Council safe If not
to obtain the Foreign Office or Admiralty ciphers. Perhaps they
wanted to steal them and sell them to a foreign government. No,
that was not their object. I've thought over it many
many times since you told me, and I feel convinced
(18:47):
that Woodruff is too shrewd a fellow not to have
known that no council goes away on leave and allows
his ciphers to remain behind. When he leaves his post,
he always deposits those precious books, either at the Foreign
Office here or with his Council General, or with a
council at another port. They'd surely ascertain all that before
(19:07):
they made the raid. You bet the affair was a
risky one, and Dick Archer is known as a man
of many precautions. But he is on extremely friendly terms
with Elma. It was he who succeeded in finding her
in Finland and taking her beyond Oberg's sphere of influence
to Petersburg. Then it is certainly only an affected friendship
(19:29):
with some sinister motive underlying it. She wrote a letter
from her island prison to an old schoolfellow named Lydia Morton,
asking her to see Woodruff at his rooms in Cork
Street and tell him that through all she was suffering,
she had kept her promise to him, and that the
secret was still safe. Exactly, and now the fellow fears
(19:49):
that as you are so actively searching out the truth,
she may yield to your demands and explain. He therefore
intends to silence her, what to kill her? You mean,
I gasped in quick apprehension. Well he might do so
in order to save himself, you see, Jack replied, adding
he certainly would have no compunction if he thought that
(20:11):
it would not be brought home to him. Only he
no doubt fears you because you have found her and
are in love with her. I admitted the force of
his argument, but recollected that my dear one was safe
in concealment, and that the princess was our friend, even
though I, as an Englishman, had no sympathy with the
doctrine of the bomb and the knife. I tried to
(20:34):
get from him all that he knew concerning Elma, but
he seemed, for some curious reason disinclined to tell. All
I could gather was that Lithecourt was in league with
Chatter and Woodruff, and that Muriel had acted as an
entirely innocent agent. What the conspiracy was, or what was
its motive, I could not discern. I was as far
(20:57):
off the solution of the problem as ever. We must
find Muriel, he declared, when I pressed him to tell
me everything he knew. There are facts you have told
me which negative my own theories, and only from her
can we obtain the real truth. But surely you know
where she is, she writes to you, I said, the
(21:18):
last letter, which I received the jib ten days ago,
was from the Hotel Bristol at Botzen in the Tye Roll. Yet,
Bartlett says, she has been seen down at Eastbourne. But
you have an address where you always write to her.
I suppose, yes, a secret one. I have written and
made an appointment, but she has not kept it. She
has been prevented. Of course, she may be with her
(21:40):
parents and unable to come to London. You did not
know that they had fled and were in hiding. Of course.
Not what I've heard here to night is news to me,
amazing news, and does it not convey to you the truth?
It does, a ghastly truth concerning Elma Heath. He answered,
in a low voice, as though speaking to himself. Tell
(22:03):
me what I'm dying Jack to know everything concerning her?
Who is that fellow Oberg? Her enemy? She by mere
accident learned his secret and woodruffs, and they now both
live in deadly fear. Of her, and for that reason
she was taken to Siena, where some villainous Italian doctor
was bribed to render her deaf and dumb. He nodded
(22:27):
in the affirmative. But chatter, I know very little concerning him.
He may have conspired with them, or he may be innocent.
It seems as though he were antagonistic to their schemes.
If lythewoot and his family really fled from him, and
yet he was on board the Lola. Indeed, he may
have helped to commit the burglary of the consulate, I said,
(22:50):
quite likely, he answered, But our first object must be
to rediscover Muriel. Paget says, she is an eastborn. If
she is there, we shall easily find her. They publish
visitors lists in the papers, don't they like they do
at Hastings. Then he had it. Visitors list are most
annoying when you find your name printed in them, when
(23:11):
you are supposed officially to be somewhere else. I was
had once like that by the Bournemouth papers, when I
was supposed to be on duty over at Queenstown. I
narrowly escaped a terrible Weeking, shall we go to Eastbourne?
I suggested, eagerly, I'll go there with you in the morning.
Or would it not be best to send an urgent
(23:31):
wire to the address where I always write? She would
then reply here, no doubt. If she's in Eastbourne, there
may be reasons why she cannot come up to town.
If her people are in hiding. Of course she won't come,
but she'll make an appointment with me, no doubt. Very well,
send a wire, I said, and make it urgent. It
(23:52):
will then be forwarded. But as regards a Linto, would
you like to see him? He might tell you more
than he had told me. No, by no means he
must not know that I have returned to London, declared
my friend quickly. You had better not see him. You
understand then his interests are well not exactly our own. No,
(24:16):
but why don't you tell me more about Elma, I urged,
for I was eager to learn all he knew. Come
do tell me, I implored. I've told you practically everything,
my dear old fellow, was his response. The revelation of
the true facts of the affair can be made only
by Muriel. I tell you we must find her. Yes,
(24:38):
we must at all hazards, I said, Let's go across
to the telegraph office opposite Charing Cross. It's always open.
And we rose and walked out along the strand, now
nearly deserted, and dispatched an urgent message to Muriel at
an address in Hurlingham Road, Fulham. Afterwards, we stood outside
(24:58):
on the curb, still talking. I loathed apart from him,
when there passed by in the shadow, two men in
dark overcoats, who crossed the road behind us to the
front of Charing Cross Station, and then continued on towards
Traflagar Square. As the light of the street lamp fell
upon them, I thought I recognized the face of one
(25:19):
as that of a person I had seen before. Yet
I was not at all certain, and my failure to
remember whom the passer by resembled prevented me from saying
anything further to Jack than a fellow I know has
just gone by. I think we seem to be meeting
hosts of friends to night, he laughed. After all, old chap,
(25:39):
it does one good to come back to our dear,
dirty old town again. We abuse it when we are
here and talk of the light in Paris and Vienna
and Brussels, But when we are away there is no
place on earth so dear to us, for it is home.
But there, he laughed, I'm actually growing romantic. Ah, if
we could only fine Muriel. But we must. Tomorrow, Tata,
(26:05):
I shall go around to the club and sleep, for
I haven't fixed on any diggings yet. Come in at
ten tomorrow and we will decide upon some plan. One
thing is plainly certain. Elma must at once be got
out of Russia. She's in deadly peril of her life. There, yes,
I said, and will you help me with all my heart?
(26:27):
Old fellow, answered my friend warmly, grasping my hand, and
then we parted, he strolling along towards the National Gallery
on his way back to the Junior, while I returned
to the Cecil alone. End of Chapter fifteen. Recording by
Tom Weiss.
Chapter fifteen of The Tsar's Spy. This Liebervox recording is
in the public domain recording by Tom Weiss. The Tsar
Spy by William Lee qu chapter fifteen. Just off the Strand,
A week had gone by. The Nord Express had brought
(00:22):
me posthaste across Europe from Petersburg to Calais, and I
was again in London. I had left Elma in the
care of Princess Zulov, who I knew would conceal her
from the horde of police agents now in search of her.
The mystery had so increased until now it had become
absolutely bewildering. The more I had tried to probe it,
(00:46):
the more inexplicable had I found it. My brain was
a whirl as I sat in the wagon lit rushing
across those wide, never ending plains that lie between the
Russian capital and Berlin, and the green valleys between the
Rhinelands and the sea. The maze of mystery rendered me
utterly incapable of grasping one solid, tangible fact. So closely
(01:09):
interwoven was each incident of the strange life drama in which,
through mere chance, I was now playing a leading part.
I was aware of one fact, only that I loved
Alma with all my soul, even though I knew not
whom she really was or her strange life story. Her
sweet face with those soft brown eyes, so tender and intense,
(01:32):
stood out ever before me, sleeping or waking each moment
as the express rushed south increased the distance between us.
Yet was I not on my way back to England
with a clear and distinct purpose. I snatched at any clue,
however small, with desperate eagerness as a drowning man clutches
at a straw. The Spy from a Bow had seen
(01:54):
me on the railway platform on my departure from Petersburg.
He had overheard me buy a ticket for London, and
previous to stepping into the train, I had smiled at
him in glad triumph. My journey was too long a
one for him to follow, and I knew that I
had at last outwitted him. He had expected to see
(02:15):
Elma with me, no doubt, and his disappointment was plainly marked.
But of woodruff I had neither seen nor heard anything.
It was a cold but dry November night in London,
and I sat dining with Jack Dernford at a small
table in the big, well lit room of the Junior
United Service Club. Easy going and merry as of old,
(02:37):
my friend was bubbling over with good spirits, delighted to
be back again in town after three years sailing up
and down the Mediterranean from gyp Tsmyrna, maneuvering always yet
with never a chance of a fight. His well shaven
face bore the mark of the southern suns, and the
backs of his hands were tanned by the heat and
the sea. He was indeed as smart an officer as
(03:00):
any at the Junior, for the Marines are proverbial for
their neatness, and his men on board the Bulwark had
received many a pleasing compliment from the Admiral. Glad to
be back, he exclaimed, as he helped himself to a peg,
I should rather think so, old Chap. You know how
awfully wearying the life becomes out there, Lots going on
(03:22):
down at Palermo, Malta, Monte Carlo, or over at Algiers,
and yet we can never get a chance of it.
We're always in sight of the gay places, and never land.
I don't blame the youngsters for getting off from Legrn
for two days over here in town when they can.
Three years is a bigger slice out of a fellow's
life than any one would suppose. But by the way
(03:45):
I saw Hutchinson the other day, we put into Spezzia
and he came out to see the Admiral got dispatches
from him. I think he seems as gay as ever.
He lunched at mess and said, how sorry he was.
You've deserted lake. I haven't exactly deserted it, I said,
but I really don't love it like he does. No,
(04:07):
a year or two of the Mediterranean blue is quite
sufficient to last any fellow of his lifetime. I shouldn't
live in Legrn if I had my choice, I prefer
somewhere up in the mountains beyond Pizza, or outside Florence,
where you can have a good time and winter. Then
a silence fell between us, and I sat eating on
until the end of the meal, wondering how to broach
(04:30):
the question I so desired to put to him. I
shall try if I can get on the recruiting services
at home for a bit, he said, Presently, there's an
appointment up at Glascow vacant, and I shall try for it.
It'll be better at any rate than China or the Pacific.
I was just about to turn the conversation to the
visit of the mysterious Lola to le Gorn, when two
(04:52):
men he knew entered the dining room, and, recognizing him,
came across to give him a welcome home. One of
the newcomers was Major Bartlett, whom I at once recollected
as having been a guest of Life Courts up at Rennoch,
and the other a younger man whom Dernford introduced to
me as Captain Hanbury. Oh, Major, I cried, rising and
(05:14):
grasping his hand. I haven't seen you since Scotland and
the extraordinary ending to your house party. No, he laughed.
It was an amazing affair, wasn't it? After the Life
Courts left. It was like pandemonium let loose. The guests
collared everything that could lay their hands upon. It's a
wonder to me. The disgraceful affair didn't get into the papers.
(05:37):
But where's Life Court now? I asked anxiously. Haven't the
ghost of an idea? Replied the Major, standing astride with
his hands in his pockets. Young Paget of ours told
me the other day that he saw Muriel driving in
the Terminus road at Eastport, but she didn't notice him.
They were a query shlot, those life Courts, he added. Hello,
(05:59):
what do you saying about the life Court's charlie, he
exclaimed Dernford, turning quickly from Hanbury. I know some people
of that name, Philip Lifecourt, who has a daughter named Muriel.
Well they sound much the same. But if you know them,
my dear old chap, I really don't envy you your friends,
declared the Major with a laugh. Why not, Well, Greg
(06:21):
will tell you, he said. He knows perhaps more than
I do. But he added, they may not, of course
be the same people. I first met them yachting over
at Algiers, Jack said, and then again at Malta, where
they seemed to have quite a lot of friends. They
had a steam yacht, the Iris, and were often up
and down the Mediterranean. Must be the same people, declared
(06:45):
the Major. Life Courts spoke once or twice of his yacht,
but we all put it down as a non existent vessel,
because he was always drawing the long bow about his adventures.
And how did you first come to know him? I
asked of the Major. Eager Oh, I don't know somebody
brought him to mess and we struck up an acquaintance
across the table. He seemed like a good chap and
(07:07):
when he asked me to shoot I accepted. On arrival
up at Rannock, however, one thing struck me as jolly strange,
and that was that among the people I was asked
to meet was one of the very worst black legs
about town. He called himself Martin Woodruff up there. Although
I'd known him at the Old Corinthian Club as Dick Archer,
(07:29):
he was believed then to be one of a clever
gang of international thieves. When I first met him, he
gave me the name of Hornby. I said it was
in leg Gorn, where he was on board a yacht
called the Lola, of which he represented himself as owner.
He left Rannoch very suddenly, remarked Bartlett. We understood that
he was engaged to marry Muriel. If so, I'm sorry
(07:53):
for her, poor girl. What cried Dunfert, starting up that
man to marry Muriel Lifecourt? Yes, I said why? But
his countenance had turned pale, and he gave no answer
to my question. If these life courts are really friends
of yours, Drnford, old fellow, I'm sorry I've said anything
(08:13):
against them, the Major exclaimed, in an apologetic tone. Only
the end of my visit was so abrupt and so
extraordinary in the company, such a mixed one, that well,
to tell you the truth, the people are a mysterious
lot altogether. Perhaps our life courts are not the same
as those, Jack knows, I remarked, in order to escape
(08:35):
from a rather difficult situation, whereupon Drnfort, as though eager
to conceal his surprise, said with a forced laugh, oh,
probably not, and reseated himself at table. Then the Major
quickly changed the topic of conversation, and afterwards he and
his friend passed along to their table and sat down
to eat. I could not help noticing that Jack Drnfort
(08:59):
was upset at what he had learnt, Yet I hesitated
just then to put any question to him. I resolved
to approach the subject later, so as to allow him
time to question me if he wished to do so.
After smoking an hour, we went across to the Empire,
where we spent the evening in the Grand Circle, meeting
many men we knew, and having a rather pleasant time
(09:20):
among old acquaintances. If a man who had lived the
club life of London returns from abroad, he can always
run across some one he knows. In the circle of
the Empire. About ten o'clock at night, Jack was, however,
not his old self that he had been before dinner.
His brow was now heavy and thoughtful, and he appeared
(09:42):
deeply immersed in some intricate problem, For his eyes were
fixed vacantly when opportunity was afforded him to think, and
he appeared to desire to avoid his friends rather than
to greet them. After the theater, I induced him to
come round to the Cecil, and in the wicker chair
in the big port before the entrance, we sat to
(10:02):
smoke our final cigars. It is a favorite spot of
mine when in London, for at afternoon, when the string
band plays and the Americans and other Cosmopolitans drink tea,
there is a continual coming and going, a little panorama
of life that, to a student of men like myself,
is intensely interesting. And at night it is just as
(10:24):
amusing to sit there in the shadow and watch the
people returning from the theaters or dances, and to speculate
as to whom and what they are. At that one
little corner of London, just off the Strand, you see
more variety of men and women than perhaps at any
other spot. All grades pass before you, from the pushful
(10:46):
American commercial man interested in a patent medicine, to the
proud Indian rajah with his turban suit, from the variety
actress to the daughter of a peer or the wife
of a millionaire port wucher doing Europe. You've been a
bit down in the mouth to night, Jack, I said, presently,
after we had been watching the cabs coming up depositing
(11:07):
the home coming revelers from the Savoy or the Carlton. Yes,
he sighed, and surely I have enough to cause me
after what I've heard from Bartlett. What did the facts
he told us convey any bad news to you, I inquired,
with pretended ignorance, Yes, he said, hoarsely, after a brief pause.
(11:28):
Then he added, Bartlett said, you could tell me what
happened up in Scotland where Lithecourt had shooting. Tell me everything,
he added, with the air of a man in whom
all hope is dead. Well, I began. The lithe Courts
took Rannock Castle, close to my uncle's place near Dumfries's.
I got to know them, of course, and often shot
(11:50):
with his party. One day, however, I was amazed to
notice in one of the rooms the photograph of a lady,
the exact counterpart of that picture which I recollect. I
told you when in Leghorn I had found torn up
on board the Lola. You recollect what I narrated about
my strange adventure, don't you? I remember every word? Was
(12:11):
his answer, go on, what did you do? Nothing? I
held my tongue. But when I discovered that the fellow
who called himself Woodruff, the man who had represented himself
as the owner of the Lola, and who no doubt
had had a hand in breaking open Hutchetson's safe in
the council it was engaged to Muriel, I became full
(12:32):
of suspicion. Well Woodruff, after meeting me, disappeared, went to Hamburg,
they said, on business. Then other things occurred. A man
and a woman were found murdered up in the wood
about a mile and a half from the castle. The
man was made up to represent my man Olinto. I
believe you've seen him in Leygorn. What they've killed Olinto,
(12:56):
he gasped, starting from his chair. No, the fellow was
made very much like him, but his wife Armita was killed.
They killed the woman and believed they had also killed
her husband. Eh, he said bitterly through his teeth. And
I saw that his strong hands grasped the arms of
his chair firmly. And Martin Woodrup is engaged to Muriel lifegourt.
(13:18):
Are you certain of this? Yes, quite certain. And there
is no suspicion as to who is the assassin of
the woman Santini and this mysterious man who posed as
her husband, none whatever. For some time Jack Drnford smoked
in silence, and I could just distinguish his white, hard
face in faint light, for it was now late and
(13:40):
the big electric lamps had been turned out and we
were in semi darkness. That fellow shall never marry Muriel,
he declared, in a fierce, forced voice. What you have
just told me reveals the truth. Did you meet chatter?
He appeared suddenly at Rannoch, and the life courts fled
precipitately and have not since been heard of. Ah, No wonder,
(14:03):
he remarked, with a dry laugh. No wonder, But look
here Gordon, I'm not going to stand by and let
that scoundrel Woodruff marry Muriel. You love her, perhaps, I hazarded. Yes,
I do love her, he admitted, And by heavens, he cried,
I will tell the truth and crush the whole of
their ingenious plot. Have you met Elma Heath, he asked, yes,
(14:26):
I said, in quick anxiety. Then listen, he said, in
a low, earnest voice. Listen, and I'll tell you something.
There is a greater mystery surrounding that yacht, the Lola,
than you have ever imagined. My dear old chap, declared
Jack Dernford, looking me straight in the face. What you
told me about it on the quarter deck that day
(14:47):
outside le Gorne. I was half a mind to tell
you what I knew. Only one fact prevented me, my
disinclination to reveal my own secrets. I loved Muriel life court,
yet afloat as I was, I could never see her.
I could not obtain from her own lips the explanation
I desired. Yet I would not prejudge her. No, and
(15:09):
I won't now, he added, with a fierce resolution. I
love her, he went on, and she reciprocates my love.
Ours is a secret engagement made in Malta two years ago.
And yet you tell me that she has pledged herself
to that fellow Woodruff, the man known here in London
as Dick Archer. I can't believe it. I really can't,
(15:30):
old fellow, she could never write to me as she
has done, urging patience and secrecy until my return, unless,
of course, she desired to gain time, I suggested, But
my friend was silent. His brows were deep knit. Woodruf
is at the present moment in Petersburg, I said, I've
just come back from there, in Saint Petersburg. He gasped, surprised.
(15:53):
Then he is with that villainous official, Baron Oberg, the
Governor General of Finland. No Oberg is living shut up
in his palace at Helsingford's, fearing to go out lest
he be assassinated, was my answer. And Elma, what has
become of her? She is in hiding in Petersburg, awaiting
such time as I can get her safely out of Russia.
(16:16):
And then, continuing, I explained how she had been maimed
and rendered deaf and dumb. What he cried fiercely, have
they actually done that? To the poor girl. Then they
feared that she should reveal the nature of their plot,
for she had seen and heard, seen and heard what.
Be patient, we will elucidate this mystery and the motive
(16:37):
of this terrible infliction upon her. Muriel wrote to me
saying that poor Elma, her friend, had disappeared, and she
feared that some evil had also happened to her. So
Oberg had sent her to his fortress, his own private bastille,
the place to which, on pretended charges of conspiracy against Russia,
he sends those who swart him to a living tomb.
(17:00):
I have seen him, and I have defied him, I said,
you have man alive. Be careful, He's not a fellow
who sticks at trifles, said Jack, warningly. I don't fear,
I replied, Alma's enemies are also mine. Then I take it,
old fellow, that notwithstanding her affliction, you are actually in
(17:20):
love with her. I intend to rescue and to marry her,
I answered, quite frankly. But first we must tear aside
this veil of mystery and ascertain all the facts concerning her.
He said, At present, I only know one or two
very vague details. The Baron is certainly not her uncle,
as he represents himself to be. But it seems certain
(17:42):
that she is the daughter of Anglo Russian parents, and
was born in Russia and brought to England when she
was a child. But from whom do you expect I
can obtain the true facts concerning her and the reason
of the Baron's desire to keep her silent? Ah, he said,
twisting his mustache thoughtfully, That's just the question. For a
(18:02):
solution of the problem, we must first fathom the motive
of the life courts and the reason they fled in
fear before that man chatter that Muriel is innocent of
any complicity in their plot, whatever it may be. I
feel convinced she may be the victim of that black
leg Woodruff, who, as Bartlett has told you, is one
of the most expert swindlers in London, and who has
(18:25):
already done two terms of penal servitude. But what was
the motive in breaking open the Council safe If not
to obtain the Foreign Office or Admiralty ciphers. Perhaps they
wanted to steal them and sell them to a foreign government. No,
that was not their object. I've thought over it many
many times since you told me, and I feel convinced
(18:47):
that Woodruff is too shrewd a fellow not to have
known that no council goes away on leave and allows
his ciphers to remain behind. When he leaves his post,
he always deposits those precious books, either at the Foreign
Office here or with his Council General, or with a
council at another port. They'd surely ascertain all that before
(19:07):
they made the raid. You bet the affair was a
risky one, and Dick Archer is known as a man
of many precautions. But he is on extremely friendly terms
with Elma. It was he who succeeded in finding her
in Finland and taking her beyond Oberg's sphere of influence
to Petersburg. Then it is certainly only an affected friendship
(19:29):
with some sinister motive underlying it. She wrote a letter
from her island prison to an old schoolfellow named Lydia Morton,
asking her to see Woodruff at his rooms in Cork
Street and tell him that through all she was suffering,
she had kept her promise to him, and that the
secret was still safe. Exactly, and now the fellow fears
(19:49):
that as you are so actively searching out the truth,
she may yield to your demands and explain. He therefore
intends to silence her, what to kill her? You mean,
I gasped in quick apprehension. Well he might do so
in order to save himself, you see, Jack replied, adding
he certainly would have no compunction if he thought that
(20:11):
it would not be brought home to him. Only he
no doubt fears you because you have found her and
are in love with her. I admitted the force of
his argument, but recollected that my dear one was safe
in concealment, and that the princess was our friend, even
though I, as an Englishman, had no sympathy with the
doctrine of the bomb and the knife. I tried to
(20:34):
get from him all that he knew concerning Elma, but
he seemed, for some curious reason disinclined to tell. All
I could gather was that Lithecourt was in league with
Chatter and Woodruff, and that Muriel had acted as an
entirely innocent agent. What the conspiracy was, or what was
its motive, I could not discern. I was as far
(20:57):
off the solution of the problem as ever. We must
find Muriel, he declared, when I pressed him to tell
me everything he knew. There are facts you have told
me which negative my own theories, and only from her
can we obtain the real truth. But surely you know
where she is, she writes to you, I said, the
(21:18):
last letter, which I received the jib ten days ago,
was from the Hotel Bristol at Botzen in the Tye Roll. Yet,
Bartlett says, she has been seen down at Eastbourne. But
you have an address where you always write to her.
I suppose, yes, a secret one. I have written and
made an appointment, but she has not kept it. She
has been prevented. Of course, she may be with her
(21:40):
parents and unable to come to London. You did not
know that they had fled and were in hiding. Of course.
Not what I've heard here to night is news to me,
amazing news, and does it not convey to you the truth?
It does, a ghastly truth concerning Elma Heath. He answered,
in a low voice, as though speaking to himself. Tell
(22:03):
me what I'm dying Jack to know everything concerning her?
Who is that fellow Oberg? Her enemy? She by mere
accident learned his secret and woodruffs, and they now both
live in deadly fear. Of her, and for that reason
she was taken to Siena, where some villainous Italian doctor
was bribed to render her deaf and dumb. He nodded
(22:27):
in the affirmative. But chatter, I know very little concerning him.
He may have conspired with them, or he may be innocent.
It seems as though he were antagonistic to their schemes.
If lythewoot and his family really fled from him, and
yet he was on board the Lola. Indeed, he may
have helped to commit the burglary of the consulate, I said,
(22:50):
quite likely, he answered, But our first object must be
to rediscover Muriel. Paget says, she is an eastborn. If
she is there, we shall easily find her. They publish
visitors lists in the papers, don't they like they do
at Hastings. Then he had it. Visitors list are most
annoying when you find your name printed in them, when
(23:11):
you are supposed officially to be somewhere else. I was
had once like that by the Bournemouth papers, when I
was supposed to be on duty over at Queenstown. I
narrowly escaped a terrible Weeking, shall we go to Eastbourne?
I suggested, eagerly, I'll go there with you in the morning.
Or would it not be best to send an urgent
(23:31):
wire to the address where I always write? She would
then reply here, no doubt. If she's in Eastbourne, there
may be reasons why she cannot come up to town.
If her people are in hiding. Of course she won't come,
but she'll make an appointment with me, no doubt. Very well,
send a wire, I said, and make it urgent. It
(23:52):
will then be forwarded. But as regards a Linto, would
you like to see him? He might tell you more
than he had told me. No, by no means he
must not know that I have returned to London, declared
my friend quickly. You had better not see him. You
understand then his interests are well not exactly our own. No,
(24:16):
but why don't you tell me more about Elma, I urged,
for I was eager to learn all he knew. Come
do tell me, I implored. I've told you practically everything,
my dear old fellow, was his response. The revelation of
the true facts of the affair can be made only
by Muriel. I tell you we must find her. Yes,
(24:38):
we must at all hazards, I said, Let's go across
to the telegraph office opposite Charing Cross. It's always open.
And we rose and walked out along the strand, now
nearly deserted, and dispatched an urgent message to Muriel at
an address in Hurlingham Road, Fulham. Afterwards, we stood outside
(24:58):
on the curb, still talking. I loathed apart from him,
when there passed by in the shadow, two men in
dark overcoats, who crossed the road behind us to the
front of Charing Cross Station, and then continued on towards
Traflagar Square. As the light of the street lamp fell
upon them, I thought I recognized the face of one
(25:19):
as that of a person I had seen before. Yet
I was not at all certain, and my failure to
remember whom the passer by resembled prevented me from saying
anything further to Jack than a fellow I know has
just gone by. I think we seem to be meeting
hosts of friends to night, he laughed. After all, old chap,
(25:39):
it does one good to come back to our dear,
dirty old town again. We abuse it when we are
here and talk of the light in Paris and Vienna
and Brussels, But when we are away there is no
place on earth so dear to us, for it is home.
But there, he laughed, I'm actually growing romantic. Ah, if
we could only fine Muriel. But we must. Tomorrow, Tata,
(26:05):
I shall go around to the club and sleep, for
I haven't fixed on any diggings yet. Come in at
ten tomorrow and we will decide upon some plan. One
thing is plainly certain. Elma must at once be got
out of Russia. She's in deadly peril of her life. There, yes,
I said, and will you help me with all my heart?
(26:27):
Old fellow, answered my friend warmly, grasping my hand, and
then we parted, he strolling along towards the National Gallery
on his way back to the Junior, while I returned
to the Cecil alone. End of Chapter fifteen. Recording by
Tom Weiss.
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