Ziegler

“ It seems that Mr. Forsyth—who, by the way, had been to leave a card on you—met the Duke at the Cecil, coming away from the suite of a Mr. Ziegler. He chose to think that my cousin was looking agitated, whereas he was only tired after his voyage. Mr. Ziegler, therefore, if you please, has fallen under the ban of suspicion from these wiseacres, and is supposed to be murderously inclined towards the poor Duke. Even the mischief of some wretched boy in playing tricks with the train he traveled by the other night is attributed to this probably harmless Mr. Ziegler. ”

“ But he had been a denizen of another world when Ziegler's emissary had annexed him, body and soul, as plain Charles Hanbury, in the Bowery saloon. He remembered that world now with a horror and a loathing greater, if possible, than when he had endured it—the sordid life in the five-dollar boarding-house, the lunch of tough sandwiches of Texas beef which had bulged his pockets on the way to his duties in the big dry goods store, the insolence of his Irish-American and German fellow-workers because of his English speech. ”

“ Ziegler and Co. deal in English imports and in the exportation of carpets, etc., whereas Hotz and Son import Russian articles, which they find cheaper and of easier sale. Both are eminently respectable firms, and enjoy the esteem of everybody.
Notwithstanding the Swiss name, Ziegler and Co. is an English firm, although, as far as I know, it has not a single English employee in its various branches in Persia. The reason, as we have seen, is that foreigners are considered more capable. ”

“ Forsyth—you and General Sadgrove," Ziegler went on. "I don't suppose it's of any use my offering you a bribe to bring me back the package you have obtained so smartly? I would make it a very large one."
"Not the slightest use," Forsyth answered, almost laughing, yet more than ever puzzled by the naïveté of the question. "I have been at considerable pains to deprive you of your bogus bonds, and it is hardly likely, Mr. Ziegler, that I am going to restore your power over the Duke of Beaumanoir. He is a brave man, and doesn't fear death. You can't hurt him that way ”

“ Ziegler was certain to be in, as he was an invalid and never went out. Oh yes; he saw people—a good many, but always in his own apartments, and he never frequented the public rooms. His suite was in the same corridor as that of Mrs. Talmage Eglinton—next to it, in fact. No ”

“ You know better than that, Ziegler, don't you?"
"I would trust you with my life," he exclaimed grandiloquently. "But it would smooth things if you were to do as I suggest. Secrecy is everything to us; and there are some among us who would go to any extreme if they thought there was treachery anywhere."
I paused to take breath and think.
"This matter could not be arranged otherwise," he put in, seeing me hesitate.
"Very well. You can assure them I am in full sympathy in this particular matter anyhow, and I'll meet any one of them when you please. But von Felsen must know nothing." ”

“ As a first step I would force on von Felsen's marriage with Ziegler's daughter. I determined to go to von Felsen at once and tell him point-blank that I should let Ziegler know the truth. On my way to him I called to see Chalice. She had just returned from Herr Grumpel and was in high spirits, because the date had been fixed for her first appearance.
"Think of it, Herr Bastable. In a week's time! Oh, I am nearly beside myself with delight," she cried, clasping her hands ecstatically.
"A good many things can happen in a week," I said drily. ”

“ You are not worth quarrelling with, so you needn't trouble yourself to stand sneering there. I shan't take any notice. Just read this."
I handed him the letter which Ziegler had given me. He started nervously as he read it, changed colour, and looked at me with an expression of bitter hate.
"I asked Herr Ziegler when I might congratulate him on Hagar's marriage," I said with a smile. "And that's one reason why I want to know your reason for what you are doing against Fräulein Althea. You profess to wish to marry her, you know; and even the son of a powerful Minister can't marry them both." ”

“ Ziegler, and he was wondering how and when that autocrat of high-grade crime would signalize his displeasure at the mutiny. That sooner or later an edict would issue against him from the invalid chair in the first-floor suite he had not the slightest doubt. He knew that he had to deal with men playing a great game for a great stake in deadly earnest.
The Dukes of Beaumanoir had never been famous for their virtues, any more than they had been cowards, and it was rather a dawning sense of responsibility than fear, either for his reputation or his person, that filled him with apprehension. ”

“ Thorn clenched his fists. He gazed at the packet containing the Ziegler plans. He gazed at the guarded door leading back to the kitchen. Then he tensed himself and leaped.
"The plans!" shouted Kori hoarsely. "Look—"
The vital packet, as far as the eye could see, had suddenly grown wings, soared from the table top, and was floating rapidly, convulsively, toward the door.
"Stop him!" yelled Soyo. "Stop—"
At that instant the heads of the two who guarded the door were dashed together. The door itself slammed open. The Ziegler plans sped into the butler's pantry. ”

“ Publicity is a fairly sure card to play with the officials of his Imperial Majesty the Kaiser.
What I had to do was to make the best use of my time of grace, and I went straight from Borsen to old Ziegler.
"This is indeed an act of friendship to come so promptly, Herr Bastable," he declared with his customary effusiveness, as he placed a chair for me and put a box of cigars at my elbow.
"You said it was urgent, Ziegler. What's the matter?"
"There is nothing the matter; at least nothing that I should allow you to be disturbed about. ”

“ Talmage Eglinton, if she was guilty of criminal intent, should have directed his thoughts to Ziegler, who, if not a confederate, was certainly part and parcel of the mystery.
“Too many women in it,” he growled, testily, unaware, in the brown study into which he had fallen, that he had seated himself in one of the cane chairs round about the tea-table at which Sybil Hanbury was already presiding. ”

“ She fixed her eyes on me with an expression of bewilderment. "She can't help you to escape; and of all houses in Berlin this is the last you should have come to."
"For Heaven's sake do give me an answer. Can't you see I am on fire with impatience? Every minute may mean ruin to her."
She bent toward me and came a step or two forward. "Do you mean you don't know? You must not stay here. It will ruin me if you are found here. Do you mean that you don't know?
"Know what?" I cried angrily in my exasperation.
"Good heavens! Why, that you are accused of the murder of Hagar Ziegler's father!" ”

“ The window was ten feet from the ground, but the wall was covered with gnarled ivy stems up which an active man could readily climb.
While he was hesitating the matter was arranged for him. There was no time to reach the window, for Ziegler passed the branch corridor without as much as looking at it, and was coming straight on to the muniment room. Beaumanoir raised his revolver, but lowered it again, incapable of shooting a fellow-creature in cold blood, and also fascinated by a horrible curiosity to learn the intruder’s intention. ”

“ Forsyth protested, flushing hotly.
“Yes, laddie, I know you would not have taken the job on if I had informed you who Ziegler was,” said the General. “There would have been less to fear, but there would have been a dash of the underhand about it that wouldn’t have suited you. But I should never have allowed you to walk into such a death-trap as that crypt would have been without the safeguard we—that is, I—trusted to. It wasn’t a case for being too nice. There’s no such thing as taking a mean advantage of people threatening life and property, they told me when I was taught my trade.” ”

“ Forsyth could hardly believe his ears. Could this tremulous dotard be the redoubtable master of crime whom he and his uncle had been fighting throughout the last crowded week? "I really don't see how your not particularly valuable life can depend on your possession of a lot of bogus bonds," he said, with genuine curiosity. The appeal to his pity filled him with vague uneasiness, the alleged reason for it being so utterly absurd. Yet Ziegler was ready with an explanation, more or less plausible. ”

“ He had a wholesome fear of my sources of information. He paused, hunched up in his chair, and asked suddenly: "Why did you mention Hugo von Felsen's name to me?"
I had an inspiration and resolved upon a shot. I took out my cigarette case, selected one with great care, and as I lit it, looked across at him. "Your daughter is a very handsome girl, Ziegler."
The shot told instantly. "You mean something. Herr Bastable," he cried, leaning forward in his eagerness. "You are my friend. You must tell me. I love my Hagar. She is the light of my life. Tell me," he repeated. ”

“ Funny thing is, that when I went in as an interpreting peacemaker, I saw no sign of Ziegler, who, I gathered at the hotel bureau, is an invalid and never goes out. The two men in the room were able-bodied fellows, fashionably dressed, but with that in their faces which there is no mistaking. The ‘crime-look’ is an open sign to those who know.”
The General paused and looked at his nephew curiously. “Then I made a false move,” he went on—‘‘a false move which may have wiped the seventh Duke of Beaumanoir out of the peerage. ”

“ Von Felsen was playing a double matrimonial game. "When may one offer congratulations, Ziegler?" I asked with a smile. I could afford to smile, for I was winning, hands down.
"It is Hagar's wish. She loves him; and she will be a countess, too."
"Two excellent reasons. And meanwhile you find him useful to get----" Again I broke off the sentence and finished with a knowing smile.
"You are the devil, Herr Bastable," he replied with a laugh.
"Well, it is at least useful to be able to get inside information when very important papers are in the hands of an Imperial messenger, eh?" ”

“ Let him tell you himself. If he won't then, I will; and I shall add the rest. The rest is blacker still."
It was some time before von Felsen could bring himself to speak, and then he gave a long rambling story of how he had been in Ziegler's power, and had been forced to disclose secret after secret, until the theft of the papers had been the climax. Questions from me brought out the rest--that he had brought Baron von Ringheim to Berlin; had let him know where Althea was in order to entrap me; and all the rest of it, including my abduction by Dragen, and the attempts on my life. ”

“ Talmage Eglinton’s arrival in the next suite. So twenty minutes passed, and Forsyth was speculating as to how communication would be carried on with the female partner during the forthcoming interview, when Benzon returned and announced that Mr. Ziegler was awaiting him. He could not help observing how much better suited was this bowing and smirking American swindler to the rôle of a superior flunkey than to that of a British cavalry officer. ”

“ They are so conscious of the wrong they have done us that that very knowledge urges them farther along the road of oppression. I am my father's daughter and so am suspect. But I have not plotted, as have so many of us, against the Government. I know the uselessness. My father has written me often of the plans, and has urged me to use my opportunities here in Berlin for the cause."
"And yet you venture to remain here?"
"Herr Ziegler is deep in the schemes," she replied, not heeding my question. "You know what the policy is now. ”

“ I turned grave for an instant. "I name no names, Ziegler; but some one gave you away the other day when you failed."
The effect of this second shot was startling. "God of my fathers, if I thought it was von Felsen I would----." He clenched his hands in rage.
I was almost as excited as he was, but I took care he should not see it. Von Felsen was mixed up in these Polish schemes; and if I could get at the truth, I should have him in the hollow of my hand. "It wasn't von Felsen," I said to reassure him. "He's too deep in, and too much in your power to chatter. You know that. ”

“ Arvania has stolen the Ziegler plans and formulae. With their acquisition it becomes the most powerful nation on earth. The Ziegler plans are at present in the Arvanian Embassy, but they will be smuggled out of the country soon. Within a month of their landing in Arvania, war will be declared against us. That means"—he glanced at the tense faces around the conference table—"that we have about three months to live as a nation—unless we can get those plans!" ”

“ For here it becomes necessary to say that the letter sent to Ziegler in London five days before, and purporting to convey the Duke’s submission and request for instructions, which were called for by Alec Forsyth, was not written by the Duke at all, or even with his cognizance. It had been the joint production of General Sadgrove and Forsyth, with an eye to immediate immunity for the Duke from further murderous attacks, and to the enactment of some such dangerous comedy as had just been played in the crypt. ”

“ Forsyth rejoiced that he was able to reply in the negative. "No," he said promptly and with evident truth; "he has always steadily refused to enlighten my uncle and myself as to the cause of his being so persecuted. We have been kept absolutely in the dark."
He did not feel called upon to add, as he might have done, that a good deal of that darkness had been penetrated by General Sadgrove's acumen, and that the design on Senator Sherman's gold bonds was an open book to them.
Ziegler, however, was satisfied with the reply. ”