Prince or Chauffeur? Part 37

The Prince laughed and leaned carelessly back against a table.

"Very well, since you appear to deny your ident.i.ty, as well as your condition--which is quite obvious, I beg you to know--I can admit only that you have the advantage of me."

"Oh, shut up!" said Jack angrily. "Are you going to give me that control? My name is Armitage. I invented that device and you and your dirty band of square-heads stole it. I want it back now, quick! And if--"

The Prince still smiling, interrupted.

"Ah, Armitage, I might have known. Allow me to say that you wore the Wellington livery with better grace than the gentleman's clothing that now adorns you--with better grace, I might even venture, than the uniform you occasionally wear."

Armitage, who quickly saw the advantage of Koltsoff's poise, curbed his anger, at least so far as speech was concerned.

"Look here, Koltsoff," he said, "let us understand each other. I am going to get that control or one or the other of us is going to be carried out of this room."

"You have the revolver--it will probably be I," said Koltsoff.

With an exclamation Jack reached into his pocket, drew out the revolver, and hurled it through the open window. They could hear it clatter on the cliffs below and then splash into the ocean.

Instinctively, Koltsoff's eyes had followed the flight of the weapon.

When he turned his head Jack was close at his side. The Russian stepped back. Jack moved forward.

"Now," he said in a low tense voice, "that magnetic control--quick!"

There was no mistaking the quiet ferocity of his manner.

Koltsoff had ceased to smile.

"I have n't it."

"Are--you--going--to--give--me--that--control?"

"I have n't it. I swear. Look--look anywhere, everywhere. See if I do not speak the truth."

"Then get it."

Koltsoff moved to a bureau and Jack followed him.

"Wait," said the Russian. Then like lightning his hand shot out to a heavy bra.s.s candlestick and the next instant had aimed a murderous blow at Jack's head. Armitage caught the flash of the descending weapon in time to duck his head, taking the force upon the lower muscles of his neck. The wave of pain was as the lash to a mettlesome horse. Before the Prince could swing the candlestick again Armitage had him by the throat and bore him to the floor, half stifling his shriek for help.

As Armitage seized the candlestick and tossed it to one side, the k.n.o.b of the door turned and the door itself partly opened. He sprang to his feet, pulled Koltsoff to his knees, and as he stood thus the door was pushed wide and Anne Wellington stepped across the threshold.

Her face was pale, her eyes were blazing.

One hand, holding a heavy package, she held behind her back. With the other she pointed to Prince Koltsoff with the imperiousness of a queen.

"What does this mean?" she asked sternly.

Behind her in the doorway the tragic face of Sara Van Valkenberg was framed.

"This--this scoundrel was trying to murder me."

Armitage was looking at her over his shoulder.

"Please don't stay here, Miss Wellington. This man stole a very important part of a torpedo that I invented. I am going to make him return it before he leaves this room."

"He says what is untrue," said Koltsoff. "It is not his property. And at all events, as I have told him, I do not possess it."

The color had returned to Anne's face. She swayed slightly as a great wave of light, of knowledge, pa.s.sed over her mind.

"Oh!" Her lips moved as mechanically as those of an automaton and her face was as expressionless. "Oh!" Her eyes seemed burning through Armitage. "And you made me believe--I mean I thought--I--I--"

She bowed her head, trying to stifle tears of shame and indignation.

"Don't, Miss Wellington. Don't misunderstand! Wait until I can explain--then you will know. In the meantime I must have that torpedo, that part of it which this Russian spy stole."

"It is not yours. It is mine. And I again inform you, I have n't it."

Prince Koltsoff's sneering smile had returned.

"Wait!" cried Anne, breaking in upon Jack's angry exclamation. She stepped into the middle of the room. "Prince Koltsoff is right. He has n't it. I have it." Slowly she drew her hand from behind her back.

"Here it is."

Koltsoff stepped forward.

"It is mine!" he said. "I gave it in trust to you. I command you to keep it until I ask for it."

"He is lying, Miss Wellington. It is mine. I can prove it."

"Lying!" exclaimed Anne tragically. "Lying! Every one has lied.

Where is there truth in either of you? Where is there chivalry in you and you--" nodding at Armitage and Koltsoff--"who have ruthlessly used a household and a woman to your own ends? Ugh, I detest, I hate you both! As for this," she struck the package with her hand, "I brought it here to give you, Prince Koltsoff. I could n't keep it longer. But now I think I can end your dispute for all time." Quickly she stepped to the open window and raising the bundle high, hurled it out of the window and over the cliffs.

With a dry howl of rage, Koltsoff flung himself into a chair, tearing wildly at his hair and beard, while Armitage, his hands thrust deep into his trousers pockets, stared at Anne. So far as the control was concerned, while its loss would set his work back several weeks, it at least was out of Koltsoff's hands and that naturally was the main thing. It would, in fact, have been a source of deepest joy to him had not the shock of Anne's wholly unlooked-for att.i.tude and subsequent wild act almost unnerved him.

"A traitor! Anne Wellington a traitor!" he said in a quivering voice.

"Traitor!" Anne's voice rose almost to a wail. She turned suddenly to Koltsoff. "Of course you understand that you must leave us as soon as possible." Koltsoff, who had arisen, eyed her sullenly. She turned to Jack, who met her eyes straight. "And--and you--"

She paused and studied his face. "You--" She swayed and pressed her hand to her forehead. There was a flash of white and Sara Van Valkenberg's arms were about her. And there with her head on Sara's shoulders, she wept bitterly. The older woman caught Armitage with her eyes as she pa.s.sed out of the room.

"You fool!" she said, then she bent toward him, whispering, "but don't you dare go away!"

CHAPTER XXV

THE EXPATRIATE

In the doorway Armitage paused and as Sara and Anne brushed silently past him, he turned back into the room. Without looking at Koltsoff, who was fumbling at push b.u.t.tons and roaring for his valet, he walked over to Takakika, took a knife from his pocket, reached down and cut his silken fetters.

"There," he said with a grim smile, "I did n't leave you bound to the mercies of His Highness over there. Put that to my credit when you pray to the ancient Samurai."