The Red Symbol. Ironside John

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СКАЧАТЬ to steady my voice, and answer curtly: “I’ll tell you later. Go on, what about Carson?”

      He rose and crossed to his desk before he answered, scrutinizing me with keen interest the while.

      “That’s all. Except that this was found in his breast-pocket; I got it by to-night’s mail. It’s in a horrid state; the blood soaked through, of course.”

      He picked up a small oblong card, holding it gingerly in his finger-tips, and handed it to me.

      I think I knew what it was, even before I looked at it. A photograph of Anne Pendennis, identical—save that it was unframed—with that which was in the possession of the miserable old Russian, even to the initials, the inscription, and the red symbol beneath it!

CHAPTER IV

       Table of Contents

THE RIVER STEPS

       Table of Contents

      “

      This was found in Carson’s pocket?” I asked, steadying my voice with an effort.

      He nodded.

      I affected to examine the portrait closely, to gain a moment’s time. Should I tell him, right now, that I knew the original; tell him also of my strange visitant? No; I decided to keep silence, at least until after I had seen Anne, and cross-examined the old Russian again.

      “Have you any clue to her identity?” I said, as I rose and replaced the blood-stained card on his desk.

      “No. I’ve no doubt the Russian Secret Police know well enough who she is; but they don’t give anything away,—even to me.”

      “They sent you that promptly enough,” I suggested, indicating the photograph with a fresh cigarette which I took up as I resumed my seat. I had managed to regain my composure, and have no doubt that Southbourne considered my late agitation was merely the outcome of my natural horror and astonishment at the news of poor Carson’s tragic fate. And now I meant to ascertain all he knew or suspected about the affair, without revealing my personal interest in it.

      “Not they! It came from Von Eckhardt. It was he who found poor Carson; and he took possession of that”—he jerked his head towards the desk—“before the police came on the scene, and got it through.”

      I knew what that meant,—that the thing had not been posted in Russia, but smuggled across the frontier.

      I had met Von Eckhardt, who was on the staff of an important German newspaper, and knew that he and Carson were old friends. They shared rooms at St. Petersburg.

      “Now why should Von Eckhardt run such a risk?” I asked.

      “Can’t say; wish I could.”

      “Where was he when poor Carson was done for?”

      “At Wilna, he says; he’d been away for a week.”

      “Did he tell you about this Society, and its red symbol?”

      “’Pon my soul, you’ve missed your vocation, Wynn. You ought to have been a barrister!” drawled Southbourne. “No, I knew all that before. As a matter of fact, I warned Carson against that very Society,—as I’m warning you. Von Eckhardt merely told me the bare facts, including that about the bit of geranium Carson was clutching. I drew my own inference. Here, you may read his note.”

      He tossed me a half-sheet of thin note-paper, covered on one side with Von Eckhardt’s crabbed German script.

      It was, as he had said, a mere statement of facts, and I mentally determined to seize an early opportunity of interviewing Von Eckhardt when I arrived at Petersburg.

      “You needn’t have troubled to question me,” resumed Southbourne, in his most nonchalant manner. “I meant to tell you the little I know,—for your own protection. This Society is one of those revolutionary organizations that abound in Russia, but more cleverly managed than most of them, and therefore all the more dangerous. Its members are said to be innumerable, and of every class; and there are branches in every capital of Europe. A near neighbor of yours, by the way, is under surveillance at this very moment, though I believe nothing definite has been traced to him.”

      “Cassavetti!” I exclaimed with, I am sure, an excellent assumption of surprise.

      “You’ve guessed it first time; though his name’s Vladimir Selinski. If you see him between now and Monday, when you must start, I advise you not to mention your destination to him, unless you’ve already done so. He was at the Savage Club dinner to-night, wasn’t he?”

      One of Southbourne’s foibles was to pose as a kind of “Sherlock Holmes,” but I was not in the least impressed by this pretension to omniscience. He was a member of the club, and ought to have been at the dinner himself. If he had looked down the list of guests he must have seen “Miss Anne Pendennis” among the names, and yet I believed he had not the slightest suspicion that she was the original of that portrait!

      “I saw him there,” I said, “but I told him nothing of my movements; though we are on fairly good terms. Do you think I’m quite a fool, Lord Southbourne?”

      He looked amused, and blew another ring before he answered, enigmatically: “David said in his haste ‘all men are liars.’ If he’d said at his leisure ‘all men are fools,—when there’s a woman in the case’—he’d have been nearer the mark!”

      “What do you mean?” I demanded, hotly enough.

      “Well, I also dined at the Cecil to-night, though not with the ‘Savages,’ and I happened to hear that you and Cassavetti—we’ll call him that—were looking daggers at each other, and that the lady, who was remarkably handsome, appeared to enjoy the situation! Who is she, Wynn? Do I know her?”

      I watched him closely, but his face betrayed nothing.

      “I think your informant must have been a—journalist, Lord Southbourne,” I said very quietly. “And we seem to have strayed pretty considerably from the point. I came here to take your instructions, and if I’m to start at nine on Monday I shall not see you again.”

      He shrugged his shoulders.

      “All right; we’ll get to business. Here’s the new code; get it off by heart between now and Monday, and destroy the copy. It’s safer. Here’s your passport, duly viséd, and a cheque. That’s all, I think. I don’t need to teach you your work. But I don’t want you to meet with such a fate as Carson’s; so I expect you to be warned by his example. And you are not to make any attempt to unravel the mystery of his death. I tell you that for your own safety! The matter has been taken up from the Embassy, and everything possible will be done to hunt the assassin down. Good-bye, and good luck!”

      We shook hands and I went out into the night. It was now well past midnight, and the streets were even quieter than usual at that hour, for there had been a sharp storm while I was with Southbourne. СКАЧАТЬ