User:Skunkmaster IV/Rescuing the Czar/Part One/Chapter IV

Chapter IV: When Royalty Gets Double-crossed

6. The next entry was:

"On the Orient Express, or what was the O.E. before the Grosse General Stab took over the whole job of mixing up these schedules.... Well, well, well, the veiled lady of the Métropole and Buckingham is in trouble in the next compartment ... at least so she says!... She just came into my compartment and said she had been insulted by the man who is sharing it with her.... Confound him!... BUT ... Now I've heard of such 'plants' before.... While I'd like to go in there and kick the brute through the partitions I believe discretion is the better part of valor.... Let her call the guard if the case needs attention.... The guard is a reservist and I believe she knows it.... Furthermore, I must be at Donaustrasse 24, Budapest, tomorrow, and meet Colonel Shuvalov at the Hotel de Paris, Belgrade, the day after.... I wonder if that petit Paris looks the same as when I met my old friend Count Arthur Zu Weringrode and Kazimir Galitzyn coquetting with Cecilia Coursan, Mlle. Balniaux and the Petite Valon at the card tables after our sparkling dinners a few years ago.... And where is that fire-eating Prince now?... He was a great friend of Grey and Churchill at Monte Carlo.... and notwithstanding that meeting in the Taunus they MUST BE friends YET.... The Monte Carlo combination HOLDS good today.... The Taunus meeting so far as Haldane and Winston Spencer were concerned was a frame-up to catch Waechter and 'His Whiskers' (both the Admiral and the General).... That's where the Wilhelmstrasse FELL DOWN!... and yet I am on a mission of mercy, in behalf of one of the principal double-crossers, today!... Must see Kovalsky at Donau 24 sure.... Mademoiselle must take care of herself today...."

The next entry read:

"This is a great combination--Roumania is sidestepping Wilhelmstrasse.... Greece is tying up with Servia, Bulgaria is likely to form a wedge between a complete coalition of these mutually hating and suspicious grafters.... Montenegro is the only honest combination in the whole bunch.... In another hour I will see Kovalsky and astonish him with the news I bring."

7. Then the following entry: "K---- is absolutely opposed to taking any part in this business.... Will not raise a hand without the sanction of CHARLES.... Looks as though I'll have to bring pressure on these despairing creatures.... They wanted the Balkans,--that was the deal in the Black Forest,--and because some one doesn't hand it to them on a silver platter they complain of der Grosse General Stab's neglect!... At two I get my answer.... If O.K. I'll be in Odessa in 48 hours unless that veiled minx of the Métropole sticks a knife under my fifth rib.... Her conduct is becoming mighty suspicious!... Watch me give her a run for her money!"

8. Then there was this entry: "Charles refuses to see me but tells K----not to put any obstacles in my way.... this is a pretty mess!... How in the devil am I to slip through the lines with those devilish English and French officers scattered around everywhere?... If Roumania had only listened to reason!... I think that Mackinzen will be able to help me out,--I might as well ask Envir Pasha as these dervishes of Sofia to lend a hand in this affair!... Yet I must, simply MUST be in Odessa in time to meet Vladimir K before the order of execution!... Either that--or jump into the Danube!"

9. The following entry is significant: "I have been deaf, dumb and blind for the last 24 hours! The veiled lady was responsible.... She had me kidnapped and carried out into these infernal hills, wherever they are.... Never saw them before.... Looks as if a cyclone hit them.... One can pick up enough shells and scrap iron to stock a foundry.... The trees are all shot off--nothing but stumps and slivered trees and broken wheels and boxes littered around.... Looks like SOME FIGHT had taken place in this strong-smelling hopyard among these hummocks.... Apparently the hogs have been rooting up the ground all around here.... There isn't a sign of a living thing in sight ... and not a drop of water to be had!... WHO was that woman?... The Baroness, who?... Must find out more about Syvorotka."

10. "... Been tramping all day in the direction of the rising sun.... Mud, mud, mud everywhere.... It may have been a good thing that I wrote my brother Fox at Mendocino about this trip before I set out.... If I am lost and this comes into a white man's hands who understands America he will know what to do with it.... Hunger and thirst are delirious bed-fellows.... Seems like a hundred years since I heard that Métropole woman's voice when they were choking me in the carriage.... She was saying, 'Search him, search him; I know he ran away with it; it belonged to the Princess!' Then that deep heavy voice: 'What did it look like?' Every word he uttered seemed to add pneumatic pressure to his grip on my neck.... 'It was almost a light purple, the size of a hickory nut, shaped like a pyramid and gives out the reflection of a cluster of stars,' she cried like a wench.... 'Worth a great deal of money,' the deep voice grunted as his hand pressed harder against my windpipe.... 'Priceless!' she shrieked. 'It couldn't be duplicated for 100,000 rubles; the most gorgeous sapphire in the world!'... 'Are you sure this man has it?'... 'Certainly!' she insisted; 'didn't I see that little wasp Kerensky give it to his cousin, and didn't I see that cousin give it to this man in America?'... 'Who is this man?' he asked, tightening his grip until my tongue hung out.... 'They call him Fox on the west coast of America; but THAT is NOT his name,' was the last I remember until I found myself lying on the roadside among the hills back yonder.... I certainly DO resemble my brother slightly and am hoping that if he has a sapphire the size mentioned by that hissing vixen he will keep it for the honor and glory of the family of Foxes.... And to think that a few days ago I was falling in love with her at the Métropole!... If man is a meditating atom, WOMAN must be a premeditating subterfuge!... I see smoke rising over the hills away to the east.... Yes, it's the smoke of guns.... I can hear the hoarse roar of heavy artillery to the right and the spitting hollow barking and coughing of lighter pieces on the left and I feel the ground quiver as I write these lines."

11. The next entry read:

"What a somersault has taken place in the general slippery coalitions of these capricious provinces! Every Potsdammer, a little while ago, was counting on Roumania!... The breaking up of the confederation of the Balkan States under Russian influence was what the Central Powers required; while the Allies desired a broken Turkey and a strong Balkan federation under Russian sway able to throw a million men into the field against Turkey's northwestern frontier so as to keep Austria in check and allow an easy glide of forces toward the Dardanelles.... Then Roumania was with the Wilhelmstrasse, and Bulgaria was an ally of the Quay d'Orsay and the Neva, but now the Osmanlian and the Bulgar and his cousin Fritz are in the same bed snoring at the Romans who look greedily toward Transylvania!... From what I can see I'm sure these Bulgars will be first to give up the ghost, although when I talk to Kovalsky and hear the whine of these Wienfloss Kwabins I feel sure that they will be first to snap for peace!... I am writing this in a elaborately furnished dugout that has been abandoned by some German officers--I KNOW this because I found several tubes of Erbswurst tucked in one of the berths. With a little water I managed to make a good meal which saved my life,--blessed be the Goths or whoever it was who invented those compressed sausages!"

12. The next entry: "I'm becoming worried about the size of this diary ... getting so bulky as to almost prevent concealment in case of capture.... Yet I know a way to prevent detection ... so simple!... Usually the most elaborate effort at concealment leads to detection while the most obvious and simple will be entirely overlooked.... I'll try it and if it goes through I'll patent it!... SOMEONE IS COMING--sounds like a dozen auto-trucks!... No, it's an aeroplane skirmishing mighty close to my headquarters.... They've landed and are coming this way!... I'll be READY for them...."