“Would you go to Belgrade?”
“I’ll go anywhere you send me.”
“You shall go there at once and wait for me. I shall be there in about a week. I am going first to Vienna; and you must use the interval to get this information for me. Lose no time and pay whatever is necessary. I’ll give you some money and send you more. But, mind, we must have the truth—whatever it costs.”
“They know me too well to deceive me,” he answered. “I shall have it all in less than a week; and have the men as well, at your service, if you want them.” And so it was settled.
Money had talked when we reached Samac, and the special was ready for us. I took Karasch with me as far as Maria-Theresiopel, where I was to catch the mail to Vienna, and he to get the train to Belgrade; and on the journey I discussed the matter with him fully and gave him such directions as were necessary.
“Mind, not a word about me until we meet in Belgrade,” was my last parting injunction; and for the rest of the journey I slept almost until Vienna was reached.
A very full week was the week that followed; and money was talking every minute of it, while I gathered the information I needed and pieced it together for the campaign I had before me.
It was just a big bluff I put up about that Servian loan; and played it well enough to convince all who came near me that I meant it right along. It was easy to prove that I and those who were behind me in the States had the dollars and could put them on the table. That was true; but the bluff was to make folks believe me soft enough to accept the security and vouch for it to others.
My attitude was that of the typical Missouri man. “Show me” was my one text. “Prove to me the thing is sound, and I’ll find the money right now;” and the very strenuousness of the efforts to persuade me was in itself enough to have made even a plunger suspicious.
But I kept a very stiff upper lip; and when I raised difficulties, hinted at concessions that should be made, and asked for facts in regard to other matters, I was at last referred to Belgrade direct. This was what I wanted; and I consented to go there; but not without making a show of reluctance.