His appearance impressed me mainly with a sense of cold, inflexible, unsympathetic strength and capacity. He was a hatchet-headed man in the fifties, with a long, narrow, keen, undemonstrative face; one of those straight, thin-lipped mouths which seem intended for the close guardianship of secrets; and an abnormally long heavy chin which suggested resolute purpose, dogged persistence and perhaps cruelty; while his piercing, hard, close-set eyes tended to confirm this suggestion of cruelty. Altogether he was capable of being an ugly enemy.
He was sparing of words in the interview; and whatever he had guessed as to the real motives of my presence in Belgrade he was careful to let no hint of it appear; and he went straight to the pith of our meeting.
He expressed great pleasures in seeing me, gave Nikolitch a word of praise for his share in having brought the meeting about, said he understood I wished to secure the influence of the army in certain eventualities, and then asked me point blank whether I meant to help the existing Government financially.
I answered guardedly that I was not as yet satisfied of the present stability of things, but that when there was a really stable Government I should be prepared to guarantee a loan.
“Would you regard as sufficiently stable a new Government having the united army at its back?”
“Yes, if founded without violence and commanding the support of the country.”
He thought this over a moment. “It is all we can ask,” he said. “Will you put that in writing, Mr. Bergwyn?”
I assented, and he immediately placed materials before me and waited in silence while I wrote out an undertaking on the lines I had indicated. This I read aloud to him, and he marked every word, suggesting one or two trifling alterations. I made these and then held the paper ready to hand to him. I did this to convince him I was earnest; and then I opened up the other matter.
“If I give you this it amounts to a pledge that I take the side of the army, Colonel Petrosch. What am I to receive in exchange?”
“I do not think I understand you.”