THE FIRST CONFERENCE
In the Captain's cabin, meanwhile, another conference was going forward, and one of a very different character from that on the after boat-deck. The curtains had been carefully drawn, and three men sat facing each other. They were Ignace Vard, Pachmann, and the young man whom he addressed habitually as "Prince." Vard was on the divan in the corner of the room, the others lounged in two luxuriously upholstered chairs which had been wheeled in front of the divan. Their attitudes suggested careless unconcern, but their eyes were glowing with repressed excitement. Cigars and liqueurs were on a table between them, and the air was blue with smoke.
The Captain had been chatting with a group of passengers when Pachmann's card was handed to him, but, after a glance at it, he excused himself at once.
"Show the gentlemen to my cabin," he said to the messenger, and himself hastened to it. There, a moment later, Pachmann and the Prince appeared.
"It is necessary that we have a conference to-night," said Pachmann, "with this Ignace Vard. It must be in a room where we cannot by any possibility be overheard."
"It is, I suppose, an affair of state?" asked the Captain.
"Yes; of the first importance."
"My cabin, then, is at your disposal."
"Thank you, sir," said Pachmann. "There could be no better place. I was hoping that you would offer it."
"You will understand, sir," Hausmann went on, stroking his beard nervously, "that an explanation of all this will have to be made to my company."