“Then you will not forget?” he asked.
“How can I?” whispered the girl, miserably. “If I only could! But I can’t! I can’t. I can resign and I will. I shall give nothing to the paper about you. If your secret were almost anything but what it is, I would repeat it to no one. But”—the girl’s figure straightened—“but you are plotting against my country! and I must warn those who should know. I must! I must! You see that, don’t you, Count?”
Pleadingly she leaned forward and gazed up into his face.
“You would not have me a traitor, would you?” she questioned, pitifully. “I don’t know just what you and your emperor are plotting, but I can guess and I must report it. Why! count, my ancestors have been Americans for nearly three hundred years. They have been soldiers, statesman, patriots! I can’t be the first of my line to play the traitor. I can’t let the Emperor William plot against my country without warning.”
The man forced a laugh. “Plots! Plots! What are you talking about? There is no plot. Only a—a—oh, nothing at all. It is only a—a diplomatic errand to your State Department. Surely it needs no warning against my diplomacy. Plots! Heavens! What sort of a plot could Germany carry through against the United States. Your strenuous President would smash any plot in a moment, even at the cost of war. And do you think Germany wants war? No! No! a thousand times no. It is only a diplomatic triumph that I seek to win. To lose it would discredit me for all time. You do not wish for that! No! No! senorita! Your government needs no help from you. Let it play its own game.”
But the girl shook her head. In her mind’s eye she saw the web of which Ouro Preto had spoken. Wide and strong it stretched over half the world. Beneath its shadow she could see the flash of cannon and the smoke of ruined cities, with half the world bathed in blood.
The vision faded. Once more she saw the swaying deck, flashing waves, the masts and funnels tracing wide arcs across the blue firmament. Ouro Preto was still speaking; he was asking her something—something that she could not understand. With new eyes she looked upon him. All fascination, all liking, all friendship had vanished. She could see only the enemy with whom she must cope. Blindly she struggled to her feet, pushed past the man’s opposing arms and fled away to her stateroom.
That night she sent the long wireless message that McNew showed to the President.
CHAPTER XXIV
Dusk was falling when the torpedo boat Watson turned her nose seaward and sped away from Old Point with all the vigor of her quadruple expansion engines. Topham had climbed on board half a minute before, and full speed ahead had been signalled to the engines as his foot had touched the deck.