“Before I tell you,” continued Neeland, “what happened to me through Ilse Dumont, I must tell you what occurred in the train on my way to Paris.... May I have a cigarette, Princess Naïa?”
“At your elbow in that silver box.”
Rue Carew lighted it for him with a smile, but her hand still trembled.
“First,” he said, “tell me what particular significance those papers in the olive-wood box have. Then I can 295 tell you more intelligently what happened to me since I went to Brookhollow to find them.”
“They are the German plans for the fortification of the mainland commanding the Dardanelles, and for the forts dominating the Gallipoli peninsula.”
“Yes, I know that. But of what interest to England or France or Russia––”
“If there is to be war, can’t you understand the importance to us of those plans?” asked the Princess in a low, quiet voice.
“To—‘us’?” he repeated.
“Yes, to us. I am Russian, am I not?”
“Yes. I now understand how very Russian you are, Princess. But what has Turkey––”