Routledge saw the need of holding Cardinegh together until he could get the whole story. “I can see clearly how one man might use these documents to start war in Afghanistan,” he capitulated; “how Russia could spread the hell all along the border, supplying powder and guns, and getting a formidable enemy launched against England, before taking the field herself. I can even see how all India, ‘seething with hatred for her white child, the British foundling’—I always liked that sentence—might arise and say, ‘This is the accepted time.’ More than that, I can see how the story of Colonel Hammond’s lost regiment might start a contagion of mutiny patches over the British army——”
“Some work for one man.”
“Big work, Jerry,” Routledge agreed. “I can see it all so far, but you will have to pardon me for having a little interest left in the fact, that I was practically ejected from the Armory last night.”
The old man fell silent and his fears whipped him again. “Don’t murder me until I am through, son. You are supposed to be the man who gave the story to the Russian spies.”
“Ah!” said Routledge. “I am supposed to be the man, and yet no one consulted me upon the matter. If I were merely supposed to be the man—would I have been turned out?”
“The forty who know the story—have no doubt about you.”
Here a great light was thrown upon the recent activity of the White Mustache. “Why am I not arrested, Jerry?”
“The Government does not dare.”
“Publicity?”
“Exactly. The truth about Afghanistan to-day is a secret guarded with men’s lives. Arbitration is afire between here and Petersburg. If India and Russia saw the British people aroused, the chances are that they would be forced to strike at once. Soldiers are being rushed secretly toward Khyber Pass. Troop-ships are embarking suddenly and without ostentation from England this moment. To make this story public—and this would be in danger by your arrest—would start the Indian sympathizers around the world. The mere name of Shubar Khan brings old England to her knees. This has been a pregnant day in the Inner Circle, my son. No, you will not be arrested.”