The Port of Missing Men

Then Sir Pellinore put off his armour; then a little afore midnight they heard the trotting of an horse. Be ye still, said King Pellinore, for we shall hear of some adventure.—Malory.

INDIANAPOLIS THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY PUBLISHERS

COPYRIGHT 1907 THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY JANUARY

To the Memory of Herman Kountze

THE SHINING ROAD

Come, sweetheart, let us ride away beyond the city’s bound, And seek what pleasant lands across the distant hills are found. There is a golden light that shines beyond the verge of dawn, And there are happy highways leading on and always on; So, sweetheart, let us mount and ride, with never a backward glance, To find the pleasant shelter of the Valley of Romance.

Before us, down the golden road, floats dust from charging steeds, Where two adventurous companies clash loud in mighty deeds; And from the tower that stands alert like some tall, beckoning pine, E’en now, my heart, I see afar the lights of welcome shine! So loose the rein and cheer the steed and let us race away To seek the lands that lie beyond the Borders of To-day.

Draw rein and rest a moment here in this cool vale of peace; The race half-run, the goal half-won, half won the sure release! To right and left are flowery fields, and brooks go singing down To mock the sober folk who still are prisoned in the town. Now to the trail again, dear heart; my arm and blade are true, And on some plain ere night descend I’ll break a lance for you!

O sweetheart, it is good to find the pathway shining clear! The road is broad, the hope is sure, and you are near and dear! So loose the rein and cheer the steed and let us race away To seek the lands that lie beyond the borders of To-day. Oh, we shall hear at last, my heart, a cheering welcome cried As o’er a clattering drawbridge through the Gate of Dreams we ride!

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I “Events, Events” II The Claibornes, of Washington III Dark Tidings IV John Armitage a Prisoner V A Lost Cigarette Case VI Toward the Western Stars VII On the Dark Deck VIII “The King Is Dead; Long Live the King” IX “This Is America, Mr. Armitage” X John Armitage Is Shadowed XI The Toss of a Napkin XII A Camp in the Mountains XIII The Lady of the Pergola XIV An Enforced Interview XV Shirley Learns a Secret XVI Narrow Margins XVII A Gentleman in Hiding XVIII An Exchange of Messages XIX Captain Claiborne on Duty XX The First Ride Together XXI The Comedy of a Sheepfold XXII The Prisoner at the Bungalow XXIII The Verge of Morning XXIV The Attack in the Road XXV The Port of Missing Men XXVI “Who Are You, John Armitage?” XXVII Decent Burial XXVIII John Armitage

CHAPTER I

“EVENTS, EVENTS”

Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his back Wherein he puts alms for oblivion. —Troilus and Cressida.

“The knowledge that you’re alive gives me no pleasure,” growled the grim old Austrian premier.

“Thank you!” laughed John Armitage, to whom he had spoken. “You have lost none of your old amiability; but for a renowned diplomat, you are remarkably frank. When I called on you in Paris, a year ago, I was able to render you—I believe you admitted it—a slight service.”

Count Ferdinand von Stroebel bowed slightly, but did not take his eyes from the young man who sat opposite him in his rooms at the Hotel Monte Rosa in Geneva. On the table between them stood an open despatch box, and about it lay a number of packets of papers which the old gentleman, with characteristic caution, had removed to his own side of the table before admitting his caller. He was a burly old man, with massive shoulders and a great head thickly covered with iron-gray hair.

He trusted no one, and this accounted for his presence in Geneva in March, of the year 1903, whither he had gone to receive the report of the secret agents whom he had lately despatched to Paris on an errand of peculiar delicacy. The agents had failed in their mission, and Von Stroebel was not tolerant of failure. Perhaps if he had known that within a week the tapers would burn about his bier in Saint Stephen’s Cathedral, at Vienna, while his life and public services would be estimated in varying degrees of admiration or execration by the newspapers of Europe, he might not have dealt so harshly with his hard-worked spies.