Lovelace shook his head. `Nothing doing I'm afraid. Because I hate war and all the senseless misery that it causes, it doesn't mean for one moment that I'm prepared to lend a hand in an assassination.'
`I don't ask you to. I only want you as a friend who knows the ropes if I have to go to Africa. Please come with me. You're going out there anyway. It won't delay you much if we have to put in a day in Paris on the way. Forget what I'm going out there to do if you like. We'll never speak of it again, but I do wish you'd travel with me.'
`I'm sorry.' Lovelace shook his head again. `What you propose to do is murder: the killing of some unsuspecting man. I can't be a party to that.'
Valerie Lorne had been silent for a time. Now she spoke again. `Won't you? I wish you would. Christopher will be like a child in those tropical countries. He needs a friend like you so badly. Even if you can't forget his mission you need take no part in it. Surely you won't refuse to let him travel with you to the Near East if he has to go there.'
Somehow Lovelace found the girl's appeal harder to resist. In some queer way, which he could not explain to himself, he felt as though she had some sort of claim on him. Yet he still stubbornly shook his head.
`I can't. Perhaps that's because I'm not big enough to scrap all the rather foolish prejudices with which most of us have been brought up. If it were a question of giving my own life to stop another war well, I'd try to screw my courage up to that because I've seen so much of war in its worst aspects. But to aid and abet a murder in cold blood; that's too much. I just can't do it.'
Valerie sighed and turned to Christopher. `When must you sail, darling?'
`I've booked on the Europa which sails tomorrow night. It's urgent and they wanted me to leave as soon as possible. I pulled a few strings with the diplomatic people yesterday and they got my passport back for me with all the necessary visas this afternoon. I've made arrangements with my bank to have funds at my disposal in all the larger towns I may have to go to. I only hope the enemy organization doesn't find out what I'm up to and try to prevent my leaving the country though.
As the door opened they all started and looked towards it. The elderly butler stood there with his eyes on Christopher. `The telephone, sir,' he said. `The person who called you refused to give his name.'
`Excuse me, won't you.' Christopher went into the next room.
The interruption had broken the tension. Lovelace walked over to Valerie who was leaning with one elbow on the corner of the mantelpiece. He was a good head taller than she was and stood looking down at her.
`We've met somewhere before, you know: where was it?' he asked abruptly.
`Don't you remember?' She turned her face up to his and a smile deepened the dimple in her cheek..
`No,' he confessed. `I've been racking my brains for the last hour to place it; but I can't. Tell me.'
Slowly she shook her head and her grey eyes grew dreamy. 'Why should I? It may have been long ago. It may even have been in some previous existence. What's it matter where it was if you have forgotten?'
As she turned away Christopher rejoined them. His beautiful, ascetic face seemed colder and harder than ever, yet there was a faint nervous tremor in his long pointed fingers as he lit a cigarette.
'That call was anonymous,' he said. 'The man the other end of the wire didn't mince matters. He just told me certain people know what I've been put up do, and that if I stayed in the United States no harm would befall me, but that if I set foot outside the country I'd be dead within a week.'
Valerie laid a hand on his shoulder. 'You mean go on, Christopher?' 'Certainly. This'll make things more difficult that's all. I'll have to regard every person in the ship an enemy who is out to get me.'
'You won't,' she said with swift determination, I mean to fly you over the border into Canada before morning. You'll be on the water then before they even know you've sailed.'
Christopher's face brightened. `Valerie, you're a girl, in a million. If you'll do that it will give me a clear start and a safe passage over. Once I'm in Europe I’ll go to earth, and they'll have the devil's own job to find me, Bless you, darling.'
`How long will it take you to pack a bag?'
`I'll be ready in an hour. I've got a few papers, see to, that's all, and we can look up tomorrow's Canadian sailings in the news sheets. I'll order the car for you, Lovelace, to take you back to New York,.'
Thanks,' said Lovelace quietly. 'I'd be glad if yon would. But why are you in such a desperate hurry Surely if you're over the Canadian border by dawn that will. do? Plenty of time for me to collect my bags in New York and return here before you set out.'
`Return here?' echoed Christopher.
'Yes. This is a very different business from what I thought it a few minutes ago. If the enemy are organized and have sent you an ultimatum your job's no longer assassination, but an act of war. I'm game to help you now, so I'm coming too.'
4
The romance of a queen
In the bitter cold of early dawn Valerie flew the two men up the coast of Maine, then across the Bay of Fundy to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where she landed there, safely by half past ten.
Their passports were all in order. Christopher's had been renewed only two days before, Lovelace had travelled so much in the last ten years that he made a practice of keeping his up to date for most countries he was likely to visit, and Valerie possessed a special laissez passer granted to her by the State Department soon after she began breaking air records.
No question was raised when they landed and from the flying field they went straight to a Travel Office, There they learned that the s.s. Pomeranzen, 10,500 tons, was due to sail for Rotterdam at eight o'clock that evening.
The Dutch vessel carried cargo as well as a hundred and twenty cabin class passengers. She was a nine day boat but there was plenty of accommodation vacant in her and they would have had to wait three days for the larger CY.R. Liner which was scheduled to dock in Europe half a day later.
Christopher's orders were urgent. He should have sailed in the Europa from New York that evening and landed at Cherbourg on April 5th. His change of plans meant that he would not reach Paris until the 11th, six days late, and he felt that he must not delay his arrival by even half a day more for the sake of travelling on, the bigger ship. He said at once:
'All right. I'll take the two best cabins you’ve got on the Dutchman, with bathrooms, of course, and a private drawing room, if you can get me one.'
Lovelace smiled to himself. He usually managed to travel in reasonable comfort, but he was not rich, and he felt that it would be fun to voyage deluxe for a change in the company of this young mufti millionaire.
Valerie cut in on his thoughts. 'We'll need three staterooms, Christopher, and they must make arrangements to ship the plane as well.'
Both men swung round on her at once. 'We cant take you with us Christopher began.
'Why not?' she lifted her chin. 'I'm due for trip to Europe anyway; and in Paris I can get some frocks.,
'We'd love to have you along, darling, but
'But nothing,' she cut him short. The dimple in her cheek deepened as she smiled and squeezed his arm, 'You want to get to Paris at the earliest possible moment, don't you? I'11 fly you there from Rotterdam and save you the best part of a day in the train.'
Christopher gave way without further argument and Lovelace was soon to find that he always did so when she took charge of a situation. She was far the more practical of the two and mothered her pale faced, handsome fiancé as though he were some precious, way ward infant.