THE WEB by Frederic Arnold Kummer

Author:Frederic Arnold Kummer [Kummer, Frederic Arnold]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9788026872948
Publisher: e-artnow
Published: 2017-01-03T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER XIV

Table of Contents

HOFFMAN'S second interview with Herr Schwartz, the German secret service agent, took place in a small room, a sort of study, in a house not far from the Hotel de Ville. The agent ’s secretary, the young man whom he addressed as “Carl,” and who had seen Hoffman to the train on the occasion of his first visit, met him in the anteroom of the Military Governor’s offices, at six o’clock; he greeted Hoffman pleasantly, in excellent English, and together they proceeded to the street.

The short walk to the house was made in silence. Hoffman found himself wondering whether Herr Schwartz occupied a different house each day. He had heard, from some source or other, that such individuals were wont to appear in many different personalities, and to change their habitats with amazing frequency, in order that enemy spies might never be able to locate them.

The entrance to the house was made by means of a narrow passageway, leading to a small court. From the court, they passed to a long corridor with a number of twists and turns in it. When they finally reached the door of the secret agent ’s study, Hoffman was quite unable to tell whether they were in the building facing on the street from which they had entered, or another, on an entirely different street. The man he sought hid himself away like a mole, safe from all intrusion.

When, in response to the secretary’s knocks, the door swung slowly open, Hoffman glanced eagerly inside the room. At a small desk, beneath a green-shaded electric lamp, sat the man he sought. At first, however, Hoffman did not recognize him. Instead of the sombre black of their former meeting, he wore a checked grey suit, with a colored shirt and brilliant necktie, and looked like a prosperous and sportily inclined commercial traveller. The fur-lined overcoat and green velour hat on a chair near the desk, the small leather satchel beside it, indicated that he had just returned from a journey of some sort. He flicked the ashes from his cigar, nodded to the secretary, who at once with drew, and pointed to a chair. Hoffman sat down.

“Well, my friend,” he said, in a brisk voice. “You arrive promptly!”

Hoffman nodded.

“I was informed that you desired to see me at once,: he said.

“Precisely. I am glad to see you. I have an important commission with which I have decided to entrust you”

“Yes? Then I judge that you are satisfied with my Work, so far.”

Herr Schwartz drummed lightly on the table with his linger nails. Hoffman observed that they were exquisitely manicured.

“You have done well—yes,” he said. “And yet, your information has not been of very great value.”

“Not of great value! The news about the Falkland Islands? The transport?”

“The transport, it appears, was empty,” Herr Schwartz replied gloomily. “Our U-47 sank her, early today. There were, unfortunately, no lives lost. The crew took to the boats. The destroyers escaped. The loss of the vessel inflicts a certain small damage upon the enemy, it is true, but it was not what we had expected.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.