The Great Game (53 page)

             
She did so, almost falling back into her chair.

             
"Now relax all your muscles, starting with your toes and working up. First tense the muscle and then relax it. Toes ... feet ... knees ... thighs ..." Moriarty slowly worked his way up the body, naming several parts of the body that were usually not mentioned in polite society. But nobody tittered, nobody smiled. All eyes were on Madeleine Verlaine, and they could see her body relax under the gentle pressure of the professor's words.

             
"Now cast your mind back to that day—to the minute you entered the cloakroom," Moriarty told her. "Where are the coats?"

             
"To the left, on a long bar along the wall."

             
"Now you go through the pockets of the first one."

             
"Yes. It is a man's black overcoat. There is nothing in the pockets save a silver cigarette case. The initials on the case are 'G. D. M.' "

             
"And the next one?"

             
"Gray with a black collar.
A pearl-gray silk scarf in one pocket.
The name Beske on a card case in one pocket.
In the outer vest pocket an old crumpled and forgotten death announcement: 'Maximilian Beske. 17 August 1889.' "

             
"And the next."

             
"A woman's coat.
Dark brown with fur edging.
A letter from Bert to Olga Tartosky.
Bert is in Australia, but hopes to make something of
himself
and come back. His English has gotten quite good."

             
"Enough about Bert.
The next one?"

             
"Black.
Stiff.
With a belt.
Wide lapels.
Shoulder tabs.
Very military in a Hungarian sort of way.
A letter in the inside pocket.
This is the letter—this is the letter I spoke of."

             
"Open it and read it."

             
For a long moment the room was silent, and then Madeleine intoned: "No salutation. It seems to be in the form of a telegram, although it's written by hand. It has, 'twenty-five April' in the upper right corner. And then, printed in capital letters:

             
'WE ARE FREE SERBIA
STOP
WE HAVE TAKEN OVER THE SPECIAL TRAIN TO MARIASBERG
STOP
ALL WITHIN ARE OUR CAPTIVES
STOP
WITHDRAW ALL IMPERIAL TROOPS
STOP
TOO LONG HAVE OUR RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES BEEN TRAMPLED
STOP
ALL OF EUROPE MUST RECOGNIZE OUR CAUSE
STOP
WE WILL HOLD THESE WORLD LEADERS HOSTAGE UNTIL
OUR DEMANDS ARE MET
STOP
IF YOU TRY TO RESCUE THEM ALL WILL DIE
STOP
WE PACE DEATH FREELY FOR OUR COUNTRY
STOP
YOU WILL BE NOTIFIED AS TO WHAT YOU MUST DO
STOP
WE ARE FREE SERBIA'

             
"And then, written in longhand below this: 'The bodies of two Serbian nationalists will be found in the wreckage of the train.'
"

             
"
And that's all."

             
"And that's enough!" the duke said.

             
"There is something else. Something Paul—your son—told me," Madeleine said. "Yes?"

             
"At a meeting of the anarchists Paul saw one of the members in a train conductor's uniform. And Paul didn't think he was a train conductor."

             
"Hah!" Moriarty said.

             
"What are we to do?" asked the duke of Albermar.

             
"I have a plan," Moriarty said.

             
"I thought you might," said Sherlock Holmes.

Die Tat
ist
alles, nicht der Ruhm.

[The deed is everything, not the glory.]

—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

             
The special train left Vienna almost two hours late because the kaiser so loved the production of the
Mastersingers of Nuremberg
that he stayed awake almost all the way through it, and insisted on going backstage afterward to congratulate the cast, especially the pretty young blonde who sang the part of Eva. The Kaiser's uncle, Crown Prince Sigismund, finally managed to pull his Imperial Highness away, and the train got underway just a shade before midnight with Kaiser Frederick Wilhelm Viktor Albert of Hohenzollern riding in his own private car and the other leaders occupying four of the five three-room suites that took up three-quarters of the wagons-lit deluxe car; the remaining quarter being reserved for triple-bunking servants. This was one of six such cars which the railroad reserved for those of the royalty or higher nobility who might choose to travel by rail.

             
In the fifth suite, Moriarty and Holmes were hunched over a table in the front room, making plans for the coming confrontation, while Benjamin Barnett slept in the bed in the adjoining bedroom and Watson slept on a couch in the sitting room.

             
The duke of Albermar came into the front room to find Holmes staring out the window and Moriarty leaning back in his chair with his eyes closed. "I couldn't sleep," he told them. "What have you determined?"

             
Moriarty opened his eyes. "While it is possible to assault a moving train," he told the duke, "we believe that it is unlikely. Therefore the train will be attacked when it stops. It is not stopping at any passenger stations along the way, but it must pause five times at coaling stations for the engine to fill up with coal and water."

             
"I see," said the duke.

             
"We have tentatively eliminated three of the stops," Holmes said, turning from the window, "the first, second, and fourth. The first and fourth are too close to major towns for any action to be unobserved, and the second is at a location without a telegraph office. We are assuming that the attackers will want to send their threatening telegram as soon as possible."

             
Albermar nodded. "I see."

             
Colonel-General Duke von Seligsmann, splendid in his full dress uniform, with his spurs clicking on the wooden floor and his saber clanking at his side, pulled the door to Moriarty's compartment open, braced himself against the swaying and rattling of the train, and came in. "Bah!" he said. "Men were meant to ride horses, not stumble about in trains. With a horse under you, you know where you are, but with the swaying and twisting and bouncing of a train, where in heaven's name are you?" He looked around the room.
"Ah, Mr. Holmes, good to see you again.
It looks as if you may have gotten the results we require after all."

             
"Your men are resting,
General
?" Moriarty asked.

             
"My men are polishing their boots and belts and sharpening their sabers," Seligsmann told him. "That is how they rest."

             
"If I am right, it will be some hours before they are needed," Moriarty told the general. "If I am mistaken, they might be needed in a hurry."

             
Seligsmann nodded. "They are used to doing things in a rush," he said.
"Although usually they have horses under them at the time.
But they are good men, well trained and orderly. We do, however, have one problem to which I should direct your attention."

             
"Ah!" Moriarty said.

             
"And that is?" asked Holmes.

             
"In coming to this compartment from the car in which my men are waiting, it was necessary for me to pass through the kaiser's private car."

             
"Yes," Moriarty agreed. "It would be."

             
"Don't tell me that Kaiser Wilhelm objects to your passing through his car," Holmes said.

             
"No, no, it's not that. Rather the opposite. His Imperial Highness Frederick Wilhelm desires to be informed of just when the attack is planned for. He, also, is sharpening his sword. He wishes to lead the charge."

             
Albermar dropped into the nearest chair. "My ... goodness," he said. "Considering that His Imperial Highness only has one good arm—his left arm, you know, is withered, a fact he manages to conceal very well—this is probably not a good idea."

             
"We'll have to think of a way to discourage His Highness," Moriarty said.

             
"I agree," said Seligsmann. "I will not go down in history as the general in charge of the action in which the kaiser was killed. I would have to fall on my sword as losing generals of old were expected to do.
Which, come to think of it, would be preferable to explaining to Franz Joseph how I allowed harm to befall his imperial cousin.
"

             
"I think we will be able to dissuade the kaiser from joining in when we explain what will be required of the troops," Moriarty told Seligsmann.

             
"Good!" the duke said. "Now, just what is the plan you have devised?"

             
"Very simple," said Moriarty. "Holmes and I have agreed on the two most probable sites for the impending attack. What we must do is put some of your men out before we arrive at each
of these locations to go forward of the train and form a screen. And then, when the enemy is located, attack them before they can attack the train."

             
"Simple enough," Seligsmann agreed. "And I approve for that reason. In my experience the more complex a plan is, the more it is likely to fall apart of its own weaknesses."

             
"There is a possibility," Holmes contributed, "that the attack will come at one of the places where the train has to slow down to a walking pace because of the uphill grade. It's not probable, because we don't believe that any such location will be within close proximity to a telegraph office. But we should be prepared in case our logic is wrong."

             
"I will post men between the cars to look out for any danger. I have forty-three men, do you think that will be enough?"

             
"There is no reason to assume that our opponents will attack in force," Holmes said. "They certainly believe the train to be unguarded, as the conference is supposed to be a great secret."

             
"When I was apprised of the situation, I tried to get the representatives to stay in Vienna until we could resolve this," Seligsmann said. "But not one of them would agree to remain behind. They all have the utmost faith in my—our—ability to protect them. Bah!"

             
The duke of Albermar smiled. "But I do have the utmost faith," he said. "I'll return to my compartment now, and pretend to sleep."

-

             
As the train bearing the leaders sped west through the night, heading into the Austrian Alps toward Innsbruck, twenty-two determined Knights of Wotan were waiting for it at a coaling stop just outside of the quaint little ski resort of Schladming. They wanted to bring back the glory of a Greater Germany that had never actually existed, but history was not their strong point. Their masters had told them all the truth that they needed to hear.