CAPTAIN CLAIBORNE ON DUTY

When he came where the trees were thin,
The moon sat waiting there to see;
On her worn palm she laid her chin,
And laughed awhile in sober glee
To think how strong this knight had been.

—­William Vaughn Moody.

In some mystification Captain Richard Claiborne packed a suit-case in his quarters at Fort Myer.  Being a soldier, he obeyed orders; but being human, he was also possessed of a degree of curiosity.  He did not know just the series of incidents and conferences that preceded his summons to Washington, but they may be summarized thus: 

Baron von Marhof was a cautious man.  When the young gentlemen of his legation spoke to him in awed whispers of a cigarette case bearing an extraordinary device that had been seen in Washington he laughed them away; then, possessing a curious and thorough mind, he read all the press clippings relating to the false Baron von Kissel, and studied the heraldic emblems of the Schomburgs.  As he pondered, he regretted the death of his eminent brother-in-law, Count Ferdinand von Stroebel, who was not a man to stumble over so negligible a trifle as a cigarette case.  But Von Marhof himself was not without resources.  He told the gentlemen of his suite that he had satisfied himself that there was nothing in the Armitage mystery; then he cabled Vienna discreetly for a few days, and finally consulted Hilton Claiborne, the embassy’s counsel, at the Claiborne home at Storm Springs.

They had both gone hurriedly to Washington, where they held a long conference with the Secretary of State.  Then the state department called the war department by telephone, and quickly down the line to the commanding officer at Fort Myer went a special assignment for Captain Claiborne to report to the Secretary of State.  A great deal of perfectly sound red tape was reduced to minute particles in these manipulations; but Baron von Marhof’s business was urgent; it was also of a private and wholly confidential character.  Therefore, he returned to his cottage at Storm Springs, and the Washington papers stated that he was ill and had gone back to Virginia to take the waters.

The Claiborne house was the pleasantest place in Storm Valley, and the library a comfortable place for a conference.  Dick Claiborne caught the gravity of the older men as they unfolded to him the task for which they had asked his services.  The Baron stated the case in these words: 

“You know and have talked with this man Armitage; you saw the device on the cigarette case; and asked an explanation, which he refused; and you know also Chauvenet, whom we suspect of complicity with the conspirators at home.  Armitage is not the false Baron von Kissel—­we have established that from Senator Sanderson beyond question.  But Sanderson’s knowledge of the man is of comparatively recent date—­going back about five years to the time Armitage purchased his Montana ranch.  Whoever Armitage may be, he pays his bills; he conducts himself like a gentleman; he travels at will, and people who meet him say a good word for him.”