THE DOUBLE FOUR
By E. Phillips Oppenheim
CASSELL AND COMPANY, LTD
London, New York, Toronto & Melbourne
First published September 1911.
Reprinted October 1911.
Shilling Edition April 1913.
Reprinted February 1917.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1. The Desire of Madame
CHAPTER 2. The Ambassador's Wife
CHAPTER 3. The Man from the Old Testament
CHAPTER 4. The First Shot
CHAPTER 5. The Seven Suppers of Andrea Korust
CHAPTER 6. The Mission of Major Kosuth
CHAPTER 7. The Ghosts of Havana Harbour
CHAPTER 8. An Alien Society
CHAPTER 9. The Man behind the Curtain
CHAPTER 10. The Thirteenth Encounter
THE DOUBLE FOUR
CHAPTER I
THE DESIRE OF MADAME
"It is the desire of Madame that you should join our circle hereon Thursday evening next, at ten o'clock.—Sogrange."
The man looked up from the sheet of notepaper which he held in his hand,and gazed through the open French windows before which he was standing.It was a very pleasant and very peaceful prospect. There was his croquetlawn, smooth-shaven, the hoops neatly arranged, the chalk mark firm anddistinct upon the boundary. Beyond, the tennis court, the flowergardens, and to the left the walled fruit garden. A little farther awaywas the paddock and orchard, and a little farther still the farm, whichfor the last four years had been the joy of his life. His meadows wereyellow with buttercups; a thin line of willows showed where the brookwound its lazy way through the bottom fields. It was a home, this, inwhich a man could well lead a peaceful life, could dream away his daysto the music of the west wind, the gurgling stream, the song of birds,and the low murmuring of insects. Peter Ruff stood like a man turned tostone, for even as he looked these things passed away from before hiseyes, the roar of the world beat in his ears—the world of intrigue, ofcrime, the world where the strong man hewed his way to power, and theweaklings fell like corn before the sickle.
"It is the desire of Madame!"
Peter Ruff clenched his fists as he read the words once more. It was amessage from a world every memory of which had been deliberatelycrushed—a world, indeed, in which he had seemed no longer to hold anyplace. He was Peter Ruff, Esquire, of Aynesford Manor, in the County ofSomerset. It could not be for him, this strange summons.
The rustle of a woman's soft dra