Читать книгу The Ostrekoff Jewels онлайн

69 страница из 92

The knock at the door came at last. There followed a faint click and the panel rolled back. A thin, dark man, clad in the uniform of a Polish cavalry regiment, entered the room, followed by Alexis. Wilfred Haven rose to his feet and the other approached with outstretched hand.

"You are Mr. Haven," he said, "late of the American Embassy at Petrograd? I am Colonel Patinsky. At your service."

"Very glad to meet you," Haven replied, pointing to a chair. "Won't you sit down?"

"You are very kind."

Perhaps it was the accident of Alexis' lingering in the background for a few moments and finding some trouble with the catch of the door as he pushed it into its place which was the real cause of the brief silence which ensued. The two men seemed to be taking careful stock of each other during an interlude which, to Haven at any rate, was full of poignant and dramatic significance. The success of his mission which, even in this brief space of time, had already grown to be the one vital thing in his life, might very well rest in the hands of this visitor. Patinsky, for his part almost as deeply, though with far more selfish interest, was studying this powerfully built, somewhat ingenuous looking American with cautious and speculative eyes beneath a mask of courteous interest.