The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-02-21
Copyright by A. Conan Doyle.)

onQ year or the .Crimean war he. was
always to be found in the same corner
of the Cafe de Provence at the end of
the Rue st. Honore, coming down. about
IN the evening and going when he
could find no one to talk with. 1T took
some self-restraint to listen to the old
diplomatfsts for his stories were beyond
all belief, and yet he was quick at de-
tecting the shadow. of a smile. or the
slightest little raising of the. eyebrows.
OF all his stories none was more no
torious than that of the Koran and
the foreign office messenger And yet
when Monsieur Otto's memoirs were
written it was found that there really
was some foundation for old Lacour's
incredible statement
You must know, monsieur" he
would say, that I left Egypt after Kle-
ber's assassination. 1 gladly would
have stayed on, for 1 was engaged in
a translation of the Koran, and be-
tween ourselves I had thoughts at the
time of embracing Mahometanism,
for was deeply struck by the wisdom
of their views about marriage. They
had made an incredible mistake, how
ever, upon the subject of wine, and this
convert me could never get over. Then
when old Kleber died and Menou came
to the top 1 felt that it was time for
me to go. / carried my Koran and
my papers to London, where Monsieur
Otto had been sent by the first consul
to arrange treaty of peace for both
nations were very weary of the war,
which had already lasted ten years
Here was most useful to Monsieur OF
to on ACCOUNT of, my knowledge of the
English tongue. and also, if I may say
so, on account of my natural capacity
well, Monsieur Otto, our ambassa-
dor, was kept terribly busy over that
treaty and all of his staff were worked
to death:
You can understand that 1t was no
chiIds play. After ten years of war
each nation had got hold of a great
deal which had belonged to the other,
or to the other allies. What was to
be given Shack? And what was to be
kept? Is this island worth that pen
1nsula? If we do this at Venice, will
you do that at Sierra Leone? II we
g1ve3up Egypt to the sultan, will you
restore the Cape of Good Hope, which
you have taken from our allies, the
Dutch? So We wrangled and wrestled:
and l have seen Monsieur Otto come
back to the embassy SO exhausted that
his secretary and I had to help him
from his carriage to his sofa But at
last things adjusted themselves, and
thee night came round when the treaty
was to be finally signed.
Now you must know that the one
great card which we held, and which
we played. played, played at every
point Of the game was that we had
Egypt. The English were very nervous
about our being there. 1t gave us a
foot on each end of the Mediterranean.
you see. And they were not sure that
that wonderful little Napoleon of ours
might not make it the base of an adj
vance against India. So whenever Lord
HaWkesbury proposed to retain any
thing we had only to reply, In that
case, of course, We cannot consent to
evacuate Egypt and in this way we
quickly brought him to reason.
well, it was upon the first of Octo-
Der that the treaty was finally to be
signed. In the morning 1 was congrat-
ulating Monsieur Otto upon the happy
conclusion Of his labors. He was a lit
tie pale shrimp of a man, very quick
and nervous, and he was so delighted
now at his own success that he could
not sit still, but ran about the room
chatterlng and laughing, while I sat
on cushion in the corner, as I had
learned TO do in the East. Suddenly
In came a messenger with a letter
which had been forwarded from Paris.
monsieur Otto cast his eyes upon 1t.
and then without a word his knees
gave way and he fell senseless unon
the floor. l ran to him, as did the
courier, and between us we carried
MIN to the sofa. He might have been
DEAD from his appearance, but l could
still feel his heart thrilling beneath my
palm.
What is this, then% 1 asked.
/" I do not know answered the mes
senger. Monsieur Tallyrand told me to
hurry as never man hurried before, and
to put this letter into the hands of
Monsieur Otto. I was in Paris at mid
night yesterday
L know that I am to blame, but I
could not help glancing at the letter.
picking it out of the Senseless hand Of
monsieur Otto. My God! the thunder
bolt that 1t was. did not faint, but sat
down beside my chief and burst into
tears. 1t was but a few words, but
they told us that Egypt had been evac-
uated by our troops a month before.
All our treaty was undone then, and
the one consideration which had in
duced our enemies to give us good
terms had vanished. In twelve hours
1t would not have mattered But now
the treaty was not yet signed. We
should have to give UP the Cape. We
should have to let England have Malta
Now that Egypt was gone we had moth
ing to offer in exchange.
Monsieur Otto recovered his senses
presently. and We took counsel what
we should do.
" 1t is useless to go on, Alphonse.'
said he. The Englishman will laugh
at me when ask him to sign
'Courage!' 1 cried, and then, a sud-
den thought coming into my head How
do we know that the English will have
news of this? Perhaps they may sign
the treaty before they know of it,
Monsieur Otto sprang from the sofa
and flung himself into my arms.
AIphonse,' he cried, you have saved
me! Why should they know about it?
Our news has come from Toulon, to
Paris, and thence straight to London.
Theirs will come by sea through the
straits of Gibraltar. At this moment
1t is unlikely that anyone in Paris
knows of it, save only Talleyrand and
the first consul If we keep our secret
We may still get our treaty signed
All, monsieur, you can imagine the