--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.
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