A Rock in the Baltic

Rock in the Baltic, A

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Title: A Rock in the Baltic
Author: Robert Barr
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A Rock in the Baltic
by Robert Barr, 1906
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CHAPTER I
THE INCIDENT AT THE BANK
IN the public room of the Sixth National Bank at Bar Harbor in Maine,
Lieutenant Alan Drummond, H.M.S. "Consternation," stood aside to
give precedence to a lady. The Lieutenant had visited the bank for the
purpose of changing several crisp white Bank of England notes into the
currency of the country he was then visiting. The lady did not appear to
notice either his courtesy or his presence, and this was the more
remarkable since Drummond was a young man sufficiently
conspicuous even in a crowd, and he and she were, at that moment, the
only customers in the bank. He was tall, well-knit and stalwart, blond
as a Scandinavian, with dark blue eyes which he sometimes said
jocularly were the colors of his university. He had been slowly
approaching the cashier's window with the easy movement of a man
never in a hurry, when the girl appeared at the door, and advanced
rapidly to the bank counter with its brass wire screen surrounding the

arched aperture behind which stood the cashier. Although very plainly
attired, her gown nevertheless possessed a charm of simplicity that
almost suggested complex Paris, and she wore it with that air of
distinction the secret of which is supposed to be the exclusive property
of French and American women.
The young man saw nothing of this, and although he appreciated the
beauty of the girl, what struck him at that instant was the expression of
anxiety on her face, whose apparently temporary pallor was
accentuated by an abundance of dark hair. It seemed to him that she
had resolutely set herself a task which she was most reluctant to
perform. From the moment she entered the door her large, dark eyes
were fixed almost appealingly on the cashier, and they beheld nothing
else. Drummond, mentally slow as he usually was, came to the quick
conclusion that this was a supreme moment in her life, on which
perhaps great issues depended. He saw her left hand grasp the corner of
the ledge in front of the cashier with a grip of nervous tension, as if the
support thus attained was necessary to her. Her right hand trembled
slightly as she passed an oblong slip of paper through the aperture to
the calm and indifferent official.
"Will you give me the money for this check?" she asked in a low voice.
The cashier scrutinized the document for some time in silence. The
signature appeared unfamiliar to him.
"One moment, madam," he said quietly, and retired to a desk in the
back part of the bank, where he opened a huge book, turned over some
leaves rapidly, and ran his finger down a page. His dilatory action
seemed to increase the young woman's panic. Her pallor increased, and
she swayed slightly, as if in danger of falling, but brought her right
hand to the assistance of the left, and so steadied herself against the
ledge of the cashier's counter.
"By Jove!" said the Lieutenant to himself, "there's something wrong
here. I wonder what it is. Such a pretty girl, too!"
The cashier behind his screen saw nothing of this play of the emotions.

He returned nonchalantly to his station, and asked, in commonplace
tones:
"How will you have the money, madam?"
"Gold, if you please," she replied almost in a whisper, a rosy flush
chasing the whiteness