supplemented Trusia. "His actions were so mysterious and his speech so
reprehensible that we brought him here."
Carter, regarding the whole affair as a delusion--a bubble soon broken,
brought the matter to an issue.
"Don't you think," he suggested confidently, "that Johann should produce
the incriminating document. I think it will turn out to be a certain
message to one Henry Jarvis, Broker, William Street, New York." He came
forward to stand beside Sobieska at the table, as Johann took out a
bulky envelope from a dispatch box and placed it before the Minister.
Trusia, too, had drawn near. The trio started involuntarily as they read
the address of Russia's sub-minister of Secret Police in Warsaw staring
them in the face. Trusia gasped and turned white. Sobieska walked to the
door, closed it gently and returned to the table.
"Who was your friendly counselor?" he demanded of Johann.
"I dare not tell you," the fellow replied doggedly.
"If I have to ask Posner at the inn, it will go hard with you, Johann."
"He does not know; we did not drink at Posner's."
"That is certainly a clever imitation of my writing," said Carter, who
had been carefully studying the characters on the envelope. Sobieska
looked up. "You do not believe me capable of communicating with your
enemies!" He appealed to the girl, whose white face was staring at the
oblong packet lying on the table.
"I do not know what to believe," she said as she struggled to keep back
the tears. "Open it, Sobieska." The latter complied and scanned the
communication.
"This," he said, looking up gravely, "purports to be a preliminary
report of Calvert Carter and Todcaster Carrick to their immediate
superior in the Imperial Secret Police at Warsaw. It contains a further
promise of early developments and the coming of a King to Krovitch. It
is signed 'Calvert Carter.'"
Sobieska reached so suddenly forward to touch a call bell that Johann
jumped. A gray-haired sergeant entered.
"A corporal and file," was Sobieska's command. Carter straightened
himself haughtily. Were they going to arrest him for this forgery?
"Count Sobieska," he began indignantly, while Johann's dull eyes
brightened.
"Wait, please," was the Minister's only comment.
Carter turned to Her Grace to remonstrate against such an indignity, but
her head was turned from him. There were footsteps, rhythmic, orderly,
at the door. It opened to admit the corporal and his men. Vividly it
recalled to Carter another such scene when he was a judge and----
"Put Johann under arrest," came the curt interruption to his thoughts
from the lips of Sobieska. "If you permit any one to communicate with
him, it will mean a court martial for all of you," said the Minister.
The sudden and unexpected reversal of the preconceived program was too
much for the messenger, as, cursing and struggling, he was hustled
toward the door. As the heavy oak panel swung to upon the prisoner, he
muttered something which caught the waiting ear of Sobieska, who glanced
toward his princess to see if she had heard. Satisfied that she had not,
he swept a triumphant look at Carter, who was dumbfounded at the turn
affairs had taken. The American stretched out his hand to the Krovitzer.
"Paul Zulka's friends are to be trusted," said Sobieska. "You have
already made a personally vindictive enemy," he continued; "have you any
idea who it is?" The indolent wink accompanying the inquiry cautioned
Carter not to name any one if he had.
"I have," replied Calvert, who had understood the signal.
"Don't name him then, at present," requested the Minister.
"Why not?" queried an indignant Trusia, "as Major Carter is innocent,
this wretch must be punished at once."
"Your Highness," respectfully counseled the Privy Counselor, "Major
Carter has been in our country too short a time even to be sure of his
friends, much less of his enemies. His surmises, therefore, might be
unwarranted, and might put a perfectly innocent person under suspicion.
Be assured," he asserted vehemently, "I will thoroughly sift out this
matter in my official capacity. Whether it confirms his premonitions or
not, you will learn in due time. I am inclined to believe that Johann
was intended to fall into your hands, but with a different intent.
Either that or the message was meant for Russia, the risk to be
shouldered upon Carter. May I employ Josef," he requested blandly, "as a
messenger to Colonel Sutphen?"
"Certainly," she replied, and the old fellow was sent for.
There was neither tremor nor twitch on his impassive countenance as he
responded to the summons, although he must have missed Johann and knew
not what had transpired.
"You are to take this note to Colonel Sutphen at once," said Sobieska
curtly. "At once," he reiterated with emphasis, "don't even wait for a
hat. Your trip and return will be timed," he was fairly warned. "It is
of the utmost importance," the Minister remarked impressively as he
handed the retainer a hastily scrawled but securely sealed note. Josef
might have been carrying the order for his own execution, for all he
knew, but he did not permit any outward sign of trepidation to show in
his face. With commendable alacrity he left the room on his mission,
watched by Sobieska in the doorway. Returning, with hardly concealed
impatience, the Minister begged of Her Grace to be excused for the time
being and requested the assistance of Carter.
"Yes, Sobieska, go," she said. "I am as anxious as you can be to reach
the bottom of this mystery. Somehow, I cannot help feeling that there is
something inimical to my country in it all."
"Pray God that it is not so," said the Minister as he bowed her from the
office. No sooner was she gone than the two men faced each other, the
same thought in their minds, the same name on their lips.
"Josef," they said in the same breath.
"There's not a minute to lose," continued the Minister. "That is why I
trumped up that message to get him out of the way. We must search his
room immediately, before he has a chance to forestall us. Come," he
said, grasping Carter's arm.
Together they mounted stairways, plunged down passages, grim and shadow
infested, until the Servitor's room was reached. The barrenness of the
place seemed to be sufficient guarantee for the honesty of its usual
occupant. A table without a drawer, no closet and some burned-out logs
in the large fireplace afforded but scant hiding places. Sobieska
carefully tapped each board separately to ascertain if a secret
receptacle had been formed in such a fashion, but the floor was
perfectly solid. He tried the flagging of the hearth as well as the
brick arch of the fireplace with no more success. He was about to
acknowledge failure when Carter accidentally turned over one of the
charred logs lying at his feet. An exclamation burst from the Minister's
lips.
Minute and scattered fragments of paper, saved from the blaze by the
bulk of the log above them, lay scattered on the hearth. These Sobieska
pounced upon eagerly.
Further search bore no fuller fruit, so with their meagre harvest the
pair descended to the office again. Here the Krovitzer, piecing the
fragments together, and pasting them on a sheet of paper, laid them
before Carter.
"There," said the Minister, "are the experiments in your handwriting.
Now wait until he comes back."
"But how did he get a copy?" queried the puzzled American.
"Easy enough," replied Sobieska. "He kept those papers he took from you
in the cell yesterday. Your passport furnished your signature. He's a
clever rascal. Substituted the forgery for the other letter, while
Johann drank. Either that or they're in league together, which I am not
prepared to believe, yet. In any event we must get a new messenger."
"Tell me," said the curious Carter, "how came you to suspect Josef, as
you read the letter Johann had with him?"
Sobieska smiled indulgently. "A man of your varied metropolitan
experience would scarcely write a letter as he would a thesis for a
University degree. Whoever wrote that epistle had doubtless a work of
rhetoric at his elbow, fearful of mistakes. Look at it yourself," and he
pushed the paper over to Carter. It was, indeed, a studied composition
of good proportions and well rounded sentences.
"I have heard you talk," continued his instructor, "and I felt satisfied
that Major Carter, if a spy, would hardly have wasted his efforts in
such a prim presentation of his facts." He glanced at his watch. "He
would have doubtless used cipher. Josef is due in just one minute now.
There he comes," he said, as there was a low rap at the door. "Come in."
Punctuality outdone, Josef entered and handed Sobieska a note. Without
even glancing at it, the latter tossed it on the table. Picking up the
sheet on which were the pasted fragments, he handed it to the Servitor,
watching him closely with narrowing eyes. Without a tremor the paper was
received, examined, read, and handed back to Sobieska with a smile.
"Well, Excellency?"
"Ever see that before, Josef?"
"I think so, Excellency. Did you find them in my room?" he inquired with
quiet effrontery.
"They were found there. I found them," replied Sobieska coolly, not yet
despairing of breaking down the impassive wall with which Josef had
surrounded his thoughts.
"Then I have seen them before," the Servitor answered as though
courteously acknowledging an irrefutable logic. "I took them there to
interpret them," he said as if willing to make an explanation though not
admitting any necessity. "I found them beneath a certain window last
night--in the courtyard of the inn," he concluded with a significant
glance at Carter. Then boldly his eyes challenged both men.
"It's a lie," said Carter contemptuously. Josef smiled.
"Your word--the word of a stranger--against mine," he sneered. "Shall I
appeal to Her Highness?"
"Her Highness knows everything," hazarded Sobieska. "From Johann," he
added deliberately.
There was a start, if you call the slightest flicker of the eyelids
such--to show that the shot had told; then Josef, calm as before,
inquired,
"Then of what interest can these scraps of paper be?"
"Be careful, Josef," interrupted Carter, whose anger had not yet been
appeased, "that you do not pick up something deadly--in the courtyard of
the inn, something like a revolver bullet."
The fellow bowed mockingly to the last speaker, then turning to Sobieska
said, "May I go, Excellency?" Sobieska nodded assent.
"Wait," said Carter, and Josef paused.
"You say you found these papers--in the courtyard of the inn," said
Carter endeavoring to connect the man with the mishap to the auto, "any
place near the carriage shed?"
The Servitor smiled and assumed a non-committal aloofness.
"Why," he asked as, turning, he left the room.
Following a short talk with the Minister of Private Intelligence, Carter
took his departure, and, as he rode thoughtfully back to the inn, he was
startled to see a distraught Carrick arise from a stone by the highway.
"Why, Carrick," he cried with a premonitive feeling of some new evil,
"what brings you here?"
"Been huntin' for you for nearly three hours, sir. I could not bide
there, sir, till I 'ad seen you."
Carter, dismounting, took the bridle rein over his arm and walked
alongside the Cockney, who in detail recited the story of a meeting of
Josef and Johann in the wood, which, unseen by them, he had watched, and
which in every detail corroborated the recital of Johann and the
surmises of Sobieska.
"What do you think of it, sir?" he concluded.
Carter shook his head gravely.
"I can't say, Carrick. Keep your eyes and ears open, but do not say a
word to any one but me of this or anything else you happen to notice
about Josef. There's some game going on that I have not fathomed yet.
"Tod Carrick," he continued in a burst of affectionate consideration,
"you're a good faithful soul. Here's my hand. I do not believe you have
had a mouthful to eat to-day. Now, have you?"
The Cockney smiled.
"I forgot, sir," he answered almost shyly, elated with the words of
approval he had won.
XV
THE DREAM KISS
The next day in solemn conclave the Counselors decided that the time had
come to bring the King to Krovitch.
"All is ready," said the grizzled Sutphen, "to inaugurate his reign with
the fall of Schallberg."
"You must come too," said Trusia to Carter, "as a member of my
household." The question of expedients was debated. Suspicion might be
awakened should such a large party travel together. It was decided that
Carter and Sobieska should proceed to Vienna; Muhlen-Sarkey and Trusia
with their two attendants were to cross into Germany at the nearest
point, thence travel by rail, while Josef and the rest should embark
boldly from Schallberg.
Carrick was much depressed at learning he was to be left behind, but
extracted some consolation from the fact that he was to be detailed to
attend Count Zulka for whom he had always shown a preference.
"The rendezvous is Paris,--Boulevard St. Michel, second house on the
left from St. Germain. The time, two days hence, at six o'clock in the
evening. That will allow the necessary time for unforeseen hitches,"
said Sobieska, to which all quietly assented.
Speeded by the entire court coterie, Sobieska and Carter mounted and
clattered out of the courtyard, and by ways through the forest, which
the Minister of Private Intelligence had learned in a score of hunting
trips, the pair, evading the vigilance of Russian sentries, reached the
Vistula. They were ferried across by a loyal peasant and landed on
Austrian soil without hostile interruption.
While the journey from Vienna to Paris was destined to be without
particular incident, it furnished the opportunity for a fuller
acquaintance and understanding between Carter and Sobieska.
"I have wanted to have a fuller talk with you anent Josef," said
Sobieska when their conversation had reached the confidential stage. "It
was manifestly impossible at the castle. I was afraid of eavesdroppers.
It may be one of those unreasonable prejudices, but, aside from the
fellow's social inferiority, I cannot help feeling that his is a
sinister influence in Krovitch."
"I thought his allegiance held him to the side of his exiled master. Has
he been in Krovitch all his life?"
"Although familiar to the older nobles during the lifetime of King Marc,
the grandfather of his present Majesty, Josef reappeared last autumn
after an absence of several years. He immediately requested the hand of
Lady Trusia in marriage for His Majesty." Here Sobieska glanced covertly
at Carter to see the effect of this disclosure. The American's face,
however, was as stoical as an Indian's. "He produced the historic
documents of Stovik's right to the crown--the traditional proof of
embassy. He preached a war on Russia and the rehabilitation of Krovitch.
Our people were aroused. For our country's sake, our lady yielded.
Messages were sent to all parts of the world to the patriots, who, in
large numbers, have been returning to their fatherland. Russia, asleep,
or lulled into a false sense of security, has made no move to indicate
that she is aware of a plot, yet you heard rumors a year ago that at
least matters were in a ferment here. It is strange, strange," he said
musingly.
Then, marveling at his own irrelevance, Carter told Sobieska for the
first time of Carrick's confirmation of their suspicions that Josef was
party to the plot of the substituted letter in the forest. "He knew the
name and address of Russia's chief spy in Warsaw. How could he, a
retainer--a loyal servant of an exiled monarch, know these things? Pitch
defiles."
With a laugh which dismissed the subject, Sobieska turned to Carter.
"It seems to me," he said, "we're allowing an absent servant to
monopolize considerable of our conversation. Let's talk of something
else."
"Have you any conception of His Majesty's, the King's, personality?"
asked Carter.
"We were shown a photograph by Josef. Certainly a handsome fellow. An
artist." This with the faintest shade of contempt that the man of action
always holds for the artist, the poet or the dreamer. "I may be deceived
in him, God grant I am, but the face is the face of a sensualist, not of
a leader of men. What we need now for the throne is an inveterate hater
of Russia. We have good leaders, now. We don't want a king who cannot
understand and, consequently, may spoil our best plans."
"Wouldn't he be controlled?"
"You mean by his wife, by Trusia? He may, if she takes his fancy. If
not, he may lose interest, and fall under other control."
"You mean Josef's?"
"Yes."
"It seems complications are likely to arise."
"It is not too late for you to draw out," replied Sobieska coldly.
"I am no quitter." Carter's jaws set grim and hard. Then catching an
elusive humor in the fact that, even as one who might become unfriendly
to him, he should have to accompany this man to Paris, he smiled. So did
Sobieska and a cordial understanding was reestablished.
Paris was reached. Familiar as New York to Carter, he had no difficulty
in guiding his companion directly to the rendezvous near the Quai
D'Orsay.
Although their friends were not yet arrived, they found a corps of
servants had already arranged the house for their reception. As Sobieska
was known to the majestic butler, the travelers had no difficulty in
immediately establishing themselves in the quarters intended for them.
As night drew on, the others came trooping in, ready to do justice to
anything eatable the chef could purvey.
"We had an unexpected rencontre just as we alighted from the train,"
said Trusia. She leaned forward from her place at the table to speak to
Count Sobieska. In doing so, her eyes met Carter's. They were filled
with a gentle regard--a more than friendliness.
"With whom?" asked her Minister of Private Intelligence anxiously, for
this city was the centre of international intrigue and espionage.
"You remember General Vladimar, the former Russian commandant at
Schallberg? It was he. He was very cordial; as cordial as a dangerous
Russian always is."
Sobieska, in assenting, drew in his breath with a sibilant sound through
pursed lips.
"I have every reason to believe he has been transferred to the White
Police," he commented gravely, as he turned his listless glance toward
the girl. "Any one with him--did he give any inkling that he suspected
anything?"
"He must suspect something," said Trusia, "he was so very, very
pleasant. It is impossible for him to know anything, though." She turned
her fine eyes again to her Minister. "There was a man with him. He
presented him as Herr Casper Haupt, who the General said was connected
with the Russian Consulate here. He did not say in what capacity."
Sobieska aimlessly turned and returned a fork lying before him.
"No?" he inquired listlessly; then he repeated the question more
indifferently, "No?" He permitted a distant shadow of a smile to cross
his face as he looked up. "He didn't tell you, for instance, that Herr
Casper Haupt is the Chief of Imperial Secret Police for the district
embracing Poland, Krovitch, Austria and France; a very important
personage? What did Vladimar have to say?"
"When I told him I was on a shopping tour, he looked the usual masculine
horror and gave the usual masculine prayer for deliverance. He jokingly
suggested that I was going to purchase a trousseau." Her cheeks took a
faint color from her remark. "When he saw my suite--though he didn't
think I noticed it--his face stiffened a trifle and his tone was a
trifle less cordial. He remarked dryly we must be shopping for an army.
He became very anxious to learn my stopping-place that he might call, as
an old neighbor. I told him that I had determined, as yet, neither where
I would stay permanently, nor how long I would be in Paris, and he had
to be content with that."
Sobieska nodded his approval and laid down his fork.
"Such neighbors become more dangerous the older they grow. We will have
to keep a lookout for General Alexis Vladimar. He suspects something."
"He made no attempt to follow us," replied Trusia. "I watched. He
appeared to have forgotten our existence."
"He is a clever man, that Vladimar," said Sobieska grudgingly. "He has
not forgotten. Perhaps he is so sure of finding you when he wants to
that he is not giving himself any trouble. Fortunately we leave
to-morrow morning and will give him the slip, for all his cleverness."
Trusia now turned to Carter, and with fine free friendliness asked him
of his journey and if it had seemed long.
"Yes, it did," he admitted, but he did not say it was because it took
him from her.
"Now, isn't that odd," she laughed, "a journey home seems always the
longest to me; no train can get me there quickly enough," she added with
an extra note of tender patriotism.
When dinner was spread, Trusia seemed pale and depressed as though the
anticipated meeting with her unknown fiance was not fraught with joy.
Rallying herself, however, she was soon as much a centre of attraction
as a sparkling fountain in a park is to feathered citizens on a sultry
summer day.
The wine of Krovitch, unfamiliar to Carter, was quite heady. He felt it
coursing through his arteries while his heart beat stronger. In its
convivial influence he turned to the jovial Muhlen-Sarkey and touched
glasses.
"A short life and a merry one," he said.
"A strong blade and a noble one," replied the elderly noble with
unexpected martial ardor. The incident had not escaped the notice of
Trusia. She arose, glass held high above her head.
"Gentlemen," she cried, "the King of Krovitch!"
"The King! The King!" came the ready response. Each toaster crashed his
glass in token that no less worthy sentiments should ever be drunk from
it. When the loyal cries had faded into a ghostly silence, the tall,
pale girl spoke again.
"This night, my lords and gentlemen, you go, after two centuries, to
call him back unto his own. As you kneel before him, you will hold your
sword hilts to his hand in token that at his call, alone, they'll be
drawn. Remember, this man is your king, whatever the state in which you
find him. Reverence must be shown as though upon his ancestral throne.
In full regalia, then, you must present yourselves.
"He may be in rags, but purple never made a king. He may be alone, but
royal birth gave him dominion over millions. He may be poor in purse,
but is rich in your--in Krovitch's devotion. You must bring him here
to-night, guarded with your naked breasts if need be. God save His
Majesty!"
When, resplendent in their uniforms, glittering with noble orders, the
party reappeared before Her Grace, her face was still pale and her eyes
shone from startled depths. Each man kissed her hand and, leaving,
received her whispered--"Godspeed." Carter was last.
With his hand upon the knob, he felt that the closing of that door was
like sealing the death warrant of his hopes. He was going to find a
husband among strangers for the girl he loved. Obeying an irresistible
impulse he looked back.
Trusia was standing by the table in the middle of the room. Her left
hand leaned on its edge, supporting a weariness shown in the relaxed
lines of her figure. Her lips were parted as if in pain, while her eyes
seemed searching for Carter as he met her gaze. The others had already
passed from the hall. With a bound he was before her, kneeling, his
face, turned upward to hers, pleading the love he dared not speak.
Whether he imagined what he wished the most, or whether she, bending,
actually touched her lips to his, he could not have said, but satisfied
that she loved him, he arose and staggered blindly from the room.
XVI
YOU ARE THE KING OF KROVITCH
At about the same time the Krovitzers were leaving the house on the
Boulevard S. Michel, one of those little comedies from real life was
being enacted in the attic studio of Eugene Delmotte. Its finale was to
be influenced considerably by their actions. The artist was to be
transported by them from Hadean depths of despair to Olympian heights of
rejoicing.