"I don"t think the terms are high enough," said I quietly, as if weighing them. "The risk is enormous."
"It might be if we were not certain of success."
"And we certainly are not."
"Why, what can stand in the way? The feeling against the King grows every day. What do you think is his last freak? Another confounded palace, and this time underground. It will cost millions of marks--millions. Do you suppose the people are going to put up forever with this sort of thing? It has only just leaked out in Munich; and I tell you, man, the whole country will take fire and clamor for his deposition. There never was such a chance, and never will be such another."
There was a ring of sincerity in this indignation quite foreign to his usual manner, and I could not understand it.
"And what is your plan?" I asked.
"To strike--and strike at once," he cried loudly, dashing his fist down on the table, "while Munich is mad with anger."
It was plausible enough, but I knew the man for a scoundrel.
"And my cousin--what does she say?" I asked.
"She can have no choice," he returned readily. "She must leave these things to us. She has a kind of reluctance, I know, and her heart has never been really in the work. But she is pledged to the finger-tips and can"t draw back--at least without betraying the lot of us, as well as ruining herself. Sometimes I wish, indeed, that she had more spirit. Had I known she felt so strongly I should never have gone in so deep myself."
"Before I decide anything I must know her wishes," I said.
"Her wishes will be ours--if we make her understand that the alternative will be the ruin of all who have taken up her cause, and probably the death of every man here. Of course you"ll force this home upon her?"
"It must first be forced home on me," said I.
"You know von Krugen"s views," he urged.
He was showing too much earnestness now, and his whole manner was suggestive of a secret purpose. What it was I could not guess, of course; but no one could fail to read it in his manner.
"Yes, I know von Krugen"s views; but I am accustomed to form my own opinions and to act on my own judgment."
"If you will come with me to Munich, I will give you plenty of facts to convince you."
He spoke with an a.s.sumption of lightness in his tone, and accompanied the words with a shrug of the shoulders, as of indifference. But the man was as easy to read as a book in some respects. I saw instantly that he had approached one of the chief points at which he had been aiming.
"Of course I will go with you to Munich," I answered readily; and a momentary flash of pleasure in his eyes gave me the clew I needed. It was at Munich that Minna"s brother had been inveigled into the duel and killed, and this man had come back from there with some such plan against myself. My death would leave the girl absolutely without a friend in the world.
The game was indeed becoming engrossing in its interests; and at that moment I began to see the course I would take to cut the coils which threatened her.
"Before I go," I added, after a pause that was scarcely perceptible for all the revelation that had come to me in it, "I will see my cousin, and hear from her lips what she wishes."
"We will see her at once," he answered instantly.
"With your permission, I will see her alone."
"That is rather a strange request, Prince," he returned in a tone of surprise, "considering she is my promised wife. What reason have you for making it?"
"I wish her to speak freely to me, unfettered by either you or von Krugen"s insistent persuasions. She will speak more freely alone, and, as head of the house, I choose my own steps."
"I see no reason for it," he replied sharply. "Do you suggest I intimidate her?"
"I suggest nothing," I returned quietly. "I get my information in my own way, that is all. If you object to my doing that, I decline to get it in yours. My visit to Munich can stand over meanwhile."
"But things can"t wait; this business must be done at once."
"Then the short cut to it must be as I prefer to direct."
The mask nearly fell from him. He bit his lips, and I saw the anger rush to his eyes and face; but he checked it, and, though he had to fight hard to keep from breaking out, he answered sufficiently calmly:
"Oh, if you set so much store by it as all that, certainly see her alone. You will find out no more than I have said."
But I had a different opinion; and I sent up a message at once to the Countess Minna to ask for an interview immediately.
"And when shall we start for Munich?" I asked when the messenger had gone. "To-morrow?"
"The sooner the better," he replied; and again I caught a fleeting, stealthy glint of pleasure in his eyes.
CHAPTER VI
MY "COUSIN"
My short conversation with von Nauheim, the sudden change in his att.i.tude toward me, and the slight indications of his real feelings which I had observed did more than anything which had yet occurred to impress me with the deadly seriousness of the task I had undertaken. I was convinced that as the result of this visit to Munich some fresh development of treachery had been planned, and that he was closely concerned as either princ.i.p.al or tool. Fortunately for me he was a poor diplomatist, and as my former knowledge of him gave me a sufficient clew to his real character, he could not so dissemble his manner as to mislead me. Without that clew he might have tricked me, of course, as he had tricked, others. Apparently his interests lay entirely in carrying forward the plot to place the girl he was to marry on the throne. He would certainly secure her fortune, while as her consort he would enjoy a position of magnificent power, infinitely alluring to a man of his nature. Moreover, he was the chosen representative of one of the most influential sections of Bavarian society, whose power must be an enormous factor in any struggle.
Then I had been a good deal impressed by his momentary flash of sincerity when he had been speaking of the King"s mad excesses. He was then expressing a sincere opinion, I was sure, though whether his own or inspired by others for whom he was acting I could not say. But the thought kept recurring to me with ever-increasing suggestiveness.
The key to his conduct lay, I was convinced, in Munich--and to Munich I would go at any risk. That there would be risk a child could see; and the nature of it would depend on the character of this man"s treachery, the people with whom he was co-operating, and the length they were prepared to go in silencing me.
I regarded it as quite possible that I should not return. If, as was supposed, the death of the Count Gustav had been deliberately planned, I might take it for granted that I should be pursued with almost equal hostility. This I had read plainly in the man"s manner, and it prepared me to believe that he himself in some way had been connected with Gustav"s murder.
But there was another very serious consideration. If I was put out of the way and no one at the castle had proof of von Nauheim"s treachery, what would be Minna"s position? Obviously it must at once become one of consummate peril. Ought I to go away, therefore, without warning her of the man"s true character, and without arranging some definite plan of action? Yet how was I to warn her without telling her what I knew and how I knew it--in other words, unless I took her into my confidence as to who I was?
It will be easily understood how these thoughts perplexed me as I made my way up the broad stairway of the castle to the room where she was to receive me, and how infinitely the embarra.s.sment was magnified by the unwonted emotions which her presence now, as formerly, roused in my breast.
She greeted me with sweet cordiality, and the eyes, which had an indescribable fascination for me, wore now an expression of almost anxious alarm as their gaze rested on my very grave face. The Baroness Gratz was with her, a circ.u.mstance which made me unwilling to speak plainly and added to my embarra.s.sment.
I inquired after the health of the two and uttered one or two commonplaces, when Minna, after a pause, during which she had most attentively studied my looks, exclaimed:
"You have not come only to say these things, cousin. Your face tells me plainly enough there is something urgent."
"That is true. I have much to say that concerns you very closely."
She was very quick and understood me.
"You wish to speak to me alone. I am sure you will not object, aunt, if my cousin and I speak together in the window there"--and she rose and walked toward a large bay window at the far end of the room, and motioned to me to sit beside her.