"Several years ago?" incredulously.
"Exactly. Have you ever seen me before?"
"No. But it was a little less than two years ago when you were here."
"It is scarcely polite," said I, "to question the veracity of a man you never saw before and of whom you know positively nothing." Suddenly my head began to throb again and I grew dizzy. "You hit me rather soundly with that pistol. Still, your eye ought to be a recompense."
He replied with a scowl.
"Perhaps your name is ------"
"Winthrop, John Winthrop, if that will throw any light on the subject.""
"One name is as good as another," with a smile of unbelief.
"That is true. What"s in a name? There is little difference, after all, between the names of the n.o.bility and the rabble."
"You are determined to irritate me beyond measure," said he. A German is the most sensitive man in the world as regards his t.i.tle.
"Grant that I have some cause. And perhaps," observing him from the corner of my eye, "it is because you smoke such vile tobacco."
Remembering the incident in the railway carriage, he smiled in spite of the gravity of the situation.
"It was the best I had," he said; "and then, it was done in self-defence. I"ll give you credit for being a fearless individual.
But you haven"t answered my question."
"What question?"
"Why you returned to this country when you were expressly forbidden to do so."
"I answered that," said I. "And now let me tell you that you may go on asking questions till the crack of doom, but no answer will I give you till you have told me why I am here, I, who do not know you or what your business is, or what I am supposed to have done."
He began to look doubtful. He thumped the table with the b.u.t.t of the pistol.
"Do you persist in affirming that your name is Winthrop?"
"These gardens are very fine. I could see them better," said I, "if the window was larger."
"Perhaps," he cried impatiently, "you do not know where she is?"
"She?" I looked him over carefully. There was a perfectly sane light in his eyes. "Am I crazy, or is it you? She? I know nothing about any she!"
"Do you dare deny that you know of the whereabouts of her Serene Highness the Princess Hildegarde, and that you did not come here with the purpose to aid her to escape the will of his Majesty? And do you mean--Oh, here, read this!" flinging me a cablegram.
The veil of mystery fell away from my eyes. I had been mistaken for Hillars. Truly, things were growing interesting. I bent and picked up the cablegram and read:
"COUNT VON WALDEN: He has left London and is on his way to the capital.
Your idea to allow him to cross the frontier is a good one.
Undoubtedly he knows where the Princess is in hiding. In trapping him you will ultimately trap her. Keep me informed."
The name signed was that of a well-known military attache at the Emba.s.sy in London. I tossed back the cablegram.
"Well?" triumphantly.
"No, it is not well; it is all very bad, and particularly for you.
Your London informant is decidedly off the track. The man you are looking for is in Vienna."
"I do not believe you! It is a trick."
"Yes, it is a trick, and I am taking it, and you have lost a point, to say nothing of the time and labor and a black eye. If you had asked all these questions yesterday I should have told you that Mr.
Hillars----"
"Yes, that"s the name!" he interrupted.
"I should have told you that he is no longer the London representative of my paper. It is true that the description of Hillars and myself tallies somewhat, only my hair is dark, while his is light, what there is left of it, and he is a handsomer man than I. All this I should have told you with pleasure, and you would have been saved no end of trouble. I presume that there is nothing left for you to do but to carry me back to the city. To quell any further doubt, here are my pa.s.sports, and if these are not satisfactory, why take me before Prince O----, your Chancellor."
He was irresolute, and half inclined to believe me.
"I do not know what to do. You know, then, the gentleman I am seeking?"
"Yes."
"Would he enter this country under an a.s.sumed name?"
"No. He is a man who loves excitement. Whatever he does is done openly. Had it been he instead of me, he would have thrown you out of the carriage at the first sign on your part that you were watching him.
He is a very strong man."
"If he is stronger than you, I am half glad that I got the wrong man.
You strike a pretty hard blow. But, whether you are the man I want, or not, you will have to remain till this afternoon, when the Count will put in appearance. I daresay it is possible that I have made a mistake. But I could not do otherwise in face of my instructions."
"The Princess seems to me more trouble than she is worth."
"It is possible that you have never seen her Highness," he said, hinting a smile. "She is worth all the trouble in the world."
"If a man loved her," I suggested.
"And what man does not who has seen her and talked to her?" he replied, pacing.
"The interest, then, you take in her discovery is not all due to that imposed upon you by Count von Walden?" I could not resist this thrust.
"The subject is one that does not admit discussion," squaring his shoulders.
"Suppose we talk of something that does not concern her? All this is a blunder for which you are partly to blame. I have a bad lump on my head and you have a black eye. But as you did what you believed to be your duty, and as I did what every man does when self-preservation becomes his first thought, let us cry quits. Come, what do you say to a game of cards? Let us play ecarte, or I will teach you the n.o.ble game of poker. To tell you the truth, I am becoming dreadfully bored."
"Believe me, I bear you no ill will," he said, "and I am inclined to your side of the story. Whoever you are, you have the bearing of a gentleman; and, now that we have come to an understanding, I shall treat you as such. I have a pack of cards downstairs. I"ll go and get them. This is not my house, or I should have placed you in better quarters. I shall leave the door unlocked," a question in his eyes.
"Rest a.s.sured that I shall return to the city as I came--in a carriage.