She raised her eyes and looked at me, startled, and they were suddenly moist with unshed tears. There was that same indescribable pain in them, that I had noticed several times since our interview began; that same expression which I could not fathom. But the explanation was ready.
"I have found that there comes a time in a woman"s life," she said slowly, "when all her pet theories fall flat and useless, and when every idol that she has worshipped is demolished. Let us not talk of the danger to me. Let us not even speak of my brother, until the message is prepared for my servant to carry."
"No, Zara," I told her, with decision. "I do not understand what you meant, just now, when you referred to the demolition of your pet theories. But it is imperative that we should speak of your brother."
"What of him?"
"Is it not more than possible that he is one of the men out there who are waiting for me?"
"Yes, it is. I had forgotten that. But----"
"He would be caught in the net with the others. He would suffer the same fate that fell to them. Are you willing to run the risk of his being there? He has been to Siberia once, you tell me. Are you willing that he should go there again?"
"No, oh, no!" she cried. "No; that must not be."
"You see, then, how impossible it is for you to give me a messenger, unless you can promise for Ivan as well as for yourself."
"Promise? And for Ivan? What promise need I make for him? If he is there shall he not take his chance with those who are with him? But no, no. You are right, Dubravnik. I cannot let him be captured, perhaps killed, in this way," she said brokenly. "I cannot sacrifice Ivan.
Cannot you see how I am suffering? Even though I try with all my strength to conceal it, can"t you see it? Is there not some other way?
Is there not something that can be done? Will you not help me? Great G.o.d! Must my brother be sent back to the h.e.l.l of Siberia--or must you----"
"Zara," I interrupted her, deliberately taking a step backwards and putting my hands behind me, fearing that I might clasp her in my arms in spite of my resolution to remain calm and to continue to be master of the situation, "I think there is another way; I believe that something can be done; I will help you; I do see why you suffer. You are torn by so many conflicting desires, child; you do not know which way to turn. Here am I, your lover; out yonder, waiting to kill me, is your brother. But, dear, if you will trust to me, and will obey me implicitly in all that I direct you to do, there is a way, and neither you nor your brother shall come to harm. Will you trust to me?"
"Yes, oh, yes," she cried unhesitatingly. "What am I to do?"
"Call the servant who is to take the message."
She turned to the door without another word, and disappeared beyond it.
The moment she was gone, I took a fountain pen and a pad of paper from my pocket, and wrote rapidly--or seemed to write, for the pen left no trace upon the paper.
My invisible note was completed and I was writing with another pen upon a second sheet of paper when the princess reentered the room. This time the writing was plainly visible, and while I asked her for an envelope I pa.s.sed it to her to read.
It was addressed to my friend Canfield who had charge of the messenger service, and merely instructed him to "forward the packages that had been left with him that morning" to their several addresses without delay. It was signed, "Dubravnik."
"Is this the note my servant is to take?" she asked, incredulously.
"Yes."
I folded the apparently blank sheet with the other and placed them both in the envelope which I had already addressed.
"You see there is no harm in that note, even if the men outside should read it," I added, when the servant had departed. "Your man, who is of course a spy, will read the note, which I purposely left unsealed, as soon as he is out of sight of the house. In an hour every man who is waiting to take my life will be in prison. If your brother is among them, he will not be harmed and you----"
I hesitated, and she raised her eyes to mine and said:
"Well, and I?"
"You will have to do as you have agreed to do, obey me." I hesitated again and then with a desperate courage, added: "Love, honor, and obey me."
CHAPTER XVIII
THE POWER OF THE FRATERNITY
The princess did not start--she did not even look surprised when I uttered the strange sentence, but her great round eyes welled up in tears, and she caught her breath in a half-sob once. Then, without uttering a word, she extended her hand and placed it in mine, and we remained thus, for a moment silent. Presently, in a low whisper, I heard her repeat after me, the words, "Love, honor, and obey;" and she added: "As long as we both shall live."
With a quick gesture that was purely feminine, she withdrew her hand from mine and thrust the cl.u.s.tering hair away from her temples. Then she went to the window and gazed upon the snow clad city, and thus she remained for several minutes.
Presently she returned and came back to where I was standing.
"It is strange, is it not, Mr. Derrington?" she asked in a low voice.
"I do not think that I am myself to-day. It is hard to realize that this is Zara de Echeveria who speaks to you now. I am like another person; it is as though another spirit had entered my body, and I seem to act without a will of my own. It began last night when you first entered my presence. It was evident to me when I saw you apparently asleep in the garden, knowing that you had overheard the conversation between my brother and myself; it a.s.serted itself when we stood together under the green light later in the evening, when you told me that I must keep the engagement made with you to-day, and when you entered this room a few hours ago, it seemed as though you belonged to me--as though you had stolen away my will--as though I had no right to act without your sanction. Can you explain it?"
"No," I replied, "n.o.body can explain it. It is a secret that is known only to G.o.d, and His ways are immutable. But we have each recognized it from the first."
We said nothing of love then. The subject seemed out of place at that moment. We both knew all that the other would have said, or could with truth say, and there was no need to do what would seem like repeating it.
"When will you hear from the note that you have sent?" she asked presently.
"Very soon, now," I replied. "If your servant has delivered the message, there should be a reply within a few minutes. Let us go to the window and watch."
So we stood there by the window, silently communing with each other without speaking. Her left hand was clasped within my right one, and the minutes came and went until I raised my other hand and pointed silently toward a large, double _britzska_ that was approaching. I had recognized the huge proportions of Tom Coyle, holding the reins, and I knew that underneath the covering were trusty followers of mine who would make short work of the waiting a.s.sa.s.sins.
"There comes the answer to my note," I said, "Watch that _britzska_."
"I see it," she replied.
It dashed up on a run straight for the point where the other one was still waiting, and came to a stop with a suddenness that threw the horses back upon their haunches. At the same instant there dashed from beneath the covering a half dozen men, and while some seized the horses of the waiting _britzska_, and others pulled the man from the driver"s seat, still others jerked open the curtains and sprang inside. From our post of observation we could see that a severe struggle was taking place, and twice we heard the reports of pistols; and then the smaller carriage drove away, while the larger one, that which Tom Coyle had been driving, dashed straight for the door of the princess" house.
"The other contained the prisoners," I said to my companion.
"This one is coming here. Remember now, Zara, that you promised to trust me implicitly. No matter what happens, remember that."
"I will remember," she replied.
Then there came the summons at the door, and the voice of Tom Coyle requesting an audience with the Princess Zara de Echeveria. She looked at me inquiringly, and I nodded. In a moment more, Tom, followed by two men, entered the room where we were awaiting them.
"Your name is Dubravnik?" said one of the men, addressing me.
"Yes," I replied.
"And may I ask if this is the Princess d"Echeveria?"
"That is my name," replied Zara.
"I am very sorry to disturb you, but I must request you both to go with me, in the name of the Czar."