"Permit me to offer you the expression of my sincere regrets, dear Princess!--And my sincere congratulations," he added in a more business-like tone, as the door closed again.
A sigh was the only audible response.
"It has cost you something, I can see," the man"s voice resumed soothingly. "That fact gives you a still stronger claim on our grat.i.tude. I confess I began to fear seriously that you were deceiving us, and that would have been very dangerous."
Another obscure sound, between a sigh and a sob, from the woman.
"Now we can proceed with light hearts. Within three months from now Russia and Great Britain will be at war. I do not mind answering for it. There was only one man in Europe who could have prevented it, and he lies there!"
"You would have it so! I still say it would have been enough to imprison him somewhere."
"You talk foolishly, believe me, Princess. A man like that is not to be imprisoned. There is no jailer in the world who would venture to undertake to keep the famous A. V. under lock and key."
"I would have undertaken it," came the answer. "I would have locked him in my oratory, the key of which never leaves my bosom."
"Nevertheless if it was important to that man to steal it from you, it would not remain in your bosom very long."
A startled cry interrupted the speaker, and told me that Sophia had made the fatal discovery of the loss of her key.
I held my breath in the most dreadful suspense. Everything now depended on this woman. If she allowed the least hint, I knew that Petrovitch would never leave the room without at least an attempt to change my supposed trance into death.
Fortunately the Princess was equal to the emergency. I heard her give a slight laugh.
"I am punished for my a.s.surance," she confessed. "I am not quite hardened, as you know; and when I realized that M. V---- was actually dead, I was obliged to pray for him. I have left the key in the door."
"Go and fetch it, then."
The tone in which these words were spoken was harsh. I heard Sophia going out of the room, and in an instant, with a single bound, as it seemed, the man was leaning over me, feeling my pulse, listening for my heart, and testing whether I breathed.
"If I had brought so much as a knife with me, I would have made sure," I heard him mutter to himself.
Fortunately Sophia"s absence did not last ten seconds. She must have s.n.a.t.c.hed up the first key that came to hand, that of a jewel-box most likely, and hurried back with it.
Petrovitch seemed to turn away from me with reluctance.
"You doubt me, it appears," came in angry tones from the Princess.
"I doubt everybody," was the cool rejoinder. "You were in love with this fellow."
"You think so? Then look at this."
I felt the locket being picked up, and heard the click of the tiny spring.
A coa.r.s.e laugh burst from the financier.
"So that is it! Woman"s jealousy is safer than her sworn word, after all. Now I believe he _is_ dead."
The Princess made no reply.
Presently the man spoke again.
"This must be kept a secret among ourselves, you understand. The truth is, I have exceeded my instructions a little. A certain personage only authorized detention. It appears he is like you in having a certain tenderness for this fellow--why, I can"t think. At any rate his manner was rather alarming when we hinted that a coffin made the safest straight-jacket."
It was impossible for me to doubt that it was the Kaiser whom this villain had insulted by offering to have me a.s.sa.s.sinated. I thanked Wilhelm II. silently for his chivalrous behavior. M. Petrovitch could have known little of the proud Hohenzollern whom he tempted.
At the same time, it was a source of serious concern for me to know that, just as I had learned that my real opponent was my friend the Kaiser, so he in turn had acquired the knowledge that he had me against him.
It had become a struggle, no longer in the dark, between the most resourceful of Continental sovereigns and myself, and that being so, I realized that I could not afford to rest long on my oars.
From the deep breathing of the Princess, I surmised that she was choking down the rage she must have felt at the other"s cynical depravity. For Sophia, though capable of committing a murder out of jealousy perhaps, was yet incapable of killing for reward.
"Well," I heard Petrovitch say in the tone of one who is taking his leave, "I must send some one "round to remove our friend."
"Do not trouble, if you please. I will see to the funeral," came in icy tones from the Princess.
"What, still sentimental! Be careful, my good Sophia Y----, you will lose your value to us if you give way to such weaknesses."
I heard his steps move across the carpeted floor, and then with startling suddenness, the words came out:
"Curse me if I can believe he _is_ dead!"
My blood ran cold. But it turned out to be only a pa.s.sing exclamation. At the end of what seemed to me minutes--they can only have been seconds--the footsteps moved on, and the door opened and closed.
"Thank G.o.d!" burst from Sophia.
Her next words were plainly an apostrophe to myself.
"So you did not trust me after all!"
I was within an ace of opening my eyes on the supposition that she had found me out, when I was rea.s.sured by her adding, this time to herself,
"He must have done it when I fainted!"
I saw that she was referring to my theft of the key.
There was a soft rustle of silk on the floor, and I felt her hands searching in my pockets for the stolen key.
"Fool! To think that I could outwit him!" she murmured to herself at last.
She had taken some time to learn the lesson, however.
CHAPTER XXIII
A RESURRECTION AND A GHOST