In this woman"s life there had been many scenes, strange, bizarre, fantastic, yet never one so fiercely fateful as was this. And for once she was frightened-the flickering candelabra held aloft-the leveled guns-the masked group around the desk-the lone man leaning nonchalantly on a chair, smiling, idly indifferent, as much the master of it all as a painter, brush poised before his canvas, able to smear it out at a single stroke.
He held out his hand to her. She shook her head, meaning to go away; yet lingering, fascinated and intense. Armand Dalberg was yonder-on the brink of the grave, she knew. Once she had loved him-still loved him, may be-but a.s.suredly not as she loved herself, and the power of wealth and place. Nor could she save him even if she try; so much she knew beyond a question, so, why try.
The Duke faced his prisoners.
"Come, cousin mine, what shall it be: swords, bullets, poison? Time pa.s.ses. You have disturbed me at an unseemly hour, and I must to sleep again.... No answer, cousin? Truly, you have changed; once your tongue was free enough; and it"s not from fright, I"m sure; that, I will grant-you"re no more afraid than am I myself. However, if you won"t choose, I"ll have to do it for you.... You came by the secret pa.s.sage, and by it shall you return-part way-bound, but not gagged, it won"t be necessary; please appreciate my leniency. Then, while you are lying quietly there, the revolving stones shall be sealed so tight that mortal man can never find them. Is it not a fine plan, cousin, to have been devised so quickly; and are you not proud of the mausoleum that you, a poor, unknown American, will have: the t.i.tular castle of Valeria"s new King?"
At first, the Princess had been cold with terror-the muzzles of loaded rifles at ten paces, are not for women"s nerves; but as the Duke talked she grew calmer, and the fear subsided, and anger came instead. And even as he seemed to take a devilish pleasure in grilling his victims with rage-provoking words, so she let him run along, to dig his own grave the deeper.
Now she stepped out from the group, and dropped her mask.
"Which cousin do you think you have been addressing, my lord of Lotzen?"
she asked, taking off her hat.
The commotion in the room was instant; but the Duke stayed it with an angry gesture. His men were foreigners, and free of any sentiment beyond the sheen of gold.
"So, you little fool," he laughed, "you have dared to come here, too! Do you fancy that even you can save your upstart lover?"
"If you mean His Royal Highness the Archduke Armand," said she, very quietly, "he needs no saving-he is not here."
There was but one person in all the world whose word Ferdinand of Lotzen would accept as truth: he knew the Princess Dehra never lied. And now he sprang up.
"Not here!" he cried, "not here!"
She turned to her companions.
"Messieurs, will you do me the courtesy to unmask?"
The Duke ran his eyes over the four, and shrugged his shoulders.
"I thank you, messieurs," said he, "I shall not forget you, believe me I shall not.-But where, cousin, is His Royal Highness the Archduke Armand?"
(sneering out every word of the t.i.tle). "Did you lose him on the way?-or is he skulking in the pa.s.sage."
Dehra laughed scornfully. "You change front quickly; a moment since you doubted his courage no more than your own. This is my own adventure; neither the Archduke, nor any one else in Dalberg Castle, is aware of it."
Lotzen bowed. "My thanks, cousin, for that last bit of news-I know the better, now, how to dispose of you and your friends."
The Princess walked over and sat on the corner of the desk.
"Am I to understand, my lord, that you would attempt to restrain me and my escort from leaving this castle?"
"Those who enter a residence with criminal intent, and are apprehended in the act, can hardly expect to escape unscathed. You have overlooked the fact, doubtless, that the privilege of high justice still attaches to this domain, though long since unexerted. Just what that justice will be I have not decided-enough, at present, that you are prisoners awaiting sentence, and since none will ever seek you here, I can let events determine when and where it will be p.r.o.nounced."
And Dehra understood just what was in his mind.
"Which is another way of saying, cousin, that when you have killed the Archduke or made him prisoner, it will be time enough to pa.s.s judgment on us."
The Duke gave his chuckling laugh.
"Your Highness has the wisdom of a sage," he said; "and I advise you to employ it during your sojourn here, in ascertaining just what att.i.tude is likely to be the best for yourself, after the American has been-eliminated."
And now the anger, which had been burning hotter and hotter, burst into flame.
"Do you fancy, Ferdinand of Lotzen," she exclaimed, striking a chair with the flat of her sword, "that I would venture into this den without first having made ample provision for our safe return? Around this place, at this moment, stretches a cordon of three thousand soldiers with orders to let no one pa.s.s the lines, and if by sunrise I have not returned, to take this Castle by a.s.sault and show no quarter. Colonel Bernheim is in command. I fancy you will admit that he will execute the orders."
"I will," said Lotzen.
"And if you doubt as to the troops, you can send and--"
"I will admit the troops also, cousin."
The Princess put the cloth-wrapped book under her arm and stood up.
"Then, if you will clear the doorway, we will depart."
"Not so fast, my dear," he smiled; "you seem to have missed the fact that a written command is quite as effective as an oral one; therefore, you will oblige me by taking of the paper and ink on the desk beside you, and inditing to Colonel Bernheim an order to withdraw instantly all the troops to Porgia, and himself to join you here-but first, you will favor me by returning that bundle to the drawer where you got it."
The Princess glanced uncertainly at Moore, hesitated, then handed the bundle to him, and turning to the desk wrote rapidly for a few minutes-read over the sheet, and held it out to the Duke.
He took it with a bow, and went back to his place.... The order was clear and unequivocal, almost in his own words, indeed. Her ready acquiescence had amazed him-now doubt came, and then suspicion-was he being outwitted?
Had she provided for just such a contingency? He read the order again-then put it in its envelope and went toward the corridor door. He would have to chance it.
"One moment, cousin," said the Princess; "you may as well know that the only effect of that order, or any other, save from my own lips, will be to bring the a.s.sault forthwith, instead of at sunrise. It"s for you to choose which it shall be."
He turned and regarded her contemplatively; and she spoke again.
"What is the profit now in restraining us? You have been playing for a Crown-you have lost;" (pointing to the book) "but why lose your life, too-though, frankly, as to that, save for the nasty scandal, I have no concern."
His face hardened. "There could be a few lives lost here before sunrise,"
he answered.
She smiled indifferently, though her heart beat faster at the threat; she had risked everything on her firm conviction that his cool, calculating brain would never be run away with by anger nor revenge-and the test was now.
"a.s.suredly, my dear Ferdinand," said she, "you can have us killed-and then the sunrise."
But he stared at her unrelentingly, and fear began to crowd upon her fast.
"Have we lost?" she said very low to Moore. "Have I brought you all to death?"
"It depends on the next minute," he replied; "if we live through it we"re safe. He will have quit seeing red then."
And Madeline Spencer saw that he was hesitating; swiftly she went to him, and taking his hand, spoke to him softly and with insistent earnestness.
Gradually the frown faded; the fell look pa.s.sed; at last, he smiled at her and nodded.
"We win," said Moore.
The Duke turned toward the corridor door and gave an order; the men drew aside into line, rifles at the present. Then he bowed low to the Princess.