we had walked a hundred yards or more, and turned the corner of the street before either of us spoke. then i said, “a narrow escape, my friend.”
“are you sure?” he asked, scarcely above his breath, and, as he turned towards me, his face looked ghastly under the lamp.
i told him exactly what i had seen.
“i’m a marked man,” was all his comment as i finished my story, and he spoke the words in a tone of despairing conviction. “a marked man, tyrrell, my good friend,” he continued; “how can i thank you for having saved my life? your presence of mind was wonderful, though i fear your services can only prolong my agony. i’m doomed, lost.”
“nonsense, lindheim! for heaven’s sake don’t let your nerves go now when you want them most.”
he shook his head. “nerves are of no avail against the powers here. you don’t know—be thankful you don’t. furello is merely an instrument: one of many.”
“anyhow,” i said cheerily, “i am going to stand by you and get you out of this business if it is as bad as you say. an englishman doesn’t let cowardly murder go on before his eyes if he can help it.”
“it is splendidly kind of you, tyrrell; but you had better leave me to my fate. if you interfere you will only share it.”
[pg 47]
i laughed. “not i.”
“you don’t know rallenstein.”
“don’t i?”
he gave an apprehensive glance behind. “it is hardly worth while,” he said, with an attempt at a laugh, “but we may as well be careful, as we are probably being watched.”
“of course, you are supposed to be ill; the poison is taking its effect,” i returned. “you had better stagger and lean on me for the rest of the way.”
it did not need much of an effort to make him look pretty ill. he went through some appropriate pantomime, dismal enough when one comes to think of it, and i pretended to help him along till we came to his house. as we turned in i certainly seemed to see the indistinct figure of a man some distance behind on the other side of the deserted street. von lindheim begged me to stay, and, indeed, i was unwilling to leave him, having seen enough on both that and the previous nights to realize that he might stand in considerable danger, although, had it not been for the evidence of my own eyes, i should probably have set down his own fears as rather childish.
in the house we found szalay waiting, pacing the room in a perturbed state of mind.
“well?” he inquired anxiously.
von lindheim flung down his hat. “we had better both make our wills, szalay,” he cried in desperation.
szalay’s face turned greenish grey. “you can’t settle it, then?” he asked nervously.
“i have nearly settled myself in trying to,” the other returned grimly. “i went to the baroness’s to give furello a hint, with the result that, but for our friend here, i should have been carried home on four shoulders.”
“heaven! what do you mean?” szalay’s eyes [pg 48]were almost starting from his head as he gasped out the question.
von lindheim related the story of his escape.
“my own idea is,” he said in conclusion, “that the whole business, your challenge, and my invitation, are simply methods to get rid of us both.”
then there was silence, the silence of almost hopeless fear.
“what are we to do?” szalay asked unsteadily.
von lindheim gave a shrug. then, to relieve the tension, i spoke.
“is it asking too much, as i mean to stand by you fellows, that you should tell me the reason of all this; what you saw last night?”
“better not ask, my dear tyrrell; the knowledge is fatal—too fatal, already. d’urban is missing too,” he went on, in a fresh access of despair. “poor d’urban, dead by now, probably. and orsova, you know.”
“i saw his death,” i remarked.
“in the papers to-night, yes.”
“no,” i returned quietly; “i was present at his death last night.”
“you?” they both gasped out.
“assuredly. in the palace.”
“suicide? no?”
“well, it was and it wasn’t. tell me what you saw, and you shall hear all about it.”
von lindheim walked to the mantel and leaned against it. “we are doomed, szalay. we are both dead men.”
his colleague had turned away to hide, perhaps, the fear that was in his face.
“what did you fellows see?” i repeated.
“enough,” von lindheim answered, with a short laugh of desperation, “to make our lives forfeit. the devil must have led us to investigate that light.”
[pg 49]
“what did you see?”
“a sight for which we have now to pay,” szalay broke in bitterly.
“the little chapel was just dimly lighted by a pair of candles,” von lindheim proceeded. “through a light-coloured pane in the low window we could see a priest in vestments standing before what had once been the altar. it was curious. he seemed the only person in the chapel. soon he looked up, as though at the entrance of some one, and opened the book in his hand. three people, a man and two ladies, came quickly up the chapel and placed themselves before him at the altar. you may guess who two of them were. von orsova and the princess casilde. they had come to be married.”
“married! that accounts for everything.”
“more than accounts for it,” my friend continued grimly. “well, when we realized what the scene meant, the spirit of caution took possession of us; we were chance spectators of what was practically an act of high treason.”
“accessories in effect,” szalay put in.
“there were two courses open to us,” von lindheim went on. “to interrupt the ceremony, or to steal away and keep our own counsel. our evil genius prompted us all three to choose the latter.”
“the former was too dangerous,” szalay said. “we knew too much; even in that case we should have been marked men.”
“anyhow,” the other proceeded, “we crept away from the window and hurried back through the wood to the palace.”
“it was a mistake,” szalay said. “we should have run the other way.”
“a fatal mistake. for we came plump upon two men hastening towards the chapel. one ran on, the other halted and scrutinized us, then followed [pg 50]his companion. the jaguar, and his striking paw, furello.”
“the two i saw,” was my remark.
“yes. now you see the man, the fiend, and his methods,” von lindheim said. “he did not strike at once, but watched the marriage to an end, that he might strike more surely and quietly. now we have the whole story.”
“so far. it is not ended,” szalay said gloomily.
“i fear it is i who have unwittingly betrayed you,” i said. “furello could but have guessed before he cross-questioned me.”
“a guess is enough for rallenstein. he makes sure.”
“anyhow, i feel guilty,” i said, “and am determined to stand by you both if you will let me.”
“better start for england to-night,” von lindheim replied gloomily, “before you share our fate.”
i laughed. “even your chancellor will think twice before he murders a british subject.”
“murders? no. my dear tyrrell, your death would be of the most deplorably accidental description. rallenstein is above all things an artist.”
“well, i’m not going to desert you fellows, so please don’t suggest it. now you shall know what i saw last night.”
then i told them of the chance which had made me a witness of von orsova’s death. needless to say the recital did not tend to allay their fears.
“the rittmeister has paid!” szalay exclaimed, with a lugubrious jerk of the head.
“but you,” i said, “what crime can there be in what you saw in that glance through the window? if that is motive enough for getting rid of you——”
“motive enough,” von lindheim returned. “if you knew what we could tell you, you would not be surprised. in this country a whisper, a shrug, a [pg 51]laugh are, any one of them, enough to bring a man to his death. and the innocent have often to suffer for the guilty—to make sure.”
“it is clear enough,” szalay added, pacing the room. “this affaire orsova is likely to upset the chancellor’s plans. if it were to become a scandal, the alliance he has set his heart and the king’s upon would never come to anything.”
some one was heard below, and von lindheim ran to the door.
“it is only pabst,” he said, coming back with a relieved face. “i had forgotten he was out.”
there was a knock at the door and pabst came in. he was von lindheim’s housekeeper and factotum, a respectable elderly man. he looked perturbed.
“pardon, meine herren,” he said. “i did not know herr szalay was here. he has doubtless brought you the bad news.”
the two colleagues looked at each other in renewed fear. “what bad news?” von lindheim asked.
“you mean the death of the herr rittmeister von orsova,” i suggested.
“pardon, mein herr,” pabst answered, with a grave shake of the head, “it is nearer than that. herr d’urban——”
“ah!” the terror in both men made them cry out simultaneously. but the good pabst probably read nothing in their faces beyond ignorance, and concern for the fate of a colleague.
“he is most unhappily drowned,” he said.
“drowned?”
“they found his body in the river this evening near the powder mills. they say his mother, poor lady, is——”
“but d’urban was a swimmer,” szalay cried.
“he could swim well,” von lindheim said gloomily. “but of what avail was that——”
[pg 52]
“true, mein herr,” pabst chimed in. “he has an ugly blow on his head. they say he must have been carried over the tollert fall, struck against a rock or pile, and so been stunned.”
“his turn has come first,” von lindheim observed grimly when the old servant had left the room. he seemed to be growing reckless now from the very hopelessness of his situation. “what are we to do?” he laughed.
“one thing is settled,” i said. “you and herr szalay are going to face this danger, if it exists, and will not give up your lives without a struggle. surely, lindheim, there is some law, some authority to which you can appeal for protection.”
he shook his head. “none.”
“but in these days of civilization men are not butchered in cold blood without an appeal to law and justice.”
“civilization,” he answered, “is a very pretty word for occasions. we are proud of it, in theory, but it is never allowed to stand in the way of political expediency. the head of all law and authority in this country is the chancellor; the king himself is but his creature, and rallenstein’s methods are, when necessary, quite medi?val.”
“but men in your position——”
“bah! he would have the king poisoned to-morrow if it suited his purpose. we have no party government here, worse luck!”
“then there is nothing to do but to find a way of escape.”
“escape? outwit the jaguar!” he laughed at the idea.
“we’ll try, anyhow. let us view the situation calmly. you are supposed to have drunk that dose of furello’s, and are dying. we have the start of them there.”
[pg 53]
he made an impatient gesture. “it comes to the same in the end; the agony is only prolonged. better get it over.”
“nonsense. you have a chance, and a good one. i tell you both you must not be so mad and wicked as to throw it away.”
thus appealed to, and perhaps catching hope from my confident manner, they made an effort to look more cheerfully at the business.
“there may be half a chance,” von lindheim said.
“there will be none,” i said, “if you give up. we have three heads here, and we know our danger. you mean to fight for your life, eh, herr szalay?”
szalay tried to smile, but could only achieve a ghastly grimace. “i am not yet tired of my life, and am ready to make an effort.”
“good!” i returned. “now for our plans. we must hoodwink this autocratic butcher. send for a doctor; the most stupid in the place, for choice. who answers to that description?”
von lindheim thought a moment. “doctor rothmer, i should think, eh, szalay? the man who killed the reichsrath lorenz by treating him for indigestion when he had peritonitis.”
“a pompous idiot, eh? just the man. send for him at once, and turn into bed. recollect you are poisoned; but don’t tell the doctor that. all you know is that you have been supping abroad and are horribly ill.”
i rang, and told pabst to send for the doctor.
“and i? what am i to do?” szalay inquired with almost ludicrous concern. “i am not poisoned.”
“no. you have simply got to keep quiet and not be seen. your second is taken suddenly ill and cannot act for you. i may be able to avert the meeting; at any rate to delay it. anyhow, we must [pg 54]work to throw our enemies off their guard. that’s the vague plan i have at present.”
szalay brightened. my taking things so coolly seemed to give him confidence. the whole business was an eye-opener certainly; and after what i had seen there was no room for doubt that the chancellor and his people meant business. however, funk and flurry would do no good. i, being somewhat involved in the affair, was prepared to see it through, and take my chance of trying any of the pleasant little ways the authorities seemed to have for disposing of awkward onlookers. whether i had let these men in for the trouble or not i was resolved to get them out, and i thought i could do it.
