next morning i sent a boy to the monastery with a note.
“dear count,—
“i regret to have to inform you that i was forced to leave your roof abruptly at an early hour this morning in consequence of the unwarrantable intrusion into my bedroom of a person who came, i fancy, with no very good intent. may i suggest that your present domestic arrangements are liable to cause your known hospitality to be misjudged. i return herewith the key of my room, having been simple enough to suppose that locking my door would secure privacy. please make my apologies to my hostess for my unceremonious departure.”
i had scarcely dispatched the note when strode came in. “ah! i was just starting to look you up,” i said.
he nodded and sat down as i ordered some refreshment. “lucky i just caught you,” he replied, “or we might have missed one another in the woods. i’m not one for keeping to the path.”
it was evident from his manner that he had something to tell me. when we were alone, he said:
“lucky your friend, von what’s-his-name, got off when he did. there was a fellow after him at my place last night.”
i had thought that not improbable, and asked him all about it.
[pg 187]
“chap loafed in, said he had lost his way; jaw enough to make a bagman sick, agreeable though, but a deuced scoundrelly cut to his jib.”
“i ought to have warned you.”
“thanks, old fellow, it didn’t matter. i totted him up and set him down, thereafter keeping an eye on him. thinks i, my friend, you’re on the track of von t’other-chap, and i’ll have some fun with you. so i made out i was worrying about a friend, a german friend, who was staying with me and who must have lost his way. that was just what my swivel-eyed johnnie wanted, and he hung on for all he knew, gassing away enough to blow the windows out. well, it struck me that was just what we wanted; to cross the scent and let our man get away while the hounds were at fault. so i let the fellow jaw away for all he was worth while i was all the time thinking out the best trick to play him. i asked the fellow if he’d have something to drink, slipped out under pretence of fetching it, gave the office to the boy who helps his grandmother, the old woman who keeps house for me, and in a few minutes he brought in a gun and a message from the herr, that he was going to stay in carlzig that night, and would join me in the morning. now as our friend is making tracks in just the opposite direction from carlzig that seemed good enough.”
“quite. you ought to have done him a good turn there. strode.”
“hope so. of course i shammed to be much relieved at hearing he hadn’t come to grief, and, as i expected, my lippy friend suddenly discovered it was getting late. i put him on his road for pattenheim, and then watched. no need to say when he thought he was out of sight he doubled back and went, stretched out, for carlzig. that’s all. thought it might interest you.”
“very good of you, strode. now, shall we be [pg 188]getting off? and on the way i will tell you my story.”
we were just starting when, somewhat to my surprise, a reply to my note came from the count. it was full of the most profuse apologies, with an explanation to the effect that an inmate of the monastery had been suddenly seized in the night with a fit of insanity to which he was subject, and it was he who had so unfortunately disturbed me. the writer regretted that the expected arrival of a visitor prevented his waiting upon me at that moment to express his regrets in person, but he hoped to do so later in the day. a very pretty piece of humbug; the surprising part was that the count should have given himself the trouble to compose it. but perhaps it was intended to serve for a diplomatic explanation.
i flung the precious note across to strode. “come along,” i said, “and i’ll tell you what it all means.”
we shouldered our guns and set off towards his shooting ground. on the way i related the whole story, more particularly that part which concerned asta von winterstein. when i came to my adventure of the previous night he was greatly excited.
“by jove! that was a tight corner. i shouldn’t have kept my head as you did. i should have emptied my revolver among the scoundrels and then gone under.”
“chance stood my friend, as it has done all through,” i said. “no doubt the fellow i knocked into the moat was the man who had been holding forth to you earlier in the evening, and was just home from carlzig.”
strode laughed. “i envy you that drive. i could have throttled the brute as he sat jawing away at me; only that was not my line of country.”
we then discussed the situation, and agreed that we were bound to do our utmost to help the im[pg 189]prisoned girl. if only we could be sure she was there.
“perhaps we two may be able to make more of the business than one,” strode said. “anyhow, if i’m not intruding, and you want me, i’m your man.”
i thanked him, and before parting that afternoon it was arranged that he should come over to the geierthal after dusk, and we would survey the possibilities together. so i left him and took my way back alone through the wooded hills.
now chance, that had been so faithful to me, was not to jilt me yet. there was plenty of time before the hour at which my dinner was ordered; so to relieve my nerves by not taking matters too seriously, i strolled along the crest of the hills looking out for any shots that might come in my way. i brought off a good many, and after a while began to descend from the high ground towards the geierthal, my path being now one leading eventually almost direct to the monastery, that is to say, a good mile below my inn. with what i determined should be my last shot i knocked over a hare, but puss struggled up again and tried to make off. i ran after the animal to put it out of its pain, and, after some search and twistings, came up with her, threw down my gun, and catching up a handy stick gave her the coup-de-grace. then i turned to take up my gun. it was nowhere to be seen. i had not gone five paces away from it, yet now, to my utter astonishment, it had mysteriously disappeared. i could hardly believe my senses, for i was surely alone in that spot. anyhow, the gun was not visible, and i thereupon began to search the place more closely, not without an uncomfortable feeling at the apparent mysteriousness of the thing. the ground was rough and broken. i carefully determined the spot where the gun must have fallen and proceeded to examine it methodically. suddenly the explanation came to me in uncomfortable fashion. [pg 190]my foot slipped unaccountably, slipped so far that i fell. hastily picking myself up, the cause became apparent. there was an unnoticed cavity in the ground. i examined it and was relieved to find my gun, which had lodged a short way below the surface. but the hole itself was deep; it was more than a chance fissure in the earth. it was curious enough at least to call for further investigation. clearing away with considerable trouble the earth and stones i enlarged the aperture sufficiently to be able to see what it really was. to my great astonishment i came presently upon a deep hollow space beneath. as it was quite dark i threw a stone in and listened. it struck and seemed to reach the bottom a few feet down. it was a passage, then.
resolving to explore it, i worked away to enlarge the hole so as to afford some means of entrance, also of getting out again when i should be in. in about twenty minutes i had broken away enough round the hole for this purpose, and at once proceeded to let myself down.
