The Princess Dehra Part 42

"To satisfy myself, yes-if that fool, Bigler, had waited a little longer, I would have known beyond a doubt."

"And, as it is, you can't be absolutely certain?"

"No; at least, not certain enough to make an open issue of it with Lotzen."

Courtney shook his head decisively.

"It is a great misfortune you were not able to make sure," he said; "for I'm persuaded it was not the Book. As I told Her Highness that day at luncheon, if the Duke ever did have it, he has destroyed it to get rid of Frederick's decree; and if there were no decree, then he would have produced it instantly as establis.h.i.+ng his right to the Crown."

"If that be true-and I grant the logic is not easy to avoid-what was it I saw? I would have sworn it was the Book; it resembled it in every particular."

Courtney's fingers went up to his gray imperial, and for a long while he smoked his cigarette and stared thoughtfully at the ceiling.

"It is a fine mess," he said, at length; "Spencer mixes it so abominably.

What really brought her to Dornlitz?-how long has she been here?-did the Duke strike her-if there is a plot back of it, why should she have been selected to do the open work with you, of all people?-why, if Lotzen have the Book, doesn't he destroy it?-why does he want you to see it in his very hands?-why, if he haven't the Book, does he want to convince you that he has?-... If it's a plot, then its object was either the one you suggest: to tempt you to violent measures against him to recover the Book, and so to discredit you with the n.o.bles when it's not found; or-and this may be the more likely-to inveigle you into a death trap by using the Book as a lure."

"Either of which," observed the Archduke, "would explain his preservation of the Book."

"Or sentiment," Courtney laughed. "Her Highness thinks the Duke would never destroy the Laws of his House."

"I fancy she wouldn't be quite so strong on that now," Armand observed.

"I wish you had seen her last night; she was magnificent, simply magnificent.-Richard, she is the Dalberg of us all!-it's she, not I, nor Lotzen, who ought to wear the Sapphire Crown."

Courtney nodded in hearty acquiescence.

"And as she may not, it is for you," he said, gravely, "to make her a Queen by wearing it yourself-and, as I believe I've admonished once or twice heretofore, to do that you must keep alive-dead Archdukes are good only to bury."

"I'm very much alive," the other laughed, "more alive than I've been since I shed cadet gray."

"The Lord knows it is not from lack of effort on your part to get killed; you've tempted death in every dare-deviltry you could find-and this De Saure house affair is the limit-though last night was about as idiotic.

The Princess has more discretion in an eye-lash than you have in your whole head-but for her, you would be surrounded now by tapers and incense-what fresh atrocity against common prudence will you perpetrate next, I wonder!"

The Archduke pushed the decanter across.

"Take another drink, old man," he grinned, "you must be dry, with such a warm bunch of ideas jostling one another for exit-I'll promise to be as discreet hereafter as a debutante. I admit the De Saure business appears foolish now, but then, at that hour of night, in darkness, rain and storm, would you, or any other man, have denied a woman's call for help?

I couldn't."

"Nor anything else that promises adventure," said Courtney. "If Lotzen doesn't make an end of you--" he shrugged his shoulders and lit another cigarette.... "I've sworn a dozen resolves to quit advising you; and then, every time I see you, you've gone and done some other foolish thing, and I blow off-if you will forgive me this time, and may be a few more times, I'll not do it again."

"My dear d.i.c.k," said the Archduke, "the one thing I'll not forgive is for you not to do it again. You're the only man in all this land who would speak out his mind to me; and do you think it isn't welcome-to have something of the old life occasionally?"

For a while both men smoked in silence, the Marshall thoughtfully, the Amba.s.sador waitingly; and in the midst of it Colonel Bernheim entered with a letter for the Archduke, which, he explained, he had just received, enclosed in another envelope addressed to himself and marked "Immediate."

Armand glanced at Courtney for permission, got it, and read the letter:

"A--

"We are leaving Dornlitz before daybreak by special train, ostensibly for Paris, really for Lotzen Castle. The Duke guessed instantly why you were in my apartments, and what you saw. We had a fearful scene, and he struck me again-the cur! It is the B.; he admitted it, in his rage-and he has it with him. I am a prisoner now, and compelled to accompany him because I know too much, he says. I'm not asking you for rescue, I can manage him in a few days; but if you want the B. you will know now where to get it. I owe you this, for the fiasco last night, due to that fool, B--, though I don't advise you to follow; Lotzen Castle isn't Ferida Palace, and I can't aid you there; and besides, now, he is bent on your death, and intends to kill you at the first opportunity. I will find some way to have this mailed, sending it to Col. Bernheim so it will reach you promptly and not be delayed by official routine.

"M. S."

"3 A. M."

Without a word, the Archduke pa.s.sed the letter over to Courtney; and without a word Courtney took it, read it twice, and pa.s.sed it back; and fell to blowing smoke rings through each other.

"Well," said Armand presently, "when you're satisfied with the rings, and it seems to me they couldn't be bettered, I shall be glad to have your opinion of the letter."

The other shook his head, and went on with the rings.

"What is the use?" he answered. "You are going to Lotzenia."

"I'm sorely tempted, I admit-but I don't know--"

Courtney flung his cigarette at the fireplace, and got up.

"Then, if you don't know, I'll tell you what I think,-throw that d.a.m.n letter into the fire and stay right here in Dornlitz; if you let it lure you to Lotzenia, you are an unmitigated fool."

"But the Book!-and Spencer only confirms what my own eyes told me."

"Lies, lies, rotten lies!" said Courtney. "He hasn't the Book-it's all a plant-you escaped last night because Bigler blundered in, and because the Regent was with you-but in that wild land of the North, you will last about a day, or less. Why don't you forget the miserable Book, for a while, and get to work on your vote in the House of n.o.bles?-there is where you will likely have to fight it out any way, even if Frederick did make your decree. Play politics a bit, and you will have Lotzen back in Dornlitz on the jump-and the Book with him, too, if he has it."

The Archduke went over and put his hand on Courtney's shoulder.

"d.i.c.k," he said, "it's something worth living for to have known a man like you, and to have had him for a friend and companion; and if I don't follow your advice you will understand it is because I can't. You have called me headstrong; I grant it, it's bred in the bone I think; and I'm not of those who can sit, and wait, and play politics. I shall find the Laws of the Dalbergs, somewhere, somehow, long before the year is over; and if necessary I'm going to kill Lotzen in the finding-or be killed-"

he broke off with a laugh and a shrug. "Positively, old man, I'm ashamed of myself; I seem to have become a braggart and a swash-buckler."

"Who is the braggart and swash-buckler, my dear Marshal?" asked the Princess, entering suddenly, with Lady Helen Radnor, Mlle. d'Essolde and Colonel Moore, "not Mr. Courtney I hope."

"Unfortunately, no; Your Highness," said Armand. "Candor compels me to admit that I was characterizing myself."

She pointed her crop at the decanter, and nodded questioningly to the Amba.s.sador.

"No," said he, "no; it's only a sudden rush of remorse for deeds past and to come."

"To come?" said she, and looked at the Archduke inquiringly.

For answer he handed her Madeline Spencer's letter.

She glanced at the signature, smiled, and with a word of excuse, she carried it over to a window; and Armand, chatting with Lady Helen, watched her curiously as she read and re-read it; and then she looked up quickly, and gave him the glance of summons.

"Have you shown it to Mr. Courtney?" she asked. "Did he say what he thought of it?"

"He did-and at some length, and also what he thought of me.-Briefly, it was to the effect that the letter is a snare, and that I'm several kinds of a fool if I let it lure me to Lotzenia."

The Princess tapped her crop softly against her boot, and considered.

"Of course," said she, in momentary interruption of her thought, "I know what you think-you think you're going,-but I don't know--" and the tapping of the crop began afresh.... Presently a soft light came into her eyes, and she flashed him the adorable smile. "Are you willing to wait the year for our wedding, dear?" she asked.