The Princess Dehra Part 21

The old fellow answered with the faintest suggestion of a grin.

All Dornlitz was familiar with the features of the Great Henry, and so it was quite impossible for the Archduke Armand to escape recognition-and to-night, as he and Bernheim went out the Avenue, the people made way for him with a respect and deference that even he could not but feel was honest and sincere, and of the quietly enthusiastic sort that is most dependable.

"Does it look as though I had need for an escort?" he asked.

"Not at this moment," the Aide agreed.

"Nor at any moment on Alta Avenue;" he put his hand on the other's arm-"you know, Bernheim, it's not you I object to, it's the idea. I always like you with me."

The Colonel's face flushed, and for an instant he did not reply; when he did, his voice was low and faintly husky.

"Sire!" he said, "Sire!"

The Archduke glanced at him in quick surprise, and understood; sometimes Bernheim's intense devotion overflowed.

"Brace up, Colonel," he exclaimed, with sudden gayety, "brace up! you won't have to milk that cow."

Then both men laughed, and the normal situation was resumed.

The bells began to chime midnight, as they reached the Emba.s.sy.

"Don't wait for me," Armand said; "I may be late. Go back and send an orderly."

The other smiled. "I'll wait, myself, sir, if you will permit; they have a game here I rather like."

"Take care, Colonel; those boys will skin you out of your very uniform-better look on."

"I do, sir, when I've a poor draw;" he answered seriously, and wondered at the Archduke's chuckling laugh.

Courtney greeted his friend with a nod and a wave of his hand.

"I'm glad you came in," he said. "I've been thinking about you-sit down.... Scotch?"

"No, rye-and seltzer, please." He took the chair across the desk from Courtney and waited until the man had placed the decanters and gla.s.ses and retired. "And I've been thinking about you, too," he said. "You got me into this infernal mess, and now it's up to you to help me out."

Courtney slowly lit a cigarette and scrutinized the coal, critically.

"I see," he remarked, "that you have already developed the ungratefulness of kings-I have high hopes for your reign ... if you live to reign."

The Archduke put down his gla.s.s and regarded him in exasperated surprise.

"d.a.m.n it, man, you too?" he exclaimed. "If I were given to nerves I would be seeing daggers and bullets all around me-Bernheim croaks death; and so does Moore; and now you join the chorus-pretty soon the boys will be whistling it on the Avenue."

Courtney picked up an Emba.s.sy official envelope that lay before him, and tossed it across to the Archduke.

"I've done a little work on my own account, lately," he said, "and here is what I got this evening. I have always found this-agent, reliable."

It was only a few words, scratched hastily in pencil on a sheet torn from a small note-book:-

"Danger very imminent-under no circ.u.mstance go out at night without an escort."

"Nice sort of country this, you brought me to," said Armand.

"It's not the country, my dear boy," Courtney observed; "it is beyond reproach. The trouble is that one of your own family still is a barbarian; and you insist upon treating him as though he were civilized.

For my part, I have no patience with your altruism; you've had quite sufficient warning-he tried twice to kill you at the Vierle Masque; and he has told you to your face that you would never be king. Yet you persist in regarding him as fighting square and in the open. Bernheim and Moore are wise-they know your dear cousin-and you,-well, you're a fool if you don't know him, too."

It was a very long speech for Courtney, and Armand had listened in surprise-it was most unusual for his imperturbable friend to grow emphatic, either in voice or gesture, and it impressed him as Bernheim and Moore never had. In truth, he had no particular scruples against meeting Lotzen in the good, old-fashioned, cloak-and-dagger way; but what irked him was the necessity of being always on the qui vive to resist a.s.sault or to avoid a trap; and the seeming absurdity of it in Dornlitz of the twentieth century. It made him feel such a simpleton, to be looking for bravos in dark alleys, or to wear steel vests, or to be eternally watchful and suspicious of every one and everything.

"What do you want me to do," he asked; "go down to Lotzen's palace and stick my sword through him?"

"It's a pity you may not-it's what he would do to you, if he could-but that's not our way; we're civilized ... to a certain point. But what you may do is to take every precaution against him; and then, if you get the chance in fair justification, kill him as unconcernedly as he would kill you."

The Archduke sat silent, his cigar between his teeth, the smoke floating in a thin strand across his face, his eyes upon the desk before him.

"Of course, my boy," Courtney went on, after a pause, "I a.s.sume you are in the game to the end, and in to win. If you're not, the whole matter is easy of adjustment-renounce the Crown and marry the Princess ... and live somewhere beyond the borders of Valeria-come back to America, indeed; I'll see that you have again your commission in the Engineer's--"

Armand's lips closed a bit tighter on his cigar, his fingers began to play upon the chair-arm, and his glance shifted for an instant to the other's face, then back to the desk. And Courtney read his mind and pressed on to clinch the purpose.

"But if you're in to win-and it's your duty to your friends to win; it's your duty to your friends to win, I repeat-your first obligation is to keep alive; a dead archduke is of no earthly use in the king business we have in hand. You may go straight to Glory, but that won't help out the poor devils you leave here in Lotzen's clutches, and who have been true to you, never doubting that you would be true to them. Your life belongs to them, now; and you have no right to fritter it away in silly, stubborn recklessness.... There, I've spoken my mind, and quite too frankly, may be; but I'll promise never to bother you again. After all, it's for you to decide-not for a meddling friend."

The Archduke smiled. "And just to prove that the friend isn't meddling, I shall accept his advice-bearing in mind, however, that this is particularly an exigency where prudence must be subordinate to daring.

Prudence is all very well in the abstract, but it is more dangerous to our success than recklessness. I'm playing for a Crown and a Nation's favor-let my personal courage be questioned for an instant, and the game is lost as surely as though I were dead. As for my dear cousin of Lotzen, I a.s.sure you I've not the least scruple about killing him, under proper opportunity. In fact, I'm inclined to think I should rather enjoy it. I admit now that there have been times when I regret I didn't run him through at the Vierle Masque."

Courtney nodded. "It would have saved you all this trouble-I wanted to call to you to make an end of him."

"I can't do murder; I had disarmed him. Next time, I'll make a different play."

"There won't be a next time, if the Duke has the choosing. He isn't the sort to seek death, and he knows you are his master. You'll have to kill him in a melee, or manuvre him into a position where he has no option but to fight."

"He is manuvring himself into a position where he will have to contend with a far more formidable blade than mine."

Courtney's eye-brows lifted expressively. Than the Archduke himself there was but one better swordsman in the kingdom.

"What has Lotzen been doing to Moore?" he asked.

"Insulting Elise d'Essolde."

"By making advances?"

Armand nodded. "And in a particularly nasty way."

"He isn't bothered about Moore," said Courtney. "He thinks he is safe from any one that isn't of his station."

"He doesn't know the Irishman-Moore would kill him without a thought."

"I'm not so sure," said Courtney. "Moore is bred to respect for royalty; he would hesitate to use sword against one of the Blood except in defense."

"Lotzen would best not bank much on that for immunity if he pursue d'Essolde."