The Princess Dehra Part 27

"And you'll get me, doubly welcome."... She lit a cigarette and pa.s.sed it to him; and lit another for herself. "Now, how are we to contrive to set the trap?"

A footman entered and handed the Duke a visiting card, with something penciled on it....

"It's Bigler," he said, "and he asks to be admitted immediately-he's always in a rush. Tell Count Bigler I'll see him presently."

She stayed the servant with a motion; she did not intend to lose Lotzen until he had told her the whole plot.

"Why not have him here?" she asked; "and then let him go."

"By all means, if you will permit," and he nodded to the footman.

Most women would have called Count Bigler handsome; and not a few men, as well. He was red-headed and ruddy, with clean-cut features, square chin, and a laughing mouth, that contrary to Valerian fashion was not topped by a moustache. Since boyhood, he had been Lotzen's particular companion and intimate; and, as is usual in such instances, he was almost his antipode in temperament and manner.

He saluted the Duke with easy off-handedness, and bent with deferential courtesy over Mrs. Spencer's hand; but pressing it altogether more tightly than the att.i.tude justified.

She answered with the faintest finger tap and a quick smile, and waved him to a chair.

"If I'm de trop," she said, "I'll vacate."

"Madame is never de trop, to me," he answered, taking the cigarette she offered and smiling down at her, through the smoke, as he lit it.

When he turned to sit down, the left side of his face was, for the first time, toward the Duke, showing the ear bound with strips of surgeon's plaster.

"In the name of Heaven, man," said he, "what have you been doing with yourself?"

The Count laughed. "Trading the top of my ear for a day or two more of life."

"Duel?" Lotzen asked.

"Yes, after a fashion, but not exactly under the code."

The primeval woman stirred in Mrs. Spencer.

"The story, Count, the story!" she demanded, coiling her lithe arms behind her head, and leaning far back in languorous gracefulness.

"It's the story that brings me here so early," he replied.

The Duke was frowning. Duelling was a serious crime in Valeria, even in the Army, and it was a particularly unfortunate moment for Bigler to offend; and especially as only the Governor of Dornlitz or the Regent could save him from punishment.

"How did you manage to get into such a mess just at this time?" he asked sharply. "Was any one killed?"

The Count nodded. "Four, I think; I didn't stay to examine them."

"Four! four! G.o.d, man, was it a ma.s.sacre?"

"Almost-I'm the sole survivor on your side."

Lotzen's frown grew.

"On my side!" he echoed.

"I was a.s.suming to act for you," Bigler explained.

"For me!-who was on the other side?"

"The American-the American and Bernheim."

For a s.p.a.ce the Duke smoked in silence; then he gave a faint chuckle.

"They came rather close to making it five, didn't they?" He touched his ear-"Bernheim, I suppose?... Of course, the American would have made it five. What a fool you are, Bigler, to go into such a thing without telling me."

"I'm telling you now," the Count grinned.

"And I'm exceedingly grateful to my dear cousin for leaving you to tell it. It's the only service he has ever done me. I a.s.sume it isn't necessary to ask if you got him-or even wounded him?"

"Quite unnecessary."

Madeline Spencer had been chafing at the delay; now she arose, and, going over to a divan, sank sinuously among the pillows, one trim, blue silk ankle shimmering far below her skirts.

"If you were as slow in the fight, Count, as you are in getting at the story," she remarked, "it's a wonder to me how Bernheim missed you."

Both men laughed, and Bigler's glance lingered a moment in open admiration.

The Duke swung his hand toward her.

"Madame grows impatient," he said. "Proceed, Monsieur Edmund."

The Count took a fresh cigarette.

"It was this way," he began, pivoting his chair around on one back leg, so that he would have both his auditors within his direct vision. "The two weeks we were bound to idleness mourning for old Frederick, I spent in watching the American. I soon discovered that it was his custom, every few days, to visit, very late at night, his friend, the American Amba.s.sador, and that he invariably not only walked the entire distance from the Epsau and back, but also went unattended. It seemed to me very simple to waylay him, some night on his return; the streets were usually deserted then, and he should be an easy victim, if set upon by enough men to a.s.sure success. And I had about arranged the matter, when I chanced to remember that the De Saures were still in the country and their house closed. It stands far back from the Avenue, you know, and a safer and surer plan occurred to me:-I would lure him into this house, and leave him there for burial. In the dark, my four rogues could put enough steel through him, from behind, to insure his quick demise. I proposed to take no chances with such a swordsman by giving him a light; and besides, it was just as well that the men should not know their victim. Nor did they ever see me unmasked. For decoy, one of the rogues procured a woman--"

"What!" exclaimed the Duke,-"one of their women!"

"It was voice, not beauty, I wanted-the cry of a female for help."

Lotzen nodded and smiled. "Rather clever."

"For a week we met at the house at eleven o'clock every night, but the American didn't go to the Emba.s.sy. Then, last night, at twelve, he went, and old Bernheim with him. That didn't bother me much, however, and we waited for their return. They came about two, through driving rain and wind; and the woman played her part perfectly. Such piteous cries I never heard. 'Don't strike me again-don't strike me again-help-help;'

reiterated in tones that would have moved even your heart, my dear Duke.

I was concealed near the gate and they moved me-and they caught the American instantly, though Bernheim scented danger and protested vigorously. 'It may be a trap of Lotzen's,' he warned. 'd.a.m.n Lotzen!' was the prompt answer, as the girl wailed again-I tell you she was an artist at it; she, herself, must be used to beatings. They ran up the path to the house, I following; and here the whole scheme was almost upset by some fool having left the front door open. Bernheim protested that it proved the trap; and even the American was hesitating, when again the woman wailed. That settled it; and I dashed around the house to the rear entrance.

"My purpose was to draw them upstairs and finish the job there. They searched the first floor-we were on the second-then, leaving all the electric lights burning, they ascended-and we went down the back way, turned off the lights and closed and locked the doors. They promptly extinguished the lights they had set going above, and the house was in the densest darkness I have ever known. We could hear them whispering in the upper hall; and I sent two of my rogues up the front stairs and led the others up the rear, intending to snap an electric torch for the instant it would require to do our work; and which seemed all the easier because I had observed, at the gate, that the American was without his sword. When we were half way up, I heard a crash from the front, followed by the American's laugh. I paused an instant, then hurried on, and fell over a chair that had been placed at the head of the stairs. Everything remained quiet, however, and we went forward into the hall. My finger was on the key of the torch when there came a shrill whistle, and the lights went on. I saw Bernheim in front of us, pistol in hand; it flashed, and the man on my left went down. At the same moment, the American sprang at us from behind and felled the other fellow with the hilt of a sword-where he got it the devil only knows. As for me, I admit I was dazed with surprise; I heard the American offer me the choice: pistol or sword-I took the pistol. I had retained enough sense to know I hadn't the faintest chance with him. The front steps were near; I made the leap of my life, and plunged down them. Bernheim fired three times-this (indicating his ear) was the last; the first two missed."

"What had become of your other pair of rogues?" the Duke asked.

"Dead. I fell over them at the foot of the stairs, buried under a huge chest."

"Flung upon them, doubtless, as they were ascending," said Lotzen.