The Shadow of the Czar Part 40

No one ventured to controvert this statement.

Zabern's eyes twinkled with secret satisfaction.

"Marshal," whispered Juliska. "You have some plan in your head. You have been trying an experiment, I know you have. Come, tell me. Of what are you thinking?"

"That the princess's coronation-day will be a very exciting time,"

replied Zabern, oracularly.

And this was the only answer she could draw from the smiling marshal.

"Beaten! The whole six!" cried Katina in a voice of grief. "Shame upon Czernova! Captain Woodville will have but a poor opinion of us. Let us show, however, that we can shoot if we cannot fence."

With this Katina directed one of the attendants to hang a square white-painted board upon the wall at one end of the hall. Then taking her station at the other end with a supply of loaded revolvers, she proceeded to aim at the distant board, the shots succeeding each other with a rapidity that scarcely left an interval of silence.

The result of this firing was to cause a large oval to appear upon the surface of the board. The revolvers having been reloaded, Katina resumed her shooting. Now within the oval lines and curves began to appear, the whole a.s.suming the outline of a human countenance, and that so well executed as to be clearly recognizable by those acquainted with the original.

"Orloff, the governor-general of Warsaw," cried several voices in unison.

"Czernova will never lack a good tirailleur so long as Katina Ludovska be living," said Zabern, adding in a lower tone, "why have you learned to shoot so well?"

"Can you ask?" she replied in a fierce whisper. "Against the day of my meeting with Orloff. Can any one beat that shooting?" she added aloud, with an invitatory glance at Paul, who smiled a negative.

A shout of applause went up in favor of Katina, who was considered to have redeemed the honor of Czernova.

"Ah! why were you not born a Pole?" said Juliska, addressing Paul.

"May I not become one?"

"Then shall you be a better Pole than any of us," said Katina, "for whereas we are such by accident of birth, you will be such by freedom of choice."

"Well said, Katina," observed Zabern. "And never was there one whom I more willingly admit to Czernovese citizenship. But Captain Woodville," he added, thoughtfully, "it will be well if you remain a British subject for a few more days. Why, the sequel will show."

And Paul, believing that Zabern did not speak without good reason, a.s.sented to the delay.

There was no more fencing in the _salle d'armes_ that day. The members shrank from displaying their inferior powers before such an expert as Paul. The a.s.sembly broke up into little groups.

"And how fares our ducal prisoner?" asked Radzivil, addressing the governor of the Citadel.

"In somewhat gloomy mood," answered Miroslav. "He spends his time chiefly in drinking old Rhenish, and in muttering to himself. By the way, he did a very peculiar act immediately after entering the Citadel last evening."

"Ha!" exclaimed Zabern, catching at this. "What was the act?"

"You know, marshal, it is our rule to search all prisoners on their entering,--a routine from which we did not except even his grace."

"And what did you discover?"

"Upon his person--nothing; that is, nothing of consequence. But a few minutes afterwards a soldier caught sight of the remains of a book burning upon a fire that was close by."

"Flung there by the duke?"

"Without doubt. The mystery is how he contrived to do it without our knowledge, inasmuch as there were several persons standing by."

"You recovered the book from the flames?"

"We attempted to remove it with the tongs, but the thing fell to pieces; the pages were consumed; nothing but the leather cover remained, and that all charred; upon it we could just discern the t.i.tle."

"And that was--?"

"'The Plays of aeschylus.' Now why should the duke desire to destroy his copy of the Greek poet?"

"He had a motive, I warrant, and that a powerful one. I wish, Miroslav, you had secured the volume in time. aeschylus, aeschylus,"

repeated Zabern, thoughtfully. "My cla.s.sical scholarship has long since evaporated, but if I remember rightly," he added, his countenance suddenly lighting up with a new idea, "aeschylus wrote a play called 'The Furies.'"

"True, marshal," replied Paul. "'The Eumenides' or 'The Furies.'"

Zabern, with excitement gleaming in his face, drew Paul aside.

"The clew to the cipher despatch!" he whispered. "The last words of our friend Trevisa were '_the furies_'!"

CHAPTER X

THE DEED OF MICHAEL THE GUARDSMAN

Accompanied by Zabern, Paul returned to the palace, where he was met by the court chamberlain, who conducted him to a fine suite of apartments, which by the special command of the princess were a.s.signed to the new secretary.

Supplied by Zabern with the cipher despatch, and by the court librarian with a copy of the "Eumenides," Paul, having first requested to be left to himself, sat down to work out the cryptographic problem.

The paper given to him by the marshal was covered with rows of numerals, separated from each other by dots.

The first eight numbers were as follows,--

6 . 42 . 50 . 37 . 97 . 39 . 65 . 21

What did these figures represent? Certain words in the Greek play? If the sixth word of the "Eumenides," the forty-second, the fiftieth and so forth, were picked out and placed in immediate sequence, would they yield an intelligible sentence?

He tried this method with the above numbers, but the result did not encourage him to proceed.

It was not likely that the writer of the despatch intended to forward such intelligence as: "Of G.o.ds and a name a daughter of an art was seated into an oracle."

On reflection Paul perceived the improbability that the numbers stood for words, inasmuch as the vocabulary of an ancient Greek poet would be insufficient to supply all the terms required by the usages of modern civilization, such, for example, as pa.s.sport, banknote, or rifle. And to clench the matter, Paul observed that towards the end of the despatch there was the number, .8537. Now the total of words in the "Eumenides" falls considerably short of that sum.

But if all the letters that composed the words of the play were numbered in consecutive order from ? the first to ?

the last, then, indeed, the sum total would far exceed 8537.

Paul resolved to test this theory, namely, that 6 was intended to mean the sixth letter in the "Eumenides," 42 the forty-second letter, etc.