The Sign Of Flame Part 57

"Your name?"

"Joseph Tanner."

"Drawn?"

"No, volunteer."

"Since when?"

"Since the 30th of July."

"You have been in the whole campaign?"

"Yes, Herr Lieutenant."

"Very well; now take the message to your Captain."

The soldier saluted, turned upon his heel and left.

Waldorf, who had been a little surprised at the examination, but had not attached any importance to it, looked after him, shrugging his shoulders.

"Those out at the Capellenberg have the worst time of it. No rest by day or night; taxed to the utmost, and with all that they are often ordered to help the pioneer corps. The poor fellows work there in the hard, frozen ground until the sweat runs in streams from their brows, and their hands bleed. Our people surely are better off."

He left the room to appoint an orderly to guard the expected prisoner and give him the necessary instructions; but Egon tore the window open and leaned out; it seemed as if he should suffocate.

Then he heard Stadinger's voice behind him in subdued tones, which nevertheless betrayed the greatest terror.

"Your Highness."

"What is it?" Egon asked without turning.

"Has not Your Highness seen?"

"What?"

"The orderly who was here just now. That was Herr Rojanow as sure as he lives and breathes."

Egon saw that presence of mind was needed here, so he turned around and said coldly: "I believe you see ghosts."

"But, Your Highness----"

"Nonsense! there may be a little resemblance. I noticed it myself, therefore I wanted to know the name of the man. You heard that it was Joseph Tanner."

"But still it was the real live Herr Rojanow," cried the unshakable Stadinger, whose sharp eyes could not be deceived. "Only the black locks were gone and the proud, haughty manner, but it was his voice."

"Get away from me with your fancies!" Egon broke out angrily. "You know that Herr Rojanow is in Sicily, but here you want to trace him in an orderly of the Seventh Regiment. It is truly worse than ridiculous."

Stadinger held his peace. It was, indeed, ridiculous and impossible, and consequently was his young Prince so ungracious. He felt offended that a common soldier should be confounded with his friend. And really the haughty Rojanow, who understood how to command from the very bottom of his heart, and had often chased all the servants at Rodeck helter-skelter with his orders--and the orderly who had been snubbed by Lieutenant Waldorf because he did not speak loud enough--were two ever so different things. If only it had not been for the voice!

"Think, Your Highness," besought the old man, who was now wavering.

"I think that you are an old seer of spirits," said Egon more mildly.

"Go into your quarters and sleep away the fatigue of your journey, or you will be finding some more resemblances. Good-night!"

Stadinger obeyed and took his leave. Fortunately he had not known Joseph Tanner, who had only been at Ostwalden a few weeks, and the encounter had put him in such a fright that the partly concealed excitement of his master pa.s.sed quite unnoticed by him. But he clung to his doubts; the thing was strange--very strange.

When the Prince found himself alone he began to pace the floor in violent excitement. So! what he had refused his former friend had been enforced. Joseph Tanner! He plainly remembered the name, which had been mentioned to him at Ostwalden, and he knew now whose hand had opened for Hartmut the ranks of the army which had been closed to a Rojanow.

What will not the love of a woman attain!--a woman who desires to see her love exonerated at any price. She herself had sent him out into danger and death--to save him for life and--herself. Jealousy rose wild and hot in Egon's breast at the thought, and with it that awful suspicion, not yet overcome, raised its head again threateningly. Did Hartmut really wish to atone only in this war? Was not his presence at the outposts a danger, for which one was responsible if he kept it a secret?

Then came back to the Prince's mind the pale, gloomy face of the man to-night--the friend who had once been so dear to him, and who must have suffered agonies of torture at this encounter, far exceeding his imagination. He well knew Hartmut's unbending pride, and this pride was now bowed low in the dust in that subordinate position day after day.

He had heard it; how out there on the Capellenberg they often worked so hard that in spite of the icy weather the sweat poured in streams from their brows, and their hands bled. This was what the spoiled, famed Rojanow was doing; the man at whose feet the whole town laid its homage only a year ago, and whom the house of the reigning Prince had overwhelmed with distinction; and he was doing it of his own free will, when the success of his poetical work afforded him the richest revenues. And with it all, he was the son of General Falkenried!

Egon's breast rose under a deep but relieved breath. This view of it was giving him back slowly his lost faith; all torturing doubts fled before this. The old sin of the boy Hartmut was now being atoned for, and the other more awful sin was the mother's alone--not his.

CHAPTER LV.

It was toward nine o'clock in the evening when Prince Adelsberg left his quarters to go to the Commanding General. He was not obeying an official order, but an invitation, for the General had been close friends with his father, and had shown paternal attention to the son all during the campaign.

Egon would have given much to have been permitted to remain at home to-night, for the encounter with Hartmut had shaken him to the inmost heart, but the invitation of the superior could not be disregarded, and one could not follow one's inclinations in war-time.

An adjutant met the Prince upon the stairs, seeming to be in the greatest haste, and only dropping a hint of bad news, which Prince Adelsberg would probably hear from the General. Egon mounted the stairs shaking his head.

The General was alone, pacing the room in apparent excitement and with a face which boded no good.

"Good evening, Prince Adelsberg," he said, pausing in his walk at the entrance of the young officer. "I am sorry I cannot promise you a pleasant evening, but we have received news which will probably ruin every pleasure of being together."

"I just heard a hint about it," replied Egon; "but what has happened, Your Excellency? The dispatches of to-day noon sounded favorable."

"I have had this news but an hour. You yourself delivered the suspicious man who had been seized by our outposts to headquarters. Do you know what he had with him?"

"Yes, for Captain Salfeld sent the papers with the prisoner. I was also of the opinion that he was to complete the information verbally, as they had been carefully prepared. They had apparently counted upon the possibility of the man's falling into our hands. He would not confess anything, but I knew he would be examined closely here."

"Which has been done. The man was a coward, and when he saw the bullet threatening him he saved himself by a confession, the truth of which cannot be doubted. You remember that in one of the papers it was mentioned that one could in an extreme case follow the heroic example of the commander of R----?"

"Yes, that is incomprehensible, as the fortress is on the eve of surrender. General Falkenried sent word that he hopes to move in by to-morrow."

"And I fear he will make his word good," cried the General. Egon looked at him in amazement.

"You _fear_, Excellency?"

"Yes, for there is a scoundrelly scheme--a betrayal without example.

They mean to surrender the fortress, and when their garrison has withdrawn to a safe distance, and our army has moved in, they intend to blow the citadel to atoms."