Trusia Part 13

"Have I your permission, Highness, to make Captain Carter acquainted with some of his brother officers?" queried the Minister of Private Intelligence. She nodded her consent and Carter was led away, but not to meet any military men. Having found a place sufficiently out of earshot of the others, the Count motioned the American into a seat, placing himself opposite him.

"There is nothing like a common object of suspicion, Captain Carter, to make men friends," he began guardedly. Then probably recognizing that the man to whom he was speaking would hold his disclosures sacred, he threw away his diplomatic subterfuges and came frankly to the point.

"I wanted to tell you," he said gravely, "that I have already cabled my agents in London and Paris to investigate the history of your man Carrick." The American turned to regard him with a slight frown. Had the fellow brought him here to tell him they had not been believed at the afternoon's trial? Sobieska, understanding what was pa.s.sing in the other's mind, smiled indulgently.

"Oh, I believed your story, don't fear," he said; "but, in the face of all things, I have always doubted the sincerity of Josef. I cannot convince myself that his motives are entirely as disinterested as he has convinced Her Grace they are. There was something, too, about Carrick's story of his father's death that awakened my suspicions. That medal for instance."

"You surely cannot mean----" began Carter, fairly rising from his seat in his wild surmise.

"Quietly, quietly," cautioned Sobieska, glancing warily back toward the throng of guests to a.s.sure himself that the American's perturbation had pa.s.sed unnoted. Having satisfied himself that it had attracted no attention, he took up the thread where it had been dropped by him.

"I meant nothing more at present than that I want to know everything my agents can learn. Meanwhile not a word to any one, especially Josef.

Don't trust him in any way, though."

With such an opportunity, Carter naturally told him about his dilemma concerning the despatches.

"Oh, if they refer to business, I suppose you may let him have them," he was a.s.sured. "He would hardly tamper with private papers. They will be perfectly safe, especially as he will know that you have already spoken to Her Grace concerning them. I may be doing him an injustice," he continued cogitatingly, "but I somehow feel that he is playing a deeper game in Krovitch than you or I have any idea of at present. Every one here from Her Highness down almost worships him. Can I count on your aid?"

"Certainly," replied Carter as they both arose. "I don't like the fellow either." They sauntered nonchalantly back to the others, baffling Josef's inquiring eyes.

XIII

A NEW MAJOR OF HUSSARS

Carter admitted that in his present state of mind dawn was no more to be welcomed than darkness. For hours on end now, he had been fighting grimly and silently to the end that he might cast out of his heart, for all time, the love for a woman which had crept in. Sleep had dared not come within range of that t.i.tanic struggle. Worn with the battle which had witnessed his defeat, he had just completed his cipher message, when, following a modest knock at the door, Josef entered complacently with the pent-browed peasant at his heels.

"If monsieur desires to send despatches," said the Hereditary Servitor, "he can make his arrangements with Johann here. Johann goes at once to Vienna, via Schallberg. He is trustworthy and discreet. Can I be of further service to monsieur? No? Then I shall go." Without waiting for any reply, he closed the door behind him as though upon a nervous patient.

After giving the messenger minute instructions and a liberal gratuity, Carter dismissed him and the despatches from his thoughts. Later in the day he was to be reminded not only of them but of the evil leer bestowed by Johann at the munificent tip dropped into his h.o.r.n.y palm.

From the window of his room Carter watched the stir in the camp. In response to the first call from the bugles, the men were already bestirring themselves along the tent-marked company streets; some industriously polishing belt plates and b.u.t.tons; some tightening the laces of their leggings, while still others, ruddy of visage, were plunging close-cropped heads into buckets of splashing cold water. At the far end of the street, opposite his window, the over prompt were already falling in. The sergeants picturesquely marked the points of rest. The first sergeant was glancing over the bundle of orders he had drawn from his belt, preparatory to roll call and the routine of the day.

The world beyond, the world of fields and woods and flowers, looked fair; the sun had not yet dried the dew, and jaded as he was, Carter thanked G.o.d for all things sweet and pure. Something choked in his throat. He welcomed the galloping approach of Zulka, who, shortly, drew up beneath his window. In a flash, the Count read the trouble in the New Yorker's face, but pretending not to, he touched his hat brim in precise military salute.

"I've rare tidings for thee, my lord," and he vigorously waved an oblong paper in a melodramatic manner. "Given under hand and seal, as your lawyer chaps would say."

"Just as soon as I can get this boot on," answered Carter in a tone he strove desperately to keep cheerful. Having accomplished his task without unreasonable delay, he picked up a hat and crop and descended to the courtyard of the inn where the other was impatiently waiting with some good tidings he found hard to contain.

"Read that, Cal," he said, as he thrust the papers into his friend's hands. Carter opened the doc.u.ment to be confronted with an incomprehensible jumble of letters in Latin,--a language he had promptly forgotten the day of his graduation,--a lordly seal and, dearest of all, in an angular feminine hand, in subscription:

"_Trusia, Dei Gratia, Vice Regina._"

He feasted his eyes on the one word that for him blurred all the rest, "Trusia."

"Trusia" of the marvelous eyes. "Trusia" of the ensnaring hair. "Trusia"

the beloved, the desirable.

"So you haven't forgotten your Latin, after all," Zulka was saying, leisurely dismounting from his horse.

"But I have," answered Carter. "What does it all mean?"

"Your commission, man. Major of the Royal Hussars. For the present attached to Her Grace, as Aide. I congratulate you."

"Don't, Paul; not yet. It is going to be all the harder for me."

Zulka nodded his head gravely. "You'd better fight at close range. It is harder, but quicker."

He noted Calvert's riding costume at a glance and made a sudden resolve.

"Better take a ride, old chap. Get yourself in condition. I'm busy to-day. Borrow Casimir's horse--he's off for the morning. I think Natalie will be out on the road this way. She'd appreciate your escort, I'll wager. We creep a step nearer the city this morning, and as Division Adjutant I'll have my hands full.

"Here, Casimir," he called to the equerry who was lazily swinging his feet over the edge of the porch on which he had seated himself, "lend Major Carter your mount for this morning, can't you?"

"Gladly. Saral is the right sort and I guess bears him no ill will for yesterday's stampede."

Carter was about to mount when Carrick put in a solemn appearance from the stables.

"Some one has tackled the automobile with an axe, sir," he announced ruefully. "The wheels are left, and that's about all of the 'go' part."

Carter turned wrathfully from the horse to follow Carrick back to the shed where the big car had been housed. With ready sympathy the two young Krovitzers followed.

"It is dastardly," Paul remarked as he bent over and discovered that not a particle of the motive mechanism had been left intact.

"Count on me, sir," Casimir volunteered, "to help you ferret out the rascals. Have you any idea who could have played such a shabby trick?"

While Carter had pretty definite suspicions he was not prepared just then to announce them.

"The car is done for, certainly," he said gloomily. "No," he said as he turned indifferently away, "I don't know who did it, and thank you, Casimir, I don't care to. I don't think I would be justified in killing a man for breaking up even six thousand dollars' worth of property, but if I was certain just now who did it I feel I would be strongly tempted to wring his neck. Au revoir, gentlemen, I am not going to permit this to spoil my ride." With this and a nod, he returned and, mounting the horse, cantered out of view along the road to the castle.

The handsome bay pounded steadily ahead. The air was soothing soft with a thousand scents of forest and hill, of field and farm; kind zephyrs of morning touched his brow and eased his sorrows, while the sun, from a bed of pearl-pink clouds, rose slowly before his eyes. Beyond and alongside of the already striking camp, on the right of the road, the woods began again, leaving the open fields like an alternate square on some mammoth checker board. More than one soldier gazed admiringly at his strong figure as he cantered past, while the sentries, doubtless under instructions, permitted him to pa.s.s unchallenged through the lines.

When he reached the spot where he had first seen Trusia--the place of the accident, he checked his horse to indulge in the sensations the scene awakened. He beheld again the marble beauty of the face; he felt the wondrous softness of the skin, and once more his heart was entangled in the meshes of the fragrant hair as the loosened strands blew against his hot cheek.

Round the bend in the road, as then, he heard approaching hoof beats. He marveled that his heart should beat so high merely for the advent of Lady Natalie. In the indulgence of his dream, the suggested thuds presaged the coming of Trusia. He sat immovably upon his horse in mid-road, waiting. Every sense was aquiver, every nerve on edge.

A black horse swept into view as it first had in his fancy. It was ridden by Trusia. Saladin had not forgotten. As his mistress reined him in, his wide eyes shifted about distrustfully. A quiver ran beneath the satiny flanks while his slender legs trembled. Carter made no effort to conceal his surprise, as he lifted his hat in salutation.

"Your Highness," he e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed.

"Yes," she laughed. "Why, aren't you disappointed? Lady Natalie is. Her mother found some unwelcome duty shirked which she insisted should be properly discharged. I am her apologetic subst.i.tute. Besides I wished to discipline Saladin to this place before he should acquire the habit of shying at it. There, Beauty," she said patting his arching neck as he snorted in pure ecstasy of terrified recollections. Calmed by her caressing voice and the touch of her hand he stretched forth his head to nozzle the other horse in neighborly fashion.

"Natalie is a sweet girl, Major Carter," she said tentatively, giving him his full t.i.tle. "Am I forgiven for coming--in her stead?"

"On condition that Your Highness will do me the honor of riding with me--in her stead." He smiled his usual frank smile. "Besides," he pleaded, "it will take me some time to thank you for your kindness in giving me my brevet. I know it is an honor which many a man of Krovitch would die to win."

She flushed as she answered him. "It was but a small return for what you have suffered."