Part 20 (1/2)
”Yes,” said he ”Don't ask what it is, Countess It is in the queen's service”
”For the queen I will do anything and everything, as Fritz would”
He took her hand and pressed it in a friendly, encouraging way
”Then I
”They shall be obeyed”
”Then a dry cloak, a little supper, and this room to myself, except for you”
As he spoke the butler turned the handle of the door My wife flew across the room, opened the door, and, while Rudolf turned his back, directed thesome cold meat, or whatever could be ready with as little delay as possible
”Now coone
She took hiot dry clothes; then she saw the supper laid, ordered a bedroom to be prepared, told the butler that she had business with the baron and that he need not sit up if she were later than eleven, dismissed him, and went to tell Rudolf that the coast was clear for his return to the sitting-rooe and address; I take leave to think that she deserved his coether, Rudolf sar Eleven came and went It was not yet time My wife opened the door and looked out The hall was dark, the door locked and its key in the hands of the butler She closed the door again and softly locked it As the clock struck twelve Rudolf rose and turned the lamp very low Then he unfastened the shutters noiselessly, raised theand looked out
”Shut theone,” he whispered ”If I come back, I'll knock like this, and you'll open for me”
”For heaven's sake, be careful,” she ly, and crossing his leg over the sill, sat there for aThe storm was as fierce as ever, and the street was deserted He let hiain wrapped up She watched his tall figure stride quickly along till a turn of the road hid it Then, having closed theand the shutters again, she sat down to keep her watch, praying for him, for me, and for her dear mistress the queen For she knew that perilous as afoot that night, and did not knohoht threaten or whom destroy
From the ht on his search for Rupert of Hentzau, every hour and al dra has been told; by now Rupert himself was on his way back to the city, and the queen was il, on the resolve that in a few hours was to bring her also to Strelsau Even in the dead of night both sides were active
For, plan cautiously and skillfully as he onist who lost no chances, and who had found an apt and useful tool in that sa rascal, if ever one were bred in the world Fro too little count of this fellow, and dear was the price we paid
Both to my wife and to Rudolf hi when she watched and he set out Yet everything had been seen, from his first arrival to the moment when she closed theafter him At either end of my house there runs out a projection, for-roo walls form shadows, and in the shade of one of them--of which I do not know, nor is it of moment--a man watched all that passed; had he been anywhere else, Rudolf rossed in playing our own hands, it would doubtless have struck us as probable that Rupert would direct Rischenhei his absence; for it was there that any of us who found our way to the city would naturally resort in the first instance As a fact, he had not oht was so dark that the spy, who had seen the king but once and never Mr Rassendyll, did not recognize who the visitor was, but he rightly conceived that he should serve his e the steps of the tall man who made so mysterious an arrival and so surreptitious a departure froly, as Rudolf turned the corner and Helena closed the , a short, thickset figure started cautiously out of the projecting shadow, and followed in Rudolf's wake through the storm The pair, tracker and tracked,abeat Even such were few, and for thein the lee of a friendly wall and thereby keeping a dry stitch or two on the note of passers-by On the pair went Now Rudolf turned into the Konigstrasse As he did so, Bauer, who must have been nearly a hundred yards behind (for he could not start till the shutters were closed) quickened his pace and reduced the interval between theht a safe distance on a night so wild, when the rush of wind and the pelt of the rain joined to hide the sound of footsteps
But Bauer reasoned as a townsman, and Rudolf Rassendyll had the quick ear of a man bred in the country and trained to the woodland All at once there was a jerk of his head; I knoell the motion which marked awakened attention in him He did not pause nor break his stride: to do either would have been to betray his suspicions to his follower; but he crossed the road to the opposite side to that where No 19 was situated, and slackened his pace a little, so that there was a longer interval between his own footfalls The steps behind hireer, even as his did; their sound came no nearer: the folloould not overtake Now, a ht, just because another head of hih to loiter, has a reason for his action other than what can at first sight be detected So thought Rudolf Rassendyll, and his brain was busied with finding it out
Then an idea seized hi the precautions that had hitherto served so well, he caht Was the ed his steps Rupert himself? It would be like Rupert to track him, like Rupert to conceive such an attack, like Rupert to be ready either for a fearless assault from the front or a shameless shot from behind, and indifferent utterly which chance offered, so it threw him one of them Mr Rassendyll asked no better than to ht, and if he fell the laht up and carried on by Sapt's hand or ot the better of Rupert, the letter would be his; a ive safety to the queen I do not suppose that he spent ti how he should escape arrest at the hands of the police whom the fracas would probably rouse; if he did, heplainly who he was, of laughing at their surprise over a chance likeness to the king, and of trusting to us to sle him beyond the arm of the law What mattered all that, so that there was a moment in which to destroy the letter? At any rate he turned full round and began to walk straight towards Bauer, his hand resting on the revolver in the pocket of his coat
Bauer saw hi, and must have known that he was suspected or detected At once the cunning fellow slouched his head between his shoulders, and set out along the street at a quick shuffle, whistling as he went Rudolf stood still now in thewho the ait, or a confederate, or, after all, some person innocent of our secret and indifferent to our sche his feet carelessly through the liquid mud Noas nearly opposite where Mr Rassendyll stood Rudolf ell-nigh convinced that the man had been on his track: he would aht; this trait he shared with Rupert of Hentzau, and hence arose, I think, the strange secret inclination he had for his unscrupulous opponent Noalked suddenly across to Bauer, and spoke to hi the scarf partly, but not altogether, froht like this”
Bauer, startled though he was by the unexpected challenge, had his wits about him Whether he identified Rudolf at once, I do not know; I think that he must at least have suspected the truth
”A lad that has no hoo to must needs be out both late and early, sir,” said he, arresting his shuffling steps, and looking up with that honest stolid air which had made a fool of me
I had described hiuessed who his challenger was, Mr Rassendyll was as well equipped for the encounter
”No ho tone ”How's that? But anyhow, Heaven forbid that you or any ive you a bed Coood shelter,of this stroke, and his eye, traveling up the street, showed that his thoughts had turned towards flight Rudolf gave no ti his air of genial coht, saying:
”I'ht,withstill!”
The carrying of aret into trouble with the police, and,but a reconnaissance; he was therefore without any weapon, and he was a child in Rudolf's grasp He had no alternative but to obey the suasion of Mr Rassendyll's arstrasse Bauer's whistle had died away, not to return; but froers beating time on Bauer's captive ar steps indicated that he took no pleasure in the change of side, but he could not resist
”Ay, you shall go where I ahed a little as he looked down at the fellow's face