Part 36 (1/2)

”Sufficient to give us a violent ending,” Stefan answered

”The golden cross is the sign of her house, her token; and you, Captain, have been her er”

CHAPTER XVI

THE TRAITOR

A smile wrinkled Stefan's face, not of amusement at the deception which had been practised upon thee froy Stefan the soldier had little to do His business was fighting It was his livelihood, and some day, near or far in the future as fate decreed, it would be his death His respect for his felloashireatest affection for, perhaps, was a soldier, now incapacitated, who had once in ahim from his saddle At the same time he believed in his own astuteness, not without some reason be it said, and in the back of his mind there was always a certain adet the better of him It is hly respect his wife on account of her cleverness in having hoodwinked hier did not come Ellerey's eyes were fixed on the point in the pass round which the soldiers had disappeared, and for some minutes he did not speak

”What is done must remain as it is,” he said at last ”We have only ourselves to consider now We must watch two and two, one on the plateau, one at the path Anton and you, Stefan; Grigosie and I It's short rations for us and careful use of cartridges We e before we calculate our chances What ah that the four of thee accounted for aa belt of cartridges in a corner of the tower before we left,”

said Grigosie

They all turned to look at hi some food into a corner, too?” asked Stefan

”No, but I ,”

Grigosie answered

”They'll be coood picking off the four of us,” said Stefan ”You haven't happened upon a fountain of wine, have you?”

”That, too, is supplied, Stefan; you can hear it leaping down the mountain-side, and see it too,” and the boy pointed to a corner of the plateau which ithin reach of the narrow streahts, fell with many a cascade into the pass beneath

Stefan looked at hiust: ”Water and birds; fairies' fodder”

”It ht be worse,” said Anton

”Wait a day or two, co a different tale,”

said Stefan, ”although, for that matter, the food will doubtless last our time Had we, in our small circle here, half a dozen taverns filled froive us little chance of visiting theate”

”We'll rest, Grigosie,” said Ellerey

The boy turned and entered the tower, but Ellerey did not follow him at once He paced in and out the ruined walls, his hands clasped behind hiht and troubled

Who had deceived hiht hiht all be in a conspiracy to deceive him Yet why should the Queen desire to deliver the token of Princess Maritza's house to the brigands? How could it serve her ends? De Froilette's position and political aims were less clear Ellerey had never believed him heart whole in his devotion to her Majesty; yet surely he would have taken the precaution to find out how such a token would be received before sending it He was not the man to risk the work of years without sohts turned to the woman who had craved his help in the Altstrasse, the manner in which he had been searched for the token, theshe had given him Baron Petrescu, too, had probably forced the duel upon hi that it had been delivered to hiht by the Queen At his intervieith her Majesty, the token which had been decided upon was the bracelet of medallions; it was hardly likely that it would be suddenly changed

Somehow the bracelet had been filched froolden cross placed there instead Ellerey decided that the power to effect this change lay only with the ht him the token, and on this man he fixed the blame

Whoever was responsible for it, the scheme had failed miserably, and it was difficult to see how success could ever have been hoped for

On the other hand it could hardly be supposed that all those who followed the fortunes of the golden cross were fools, acting upon sudden i disaster Theythat the token would receive soathered to their standard Possibly they had themselves been deceived, even as they had attempted to deceive

Ellerey could not doubt that Princess Maritza had a considerable following in Sturatzberg, that the seeds of the rebellion idely scattered The soldiers now riding toward the capital would spread the news of failure, and the rebellion in self-defence ht be forced to break into open conflict at once Even then, would Maritza's followers give a thought to the ree?