Part 47 (2/2)
”It is quite useless to protest; I'm going; if you do not care to escort me, I shall get Bernheim.”
”Let me go alone,” he urged.
”No.”
”And the Archduke, what of him?” he asked.
”The Archduke stays here, serenely ignorant of it all.”
”He will never forgive me--”
She cut him short. ”Very well, monsieur, you are excused-be so good as to send Colonel Bernheim to me at once-and I trust to your honor not to mention the affair to any one.”
He had done all he dared; more, indeed, than he had fancied she would tolerate. A subordinate may not argue for long with the Regent of a Kingdom, however sweet-tempered she may be.
”Your Highness misunderstands,” he said; ”if you are determined to go, there is an end of the matter; naturally, your Adjutant goes also.”
She smiled. ”Now, that is better-and I'm glad-and we will take De Coursey and Marsov, and slip away at midnight, with old Jessac for guide. The secret pa.s.sage opens into the Duke's library, we get the Book and retire.”
”Vault and all?” Moore asked.
”You don't remember the draft, Colonel, there isn't a vault.”
”Doubtless, however, there is a safe.”
She waved her hand impatiently. ”It will be time enough for that when we get there.”
”And if we can't find the Book in the library?” he persisted.
”Then we will seek it elsewhere-it's just that contingency which sends me. If I were sure it is in the library, I might let the Archduke go.”
”Yet will you not take some precaution for your own safety, in event of Lotzen overcoming us?” Moore asked.
”I can't bring myself to believe that he would venture to harm the Regent, but, if he should, these,” pus.h.i.+ng two papers across to him, ”ought to be sufficient.”
”Your Highness is a strategist,” said the Colonel, when he had read them.
”I have nothing to suggest; and I'm ready now to go with a more willing spirit and a lighter heart.”
She held out her hand, and flashed him the smile, usually reserved for Armand, alone.
”And we will save the king, Ralph-you and I; and give him the Book, and speed him to his crowning. I leave the details to you, to see the others, and instruct and caution them; remember, for the Archduke to get the slightest suspicion would ruin everything. It will be for me to see that he retires early to-night. Now, do you, yourself, seek out Bernheim and send him to me quickly.”
”My good friend,” said she, acknowledging Bernheim's stiff military salute with one equally formal, ”I need your aid in a matter of peculiar importance and delicacy-and which must not, under any circ.u.mstance, be known to any one in the Castle, and above all not to His Highness the Archduke-not a whisper of it, Colonel Bernheim.”
Bernheim's answer was another salute, but he could say as much with it, in an instant, as some men in an hour of talk.
<script>