"I pray that he be caught, and not already out of reach for there's no single moment to be lost, if this marvellous chance is not to slip past me," said the Chancellor, too deeply preoccupied to resent his brother's levity.
"What reward shall I deserve if I take you to him inside the half-hour?"
"You do not forget your own interests, no matter what issues are at 264 stake! But you have served me in this instance. At the beginning of the quarter you shall have the sum I mentioned the other day; while, if the Prince works with me, and the cause is won, you shall be my heir; I promise it. Where is the Prince?"
"By a queer deal of the cards, by this time he's at the place you'd choose to have him, of all others; the Hohenburgerhof. He had been to call on you at your town house, he told me, and not finding you at home, meant to dine early at the hotel and look you up again later. He left a note, it seems, which you will find if you go home."
"It can wait; I go to the Prince direct," pronounced the Chancellor.
And the coachman was bidden to drive his fastest to the Hohenburgerhof, in the Maximilian Platz.
The Prince who, according to "Iron Heart's" belief, had been sent to him by Providence, was engaged, when the Chancellor arrived, in selecting the wines for his dinner. He was in the private apartments 265 which he had taken for the afternoon, and expressed himself through an obsequious servant as being delighted to receive Count von Markstein.
Otto's mission having been fulfilled and finished, it was only the broad figure in the gray overcoat which was ushered ceremoniously into the room known at the hotel as the "Purple Salon of the Royal Suite."
As the Chancellor was shown in, a young man jumped up from an easy- chair, flung aside the wine list, and came toward the guest with extended hands. It would have been useless to scour the world in search of a handsomer young man than he. Even Otto von Markstein, justly remarkable for his good looks, was insignificant compared with this youth. He and the Chancellor were not new acquaintances, by any means, and the vital organ which had given "Iron Heart" his nickname was not to be softened by beauty in male or female; but at this moment he rejoiced in the physical perfection of the Prince who would be a dangerous rival even for an emperor.
Count von Markstein had pronounced his brother a fool for throwing 266 away his chances of success in a flirtation with Miss de Courcy, but he was almost ready now to see a gift from Fortune in Otto's cause for spite against the girl. Had she not offended the young man's amour- propre in revenge for his tactless declaration, Otto's natural instinct would have been to protect her from rather than deliver her up to the enemy. And had Otto let him—Eberhard—go home, without knowledge of the Prince's presence in Salzbrück, hours must have been ignorantly squandered—precious hours, big with the fate of Rhaetia.