It was certainly nothing less than a disaster that the two men who, of all those in the scheme, were really loyal to Minna, and should have been of the utmost value in co-operating with me, were, through the unfortunate turn of things, suspicious of me and hostile. I could, of course, do nothing now to undeceive them; but it was an additional aggravation that Minna's supposed disappearance should have been made to appear as the result of my treachery.
"We cannot go back now," I heard the baron say. "Indeed the curtain has drawn up already. The King has gone for his change of dress."
They turned then into the alcove to join the rest, and I moved away. Soon afterward I dropped the shuffling gait of an old man and walked to the alcove with quick, firm footsteps.
"Good evening, gentlemen," I said. "I am late, but that is no fault of my own."
My arrival produced an evident surprise, and even the astute Baron Heckscher showed some signs of it.
"You are indeed very late, Prince," he said. "We had begun to fear that you were going to fail us at the last moment."
"Have you found the Countess Minna?" asked Kummell. "Or perhaps you have been detained searching for her?"
His tone rang with contempt, and he made no attempt to hide his suspicions of me.
"That is a question we should put to Baron Heckscher here," I answered in a tone which made the latter start and look at me. "I mean, of course, that he almost pledged his word to find her in time for to-night's work. Have you any news, baron?"
"I have every hope that all will yet be right," he said.