"I will search the house!" I exclaimed, and, without further words, I plunged along the corridor, trying to open the doors of the rooms which I passed.
They were all locked, and when I turned to the staircase it was only to find that a couple of men armed with revolvers had been posted there to prevent my ascending.
"Stand aside and let me pass!" I cried firmly.
"You will fire, if necessary," commanded the man who had followed me, and he took up a place by them. Then to me he added: "My patience is exhausted now, and I will give you three minutes only to leave the house. At the end of that time the doors will be closed, and I shall keep you here a prisoner. You are but one against a dozen, and can do nothing. It will be sheer madness to attempt to resist us."
I saw this well enough; but the thought of the ignominious failure to get even information galled and maddened me. But it would have been greater madness to resist.
"Will you give me a moment in private?" I asked the man.
He came aside with me readily.
"Can you give me any assurance that my cousin, the Countess Minna, is safe?"
"I have no instructions to give you any information whatever, but to the best of my knowledge she is perfectly safe."
"Where is the Count von Nauheim?"