“You must be careful, friend. You are to be watched and——” Here he smiled very slyly—“The chief has picked me out for the work. Is not that luck?”
He was evidently pretty sure of me. “I can’t quite understand that,” I said, as if in doubt. “As a matter of fact I found the Colonel willing to do all I asked.” Then I became apparently confidential; that is, I told him just as much as I surmised Bremenhof would have told him already; and referring to the visit to Bremenhof’s house, I laid special stress on the fact that Ladislas, as a leader of the Fraternity, had assigned the task to me.
He pledged himself to help and questioned me as to my object.
“Is that all?” he exclaimed, with a shrug of the shoulders when I said my object was merely to get the papers. “He is so hated and feared that I hoped——” here he dropped his voice to a whisper and looked intently and meaningly at me—“that your orders went farther.”
I understood him. “I am an Englishman, friend, and no assassin,” I said firmly.
He made as if to conceal a natural disappointment. “And this uniform.”
“A disguise to enable me to get the Count’s friends away under the pretence of an arrest. But I doubt now if I shall need it.”
He paused. “A shrewd plan indeed; but not so far-reaching as I had looked for and hoped. It is best for friends to be frank.”
“The Count himself as you know is dead against all violence.”
“The time is past for mere talk; we must act,” he exclaimed, with an excellent suggestion of suppressed excitement; and he sought to lead me to discuss the affairs of the Fraternity.