“Then he risked her very life. They might have killed her.”
“No, Excellency; because not a kreutzer was to be paid to them at Maglai if the slightest harm was done to her. It was clever.”
“It was devilish,” I said, hotly. “Where in Maglai were they to take her and who was to pay the money?”
He produced a slip of paper with a name and address upon it. “You can make inquiries if you wish, Excellency,” he said. “You will find what I have said is the truth. It is the Duke Barinski’s plotting.”
“You don’t mean he went so far as to see these men himself?”
“He did not declare himself, Excellency; but he was recognised.”
I sat thinking a moment over the news.
“Have you any guess as to his motive?”
“No; I could have none; nor could my friends,” he answered, shaking his head.
“Would your men bear this story out even to his face?”