I was not in a suspicious mood, however. The world had become very bright to me and I thought Helga was too much under the influence of her former feelings. One can’t shake oneself free in a dozen hours from the trammels of such a life of danger and vigilance as she had lived for years. She seemed to read my thought.
“You think I am fanciful, Harper,” she said with a smile. “I hope so; but the Prince does nothing without an object and his real object is so rarely that which he lets you see.”
“I am more confident than ever,” I said.
“Probably he is reckoning on that, dear—to recover the papers, hoping we shall make some false step.”
“I believe you’re right, but——”
I paused, for it had not dawned upon me until then all that the abandonment of the journey might mean to Helga.
“I have been very thoughtless, my dear, but I see now what you mean.”
She smiled gently and sadly.
“I almost hope he is not alive. He was incapable of any such crimes as the Prince hinted, and if he has had to endure the life in the mines for all these years, it would be worse than death to him. Better death than a broken heart such as his would be. You would say so if you had known him.”
“Were it my own father’s case I would rather he were dead, Helga. I know the pain of such a thought to you. The cruelty of Kalkov in raising a false hope is just dastardly, and to do it for some fresh crafty purpose makes it diabolical.”