“How did it come to you?”
“I was sitting at dinner in the Deux Mondes. My first order had not been filled when, happening to glance upon the table before me, I saw this blood-red star lying there. That is how it came to me.”
“Ah!” exclaimed Frank, with a sudden feeling of relief. “Then it was not sent to you direct?”
“No, in a sense it was not.”
“You found it by accident.”
“So it seemed.”
“And it may not have been meant for you at all!”
“Perhaps,” said the duke frankly, “that is the reason why I have not left France. Perhaps, I have thought, it might not be meant for me.”
“I see,” said the American youth eagerly. “But you know beyond a doubt that it is the sign of the Black Brothers?”
“Yes; it is their sign of death. It is strange I have told you all this. I have not talked to others of it, but something led me to speak to you. Perhaps it was the strange pains in my heart. They gave me a shock. I thought of the others who had died suddenly and unaccountably. Your sympathy with Dreyfus led me to talk on, till now you know all.”