“Genuine enough,” he answered, gravely. “I was led into a quarter of Theos where I have never been before, and which I am sure I could not find again. We arrived at a little café—I do not know the name—it was somewhere outside the walls. A man was waiting for me in a back room. He was disguised, but I recognized him at once. It was Domiloff!”
She started. Instinctively he felt that she was deeply interested.
“At first I thought that it was a trap—that Domiloff was preparing some revenge for my personation of the King. Soon, however, I learnt that his intention was a different one. He is concerned in a plot to dethrone the King, and he proposed that I should throw in my lot with his party.”
“Did he tell you, then, that Nicholas and I were concerned in it?”
“No. From his point of view your cooperation as yet was unnecessary. Yet the whole thing is concerned with you and your brother, for Domiloff has named him as the future ruler of Theos. He offered to give me positive evidence that Russia has decided to remove Ughtred from the throne, that Theos itself is in deadly peril.”
“There is one thing,” she said, “which I do not quite understand. Why did Domiloff send for you? You are not a soldier, nor are you well-known to the Thetians.”
“It is very simple,” he answered. “To-day the Press has an immense influence upon public opinion in England and all the Western countries. I am writing for my paper in England a series of articles upon Theos, and I am writing from a point of view friendly to Ughtred of Tyrnaus. Domiloff wants these articles stopped. He professes to need my active help. What he really desires is that I write no more, or alter the tone of my letters.”
Her satin slipper traced a mystic pattern upon the smooth green turf.
“These are two things,” she said, “which I do not understand. The Baron Domiloff has repute as a cunning and very shrewd diplomatist. Did he ask you for no pledge that you would not speak of these things to the King?”
Brand shook his head.