He understood her but answered cheerfully enough.
"We'll come through, Zoya, don't worry."
"It's death, this time, Philippe----"
"Well----" he laughed. "We'll go merrily. There's only one thing I regret."
"What, Philippe?"
"That I didn't tickle His Excellency under the chin."
"I hope he doesn't tickle us under ours, mon vieux," she said rather grimly.
The tower of Schloss Kempelstein grew in height and now the ruined walls surrounding it appeared. There was a sail-boat moored alongside the jetty and one or two smaller boats, drawn up on the shore by the tower. Rowland watched the place eagerly and the Elsa rushed on her bows dipping heavily into the cross seas, drenching them both with foam. Zoya leaned forward, her hands clasped over the gunwale pale, calm, indifferent to her discomfort, her wide weary gaze fixed like Rowland's on the jetty beside the tower. There was an arch which connected the tower with a ruined building alongside and it was in the shadow of this arch that they were both suddenly aware of figures moving,--two men and two women. The Elsa was still too far away for them to distinguish faces but the figures stood for a moment as though in conversation and then seemed to move toward the jetty. Behind the ruin upon what seemed to be a highroad, there were men on horseback, riding in a cloud of dust.
"There's something going on, Zoya," whispered Rowland tensely. "What does this mean?"
The Elsa was now rushing in headlong. Rowland was so eager to shorten the distance, that he had taken no account of the possible dangers of the beach or of the necessities of a safe landing, but he put the helm up now and let the craft swing down the beach a hundred yards or so while he watched the figures on the pier, now plainly distinguishable. One of the women was Tanya Korasov, the other woman--Rowland stared in astonishment. It was no woman but a monk in a belted robe and while Rowland and Zoya looked, they saw the monk direct Tanya to the sail-boat alongside the jetty. There was a shout from the men in the shadow of the arch as they rushed out toward the figure of the monk. As they emerged into the sunlight the monk raised an arm gesturing, and then there was a loud report and one of the men under the arch seemed to stumble and fall. Then they saw him half rise and crawl on toward the monk. Another report and the crawling man sank to the ground and moved no more. The other man hesitated and then ran back to the shadow of the arch.