"The Countess Strahni is far too clever to suppose that I can believe her——" he put in quickly.
"What do you mean?"
"Merely that an intelligence which can throw central Europe into a turmoil," and he laughed pleasantly, "does itself and me too little credit."
"Oh, you know——" she gasped.
"Yes, I know."
She examined Captain Goritz with a new interest.
"But you did not know the object of my visit to Konopisht," she went on desperately.
"I confess," he said slowly, "that your sudden departure from Vienna was most mystifying——"
"I will tell you," she went on excitedly. "I came to Konopisht to warn the Archduke Franz of a plot to assassinate him when he reaches Sarajevo——"
"Ah! So that——" Captain Goritz started suddenly forward in his seat and faced her eagerly in an attitude of sudden alertness.