"I shall throw ten thousand men across the frontier to-night, let the consequences be what they may."
"Ten thousand men?" The dream was shattered. War again?
"Read that. It is the second anonymous communication I have received within a week. As the first was truthful, there is no reason to believe this one to be false."
Herbeck read, and he was genuinely startled.
"What do you say to that?" triumphantly.
"This," with that rapid decision which made him the really great tactician he was. "Let them go quietly back to Jugendheit."
"No!" blazed the duke.
"Are we rich enough for war?"
"Always questions, questions! What the devil is my army for if not to uphold my dignity? Herbeck, you shall not argue me out of this."
"Rather let me reason. This is some prank, which I am sure does not concern Ehrenstein in the least. They would never dare enter Dreiberg for aught else. There must be a flaw in our secret service."