“But it’s absurd, perfectly absurd, for you to take such risk. At the best, you are obligated only to look, to make no attempt to-night to recover the Book; and at the worst you can only fight your way out of the trap. In the one case, Colonel Moore can do the looking as well as you—in the other, their plot to kill you will have failed and your substitutes will be given some excuse by Spencer and let go in peace—oh, it’s worse than absurd for you to go, Armand,”—she saw from his expression that her argument was futile—“and you know it, too; and you’re going only because you like the excitement, and to show Lotzen, like a big boy, you’re not to be dared.”
The Archduke laughed at her indulgently.
“May be I am, little girl,” he said; “but I’ve made up my mind to fight this business out myself, and that sends me to the Ferida to-night. I’ll take every precaution——”
“Except the proper one of staying away,” she interrupted. “You’re struggling for a Crown, man, and mad rashness has no place in the game. Play it like Lotzen, in the modern way, not like the Middle Ages—he uses its methods, true enough, but lets others execute his plans and face the perils.”—She put out her hand to him.—“Come, dear, be reasonable,” she begged; “be kind; even the wildest idea of leadership does not obligate you to go.”
He took her hand and held it, with the firm, soft pressure of abiding affection, looking the while into her fair face, flushed now with the impetuous earnestness of her fear for him.
“I think it does, Dehra,” he said gravely. “It is our duty to the country to find the Laws and settle the Succession at the quickest possible moment——”
“Yes, it is, but——”
“And there are but three in the Kingdom who have ever seen the Book, you and Lotzen and myself; and there must be no question as to its absolute identification, before you as Regent resort to force to recover it—force that may necessitate the taking of the Ferida by assault. Therefore, dear, I must go, for I must see the Book. Assume, just for illustration, that Colonel Moore brings a description that seems to correspond to the Laws; you, as Regent, formally accuse the Duke of Lotzen of having the Book and demand its instant surrender; and upon his indignant denial that he has it, and his offered readiness to have his Palace searched, you order me, as Governor of Dornlitz, to have my rival’s residence invaded and subjected to the ignominy of a mandat de perquisition; or, again, he may deny the Book without demanding a search, and submit to it only under protest; or he may refuse to permit the search and oppose it by force. And whichever the case may be, the Book will not be found—he will take very careful precaution, as to that, you may be sure. And what will my position be then, with the House of Nobles?—when our only explanation, for such fruitless insult, is that some one saw a book, which he described to us, and which we thought was the Laws. Indeed, though it hadn’t occurred to me before, it may be just such a condition that he is playing for——”
“But, my dear Armand,” the Princess interrupted, “would it be any advantage even if we could say that you saw it?”
“An incalculable advantage, Dehra; I know the Book—there could not be any chance for mistake; and it would then be my word against Lotzen’s, an even break, as it were; whereas, otherwise, it will be his word against our guess. Yet, indeed, in this aspect, it’s very doubtful if we ought to resort to open measures against him, even if I saw the Book. It would be a question for careful consideration and counsel with all our friends—and it is but right that I should be able to assure them that I, myself, saw it, and recognized it beyond a doubt. It’s worth all the danger it may involve; though I don’t anticipate any—the more I think, the more I believe we have solved the riddle. Lotzen wants some one to see the Book—he much prefers it shouldn’t be I; he fancies I will gladly send a substitute; and he takes me for a hot-headed fool, who then will promptly play out for him the rest of his game, landing him on the Throne and myself beyond the border.”