“It is a most amazing situation,” said the Ambassador—as he and the Archduke sat in the latter’s headquarters, the following morning—“and one guess is about as likely to be right as another. It’s difficult to believe Spencer honest, and yet she seemed to play straight last night. She is of the sort who fiercely resent a blow and go to any length to repay it. And you think Bigler’s interruption was not prearranged?”
“It impressed me that way,” said Armand. “In fact, I’d say I am sure of it, if I had any but Lotzen or Spencer to deal with.”
“And you saw enough of the book to be satisfied it is the Laws?”
“To satisfy myself, yes—if that fool, Bigler, had waited a little longer, I would have known beyond a doubt.”
“And, as it is, you can’t be absolutely certain?”
“No; at least, not certain enough to make an open issue of it with Lotzen.”
Courtney shook his head decisively.
“It is a great misfortune you were not able to make sure,” he said; “for I’m persuaded it was not the Book. As I told Her Highness that day at luncheon, if the Duke ever did have it, he has destroyed it to get rid of Frederick’s decree; and if there were no decree, then he would have produced it instantly as establishing his right to the Crown.”
“If that be true—and I grant the logic is not easy to avoid—what was it I saw? I would have sworn it was the Book; it resembled it in every particular.”
Courtney’s fingers went up to his gray imperial, and for a long while he smoked his cigarette and stared thoughtfully at the ceiling.