“His Royal Highness the Duke of Lotzen, General Du——” he got no further.
“To my private entrance! quick, quick!” she called, and the carriage shot away....
“What does it mean?” she demanded; “Epping said Lotzen had not left the Ferida.”
“It means that you have solved the riddle. Lotzen has not come to the Council, he does not even know of it; he has come for the Book.”
They drew up at the door, the Archduke opened it with Dehra’s key, and they dashed up stairs. She snatched a master-key from a drawer of her writing table, and they crossed the corridor and entered the King’s suite through the small reception room, between which and the library lay a cabinet and a bedroom.
As they entered the latter, treading cautiously, they heard the Duke of Lotzen’s voice in the library, the door of which stood ajar.
“It’s a pity to break it,” he was saying, “but——” and there was a snap and crack.
Under the Archduke’s hand the door opened noiselessly, and through the narrow rift, between the hangings, they could see within.
The Duke, no longer disguised but wearing the undress uniform of his rank, was standing at the large desk; beside him an officer in a long cape and a Cuirassier helmet; and before him the big, black box of the Laws. He had just forced the lock; now he laid back the lid, and took out the Book.
“We win, Duchess!” he said, “we win! thanks to your marvellous fingers and quick brain,” and lifting the helmet from Madeline Spencer’s high piled hair, he kissed her ardently.