“No, no!” she said, “not I; Mr. Courtney is your Warwick and Valeria’s benefactor—he saved us from Lotzen.”
“Then, your work is not finished, old man,” the Archduke remarked; “there’s a lot of saving to be done, I fear.”
Courtney nodded rather gravely; he was quite of the same mind.
“Warwick will hold to the work,” he answered, “and aid you all he may; but, for the immediate present, I would advise that we sit tight and give the enemy a chance to blunder. And in the meantime, Armand, I suggest you change the combinations on all the vaults here, and at the Castle.”
“It was done ten days ago.”
“The Book isn’t in any vault,” the Princess remarked; “they all have been thoroughly searched.”
“But something else may be in them, which will be needed—one can never know,” the Ambassador answered. “Leastwise, it won’t hamper us, and may hamper Lotzen—or some one.”
“It’s only a wise precaution,” the Archduke added—“the vault in the King’s library, both here and at the Castle, is filled with records and other valuables, and upon both I changed the combinations myself—I didn’t trust it to a workman, who could be found and bribed.”
And it was this change of combination that the Duke of Lotzen had discovered that afternoon.
At the Archduke’s firm insistence, Colonel Moore, his junior Aide, had been detached from his staff and assigned as Adjutant to the Regent; and a portion of the King’s suite, including his library, allotted to him for quarters. This, also, was at the Archduke’s personal order—he, himself, might not be there always to guard Dehra, so he gave her the gallant Irishman, with the best sword in the Kingdom and a heart as true as his sword. Lotzen’s bravos and his blandishment would be alike powerless against him.