The words were in German. They were without a shadow of inflection, and thereby gained in the consummate tyranny of their meaning.
Vita was on her feet. Nor had the wild panic which swept through her every nerve centre power to rob her of the regal poise natural to her. She battled fiercely for calmness, but only achieved it superficially.
In the dark of the room she could see nothing of the intruder distinctly. A shadowy outline in the direction of the closed door was all she could make out. Then, with a swift movement, one arm was thrust out towards the wall beside the fireplace. Her fingers encountered a group of electric switches. In a moment the room was flooded with a shaded, mellow light.
"Frederick von Berger! You!"
It was the only exclamation that escaped her parched lips. But it expressed all the terror which would no longer be denied.
She had recognized the intruder. And behind him she saw the square figure of Von Salzinger. But the latter meant nothing compared with the overwhelming personality of the man whom she, with thousands of others, had always regarded as the Kaiser's evil genius. Probably only once or twice in all her years she had seen this man in the flesh. But his pictures, they were known to everybody in the Fatherland, just as was the sinister reputation which dogged his name.
Oh, yes, she knew him—and he was here, here in England, and had stolen in upon the privacy and obscurity of her home. What was his purpose? What? Something of it, at least, was plain to her from the moment of her recognition. It was the cruel hand of the Teutonic machinery reaching out towards her and—hers. Hers! The thought seared itself upon her brain. For herself she had no thought, but for her father she had become the veriest coward.
The intruder displayed no interest or feeling at the manner of Vita's greeting. The lines of his face remained as stonily graven as chiselled marble. So cold was his regard that it even seemed incapable of interpreting her matchless beauty.
"I am honored that the Princess recognizes me," he said, with a coldness that made his words an offence. "It will save explanation."
Then he came towards her and stood before the fire confronting her. His height matched hers, which left him only of medium height for a man.