"Is this the note my servant is to take?" she asked, incredulously.
"Yes."
I folded the apparently blank sheet with the other and placed them both in the envelope which I had already addressed.
"You see there is no harm in that note, even if the men outside should read it," I added, when the servant had departed. "Your man, who is of course a spy, will read the note, which I purposely left unsealed, as soon as he is out of sight of the house. In an hour every man who is waiting to take my life will be in prison. If your brother is among them, he will not be harmed and you——"
I hesitated, and she raised her eyes to mine and said:
"Well, and I?"
"You will have to do as you have agreed to do, obey me." I hesitated again and then with a desperate courage, added: "Love, honor, and obey me."
CHAPTER XVIII
THE POWER OF THE FRATERNITY