“In a moment their light rapiers had touched.” (Page [235].)

COUNT ZARKA

A Romance

BY
SIR WILLIAM MAGNAY, Bart
AUTHOR OF “THE RED CHANCELLOR” “THE MAN OF THE HOUR”
“THE FALL OF A STAR” “THE HEIRESS OF THE SEASON” ETC.

FRONTISPIECE BY MAURICE GREIFFENHAGEN

LONDON
WARD LOCK AND CO LIMITED
NEW YORK AND MELBOURNE
1903

CONTENTS

CHAPTERPAGE
I The Man on the Roan Horse[ 7]
II A Chance Shot[ 24]
III A Momentous Meeting[ 39]
IV The Unaccountable[ 50]
V The Mystery of Rozsnyo[ 60]
VI Zarka Plays Terrorist[ 67]
VII The Castle by Day[ 78]
VIII A Tell-tale Light[ 89]
IX Zarka on the Alert[ 97]
X Who is this Man?[ 105]
XI A Strange Preserver[ 116]
XII After the Peril[ 124]
XIII What Zarka Found[ 131]
XIV The Count and his Shadow[ 141]
XV The Eyes in the Cleft[ 154]
XVI Zarka’s Warning[ 164]
XVII The Secret Room[ 173]
XVIII A Threatening Presence[ 184]
XIX The Count’s Game[ 196]
XX A Light in the Forest[ 212]
XXI From Fury to Fury[ 218]
XXII In the Depth of the Rock[ 229]
XXIII The Figure in the Valley[ 239]
XXIV The Neck-band[ 250]
XXV The Marriage of the Dead[ 265]
XXVI A Desperate Stroke[ 275]
XXVII The End of the Affair[ 290]
XXVIII How Prince Roel got Free[ 300]
XXIX Zarka’s Prayer and its Answer [ 305]

CHAPTER I
THE MAN ON THE ROAN HORSE

“The plan I have in my mind,” said Gersdorff, the Minister, “is so full of delicacy and danger that I hesitate to propose it to you.”