“Then you heard something of our movements?”
“Oh yes; they talked quite openly before me, at first to try and catch me off my guard, and afterwards, when they were quite sure the drug had taken effect, because there was no reason why they shouldn’t. They had one more try to make me betray myself when they found Paschics was dead, telling me of it suddenly, and I had to affect ignorance and mystification, and go through the whole sickening show over again. It was so long before Gregorescu was really convinced of my madness that I suppose, in spite of all my care, I must have failed in some points, but he seems to have satisfied himself at last that it was more likely the drug should produce slightly different effects on different people than that a man should carry on such a deception for so long. Then came the news of the Neustrian revolution and Malasorte’s dictatorship, and Soudaroff must have seen immediately that his plans for making use of me were foiled. In a sense, all that had been done was useless, except as a matter of personal revenge, and he could not hope to do any successful trading with me in the future, since his Emperor had gone behind him and was in league with Malasorte, and Malasorte was in league with the Jews. I gathered that the plan now was to smuggle me into Pannonia and leave me in a lunatic asylum there, to be discovered or not by my friends, as circumstances might determine——”
“No, sir,” said Mr Hicks quickly; “you were to be discovered. Mlle. Garanine took the trouble to come here on purpose to give the plan away to us.”
“That was to get us out of the way, as I said at the time,” remarked Usk. “We were keeping too strict a watch on the neighbourhood to please them.”
“No doubt,” said Cyril; “and we must also remember that nothing would satisfy the Princess of Dardania but to restore to my wife a husband who could not even recognise her. The woman’s malice had to be consulted as well as Soudaroff’s statecraft, you see. Well, you may imagine my state of feeling, with such a prospect before me—a pauper lunatic asylum, from which I might or might not be released before I was driven really mad. Then there came poor Helene’s sudden incursion.” Usk moved restlessly. “It was almost more than I could do to keep up my pretence of not recognising her; but if I hadn’t done it, I don’t believe she would have got away alive. As it was, I saw her to the gate myself, and watched her out of sight, for those bloodthirsty Dardanians were capable of anything, but I had disarmed their suspicions so completely by that time that they all obeyed me in ordinary matters as if I had really been Shishman Pelenko himself. But Gregorescu was not going to risk Helene’s bringing back help. The last thing he wished was to be caught on Pannonian soil, and to be identified with my disappearance, so we prepared for a flitting at once. The idea which he had so carefully ‘suggested’ to me, that my life was in danger from unknown enemies, was worked again, and I was warned I must escape at once. And I had to fall in with it, for I couldn’t throw off the mask until help was actually at hand. When I saw Helene again, alone, hiding in the bushes, just as we were starting, I almost lost hope, for I couldn’t make her understand what I wanted, and I could only trust no one else had seen her. If they hadn’t found out who she was since the morning, by sending a spy to track her back here, I haven’t a doubt she would have been killed, but they were afraid of meddling with her further than by sending an old woman to guide her astray while we got off.”
“But how did you get off, any way, and what happened to the carriage, Count?” cried Mr Hicks.
“The carriage simply drove out of the gates and into the wood, where it was left, while we went on with the horses alone,” answered Cyril. “After your visit to the house the next day, it was restored to its usual place, but when you were wondering which way it could have gone without being seen, it was hidden in a thicket quite close to you. And ourselves? Oh, we crossed the road and plunged into the hills on the opposite side, and so made our way round by mountain-paths to the house above the village, which Gregorescu had had in his eye for some time in case he found it necessary to take the bull by the horns and negotiate for my surrender instead of dumping me down in Pannonia. You see, it was on Dardanian soil, and he knew you could not touch him without a long diplomatic difficulty which would involve just what you didn’t want—waste of time. You know how he worked the thing through the mate of Queen Félicia’s yacht, and you know, Hicks, how very close the shave was at last. I don’t know quite how I gave myself away in that interview this morning—or yesterday morning now—my nerve is not what it was, and my face may have shown what I was feeling, or perhaps he merely put two and two together, but I swear I solemnly believe that if I had been in his power for another day, he would have forced me to take another dose of his drug, in some way that I could not evade. Even as it was, I was in terror lest he should do it before you came back, but he thought he had a week before him, and he didn’t know I had seen what was in his mind. You were only just in time, Usk, but I would rather you had been too late than that this should have happened.”
“It can’t be helped,” groaned Usk. “Oh, what are they doing with her all this time? Can she be dead, and they haven’t told me?”
“No, no,” said Mr Hicks. “They had a lot to do, and I guess no news is good news. If you could sleep a little, now——?”
A mute gesture of refusal from Usk answered him, and they waited on, until at last the door of the room upstairs was heard to open. Usk met the doctor half-way up the stairs. “Well?” he gasped. “How is she?”