For some few minutes we fought in silence, and indeed it was all I could do to guard myself from the furious lunges of the Count, and before we had been five minutes at the game I knew the man was my master in fence, and that if I could withstand him for as long again it would be as much as I could do. At the same instant that I recognised this fact, I heard Von Bieberstein's voice below.
"Darcy! Darcy!" it cried, "come on, man."
But whether he called for aid or to warn me I had no means of telling, nor did I dare take my eyes off the Count for a second.
"I am here!" I shouted, as loud as I could, but indeed it was a poor shout at best, as I was well-nigh winded.
At that moment, and by the same trick of fence that Von Bieberstein had used that morning, the Count disarmed me, and my weapon flew jangling against the wall of the room. I heard a hurrying step, a revolver was fired, so close to my ear that it well-nigh deafened me, and the Count, his arm drawn back for the lunge that was to finish me, fell headlong towards me.
"Run, man, for your life," I heard Von Bieberstein's voice say, "we are safer on a volcano than here," and he started off down the passage. I raced after him: down the staircase I tore, and through the open door. I heard a low roar behind me, a sheet of red flame appeared before my eyes, and I remembered no more.
It seems that, after I had left him in the house in Great Coram Square, he had made his way to the Princess Elsa's apartments, and after some difficulty had persuaded her to listen to him. She was on the point of accompanying him from the house, when Von Zahn, who may or may not have suspected something, had come upon and immediately attacked him. He was, however, no match for his antagonist, and Von Bieberstein had, after two minutes, passed his sword through his body. It was the clash of their swords that had alarmed the Duchess when she was with me.
Von Bieberstein, after hastily conducting the Princess to the awaiting carriage, had rushed back to the house for me, arriving in the nick of time. As he had smelt burning on his second entry into the house, and guessed that the fuse connected with the dynamite had been lighted, his bravery in coming to my assistance can better be imagined than described. It was a small portion of falling masonry from the front of the house that had knocked me senseless, and indeed nearly killed me.
The Princess returned safely to Schwannenwald, but when I had nearly recovered my health and strength, Von Bieberstein announced she was on her way back to London again, her father having died, and had taken a suite of apartments at L——'s Hotel, and there we also took up our abode.
But it was not until the day following her arrival that Von Bieberstein announced to me that Her Highness awaited my attendance on her.