“Yes, I feel sure you would have done, dearest,” he declared. “I quite see the difficulty of your present position. And you understand, I’m quite sure, how anxious I feel regarding the safety of the doctor, who was such a dear friend of mine.”
“But why are you so anxious, Max?” she asked.
“Because if—well, if there had not been foul play, I should have heard from the doctor before this!” he said seriously.
“Foul play?” she gasped, starting forward. “Do you suspect some—some tragedy, then?”
“Yes, Marion,” was his low, earnest reply. “I do.”
“But why?” she queried. “Remember that the doctor was a diplomat and statesman. In Servia politics are very complex, as they are, I’m told, in every young nation. Our own English history was a strange and exciting one when we were the present age of Servia. The people killed King Alexander, it is true; but did we not kill King Charles?”
“Then you think that some political undercurrent is responsible for this disappearance?” he suggested.
“That has more than once crossed my mind.”
“Yet would he not have sent word to me in secret?”
“No. He might fear spies. You yourself have told me how secret agents swarm in the Balkan countries, and that espionage is as bad there as in Russia.”