“I have no orders, and it certainly is not my intention,” responded the man, whom I remembered at that moment had deliberately killed the girl Garine in order to preserve his secret.
I turned from him in loathing and disgust.
“But you tell me that General Markoff intends that we both shall come to an untimely end,” I said a few moments later.
“He does, Excellency, and the ingenuity of the plot against you both is certainly one which betrays his devilish cunning,” was the fellow’s reply. “I have, I assure you, no love for a man who holds my life in the hollow of his hand, and whose word I am compelled to obey on pain of exposure and death.”
“You mean Markoff,” I exclaimed. “Tell me something of this plot against me—so that I may be on my guard,” I urged.
“I know nothing concerning it. For that very reason I went to Brighton yesterday, to try and discover something,” he said.
“And what did you discover?”
“A very remarkable fact. At present it is only suspicion. I have yet to substantiate it.”
“Cannot you tell me your suspicion?”
“Not until I have had an opportunity of proving it,” was his quiet reply. “But I assure you that the observation I kept upon Her Imperial Highness and yourself was with no evil intent.”