wning and cringing aspect,
and handed him Madame Quero's card.

"You know that my eyes and ears are always open in your Excellency's
service," he whined. "That is what I have found."

Zouroff's face grew as black as thunder as he read it. "She has been
here, then. To see whom?"

Peter shrugged his shoulders. He wanted to be as non-committal as
possible. "That I cannot tell. Your Excellency may guess better than
I."

The Prince looked at him long and intently. Peter was a very cunning
rogue; that he knew full well; but he was the last man he was inclined
to suspect.

"How did you come into possession of this?" he thundered.

But Peter was determined not to implicate his sweetheart, Katerina. In
this respect he was a slightly better man than his master.

"Your Excellency will excuse me; my lips are sealed. One must be
faithful to one's comrades. There are wheels within wheels, as you
well know."

The Prince nodded. He knew Peter well. In many ways he was docile and
obedient, but it was always politic not to push him too far; on such
occasions the valet was apt to take on a spirit of sturdy independence
which his master was compelled to respect. Wild horses would not draw
from him how, or through whom, he had discovered that card.

"Leave me, Peter, if you please," commanded Zouroff. "I must be alone
to think this thing over, since you say your lips are sealed."

He shook his fist angrily in the direction of the retreating valet.
"Ah, for my good old father's days," he murmured regretfully. "I
would have had it out of you with the knout then, my excellent
friend."

Left alone, Zouroff pondered out all these things in his subtle brain.
The treacherous Madame Quero had come to the Palace, to seek whom, and
to what purpose?

Rumour, gathered at the stage door, and in the more intimate circles
of the profession, averred that the handsome singer was in love with
Corsini. He had also his impressions of his sister in connection with
the handsome young Italian. He had watched them together in that
prolonged conversation on the night of the concert at the Zouroff
Palace, on quitting which, Corsini had been abducted.

Rapidly in his own mind, he reconstructed the sequence of events.
Madame Quero was in love with Corsini. He gnashed his teeth as he
remembered he had been fool enough to suggest to the Spanish woman
that Corsini must disappear. She had acted on that hint and come
straight to the Palace to invoke his s