ne had told him of
the pettiest event of a common day.

"The matter has been very badly bungled," he said. "I shall write to
General Trepoff and complain of it. Do you not see how inconvenient this
is? If the girl has escaped, she will be sheltered by the
Revolutionaries, and if she knows my story, she will tell it to them. I
may be followed here--to this very house. You know that these people
stick at nothing. They would avenge this man's liberty whatever the
price. What remains to discover is the precise amount of her knowledge.
Does she know my name, my story? You must find that out,
Zamoyski--there is not an hour to lose, as you say."

He repeated his fears, pacing the room and smoking incessantly. The
whole danger of a situation is not usually realized upon its first
statement, but every instant added to this man's apprehensions and
brought the drops of sweat anew to his forehead. He had planned to
arrest both Boriskoff and his daughter. The Russian Government, seeking
the financial support of his house, fell in readily with his plans and
commanded the police to assist him. Paul Boriskoff himself had been
arrested at the frontier station upon an endeavor to return to Poland.
His daughter Lois, warned in some mysterious manner, had fled from the
school where she was being educated and put herself beyond the reach of
her father's enemies. This was the simple story of the plot. But God
alone could tell what the price of failure might be.

"It is very easy to say what we must do," the Count observed, "the
difficulties remain. Identify this girl for us among the twenty thousand
who answer to her description in Warsaw, and I will undertake that the
Government shall deal well by her. But who is to identify her? Where is
your agent to be found? Name him to me and the task begins to-night. We
can do nothing more. I say again that my Government has done all in its
power. The rest is with you, Herr Gessner, to direct us where we have
failed."

Gessner made no immediate answer. Perhaps he was about to admit the
difficulties of the Count's position and to agree that identification
was impossible, when suddenly his glance fell upon Alban, waiting, as
he had asked, until the interview should be done. And what an
inspiration was that--what an instantaneous revelation of possibilities.
Let this lad go to Warsaw and he would discover Lois Boriskoff quickly
enough. The girl had been in love with him and would hold her tongue at