on the estate."

"And you?"

"They were very polite but we are prisoners--for how long I don't know.
I've failed, Herr Renwick----" she finished miserably.

"Perhaps it isn't too late----"

"There are men outside. They intend to keep us here for the present."

"There ought to be a way----" said Renwick, putting his feet to the
ground. "I could----" He stopped abruptly, for at that moment he
discovered that the captured weapon had been removed from his pocket.

"I'm afraid it's hopeless," said Marishka bitterly.

Renwick glanced at his watch. "Only eight o'clock. Even now we
could----"

He rose and walked to the window, peering through a crack in the
shutter, but an attack of vertigo caused him to sink into a chair. She
regarded him dubiously, pride and compassion struggling, but she said
nothing.

"Beastly stupid of me," he groaned. "I might have known they'd spare no
detail----"

There was a knock upon the door, and at Marishka's response, a turning
of the key, and a man entered. In spite of a discolored eye and a
wrinkled neckband, he was not difficult to identify as their friend of
the railroad train. His manner, however, was far from forbidding, for he
clicked his heels, swept off his cap and smiled slowly, his gold tooth
gleaming pleasantly.

"Herr Renwick is, I trust, feeling better," he said politely.

Renwick grinned up at him sheepishly.

"I congratulate Herr Windt upon his adroitness," he said. "I fear I made
the mistake of underestimating his skill in divination."

"It was not inspired enough to guess that you were in the Countess
Strahni's carriage," he replied. "You have quick fingers, Herr Renwick.
Fortunately I was aware of your destination and knew that we should
meet. All is well that ends well."

"That depends upon the point of view, Herr Windt. But I might have
killed you in the railway carriage."

"That would have been an error in judgment, which would have been most
unfortunate for both of us. I, too, might have shot you through my
pocket, but I refrained, at some hazard to myself. I try never to exceed
the necessities of a situation. Having performed my mission successfully
I can now afford to be generous."

"Meaning--what, Herr Windt?"

"That I shall keep you here only so long as is absolutely necessary." He
glanced at his watch and said significantly, "The Archduke's private
train will leave here in half an hour."

Marishka had listened in some amazement to this conversa