---" he put in quickly.

"What do you mean?"

"Merely that an intelligence which can throw central Europe into a
turmoil," and he laughed pleasantly, "does itself and me too little
credit."

"Oh, you know----" she gasped.

"Yes, I know."

She examined Captain Goritz with a new interest.

"But you did not know the object of my visit to Konopisht," she went on
desperately.

"I confess," he said slowly, "that your sudden departure from Vienna was
most mystifying----"

"I will tell you," she went on excitedly. "I came to Konopisht to warn
the Archduke Franz of a plot to assassinate him when he reaches
Sarajevo----"

"Ah! So that----" Captain Goritz started suddenly forward in his seat
and faced her eagerly in an attitude of sudden alertness.

"A plot! Serbian?" he asked sharply.

"No--I----" Loyalty stifled her lips.

"I see." And then keenly, "Austrian--as a result of your disclosures to
the Emperor?"

She eyed the man in amazement. He was omniscient.

"A plot----" she stammered. "I do not know--I came to warn them--the
Archduke and Duchess, but I was prevented from doing so. They----" she
gasped again--"those who plan this dastardly thing are powerful--they
control the telegraph. There was no way to reach them and so I came----"

"Herr Windt----?"

She nodded. "You know--he acts for them. He kept me in the cabin until
it was too late."

"I understand----" He nodded, his brows tangled in thought. "There can
be no other explanation."

"I heard. I saw--back there in the garden--Emperor and
Archduke--friends. Oh, don't you understand? _He_ would do
something----"

Captain Goritz had sunk lower into his seat and with folded arms was
gazing at the back of the man in front of them, but under his frowning
brows his eyes glowed with initiative.

"What you tell me is serious, Countess----" he muttered.

"So serious that I beg you will listen to me," she went on almost
hysterically. "The Duchess was my friend--I heard and I told what I
heard----"

"Yes. It is a pity, Countess Strahni."

"But I did not know," she went on breathlessly, conscious only of the
imminence of Sarajevo and of the power of the man beside her perhaps to
aid her. "I could not know that I should be betraying her--the friend of
a lifetime--to this--I did my duty as I saw it--to Austria. I am telling
you this--a stranger--an enemy perhaps--because it is in your power to
help--to prevent this terrible thing. Think! Think! It is your