Sarajevo with his wife. Graf von Mendel
attended to the secret arrangements for their departure from the Embassy
and booked the passage. Captain Goritz sat at a desk in a private
office, upon which was a small copper teapot above a spirit lamp. The
water in the pot was steaming. A servant knocked at the door and brought
him a letter.

"Ah! You followed my directions about the paper and ink?"

"As you ordered, Herr Hauptmann. And a maid is with the Countess
Strahni."

"Very good. Wait outside and be prepared to take a message in an
automobile."

"_Zu befehl_, Herr Hauptmann."

As the servant reached the door Goritz halted him.

"The room which the Countess Strahni has is not on the side toward the
British Embassy?"

"No, Herr Hauptmann."

"Very good. You may go."

The man withdrew, closing the door gently. And Captain Goritz took the
note of the Countess Strahni and held it in front of the copper teapot,
moving it to and fro, the back of the envelope in the jet of steam. In a
moment the flap of the envelope curled back and opened. The thing was
simplicity itself. He took two slips of paper out of the envelope and
read them through attentively, smiling amusedly as he did so. Then
without waste of time, he put one of the notes before him, and drawing
some writing paper nearer wrote steadily for ten minutes, tearing up
sheet after sheet and burning each in turn. At last apparently satisfied
with what he had written he put the sheet aside and burned the original
note in which he had been so interested. Then he addressed several small
envelopes, glancing from time to time at the other note of the Countess
Strahni upon the desk in front of him. The envelopes all bore the words,

HERR HUGH RENWICK Strohgasse No. 26 Wien.

At last, critically selecting one of those he had written, he burned the
others, and folding the note enclosed it in the smaller envelope, which
he sealed carefully, putting it with the Countess Strahni's letter into
the original and larger envelope, which he pasted anew and carefully
closed. Then he rang the bell, and when the man appeared:

"You will take this note to the given address. You will explain that the
note within is to be delivered tonight at eight o'clock. Then you will
wait twenty minutes for a suitcase or valise and bring it here. That's
all. And hasten."

"_Zu befehl_, Herr Hauptmann."

Goritz sat for a moment--just a moment of contemplation. It was merely a
thread of