upon her couch and
at last, mercifully, she slept.

CHAPTER XI

THE MAN IN BLACK

It was after dark when the train bearing Herr Windt and Renwick reached
the Franz Josef station, the stolen machine of Altensteig having been
left at Budweis with Hadwiger, who was to return it to its owner and in
the name of the state to make proper arrangements for compensation. Herr
Windt, sadder if no wiser, took a _fiacre_ and drove off hastily,
leaving Renwick to his own devices.

To the Englishman, Marishka's case seemed desperate, for though the
identity of the driver of the green limousine was unknown, his
cleverness in eluding the net which Herr Windt had spread for him
indicated him to be an agent of the Wilhelmstrasse, a personal emissary
of those near the Kaiser, who was moving with great skill, using every
means of a great organization to keep Marishka's mission and identity a
secret. But Renwick was not the sort of a man that gives up easily. In
the back of his head an idea persisted, and he planned to follow its
development for good or ill to its conclusion.

The correctness of his surmise as to the direction of Marishka's flight
in the green limousine had convinced him that Vienna was not her final
destination. He, too, took a _fiacre_ and drove at once to the apartment
of Baroness Racowitz. Marishka's guardian was away, but a fee to the
Austrian maid put him in possession of the facts.

"No, Herr Renwick," she replied, "Countess Strahni did not return to the
apartment, but she was in Vienna and had sent for a suitcase and
clothing, which were delivered to a man who waited in an automobile."

"What sort of a man?"

"I couldn't exactly say, sir, a servant, a butler, perhaps; but there
was a note for Herr Renwick."

"Ah--give it to me."

"My instructions were to deliver it at eight o'clock at Herr Renwick's
residence in the Strohgasse. I have but just returned from there."

Renwick started down the steps and then turned. "There was nothing
else?"

"Nothing."

"You do not know where Countess Strahni is?"

"I know nothing more than I have told you, sir."

Renwick rushed out to the waiting _fiacre_, and bade the driver go at
top speed. A note from Marishka! Under different circumstances this
would not perhaps have been surprising. The difference that the change
in their personal relations had wrought in the last few weeks, her mood
during their hurried flight to Konopisht, her desertion of him, all