she heard the sound of a sliding bolt,
the door swung open, and Pachmann entered. He looked at her and at the
broken chair, and smiled slightly.

"I come to reassure you, Miss Vard," he said, "since I suppose you must
have heard the noise of our little combat. No one was injured; but your
father, after a burst of rage at finding himself in our hands, during
which we found it most difficult to control him, has had what appears to
be an epileptic seizure. Is he subject to epilepsy?"

"I have known him to have two attacks," said Kasia, in a low voice, with
a shuddering remembrance of the desperate crisis at which each had come.

"There is nothing to be done, I think, except to loosen his clothing and
bathe his head and wrists?"

"No--that is all." Mechanically her hands were smoothing her disordered
hair.

"And there is, of course, no danger. Nevertheless, you may wish to go to
him."

"I do wish it."

"Then come with me," and he led the way up the stair. "Your father is in
there," he said, pointing to an inner room. "I will bring some water."

Kasia, with white face, passed into the inner room. Her father had been
placed on a bed, and lay on his back, his eyes rolled up, breathing
heavily. His hands were tightly clenched, but already the spasm was
passing and the muscles relaxing. Almost at once, Pachmann appeared at
the door, handed her a basin of water and then withdrew.

Under her ministrations, the breathing of the unconscious man grew
softer and softer, the hands unclosed, the eyelids drooped, and finally
his head fell over on one side and he slept. Kasia, watching him for a
few moments, assured herself that all was well, then turned out the
light, returned to the outer room and closed the door.

Pachmann was sitting at the window, staring idly out at the deepening
shadows. He arose at once at the sound of her entrance.

"Miss Vard," he said, "there is something I wish to say to you. Will you
not sit down?" and he placed a chair for her. "What I have to say is
most serious, and whatever your feeling of ill-usage may be, I hope you
will try to look at the matter also a little from my side. The situation
is this: Your father, as you doubtless know, is the inventor of a
mechanism which will make the nation possessing it mistress of the
world. That nation must be Germany. Apart from my ambition for my
country and my love of her, I believe that she is the nation best fitted
to possess it. At any cost, it must