alked with the servants, and, in fact, with everyone, but
never did she come upon a clue which promised to lead to a solution of
the diamond difficulty. Once she penetrated into a turret room, and
came unexpectedly upon the Prince, who was sitting on the window-ledge,
looking absently out on the broad and smiling valley that lay for miles
below the castle. He sprang to his feet and stared so fiercely at the
intruder that the girl's heart failed her, and she had not even the
presence of mind to turn and run.

"What do you want?" he said to her shortly, for he spoke English
perfectly. "You are the young woman from Chicago, I suppose?"

"No," answered Miss Baxter, forgetting for the moment the _role_ she was
playing; "I am from London."

"Well, it doesn't matter; you are the young woman who is arranging my
wife's correspondence?"

"Yes." The Prince strode rapidly forward and grasped her by the wrist,
his brow dark with a forbidding frown. He spoke in a hoarse whisper:

"Listen, my good girl! Do you want to get more money from me than you
will get from the Princess in ten years' service? Hearken, then, to what
I tell you. If there are any letters from--from--men, will you bring
them to me?"

Miss Baxter was thoroughly frightened, but she said to the Prince
sharply,--

"If you do not let go my wrist, I'll scream. How dare you lay your hand
on me?"

The Prince released her wrist and stepped back.

"Forgive me," he said; "I'm a very miserable man. Forget what I have
said."

"How can I forget it?" cried the girl, gathering courage as she saw him
quail before her blazing eyes. "What do you want me to do?"

"I want you to bring to me any letters written by--by----"

"Written by von Schaumberg," cried the girl, noticing his hesitation and
filling in the blank.

A red wave of anger surged up in the Prince's face.

"Yes," he cried; "bring me a letter to her from von Schaumberg, and I'll
pay you what you ask."

The girl laughed.

"Prince," she said, "you will excuse me if I call you a fool. There are
no letters from von Schaumberg, and I have gone through the whole of the
correspondence."

"What, then, suggested the name von Schaumberg to you? Where did you
ever hear it before?"

"I heard that you suspected him of stealing the diamonds."

"And so he did, the cowardly thief. If it were not for mixing the
Princess's name with such carrion as he, I would--"

But the Prince in his rage stamped up and down the r