nd of the Princess Hedwig. His intention was to put
up at some inn in a village not far from the lodge and to reach Karl by
messenger early in the morning, before the hunters left for the day.

Then, all being prepared duly and in order, Mettlich himself would
arrive, and things would go forward with dignity and dispatch.

In the mean time he sat back among his furs and thought of many things.
He had won a victory which was, after all, but a compromise. He had
chosen the safe way, but it led over the body of a young girl, and he
loathed it. Also, he thought of Nikky, and what might be. But the car
was closed and comfortable. The motion soothed him. After a time he
dropped asleep.

The valley of the Ar deepened. The cliff rose above them, a wall broken
here and there by the offtake of narrow ravines, filled with forest
trees. There was a pause while the chains on the rear wheels were
supplemented by others in front, for there must be no danger of a skid.
And another pause, where the road slanted perilously toward the brink of
the chasm, and caution dictated that the Chancellor alight, and make a
hundred feet or so of dangerous curve afoot.

It required diplomacy to get him out. But it was finally done, and his
heavy figure, draped in its military cape, went on ahead, outlined
by the lamps of the car behind him. The snow was hardly more than a
coating, but wet and slippery. Mettlich stalked on, as one who would
defy the elements, or anything else, to hinder him that night.

He was well around the curve, and the cliff was broken by a wedge of
timber, when a curiously shaped object projected itself over the edge of
the bank, and rolling down, lay almost at his feet. The lamps brought it
into sharp relief--a man, gagged and tied, and rolled, cigar shaped, in
an automobile robe.

The Chancellor turned, and called to his men. Then he bent over the
bundle. The others ran up, and cut the bonds. What with cold and long
inaction, and his recent drop over the bank, the man could not speak.
One of the secret-service men had a flask, and held it to his lips. An
amazing situation, indeed, increased by the discovery that under the
robe he wore only his undergarments, with a soldier's tunic wrapped
around his shoulders. They carried him into the car, where he lay with
head lolling back, and his swollen tongue protruding. Half dead he was,
with cold and long anxiety. The brandy cleared his mind long before he
could speak, and he sa