eaning his rifle.

CHAPTER XIX

CAPTAIN CLAIBORNE ON DUTY

When he came where the trees were thin,
The moon sat waiting there to see;
On her worn palm she laid her chin,
And laughed awhile in sober glee
To think how strong this knight had been.

--William Vaughn Moody.

In some mystification Captain Richard Claiborne packed a suit-case in his
quarters at Fort Myer. Being a soldier, he obeyed orders; but being
human, he was also possessed of a degree of curiosity. He did not know
just the series of incidents and conferences that preceded his summons to
Washington, but they may be summarized thus:

Baron von Marhof was a cautious man. When the young gentlemen of his
legation spoke to him in awed whispers of a cigarette case bearing an
extraordinary device that had been seen in Washington he laughed them
away; then, possessing a curious and thorough mind, he read all the press
clippings relating to the false Baron von Kissel, and studied the
heraldic emblems of the Schomburgs. As he pondered, he regretted the
death of his eminent brother-in-law, Count Ferdinand von Stroebel, who
was not a man to stumble over so negligible a trifle as a cigarette case.
But Von Marhof himself was not without resources. He told the gentlemen
of his suite that he had satisfied himself that there was nothing in the
Armitage mystery; then he cabled Vienna discreetly for a few days, and
finally consulted Hilton Claiborne, the embassy's counsel, at the
Claiborne home at Storm Springs.

They had both gone hurriedly to Washington, where they held a long
conference with the Secretary of State. Then the state department called
the war department by telephone, and quickly down the line to the
commanding officer at Fort Myer went a special assignment for Captain
Claiborne to report to the Secretary of State. A great deal of perfectly
sound red tape was reduced to minute particles in these manipulations;
but Baron von Marhof's business was urgent; it was also of a private
and wholly confidential character. Therefore, he returned to his cottage
at Storm Springs, and the Washington papers stated that he was ill and
had gone back to Virginia to take the waters.

The Claiborne house was the pleasantest place in Storm Valley, and the
library a comfortable place for a conference. Dick Claiborne caught the
gravity of the older men as they unfolded to him the task for which
they had asked his services. The Baron stated the case in these words: