er us!"_

Then he was silent, though in the wavering flame of the fire Claiborne
saw that his lips still muttered prayers for the Servian's soul. When
again his words grew audible he was saying:

_"--That Thou wouldst not deliver it into the hand of the enemy, nor
forget it unto the end, out wouldst command it to be received by the Holy
Angels, and conducted to paradise, its true country; that, as in Thee it
hath hoped and believed, it may not suffer the pains of hell, but may
take possession of eternal joys."_

He made the sign of the cross, rose, brushed the dirt from his knees and
put on his hat.

"He was a coward and died an ugly death, but I am glad I did not kill
him."

"Yes, we were spared murder," said Claiborne; and when they had trodden
out the fire and scattered the embers into the stream, they climbed the
steep side of the gap and turned toward the bungalow. Oscar trudged
silently at Claiborne's side, and neither spoke. Both were worn to the
point of exhaustion by the events of the long day; the stubborn patience
and fidelity of the little man touched a chord in Claiborne. Almost
unconsciously he threw his arm across Oscar's shoulders and walked thus
beside him as they traversed the battle-field of the morning.

"You knew Mr. Armitage when he was a boy?" asked Claiborne.

"Yes; in the Austrian forest, on his father's place--the Count Ferdinand
von Stroebel. The young captain's mother died when he was a child; his
father was the great statesman, and did much for the Schomburgs and
Austria; but it did not aid his disposition--no?"

The secret service men had come by way of the Springs, and were waiting
at the bungalow to report to Claiborne. They handed him a sealed packet
of instructions from the Secretary of War. The deportation of Chauvenet
and Durand was to be effected at once under Claiborne's direction, and he
sent Oscar to the stables for the buckboard and sat down on the veranda
to discuss the trip to Baltimore with the two secret agents. They were to
gather up the personal effects of the conspirators at the tavern on the
drive to Lamar. The rooms occupied by Chauvenet at Washington had already
been ransacked and correspondence and memoranda of a startling character
seized. Chauvenet was known to be a professional blackmailer and plotter
of political mischief, and the embassy of Austria-Hungary had identified
Durand as an ex-convict who had only lately been implicated in the
launching of a dan