avour frozen out of
it. Apropos of what you were saying, Baron, there is one question which
I should like to ask you. Why was Major Delahaye sent to St. Argueil for
Isobel, and what was he supposed to do with her?"

I do not think that the Baron liked the question. He hesitated for
several moments before he answered it.

"Major Delahaye was not sent," he said. "He went on his own account. He
was the only person who knew the child's whereabouts."

"And what do you suppose his object was in bringing her away from the
convent?" Allan persisted.

"I do not know," the Baron answered. "All I can say is that it pleases
me vastly more to find the child in your keeping than in his."

"Was the man who shot him," I asked, "concerned in the child's earlier
history?"

"I cannot place him at all," the Baron answered. "I should imagine that
his quarrel with Major Delahaye was a personal one, and had no bearing
upon the child. Few men had more enemies than Delahaye. One does not
wish to speak ill of the dead, but he was a bully and a brute all his
days."

A servant in plain black livery brought a sealed note to our host, and
stood respectfully by his side while he read it. It obviously consisted
of but a few words, yet the Baron continued to hold it in front of him
for nearly a minute. Finally, he crushed it in his hand, and dismissed
the servant.

"There is no answer," he said. "I shall wait upon her Highness in an
hour."

Our dinner was over. Both Mabane and myself had declined dessert. Our
host rose.

"Gentlemen," he said, "I have ordered coffee in the smoking-room. The
head-waiter has told me of some wonderful brandy, and I have some cigars
which I am anxious for you to try. Will you come this way?"

We were the only occupants of the smoking-room. The Baron appropriated a
corner, and left us to fetch the cigars. Mabane lit a cigarette and
leaned back in an easy-chair.

"It seems to me, Arnold," he said, "that you are like the man who found
what he went out for to see. You wanted tragedy--and you came very near
it. I do not quite see what the end of all these things will be. Our
host----"

"There is a disappointment in store for him, I fancy," I interrupted.
"He is a very faithful servant of the Archduchess, and he has worked
hard for her. From his point of view his arguments are reasonable
enough. All that he says is plausible--and yet--one feels that there is
something behind it all. Allan, I don't trust one of t