xcitement that characterised the hushed
gatherings in the outer room did not fail to leave its impression upon
him; he knew there was murder in the hearts of these fanatics; he could
feel the strain that held their hitherto vehement lips to tense
whisperings and mutterings. He could distinguish the difference between
the footsteps of to-day and those of yesterday; the tread was growing
lighter, unconsciously more stealthy with each passing hour.

Forty-eight hours! That was all!

Truxton found himself crying bitterly from time to time; not because he
was in terror but because he knew of the thing that hourly drew nearer
despite the fact that he knew!

Olga Platanova's voice was heard no more before the Committee of Ten.
Something told him that she was being groomed and primed in an upstairs
room! Primed like a gun of war! He wondered if she could be praying for
courage to do the thing that had been set down for her to do. Food now
came irregularly to him. She was no longer preparing it.

She was making herself ready!

Early that night, as he lay with his ear to the crack of the door, he
heard them discussing his own death. It was to come as soon as Olga had
gone to her reward! She was not there to defend him. Spantz had said
that she was praying in her room, committing her soul to God! Truxton
King suddenly pricked up his ears, attracted by a sentence that fell
from the lips of one of the men.

"Tullis is on his way to the hills of Dawsbergen by this time. He will
be out of the way on the 26th safe enough."

"Count Marlanx was not to be satisfied until he had found the means to
draw him away from Edelweiss," said another. "This time it will work
like a charm. Late this afternoon Tullis was making ready to lead a
troop of cavalry into the hills to effect a rescue. Sancta Maria! That
was a clever stroke! Not only does he go himself, but with him goes a
captain with one hundred soldiers from the fort. Ha, ha! Marlanx is a
fox! A very exceptional fox!"

Tullis off to the hills? With soldiers, to effect a rescue! Truxton sat
up, his brain whirling.

"A wise fox!" agreed Peter Brutus, thickly. His lips were terribly
swollen from King's final blow. "Tullis goes off chasing a
jack-o'-lantern in the hills; Marlanx sits by and laughs at the joke
he's played. It is good! Almost too good to be true. I wonder what our
fine prisoner will say to it when the new prisoner comes to keep him
company over the 26th."

CHA