was sudden. He brushed his moustache upwards with a thoughtful movement
of the finger and thumb, regarding Rallywood as he did so.

'Then why have you brought them to me?' he said at last.

'Because a soldier should see no further than the point of his sword,
your Excellency,' replied Rallywood slowly.

'Good! And how do you come to know what the packet contains?'

'The persons who robbed Major Counsellor did not even take the
precaution of placing it under another cover. He recognised it at the
block-house.'

'It seems to me then that you had a decision to make at the
block-house?'

'Yes,' said Rallywood simply.

But it was not a subject to bear discussion.

'As a soldier of Maasau you decided rightly.' Selpdorf misjudged
Rallywood for the moment; it crossed his mind that this was a mercenary
after all and to be bought.

'But as a man I now wish to resign my commission.'

Selpdorf raised his brows.

'But why? At the very moment when you have proved your faithfulness and
your zeal? When we owe you recognition of these high qualities?'

'I want nothing, your Excellency, but to go out from this house a free
man,' returned Rallywood coldly.

'Reconsider your words, Captain Rallywood.'

'Even if other difficulties had not arisen,' went on Rallywood, 'I may
remind your Excellency that a soldier's oath does not cover robbery and
assassination.'

Selpdorf was, and looked, astonished.

'I don't understand you,' he said gravely. 'Pray tell me what you mean.'

'I found Major Counsellor alone and unconscious in a single carriage
that had been sent rolling down the incline on the line where the
outgoing mail train could not fail to collide with it. The inference is
clear. Some one wished to make an end of him--in a railway accident. But
the plan was a curiously stupid one, for nothing could satisfactorily
explain Major Counsellor's presence there, since it was well known to
the British Legation in Revonde that he was entering, not leaving
Maasau.'

Selpdorf stood silent. Here was another ill-devised amendment born of
Count Sagan's blundering brain.

'It is a very strange story,' he said at length. 'Had the train come in
collision with the carriage which you assert was on the down line----'

'The troops from Kofn and the railway people at Alfau can prove that.'

'The mail might have been derailed, with no one can tell what loss of
life.'

'Count Simon holds life cheap,' said Rallywood. 'No life that stand