spoke very deliberately, pronouncing each
word carefully. The Queen had no difficulty in understanding what he
said. Smith replied in a much lower tone. She could not hear him.

"_Ach_," said von Moll, "the old man is a fool, good. And the girl--do
you know, Fritz, I think I shall marry the girl!"

The Queen shut her window. She had no wish to hear more of von Moll's
plans. She was insulted and very angry. It was not until she thought
the matter over coolly next day that it occurred to her as strange
that von Moll should have addressed Smith as Fritz. The man's
Christian name was Edward.

CHAPTER XVIII

I am uncomfortably aware that this history of recent events in Salissa
is sadly deficient in the matter of dates. I am not to blame. If I
could I should date each chapter accurately. Unfortunately, not one of
the people chiefly concerned kept a diary. They all remember events
very well and are most willing to describe them for me, but they
cannot remember exactly when things happened. I am therefore
particularly pleased to be able at this point to give two definite
dates. The _Ida_ arrived at Salissa with Gorman on board on July 8.
She left again on July 11. I dragged this information out of Captain
Wilson. He no longer has access to the _Ida's_ log-books. They passed
into Steinwitz' hands and disappeared when his office was closed at
the outbreak of war. But Captain Wilson kept a private notebook. He
referred to it, with considerable reluctance, when I pressed him.

Taking these two dates as fixed, we are able to say for certain that
von Moll reached the island during the night of July 7 and 8, ten days
after the Serajevo assassinations. He was occupied with his business
in the cave all day of July 8. He left Salissa early on July 9. He
might easily have made any one of three or four ports on the mainland
before evening that day. A telegram sent to Berlin might have been in
the hands of some responsible person that night. Smith's letters would
follow at once by a special messenger. We may take it that the
Emperor's secret service agents, perhaps the Emperor himself, knew on
July 10 that the island would not be resold to King Konrad Karl.

The sailing of the _Ida_ so soon as three days after her arrival
puzzled me at first. Captain Wilson would say nothing except that he
obeyed orders. As a matter of fact he seems to have worried everybody
until he got the order he wanted. The _Ida_ carried very little car