request."

"It is----"

"Permission to cable my address in the morning to my New York agent."

"It is granted," she said. "A messenger will leave at seven to-morrow
morning for Vienna. I will have Josef call with him in the morning. I
need scarcely caution you not to refer to the state of affairs here."

"You have my word, Highness," he answered.

"I could ask for no better guaranty," she commented sweetly.

If Carter was distrustful of the emissary she had chosen, he was well
aware that his vague misgivings would find no other reception than
coldness did he even dare to hint at them. He turned to find Sobieska's
look of pseudo-indolence upon him.

"Have I your permission, Highness, to make Captain Carter acquainted
with some of his brother officers?" queried the Minister of Private
Intelligence. She nodded her consent and Carter was led away, but not to
meet any military men. Having found a place sufficiently out of earshot
of the others, the Count motioned the American into a seat, placing
himself opposite him.

"There is nothing like a common object of suspicion, Captain Carter, to
make men friends," he began guardedly. Then probably recognizing that
the man to whom he was speaking would hold his disclosures sacred, he
threw away his diplomatic subterfuges and came frankly to the point.

"I wanted to tell you," he said gravely, "that I have already cabled my
agents in London and Paris to investigate the history of your man
Carrick." The American turned to regard him with a slight frown. Had the
fellow brought him here to tell him they had not been believed at the
afternoon's trial? Sobieska, understanding what was passing in the
other's mind, smiled indulgently.

"Oh, I believed your story, don't fear," he said; "but, in the face of
all things, I have always doubted the sincerity of Josef. I cannot
convince myself that his motives are entirely as disinterested as he has
convinced Her Grace they are. There was something, too, about Carrick's
story of his father's death that awakened my suspicions. That medal for
instance."

"You surely cannot mean----" began Carter, fairly rising from his seat
in his wild surmise.

"Quietly, quietly," cautioned Sobieska, glancing warily back toward the
throng of guests to assure himself that the American's perturbation had
passed unnoted. Having satisfied himself that it had attracted no
attention, he took up the thread where it had been dropped by him.

"I meant nothi