ould be out driving with the veiled lady), to
pretend that I was a betrayed husband in search of his errant wife,
and ask to see the face of his veiled companion. This, naturally,
he would refuse. A duel would be the result; and as he has not for
years had a weapon in his hand, and as I am a dead shot, you can
guess the result--a hermit against a Spadassin! With a bullet in
his brain, the mysterious maid would become my property."
Here an icy chill shook Vavel's frame. He read on:
"That was my intention. But something on which I had not counted
prevented me from carrying it out. When I insisted on seeing the
face of the veiled lady, after telling him I believed her to be my
wife, Ange Barthelmy (I need not tell you that that entire story
was an invention of my own; I published it in a provincial
newspaper, whence it spread all over Europe), my brave hermit
showed a very bold front, and we were on the point of exchanging
blows, when the lady suddenly flung back her veil and revealed the
face of--Themire! You may believe that I was dumfounded for an
instant; then I began to believe that my faith in this woman had
been misplaced. Could it be possible that she had been caught in
her own trap--that she had found this Vavel's eyes more alluring
than the fortune we promised her, and that instead of betraying him
to us she would do the very opposite--betray us to him? It may be
that she has woven a more delicate web than I can detect with which
to entangle her romantic victim the more securely. At all events,
when I asked Vavel what relation the lady at his side bore to him,
he replied: 'She is my betrothed wife.'
"I confess I am puzzled. But I have the means of compelling Themire
to keep her promise. Her daughter is in my power!"
("Her daughter?" gasped Vavel. "Her daughter? Then Katharina is a
married woman!")
"But," he continued to read, "it might happen that a woman who is
in love would sacrifice her child. So soon as this war broke out,
Vavel threw off his hermit's mask, and is now leading a company of
troopers--which he equipped at his own expense--against us.
"From Jocrisse's letters I learn that Vavel's treasures are now in
Themire's hands. That which our fair emissary was commissioned to
find is in her possession. Now, however, the question is, W
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