is way in through the window. Such a sight would indeed
have given the excellent Baroness von Helsing matter for gossip! It
was better to let every servant in my house see his open entrance. But,
alas, virtue itself sometimes leads to ruin. My dearest Helga, sleepless
and watchful in the interest of her mistress, was even now behind the
shutter, listening with all her ears and peering through the chinks.
No sooner did Rudolf's footsteps become audible than she cautiously
unfastened the shutter, opened the window, put her pretty head out, and
called softly: "All's safe! Come in!"

The mischief was done then, for the faces of Helsing's wife and
daughter, ay, and the faces of Helsing's servants, were intent on this
most strange spectacle. Rudolf, turning his head over his shoulder, saw
them; a moment later poor Helga saw them also. Innocent and untrained
in controlling her feelings, she gave a shrill little cry of dismay, and
hastily drew back. Rudolf looked round again. The ladies had retreated
to the cover of the porch, but he still saw their eager faces peering
from between the pillars that supported it.

"I may as well go in now," said Rudolf, and in he sprang. There was
a merry smile on his face as he ran forward to meet Helga, who leant
against the table, pale and agitated.

"They saw you?" she gasped.

"Undoubtedly," said he. Then his sense of amusement conquered everything
else, and he sat down in a chair, laughing.

"I'd give my life," said he, "to hear the story that the chancellor will
be waked up to hear in a minute or two from now!"

But a moment's thought made him grave again. For whether he were the
king or Rudolf Rassendyll, he knew that my wife's name was in equal
peril. Knowing this, he stood at nothing to serve her. He turned to her
and spoke quickly.

"You must rouse one of the servants at once. Send him round to the
chancellor's and tell the chancellor to come here directly. No, write a
note. Say the king has come by appointment to see Fritz on some private
business, but that Fritz has not kept the appointment, and that the king
must now see the chancellor at once. Say there's not a moment to lose."

She was looking at him with wondering eyes.

"Don't you see," he said, "if I can impose on Helsing, I may stop those
women's tongues? If nothing's done, how long do you suppose it'll be
before all Strelsau knows that Fritz von Tarlenheim's wife let the king
in at the window at five o'clock in the