nheim. As soon as you can
move, go to Strelsau, and let Sapt know where you are."

"But if you're seen, if you're found out?"

"Better I than the queen's letter," said he. Then he laid his hand on
my arm and said, quite quietly, "If the letter gets to the king, I and I
only can do what must be done."

I did not know what he meant; perhaps it was that he would carry off the
queen sooner than leave her alone after her letter was known; but there
was another possible meaning that I, a loyal subject, dared not inquire
into. Yet I made no answer, for I was above all and first of all the
queen's servant. Still I cannot believe that he meant harm to the king.

"Come, Fritz," he cried, "don't look so glum. This is not so great an
affair as the other, and we brought that through safe." I suppose I
still looked doubtful, for he added, with a sort of impatience, "Well,
I'm going, anyhow. Heavens, man, am I to sit here while that letter is
carried to the king?"

I understood his feeling, and knew that he held life a light thing
compared with the recovery of Queen Flavia's letter. I ceased to urge
him. When I assented to his wishes, every shadow vanished from his
face, and he began to discuss the details of the plan with business-like
brevity.

"I shall leave James with you," said Rudolf. "He'll be very useful, and
you can rely on him absolutely. Any message that you dare trust to no
other conveyance, give to him; he'll carry it. He can shoot, too." He
rose as he spoke. "I'll look in before I start," he added, "and hear
what the doctor says about you."

I lay there, thinking, as men sick and weary in body will, of the
dangers and the desperate nature of the risk, rather than of the hope
which its boldness would have inspired in a healthy, active brain.
I distrusted the rapid inference that Rudolf had drawn from Sapt's
telegram, telling myself that it was based on too slender a foundation.
Well, there I was wrong, and I am glad now to pay that tribute to his
discernment. The first steps of Rupert's scheme were laid as Rudolf had
conjectured: Rischenheim had started, even while I lay there, for Zenda,
carrying on his person a copy of the queen's farewell letter and armed
for his enterprise by his right of audience with the king. So far we
were right, then; for the rest we were in darkness, not knowing or being
able even to guess where Rupert would choose to await the result of the
first cast, or what precautions he had taken a