the emergency. I heard her give
a slight laugh.

"I am punished for my assurance," she confessed. "I am not quite
hardened, as you know; and when I realized that M. V---- was actually
dead, I was obliged to pray for him. I have left the key in the
door."

"Go and fetch it, then."

The tone in which these words were spoken was harsh. I heard Sophia
going out of the room, and in an instant, with a single bound, as it
seemed, the man was leaning over me, feeling my pulse, listening for
my heart, and testing whether I breathed.

"If I had brought so much as a knife with me, I would have made
sure," I heard him mutter to himself.

Fortunately Sophia's absence did not last ten seconds. She must have
snatched up the first key that came to hand, that of a jewel-box most
likely, and hurried back with it.

Petrovitch seemed to turn away from me with reluctance.

"You doubt me, it appears," came in angry tones from the Princess.

"I doubt everybody," was the cool rejoinder. "You were in love with
this fellow."

"You think so? Then look at this."

I felt the locket being picked up, and heard the click of the tiny
spring.

A coarse laugh burst from the financier.

"So that is it! Woman's jealousy is safer than her sworn word, after
all. Now I believe he _is_ dead."

The Princess made no reply.

Presently the man spoke again.

"This must be kept a secret among ourselves, you understand. The
truth is, I have exceeded my instructions a little. A certain
personage only authorized detention. It appears he is like you in
having a certain tenderness for this fellow--why, I can't think. At
any rate his manner was rather alarming when we hinted that a coffin
made the safest straight-jacket."

It was impossible for me to doubt that it was the Kaiser whom this
villain had insulted by offering to have me assassinated. I thanked
Wilhelm II. silently for his chivalrous behavior. M. Petrovitch could
have known little of the proud Hohenzollern whom he tempted.

At the same time, it was a source of serious concern for me to know
that, just as I had learned that my real opponent was my friend the
Kaiser, so he in turn had acquired the knowledge that he had me
against him.

It had become a struggle, no longer in the dark, between the most
resourceful of Continental sovereigns and myself, and that being so,
I realized that I could not afford to rest long on my oars.

From the deep breathing of the Princess, I surmised that s