the schloss and surrounding property with the
famous millionaire, Sir Charles Vandrift; and Sir Charles had
demonstratively recognised him at sight as the real Count von
Lebenstein. The firm had never seen the present Graf at all, and
had swallowed the impostor whole, so to speak, on the strength of
Sir Charles's obvious recognition. He had brought over as documents
some most excellent forgeries--facsimiles of the originals--which,
as our courier and interpreter, he had every opportunity of
examining and inspecting at the Meran lawyers'. It was a deeply-laid
plot, and it had succeeded to a marvel. Yet, all of it depended
upon the one small fact that we had accepted the man with the long
moustache in the hall of the schloss as the Count von Lebenstein on
his own representation.

He held our cards in his hands when he came in; and the servant had
_not_ given them to him, but to the genuine Count. That was the one
unsolved mystery in the whole adventure.

By the evening's post two letters arrived for us at Sir Charles's
house: one for myself, and one for my employer. Sir Charles's ran
thus:--

"HIGH WELL-BORN INCOMPETENCE,--

"I only just pulled through! A very small slip nearly lost me
everything. I believed you were going to Schloss Planta that day,
not to Schloss Lebenstein. You changed your mind en route. That
might have spoiled all. Happily I perceived it, rode up by the short
cut, and arrived somewhat hurriedly and hotly at the gate before
you. Then I introduced myself. I had one more bad moment when the
rival claimant to my name and title intruded into the room. But
fortune favours the brave: your utter ignorance of German saved me.
The rest was pap. It went by itself almost.

"Allow me, now, as some small return for your various welcome
cheques, to offer you a useful and valuable present--a German
dictionary, grammar, and phrase-book!

"I kiss your hand.

"No longer

"VON LEBENSTEIN."

The other note was to me. It was as follows:--

"DEAR GOOD MR. VENTVORTH,--

"Ha, ha, ha; just a W misplaced sufficed to take you in, then! And
I risked the TH, though anybody with a head on his shoulders would
surely have known our TH is by far more difficult than our W for
foreigners! However, all's well that ends well; and now I've got
you. The Lord has delivered you into my hands, dear friend--on your
own initiative. I hold my cheque, endorsed by you, and cashed at my
banker's, as a hostage, so to speak, fo