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Title: The Great Impersonation

Author: E. Phillips Oppenheim

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THE GREAT IMPERSONATION
By E. Phillips Oppenheim

First published 1920.



                       THE GREAT IMPERSONATION

                                  BY

                        E. PHILLIPS OPPENHEIM





                       THE GREAT IMPERSONATION



                              CHAPTER I

The trouble from which great events were to come began when Everard
Dominey, who had been fighting his way through the scrub for the last
three quarters of an hour towards those thin, spiral wisps of smoke,
urged his pony to a last despairing effort and came crashing through
the great oleander shrub to pitch forward on his head in the little
clearing. It developed the next morning, when he found himself for the
first time for many months on the truckle bed, between linen sheets,
with a cool, bamboo-twisted roof between him and the relentless sun.
He raised himself a little in the bed.

"Where the mischief am I?" he demanded.

A black boy, seated cross-legged in the entrance of the banda, rose to
his feet, mumbled something and disappeared. In a few moments the
tall, slim figure of a European, in spotless white riding clothes,
stooped down and came over to Dominey's side.

"You are better?" he enquired politely.

"Yes, I am," was the somewhat brusque rejoinder. "Where the mischief
am I, and who are you?"

The newcomer's manner stiffened. He was a person of dignified
carriage, and his tone conveyed some measure of rebuke.

"You are within half a mile of the Iriwarri River, if you know where
that is," he replied,--"about seventy-two miles southeast of the
Darawaga Settlement."

"The devil! Then I am in German East Africa?"

"Without a doubt."

"And you are German?"

"I have that honour."

Dominey whistled softly.

"Awfully sorry to have intruded," he said. "I left Marlinstein two and
a half months ago, with twenty boys and plenty of stores. We were
doing a big trek after lions. I took some new Askaris in and they made
trouble,--looted the stores one night and there was the devil to pay.
I was obliged to shoot one or two, and the rest deserted. They took my
compass, damn them, and I'm nearly a hundred miles out of my bearings.
You couldn't give me a drink, could you?"

"With pleasure, if the doctor approves," was the courteous answer.
"Here, Jan!"

The boy sprang up, listened to a word or two of brief command in his
own language, and disappeared through the hanging grass which led into
another hut. The two men exchanged glances of rather more than
ordinary interest. Then Dominey laughed.

"I know what you're thinking," he said. "It gave me quite a start when
you came in. We're devilishly alike, aren't we?"

"There is a very strong likeness between us," the other admitted.

Dominey leaned his head upon his hand and studied his host. The
likeness was clear enough, although the advantage was all in favour of
the man who stood by the side of the camp bedstead with folded arms.
Everard Dominey, for the first twenty-six years of his life, had lived
as an ordinary young Englishman of his position,--Eton, Oxford, a few
years in the Army, a few years about town, during which he had
succeeded in making a still more hopeless muddle of his already
encumbered estates: a few months of tragedy, and then a blank.
Afterwards ten years--at first in the cities, then in the dark places
of Africa--years of which no man knew anything. The Everard Dominey of
ten years ago had been, without a doubt, good-looking. The finely
shaped features remained, but the eyes had lost their lustre, his
figure its elasticity, his mouth its firmness. He had the look of a
man run prematurely to seed, wasted by fevers and dissipation. Not so
his present companion. His features were as finely shaped, cast in an
even stronger though similar mould. His eyes were bright and full of
fire, his mouth and chin firm, bespeaking a man of deeds, his tall
figure lithe and supple. He had the air of being in perfect health, in
perfect mental and physical condition, a man who lived with dignity
and some measure of content, notwithstanding the slight gravity of his
expression.

"Yes," the Englishman muttered, "there's no doubt about the likeness,
though I suppose I should look more like you than I do if I'd taken
care of myself. But I haven't. That's the devil of it. I've gone the
other way; tried to chuck my life away and pretty nearly succeeded,
too."

The dried grasses were thrust on one side, and the doctor entered,--a
little round man, also clad in immaculate white, with yellow-gold hair
and thick spectacles. His countryman pointed towards the bed.

"Will you examine our patient, Herr Doctor, and prescribe for him what
is necessary? He has asked for drink. Let him have wine, or whatever
is good for him. If he is well enough, he will join our evening meal.
I present my excuses. I have a despatch to write."

The man on the couch turned his head and watched the departing figure
with a shade of envy in his eyes.

"What is my preserver's name?" he asked the doctor.

The latter looked as though the questions were irreverent.

"It is His Excellency the Major-General Baron Leopold Von Ragastein."

"All that!" Dominey muttered. "Is he the Governor, or something of
that sort?"

"He is Military Commandant of the Colony," the doctor replied. "He has
also a special mission here."

"Damned fine-looking fellow for a German," Dominey remarked, with
unthinking insolence.

The doctor was unmoved. He was feeling his patient's pulse. He
concluded his examination a few minutes later.

"You have drunk much whisky lately, so?" he asked.

"I don't know what the devil it's got to do with you," was the curt
reply, "but I drink whisky whenever I can get it. Who wouldn't in this
pestilential climate!"

The doctor shook his head.

"The climate is good as he is treated," he declared. "His Excellency
drinks nothing but light wine and seltzer water. He has been here for
five years, not only here but in the swamps, and he has not been ill
one day."

"Well, I have been at death's door a dozen times," the Englishman
rejoined a little recklessly, "and I don't much mind when I hand in my
checks, but until that time comes I shall drink whisky whenever I can
get it."

"The cook is preparing you some luncheon," the doctor announced, "and
it will do you good to eat. I cannot give you whisky at this moment,
but you can have some hock and seltzer with bay leaves."

"Send it along," was the enthusiastic reply. "What a constitution I
must have, doctor! The smell of that cooking outside is making me
ravenous."

"Your constitution is still sound if you would only respect it," was
the comforting assurance.

"Anything been heard of the rest of my party?" Dominey enquired.

"Some bodies of Askaris have been washed up from the river," the
doctor informed him, "and two of your ponies have been eaten by lions.
You will excuse. I have the wounds of a native to dress, who was
bitten last night by a jaguar."

The traveller, left alone, lay still in the hut, and his thoughts
wandered backwards. He looked out over the bare, scrubby stretch of
land which had been cleared for this encampment to the mass of bush
and flowering shrubs beyond, mysterious and impenetrable save for that
rough elephant track along which he had travelled; to the broad-
bosomed river, blue as the sky above, and to the mountains fading into
mist beyond. The face of his host had carried him back into the past.
Puzzled reminiscence tugged at the strings of memory. It came to him
later on at dinner time, when they three, the Commandant, the doctor
and himself, sat at a little table arranged just outside the hut, that
they might catch the faint breeze from the mountains, herald of the
swift-falling darkness. Native servants beat the air around them with
bamboo fans to keep off the insects, and the air was faint almost to
noxiousness with the perfume of some sickly, exotic shrub.

"Why, you're Devinter!" he exclaimed suddenly,--"Sigismund Devinter!
You were at Eton with me--Horrock's House--semi-final in the
racquets."

"And Magdalen afterwards, number five in the boat."

"And why the devil did the doctor here tell me that your name was Von
Ragastein?"

"Because it happens to be the truth," was the somewhat measured reply.
"Devinter is my family name, and the one by which I was known when in
England. When I succeeded to the barony and estates at my uncle's
death, however, I was compelled to also take the title."

"Well, it's a small world!" Dominey exclaimed. "What brought you out
here really--lions or elephants?"

"Neither."

"You mean to say that you've taken up this sort of political business
just for its own sake, not for sport?"

"Entirely so. I do not use a sporting rifle once a month, except for
necessity. I came to Africa for different reasons."

Dominey drank deep of his hock and seltzer and leaned back, watching
the fireflies rise above the tall-bladed grass, above the stumpy
clumps of shrub, and hang like miniature stars in the clear, violet
air.

"What a world!" he soliloquised. "Siggy Devinter, Baron Von Ragastein,
out here, slaving for God knows what, drilling niggers to fight God
knows whom, a political machine, I suppose, future Governor-General of
German Africa, eh? You were always proud of your country, Devinter."

"My country is a country to be proud of," was the solemn reply.

"Well, you're in earnest, anyhow," Dominey continued, "in earnest
about something. And I--well, it's finished with me. It would have
been finished last night if I hadn't seen the smoke from your fires,
and I don't much care--that's the trouble. I go blundering on. I
suppose the end will come somehow, sometime-- Can I have some rum or
whisky, Devinter--I mean Von Ragastein-- Your Excellency--or whatever
I ought to say? You see those wreaths of mist down by the river?
They'll mean malaria for me unless I have spirits."

"I have something better than either," Von Ragastein replied. "You
shall give me your opinion of this."

The orderly who stood behind his master's chair, received a whispered
order, disappeared into the commissariat hut and came back presently
with a bottle at the sight of which the Englishman gasped.

"Napoleon!" he exclaimed.

"Just a few bottles I had sent to me," his host explained. "I am
delighted to offer it to some one who will appreciate it."

"By Jove, there's no mistake about that!" Dominey declared, rolling it
around in his glass. "What a world! I hadn't eaten for thirty hours
when I rolled up here last night, and drunk nothing but filthy water
for days. To-night, fricassee of chicken, white bread, cabinet hock
and Napoleon brandy. And to-morrow again--well, who knows? When do you
move on, Von Ragastein?"

"Not for several days."

"What the mischief do you find to do so far from headquarters, if you
don't shoot lions or elephants?" his guest asked curiously.

"If you really wish to know," Von Ragastein replied, "I am annoying
your political agents immensely by moving from place to place,
collecting natives for drill."

"But what do you want to drill them for?" Dominey persisted. "I heard
some time ago that you have four times as many natives under arms as
we have. You don't want an army here. You're not likely to quarrel
with us or the Portuguese."

"It is our custom," Von Ragastein declared a little didactically, "in
Germany and wherever we Germans go, to be prepared not only for what
is likely to happen but for what might possibly happen."

"A war in my younger days, when I was in the Army," Dominey mused,
"might have made a man of me."

"Surely you had your chance out here?"

Dominey shook his head.

"My battalion never left the country," he said. "We were shut up in
Ireland all the time. That was the reason I chucked the army when I
was really only a boy."

Later on they dragged their chairs a little farther out into the
darkness, smoking cigars and drinking some rather wonderful coffee.
The doctor had gone off to see a patient, and Von Ragastein was
thoughtful. Their guest, on the other hand, continued to be
reminiscently discursive.

"Our meeting," he observed, lazily stretching out his hand for his
glass, "should be full of interest to the psychologist. Here we are,
brought together by some miraculous chance to spend one night of our
lives in an African jungle, two human beings of the same age, brought
up together thousands of miles away, jogging on towards the eternal
blackness along lines as far apart as the mind can conceive."

"Your eyes are fixed," Von Ragastein murmured, "upon that very
blackness behind which the sun will rise at dawn. You will see it come
up from behind the mountains in that precise spot, like a new and
blazing world."

"Don't put me off with allegories," his companion objected petulantly.
"The eternal blackness exists surely enough, even if my metaphor is
faulty. I am disposed to be philosophical. Let me ramble on. Here am
I, an idler in my boyhood, a harmless pleasure-seeker in my youth till
I ran up against tragedy, and since then a drifter, a drifter with a
slowly growing vice, lolling through life with no definite purpose,
with no definite hope or wish, except," he went on a little drowsily,
"that I think I'd like to be buried somewhere near the base of those
mountains, on the other side of the river, from behind which you say
the sun comes up every morning like a world on fire."

"You talk foolishly," Von Ragastein protested. "If there has been
tragedy in your life, you have time to get over it. You are not yet
forty years old."

"Then I turn and consider you," Dominey continued, ignoring altogether
his friend's remark. "You are only my age, and you look ten years
younger. Your muscles are hard, your eyes are as bright as they were
in your school days. You carry yourself like a man with a purpose. You
rise at five every morning, the doctor tells me, and you return here,
worn out, at dusk. You spend every moment of your time drilling those
filthy blacks. When you are not doing that, you are prospecting,
supervising reports home, trying to make the best of your few millions
of acres of fever swamps. The doctor worships you but who else knows?
What do you do it for, my friend?"

"Because it is my duty," was the calm reply.

"Duty! But why can't you do your duty in your own country, and live a
man's life, and hold the hands of white men, and look into the eyes of
white women?"

"I go where I am needed most," Von Ragastein answered. "I do not enjoy
drilling natives, I do not enjoy passing the years as an outcast from
the ordinary joys of human life. But I follow my star."

"And I my will-o'-the-wisp," Dominey laughed mockingly. "The whole
thing's as plain as a pikestaff. You may be a dull dog--you always
were on the serious side--but you're a man of principle. I'm a
slacker."

"The difference between us," Von Ragastein pronounced, "is something
which is inculcated into the youth of our country and which is not
inculcated into yours. In England, with a little money, a little
birth, your young men expect to find the world a playground for sport,
a garden for loves. The mightiest German noble who ever lived has his
work to do. It is work which makes fibre, which gives balance to
life."

Dominey sighed. His cigar, dearly prized though it had been, was cold
between his fingers. In that perfumed darkness, illuminated only by
the faint gleam of the shaded lamp behind, his face seemed suddenly
white and old. His host leaned towards him and spoke for the first
time in the kindlier tones of their youth.

"You hinted at tragedy, my friend. You are not alone. Tragedy also has
entered my life. Perhaps if things had been otherwise, I should have
found work in more joyous places, but sorrow came to me, and I am
here."

A quick flash of sympathy lit up Dominey's face.

"We met trouble in a different fashion," he groaned.



                              CHAPTER II

Dominey slept till late the following morning, and when he woke at
last from a long, dreamless slumber, he was conscious of a curious
quietness in the camp. The doctor, who came in to see him, explained
it immediately after his morning greeting.

"His Excellency," he announced, "has received important despatches
from home. He has gone to meet an envoy from Dar-es-Salaam. He will be
away for three days. He desired that you would remain his guest until
his return."

"Very good of him," Dominey murmured. "Is there any European news?"

"I do not know," was the stolid reply. "His Excellency desired me to
inform you that if you cared for a short trip along the banks of the
river, southward, there are a dozen boys left and some ponies. There
are plenty of lion, and rhino may be met with at one or two places
which the natives know of."

Dominey bathed and dressed, sipped his excellent coffee, and lounged
about the place in uncertain mood. He unburdened himself to the doctor
as they drank tea together late in the afternoon.

"I am not in the least keen on hunting," he confessed, "and I feel
like a horrible sponge, but all the same I have a queer sort of
feeling that I'd like to see Von Ragastein again. Your silent chief
rather fascinates me, Herr Doctor. He is a man. He has something which
I have lost."

"He is a great man," the doctor declared enthusiastically. "What he
sets his mind to do, he does."

"I suppose I might have been like that," Dominey sighed, "if I had had
an incentive. Have you noticed the likeness between us, Herr Doctor?"

The latter nodded.

"I noticed it from the first moment of your arrival," he assented.
"You are very much alike yet very different. The resemblance must have
been still more remarkable in your youth. Time has dealt with your
features according to your deserts."

"Well, you needn't rub it in," Dominey protested irritably.

"I am rubbing nothing in," the doctor replied with unruffled calm. "I
speak the truth. If you had been possessed of the same moral stamina
as His Excellency, you might have preserved your health and the things
that count. You might have been as useful to your country as he is to
his."

"I suppose I am pretty rocky?"

"Your constitution has been abused. You still, however, have much
vitality. If you cared to exercise self-control for a few months, you
would be a different man.-- You must excuse. I have work."

Dominey spent three restless days. Even the sight of a herd of
elephants in the river and that strange, fierce chorus of night
sounds, as beasts of prey crept noiselessly around the camp, failed to
move him. For the moment his love of sport, his last hold upon the
world of real things, seemed dead. What did it matter, the killing of
an animal more or less? His mind was fixed uneasily upon the past,
searching always for something which he failed to discover. At dawn he
watched for that strangely wonderful, transforming birth of the day,
and at night he sat outside the banda, waiting till the mountains on
the other side of the river had lost shape and faded into the violet
darkness. His conversation with Von Ragastein had unsettled him.
Without knowing definitely why, he wanted him back again. Memories
that had long since ceased to torture were finding their way once more
into his brain. On the first day he had striven to rid himself of them
in the usual fashion.

"Doctor, you've got some whisky, haven't you?" he asked.

The doctor nodded.

"There is a case somewhere to be found," he admitted. "His Excellency
told me that I was to refuse you nothing, but he advises you to drink
only the white wine until his return."

"He really left that message?"

"Precisely as I have delivered it."

The desire for whisky passed, came again but was beaten back, returned
in the night so that he sat up with the sweat pouring down his face
and his tongue parched. He drank lithia water instead. Late in the
afternoon of the third day, Von Ragastein rode into the camp. His
clothes were torn and drenched with the black mud of the swamps, dust
and dirt were thick upon his face. His pony almost collapsed as he
swung himself off. Nevertheless, he paused to greet his guest with
punctilious courtesy, and there was a gleam of real satisfaction in
his eyes as the two men shook hands.

"I am glad that you are still here," he said heartily. "Excuse me
while I bathe and change. We will dine a little earlier. So far I have
not eaten to-day."

"A long trek?" Dominey asked curiously.

"I have trekked far," was the quiet reply.

At dinner time, Von Ragastein was one more himself, immaculate in
white duck, with clean linen, shaved, and with little left of his
fatigue. There was something different in his manner, however, some
change which puzzled Dominey. He was at once more attentive to his
guest, yet further removed from him in spirit and sympathy. He kept
the conversation with curious insistence upon incidents of their
school and college days, upon the subject of Dominey's friends and
relations, and the later episodes of his life. Dominey felt himself
all the time encouraged to talk about his earlier life, and all the
time he was conscious that for some reason or other his host's closest
and most minute attention was being given to his slightest word.
Champagne had been served and served freely, and Dominey, up to the
very gates of that one secret chamber, talked volubly and without
reserve. After the meal was over, their chairs were dragged as before
into the open. The silent orderly produced even larger cigars, and
Dominey found his glass filled once more with the wonderful brandy.
The doctor had left them to visit the native camp nearly a quarter of
a mile away, and the orderly was busy inside, clearing the table. Only
the black shapes of the servants were dimly visible as they twirled
their fans,--and overhead the gleaming stars. They were alone.

"I've been talking an awful lot of rot about myself," Dominey said.
"Tell me a little about your career now and your life in Germany
before you came out here?"

Von Ragastein made no immediate reply, and a curious silence ebbed and
flowed between the two men. Every now and then a star shot across the
sky. The red rim of the moon rose a little higher from behind the
mountains. The bush stillness, always the most mysterious of silences,
seemed gradually to become charged with unvoiced passion. Soon the
animals began to call around them, creeping nearer and nearer to the
fire which burned at the end of the open space.

"My friend," Von Ragastein said at last, speaking with the air of a
man who has spent much time in deliberation, "you speak to me of
Germany, of my homeland. Perhaps you have guessed that it is not duty
alone which has brought me here to these wild places. I, too, left
behind me a tragedy."

Dominey's quick impulse of sympathy was smothered by the stern, almost
harsh repression of the other's manner. The words seemed to have been
torn from his throat. There was no spark of tenderness or regret in
his set face.

"Since the day of my banishment," he went on, "no word of this matter
has passed my lips. To-night it is not weakness which assails me, but
a desire to yield to the strange arm of coincidence. You and I,
schoolmates and college friends, though sons of a different country,
meet here in the wilderness, each with the iron in our souls. I shall
tell you the thing which happened to me, and you shall speak to me of
your own curse."

"I cannot!" Dominey groaned.

"But you will," was the stern reply. "Listen."

An hour passed, and the voices of the two men had ceased. The howling
of the animals had lessened with the paling of the fires, and a slow,
melancholy ripple of breeze was passing through the bush and lapping
the surface of the river. It was Von Ragastein who broke through what
might almost have seemed a trance. He rose to his feet, vanished
inside the banda, and reappeared a moment or two later with two
tumblers. One he set down in the space provided for it in the arm of
his guest's chair.

"To-night I break what has become a rule with me," he announced. "I
shall drink a whisky and soda. I shall drink to the new things that
may yet come to both of us."

"You are giving up your work here?" Dominey asked curiously.

"I am part of a great machine," was the somewhat evasive reply. "I
have nothing to do but obey."

A flicker of passion distorted Dominey's face, flamed for a moment in
his tone.

"Are you content to live and die like this?" he demanded. "Don't you
want to get back to where a different sort of sun will warm your heart
and fill your pulses? This primitive world is in its way colossal, but
it isn't human, it isn't a life for humans. We want streets, Von
Ragastein, you and I. We want the tide of people flowing around us,
the roar of wheels and the hum of human voices. Curse these animals!
If I live in this country much longer, I shall go on all fours."

"You yield too much to environment," his companion observed. "In the
life of the cities you would be a sentimentalist."

"No city nor any civilised country will ever claim me again," Dominey
sighed. "I should never have the courage to face what might come."

Von Ragastein rose to his feet. The dim outline of his erect form was
in a way majestic. He seemed to tower over the man who lounged in the
chair before him.

"Finish your whisky and soda to our next meeting, friend of my school
days," he begged. "To-morrow, before you awake, I shall be gone."

"So soon?"

"By to-morrow night," Von Ragastein replied, "I must be on the other
side of those mountains. This must be our farewell."

Dominey was querulous, almost pathetic. He had a sudden hatred of
solitude.

"I must trek westward myself directly," he protested, "or eastward, or
northward--it doesn't so much matter. Can't we travel together?"

Von Ragastein shook his head.

"I travel officially, and I must travel alone," he replied. "As for
yourself, they will be breaking up here to-morrow, but they will lend
you an escort and put you in the direction you wish to take. This,
alas, is as much as I can do for you. For us it must be farewell."

"Well, I can't force myself upon you," Dominey said a little
wistfully. "It seems strange, though, to meet right out here, far away
even from the by-ways of life, just to shake hands and pass on. I am
sick to death of niggers and animals."

"It is Fate," Von Ragastein decided. "Where I go, I must go alone.
Farewell, dear friend! We will drink the toast we drank our last night
in your rooms at Magdalen. That Sanscrit man translated it for us:
'May each find what he seeks!' We must follow our star."

Dominey laughed a little bitterly. He pointed to a light glowing
fitfully in the bush.

"My will-o'-the-wisp," he muttered recklessly, "leading where I shall
follow--into the swamps!"

A few minutes later Dominey threw himself upon his couch, curiously
and unaccountably drowsy. Von Ragastein, who had come in to wish him
good night, stood looking down at him for several moments with
significant intentness. Then, satisfied that his guest really slept,
he turned and passed through the hanging curtain of dried grasses into
the next banda, where the doctor, still fully dressed, was awaiting
him. They spoke together in German and with lowered voices. Von
Ragastein had lost something of his imperturbability.

"Everything progresses according to my orders?" he demanded.

"Everything, Excellency! The boys are being loaded, and a runner has
gone on to Wadihuan for ponies to be prepared."

"They know that I wish to start at dawn?"

"All will be prepared, Excellency."

Von Ragastein laid his hand upon the doctor's shoulder.

"Come outside, Schmidt," he said. "I have something to tell you of my
plans."

The two men seated themselves in the long, wicker chairs, the doctor
in an attitude of strict attention. Von Ragastein turned his head and
listened. From Dominey's quarters came the sound of deep and regular
breathing.

"I have formed a great plan, Schmidt," Von Ragastein proceeded. "You
know what news has come to me from Berlin?"

"Your Excellency has told me a little," the doctor reminded him.

"The Day arrives," Von Ragastein pronounced, his voice shaking with
deep emotion. He paused a moment in thought and continued, "the time,
even the month, is fixed. I am recalled from here to take the place
for which I was destined. You know what that place is? You know why I
was sent to an English public school and college?"

"I can guess."

"I am to take up my residence in England. I am to have a special
mission. I am to find a place for myself there as an Englishman. The
means are left to my ingenuity. Listen, Schmidt. A great idea has come
to me."

The doctor lit a cigar.

"I listen, Excellency."

Von Ragastein rose to his feet. Not content with the sound of that
regular breathing, he made his way to the opening of the banda and
gazed in at Dominey's slumbering form. Then he returned.

"It is something which you do not wish the Englishman to hear?" the
doctor asked.

"It is."

"We speak in German."

"Languages," was the cautions reply, "happen to be that man's only
accomplishment. He can speak German as fluently as you or I. That,
however, is of no consequence. He sleeps and he will continue to
sleep. I mixed him a sleeping draught with his whisky and soda."

"Ah!" the doctor grunted.

"My principal need in England is an identity," Von Ragastein pointed
out. "I have made up my mind. I shall take this Englishman's. I shall
return to England as Sir Everard Dominey."

"So!"

"There is a remarkable likeness between us, and Dominey has not seen
an Englishman who knows him for eight or ten years. Any school or
college friends whom I may encounter I shall be able to satisfy. I
have stayed at Dominey. I know Dominey's relatives. To-night he has
babbled for hours, telling me many things that it is well for me to
know."

"What about his near relatives?"

"He has none nearer than cousins."

"No wife?"

Von Ragastein paused and turned his head. The deep breathing inside
the banda had certainly ceased. He rose to his feet and, stealing
uneasily to the opening, gazed down upon his guest's outstretched
form. To all appearance, Dominey still slept deeply. After a moment or
two's watch, Von Ragastein returned to his place.

"Therein lies his tragedy," he confided, dropping his voice a little
lower. "She is insane--insane, it seems, through a shock for which he
was responsible. She might have been the only stumbling block, and she
is as though she did not exist."

"It is a great scheme," the doctor murmured enthusiastically.

"It is a wonderful one! That great and unrevealed Power, Schmidt,
which watches over our country and which will make her mistress of the
world, must have guided this man to us. My position in England will be
unique. As Sir Everard Dominey I shall be able to penetrate into the
inner circles of Society--perhaps, even, of political life. I shall be
able, if necessary, to remain in England even after the storm bursts."

"Supposing," the doctor suggested, "this man Dominey should return to
England?"

Von Ragastein turned his head and looked towards his questioner.

"He must not," he pronounced.

"So!" the doctor murmured.

Late in the afternoon of the following day, Dominey, with a couple of
boys for escort and his rifle slung across his shoulder, rode into the
bush along the way he had come. The little fat doctor stood and
watched him, waving his hat until he was out of sight. Then he called
to the orderly.

"Heinrich," he said, "you are sure that the Herr Englishman has the
whisky?"

"The water bottles are filled with nothing else, Herr Doctor," the man
replied.

"There is no water or soda water in the pack?"

"Not one drop, Herr Doctor."

"How much food?"

"One day's rations."

"The beef is salt?"

"It is very salt, Herr Doctor."

"And the compass?"

"It is ten degrees wrong."

"The boys have their orders?"

"They understand perfectly, Herr Doctor. If the Englishman does not
drink, they will take him at midnight to where His Excellency will be
encamped at the bend of the Blue River."

The doctor sighed. He was not at heart an unkindly man.

"I think," he murmured, "it will be better for the Englishman that he
drinks."



                             CHAPTER III

Mr. John Lambert Mangan of Lincoln's Inn gazed at the card which a
junior clerk had just presented in blank astonishment, an astonishment
which became speedily blended with dismay.

"Good God, do you see this, Harrison?" he exclaimed, passing it over
to his manager, with whom he had been in consultation. "Dominey--Sir
Everard Dominey--back here in England!"

The head clerk glanced at the narrow piece of pasteboard and sighed.

"I'm afraid you will find him rather a troublesome client, sir," he
remarked.

His employer frowned. "Of course I shall," he answered testily. "There
isn't an extra penny to be had out of the estates--you know that,
Harrison. The last two quarters' allowance which we sent to Africa
came out of the timber. Why the mischief didn't he stay where he was!"

"What shall I tell the gentleman, sir?" the boy enquired.

"Oh, show him in!" Mr. Mangan directed ill-temperedly. "I suppose I
shall have to see him sooner or later. I'll finish these affidavits
after lunch, Harrison."

The solicitor composed his features to welcome a client who, however
troublesome his affairs had become, still represented a family who had
been valued patrons of the firm for several generations. He was
prepared to greet a seedy-looking and degenerate individual, looking
older than his years. Instead, he found himself extending his hand to
one of the best turned out and handsomest men who had ever crossed the
threshold of his not very inviting office. For a moment he stared at
his visitor, speechless. Then certain points of familiarity--the well-
shaped nose, the rather deep-set grey eyes--presented themselves. This
surprise enabled him to infuse a little real heartiness into his
welcome.

"My dear Sir Everard!" he exclaimed. "This is a most unexpected
pleasure--most unexpected! Such a pity, too, that we only posted a
draft for your allowance a few days ago. Dear me--you'll forgive my
saying so--how well you look!"

Dominey smiled as he accepted an easy chair.

"Africa's a wonderful country, Mangan," he remarked, with just that
faint note of patronage in his tone which took his listener back to
the days of his present client's father.

"It--pardon my remarking it--has done wonderful things for you, Sir
Everard. Let me see, it must be eleven years since we met."

Sir Everard tapped the toes of his carefully polished brown shoes with
the end of his walking stick.

"I left London," he murmured reminiscently, "in April, nineteen
hundred and two. Yes, eleven years, Mr. Mangan. It seems queer to find
myself in London again, as I dare say you can understand."

"Precisely," the lawyer murmured. "I was just wondering--I think that
last remittance we sent to you could be stopped. I have no doubt you
will be glad of a little ready money," he added, with a confident
smile.

"Thanks, I don't think I need any just at present," was the amazing
answer. "We'll talk about financial affairs a little later on."

Mr. Mangan metaphorically pinched himself. He had known his present
client even during his school days, had received a great many visits
from him at different times, and could not remember one in which the
question of finance had been dismissed in so casual a manner.

"I trust," he observed chiefly for the sake of saying something, "that
you are thinking of settling down here for a time now?"

"I have finished with Africa, if that is what you mean," was the
somewhat grave reply. "As to settling down here, well, that depends a
little upon what you have to tell me."

The lawyer nodded.

"I think," he said, "that you may make yourself quite easy as regards
the matter of Roger Unthank. Nothing has ever been heard of him since
the day you left England."

"His--body has not been found?"

"Nor any trace of it."

There was a brief silence. The lawyer looked hard at Dominey, and
Dominey searchingly back again at the lawyer.

"And Lady Dominey?" the former asked at length.

"Her ladyship's condition is, I believe, unchanged," was the somewhat
guarded reply.

"If the circumstances are favourable," Dominey continued, after
another moment's pause, "I think it very likely that I may decide to
settle down at Dominey Hall."

The lawyer appeared doubtful.

"I am afraid," he said, "you will be very disappointed in the
condition of the estate, Sir Everard. As I have repeatedly told you in
our correspondence, the rent roll, after deducting your settlement
upon Lady Dominey, has at no time reached the interest on the
mortgages, and we have had to make up the difference and send you your
allowance out of the proceeds of the outlying timber."

"That is a pity," Dominey replied, with a frown. "I ought, perhaps, to
have taken you more into my confidence. By the by," he added, "when--
er--about when did you receive my last letter?"

"Your last letter?" Mr. Mangan repeated. "We have not had the
privilege of hearing from you, Sir Everard, for over four years. The
only intimation we had that our payments had reached you was the
exceedingly prompt debit of the South African bank."

"I have certainly been to blame," this unexpected visitor confessed.
"On the other hand, I have been very much absorbed. If you haven't
happened to hear any South African gossip lately, Mangan, I suppose it
will be a surprise to you to hear that I have been making a good deal
of money."

"Making money?" the lawyer gasped. "You making money, Sir Everard?"

"I thought you'd be surprised," Dominey observed coolly. "However,
that's neither here nor there. The business object of my visit to you
this morning is to ask you to make arrangements as quickly as possible
for paying off the mortgages on the Dominey estates."

Mr. Mangan was a lawyer of the new-fashioned school,--Harrow and
Cambridge, the Bath Club, racquets and fives, rather than gold and
lawn tennis. Instead of saying "God bless my soul!" he exclaimed
"Great Scott!" dropped a very modern-looking eyeglass from his left
eye, and leaned back in his chair with his hands in his pockets.

"I have had three or four years of good luck," his client continued.
"I have made money in gold mines, in diamond mines and in land. I am
afraid that if I had stayed out another year, I should have descended
altogether to the commonplace and come back a millionaire."

"My heartiest congratulations!" Mr. Mangan found breath to murmur.
"You'll forgive my being so astonished, but you are the first Dominey
I ever knew who has ever made a penny of money in any sort of way, and
from what I remember of you in England--I'm sure you'll forgive my
being so frank--I should never have expected you to have even
attempted such a thing."

Dominey smiled good-humouredly.

"Well," he said, "if you inquire at the United Bank of Africa, you
will find that I have a credit balance there of something over a
hundred thousand pounds. Then I have also--well, let us say a trifle
more, invested in first-class mines. Do me the favour of lunching with
me, Mr. Mangan, and although Africa will never be a favourite topic of
conversation with me, I will tell you about some of my speculations."

The solicitor groped around for his hat.

"I will send the boy for a taxi," he faltered.

"I have a car outside," this astonishing client told him. "Before we
leave, could you instruct your clerk to have a list of the Dominey
mortgages made out, with the terminable dates and redemption values?"

"I will leave instructions," Mr. Mangan promised. "I think that the
total amount is under eighty thousand pounds."

Dominey sauntered through the office, an object of much interest to
the little staff of clerks. The lawyer joined him on the pavement in a
few minutes.

"Where shall we lunch?" Dominey asked. "I'm afraid my clubs are a
little out of date. I am staying at the Carlton."

"The Carlton grill room is quite excellent," Mr. Mangan suggested.

"They are keeping me a table until half-past one," Dominey replied.
"We will lunch there, by all means."

They drove off together, the returned traveller gazing all the time
out of the window into the crowded streets, the lawyer a little
thoughtful.

"While I think of it, Sir Everard," the latter said, as they drew near
their destination. "I should be glad of a short conversation with you
before you go down to Dominey."

"With regard to anything in particular?"

"With regard to Lady Dominey," the lawyer told him a little gravely.

A shadow rested on his companion's face.

"Is her ladyship very much changed?"

"Physically, she is in excellent health, I believe. Mentally I believe
that there is no change. She has unfortunately the same rather violent
prejudice which I am afraid influenced your departure from England."

"In plain words," Dominey said bitterly, "she has sworn to take my
life if ever I sleep under the same roof."

"She will need, I am afraid, to be strictly watched," the lawyer
answered evasively. "Still, I think you ought to be told that time
does not seem to have lessened her tragical antipathy."

"She regards me still as the murderer of Roger Unthank?" Dominey
asked, in a measured tone.

"I am afraid she does."

"And I suppose that every one else has the same idea?"

"The mystery," Mr. Mangan admitted, "has never been cleared up. It is
well known, you see, that you fought in the park and that you
staggered home almost senseless. Roger Unthank has never been seen
from that day to this."

"If I had killed him," Dominey pointed out, "why was his body not
found?"

The lawyer shook his head.

"There are all sorts of theories, of course," he said, "but for one
superstition you may as well be prepared. There is scarcely a man or a
woman for miles around Dominey who doesn't believe that the ghost of
Roger Unthank still haunts the Black Wood near where you fought."

"Let us be quite clear about this," Dominey insisted. "If the body
should ever be found, am I liable, after all these years, to be
indicted for manslaughter?"

"I think you may make your mind quite at ease," the lawyer assured
him. "In the first place, I don't think you would ever be indicted."

"And in the second?"

"There isn't a human being in that part of Norfolk would ever believe
that the body of man or beast, left within the shadow of the Black
Wood, would ever be seen or heard of again!"



                              CHAPTER IV

Mr. Mangan, on their way into the grill room, loitered for a few
minutes in the small reception room, chatting with some acquaintances,
whilst his host, having spoken to the /maitre d'hotel/ and ordered a
cocktail from a passing waiter, stood with his hands behind his back,
watching the inflow of men and women with all that interest which one
might be supposed to feel in one's fellows after a prolonged absence.
He had moved a little to one side to allow a party of young people to
make their way through the crowded chamber, when he was conscious of a
woman standing alone on the topmost of the three thickly carpeted
stairs. Their eyes met, and hers, which had been wandering around the
room as though in search of some acquaintance, seemed instantly and
fervently held. To the few loungers about the room, ignorant of any
special significance in that studied contemplation of the man on the
part of the woman, their two personalities presented an agreeable,
almost a fascinating study. Dominey was six feet two in height and had
to its fullest extent the natural distinction of his class, together
with the half military, half athletic bearing which seemed to have
been so marvellously restored to him. His complexion was no more than
becomingly tanned; his slight moustache, trimmed very close to the
upper lip, was of the same ruddy brown shade as his sleekly brushed
hair. The woman, who had commenced now to move slowly towards him,
save that her cheeks, at that moment, at any rate, were almost
unnaturally pale, was of the same colouring. Her red-gold hair gleamed
beneath her black hat. She was tall, a Grecian type of figure, large
without being coarse, majestic though still young. She carried a
little dog under one arm and a plain black silk bag, on which was a
coronet in platinum and diamonds, in the other hand. The major-domo
who presided over the room, watching her approach, bowed with more
than his usual urbanity. Her eyes, however, were still fixed upon the
person who had engaged so large a share of her attention. She came
towards him, her lips a little parted.

"Leopold!" she faltered. "The Holy Saints, why did you not let me
know!"

Dominey bowed very slightly. His words seemed to have a cut and dried
flavour.

"I am so sorry," he replied, "but I fear that you make a mistake. My
name is not Leopold."

She stood quite still, looking at him with the air of not having heard
a word of his polite disclaimer.

"In London, of all places," she murmured. "Tell me, what does it
mean?"

"I can only repeat, madam," he said, "that to my very great regret I
have not the honour of your acquaintance."

She was puzzled, but absolutely unconvinced.

"You mean to deny that you are Leopold Von Ragastein?" she asked
incredulously. "You do not know me?"

"Madam," he answered, "it is not my great pleasure. My name is Dominey
--Everard Dominey."

She seemed for a moment to be struggling with some embarrassment which
approached emotion. Then she laid her fingers upon his sleeve and drew
him to a more retired corner of the little apartment.

"Leopold," she whispered, "nothing can make it wrong or indiscreet for
you to visit me. My address is 17, Belgrave Square. I desire to see
you to-night at seven o'clock."

"But, my dear lady," Dominey began--

Her eyes suddenly glowed with a new light.

"I will not be trifled with," she insisted. "If you wish to succeed in
whatever scheme you have on hand, you must not make an enemy of me. I
shall expect you at seven o'clock."

She passed away from him into the restaurant. Mr. Mangan, now freed
from his friends, rejoined his host, and the two men took their places
at the side table to which they were ushered with many signs of
attention.

"Wasn't that the Princess Eiderstrom with whom you were talking?" the
solicitor asked curiously.

"A lady addressed me by mistake," Dominey explained. "She mistook me,
curiously enough, for a man who used to be called my double at Oxford.
Sigismund Devinter he was then, although I think he came into a title
later on."

"The Princess is quite a famous personage," Mr. Mangan remarked, "one
of the richest widows in Europe. Her husband was killed in a duel some
six or seven years ago."

Dominey ordered the luncheon with care, slipping into a word or two of
German once to assist the waiter, who spoke English with difficulty.
His companion smiled.

"I see that you have not forgotten your languages out there in the
wilds."

"I had no chance to," Dominey answered. "I spent five years on the
borders of German East Africa, and I traded with some of the fellows
there regularly."

"By the by," Mr. Mangan enquired, "what sort of terms are we on with
the Germans out there?"

"Excellent, I should think," was the careless reply. "I never had any
trouble."

"Of course," the lawyer continued, "this will all be new to you, but
during the last few years Englishmen have become divided into two
classes--the people who believe that the Germans wish to go to war and
crush us, and those who don't."

"Then since my return the number of the 'don'ts' has been increased by
one."

"I am amongst the doubtfuls myself," Mr. Mangan remarked. "All the
same, I can't quite see what Germany wants with such an immense army,
and why she is continually adding to her fleet."

Dominey paused for a moment to discuss the matter of a sauce with the
head waiter. He returned to the subject a few minutes later on,
however.

"Of course," he pointed out, "my opinions can only come from a study
of the newspapers and from conversations with such Germans as I have
met out in Africa, but so far as her army is concerned, I should have
said that Russia and France were responsible for that, and the more
powerful it is, the less chance of any European conflagration. Russia
might at any time come to the conclusion that a war is her only
salvation against a revolution, and you know the feeling in France
about Alsace-Lorraine as well as I do. The Germans themselves say that
there is more interest in military matters and more progress being
made in Russia to-day than ever before."

"I have no doubt that you are right," agreed Mr. Mangan. "It is a
matter which is being a great deal discussed just now, however. Let us
speak of your personal plans. What do you intend to do for the next
few weeks, say? Have you been to see any of your relatives yet?"

"Not one," Dominey replied. "I am afraid that I am not altogether keen
about making advances."

Mr. Mangan coughed. "You must remember that during the period of your
last residence in London," he said, "you were in a state of chronic
impecuniosity. No doubt that rather affected the attitude of some of
those who would otherwise have been more friendly."

"I should be perfectly content never to see one of them again,"
declared Dominey, with perfect truth.

"That, of course, is impossible," the lawyer protested. "You must go
and see the Duchess, at any rate. She was always your champion."

"The Duchess was always very kind to me," Dominey admitted doubtfully,
"but I am afraid she was rather fed up before I left England."

Mr. Mangan smiled. He was enjoying a very excellent lunch, which it
seemed hard to believe was ordered by a man just home from the wilds
of Africa, and he thoroughly enjoyed talking about duchesses.

"Her Grace," he began--

"Well?"

The lawyer had paused, with his eyes glued upon the couple at a
neighbouring table. He leaned across towards his companion.

"The Duchess herself, Sir Everard, just behind you, with Lord St.
Omar."

"This place must certainly be the rendezvous of all the world,"
Dominey declared, as he held out his hand to a man who had approached
their table. "Seaman, my friend, welcome! Let me introduce you to my
friend and legal adviser, Mr. Mangan--Mr. Seaman."

Mr. Seaman was a short, fat man, immaculately dressed in most
conventional morning attire. He was almost bald, except for a little
tuft on either side, and a few long, fair hairs carefully brushed back
over a shining scalp. His face was extraordinarily round except
towards his chin, where it came to a point; his eyes bright and keen,
his mouth the mouth of a professional humourist. He shook hands with
the lawyer with an /empressement/ which was scarcely English.

"Within the space of half an hour," Dominey continued, "I find a
princess who desires to claim my acquaintance; a cousin," he dropped
his voice a little, "who lunches only a few tables away, and the man
of whom I have seen the most during the last ten years amidst scenes a
little different from these, eh, Seaman?"

Seaman accepted the chair which the waiter had brought and sat down.
The lawyer was immediately interested.

"Do I understand, then," he asked, addressing the newcomer, "that you
knew Sir Everard in Africa?"

Seaman beamed. "Knew him?" he repeated, and with the first words of
his speech the fact of his foreign nationality was established. "There
was no one of whom I knew so much. We did business together--a great
deal of business--and when we were not partners, Sir Everard generally
got the best of it."

Dominey laughed. "Luck generally comes to a man either early or late
in life. My luck came late. I think, Seaman, that you must have been
my mascot. Nothing went wrong with me during the years that we did
business together."

Seaman was a little excited. He brushed upright with the palm of his
hand one of those little tufts of hair left on the side of his head,
and he laid his plump fingers upon the lawyer's shoulder.

"Mr. Mangan," he said, "you listen to me. I sell this man the
controlling interests in a mine, shares which I have held for four and
a half years and never drew a penny dividend. I sell them to him, I
say, at par. Well, I need the money and it seems to me that I had
given the shares a fair chance. Within five weeks--five weeks, sir,"
he repeated, struggling to attune his voice to his civilised
surroundings, "those shares had gone from par to fourteen and a half.
To-day they stand at twenty. He gave me five thousand pounds for those
shares. To-day he could walk into your stock market and sell them for
one hundred thousand. That is the way money is made in Africa, Mr.
Mangan, where innocents like me are to be found every day."

Dominey poured out a glass of wine and passed it to their visitor.

"Come," he said, "we all have our ups and downs. Africa owes you
nothing, Seaman."

"I have done well in my small way," Seaman admitted, fingering the
stem of his wineglass, "but where I have had to plod, Sir Everard here
has stood and commanded fate to pour her treasures into his lap."

The lawyer was listening with a curious interest and pleasure to this
half bantering conversation. He found an opportunity now to intervene.

"So you two were really friends in Africa?" he remarked, with a queer
and almost inexplicable sense of relief.

"If Sir Everard permits our association to be so called," Seaman
replied. "We have done business together in the great cities--in
Johannesburg and Pretoria, in Kimberley and Cape Town--and we have
prospected together in the wild places. We have trekked the veldt and
been lost to the world for many months at a time. We have seen the
real wonders of Africa together, as well as her tawdry civilisation."

"And you, too," Mr. Mangan asked, "have you retired?"

Seaman's smile was almost beatific.

"The same deal," he said, "which brought Sir Everard's fortune to
wonderful figures brought me that modest sum which I had sworn to
reach before I returned to England. It is true. I have retired from
money-making. It is now that I take up again my real life's work."

"If you are going to talk about your hobby," Dominey observed, "you
had better order them to serve your lunch here."

"I had finished my lunch before you came in," his friend replied. "I
drink another glass of wine with you, perhaps. Afterwards a liqueur--
who can say? In this climate one is favoured, one can drink freely.
Sir Everard and I, Mr. Mangan, have been in places where thirst is a
thing to be struggled against, where for months a little weak brandy
and water was our chief dissipation."

"Tell me about this hobby?" the lawyer enquired.

Dominey intervened promptly. "I protest. If he begins to talk of that,
he'll be here all the afternoon."

Seaman held out his hands and rolled his head from side to side.

"But I am not so unreasonable," he objected. "Just one word--so? Very
well, then," he proceeded quickly, with the air of one fearing
interruption. "This must be clear to you, Mr. Mangan. I am a German by
birth, naturalised in England for the sake of my business, loving
Germany, grateful to England. One third of my life I have lived in
Berlin, one third at Forest Hill here in London, and in the city, one
third in Africa. I have watched the growth of commercial rivalries and
jealousies between the two nations. There is no need for them. They
might lead to worse things. I would brush them all away. My aim is to
encourage a league for the promotion of more cordial social and
business relations between the people of Great Britain and the people
of the German Empire. There! Have I wasted much of your time? Can I
not speak of my hobby without a flood of words?"

"Conciseness itself," Mangan admitted, "and I compliment you most
heartily upon your scheme. If you can get the right people into it, it
should prove a most valuable society."

"In Germany I have the right people. All Germans who live for their
country and feel for their country loathe the thought of war. We want
peace, we want friends, and, to speak as man to man," he concluded,
tapping the lawyer upon the coat sleeve, "England is our best
customer."

"I wish one could believe," the latter remarked, "that yours was the
popular voice in your country."

Seaman rose reluctantly to his feet.

"At half-past two," he announced, glancing at his watch, "I have an
appointment with a woollen manufacturer from Bradford. I hope to get
him to join my council."

He bowed ceremoniously to the lawyer, nodded to Dominey with the
familiarity of an old friend, and made his bustling, good-humoured way
out of the room.

"A sound business man, I should think," was the former's comment. "I
wish him luck with his League. You yourself, Sir Everard, will need to
develop some new interests. Why not politics?"

"I really expect to find life a little difficult at first," admitted
Dominey, with a shrug of his shoulders. "I have lost many of the
tastes of my youth, and I am very much afraid that my friends over
here will call me colonial. I can't fancy myself doing nothing down in
Norfolk all the rest of my days. Perhaps I shall go into Parliament."

"You must forgive my saying," his companion declared impulsively,
"that I never knew ten years make such a difference in a man in my
life."

"The colonies," Dominey pronounced, "are a kill or cure sort of
business. You either take your drubbing and come out a stronger man,
or you go under. I had the very narrowest escape from going under
myself, but I just pulled together in time. To-day I wouldn't have
been without my hard times for anything in the world."

"If you will permit me," Mr. Mangan said, with an inherited pomposity,
"on our first meeting under the new conditions, I should like to offer
you my hearty congratulations, not only upon what you have
accomplished but upon what you have become."

"And also, I hope," Dominey rejoined, smiling a little seriously and
with a curious glint in his eyes, "upon what I may yet accomplish."

The Duchess and her companion had risen to their feet, and the former,
on her way out, recognising her solicitor, paused graciously.

"How do you do, Mr. Mangan?" she said. "I hope you are looking after
those troublesome tenants of mine in Leicestershire?"

"We shall make our report in due course, Duchess," Mangan assured her.
"Will you permit me," he added, "to bring back to your memory a
relative who has just returned from abroad--Sir Everard Dominey?"

Dominey had risen to his feet a moment previously and now extended his
hand. The Duchess, who was a tall, graceful woman, with masses of fair
hair only faintly interspersed with gray, very fine brown eyes, the
complexion of a girl, and, to quite her own confession, the manners of
a kitchen maid, stared at him for a moment without any response.

"Sir Everard Dominey?" she repeated. "Everard? Ridiculous!"

Dominey's extended hand was at once withdrawn, and the tentative smile
faded from his lips. The lawyer plunged into the breach.

"I can assure your Grace," he insisted earnestly, "that there is no
doubt whatever about Sir Everard's identity. He only returned from
Africa during the last few days."

The Duchess's incredulity remained, wholly good-natured but ministered
to by her natural obstinacy.

"I simply cannot bring myself to believe it," she declared. "Come,
I'll challenge you. When did we meet last?"

"At Worcester House," was the prompt reply. "I came to say good-bye to
you."

The Duchess was a little staggered. Her eyes softened, a faint smile
played at the corners of her lips. She was suddenly a very attractive
looking woman.

"You came to say good-bye," she repeated, "and?"

"I am to take that as a challenge?" Dominey asked, standing very
upright and looking her in the eyes.

"As you will."

"You were a little kinder to me," he continued, "than you are to-day.
You gave me--this," he added, drawing a small picture from his
pocketbook, "and you permitted--"

"For heaven's sake, put that thing away," she cried, "and don't say
another word! There's my grown-up nephew, St. Omar, paying his bill
almost within earshot. Come and see me at half-past three this
afternoon, and don't be a minute late. And, St. Omar," she went on,
turning to the young man who stood now by her side, "this is a
connection of yours--Sir Everard Dominey. He is a terrible person, but
do shake hands with him and come along. I am half an hour late for my
dressmaker already."

Lord St. Omar chuckled vaguely, then shook hands with his new-found
relative, nodded affably to the lawyer and followed his aunt out of
the room. Mangan's expression was beatific.

"Sir Everard," he exclaimed, "God bless you! If ever a woman got what
she deserved! I've seen a duchess blush--first time in my life!"



                              CHAPTER V

Worcester House was one of those semi-palatial residences set down
apparently for no reason whatever in the middle of Regent's Park. It
had been acquired by a former duke at the instigation of the Regent,
who was his intimate friend, and retained by later generations in mute
protest against the disfiguring edifices which had made a
millionaire's highway of Park Lane. Dominey, who was first scrutinised
by an individual in buff waistcoat and silk hat at the porter's lodge,
was interviewed by a major-domo in the great stone hall, conducted
through an extraordinarily Victorian drawing-room by another myrmidon
in a buff waistcoat, and finally ushered into a tiny little boudoir
leading out of a larger apartment and terminating in a conservatory
filled with sweet-smelling exotics. The Duchess, who was reclining in
an easy-chair, held out her hand, which her visitor raised to his
lips. She motioned him to a seat by her side and once more scrutinised
him with unabashed intentness.

"There's something wrong about you, you know," she declared.

"That seems very unfortunate," he rejoined, "when I return to find you
wholly unchanged."

"Not bad," she remarked critically. "All the same, I have changed. I
am not in the least in love with you any longer."

"It was the fear of that change in you," he sighed, "which kept me for
so long in the furthest corners of the world."

She looked at him with a severity which was obviously assumed.

"Look here," she said, "it is better for us to have a perfectly clear
understanding upon one point. I know the exact position of your
affairs, and I know, too, that the two hundred a year which your
lawyer has been sending out to you came partly out of a few old trees
and partly out of his own pocket. How you are going to live over here
I cannot imagine, but it isn't the least use expecting Henry to do a
thing for you. The poor man has scarcely enough pocket money to pay
his travelling expenses when he goes lecturing."

"Lecturing?" Dominey repeated. "What's happened to poor Henry?"

"My husband is an exceedingly conscientious man," was the dignified
reply. "He goes from town to town with Lord Roberts and a secretary,
lecturing on national defence."

"Dear Henry was always a little cranky, wasn't he?" Dominey observed.
"Let me put your mind at rest on that other matter, though, Caroline.
I can assure you that I have come back to England not to borrow money
but to spend it."

His cousin shook her head mournfully. "And a few minutes ago I was
nearly observing that you had lost your sense of humour!"

"I am in earnest," he persisted. "Africa has turned out to be my
Eldorado. Quite unexpectedly, I must admit, I came in for a
considerable sum of money towards the end of my stay there. I am
paying off the mortgages at Dominey at once, and I want Henry to jot
down on paper at once those few amounts he was good enough to lend me
in the old days."

Caroline, Duchess of Worcester, sat perfectly still for a moment with
her mouth open, a condition which was entirely natural but unbecoming.

"And you mean to tell me that you really are Everard Dominey?" she
exclaimed.

"The weight of evidence is rather that way," he murmured.

He moved his chair deliberately a little nearer, took her hand and
raised it to his lips. Her face was perilously near to his. She drew a
little back--and too abruptly.

"My dear Everard," she whispered, "Henry is in the house! Besides--
Yes, I suppose you must be Everard. Just now there was something in
your eyes exactly like his. But you are so stiff. Have you been
drilling out there or anything?"

He shook his head.

"One spends half one's time in the saddle."

"And you are really well off?" she asked again wonderingly.

"If I had stayed there another year," he replied, "and been able to
marry a Dutch Jewess, I should have qualified for Park Lane."

She sighed.

"It's too wonderful. Henry will love having his money back."

"And you?"

She looked positively distressed.

"You've lost all your manners," she complained. "You make love like a
garden rake. You should have leaned towards me with a quiver in your
voice when you said those last two words, and instead of that you look
as though you were sitting at attention, with a positive glint of
steel in your eyes."

"One sees a woman once in a blue moon out there," he pleaded.

She shook her head. "You've changed. It was a sixth sense with you to
make love in exactly the right tone, to say exactly the right thing in
the right manner."

"I shall pick it up," he declared hopefully, "with a little
assistance."

She made a little grimace.

"You won't want an old woman like me to assist you, Everard. You'll
have the town at your feet. You'll be able to frivol with musical
comedy, flirt with our married beauties, or--I'm sorry, Everard, I
forgot."

"You forgot what?" he asked steadfastly.

"I forgot the tragedy which finally drove you abroad. I forgot your
marriage. Is there any change in your wife?"

"Not much, I am afraid."

"And Mr. Mangan--he thinks that you are safe over here?"

"Perfectly."

She looked at him earnestly. Perhaps she had never admitted, even to
herself, how fond she had been of this scapegrace cousin.

"You'll find that no one will have a word to say against you," she
told him, "now that you are wealthy and regenerate. They'll forget
everything you want them to. When will you come and dine here and meet
all your relatives?"

"Whenever you are kind enough to ask me," he answered. "I thought of
going down to Dominey to-morrow."

She looked at him with a new thing in her eyes--something of fear,
something, too, of admiration.

"But--your wife?"

"She is there, I believe," he said. "I cannot help it. I have been an
exile from my home long enough."

"Don't go," she begged suddenly. "Why not be brave and have her
removed. I know how tender-hearted you are, but you have your future
and your career to consider. For her sake, too, you ought not to give
her the opportunity--"

Dominey could never make up his mind whether the interruption which
came at that moment was welcome or otherwise. Caroline suddenly broke
off in her speech and glanced warningly towards the larger room. A
tall, grey-haired man, dressed in old-fashioned clothes and wearing a
pince-nez, had lifted the curtains. He addressed the Duchess in a
thin, reedy voice.

"My dear Caroline," he began,--"ah, you must forgive me. I did not
know that you were engaged. We will not stay, but I should like to
present to you a young friend of mine who is going to help me at the
meeting this evening."

"Do bring him in," his wife replied, her voice once more attuned to
its natural drawl. "And I have a surprise for you too, Henry--a very
great surprise, I think you will find it!"

Dominey rose to his feet--a tall, commanding figure--and stood waiting
the approach of the newcomer. The Duke advanced, looking at him
enquiringly. A young man, very obviously a soldier in mufti, was
hovering in the background.

"I must plead guilty to the surprise," the Duke confessed courteously.
"There is something exceedingly familiar about your face, sir, but I
cannot remember having had the privilege of meeting you."

"You see," Caroline observed, "I am not the only one, Everard, who did
not accept you upon a glance. This is Everard Dominey, Henry, returned
from foreign exile and regenerated in every sense of the word."

"How do you do?" Dominey said, holding out his hand. "I seem to be
rather a surprise to every one, but I hope you haven't quite forgotten
me."

"God bless my soul!" the Duke exclaimed. "You don't mean to say that
you're really Everard Dominey?"

"I am he, beyond a doubt," was the calm assurance.

"Most amazing!" the Duke declared, as he shook hands. "Most amazing! I
never saw such a change in my life. Yes, yes, I see--same complexion,
of course--nose and eyes--yes, yes! But you seem taller, and you carry
yourself like a soldier. Dear, dear me! Africa has done wonderfully by
you. Delighted, my dear Everard! Delighted!"

"You'll be more delighted still when you hear the rest of the news,"
his wife remarked drily. "In the meantime, do present your friend."

"Precisely so," the Duke acquiesced, turning to the young man in the
background. "Most sorry, my dear Captain Bartram. The unexpected
return of a connection of my wife must be my apology for this lapse of
manners. Let me present you to the Duchess. Captain Bartram is just
back from Germany, my dear, and is an enthusiastic supporter of our
cause.-- Sir Everard Dominey."

Caroline shook hands kindly with her husband's protege, and Dominey
exchanged a solemn handshake with him.

"You, too, are one of those, then, Captain Bartram, who are convinced
that Germany has evil designs upon us?" the former said, smiling.

"I have just returned from Germany after twelve months' stay there,"
the young soldier replied. "I went with an open mind. I have come back
convinced that we shall be at war with Germany within a couple of
years."

The Duke nodded vigorously.

"Our young friend is right," he declared. "Three times a week for many
months I have been drumming the fact into the handful of wooden-headed
Englishmen who have deigned to come to our meetings. I have made
myself a nuisance to the House of Lords and the Press. It is a
terrible thing to realise how hard it is to make an Englishman
reflect, so long as he is making money and having a good time.-- You
are just back from Africa, Everard?"

"Within a week, sir."

"Did you see anything of the Germans out there? Were you anywhere near
their Colony?"

"I have been in touch with them for some years," Dominey replied.

"Most interesting!" his questioner exclaimed. "You may be of service
to us, Everard. You may, indeed! Now tell me, isn't it true that they
have secret agents out there, trying to provoke unsettlement and
disquiet amongst the Boers? Isn't it true that they apprehend a war
with England before very long and are determined to stir up the Colony
against us?"

"I am very sorry," Dominey replied, "but I am not a politician in any
shape or form. All the Germans whom I have met out there seem a most
peaceful race of men, and there doesn't seem to be the slightest
discontent amongst the Boers or any one else."

The Duke's face fell. "This is very surprising."

"The only people who seem to have any cause for discontent," Dominey
continued, "are the English settlers. I didn't commence to do any good
myself there till a few years ago, but I have heard some queer stories
about the way our own people were treated after the war."

"What you say about South Africa, Sir Everard," the young soldier
remarked, "is naturally interesting, but I am bound to say that it is
in direct opposition to all I have heard."

"And I," the Duke echoed fervently.

"I have lived there for the last eleven years," Dominey continued,
"and although I spent the earlier part of that time trekking after big
game, lately I am bound to confess that every thought and energy I
possess have been centered upon money-making. For that reason,
perhaps, my observations may have been at fault. I shall claim the
privilege of coming to one of your first meetings, Duke, and of trying
to understand this question."

His august connection blinked at him a little curiously for a moment
behind his glasses.

"My dear Everard," he said, "forgive my remarking it, but I find you
more changed than I could have believed possible."

"Everard is changed in more ways than one," his wife observed, with
faint irony.

Dominey, who had risen to leave, bent over her hand.

"What about my dinner party, sir?" she added.

"As soon as I return from Norfolk," he replied.

"Dominey Hall will really find you?" she asked a little curiously.

"Most certainly!"

There was again that little flutter of fear in her eyes, followed by a
momentary flash of admiration. Dominey shook hands gravely with his
host and nodded to Bertram. The servant whom the Duchess had summoned
stood holding the curtains on one side.

"I shall hope to see you again shortly, Duke," Dominey said, as he
completed his leave-taking. "There is a little matter of business to
be adjusted between us. You will probably hear from Mr. Mangan in a
day or two."

The Duke gazed after the retreating figure of this very amazing
visitor. When the curtains had fallen he turned to his wife.

"A little matter of business," he repeated. "I hope you have explained
to Everard, my dear, that although, of course, we are very glad to see
him back again, it is absolutely hopeless for him to look to me for
any financial assistance at the present moment."

Caroline smiled.

"Everard was alluding to the money he already owes you," she
explained. "He intends to repay it at once. He is also paying off the
Dominey mortgages. He has apparently made a fortune in Africa."

The Duke collapsed into an easy-chair.

"Everard pay his debts?" he exclaimed. "Everard Dominey pay off the
mortgages?"

"That is what I understand," his wife acquiesced.

The Duke clutched at the last refuge of a weak but obstinate man. His
mouth came together like a rat-trap.

"There's something wrong about it somewhere," he declared.



                              CHAPTER VI

Dominey spent a very impatient hour that evening in his sitting-room
at the Carlton, waiting for Seaman. It was not until nearly seven that
the latter appeared.

"Are you aware," Dominey asked him, "that I am expected to call upon
the Princess Eiderstrom at seven o'clock?"

"I have your word for it," Seaman replied, "but I see no tragedy in
the situation. The Princess is a woman of sense and a woman of
political insight. While I cannot recommend you to take her entirely
into your confidence, I still think that a middle course can be
judiciously pursued."

"Rubbish!" Dominey exclaimed. "As Leopold Von Ragastein, the Princess
has indisputable claims upon me and my liberty, claims which would
altogether interfere with the career of Everard Dominey."

With methodical neatness, Seaman laid his hat, gloves and walking
stick upon the sideboard. He then looked into the connecting bedroom,
closed and fastened the door and extended himself in an easy-chair.

"Sit opposite to me, my friend," he said. "We will talk together."

Dominey obeyed a little sullenly. His companion, however, ignored his
demeanour.

"Now, my friend," he said, beating upon the palm of one hand with the
forefinger of his other, "I am a man of commerce and I do things in a
business way. Let us take stock of our position. Three months ago this
very week, we met by appointment at a certain hotel in Cape Town."

"Only three months," Dominey muttered.

"We were unknown to one another," Seaman continued. "I had only heard
of the Baron Von Ragastein as a devoted German citizen and patriot,
engaged in an important enterprise in East Africa by special
intercession of the Kaiser, on account of a certain unfortunate
happening in Hungary."

"I killed a man in a duel," Dominey said slowly, with his eyes fixed
upon his companion's. "It was not an unforgivable act."

"There are duels and duels. A fight between two young men, in defence
of the honour of or to gain the favour of a young lady in their own
station of life, has never been against the conventions of the Court.
On the other hand, to become the lover of the wife of one of the
greatest nobles in Hungary, and to secure possession by killing the
husband in the duel which his honour makes a necessity is looked upon
very differently."

"I had no wish to kill the Prince," Dominey protested, "nor was it at
my desire that we met at all. The Prince fought like a madman and
slipped, after a wild lunge, on to the point of my stationary sword."

"Let that pass," Seaman said. "I am not of your order and I probably
do not understand the etiquette of these matters. I simply look upon
you as a culprit in the eyes of our master, and I feel that he has a
right to demand from you much in the way of personal sacrifice."

"Perhaps you will tell me," Dominey demanded, "what more he would
have? I have spent weary years in a godless and fever-ridden country,
raising up for our arms a great troop of natives. I have undertaken
other political commissions in the Colony which may bear fruit. I am
to take up the work for which I was originally intended, for which I
was given an English education. I am to repair to England, and, under
such identity as I might assume after consultation with you at Cape
Town, I am to render myself so far as possible a /persona grata/ in
that country. I do not wait for our meeting. I see a great chance and
I make use of it. I transform myself into an English country
gentleman, and I think you will admit that I have done so with great
success."

"All that you say is granted," Seaman agreed. "You met me at Cape Town
in your new identity, and you certainly seemed to wear it wonderfully.
You have made it uncommonly expensive, but we do not grudge money."

"I could not return home to a poverty-stricken domain," Dominey
pointed out. "I should have held no place whatever in English social
life, and I should have received no welcome from those with whom I
imagine you desire me to stand well."

"Again I make no complaints," Seaman declared. "There is no bottom to
our purse, nor any stint. Neither must there be any stint to our
loyalty," he added gravely.

"In this instance," Dominey protested, "it is not a matter of loyalty.
Everard Dominey cannot throw himself at the feet of the Princess
Eiderstrom, well-known to be one of the most passionate women in
Europe, whilst her love affair with Leopold Von Ragastein is still
remembered. Remember that the question of our identities might crop up
any day. We were friends over here in England, at school and at
college, and there are many who still remember the likeness between
us. Perfectly though I may play my part, here and there there may be
doubts. There will be doubts no longer if I am to be dragged at the
chariot wheels of the Princess."

Seaman was silent for a moment.

"There is reason in what you say," he admitted presently. "It is for a
few months only. What is your proposition?"

"That you see the Princess in my place at once," Dominey suggested
eagerly. "Point out to her that for the present, for political
reasons, I am and must remain Everard Dominey, to her as to the rest
of the world. Let her be content with such measure of friendship and
admiration as Sir Everard Dominey might reasonably offer to a
beautiful woman whom he met to-day for the first time, and I am
entirely and with all my heart at her service. But let her remember
that even between us two, in the solitude of her room as in the
drawing-room where we might meet, it can be Everard Dominey only until
my mission is ended. You think, perhaps, that I lay unnecessary stress
upon this. I do not. I know the Princess and I know myself."

Seaman glanced at the clock. "At what hour was your appointment?"

"It was not an appointment, it was a command," Dominey replied. "I was
told to be at Belgrave Square at seven o'clock."

"I will have an understanding with the Princess," promised Seaman, as
he took up his hat. "Dine with me downstairs at eight o'clock on my
return."



Dominey, descending about an hour later, found his friend Seaman
already established at a small, far-away table set in one of the
recesses of the grill room. He was welcomed with a little wave of the
hand, and cocktails were at once ordered.

"I have done your errand," Seaman announced. "Since my visit I am
bound to admit that I realise a little more fully your anxiety."

"You probably had not met the Princess before?"

"I had not. I must confess that I found her a lady of somewhat
overpowering temperament. I fancy, my young friend," Seaman continued,
with a twitch at the corner of his lips, "that somewhere about August
next year you will find your hands full."

"August next year can take care of itself," was the cool reply.

"In the meantime," Seaman continued, "the Princess understands the
situation and is, I think, impressed. She will at any rate do nothing
rash. You and she will meet within the course of the next few hours,
but on reasonable terms. To proceed! As I drove back here after my
interview with the Princess, I decided that it was time you made the
acquaintance of the person who is chiefly responsible for your
presence here."

"Terniloff?"

"Precisely! You have maintained, my young friend," Seaman went on
after a brief pause, during which one waiter had brought their
cocktails and another received their order for dinner, "a very
discreet and laudable silence with regard to those further
instructions which were promised to you immediately you should arrive
in London. Those instructions will never be committed to writing. They
are here."

Seaman touched his forehead and drained the remaining contents of his
glass.

"My instructions are to trust you absolutely," Dominey observed, "and,
until the greater events stir, to concentrate the greater part of my
energies in leading the natural life of the man whose name and place I
have taken."

"Quite so," Seaman acquiesced.

He glanced around the room for a moment or two, as though interested
in the people. Satisfied at last that there was no chance of being
overheard, he continued:

"The first idea you have to get out of your head, my dear friend, if
it is there, is that you are a spy. You are nothing of the sort. You
are not connected with our remarkably perfect system of espionage in
the slightest degree. You are a free agent in all that you may choose
to say or do. You can believe in Germany or fear her--whichever you
like. You can join your cousin's husband in his crusade for National
Service, or you can join me in my efforts to cement the bonds of
friendship and affection between the citizens of the two countries. We
really do not care in the least. Choose your own part. Give yourself
thoroughly into the life of Sir Everard Dominey, Baronet, of Dominey
Hall, Norfolk, and pursue exactly the course which you think Sir
Everard himself would be likely to take."

"This," Dominey admitted, "is very broad-minded."

"It is common sense," was the prompt reply. "With all your ability,
you could not in six months' time appreciably affect the position
either way. Therefore, we choose to have you concentrate the whole of
your energies upon one task and one task only. If there is anything of
the spy about your mission here, it is not England or the English
which are to engage your attention. We require you to concentrate
wholly and entirely upon Terniloff."

Dominey was startled.

"Terniloff?" he repeated. "I expected to work with him, but--"

"Empty your mind of all preconceived ideas," Seaman enjoined. "What
your duties are with regard to Terniloff will grow upon you gradually
as the situation develops."

"As yet," Dominey remarked, "I have not even made his acquaintance."

"I was on the point of telling you, earlier in our conversation, that
I have made an appointment for you to see him at eleven o'clock
to-night at the Embassy. You will go to him at that hour. Remember,
you know nothing, you are waiting for instructions. Let speech remain
with him alone. Be particularly careful not to drop him a hint of your
knowledge of what is coming. You will find him absolutely satisfied
with the situation, absolutely content. Take care not to disturb him.
He is a missioner of peace. So are you."

"I begin to understand," Dominey said thoughtfully.

"You shall understand everything when the time comes for you to take a
hand," Seaman promised, "and do not in your zeal forget, my friend,
that your utility to our great cause will depend largely upon your
being able to establish and maintain your position as an English
gentleman. So far all has gone well?"

"Perfectly, so far as I am concerned," Dominey replied. "You must
remember, though, that there is your end to keep up. Berlin will be
receiving frantic messages from East Africa as to my disappearance.
Not even my immediate associates were in the secret."

"That is all understood," Seaman assured his companion. "A little
doctor named Schmidt has spent many marks of the Government money in
frantic cables. You must have endeared yourself to him."

"He was a very faithful associate."

"He has been a very troublesome friend. It seems that the natives got
their stories rather mixed up concerning your namesake, who apparently
died in the bush, and Schmidt continually emphasised your promise to
let him hear from Cape Town. However, all this has been dealt with
satisfactorily. The only real dangers are over here, and so far you
seem to have encountered the principal ones."

"I have at any rate been accepted," Dominey declared, "by my nearest
living relative, and incidentally I have discovered the one far-seeing
person in England who knows what is in store for us."

Seaman was momentarily anxious.

"Whom do you mean?"

"The Duke of Worcester, my cousin's husband, of whom you were speaking
just now."

The little man's face relaxed.

"He reminds me of the geese who saved the Capitol," he said, "a
brainless man obsessed with one idea. It is queer how often these
fanatics discover the truth. That reminds me," he added, taking a
small memorandum book from his waistcoat pocket and glancing it
through. "His Grace has a meeting to-night at the Holborn Town Hall. I
shall make one of my usual interruptions."

"If he has so small a following, why don't you leave him alone?"
Dominey enquired.

"There are others associated with him," was the placid reply, "who are
not so insignificant. Besides, when I interrupt I advertise my own
little hobby."

"These--we English are strange people," Dominey remarked, glancing
around the room after a brief but thoughtful pause. "We advertise and
boast about our colossal wealth, and yet we are incapable of the
slightest self-sacrifice in order to preserve it. One would have
imagined that our philosophers, our historians, would warn us in
irresistible terms, by unanswerable scientific deduction, of what was
coming."

"My compliments to your pronouns," Seaman murmured, with a little bow.
Apropos of what you were saying, you will never make an Englishman--I
beg your pardon, one of your countrymen--realise anything unpleasant.
He prefers to keep his head comfortably down in the sand. But to leave
generalities, when do you think of going to Norfolk?"

"Within the next few days," Dominey replied.

"I shall breathe more freely when you are securely established there,"
his companion declared. "Great things wait upon your complete
acceptance, in the country as well as in town, as Sir Everard Dominey.
You are sure that you perfectly understand your position there as
regards your--er--domestic affairs?"

"I understand all that is necessary," was the somewhat stiff reply.

"All that is necessary is not enough," Seaman rejoined irritably. "I
thought that you had wormed the whole story out of that drunken
Englishman?"

"He told me most of it. There were just one or two points which lay
beyond the limits where questioning was possible."

Seaman frowned angrily.

"In other words," he complained, "you remembered that you were a
gentleman and not that you were a German."

"The Englishman of a certain order," Dominey pronounced, "even though
he be degenerate, has a certain obstinacy, generally connected with
one particular thing, which nothing can break. We talked together on
that last night until morning; we drank wine and brandy. I tore the
story of my own exile from my breast and laid it bare before him. Yet
I knew all the time, as I know now, that he kept something back."

There was a brief pause. During the last few minutes a certain tension
had crept in between the two men. With it, their personal
characteristics seemed to have become intensified. Dominey was more
than ever the aristocrat; Seaman the plebian schemer, unabashed and
desperately in earnest. He leaned presently a little way across the
table. His eyes had narrowed but they were as bright as steel. His
teeth were more prominent than usual.

"You should have dragged it from his throat," he insisted. "It is not
your duty to nurse fine personal feelings. Heart and soul you stand
pledged to great things. I cannot at this moment give you any idea
what you may not mean to us after the trouble has come, if you are
able to play your part still in this country as Everard Dominey of
Dominey Hall. I know well enough that the sense of personal honour
amongst the Prussian aristocracy is the finest in the world, and yet
there is not a single man of your order who should not be prepared to
lie or cheat for his country's sake. You must fall into line with your
fellows. Once more, it is not only your task with regard to Terniloff
which makes your recognition as Everard Dominey so important to us. It
is the things which are to come later.-- Come, enough of this subject.
I know that you understand. We grow too serious. How shall you spend
your evening until eleven o'clock? Remember you did not leave England
an anchorite, Sir Everard. You must have your amusements. Why not try
a music hall?"

"My mind is too full of other things," Dominey objected.

"Then come with me to Holborn," the little man suggested. "It will
amuse you. We will part at the door, and you shall sit at the back of
the hall, out of sight. You shall hear the haunting eloquence of your
cousin-in-law. You shall hear him trying to warn the men and women of
England of the danger awaiting them from the great and rapacious
German nation. What do you say?"

"I will come," Dominey replied in spiritless fashion. "It will be
better than a music hall, at any rate. I am not at all sure, Seaman,
that the hardest part of my task over here will not be this necessity
for self-imposed amusements."

His companion struck the table gently but impatiently with his
clenched fist.

"Man, you are young!" he exclaimed. "You are like the rest of us. You
carry your life in your hands. Don't nourish past griefs. Cast the
memory of them away. There's nothing which narrows a man more than
morbidness. You have a past which may sometimes bring the ghosts
around you, but remember the sin was not wholly yours, and there is an
atonement which in measured fashion you may commence whenever you
please. I have said enough about that. Greatness and gaiety go hand in
hand. There! You see, I was a philosopher before I became a professor
of propaganda. Good! You smile. That is something gained, at any rate.
Now we will take a taxicab to Holborn and I will show you something
really humorous."

At the entrance to the town hall, the two men, at Seaman's
instigation, parted, making their way inside by different doors.
Dominey found a retired seat under a balcony, where he was unlikely to
be recognised from the platform. Seaman, on the other hand, took up a
more prominent position at the end of one of the front rows of
benches. The meeting was by no means overcrowded, over-enthusiastic,
over-anything. There were rows of empty benches, a good many young
couples who seemed to have come in for shelter from the inclement
night, a few sturdy, respectable-looking tradesmen who had come
because it seemed to be the respectable thing to do, a few genuinely
interested, and here and there, although they were decidedly in the
minority, a sprinkling of enthusiasts. On the platform was the Duke,
with civic dignitaries on either side of him; a distinguished soldier,
a Member of Parliament, a half-dozen or so of nondescript residents
from the neighbourhood, and Captain Bartram. The meeting was on the
point of commencement as Dominey settled down in his corner.

First of all the Duke rose, and in a few hackneyed but earnest
sentences introduced his young friend Captain Bartram. The latter, who
sprang at once into the middle of his subject, was nervous and more
than a little bitter. He explained that he had resigned his commission
and was therefore free to speak his mind. He spoke of enormous
military preparations in Germany and a general air of tense
expectation. Against whom were these preparations? Without an earthly
doubt against Germany's greatest rival, whose millions of young men,
even in this hour of danger, preferred playing or watching football or
cricket on Saturday afternoons to realising their duty. The conclusion
of an ill-pointed but earnest speech was punctuated by the furtive
entrance into the hall of a small boy selling evening newspapers, and
there was a temporary diversion from any interest in the proceedings
on the part of the younger portion of the audience, whilst they
satisfied themselves as to the result of various Cup Ties. The Member
of Parliament then descended upon them in a whirlwind of oratory and
in his best House of Commons style. He spoke of black clouds and of
the cold breeze that went before the coming thunderstorm. He pointed
to the collapse of every great nation throughout history who had
neglected the arts of self-defence. He appealed to the youth of the
nation to prepare themselves to guard their womenkind, their homes,
the sacred soil of their country, and at that point was interrupted by
a drowsy member of the audience with stentorian lungs, who seemed just
at that moment to have waked up.

"What about the Navy, guv'nor?"

The orator swept upon the interrupter in his famous platform manner.
The Navy, he declared, could be trusted at all times to do its duty,
but it could not fight on sea and land. Would the young man who had
just interrupted do his, and enroll his name for drill and national
service that evening?--and so on. The distinguished soldier, who was
suffering from a cold, fired off a few husky sentences only, to the
tune of rounds of applause. The proceedings were wound up by the Duke,
who was obviously, with the exception of the distinguished soldier,
much more in earnest than any of them, and secured upon the whole a
respectful attention. He brought in a few historical allusions,
pleaded for a greater spirit of earnestness and citizenship amongst
the men of the country, appealed even to the women to develop their
sense of responsibility, and sat down amidst a little burst of quite
enthusiastic applause.-- The vote of thanks to the chairman was on the
point of being proposed when Mr. Seaman, standing up in his place,
appealed to the chairman for permission to say a few words. The Duke,
who had had some experience with Mr. Seaman before, looked at him
severely, but the smile with which Mr. Seaman looked around upon the
audience was so good-natured and attractive, that he had no
alternative but to assent. Seaman scrambled up the steps on to the
platform, coughed apologetically, bowed to the Duke, and took
possession of the meeting. After a word or two of compliment to the
chairman, he made his confession. He was a German citizen--he was
indeed one of that bloodthirsty race. (Some laughter.) He was also,
and it was his excuse for standing there, the founder and secretary of
a league, doubtless well known to them, a league for promoting more
friendly relations between the business men of Germany and England.
Some of the remarks which he had heard that evening had pained him
deeply. Business often took him to Germany, and as a German he would
be doing less than his duty if he did not stand up there and tell them
that the average German loved the Englishman like a brother, that the
object of his life was to come into greater kinship with him, that
Germany even at that moment, was standing with hand outstretched to
her relatives across the North Sea, begging for a deeper sympathy,
begging for a larger understanding. (Applause from the audience,
murmurs of dissent from the platform.) And as to those military
preparations of which they had heard so much (with a severe glance at
Captain Bartram), let them glance for one moment at the frontiers of
Germany, let them realise that eastwards Germany was being continually
pressed by an ancient and historic foe of enormous strength. He would
not waste their time telling them of the political difficulties which
Germany had had to face during the last generation. He would simply
tell them this great truth,--the foe for whom Germany was obliged to
make these great military preparations was Russia. If ever they were
used it would be against Russia, and at Russia's instigation.-- In his
humble way he was striving for the betterment of relations between the
dearly beloved country of his birth and the equally beloved country of
his adoption. Such meetings as these, instituted, as it seemed to him,
for the propagation of unfair and unjustified suspicions, were one of
the greatest difficulties in his way. He could not for a moment doubt
that these gentlemen upon the platform were patriots. They would prove
it more profitably, both to themselves and their country, if they
abandoned their present prejudiced and harmful campaign and became
patrons of his Society.

Seaman's little bow to the chairman was good-humoured, tolerant, a
little wistful. The Duke's few words, prefaced by an indignant protest
against the intrusion of a German propagandist into an English
patriotic meeting, did nothing to undo the effect produced by this
undesired stranger. When the meeting broke up, it was doubtful whether
a single adherent had been gained to the cause of National Service.
The Duke went home full of wrath, and Seaman chuckled with genuine
merriment as he stepped into the taxi which Dominey had secured, at
the corner of the street.

"I promised you entertainment," he observed. "Confess that I have kept
my word."

Dominey smiled enigmatically. "You certainly succeeded in making fools
of a number of respectable and well-meaning men."

"The miracle of it extends further," Seaman agreed. "To-night, in its
small way, is a supreme example of the transcendental follies of
democracy. England is being slowly choked and strangled with too much
liberty. She is like a child being overfed with jam. Imagine, in our
dear country, an Englishman being allowed to mount the platform and
spout, undisturbed, English propaganda in deadly opposition to German
interests. The so-called liberty of the Englishman is like the cuckoo
in his political nest. Countries must be governed. They cannot govern
themselves. The time of war will prove all that."

"Yet in any great crisis of a nation's history," Dominey queried,
"surely there is safety in a multitude of counsellors?"

"There would be always a multitude of counsellors," Seaman replied,
"in Germany as in England. The trouble for this country is that they
would be all expressed publicly and in the press, each view would have
its adherents, and the Government be split up into factions. In
Germany, the real destinies of the country are decided in secret.
There are counsellors there, too, earnest and wise counsellors, but no
one knows their varying views. All that one learns is the result,
spoken through the lips of the Kaiser, spoken once and for all."

Dominey was showing signs of a rare interest in his companion's
conversation. His eyes were bright, his usually impassive features
seemed to have become more mobile and strained. He laid his hand on
Seaman's arm.

"Listen," he said, "we are in London, alone in a taxicab, secure
against any possible eavesdropping. You preach the advantage of our
Kaiser-led country. Do you really believe that the Kaiser is the man
for the task which is coming?"

Seaman's narrow eyes glittered. He looked at his companion in
satisfaction. His forehead was puckered, his eternal smile gone. He
was the man of intellect.

"So you are waking up from the lethargy of Africa, my friend!" he
exclaimed. "You are beginning to think. As you ask me, so shall I
answer. The Kaiser is a vain, bombastic dreamer, the greatest egotist
who ever lived, with a diseased personality, a ceaseless craving for
the limelight. But he has also the genius for government. I mean this:
he is a splendid medium for the expression of the brain power of his
counsellors. Their words will pass through his personality, and he
will believe them his. What is more, they will sound like his. He will
see himself the knight in shining armour. All Europe will bow down
before this self-imagined Caesar, and no one except we who are behind
will realise the ass's head. There is no one else in this world whom I
have ever met so well fitted to lead our great nation on to the
destiny she deserves.-- And now, my friend, to-morrow, if you like, we
will speak of these matters again. To-night, you have other things to
think about. You are going into the great places where I never
penetrate. You have an hour to change and prepare. At eleven o'clock
the Prince Von Terniloff will expect you."



                             CHAPTER VII

There had been a dinner party and a very small reception afterwards at
the great Embassy in Carlton House Terrace. The Ambassador, Prince
Terniloff, was bidding farewell to his wife's cousin, the Princess
Eiderstrom, the last of his guests. She drew him on one side for a
moment.

"Your Excellency," she said, "I have been hoping for a word with you
all the evening."

"And I with you, dear Stephanie," he answered. "It is very early. Let
us sit down for a moment."

He led her towards a settee but she shook her head.

"You have an appointment at half-past eleven," she said. "I wish you
to keep it."

"You know, then?"

"I lunched to-day at the Carleton grill room. In the reception-room I
came face to face with Leopold Von Ragastein."

The Ambassador made no remark. It seemed to be his wish to hear first
all that his companion had to say. After a moment's pause she
continued:

"I spoke to him, and he denied himself. To me! I think that those were
the most terrible seconds of my life. I have never suffered more. I
shall never suffer so much again."

"It was most unfortunate," the Prince murmured sympathetically.

"This evening," she went on, "I received a visit from a man whom I
took at first to be an insignificant member of the German bourgeoisie.
I learnt something of his true position later. He came to me to
explain that Leopold was engaged in this country on secret service,
that he was passing under the name which he gave me,--Sir Everard
Dominey, an English baronet, long lost in Africa. You know of this?"

"I know that to-night I am receiving a visit from Sir Everard
Dominey."

"He is to work under your auspices?"

"By no means," the Prince rejoined warmly. "I am not favourably
inclined towards this network of espionage. The school of diplomacy in
which I have been brought up tries to work without such ignoble
means."

"One realises that," she said. "Leopold is coming, however, to-night,
to pay his respects to you."

"He is waiting for me now in my study," the Ambassador asserted.

"You will do me the service of conveying to him a message from me,"
she continued. "This man Seaman pointed out to me the unwisdom of any
association between myself and Leopold, under present conditions. I
listened to all that he had to say. I reserved my decision. I have now
considered the matter. I will compromise with necessity. I will be
content with the acquaintance of Sir Everard Dominey, but that I will
have."

"For myself," the Ambassador reflected, "I do not even know what Von
Ragastein's mission over here is, but if in Berlin they decide that,
for the more complete preservation of his incognito, association
between you and him is undesirable--"

She laid her fingers upon his arm.

"Stop!" she ordered. "I am not of Berlin. I am not a German. I am not
even an Austrian. I am Hungarian, and though I am willing to study
your interests, I am not willing to place them before my own life. I
make terms, but I do not surrender. Those terms I will discuss with
Leopold. Ah, be kind to me!" she went on, with a sudden change of
voice. "Since these few minutes at midday I have lived in a dream.
Only one thing can quiet me. I must speak to him. I must decide with
him what I will do. You will help?"

"An acquaintance between you and Sir Everard Dominey," he admitted,
"is certainly a perfectly natural thing."

"Look at me," she begged.

He turned and looked into her face. Underneath her beautiful eyes were
dark lines; there was something pitiful about the curve of her mouth.
He remembered that although she had carried herself throughout the
evening with all the dignity which was second nature to her, he had
overheard more than one sympathetic comment upon her appearance.

"I can see that you are suffering," he remarked kindly.

"My eyes are hot, and inside I am on fire," she continued. "I must
speak to Leopold. Freda has asked me to stay and talk to her for an
hour. My car waits. Arrange that he drives me home. Oh! believe me,
dear friend, I am a very human woman, and there is nothing in the
world to be gained by treating me as though I were of wood or stone.
To-night I can see him without observation. If you refuse, I shall
take other means. I will make no promises. I will not even promise
that I will not call out before him in the streets that he is a liar,
that his life is a lie. I will call him Leopold Von Ragastein--"

"Hush!" he begged her. "Stephanie, you are nervous. I have not yet
answered your entreaty."

"You consent?"

"I consent," he promised. "After our interview, I shall bring the
young man to Freda's room and present him. You will be there. He can
offer you his escort."

She suddenly stooped and kissed his hand. An immense relief was in her
face.

"Now I will keep you no longer. Freda is waiting for me."

The Ambassador strolled thoughtfully away into his own den at the back
of the house, where Dominey was waiting for him.

"I am glad to see you," the former said, holding out his hand. "For
five minutes I desire to talk to your real self. After that, for the
rest of your time in England, I will respect your new identity."

Dominey bowed in silence. His host pointed to the sideboard.

"Come," he continued, "there are cigars and cigarettes at your elbow,
whisky and soda on the sideboard. Make yourself at home in that chair
there. Africa has rally changed you very little. Do you remember our
previous meeting, in Saxony?"

"I remember it perfectly, your Excellency."

"His Majesty knew how to keep Court in those days," the Ambassador
went on. "One was tempted to believe oneself at an English country
party. However, that much of the past. You know, of course, that I
entirely disapprove of your present position here?"

"I gathered as much, your Excellency."

"We will have no reserves with one another," the Prince declared,
lighting a cigar. "I know quite well that you form part of a network
of espionage in this country which I consider wholly unnecessary. That
is simply a question of method. I have no doubt that you are here with
the same object as I am, the object which the Kaiser has declared to
me with his own lips is nearest to his heart--to cement the bonds of
friendship between Germany and England."

"You believe, sir, that that is possible?"

"I am convinced of it," was the earnest reply. "I do not know what the
exact nature of your work over here is to be, but I am glad to have an
opportunity of putting before you my convictions. I believe that in
Berlin the character of some of the leading statesmen here has been
misunderstood and misrepresented. I find on all sides of me an earnest
and sincere desire for peace. I have convinced myself that there is
not a single statesman in this country who is desirous of war with
Germany."

Dominey was listening intently, with the air of one who hears
unexpected things.

"But, your Excellency," he ventured, "what about the matter from our
point of view? There are a great many in our country, whom you and I
know of, who look forward to a war with England as inevitable. Germany
must become, we all believe, the greatest empire in the world. She
must climb there, as one of our friends once said, with her foot upon
the neck of the British lion."

"You are out of date," the Ambassador declared earnestly. "I see now
why they sent you to me. Those days have passed. There is room in the
world for Great Britain and for Germany. The disintegration of Russia
in the near future is a certainty. It is eastward that we must look
for any great extension of territory."

"These things have been decided?"

"Absolutely! They form the soul of my mission here. My mandate is one
of peace, and the more I see of English statesmen and the more I
understand the British outlook, the more sanguine I am as to the
success of my efforts. This is why all this outside espionage with
which Seaman is so largely concerned seems to me at times unwise and
unnecessary."

"And my own mission?" Dominey enquired.

"Its nature," the Prince replied, "is not as yet divulged, but if, as
I have been given to understand, it is to become closely connected
with my own, then I am very sure you will presently find that its text
also is Peace."

Dominey rose to his feet, prepared to take his leave.

"These matters will be solved for us," he murmured.

"There is just one word more, on a somewhat more private matter,"
Terniloff said in an altered tone. "The Princess Eiderstrom is
upstairs."

"In this house?"

"Waiting for a word with you. Our friend Seaman has been with her this
evening. I understand that she is content to subscribe to the present
situation. She makes one condition, however."

"And that?"

"She insists upon it that I present Sir Everard Dominey."

The latter did not attempt to conceal his perturbation.

"I need scarcely point out to you, sir," he protested, "that any
association between the Princess and myself is likely to largely
increase the difficulties of my position here."

The Ambassador sighed.

"I quite appreciate that," he admitted. "Both Seaman and I have
endeavoured to reason with her, but, as you are doubtless aware, the
Princess is a woman of very strong will. She is also very powerfully
placed here, and it is the urgent desire of the Court at Berlin to
placate in every way the Hungarian nobility. You will understand, of
course, that I speak from a political point of view only. I cannot
ignore the fact of your unfortunate relations with the late Prince,
but in considering the present position you will, I am sure, remember
the greater interests."

His visitor was silent for a moment.

"You say that the Princess is waiting here?"

"She is with my wife and asks for your escort home. My wife also looks
forward to the pleasure of renewing her acquaintance with you."

"I shall accept your Excellency's guidance in the matter," Dominey
decided.

The Princess Terniloff was a woman of world culture, an artist, and
still an extremely attractive woman. She received the visitor whom her
husband brought to her in a very charming little room furnished after
the style of the simplest French period, and she did her best to
relieve the strain of what she understood must be a somewhat trying
moment.

"We are delighted to welcome you to London, Sir Everard Dominey," she
said, taking his hand, "and I hope that we shall often see you here. I
want to present you to my cousin, who is interested in you, I must
tell you frankly, because of your likeness to a very dear friend of
hers. Stephanie, this is Sir Everard Dominey--the Princess
Eiderstrom."

Stephanie, who was seated upon the couch from which her cousin had
just risen, held out her hand to Dominey, who made her a very low and
formal bow. Her gown was of unrelieved black. Wonderful diamonds
flashed around her neck, and she wore also a tiara fashioned after the
Hungarian style, a little low on her forehead. Her manner and tone
still indicated some measure of rebellion against the situation.

"You have forgiven me for my insistence this morning?" she asked. "It
was hard for me to believe that you were not indeed the person for
whom I mistook you."

"Other people have spoken to me of the likeness," Dominey replied. "It
is a matter of regret to me that I can claim to be no more than a
simple Norfolk baronet."

"Without any previous experience of European Courts?"

"Without any at all."

"Your German is wonderfully pure for an untravelled man."

"Languages were the sole accomplishment I brought away from my
misspent school days."

"You are not going to bury yourself in Norfolk, Sir Everard?" the
Princess Terniloff enquired.

"Norfolk is very near London these days," Dominey replied, "and I have
experienced more than my share of solitude during the last few years.
I hope to spend a portion of my time here."

"You must dine with us one night," the Princess insisted, "and tell us
about Africa. My husband would be so interested."

"You are very kind."

Stephanie rose slowly to her feet, leaned gracefully over and kissed
her hostess on both cheeks, and submitted her hand to the Prince, who
raised it to his lips. Then she turned to Dominey.

"Will you be so kind as to see me home?" she asked. "Afterwards, my
car can take you on wherever you choose to go."

"I shall be very happy," Dominey assented.

He, too, made his farewells. A servant in the hall handed him his hat
and coat, and he took his place in the car by Stephanie's side. She
touched the electric switch as they glided off. The car was in
darkness.

"I think," she murmured, "that I could not have borne another moment
of this juggling with words. Leopold--we are alone!"

He caught the flash of her jewels, the soft brilliance of her eyes as
she leaned towards him. His voice sounded, even to himself, harsh and
strident.

"You mistake, Princess. My name is not Leopold. I am Everard Dominey."

"Oh, I know that you are very obstinate," she said softly, "very
obstinate and very devoted to your marvellous country, but you have a
soul, Leopold; you know that there are human duties as great as any
your country ever imposed upon you. You know what I look for from you,
what I must find from you or go down into hell, ashamed and
miserable."

He felt his throat suddenly dry.

"Listen," he muttered, "until the hour strikes, I must remain to you
as to the world, alone or in a crowd--Everard Dominey. There is one
way and one way only of carrying through my appointed task."

She gave a little hysterical sob.

"Wait," she begged. "I will answer you in a moment. Give me your
hand."

He opened the fingers which he had kept clenched together, and he felt
the hot grip of her hand, holding his passionately, drawing it toward
her until the fingers of her other hand, too, fell upon it. So she sat
for several moments.

"Leopold" she continued presently, "I understand. You are afraid that
I shall betray our love. You have reason. I am full of impulses and
passion, as you know, but I have restraint. What we are to one another
when we are alone, no soul in this world need know. I will be careful.
I swear it. I will never even look at you as though my heart ached for
your notice, when we are in the presence of other people. You shall
come and see me as seldom as you wish. I will receive you only as
often as you say. But don't treat me like this. Tell me you have come
back. Throw off this hideous mask, if it be only for a moment."

He sat quite still, although her hands were tearing at his, her lips
and eyes beseeching him.

"Whatever may come afterwards," he pronounced inexorably, "until the
time arrives I am Everard Dominey. I cannot take advantage of your
feelings for Leopold Von Ragastein. He is not here. He is in Africa.
Perhaps some day he will come back to you and be all that you wish."

She flung his hands away. He felt her eyes burning into his, this time
with something more like furious curiosity.

"Let me look at you," she cried. "Let me be sure. Is this just some
ghastly change, or are you an imposter? My heart is growing chilled.
Are you the man I have waited for all these years? Are you the man to
whom I have given my lips, for whose sake I offered up my reputation
as a sacrifice, the man who slew my husband and left me?"

"I was exiled," he reminded her, his own voice shaking with emotion.
"You know that. So far as other things are concerned, I am exiled now.
I am working out my expiation."

She leaned back in her seat with an air of exhaustion. Her eyes
closed. Then the car drove in through some iron gates and stopped in
front of her door, which was immediately opened. A footman hurried
out. She turned to Dominey.

"You will not enter," she pleaded, "for a short time?"

"If you will permit me to pay you a visit, it will give me great
pleasure," he answered formally. "I will call, if I may, on my return
from Norfolk."

She gave him her hand with a sad smile.

"Let my people take you wherever you want to go," she invited, "and
remember," she added, dropping her voice, "I do not admit defeat. This
is not the last word between us."

She disappeared in some state, escorted through the great front door
of one of London's few palaces by an attractive major-domo and footman
in the livery of her House. Dominey drove back to the Carlton, where
in the lounge he found the band playing, crowds still sitting around,
amongst whom Seaman was conspicuous, in his neat dinner clothes and
with his cherubic air of inviting attention from prospective new
acquaintances. He greeted Dominey enthusiastically.

"Come," he exclaimed, "I am weary of solitude! I have seen scarcely a
face that I recognise. My tongue is parched with inaction. I like to
talk, and there has been no one to talk to. I might as well have
opened up my little house in Forest Hill."

"I'll talk to you if you like," Dominey promised a little grimly,
glancing at the clock and hastily ordering a whisky and soda. "I will
begin by telling you this," he added, lowering his tone. "I have
discovered the greatest danger I shall have to face during my
enterprise."

"What is that?"

"A woman--the Princess Eiderstrom."

Seaman lit one of his inevitable cigars and threw one of his short,
fat legs over the other. He gazed for a moment with an air of
satisfaction at his small foot, neatly encased in court shoes.

"You surprise me," he confessed. "I have considered the matter. I
cannot see any great difficulty."

"Then you must be closing your eyes to it willfully," Dominey
retorted, "or else you are wholly ignorant of the Princess's
temperament and disposition."

"I believe I appreciate both," Seaman replied, "but I still do not see
any peculiar difficulty in the situation. As an English nobleman you
have a perfect right to enjoy the friendship of the Princess
Eiderstrom."

"And I thought you were a man of sentiment!" Dominey scoffed. "I
thought you understood a little of human nature. Stephanie Eiderstrom
is Hungarian born and bred. Even race has never taught her self-
restraint. You don't seriously suppose that after all these years,
after all she has suffered--and she has suffered--she is going to be
content with an emasculated form of friendship? I talk to you without
reserve, Seaman. She has made it very plain to-night that she is going
to be content with nothing of the sort."

"What takes place between you in private," Seaman began--

"Rubbish!" his companion interrupted. "The Princess is an impulsive, a
passionate, a distinctly primitive woman, with a good deal of the wild
animal in her still. Plots or political necessities are not likely to
count a snap of the fingers with her."

"But surely," Seaman protested, "she must understand that your country
has claimed you for a great work?"

Dominey shook his head.

"She is not a German," he pointed out. "On the contrary, like a great
many other Hungarians, I think she rather dislikes Germany and
Germans. Her only concern is the personal question between us. She
considers that every moment of the rest of my life should be devoted
to her."

"Perhaps it is as well," Seaman remarked, "that you have arranged to
go down to-morrow to Dominey. I will think out a scheme. Something
must be done to pacify her."

The lights were being put out. The two men rose a little unwillingly.
Dominey felt singularly indisposed for sleep, but anxious at the same
time to get rid of his companion. They strolled into the darkened hall
of the hotel together.

"I will deal with the matter for you as well as I can," Seaman
promised. "To my mind, your greatest difficulty will be encountered
to-morrow. You know what you have to deal with down at Dominey."

Dominey's face was very set and grave.

"I am prepared," he said.

Seaman still hesitated.

"Do you remember," he asked, "that when we talked over your plans at
Cape Town, you showed me a picture of--of Lady Dominey?"

"I remember."

"May I have one more look at it?"

Dominey, with fingers that trembled a little, drew from the breast
pocket of his coat a leather case, and from that a worn picture. The
two men looked at it side by side beneath one of the electric
standards which had been left burning. The face was the face of a
girl, almost a child, and the great eyes seemed filled with a queer,
appealing light. There was something of the same suggestion to be
found in the lips, a certain helplessness, an appeal for love and
protection to some stronger being.

Seaman turned away with a little grunt, and commented:

"Permitting myself to reassume for a moment or two the ordinary
sentiments of an ordinary human being, I would sooner have a dozen of
your Princesses to deal with than the original of that picture."



                              CHAPTER VIII

"Your ancestral home," Mr. Mangan observed, as the car turned the
first bend in the grass-grown avenue and Dominey Hall came into sight.
"Damned fine house, too!"

His companion made no reply. A storm had come up during the last few
minutes, and, as though he felt the cold, he had dragged his hat over
his eyes and turned his coat collar up to his ears. The house, with
its great double front, was now clearly visible--the time-worn,
Elizabethan, red brick outline that faced the park southwards, and the
stone-supported, grim and weather-stained back which confronted the
marshes and the sea. Mr. Mangan continued to make amiable
conversation.

"We have kept the old place weathertight, somehow or other," he said,
"and I don't think you'll miss the timber much. We've taken it as far
as possible from the outlying woods."

"Any from the Black Wood?" Dominey asked, without turning his head.

"Not a stump," he replied, "and for a very excellent reason. Not one
of the woodmen would ever go near the place."

"The superstition remains then?"

"The villagers are absolutely rabid about it. There are at least a
dozen who declare that they have seen the ghost of Roger Unthank, and
a score or more who will swear by all that is holy that they have
heard his call at night."

"Does he still select the park and the terrace outside the house for
his midnight perambulations?" Dominey enquired.

The lawyer hesitated.

"The idea is, I believe," he said, "that the ghost makes his way out
from the wood and sits on the terrace underneath Lady Dominey's
window. All bunkum, of course, but I can assure you that every servant
and caretaker we've had there has given notice within a month. That is
the sole reason why I haven't ventured to recommend long ago that you
should get rid of Mrs. Unthank."

"She is still in attendance upon Lady Dominey, then?"

"Simply because we couldn't get any one else to stay there," the
lawyer explained, "and her ladyship positively declines to leave the
Hall. Between ourselves, I think it's time a change was made. We'll
have a chat after dinner, if you've no objection.-- You see, we've
left all the trees in the park," he went on, with an air of
satisfaction. "Beautiful place, this, in the springtime. I was down
last May for a night, and I never saw such buttercups in my life. The
cows here were almost up to their knees in pasture, and the bluebells
in the home woods were wonderful. The whole of the little painting
colony down at Flankney turned themselves loose upon the place last
spring."

"Some of the old wall is down, I see," Dominey remarked with a frown,
as he gazed towards the enclosed kitchen garden.

Mr. Mangan was momentarily surprised.

"That wall has been down, to my knowledge, for twenty years," he
reminded his companion.

Dominey nodded. "I had forgotten," he muttered.

"We wrote you, by the by," the lawyer continued, "suggesting the sale
of one or two of the pictures, to form a fund for repairs, but thank
goodness you didn't reply! We'll have some workpeople here as soon as
you've decided what you'd like done. I'm afraid," he added, as they
turned in through some iron gates and entered the last sweep in front
of the house, "you won't find many familiar faces to welcome you.
There's Loveybond, the gardener, whom you would scarcely remember, and
Middleton, the head keeper, who has really been a godsend so far as
the game is concerned. No one at all indoors, except--Mrs. Unthank."

The car drew up at that moment in front of the great porch. There was
nothing in the shape of a reception. They had even to ring the bell
before the door was opened by a manservant sent down a few days
previously from town. In the background, wearing a brown velveteen
coat, with breeches and leggings of corduroy, stood an elderly man
with white side whiskers and skin as brown as a piece of parchment,
leaning heavily upon a long ash stick. Half a dozen maidservants, new
importations, were visible in the background, and a second man was
taking possession of the luggage. Mr. Mangan took charge of the
proceedings.

"Middleton," he said, resting his hand upon the old man's shoulder,
"here's your master come back again. Sir Everard was very pleased to
hear that you were still here; and you, Loveybond."

The old man grasped the hand which Dominey stretched out with both of
his.

"I'm right glad you're back again, Squire," he said, looking at him
with curious intentness, "and yet the words of welcome stick in my
throat."

"Sorry you feel like that about it, Middleton," Dominey said
pleasantly. "What is the trouble about my coming back?"

"That's no trouble, Squire," the old man replied. "That's a joy--
leastways to us. It's what it may turn out to be for you which makes
one hold back like."

Dominey drew himself more than ever erect--a commanding figure in the
little group.

"You will feel better about it when we have had a day or two with the
pheasants, Middleton," he said reassuringly. "You have not changed
much, Loveybond," he added, turning to the man who had fallen a little
into the background, very stiff and uncomfortable in his Sunday
clothes.

"I thankee, Squire," the latter replied a little awkwardly, with a
motion of his hand towards his forehead. "I can't say the same for
you, sir. Them furrin parts has filled you out and hardened you. I'll
take the liberty of saying that I should never have recognised you,
sir, and that's sure."

"This is Parkins," Mr. Mangan went on, pushing his way once more into
the foreground, "the butler whom I engaged in London. And--"

There was a queer and instantaneous silence. The little group of
maidservants, who had been exchanging whispered confidences as to
their new master's appearance, were suddenly dumb. All eyes were
turned in one direction. A woman whose advent had been unperceived,
but who had evidently issued from one of the recesses of the hall,
stood suddenly before them all. She was as thin as a lath, dressed in
severe black, with grey hair brushed back from her head and not even a
white collar at her neck. Her face was long and narrow, her features
curiously large, her eyes filled with anger. She spoke very slowly,
but with some trace in her intonation of a north-country dialect.

"There's no place in this house for you, Everard Dominey," she said,
standing in front of him as though to bar his progress. "I wrote last
night to stop you, but you've shown indecent haste in coming. There's
no place here for a murderer. Get back where you came from, back to
your hiding."

"My good woman!" Mangan gasped. "This is really too much!"

"I've not come to bandy words with lawyers," the woman retorted. "I've
come to speak to him. Can you face me, Everard Dominey, you who
murdered my son and made a madwoman of your wife?"

The lawyer would have answered her, but Dominey waved him aside.

"Mrs. Unthank," he said sternly, "return to your duties at once, and
understand that this house is mine, to enter or leave when I choose."

She was speechless for a moment, amazed at the firmness of his words.

"The house may be yours, Sir Everard Dominey," she said threateningly,
"but there's one part of it at least in which you won't dare to show
yourself."

"You forget yourself, woman," he replied coldly. "Be so good as to
return to your mistress at once, announce my coming, and say that I
wait only for her permission before presenting myself in her
apartments."

The woman laughed, unpleasantly, horribly. Her eyes were fixed upon
Dominey curiously.

"Those are brave words," she said. "You've come back a harder man. Let
me look at you."

She moved a foot or two to where the light was better. Very slowly a
frown developed upon her forehead. The longer she looked, the less
assured she became.

"There are things in your face I miss," she muttered.

Mr. Mangan was glad of an opportunity of asserting himself.

"The fact is scarcely important, Mrs. Unthank," he said angrily. "If
you will allow me to give you a word of advice, you will treat your
master with the respect to which his position here entitles him."

Once more the woman blazed up.

"Respect! What respect have I for the murderer of my son? Respect!
Well, if he stays here against my bidding, perhaps her ladyship will
show him what respect means."

She turned around and disappeared. Every one began bustling about the
luggage and talking at once. Mr. Mangan took his patron's arm and led
him across the hall.

"My dear Sir Everard," he said anxiously, "I am most distressed that
this should have occurred. I thought that the woman would probably be
sullen, but I had no idea that she would dare to attempt such an
outrageous proceeding."

"She is still, I presume, the only companion whom Lady Dominey will
tolerate?" Dominey enquired with a sigh.

"I fear so," the lawyer admitted. "Nevertheless we must see Doctor
Harrison in the morning. It must be understood distinctly that if she
is suffered to remain, she adopts an entirely different attitude. I
never heard anything so preposterous in all my life. I shall pay her a
visit myself after dinner.-- You will feel quite at home here in the
library, Sir Everard," Mr. Mangan went on, throwing open the door of a
very fine apartment on the seaward side of the house. "Grand view from
these windows, especially since we've had a few of the trees cut down.
I see that Parkins has set out the sherry. Cocktails, I'm afraid, are
an institution you will have to inaugurate down here. You'll be
grateful to me when I tell you one thing, Sir Everard. We've been hard
pressed more than once, but we haven't sold a single bottle of wine
out of the cellars."

Dominey accepted the glass of sherry which the lawyer had poured out
but made no movement towards drinking it. He seemed during the last
few minutes to have been wrapped in a brown study.

"Mangan," he asked a little abruptly, "is it the popular belief down
here that I killed Roger Unthank?"

The lawyer set down the decanter and coughed.

"A plain answer," Dominey insisted.

Mr. Mangan adapted himself to the situation. He was beginning to
understand his client.

"I am perfectly certain, Sir Everard," he confessed, "that there isn't
a soul in these parts who isn't convinced of it. They believe that
there was a fight and that you had the best of it."

"Forgive me," Dominey continued, "if I seem to ask unnecessary
questions. Remember that I spent the first portion of my exile in
Africa in a very determined effort to blot out the memory of
everything that had happened to me earlier in life. So that is the
popular belief?"

"The popular belief seems to match fairly well with the facts," Mr.
Mangan declared, wielding the decanter again in view of his client's
more reasonable manner. "At the time of your unfortunate visit to the
Hall Miss Felbrigg was living practically alone at the Vicarage after
her uncle's sudden death there, with Mrs. Unthank as housekeeper.
Roger Unthank's infatuation for her was patent to the whole
neighbourhood and a source of great annoyance in Miss Felbrigg. I am
convinced that at no time did Lady Dominey give the young man the
slightest encouragement."

"Has any one ever believed the contrary?" Dominey demanded.

"Not a soul," was the emphatic reply. "Nevertheless, when you came
down, fell in love with Miss Felbrigg and carried her off, every one
felt that there would be trouble."

"Roger Unthank was a lunatic," Dominey pronounced deliberately. "His
behaviour from the first was the behaviour of a madman."

"The Eugene Aram type of village schoolmaster gradually drifting into
positive insanity," Mangan acquiesced. "So far, every one is agreed.
The mystery began when he came back from his holidays and heard the
news."

"The sequel was perfectly simple," Dominey observed. "We met at the
north end of the Black Wood one evening, and he attacked me like a
madman. I suppose I had to some extent the best of it, but when I got
back to the Hall my arm was broken, I was covered with blood, and half
unconscious. By some cruel stroke of fortune, almost the first person
I saw was Lady Dominey. The shock was too much for her--she fainted--
and--"

"And has never been quite herself since," the lawyer concluded. "Most
tragic!"

"The cruel part of it was," Dominey went on, standing before the
window, his hands clasped behind his back, "that my wife from that
moment developed a homicidal mania against me--I, who had fought in
the most absolute self-defence. That was what drove me out of the
country, Mangan--not the fear of being arrested for having caused the
death of Roger Unthank. I'd have stood my trial for that at any
moment. It was the other thing that broke me up."

"Quite so," Mangan murmured sympathetically. "As a matter of fact, you
were perfectly safe from arrest, as it happened. The body of Roger
Unthank has never been found from that day to this."

"If it had--"

"You must have been charged with either murder or manslaughter."

Dominey abandoned his post at the window and raised his glass of
sherry to his lips. The tragical side of these reminiscences seemed,
so far as he was concerned, to have passed.

"I suppose," he remarked, "it was the disappearance of the body which
has given rise to all this talk as to his spirit still inhabiting the
Black Wood."

"Without a doubt," the lawyer acquiesced. "The place had a bad name
already, as you know. As it is, I don't suppose there's a villager
here would cross the park in that direction after dark."

Dominey glanced at his watch and led the way from the room.

"After dinner," he promised, "I'll tell you a few West African
superstitions which will make our local one seem anemic."



                              CHAPTER IX

"I certainly offer you my heartiest congratulations upon your cellars,
Sir Everard," his guest said, as he sipped his third glass of port
that evening. "This is the finest glass of seventy I've drunk for a
long time, and this new fellow I've sent you down--Parkins--tells me
there's any quantity of it."

"It has had a pretty long rest," Dominey observed.

"I was looking through the cellar-book before dinner," the lawyer went
on, "and I see that you still have forty-seven and forty-eight, and a
small quantity of two older vintages. Something ought to be done about
those."

"We will try one of them to-morrow night," Dominey suggested. "We
might spend half an hour or so in the cellars, if we have any time to
spare."

"And another half an hour," Mr. Mangan said gravely, "I should like to
spend in interviewing Mrs. Unthank. Apart from any other question, I
do not for one moment believe that she is the proper person to be
entrusted with the care of Lady Dominey. I made up my mind to speak to
you on this subject, Sir Everard, as soon as we had arrived here."

"Mrs. Unthank was old Mr. Felbrigg's housekeeper and my wife's nurse
when she was a child," Dominey reminded his companion. "Whatever her
faults may be, I believe she is devoted to Lady Dominey."

"She may be devoted to your wife," the lawyer admitted, "but I am
convinced that she is your enemy. The situation doesn't seem to me to
be consistent. Mrs. Unthank is firmly convinced that, whether in fair
fight or not, you killed her son. Lady Dominey believes that, too, and
it was the sight of you after the fight that sent her insane. I cannot
but believe that it would be far better for Lady Dominey to have some
one with her unconnected with this unfortunate chapter of your past."

"We will consult Doctor Harrison to-morrow," Dominey said. "I am very
glad you came down with me, Mangan," he went on, after a minute's
hesitation. "I find it very difficult to get back into the atmosphere
of those days. I even find it hard sometimes," he added, with a
curious little glance across the table, "to believe that I am the same
man."

"Not so hard as I have done more than once," Mr. Mangan confessed.

"Tell me exactly in what respects you consider me changed?" Dominey
insisted.

"You seem to have lost a certain pliability, or perhaps I ought to
call it looseness of disposition," he admitted. "There are many things
connected with the past which I find it almost impossible to associate
with you. For a trifling instance," he went on, with a slight smile,
inclining his head towards his host's untasted glass. "You don't drink
port like any Dominey I ever knew."

"I'm afraid that I never acquired the taste for port," Dominey
observed.

The lawyer gazed at him with raised eyebrows.

"Not acquired the taste for port" he repeated blankly.

"I should have said reacquired," Dominey hastened to explain. "You
see, in the bush we drank a simply frightful amount of spirits, and
that vitiates the taste for all wine."

The lawyer glanced enviously at his host's fine bronzed complexion and
clear eyes.

"You haven't the appearance of ever having drunk anything, Sir
Everard," he observed frankly. "One finds it hard to believe the
stories that were going about ten or fifteen years ago."

"The Dominey constitution, I suppose!"

The new butler entered the room noiselessly and came to his master's
chair.

"I have served coffee in the library, sir," he announced. "Mr.
Middleton, the gamekeeper, has just called, and asks if he could have
a word with you before he goes to bed to-night, sir. He seems in a
very nervous and uneasy state."

"He can come to the library at once," Dominey directed; "that is, if
you are ready for your coffee, Mangan."

"Indeed I am," the lawyer assented, rising. "A great treat, that wine.
One thing the London restaurants can't give us. Port should never be
drunk away from the place where it was laid down."

The two men made their way across the very fine hall, the walls of
which had suffered a little through lack of heating, into the library,
and seated themselves in easy-chairs before the blazing log fire.
Parkins silently served them with coffee and brandy. He had scarcely
left the room before there was a timid knock and Middleton made his
somewhat hesitating entrance.

"Come in and close the door," Dominey directed. "What is it,
Middleton? Parkins says you wish to speak to me."

The man came hesitatingly forward. He was obviously distressed and
uneasy, and found speech difficult. His face glistened with the rain
which had found its way, too, in long streaks down his velveteen coat.
His white hair was wind-tossed and disarranged.

"Bad night," Dominey remarked.

"It's to save its being a worse one that I'm here, Squire," the old
man replied hoarsely. "I've come to ask you a favour and to beg you to
grant it for your own sake. You'll not sleep in the oak room
to-night?"

"And why not?" Dominey asked.

"It's next her ladyship's."

"Well?"

The old man was obviously perturbed, but his master, as though of a
purpose, refused to help him. He glanced at Mangan and mumbled to
himself.

"Say exactly what you wish to, Middleton," Dominey invited. "Mr.
Mangan and his father and grandfather have been solicitors to the
estate for a great many years. They know all our family history."

"I can't get rightly into touch with you, Squire, and that's a fact,"
Middleton went on despairingly. "The shape of you seems larger and
your voice harder. I don't seem to be so near to you as I'd wished, to
say what's in my heart."

"I have had a rough time Middleton," Dominey reminded him. "No wonder
I have changed! Never mind, speak to me just as man to man."

"It was I who first met you, Squire," the old man went on, "when you
tottered home that night across the park, with your arm hanging
helplessly by your side, and the blood streaming down your face and
clothes, and the red light in your eyes--murderous fire, they called
it. I heard her ladyship go into hysterics. I saw her laugh and sob
like a maniac, and, God help us! that's what she's been ever since."

The two men were silent. Middleton had raised his voice, speaking with
fierce excitement. It was obvious that he had only paused for breath.
He had more to say.

"I was by your side, Squire," he went on, "when her ladyship caught up
the knife and ran at you, and, as you well know, it was I, seizing her
from behind, that saved a double tragedy that night, and it was I who
went for the doctor the next morning, when she'd stolen into your room
in the night and missed your throat by a bare inch. I heard her call
to you, heard her threat. It was a madwoman's threat, Squire, but her
ladyship is a madwoman at this moment, and with a knife in her hand
you'll never be safe in this house."

"We must see," Dominey said quietly, "that she is not allowed to get
possession of any weapon."

"Aye! Make sure of that," Middleton scoffed, "with Mother Unthank by
her side! Her ladyship's mad because of the horror of that night, but
Mother Unthank is mad with hate, and there isn't a week passes," the
old man went on, his voice dropping lower and his eyes burning, "that
Roger Unthank's spirit don't come and howl for your blood beneath
their window. If you stay here this night, Squire, come over and sleep
in the little room they've got ready for you on the other side of the
house."

Mr. Mangan had lost his smooth, after-dinner appearance. His face was
rumpled, and his coffee was growing cold. This was a very different
thing from the vague letters and rumours which had reached him from
time to time and which he had put out of his mind with all the
contempt of the materialist.

"It is very good of you to warn me, Middleton," Dominey said, "but I
can lock my door, can I not?"

"Lock the door of the oak room!" was the scornful reply. "And what
good would that do? You know well enough that the wall's double on
three sides, and there are more secret entrances than even I know of.
The oak room's not for you this night, Squire. It's hoping to get you
there that's keeping them quiet."

"Tell us what you mean, Middleton," the lawyer asked, with ill-assumed
indifference, "when you spoke of the howling of Roger Unthank's
spirit?"

The old man turned patiently around.

"Just that, sir," he replied. "It's round the house most weeks. Except
for me odd nights, and Mrs. Unthank, there's been scarcely a servant
would sleep in the Hall for years. Some of the maids they do come up
from the village, but back they go before nightfall, and until morning
there isn't a living soul would cross the path--no, not for a hundred
pounds."

"A howl, you call it?" Mr. Mangan observed.

"That's mostly like a dog that's hurt itself," Middleton explained
equably, "like a dog, that is, with a touch of human in its throat, as
we've all heard in our time, sir. You'll hear it yourself, sir, maybe
to-night or to-morrow night."

"You've heard it then, Middleton?" his master asked.

"Why, surely, sir," the old man replied in surprise. "Most weeks for
the last ten years."

"Haven't you ever got up and gone out to see what it was?"

The old man shook his head.

"But I knew right well what that was, sir," he said, "and I'm not one
for looking on spirits. Spirits there are that walk this world, as we
well know, and the spirit of Roger Unthank walks from between the
Black Wood and those windows, come every week of the year. But I'm not
for looking at him. There's evil comes of that. I turn over in my bed,
and I stop my ears, but I've never yet raised a blind."

"Tell me, Middleton," Dominey asked, "is Lady Dominey terrified at
these--er--visitations?"

"That I can't rightly say, sir. Her ladyship's always sweet and
gentle, with kind words on her lips for every one, but there's the
terror there in her eyes that was lit that night when you staggered
into the hall, Squire, and I've never seen it properly quenched yet,
so to speak. She carries fear with her, but whether it's the fear of
seeing you again, or the fear of Roger Unthank's spirit, I could not
tell."

Dominey seemed suddenly to become possessed of a strange desire to
thrust the whole subject away. He dismissed the old man kindly but a
little abruptly, accompanying him to the corridor which led to the
servants' quarters and talking all the time about the pheasants. When
he returned, he found that his guest had emptied his second glass of
brandy and was surreptitiously mopping his forehead.

"That," the latter remarked, "is the class of old retainer who lives
too long. If I were a Dominey of the Middle Ages, I think a stone
around his neck and the deepest well would be the sensible way of
dealing with him. He made me feel positively uncomfortable."

"I noticed it," Dominey remarked, with a faint smile. "I'm not going
to pretend that it was a pleasant conversation myself."

"I've heard some ghost stories," Mangan went on, "but a spook that
comes and howls once a week for ten years takes some beating."

Dominey poured himself out a glass of brandy with a steady hand.

"You've been neglecting things here, Mangan," he complained. "You
ought to have come down and exorcised that ghost. We shall have those
smart maidservants of yours off to-morrow, I suppose, unless you and I
can get a little ghost-laying in first."

Mr. Mangan began to feel more comfortable. The brandy and the warmth
of the burning logs were creeping into his system.

"By the by, Sir Everard," he enquired, a little later on, "where are
you going to sleep to-night?"

Dominey stretched himself out composedly.

"There is obviously only one place for me," he replied. "I can't
disappoint any one. I shall sleep in the oak room."



                              CHAPTER X

For the first few tangled moments of nightmare, slowly developing into
a live horror, Dominey fancied himself back in Africa, with the hand
of an enemy upon his throat. Then a rush of awakened memories--the
silence of the great house, the mysterious rustling of the heavy
hangings around the black oak four-poster on which he lay, the faint
pricking of something deadly at his throat--these things rolled back
the curtain of unreality, brought him acute and painful consciousness
of a situation almost appalling. He opened his eyes, and although a
brave and callous man he lay still, paralysed with the fear which
forbids motion. The dim light of a candle, recently lit, flashed upon
the bodkin-like dagger held at his throat. He gazed at the thin line
of gleaming steel, fascinated. Already his skin had been broken, a few
drops of blood were upon the collar of his pyjamas. The hand which
held that deadly, assailing weapon--small, slim, very feminine,
curving from somewhere behind the bed curtain--belonged to some unseen
person. He tried to shrink farther back upon the pillow. The hand
followed him, displaying glimpses now of a soft, white-sleeved arm. He
lay quite still, the muscles of his right arm growing tenser as he
prepared for a snatch at those cruel fingers. Then a voice came,--a
slow, feminine and rather wonderful voice.

"If you move," it said, "you will die. Remain quite still."

Dominey was fully conscious now, his brain at work, calculating his
chances with all the cunning of the trained hunter who seeks to avoid
death. Reluctantly he was compelled to realise that no movement of his
could be quick enough to prevent the driving of that thin stiletto
into his throat, if his hidden assailant should keep her word. So he
lay still.

"Why do you want to kill me?" he asked, a little tensely.

There was no reply, yet somehow he knew that he was being watched.
Ever so slightly those curtains around which the arm had come, were
being parted. Through the chink some one was looking at him. The
thought came that he might call out for help, and once more his unseen
enemy read his thought.

"You must be very quiet," the voice said,--that voice which it was
difficult for him to believe was not the voice of a child. "If you
even speak above a whisper, it will be the end. I wish to look at
you."

A little wider the crack opened, and then he began to feel hope. The
hand which held the stiletto was shaking, he heard something which
sounded like quick breathing from behind the curtains--the breathing
of a woman astonished or terrified--and then, so suddenly that for
several seconds he could not move or take advantage of the
circumstance, the hand with its cruel weapon was withdrawn around the
curtain and a woman began to laugh, softly at first, and then with a
little hysterical sob thrusting its way through that incongruous note
of mirth.

He lay upon the bed as though mesmerised, finding at his first effort
that his limbs refused their office, as might the limbs of one lying
under the thrall of a nightmare. The laugh died away, there was a
sound like a scraping upon the wall, the candle was suddenly blown
out. Then his nerve began to return and with it his control over his
limbs. He crawled to the side of the bed remote from the curtains,
stole to the little table on which he had left his revolver and an
electric torch, snatched at them, and, with the former in his right
hand, flashed a little orb of light into the shadows of the great
apartment. Once more something like terror seized him. The figure
which had been standing by the side of his bed had vanished. There was
no hiding place in view. Every inch of the room was lit up by the
powerful torch he carried, and, save for himself, the room was empty.
The first moment of realisation was chill and unnerving. Then the
slight smarting of the wound at his throat became convincing proof to
him that there was nothing supernatural about this visit. He lit up
half-a-dozen of the candles distributed about the place and laid down
his torch. He was ashamed to find that his forehead was dripping with
perspiration.

"One of the secret passages, of course," he muttered to himself,
stooping for a moment to examine the locked, folding doors which
separated his room from the adjoining one. "Perhaps, when one
reflects, I have run unnecessary risks."

Dominey was standing at the window, looking out at the tumbled grey
waters of the North Sea, when Parkins brought him hot water and tea in
the morning. He thrust his feet into slippers and held out his arms
for a dressing-gown.

"Find out where the nearest bathroom is, Parkins," he ordered, "and
prepare it. I have quite forgotten my way about here."

"Very good, sir."

The man was motionless for a moment, staring at the blood on his
master's pyjamas. Dominey glanced down at it and turned the dressing-
gown up to his throat.

"I had a slight accident this morning," he remarked carelessly. "Any
ghost alarms last light?"

"None that I heard of, sir," the man replied. "I am afraid we should
have difficulty in keeping the young women from London, if they heard
what I heard the night of my arrival."

"Very terrible, was it?" Dominey asked with a smile.

Parkins' expression remained immovable. There was in his tone,
however, a mute protest against his master's levity.

"The cries were the most terrible I have ever heard, sir," he said. "I
am not a nervous person, but I found them most disturbing."

"Human or animal?"

"A mixture of both, I should say, sir."

"You should camp out for the night on the skirts of an African
forest," Dominey remarked. "There you get a whole orchestra of wild
animals, every one of them trying to freeze your blood up."

"I was out in South Africa during the Boer War, sir," Parkins replied,
"and I went big game hunting with my master afterwards. I do not think
that any animal was ever born in Africa with so terrifying a cry as we
heard the night before last."

"We must look into the matter," Dominey muttered.

"I have already prepared a bath, sir, at the end of the corridor," the
man announced. "If you will allow me, I will show you the way."

Dominey, when he descended about an hour later, found his guest
awaiting him in the smaller dining-room, which looked out eastwards
towards the sea, a lofty apartment with great windows and with an air
of faded splendour which came from the ill-cared-for tapestries,
hanging in places from the wall. Mr. Mangan had, contrary to his
expectations, slept well and was in excellent spirits. The row of
silver dishes upon the sideboard inspired him with an added
cheerfulness.

"So there were no ghosts walking last night?" he remarked, as he took
his place at the table. "Wonderful thing this absolute quiet is after
London. Give you my word, I never heard a sound from the moment my
head touched the pillow until I woke a short while ago."

Dominey returned from the sideboard, carrying also a well-filled
plate.

"I had a pretty useful night's rest myself," he observed.

Mangan raised his eyeglass and gazed at his host's throat.

"Cut yourself?" he queried.

"Razor slipped," Dominey told him. "You get out of the use of those
things in Africa."

"You've managed to give yourself a nasty gash," Mr. Mangan observed
curiously.

"Parkins is going to send up for a new set of safety razors for me,"
Dominey announced. "About our plans for the day,--I've ordered the car
for two-thirty this afternoon, if that suits you. We can look around
the place quietly this morning. Mr. Johnson is sleeping over at a
farmhouse near here. We shall pick him up en route. And I have told
Lees, the bailiff, to come with us too."

Mr. Mangan nodded his approval.

"Upon my word," he confessed, "it will be a joy to me to go and see
some of these fellows without having to put 'em off about repairs and
that sort of thing. Johnson has had the worst of it, poor chap, but
there are one or two of them took it into their heads to come up to
London and worry me at the office."

"I intend that there shall be no more dissatisfaction amongst my
tenants."

Mr. Mangan set off for another prowl towards the sideboard.

"Satisfied tenants you never will get in Norfolk," he declared. "I
must admit, though, that some of them have had cause to grumble
lately. There's a fellow round by Wells who farms nearly eight hundred
acres--"

He broke off in his speech. There was a knock at the door, not an
ordinary knock at all, but a measured, deliberate tapping, three times
repeated.

"Come in," Dominey called out.

Mrs. Unthank entered, severer, more unattractive than ever in the hard
morning light. She came to the end of the table, facing the place
where Dominey was seated.

"Good morning, Mrs. Unthank," he said.

She ignored the greeting.

"I am the bearer of a message," she announced.

"Pray deliver it," Dominey replied.

"Her ladyship would be glad for you to visit her in her apartment at
once."

Dominey leaned back in his chair. His eyes were fixed upon the face of
the woman whose antagonism to himself was so apparent. She stood in
the path of a long gleam of morning sunlight. The wrinkles in her
face, her hard mouth, her cold, steely eyes were all clearly revealed.

"I am not at all sure," he said, with a purpose in the words, "that
any further meeting between Lady Dominey and myself is at present
desirable."

If he had thought to disturb this messenger by his suggestion, he was
disappointed.

"Her ladyship desires me to assure you," she added, with a note of
contempt in her tone, "that you need be under no apprehension."

Dominey admitted defeat and poured himself out some more coffee.
Neither of the two noticed that his fingers were trembling.

"Her ladyship is very considerate," he said. "Kindly say that I shall
follow you in a few minutes."

Dominey, following within a very few minutes of his summons, was
ushered into an apartment large and sombrely elegant, an apartment of
faded white and gold walls, of chandeliers glittering with lustres, of
Louise Quinze furniture, shabby but priceless. To his surprise,
although he scarcely noticed it at the time, Mrs. Unthank promptly
disappeared. He was from the first left alone with the woman whom he
had come to visit.

She was sitting up on her couch and watching his approach. A woman?
Surely only a child, with pale cheeks, large, anxious eyes, and masses
of brown hair brushed back from her forehead. After all, was he indeed
a strong man, vowed to great things? There was a queer feeling in his
throat, almost a mist before his eyes. She seemed so fragile, so
utterly, sweetly pathetic. And all the time there was the strange
light, or was it want of light, in those haunting eyes. His speech of
greeting was never spoken.

"So you have come to see me, Everard," she said, in a broken tone.
"You are very brave."

He possessed himself of her hand, the hand which a few hours ago had
held a dagger to his throat, and kissed the waxenlike fingers. It fell
to her side like a lifeless thing. Then she raised it and began
rubbing softly at the place where his lips had fallen.

"I have come to see you at your bidding," he replied, "and for my
pleasure."

"Pleasure!" she murmured, with a ghastly little smile. "You have
learnt to control your words, Everard. You have slept here and you
live. I have broken my word. I wonder why?"

"Because," he pleaded, "I have not deserved that you should seek my
life."

"That sounds strangely," she reflected. "Doesn't it say somewhere in
the Bible--'A life for a life'? You killed Roger Unthank."

"I have killed other men since in self-defence," Dominey told her.
"Sometimes it comes to a man that he must slay or be slain. It was
Roger Unthank--"

"I shall not talk about him any longer," she decided quite calmly.
"The night before last, his spirit was calling to me below my window.
He wants me to go down into Hell and live with him. The very thought
is horrible."

"Come," Dominey said, "we shall speak of other things. You must tell
me what presents I can buy you. I have come back from Africa rich."

"Presents?"

For a single wonderful moment, hers was the face of a child who had
been offered toys. Her smile of anticipation was delightful, her eyes
had lost that strange vacancy. Then, before he could say another word,
it all came back again.

"Listen to me," she said. "This is important. I have sent for you
because I do not understand why, quite suddenly last night, after I
had made up my mind, I lost the desire to kill you. It is gone now. I
am not sure about myself any longer. Draw your chair nearer to mine.
Or no, come to my side, here at the other end of the sofa."

She moved her skirts to make room for him. When he sat down, he felt a
strange trembling through all his limbs.

"Perhaps," she went on, "I shall break my oath. Indeed, I have already
broken it. Let me look at you, my husband. It is a strange thing to
own after all these years--a husband."

Dominey felt as though he were breathing an atmosphere of turgid and
poisoned sweetness. There was a flavour of unreality about the whole
situation,--the room, this child woman, her beauty, her deliberate,
halting speech and the strange things she said.

"You find me changed?" he asked.

"You are very wonderfully changed. You look stronger, you are perhaps
better-looking, yet there is something gone from your face which I
thought one never lost."

"You," he said cautiously, "are more beautiful than ever, Rosamund."

She laughed a little drearily.

"Of what use has my beauty been to me, Everard, since you came to my
little cottage and loved me and made me love you, and took me away
from Dour Roger? Do you remember the school chidden used to call him
Dour Roger?-- But that does not matter. Do you know, Everard, that
since you left me my feet have not passed outside these gardens?"

"That can be altered when you wish," he said quickly. "You can visit
where you will. You can have a motor-car, even a house in town. I
shall bring some wonderful doctors here, and they will make you quite
strong again."

Her large eyes were lifted almost piteously to his.

"But how can I leave here?" she asked plaintively. "Every week,
sometimes oftener, he calls to me. If I went away, his spirit would
break loose and follow me. I must be here to wave my hand; then he
goes away."

Dominey was conscious once more of that strange and most unexpected
fit of emotion. He was unrecognisable even to himself. Never before in
his life had his heart beaten as it was beating now. His eyes, too,
were hot. He had travelled around the word in search of new things,
only to find them in this strange, faded chamber, side by side with
this suffering woman. Nevertheless, he said quietly:

"We must send you some place where the people are kinder and where
life is pleasanter. Perhaps you love music and to see beautiful
pictures. I think that we must try and keep you from thinking."

She sighed in a perplexed fashion.

"I wish that I could get it out of my blood that I want to kill you.
Then you could take me right away. Other married people have lived
together and hated each other. Why shouldn't we? We may forget even to
hate."

Dominey staggered to his feet, walked to a window, threw it open and
leaned out for a moment. Then he closed it and came back. This new
element in the situation had been a shock to him. All the time she was
watching him composedly.

"Well?" she asked, with a strange little smile. "What do you say?
Would you like to hold as a wife's the hand which frightened you so
last night?"

She held it out to him, soft and warm. Her fingers even returned the
pressure of his. She looked at him pleasantly, and once more he felt
like a man who has wandered into a strange country and has lost his
bearings.

"I want you so much to be happy," he said hoarsely, "but you are not
strong yet, Rosamund. We cannot decide anything in a hurry."

"How surprised you are to find that I am willing to be nice to you!"
she murmured. "But why not? You cannot know why I have so suddenly
changed my mind about you--and I have changed it. I have seen the
truth these few minutes. There is a reason, Everard, why I should not
kill you."

"What is it?" he demanded.

She shook her head with all the joy of a child who keeps a secret.

"You are clever," she said. "I will leave you to find it out. I am
excited now, and I want you to go away for a little time. Please send
Mrs. Unthank to me."

The prospect of release was a strange relief, mingled still more
strangely with regret. He lingered over her hand.

"If you walk in your sleep to-night, then," he begged, "you will leave
your dagger behind?"

"I have told you," she answered, as though surprised, "that I have
abandoned my intention. I shall not kill you. Even though I may walk
in my sleep--and sometimes the nights are so long--it will not be your
death I seek."



                              CHAPTER XI

Dominey left the room like a man in a dream, descended the stairs to
his own part of the house, caught up a hat and stick and strode out
into the sea mist which was fast enveloping the gardens. There was all
the chill of the North Pole in that ice-cold cloud of vapour, but
nevertheless his forehead remained hot, his pulses burning. He passed
out of the postern gate which led from the walled garden on to a broad
marsh, with dikes running here and there, and lapping tongues of sea
water creeping in with the tide. He made his way seaward with
uncertain steps until he reached a rough and stony road; here he
hesitated for a moment, looked about him, and then turned back at
right angles. Soon he came to a little village, a village of ancient
cottages, with seasoned, red-brick tiles, trim little patches of
garden, a church embowered with tall elm trees, a triangular green at
the cross-roads. On one side a low, thatched building,--the Dominey
Arms; on another, an ancient, square stone house, on which was a brass
plate. He went over and read the name, rang the bell, and asked the
trim maidservant who answered it, for the doctor. Presently, a man of
youthful middle-age presented himself in the surgery and bowed.
Dominey was for a moment at a loss.

"I came to see Doctor Harrison," he ventured.

"Doctor Harrison retired from practice some years ago," was the
courteous reply. "I am his nephew. My name is Stillwell."

"I understood that Doctor Harrison was still in the neighbourhood,"
Dominey said. "My name is Dominey--Sir Everard Dominey."

"I guessed as much," the other replied. "My uncle lives with me here,
and to tell you the truth he was hoping that you would come and see
him. He retains one patient only," Doctor Stillwell added, in a graver
tone. "You can imagine who that would be."

His caller bowed. "Lady Dominey, I presume."

The young doctor opened the door and motioned to his guest to precede
him.

"My uncle has his own little apartment on the other side of the
house," he said. "You must let me take you to him."

They moved across the pleasant white stone hall into a small apartment
with French windows leading out to a flagged terrace and tennis lawn.
An elderly man, broad-shouldered, with weather-beaten face, grey hair,
and of somewhat serious aspect, looked around from the window before
which he was standing examining a case of fishing flies.

"Uncle, I have brought an old friend in to see you," his nephew
announced.

The doctor glanced expectantly at Dominey, half moved forward as
though to greet him, then checked himself and shook his head
doubtfully.

"You certainly remind me very much of an old friend, sir," he said,
"but I can see now that you are not he. I do not believe that I have
ever seen you before in my life."

There was a moment's somewhat tense silence. Then Dominey advanced a
little stiffly and held out his hand.

"Come, Doctor," he said. "I can scarcely have changed as much as all
that. Even these years of strenuous life--"

"You mean to tell me that I am speaking to Everard Dominey?" the
doctor interposed.

"Without a doubt!"

The doctor shook hands coolly. His was certainly not the enthusiastic
welcome of an old family attendant to the representative of a great
family.

"I should certainly never have recognised you," he confessed.

"My presence here is nevertheless indisputable," Dominey continued.
"Still attracted by your old pastime, I see, Doctor?"

"I have only taken up fly fishing," the other replied drily, "since I
gave up shooting."

There was another somewhat awkward pause, which the younger man
endeavoured to bridge over.

"Fishing, shooting, golf," he said; "I really don't know what we poor
medical practitioners would do in the country without sport."

"I shall remind you of that later," Dominey observed. "I am told that
the shooting is one of the only glories that has not passed away from
Dominey."

"I shall look forward to the reminder," was the prompt response.

His uncle, who had been bending once more over the case of flies,
turned abruptly around.

"Arthur," he said, addressing his nephew, "you had better start on
your round. I dare say Sir Everard would like to speak to me
privately."

"I wish to speak to you certainly," Dominey admitted, "but only
professionally. There is no necessity--"

"I am late already, if you will excuse me," Doctor Stillwell
interrupted. "I will be getting on. You must excuse my uncle, Sir
Everard," he added in a lower tone, drawing him a little towards the
door, "if his manners are a little gruff. He is devoted to Lady
Dominey, and I sometimes think that he broods over her case too much."

Dominey nodded and turned back into the room to find the doctor, his
hands in his old-fashioned breeches pockets, eyeing him steadfastly.

"I find it very hard to believe," he said a little curtly, "that you
are really Everard Dominey."

"I am afraid you will have to accept me as a fact, nevertheless."

"Your present appearance," the old man continued, eyeing him
appraisingly, "does not in any way bear out the description I had of
you some years ago. I was told that you had become a broken-down
drunkard."

"The world is full of liars," Dominey said equably. "You appear to
have met with one, at least."

"You have not even," the doctor persisted, "the appearance of a man
who has been used to excesses of any sort."

"Good old stock, ours," his visitor observed carelessly. "Plenty of
two-bottle men behind my generation."

"You have also gained courage since the days when you fled from
England. You slept at the Hall last night?"

"Where else? I also, if you want to know, occupied my own bedchamber--
with results," Dominey added, throwing his head a little back, to
display the scar on his throat, "altogether insignificant."

"That's just your luck," the doctor declared. "You've no right to have
gone there without seeing me; no right, after all that has passed, to
have even approached your wife."

"You seem rather a martinet as regards my domestic affairs," Dominey
observed.

"That's because I know your history," was the blunt reply.

Uninvited Dominey seated himself in an easy-chair.

"You were never my friend, Doctor," he said. "Let me suggest that we
conduct this conversation on a purely professional basis."

"I was never your friend," came the retort, "because I have known you
always as a selfish brute; because you were married to the sweetest
woman on God's earth, gave up none of your bad habits, frightened her
into insanity by reeling home with another man's blood on your hands,
and then stayed away for over ten years instead of making an effort to
repair the mischief you had done."

"This," observed Dominey, "is history, dished up in a somewhat partial
fashion. I repeat my suggestion that we confine our conversation to
the professional."

"This is my house," the other rejoined, "and you came to see me. I
shall say exactly what I like to you, and if you don't like it you can
get out. If it weren't for Lady Dominey's sake, you shouldn't have
passed this threshold."

"Then for her sake," Dominey suggested in a softer tone, "can't you
forget how thoroughly you disapprove of me? I am here now with only
one object: I want you to point out to me any way in which we can work
together for the improvement of my wife's health."

"There can be no question of a partnership between us."

"You refuse to help?"

"My help isn't worth a snap of the fingers. I have done all I can for
her physically. She is a perfectly sound woman. The rest depends upon
you, and you alone, and I am not very hopeful about it."

"Upon me?" Dominey repeated, a little taken aback.

"Fidelity," the doctor grunted, "is second nature with all good women.
Lady Dominey is a good woman, and she is no exception to the rule. Her
brain is starved because her heart is aching for love. If she could
believe in your repentance and reform, if any atonement for the past
were possible and were generously offered, I cannot tell what the
result might be. They tell me that you are a rich man now, although
heaven knows, when one considers what a lazy, selfish fellow you were,
that sounds like a miracle. You could have the great specialists down.
They couldn't help, but it might salve your conscience to pay them a
few hundred guineas."

"Would you meet them?" Dominey asked anxiously. "Tell me whom to send
for?"

"Pooh! Those days are finished with me," was the curt reply. "I would
meet none of them. I am a doctor no longer. I have become a villager.
I go to see Lady Dominey as an old friend."

"Give me your advice," Dominey begged. "Is it of any use sending for
specialists?"

"Just for the present, none at all."

"And what about that horrible woman, Mrs. Unthank?"

"Part of your task, if you are really going to take it up. She stands
between your wife and the sun."

"Then why have you suffered her to remain there all those years?"
Dominey demanded.

"For one thing, because there has been no one to replace her," the
doctor replied, "and for another, because Lady Dominey, believing that
you slew her son, has some fantastic idea of giving her a home and
shelter as a kind of expiation."

"You think there is no affection between the two?" Dominey asked.

"Not a scrap," was the blunt reply, "except that Lady Dominey is of so
sweet and gentle a nature--"

The doctor paused abruptly. His visitor's fingers had strayed across
his throat.

"That's a different matter," the former continued fiercely. "That's
just where the weak spot in her brain remains. If you ask me, I
believe it's pandered to by Mrs. Unthank. Come to think of it," he
went on, "the Domineys were never cowards. If you've got your courage
back, send Mrs. Unthank away, sleep with your doors wide open. If a
single night passes without Lady Dominey coming to your room with a
knife in her hand, she will be cured in time of that mania at any
rate. Dare you do that?"

Dominey's hesitation was palpable,--also his agitation. The doctor
grinned contemptuously.

"Still afraid!" he scoffed.

"Not in the way you imagine," his visitor replied. "My wife has
already promised to make no further attempt upon my life."

"Well, you can cure her if you want to," the doctor declared, "and if
you do, you will have the sweetest companion for life any man could
have. But you'll have to give up the idea of town houses and racing
and yachting, and grouse moors in Scotland, and all those sort of
things I suppose you've been looking forward to. You'll have for some
time, at any rate, to give every moment of your time to your wife."

Dominey moved uneasily in his chair.

"For the next few months," he said, "that would be impossible."

"Impossible!"

The doctor repeated the word, seemed to roll it round in his mouth
with a sort of wondering scorn.

"I am not quite the idler I used to be," Dominey explained, frowning.
"Nowadays, you cannot make money without assuming responsibilities. I
am clearing off the whole of the mortgages upon the Dominey estates
within the next few months."

"How you spend your time is your affair, not mine," the doctor
muttered. "All I say about the matter is that your wife's cure, if
ever it comes to pass, is in your hands. And now--come over to me
here, in the light of this window. I want to look at you."

Dominey obeyed with a little shrug of the shoulders. There was no
sunshine, but the white north light was in its way searching. It
showed the sprinkling of grey in his ruddy-brown hair, the suspicion
of it in his closely trimmed moustache, but it could find no weak spot
in his steady eyes, in the tan of his hard, manly complexion, or even
in the set of his somewhat arrogant lips. The old doctor took up his
box of flies again and jerked his head towards the door.

"You are a miracle," he said, "and I hate miracles. I'll come and see
Lady Dominey in a day or so."



                             CHAPTER XII

Dominey spent a curiously placid, and, to those with whom he was
brought into contact, an entirely satisfactory afternoon. With Mr.
Mangan by his side, murmuring amiable platitudes, and Mr. Johnson, his
agent, opposite, revelling in the unusual situation of a satisfied
landlord and delighted tenants, he made practically the entire round
of the Dominey estates. They reached home late, but Dominey, although
he seemed to be living in another world, was not neglectful of the
claims of hospitality. Probably for the first time in their lives, Mr.
Johnson and Lees, the bailiff, watched the opening of a magnum of
champagne. Mr. Johnson cleared his throat as he raised his glass.

"It isn't only on my own account, Sir Everard," he said, "that I drink
your hearty good health. I have your tenants too in my mind. They've
had a rough time, some of them, and they've stood it like white men.
So here's from them and me to you, sir, and may we see plenty of you
in these parts."

Mr. Lees associated himself with these sentiments, and the glasses
were speedily emptied and filled again.

"I suppose you know, Sir Everard," the agent observed, "that what
you've promised to do to-day will cost a matter of ten to fifteen
thousand pounds."

Dominey nodded.

"Before I go to bed to-night," he said, "I shall send a cheque for
twenty thousand pounds to the estate account at your bank at Wells.
The money is there waiting, put aside for just that one purpose and--
well, you may just as well have it."

Agent and bailiff leaned back in the tonneau of their motor-car, half
an hour later, with immense cigars in their mouths and a pleasant,
rippling warmth in their veins. They had the sense of having drifted
into fairyland. Their philosophy, however, met the situation.

"It's a fair miracle," Mr. Lees declared.

"A modern romance," Mr. Johnson, who read novels, murmured. "Hello,
here's a visitor for the Hall," he added, as a car swept by them.

"Comfortable-looking gent, too," Mr. Lees remarked.

The "comfortable-looking gent" was Otto Seaman, who presented himself
at the Hall with a small dressing-bag and a great many apologies.

"Found myself in Norwich, Sir Everard," he explained. "I have done
business there all my life, and one of my customers needed looking
after. I finished early, and when I found that I was only thirty miles
off you, I couldn't resist having a run across. If it is in any way
inconvenient to put me up for the night, say so--"

"My dear fellow!" Dominey interrupted. "There are a score of rooms
ready. All that we need is to light a fire, and an old-fashioned bed-
warmer will do the rest. You remember Mr. Mangan?"

The two men shook hands, and Seaman accepted a little refreshment
after his drive. He lingered behind for a moment after the dressing
bell had rung.

"What time is that fellow going?" he asked.

"Nine o'clock to-morrow morning," Dominey replied.

"Not a word until then," Seaman whispered back. "I must not seem to be
hanging after you too much--I really did not want to come--but the
matter is urgent."

"We can send Mangan to bed early," Dominey suggested.

"I am the early bird myself," was the weary reply. "I was up all last
night. To-morrow morning will do."

Dinner that night was a pleasant and social meal. Mr. Mangan
especially was uplifted. Everything to do with the Domineys for the
last fifteen years had reeked of poverty. He had really had a hard
struggle to make both ends meet. There had been disagreeable
interviews with angry tenants, formal interviews with dissatisfied
mortgagees, and remarkably little profit at the end of the year to set
against these disagreeable episodes. The new situation was almost
beatific. The concluding touch, perhaps, was in Parkins'
congratulatory whisper as he set a couple of decanters upon the table.

"I have found a bin of Cockburn's /fifty-one/, sir," he announced,
including the lawyer in his confidential whisper. "I thought you might
like to try a couple of bottles, as Mr. Mangan seems rather a
connoisseur, sir. The corks appear to be in excellent condition."

"After this," Mr. Mangan sighed, "it will be hard to get back to the
austere life of a Pall Mall club!"

Seaman, very early in the evening, pleaded an extraordinary sleepiness
and retired, leaving his host and Mangan alone over the port. Dominey,
although an attentive host, seemed a little abstracted. Even Mr.
Mangan, who was not an observant man, was conscious that a certain
hardness, almost arrogance of speech and manner, seemed temporarily to
have left his patron.

"I can't tell you, Sir Everard," he said, as he sipped his first glass
of wine, "what a pleasure it is to me to see, as it were, this
recrudescence of an old family. If I might be allowed to say so,
there's only one thing necessary to round the whole business off, as
it were."

"And that?" Dominey asked unthinkingly.

"The return of Lady Dominey to health. I was one of the few, you may
remember, privileged to make her acquaintance at the time of your
marriage."

"I paid a visit this morning," Dominey said, "to the doctor who has
been in attendance upon her since her marriage. He agrees with me that
there is no reason why Lady Dominey should not, in course of time, be
restored to perfect health."

"I take the liberty of finishing my glass to that hope, Sir Everard,"
the lawyer murmured.

Both glasses were set down empty, only the stem of Dominey's was
snapped in two. Mr. Mangan expressed his polite regrets.

"This old glass," he murmured, looking at his own admiringly, "becomes
very fragile."

Dominey did not answer. His brain had served him a strange trick. In
the shadows of the room he had fancied that he could see Stephanie
Eiderstrom holding out her arms, calling to him to fulfill the pledges
of long ago, and behind her--

"Have you ever been in love, Mangan?" Dominey asked his companion.

"I, sir? Well, I'm not sure," the man of the world replied, a little
startled by the abruptness of the question. "It's an old-fashioned way
of looking at things now, isn't it?"

Dominey relapsed into thoughtfulness.

"I suppose so," he admitted.



That night a storm rolled up from somewhere across that grey waste of
waters, a storm heralded by a wind which came booming over the
marshes, shaking the latticed windows of Dominey Place, shrieking and
wailing amongst its chimneys and around its many corners. Black clouds
leaned over the land, and drenching streams of rain dashed against the
loose-framed sashes of the windows. Dominey lit the tall candles in
his bedroom, fastened a dressing-gown around him, threw himself into
an easy-chair, and, fixing an electric reading lamp by his side, tried
to read. Very soon the book slipped from his fingers. He became
suddenly tense and watchful. His eyes counted one by one the panels in
the wall by the left-hand side of the bed. The familiar click was
twice repeated. For a moment a dark space appeared. Then a woman,
stooping low, glided into the room. She came slowly towards him, drawn
like a moth towards that semicircle of candle. Her hair hung down her
back like a girl's, and the white dressing-gown which floated
diaphanously about her was unexpectedly reminiscent of Bond Street.

"You are not afraid?" she asked anxiously. "See, I have nothing in my
hands. I almost think that the desire has gone. You remember the
little stiletto I had last night? To-day I threw it into the well.
Mrs. Unthank was very angry with me."

"I am not afraid," he assured her, "but--"

"Ah, but you will not scold me?" she begged. "It is the storm which
terrifies me."

He drew a low chair for her into the little circle of light and
arranged some cushions. As she sank into it, she suddenly looked up at
him and smiled, a smile of rare and wonderful beauty. Dominey felt for
a moment something like the stab of a knife at his heart.

"Sit here and rest," he invited. "There is nothing to fear."

"In my heart I know that," she answered simply. "These storms are part
of our lives. They come with birth, and they shake the world when
death seizes us. One should not be afraid, but I have been so ill,
Everard. Shall I call you Everard still?"

"Why not?" he asked.

"Because you are not like Everard to me any more," she told him,
"because something has gone from you, and something has come to you.
You are not the same man. What is it? Had you troubles in Africa? Did
you learn what life was like out there?"

He sat looking at her for a moment, leaning back in his chair, which
he had pushed a few feet into the shadows. Her hair was glossy and
splendid, and against it her skin seemed whiter and more delicate than
ever. Her eyes were lustrous but plaintive, and with something of the
child's fear of harm in them. She looked very young and very fragile
to have been swayed through the years by an evil passion.

"I learnt many things there, Rosamund," he told her quietly. "I learnt
a little of the difference between right doing and wrongdoing. I
learnt, too, that all the passions of life burn themselves out, save
one alone."

She twisted the girdle of her dressing-gown in her fingers for a
moment. His last speech seemed to have been outside the orbit of her
comprehension or interest.

"You need not be afraid of me any more, Everard," she said, a little
pathetically.

"I have no fear of you," he answered.

"Then why don't you bring your chair forward and come and sit a little
nearer to me?" she asked, raising her eyes. "Do you hear the wind, how
it shrieks at us? Oh, I am afraid!"

He moved forward to her side, and took her hand gently in his. Her
fingers responded at once to his pressure. When he spoke, he scarcely
recognised his own voice. It seemed to him thick and choked.

"The wind shall not hurt you, or anything else," he promised. "I have
come back to take care of you."

She sighed, smiled like a tired child, and her eyes closed as her head
fell farther back amongst the cushions.

"Stay just like that, please," she begged. "Something quite new is
coming to me. I am resting. It is the sweetest rest I ever felt. Don't
move, Everard. Let my fingers stay in yours--so."

The candles burned down in their sockets, the wind rose to greater
furies, and died away only as the dawn broke through the storm clouds.
A pale light stole into the room. Still the woman slept, and still her
fingers seemed to keep their clutch upon his hand. Her breathing was
all the time soft and regular. Her silky black eyelashes lay
motionless upon her pale cheeks. Her mouth--a very perfectly shaped
mouth--rested in quiet lines. Somehow he realised that about this
slumber there was a new thing. With hot eyes and aching limbs he sat
through the night. Dream after dream rose up and passed away before
that little background of tapestried wall. When she opened her eyes
and looked at him, the same smile parted her lips as the smile which
had come there when she had passed away to sleep.

"I am so rested," she murmured. "I feel so well. I have had dreams,
beautiful dreams."

The fire had burned out, and the room was chilly.

"You must go back to your own room now," he said.

Very slowly her fingers relaxed. She held out her arms.

"Carry me," she begged. "I am only half awake. I want to sleep again."

He lifted her up. Her fingers closed around his neck, her head fell
back with a little sigh of content. He tried the folding doors, and,
finding some difficulty in opening them carried her out into the
corridor, into her own room, and laid her upon the untouched bed.

"You are quite comfortable?" he asked.

"Quite," she murmured drowsily. "Kiss me, Everard."

Her hands drew his face down. His lips rested upon her forehead. Then
he drew the bedclothes over her and fled.



                             CHAPTER XIII

There was a cloud on Seaman's good-humoured face as, muffled up in
their overcoats, he and his host walked up and down the terrace the
next morning, after the departure of Mr. Mangan. He disclosed his mind
a little abruptly.

"In a few minutes," he said, "I shall come to the great purpose of my
visit. I have great and wonderful news for you. But it will keep."

"The time for action has arrived?" Dominey asked curiously. "I hope
you will remember that as yet I am scarcely established here."

"It is with regard to your establishment here," Seaman explained
drily, "that I desire to say a word. We have seen much of one another
since we met in Cape Town. The passion and purpose of my life you have
been able to judge. Of those interludes which are necessary to a human
being, unless his system is to fall to pieces as dry dust, you have
also seen something. I trust you will not misunderstand me when I say
that apart from the necessities of my work, I am a man of sentiment."

"I am prepared to admit it," Dominey murmured a little idly.

"You have undertaken a great enterprise. It was, without a doubt, a
miraculous piece of fortune which brought the Englishman, Dominey, to
your camp just at the moment when you received your orders from
headquarters. Your self-conceived plan has met with every
encouragement from us. You will be placed in a unique position to
achieve your final purpose. Now mark my words and do not misunderstand
me. The very keynote of our progress is ruthlessness. To take even a
single step forward towards the achievement of that purpose is worth
the sacrifice of all the scruples and delicacies conceivable. But when
a certain course of action is without profit to our purpose, I see
ugliness in it. It distresses me."

"What the devil do you mean?" Dominey demanded.

"I sleep with one ear open," Seaman replied.

"Well?"

"I saw you leave your room early this morning," Seaman continued,
"carrying Lady Dominey in your arms."

There were little streaks of pallor underneath the tan in Dominey's
face. His eyes were like glittering metal. It was only when he had
breathed once or twice quickly that he could command his voice.

"What concern is this of yours?" he demanded.

Seaman gripped his companion's arm.

"Look here," he said, "we are too closely allied for bluff. I am here
to help you fill the shoes of another man, so far as regards his
estates, his position, and character, which, by the by, you are
rehabilitating. I will go further. I will admit that it is not my
concern to interfere in any ordinary amour you might undertake, but--I
shall tell you this, my friend, to your face--that to deceive a lady
of weak intellect, however beautiful, to make use of your position as
her supposed husband, is not, save in the vital interests of his
country, the action of a Prussian nobleman."

Dominey's passion seemed to have burned itself out without expression.
He showed not the slightest resentment at his companion's words.

"Have no fear, Seaman," he enjoined him. "The situation is delicate,
but I can deal with it as a man of honour."

"You relieve me," Seaman confessed. "You must admit that the spectacle
of last night was calculated to inspire me with uneasiness."

"I respect you for your plain words," Dominey declared. "The fact is,
that Lady Dominey was frightened of the storm last night and found her
way into my room. You may be sure that I treated her with all the
respect and sympathy which our positions demanded."

"Lady Dominey," Seaman remarked meditatively, "seems to be curiously
falsifying certain predictions."

"In what way?"

"The common impression in the neighbourhood here is that she is a
maniac chiefly upon one subject--her detestation of you. She has been
known to take an oath that you should die if you slept in this house
again. You naturally, being a brave man, ignored all this, yet in the
morning after your first night here there was blood upon your night
clothes."

Dominey's eyebrows were slowly raised.

"You are well served here," he observed, with involuntary sarcasm.

"That, for your own sake as well as ours, is necessary," was the terse
reply. "To continue, people of unsound mind are remarkably tenacious
of their ideas. There was certainly nothing of the murderess in her
demeanour towards you last night. Cannot you see that a too friendly
attitude on her part might become fatal to our schemes?"

"In what way?"

"If ever your identity is doubted," Seaman explained, "the probability
of which is, I must confess, becoming less every day, the fact that
Lady Dominey seems to have so soon forgotten all her enmity towards
you would be strong presumptive evidence that you are not the man you
claim to be."

"Ingenious," Dominey assented, "and very possible. All this time,
however, we speak on what you yourself admit to be a side issue."

"You are right," Seaman confessed. "Very well, then, listen. A great
moment has arrived for you, my friend."

"Explain if you please."

"I shall do so. You have seen proof, during the last few days, that
you have an organisation behind you to whom money is dross. It is the
same in diplomacy as in war. Germany will pay the price for what she
intends to achieve. Ninety thousand pounds was yesterday passed to the
credit of your account for the extinction of certain mortgages. In a
few months' or a few years' time, some distant Dominey will benefit to
that extent. We cannot recover the money. It is just an item in our
day by day expenses."

"It was certainly a magnificent way of establishing me," Dominey
admitted.

"Magnificent, but safest in the long run," Seaman declared. "If you
had returned a poor man, everybody's hand would have been against you;
suspicions, now absolutely unkindled, might have been formed; and,
more important, perhaps, than either, you would not have been able to
take your place in Society, which is absolutely necessary for the
furtherance of our scheme."

"Is it not almost time," Dominey enquired, "that the way was made a
little clearer for me?"

"That would have been my task this morning," Seaman replied, "but for
the news I bring. In passing, however, let me promise you this. You
will never be asked to stoop to the crooked ways of the ordinary spy.
We want you for a different purpose."

"And the news?"

"What must be the greatest desire in your heart," Seaman said
solemnly, "is to be granted. The Kaiser has expressed a desire to see
you, to give you his instructions in person."

Dominey stopped short upon the terrace. He withdrew his arm from his
companion's and stared at him blankly.

"The Kaiser?" he exclaimed. "You mean that I am to go to Germany?"

"We shall start at once," Seaman replied. "Personally, I do not
consider the proceeding discreet or necessary. It has been decided
upon, however, without consulting me."

"I consider it suicidal," Dominey protested. "What explanation can I
possibly make for going to Germany, of all countries in the world,
before I have had time to settle down here?"

"That of itself will not be difficult," his companion pointed out.
"Many of the mines in which a share has been bought in your name are
being run with German capital. It is easy to imagine that a crisis has
arisen in the management of one of them. We require the votes of our
fellow shareholders. You need not trouble your head about that. And
think of the wonder of it! If only for a single day your sentence of
banishment is lifted. You will breathe the air of the Fatherland once
more."

"It will be wonderful," Dominey muttered.

"It will be for you," Seaman promised, "a breath of the things that
are to come. And now, action. How I love action! That time-table, my
friend, and your chauffeur."

It was arranged that the two men should leave during the morning for
Norwich by motor-car and thence to Harwich. Dominey, having changed
into travelling clothes, sent a messenger for Mrs. Unthank, who came
to him presently in his study. He held out a chair to her, which she
declined, however, to take.

"Mrs. Unthank," he said, "I should like to know why you have been
content to remain my wife's attendant for the last ten years?"

Mrs. Unthank was startled by the suddenness of the attack.

"Lady Dominey has needed me," she answered, after a moment's pause.

"Do you consider," he asked, "that you have been the best possible
companion for her?"

"She has never been willing to accept any other," the woman replied.

"Are you very devoted to my wife?" he enquired.

Mrs. Unthank, grim and fierce though she was and appeared to be, was
obviously disconcerted by Dominey's line of questions.

"If I weren't," she demanded, "should I have been here all these
years?"

"I scarcely see," he continued, "what particular claim my wife has had
upon you. I understand, moreover, that you are one of those who firmly
believe that I killed your son. Is this attendance upon my wife a
Christian act, then--the returning of good for evil?"

"Exactly what do you want to say to me, Sir Everard?" she asked
harshly.

"I wish to say this," Dominey replied, "that I am determined to bring
about my wife's restoration to health. For that reason I am going to
have specialists down here, and above all things to change for a time
her place of residence. My own feeling is that she will stand a much
better chance of recovery without your attendance."

"You would dare to send me away?" the woman demanded.

"That is my intention," Dominey confessed. "I have not spoken to Lady
Dominey yet, but I hope that very soon my influence over her will be
such that she will be content to obey my wishes. I look upon your
future from the financial point of view, as my care. I shall settle
upon you the sum of three hundred pounds a year."

The woman showed her first sign of weakness. She began to shake. There
was a curious look of fear in her eyes.

"I can't leave this place, Sir Everard," she cried. "I must stay
here!"

"Why?" he demanded.

"Lady Dominey couldn't do without me," she answered sullenly.

"That," he replied, "is for her to decide. Personally, from enquiries
I have made, I believe that you have encouraged in her that ridiculous
superstition about the ghost of your son. I also believe that you have
kept alive in her that spirit of unreasonable hatred which she has
felt towards me."

"Unreasonable, you call it?" the woman almost shouted. "You, who came
home to her with the blood on your hands of the man whom, if only you
had kept away, she might one day have loved? Unreasonable, you call
it?"

"I have finished what I had to say, Mrs. Unthank," Dominey declared.
"I am compelled by important business to leave here for two or three
days. On my return I shall embark upon the changes with which I have
acquainted you. In the meantime," he added, watching a curious change
in the woman's expression, "I have written this morning to Doctor
Harrison, asking him to come up this afternoon and to keep Lady
Dominey under his personal observation until my return."

She stood quite still, looking at him. Then she came a little nearer
and leaned forward, as though studying his face.

"Eleven years," she muttered, "do change many men, but I never knew a
man made out of a weakling."

"I have nothing more to say to you," Dominey replied, "except to let
you know that I am coming to see my wife in the space of a few
minutes."



The motor-horn was already sounding below when Dominey was admitted to
his wife's apartment. She was dressed in a loose gown of a warm
crimson colour, and she had the air of one awaiting his arrival
expectantly. The passion of hatred seemed to have passed from her pale
face and from the depths of her strangely soft eyes. She held out her
hands towards him. Her brows were a little puckered. The
disappointment of a child lurked in her manner.

"You are going away?" she murmured.

"In a very few moments," he told her. "I have been waiting to see you
for an hour."

She made a grimace.

"It was Mrs. Unthank. I think that she hid my things on purpose. I was
so anxious to see you."

"I want to talk to you about Mrs. Unthank," he said. "Should you be
very unhappy if I sent her away and found some one younger and kinder
to be your companion?"

The idea seemed to be outside the bounds of her comprehension.

"Mrs. Unthank would never go," she declared. "She stays here to listen
to the voice. All night long sometimes she waits and listens, and it
doesn't come. Then she hears it, and she is rested."

"And you?" he asked.

"I am afraid," she confessed. "But then, you see, I am not very
strong."

"You are not fond of Mrs. Unthank?" he enquired anxiously.

"I don't think so," she answered, in a perplexed tone. "I think I am
very much afraid of her. But it is no use, Everard! She would never go
away."

"When I return," Dominey said, "we shall see."

She took his arm and linked her hands through it.

"I am so sorry that you are going," she murmured. "I hope you will
soon come back. Will you come back--my husband?"

Dominey's nails cut into the flesh of his clenched hands.

"I will come back within three days," he promised.

"Do you know," she went on confidentially, "something has come into my
mind lately. I spoke about it yesterday, but I did not tell you what
it was. You need never be afraid of me any more. I understand."

"What do you understand?" he demanded huskily.

"The knowledge must have come to me," she went on, dropping her voice
a little and whispering almost in his ear, "at the very moment when my
dagger rested upon your throat, when I suddenly felt the desire to
kill die away. You are very like him sometimes, but you are not
Everard. You are not my husband at all. You are another man."

Dominey gave a little gasp. They both turned towards the door. Mrs.
Unthank was standing there, her gaunt, hard face lit up with a gleam
of something which was like triumph, her eyes glittering. Her lips, as
though involuntarily, repeated her mistress' last words.

"Another man!"



                             CHAPTER XIV

There were times during their rapid journey when Seaman, studying his
companion, became thoughtful. Dominey seemed, indeed, to have passed
beyond the boundaries of any ordinary reserve, to have become like a
man immeshed in the toils of a past so absorbing that he moved as
though in a dream, speaking only when necessary and comporting himself
generally like one to whom all externals have lost significance. As
they embarked upon the final stage of their travels, Seaman leaned
forward in his seat in the sombrely upholstered, overheated
compartment.

"Your home-coming seems to depress you, Von Ragastein," he said.

"It was not my intention," Dominey replied, "to set foot in Germany
again for many years."

"The past still bites?"

"Always."

The train sped on through long chains of vineyard-covered hills, out
into a stretch of flat country, into forests of pines, in the midst of
which were great cleared spaces, where, notwithstanding the closely
drawn windows, the resinous odour from the fallen trunks seemed to
permeate the compartment. Presently they slackened speed. Seaman
glanced at his watch and rose.

"Prepare yourself, my friend," he said. "We descend in a few minutes."

Dominey glanced out of the window.

"But where are we?" he enquired.

"Within five minutes of our destination."

"But there is not a house in sight," Dominey remarked wonderingly.

"You will be received on board His Majesty's private train," Seaman
announced. "The Kaiser, with his staff, is making one of his military
tours. We are honoured by being permitted to travel back with him as
far as the Belgian frontier."

They had come to a standstill now. A bearded and uniformed official
threw open the door of their compartment, and they stepped on to the
narrow wooden platform of a small station which seemed to have been
recently built of fresh pine planks. The train, immediately they had
alighted, passed on. Their journey was over.

A brief conversation was carried on between Seaman and the official,
during which Dominey took curious note of his surroundings. Around the
station, half hidden in some places by the trees and shrubs, was drawn
a complete cordon of soldiers, who seemed to have recently disembarked
from a military train which stood upon a siding. In the middle of it
was a solitary saloon carriage, painted black, with much gold
ornamentation, and having emblazoned upon the central panel the royal
arms of Germany. Seaman, when he had finished his conversation, took
Dominey by the arm and led him across the line towards it. An officer
received them at the steps and bowed punctiliously to Dominey, at whom
he gazed with much interest.

"His Majesty will receive you at once," he announced. "Follow me."

They boarded the train and passed along a richly carpeted corridor.
Their guide paused and pointed to a small retiring-room, where several
men were seated.

"Herr Seaman will find friends there," he said. "His Imperial Majesty
will receive him for a few minutes later. The Baron Von Ragastein will
come this way."

Dominey was ushered now into the main saloon. His guide motioned him
to remain near the entrance, and, himself advancing a few paces, stood
at the salute before a seated figure who was bending over a map, which
a stern-faced man in the uniform of a general had unrolled before him.
The Kaiser glanced up at the sound of footsteps and whispered
something in the general's ear. The latter clicked his heels together
and retired. The Kaiser beckoned Dominey to advance.

"The Baron Von Ragastein, your Majesty," the young officer murmured.

Dominey stood at attention for a moment and bowed a little awkwardly.
The Kaiser smiled.

"It pleases me," he said, "to see a German officer ill at ease without
his uniform. Count, you will leave us. Baron Von Ragastein, be
seated."

"Sir Everard Dominey, at your service, Majesty," Dominey replied, as
he took the chair to which his august host pointed.

"Thorough in all things, I see," the latter observed. "Sit there and
be at your ease. Good reports have reached me of your work in Africa."

"I did my best to execute your Majesty's will," Dominey ventured.

"You did so well," the Kaiser pronounced, "that my counsellors were
unanimous in advising your withdrawal to what will shortly become the
great centre of interest. From the moment of receiving our commands
you appear to have displayed initiative. I gather that your
personation of this English baronet has been successfully carried
through?"

"Up to the present, your Majesty."

"Important though your work in Africa was," the Kaiser continued,
"your present task is a far greater one. I wish to speak to you for
these few minutes without reserve. First, though, drink a toast with
me."

From a mahogany stand at his elbow, the Kaiser drew out a long-necked
bottle of Moselle, filled two very beautiful glasses, passed one to
his companion and raised the other.

"To the Fatherland!" he said.

"To the Fatherland!" Dominey repeated.

They set down their glasses, empty. The Kaiser threw back the grey
military cloak which he was wearing, displaying a long row of medals
and decorations. His fingers still toyed with the stem of his
wineglass. He seemed for a moment to lose himself in thought. His hard
and somewhat cruel mouth was tightly closed; there was a slight frown
upon his forehead. He was sitting upright, taking no advantage of the
cushioned back of his easy-chair, his eyes a little screwed up, the
frown deepening. For quite five minutes there was complete silence.
One might have gathered that, turning aside from great matters, he had
been devoting himself entirely to the scheme in which Dominey was
concerned.

"Von Ragastein," he said at last, "I have sent for you to have a few
words concerning your habitation in England. I wish you to receive
your impressions of your mission from my own lips."

"Your Majesty does me great honour," Dominey murmured.

"I wish you to consider yourself," the Kaiser continued, "as entirely
removed from the limits, the authority and the duties of my espionage
system. From you I look for other things. I desire you to enter into
the spirit of your assumed position. As a typical English country
gentleman I desire you to study the labour question, the Irish
question, the progress of this National Service scheme, and other
social movements of which you will receive notice in due time. I
desire a list compiled of those writers who, in the Reviews, or by
means of fiction, are encouraging the suspicions which I am inclined
to fancy England has begun to entertain towards the Fatherland. These
things are all on the fringe of your real mission. That, I believe,
our admirable friend Seaman has already confided to you. It is to seek
the friendship, if possible the intimacy, of Prince Terniloff."

The Kaiser paused, and once more his eyes wandered to the landscape
which rolled away from the plate-glass windows of the car. They were
certainly not the eyes of a dreamer, and yet in those moments they
seemed filled with brooding pictures.

"The Princess has already received me graciously," Dominey confided.

"Terniloff is the dove of peace," the Kaiser pronounced. "He carries
the sprig of olive in his mouth. My statesmen and counsellors would
have sent to London an ambassador with sterner qualities. I preferred
not. Terniloff is the man to gull fools, because he is a fool himself.
He is a fit ambassador for a country which has not the wit to arm
itself on land as well as by sea, when it sees a nation, mightier,
more cultured, more splendidly led than its own, creeping closer every
day."

"The English appear to put their whole trust in their navy, your
Majesty," Dominey observed tentatively.

The eyes of his companion flashed. His lips curled contemptuously.

"Fools!" he exclaimed. "Of what use will their navy be when my sword
is once drawn, when I hold the coast towns of Calais and Boulogne,
when my cannon command the Straits of Dover! The days of insular
nations are passed, passed as surely as the days of England's arrogant
supremacy upon the seas."

The Kaiser refilled his glass and Dominey's.

"In some months' time, Von Ragastein," he continued, "you will
understand why you have been enjoined to become the friend and
companion of Terniloff. You will understand your mission a little more
clearly than you do now. Its exact nature waits upon developments. You
can at all times trust Seaman."

Dominey bowed and remained silent. His companion continued after
another brief spell of silent brooding.

"Von Ragastein," he said, "my decree of banishment against you was a
just one. The morals of my people are as sacred to me as my oath to
win for them a mightier empire. You first of all betrayed the wife of
one of the most influential noblemen of a State allied to my own, and
then, in the duel that followed, you slew him."

"It was an accident, your Majesty," Dominey pleaded. "I had no
intention of even wounding the Prince."

The Kaiser frowned. All manner of excuses were loathsome to him.

"The accident should have happened the other way," he rejoined
sharply. "I should have lost a valuable servant, but it was your life
which was forfeit, and not his. Still, they tell me that your work in
Africa was well and thoroughly done. I give you this one great chance
of rehabilitation. If your work in England commends itself to me, the
sentence of exile under which you suffer shall be rescinded."

"Your Majesty is too good," Dominey murmured. "The work, for its own
sake, will command my every effort, even without the hope of reward."

"That," the Kaiser said, "is well spoken. It is the spirit, I believe,
with which every son of my Empire regards the future. I think that
they, too, more especially those who surround my person, have felt
something of that divine message which has come to me. For many years
I have, for the sake of my people, willed peace. Now that the time
draws near when Heaven has shown me another duty, I have no fear but
that every loyal German will bow his head before the lightnings which
will play around my sword and share with me the iron will to wield it.
Your audience is finished, Baron Von Ragastein. You will take your
place with the gentlemen of my suite in the retiring-room. We shall
proceed within a few minutes and leave you at the Belgian frontier."

Dominey rose, bowed stiffly and backed down the carpeted way. The
Kaiser was already bending once more over the map. Seaman, who was
waiting outside the door of the anteroom, called him in and introduced
him to several members of the suite. One, a young man with a fixed
monocle, scars upon his face, and a queer, puppet-like carriage,
looked at him a little strangely.

"We met some years ago in Munich, Baron," he remarked.

"I acknowledge no former meetings with any one in this country,"
Dominey replied stiffly. "I obey the orders of my Imperial master when
I wipe from my mind every episode or reminiscence of my former days."

The young man's face cleared, and Seaman, by his side, who had knitted
his brows thoughtfully, nodded understandingly.

"You are certainly a good actor, Baron," he declared. "Even your
German has become a little English. Sit down and join us in a glass of
beer. Luncheon will be served to us here in a few minutes. You will
not be recalled to the Presence until we set you down."

Dominey bowed stiffly and took his place with the others. The train
had already started. Dominey gazed thoughtfully out of the window.
Seaman, who was waiting about for his audience, patted him on the arm.

"Dear friend," he said, "I sympathise with you. You sorrow because
your back is now to Berlin. Still, remember this, that the day is not
far off when the sentence of exile against you will be annulled. You
will have expiated that crime which, believe me, although I do not
venture to claim a place amongst them, none of your friends and equals
have ever regarded in the same light as His Imperial Majesty."

A smiling steward, in black livery with white facings, made his
appearance and served them with beer in tall glasses. The senior
officer there, who had now seated himself opposite to Dominey, raised
his glass and bowed.

"To the Baron Von Ragastein," he said, "whose acquaintance I regret
not having made before to-day. May we soon welcome him back, a brother
in arms, a companion in great deeds! Hoch!"



                              CHAPTER XV

Sir Everard Dominey, Baronet, the latest and most popular recruit to
Norfolk sporting society, stood one afternoon, some months after his
return from Germany, at the corner of the long wood which stretched
from the ridge of hills behind almost to the kitchen gardens of the
Hall. At a reasonable distance on his left, four other guns were
posted. On one side of him stood Middleton, leaning on his ash stick
and listening to the approach of the beaters; on the other, Seaman,
curiously out of place in his dark grey suit and bowler hat. The old
keeper, whom time seemed to have cured of all his apprehensions, was
softly garrulous and very happy.

"That do seem right to have a Squire Dominey at this corner," he
observed, watching a high cock pheasant come crashing down over their
heads. "I mind when the Squire, your father, sir, gave up this corner
one day to Lord Wendermere, whom folks called one of the finest
pheasant shots in England, and though they streamed over his head like
starlings, he'd nowt but a few cripples to show for his morning's
work."

"Come out with a bit of a twist from the left, don't they?" Dominey
remarked, repeating his late exploit.

"They do that, sir," the old man assented, "and no one but a Dominey
seems to have learnt the knack of dealing with them proper. That
foreign Prince, so they say, is well on to his birds, but I wouldn't
trust him at this corner."

The old man moved off a few paces to some higher ground, to watch the
progress of the beaters through the wood. Seaman turned to his
companion, and there was a note of genuine admiration in his tone.

"My friend," he declared, "You are a miracle. You seem to have
developed the Dominey touch even in killing pheasants."

"You must remember that I have shot higher ones in Hungary," was the
easy reply.

"I am not a sportsman," Seaman admitted. "I do not understand sport.
But I do know this: there is an old man who has lived on this land
since the day of his birth, who has watched you shoot, reverently, and
finds even the way you hold your gun familiar."

"That twist of the birds," Dominey explained, "is simply a local
superstition. The wood ends on the slant, and they seem to be flying
more to the left than they really are."

Seaman gazed steadfastly for a moment along the side of the wood.

"Her Grace is coming," he said. "She seems to share the Duke's dislike
of me, and she is too great a lady to conceal her feelings. Just one
word before I go. The Princess Eiderstrom arrives this afternoon."

Dominey frowned, then, warned by the keeper's shout, turned around and
killed a hare.

"My friend," he said, with a certain note of challenge in his tone, "I
am not certain that you have told me all that you know concerning the
Princess's visit."

Seaman was thoughtful for a brief space of time.

"You are right," he admitted, "I have not. It is a fault which I will
repair presently."

He strolled away to the next stand, where Mr. Mangan was displaying an
altogether different standard of proficiency. The Duchess came up to
Dominey a few minutes later.

"I told Henry I shouldn't stop with him another moment," she declared.
"He has fired off about forty cartridges and wounded one hare."

"Henry is not keen," Dominey remarked, "although I think you are a
little hard on him, are you not? I saw him bring down a nice cock just
now. So far as regards the birds, it really does not matter. They are
all going home."

The Duchess was very smartly tailored in clothes of brown leather
mixture. She wore thick shoes and gaiters and a small hat. She was
looking very well but a little annoyed.

"I hear," she said, "that Stephanie is coming to-day."

Dominey nodded, and seemed for a moment intent on watching the flight
of a pigeon which kept tantalisingly out of range.

"She is coming down for a few days," he assented. "I am afraid that
she will be bored to death."

"Where did you become so friendly with her?" his cousin asked
curiously.

"The first time we ever met," Dominey replied, "was in the Carlton
grill room, a few days after I landed in England. She mistook me for
some one else, and we parted with the usual apologies. I met her the
same night at Carlton House Terrace--she is related to the Terniloffs
--and we came across one another pretty often after that, during the
short time I was in town."

"Yes," the Duchess murmured meditatively. "That is another of the
little surprises you seem to have all ready dished up for us. How on
earth did you become so friendly with the German Ambassador?"

Dominey smiled tolerantly.

"Really," he replied, "there is not anything so very extraordinary
about it, is there? Mr. Seaman, my partner in one or two mining
enterprises, took me to call upon him. He is very interested in East
Africa, politically and as a sportsman. Our conversations seemed to
interest him and led to a certain intimacy--of which I may say that I
am proud. I have the greatest respect and liking for the Prince."

"So have I," Caroline agreed. "I think he's charming. Henry declares
that he must be either a fool or a knave."

"Henry is blinded by prejudice," Dominey declared a little
impatiently. "He cannot imagine a German who feasts with any one else
but the devil."

"Don't get annoyed, dear," she begged, resting her fingers for a
moment upon his coat sleeve. "I admire the Prince immensely. He is
absolutely the only German I ever met whom one felt instinctively to
be a gentleman.-- Now what are you smiling at?"

Dominey turned a perfectly serious face towards her. "Not guilty," he
pleaded.

"I saw you smile."

"It was just a quaint thought. You are rather sweeping, are you not,
Caroline?"

"I'm generally right," she declared.-- "To return to the subject of
Stephanie."

"Well?"

"Do you know whom she mistook you for in the Carlton grill room?"

"Tell me?" he answered evasively.

"She mistook you for a Baron Leopold Von Ragastein," Caroline
continued drily. "Von Ragastein was her lover in Hungary. He fought a
duel with her husband and killed him. The Kaiser was furious and
banished him to East Africa."

Dominey picked up his shooting-stick and handed his gun to Middleton.
The beaters were through the wood.

"Yes, I remember now," he said. "She addressed me as Leopold."

"I still don't see why it was necessary to invite her here," his
companion observed a little petulantly. "She may--call you Leopold
again!"

"If she does, I shall be deaf," Dominey promised. "But seriously, she
is a cousin of the Princess Terniloff, and the two women are devoted
to one another. The Princess hates shooting parties, so I thought they
could entertain one another."

"Bosh! Stephanie will monopolise you all the time! That's what's she's
coming for."

"You are not suggesting that she intends seriously to put me in the
place of my double?" Dominey asked, with mock alarm.

"Oh, I shouldn't wonder! And she's an extraordinarily attractive
woman. I'm full of complaints, Everard. There's that other horrible
little man, Seaman. You know that the very sight of him makes Henry
furious. I am quite sure that he never expected to sit down at the
same table with him."

"I am really sorry about that," Dominey assured her, "but you see His
Excellency takes a great interest in him on account of this Friendship
League, of which Seaman is secretary, and he particularly asked to
have him here."

"Well, you must admit that the situation is a little awkward for
Henry," she complained. "Next to Lord Roberts, Henry is practically
the leader of the National Service movement here; he hates Germany and
distrusts every German he ever met, and in a small house party like
this we meet the German Ambassador and a man who is working hard to
lull to sleep the very sentiments which Henry is endeavouring to
arouse."

"It sounds very pathetic," Dominey admitted, with a smile, "but even
Henry likes Terniloff, and after all it is stimulating to meet one's
opponents sometimes."

"Of course he likes Terniloff," Caroline assented, "but he hates the
things he stands for. However, I'd have forgiven you everything if
only Stephanie weren't coming. That woman is really beginning to
irritate me. She always seems to be making mysterious references to
some sentimental past in which you both are concerned, and for which
there can be no foundation at all except your supposed likeness to her
exiled lover. Why, you never met her until that day at the Carlton!"

"She was a complete stranger to me," Dominey asserted.

"Then all I can say is that you have been unusually rapid if you've
managed to create a past in something under three months!" Caroline
pronounced suspiciously. "I call her coming here a most bare-faced
proceeding, especially as this is practically a bachelor
establishment."

They had arrived at the next stand, and conversation was temporarily
suspended. A flight of wild duck were put out from a pool in the wood,
and for a few minutes every one was busy. Middleton watched his master
with unabated approval.

"You're most as good as the old Squire with them high duck, Sir
Everard," he said. "That's true very few can touch 'em when they're
coming out nigh to the pheasants. They can't believe in the speed of
'em."

"Do you think Sir Everard shoots as well as he did before he went to
Africa?" Caroline asked.

Middleton touched his hat and turned to Seaman, who was standing in
the background.

"Better, your Grace," he answered, "as I was saying to this gentleman
here, early this morning. He's cooler like and swings more level. I'd
have known his touch on a gun anywhere, though."

There was a glint of admiration in Seaman's eyes. The beaters came
through the wood, and the little party of guns gossiped together while
the game was collected. Terniloff, his usual pallor chased away by the
bracing wind and the pleasure of the sport, was affable and even
loquacious. He had great estates of his own in Saxony and was
explaining to the Duke his manner of shooting them. Middleton glanced
at his horn-rimmed watch.

"There's another hour's good light, sir," he said. "Would you care
about a partridge drive, or should we do through the home copse?"

"If I might make a suggestion," Terniloff observed diffidently, "most
of the pheasants went into that gloomy-looking wood just across the
marshes."

There was a moment's rather curious silence. Dominey had turned and
was looking towards the wood in question, as though fascinated by its
almost sinister-like blackness and density. Middleton had dropped some
game he was carrying and was muttering to himself.

"We call that the Black Wood," Dominey said calmly, "and I am rather
afraid that the pheasants who find their way there claim sanctuary.
What do you think, Middleton?"

The old man turned his head slowly and looked at his master. Somehow
or other, every scrap of colour seemed to have faded out of his
bronzed face. His eyes were filled with that vague horror of the
supernatural common amongst the peasant folk of various localities.
His voice shook. The old fear was back again.

"You wouldn't put the beaters in there, Squire?" he faltered; "not
that there's one of them would go."

"Have we stumbled up against a local superstition?" the Duke enquired.

"That's not altogether local, your Grace," Middleton replied, "as the
Squire himself will tell you. I doubt whether there's a beater in all
Norfolk would go through the Black Wood, if you paid him red gold for
it.-- Here, you lads."

He turned to the beaters, who were standing waiting for instructions a
few yards away. There were a dozen of them, stalwart men for the most
part, clad in rough smocks and breeches and carrying thick sticks.

"There's one of the gentlemen here," Middleton announced, addressing
them, "who wants to know if you'd go through the Black Wood of Dominey
for a sovereign apiece?-- Watch their faces, your Grace.-- Now then,
lads?"

There was no possibility of any mistake. The very suggestion seemed to
have taken the healthy sunburn from their cheeks. They fumbled with
their sticks uneasily. One of them touched his hat and spoke to
Dominey.

"I'm one as 'as seen it, sir, as well as heard," he said. "I'd sooner
give up my farm than go nigh the place."

Caroline suddenly passed her arm through Dominey's. There was a note
of distress in her tone.

"Henry, you're an idiot!" she exclaimed. "It was my fault, Everard.
I'm so sorry. Just for one moment I had forgotten. I ought to have
stopped Henry at once. The poor man has no memory."

Dominey's arm responded for a moment to the pressure of her fingers.
Then he turned to the beaters.

"Well, no one is going to ask you to go to the Black Wood," he
promised. "Get round to the back of Hunt's stubbles, and bring them
into the roots and then over into the park. We will line the park
fence. How is that, Middleton?"

The keeper touched his hat and stepped briskly off.

"I'll just have a walk with them myself, sir," he said. "Them birds do
break at Fuller's corner. I'll see if I can flank them. You'll know
where to put the guns, Squire."

Dominey nodded. One and all the beaters were walking with most
unaccustomed speed towards their destination. Their backs were towards
the Black Wood. Terniloff came up to his host.

"Have I, by chance, been terribly tactless?" he asked.

Dominey shook his head.

"You asked a perfectly natural question, Prince," he replied. "There
is no reason why you should not know the truth. Near that wood
occurred the tragedy which drove me from England for so many years."

"I am deeply grieved," the Prince began--

"It is false sentiment to avoid allusions to it," Dominey interrupted.
"I was attacked there one night by a man who had some cause for
offence against me. We fought, and I reached home in a somewhat
alarming state. My condition terrified my wife so much that she has
been an invalid ever since. But here is the point which has given
birth to all these superstitions, and which made me for many years a
suspected person. The man with whom I fought has never been seen
since."

Terniloff was at once too fascinated by the story and puzzled by his
host's manner of telling it to maintain his apologetic attitude.

"Never seen since!" he repeated.

"My own memory as to the end of our fight is uncertain," Dominey
continued. "My impression is that I left my assailant unconscious upon
the ground."

"Then it is his ghost, I imagine, who haunts the Black Wood?"

Dominey shook himself as one who would get rid of an unwholesome
thought.

"The wood itself, Prince," he explained, as they walked along, "is a
noisome place. There are quagmires even in the middle of it, where a
man may sink in and be never heard of again. Every sort of vermin
abounds there, every unclean insect and bird are to be found in the
thickets. I suppose the character of the place has encouraged the
local superstition in which every one of those men firmly believes."

"They absolutely believe the place to be haunted, then?"

"The superstition goes further," Dominey continued. "Our locals say
that somewhere in the heart of the wood, where I believe that no human
being for many years has dared to penetrate, there is living in the
spiritual sense some sort of a demon who comes out only at night and
howls underneath my windows."

"Has any one ever seen it?"

"One or two of the villagers; to the best of my belief, no one else,"
Dominey replied.

Terniloff seemed on the point of asking more questions, but the Duke
touched him on the arm and drew him to one side, as though to call his
attention to the sea fogs which were rolling up from the marshes.

"Prince," he whispered, "the details of that story are inextricably
mixed up with the insanity of Lady Dominey. I am sure you understand."

The Prince, a diplomatist to his fingertips, appeared shocked,
although a furtive smile still lingered upon his lips.

"I regret my faux pas most deeply," he murmured. "Sir Everard," he
went on, "you promised to tell me of some of your days with a shotgun
in South Africa. Isn't there a bird there which corresponds with your
partridges?"

Dominey smiled.

"If you can kill the partridges which Middleton is going to send over
in the next ten minutes," he said, "you could shoot anything of the
sort that comes along in East Africa, with a catapult. If you will
stand just a few paces there to the left, Henry, Terniloff by the
gate, Stillwell up by the left-hand corner, Mangan next, Eddy next,
and I shall be just beyond towards the oak clump. Will you walk with
me, Caroline?"

His cousin took his arm as they walked off and pressed it.

"Everard, I congratulate you," she said. "You have conquered your
nerve absolutely. You did a simple and a fine thing to tell the whole
story. Why, you were almost matter-of-fact. I could even have imagined
you were telling it about some one else."

Her host smiled enigmatically.

"Curious that it should have struck you like that," he remarked. "Do
you know, when I was telling it I had the same feeling.-- Do you mind
crouching down a little now? I am going to blow the whistle."



                             CHAPTER XVI

Even in the great dining-room of Dominey Hall, the mahogany table
which was its great glory was stretched that evening to its extreme
capacity. Besides the house party, which included the Right Honourable
Gerald Watson, a recently appointed Cabinet Minister, there were
several guests from the neighbourhood--the Lord Lieutenant of the
County and other notabilities. Caroline, with the Lord Lieutenant on
one side of her and Terniloff on the other played the part of hostess
adequately but without enthusiasm. Her eyes seldom left for long the
other end of the table, where Stephanie, at Dominey's left hand, with
her crown of exquisitely coiffured red-gold hair, her marvellous
jewellery, her languorous grace of manner, seemed more like one of the
beauties of an ancient Venetian Court than a modern Hungarian Princess
gowned in the Rue de la Paix. Conversation remained chiefly local and
concerned the day's sport and kindred topics. It was not until towards
the close of the meal that the Duke succeeded in launching his
favourite bubble.

"I trust, Everard," he said, raising his voice a little as he turned
towards his host, "that you make a point of inculcating the principles
of National Service into your tenantry here."

Dominey's reply was a little dubious.

"I am afraid they do not take to the idea very kindly in this part of
the world," he confessed. "Purely agricultural districts are always a
little difficult."

"It is your duty as a landowner," the Duke insisted, "to alter their
point of view. There is not the slightest doubt," he added, looking
belligerently over the top of his /pince nez/ at Seaman, who was
seated at the opposite side of the table, "that before long we shall
find ourselves--and in a shocking state of unpreparedness, mind you--
at war with Germany."

Lady Maddeley, the wife of the Lord Lieutenant, who sat at his side,
seemed a little startled. She was probably one of the only people
present who was not aware of the Duke's foible.

"Do you really think so?" she asked. "The Germans seem such civilised
people, so peaceful and domestic in their home life, and that sort of
thing."

The Duke groaned. He glanced down the table to be sure that Prince
Terniloff was out of hearing.

"My dear Lady Maddeley," he declared, "Germany is not governed like
England. When the war comes, the people will have had nothing to do
with it. A great many of them will be just as surprised as you will
be, but they will fight all the same."

Seaman, who had kept silence during the last few moments with great
difficulty, now took up the Duke's challenge.

"Permit me to assure you, madam," he said, bowing across the table,
"that the war with Germany of which the Duke is so afraid will never
come. I speak with some amount of knowledge because I am a German by
birth, although naturalised in this country. I have as many and as
dear friends in Berlin as in London, and with the exception of my
recent absence in Africa, where I had the pleasure to meet our host, I
spent a great part of my time going back and forth between the two
capitals. I have also the honour to be the secretary of a society for
the promotion of a better understanding between the citizens of
Germany and England."

"Rubbish!" the Duke exclaimed. "The Germans don't want a better
understanding. They only want to fool us into believing that they do."

Seaman looked a little pained. He stuck to his guns, however.

"His Grace and I," he observed, "are old opponents on this subject."

"We are indeed," the Duke agreed. "You may be an honest man, Mr.
Seaman, but you are a very ignorant one upon this particular topic."

"You are probably both right in your way," Dominey intervened, very
much in the manner of a well-bred host making his usual effort to
smooth over two widely divergent points of view. "There is no doubt a
war party in Germany and a peace party, statesmen who place economic
progress first, and others who are tainted with a purely military lust
for conquest. In this country it is very hard for us to strike a
balance between the two."

Seaman beamed his thanks upon his host.

"I have friends," he said impressively, "in the very highest circles
of Germany, who are continually encouraging my work here, and I have
received the benediction of the Kaiser himself upon my efforts to
promote a better feeling in this country. And if you will forgive my
saying so, Duke, it is such ill-advised and ill-founded statements as
you are constantly making about my country which is the only bar to a
better understanding between us."

"I have my views," the Duke snapped, "and they have become
convictions. I shall continue to express them at all times and with
all the eloquence at my command."

The Ambassador, to whom portions of this conversation had now become
audible, leaned a little forward in his place.

"Let me speak first as a private individual," he begged, "and express
my well-studied opinion that war between our two countries would be
simply race suicide, an indescribable and an abominable crime. Then I
will remember what I represent over here, and I will venture to add in
my ambassadorial capacity that I come with an absolute and heartfelt
mandate of peace. My task over here is to secure and ensure it."

Caroline flashed a warning glance at her husband.

"How nice of you to be so frank, Prince!" she said. "The Duke
sometimes forgets, in the pursuit of his hobby, that a private dinner
table is not a platform. I insist upon it that we discuss something of
more genuine interest."

"There isn't a more vital subject in the world," the Duke declared,
resigning himself, however, to silence.

"We will speak," the Ambassador suggested, "of the way in which our
host brought down those tall pheasants."

"You will tell me, perhaps," Seaman suggested to the lady to his
right, "how you English women have been able to secure for yourselves
so much more liberty than our German wives enjoy?"

"Later on," Stephanie whispered to her host, with a little tremble in
her voice, "I have a surprise for you."

After dinner, Dominey's guests passed naturally enough to the
relaxations which each preferred. There were two bridge tables,
Terniloff and the Cabinet Minister played billiards, and Seaman, with
a touch which amazed every one, drew strange music from the yellow
keys of the old-fashioned grand piano in the drawing-room. Stephanie
and her host made a slow progress through the hall and picture
gallery. For some time their conversation was engaged solely with the
objects to which Dominey drew his companion's attention. When they had
passed out of possible hearing, however, of any of the other guests,
Stephanie's fingers tightened upon her companion's arm.

"I wish to speak to you alone," she said, "without the possibility of
any one overhearing."

Dominey hesitated and looked behind.

"Your guests are well occupied," she continued a little impatiently,
"and in any case I am one of them. I claim your attention."

Dominey threw open the door of the library and turned on a couple of
the electric lights. She made her way to the great open fireplace, on
which a log was burning, looked down into the shadows of the room and
back again at her host's face.

"For one moment," she begged, "turn on all the lights. I wish to be
sure that we are alone."

Dominey did as he was bidden. The furthermost corners of the room,
with its many wings of book-filled shelves, were illuminated. She
nodded.

"Now turn them all out again except this one," she directed, "and
wheel me up an easy-chair. No, I choose this settee. Please seat
yourself by my side."

"Is this going to be serious?" he asked, with some slight disquietude.

"Serious but wonderful," she murmured, lifting her eyes to his. "Will
you please listen to me, Leopold?"

She was half curled up in a corner of the settee, her head resting
slightly upon her long fingers, her brown eyes steadily fixed upon her
companion. There was an atmosphere about her of serious yet of tender
things. Dominey's face seemed to fall into more rigid lines as he
realised the appeal of her eyes.

"Leopold," she began, "I left this country a few weeks ago, feeling
that you were a brute, determined never to see you again, half
inclined to expose you before I went as an impostor and a charlatan.
Germany means little to me, and a patriotism which took no account of
human obligations left me absolutely unresponsive. I meant to go home
and never to return to London. My heart was bruised, and I was very
unhappy."

She paused, but her companion made no sign. She paused for so long,
however, that speech became necessary.

"You are speaking, Princess," he said calmly, "to one who is not
present. My name is no longer Leopold."

She laughed at him with a curious mixture of tenderness and
bitterness.

"My friend," she continued, "I am terrified to think, besides your
name, how much of humanity you have lost in your new identity. To
proceed it suited my convenience to remain for a few days in Berlin,
and I was therefore compelled to present myself at Potsdam. There I
received a great surprise. Wilhelm spoke to me of you, and though,
alas! my heart is still bruised, he helped me to understand."

"Is this wise?" he asked a little desperately.

She ignored his words.

"I was taken back into favour at Court," she went on. "For that I owe
to you my thanks. Wilhelm was much impressed by your recent visit to
him, and by the way in which you have established yourself here. He
spoke also with warm commendation of your labours in Africa, which he
seemed to appreciate all the more as you were sent there an exile. He
asked me, Leopold," she added, dropping her voice a little, "if my
feelings towards you remained unchanged."

Dominey's face remained unrelaxed. Persistently he refused the
challenge of her eyes.

"I told him the truth," she proceeded. "I told him how it all began,
and how it must last with me--to the end. We spoke even of the duel. I
told him what both your seconds had explained to me,--that turn of the
wrist, Conrad's wild lunge, how he literally threw himself upon the
point of your sword. Wilhelm understands and forgives, and he has sent
you this letter."

She drew a small grey envelope from her pocket. On the seal were the
Imperial Hohenzollern arms. She passed it to him.

"Leopold," she whispered, "please read that."

He shook his head, although he accepted the letter with reluctant
fingers.

"Read the superscription," she directed.

He obeyed her. It was addressed in a strange, straggling handwriting
to /Sir Everard Dominey, Baronet/. He broke the seal unwillingly and
drew out the letter. It was dated barely a fortnight back. There was
neither beginning or ending; just a couple of sentences scrawled
across the thick notepaper:


 "It is my will that you offer your hand in marriage to the Princess
  Stephanie of Eiderstrom. Your union shall be blessed by the Church
  and approved by my Court.

       "WILHELM."


Dominey sat as a man enthralled with silence. She watched him.

"Not on your knees yet?" she asked, with faint but somewhat resentful
irony. "Can it be, Leopold, that you have lost your love for me? You
have changed so much and in so many ways. Has the love gone?"

Even to himself his voice sounded harsh and unnatural, his words
instinct with the graceless cruelty of a clown.

"This is not practical," he declared. "Think! I am as I have been
addressed here, and as I must remain yet for months to come--Everard
Dominey, an Englishman and the owner of this house--the husband of
Lady Dominey."

"Where is your reputed wife?" Stephanie demanded, frowning.

"In the nursing home where she has been for the last few months," he
replied. "She has already practically recovered. She cannot remain
there much longer."

"You must insist upon it that she does."

"I ask you to consider the suspicions which would be excited by such a
course," Dominey pleaded earnestly, "and further, can you explain to
me in what way I, having already, according to belief of everybody,
another wife living, can take advantage of this mandate?"

She looked at him wonderingly.

"You make difficulties? You sit there like the cold Englishman whose
place you are taking, you whose tears have fallen before now upon my
hand, whose lips--"

"You speak of one who is dead," Dominey interrupted, "dead until the
coming of great events may bring him to life again. Until that time
your lover must be dumb."

Then her anger blazed out. She spoke incoherently, passionately,
dragged his face down to hers and clenched her fist the next moment as
though she would have struck it. She broke down with a storm of tears.

"Not so hard--not so hard, Leopold!" she implored. "Oh! yours is a
great task, and you must carry it through to the end, but we have his
permission--there can be found a way--we could be married secretly. At
least your lips--your arms! My heart is starved, Leopold."

He rose to his feet. Her arms were still twined about his neck, her
lips hungry for his kisses, her eyes shining up into his.

"Have pity on me, Stephanie," he begged. "Until our time has come
there is dishonour even in a single kiss. Wait for the day, the day
you know of."

She unwound her arms and shivered slightly. Her hurt eyes regarded him
wonderingly.

"Leopold" she faltered, "what has changed you like this? What has
dried up all the passion in you? You are a different man. Let me look
at you."

She caught him by the shoulders, dragged him underneath the electric
globe, and stood there gazing into his face. The great log upon the
hearth was spluttering and fizzing. Through the closed door came the
faint wave of conversation and laughter from outside. Her breathing
was uneven, her eyes were seeking to rend the mask from his face.

"Can you have learnt to care for any one else?" she muttered. "There
were no women in Africa. This Rosamund Dominey, your reputed wife--
they tell me that she is beautiful, that you have been kindness itself
to her, that her health has improved since your coming, that she
adores you. You wouldn't dare--"

"No," he interrupted, "I should not dare."

"Then what are you looking at?" she demanded. "Tell me that?"

Her eyes were following the shadowed picture which had passed out of
the room. He saw once more the slight, girlish form, the love-seeking
light in those pleading dark eyes, the tremulous lips, the whole sweet
appeal for safety from a frightened child to him, the strong man. He
felt the clinging touch of those soft fingers laid upon his, the
sweetness of those marvellously awakened emotions, so cruelly and
drearily stifled through a cycle of years. The woman's passion by his
side seemed suddenly tawdry and unreal, the seeking of her lips for
his something horrible. His back was towards the door, and it was her
cry of angry dismay which first apprised him of a welcome intruder. He
swung around to find Seaman standing upon the threshold--Seaman, to
him a very angel of deliverance.

"I am indeed sorry to intrude, Sir Everard," the newcomer declared,
with a shade of genuine concern on his round, good-humoured face.
"Something has happened which I thought you ought to know at once. Can
you spare me a moment?"

The Princess swept past them without a word of farewell or a backward
glance. She had the carriage and the air of an insulted queen. A shade
of deeper trouble came into Seaman's face as he stepped respectfully
to one side.

"What is it that has happened?" Dominey demanded.

"Lady Dominey has returned," was the quiet reply.



                             CHAPTER XVII

It seemed to Dominey that he had never seen anything more pathetic
than that eager glance, half of hope, half of apprehension, flashed
upon him from the strange, tired eyes of the woman who was standing
before the log fire in a little recess of the main hall. By her side
stood a pleasant, friendly looking person in the uniform of a nurse; a
yard or two behind, a maid carrying a jewel case. Rosamund, who had
thrown back her veil, had been standing with her foot upon the fender.
Her whole expression changed as Dominey came hastily towards her with
outstretched hands.

"My dear child," he exclaimed, "welcome home!"

"Welcome?" she repeated, with a glad catch in her throat. "You mean
it?"

With a self-control of which he gave no sign, he touched the lips
which were raised so eagerly to his as tenderly and reverently as
though this were some strange child committed to his care.

"Of course I mean it," he answered heartily. "But what possessed you
to come without giving us notice? How was this, nurse?"

"Her ladyship has had no sleep for two nights," the latter replied.
"She has been so much better that we dreaded the thought of a relapse,
so Mrs. Coulson, our matron, thought it best to let her have her own
way about coming. Instead of telegraphing to you, unfortunately, we
telegraphed to Doctor Harrison, and I believe he is away."

"Is it very wrong of me?" Rosamund asked, clinging to Dominey's arm.
"I had a sudden feeling that I must get back here. I wanted to see you
again. Every one has been so sweet and kind at Falmouth, especially
Nurse Alice here, but they weren't quite the same thing. You are not
angry? These people who are staying here will not mind?"

"Of course not," he assured her cheerfully. "They will be your guests.
To-morrow you must make friends with them all."

"There was a very beautiful woman," she said timidly, "with red hair,
who passed by just now. She looked very angry. That was not because I
have come?"

"Why should it be?" he answered. "You have a right here--a better
right than any one."

She drew a long sigh of contentment.

"Oh, but this is wonderful!" she cried. "And you dear,--I shall call
you Everard, mayn't I?--you look just as I hoped you might. Will you
take me upstairs, please? Nurse, you can follow us."

She leaned heavily on his arm and even loitered on the way, but her
steps grew lighter as they approached her own apartment. Finally, as
they reached the corridor, she broke away from him and tripped on with
the gaiety almost of a child to the door of her room. Then came a
little cry of disappointment as she flung open the door. Several maids
were there, busy with a refractory fire and removing the covers from
the furniture, but the room was half full of smoke and entirely
unprepared.

"Oh, how miserable!" she exclaimed. "Everard, what shall I do?"

He threw open the door of his own apartment. A bright fire was burning
in the grate, the room was warm and comfortable. She threw herself
with a little cry of delight into the huge Chesterfield drawn up to
the edge of the hearthrug.

"I can stay here, Everard, can't I, until you come up to bed?" she
pleaded. "And then you can sit and talk to me, and tell me who is here
and all about the people. You have no idea how much better I am. All
my music has come back to me, and they say that I play bridge ever so
well. I shall love to help you entertain."

The maid was slowly unfastening her mistress's boots. Rosamund held up
her foot for him to feel.

"See how cold I am!" she complained. "Please rub it. I am going to
have some supper up here with nurse. Will one of you maids please go
down and see about it? What a lot of nice new things you have,
Everard!" she added, looking around. "And that picture of me from the
drawing-room, on the table!" she cried, her eyes suddenly soft with
joy. "You dear thing! What made you bring that up?"

"I wanted to have it here," he told her.

"I'm not so nice as that now," she sighed, a little wistfully.

"Do not believe it," he answered. "You have not changed in the least.
You will be better-looking still when you have been here for a few
months."

She looked at him almost shyly--tenderly, yet still with that gleam of
aloofness in her eyes.

"I think," she murmured, "I shall be just what you want me to be. I
think you could make me just what you want. Be very kind to me,
please," she begged, stretching her arms out to him. "I suppose it is
because I have been ill so long, but I feel so helpless, and I love
your strength and I want you to take care of me. Your own hands are
quite cold," she added anxiously. "You look pale, too. You're not ill,
Everard?"

"I am very well," he assured her, struggling to keep his voice steady.
"Forgive me now, won't you, if I hurry away. There are guests here--
rather important guests. To-morrow you must come and see them all."

"And help you?"

"And help me."



Dominey made his escape and went reeling down the corridor. At the top
of the great quadrangular landing he stopped and stood with half-
closed eyes for several moments. From downstairs he could hear the
sound of pleasantly raised voices, the music of a piano in the
distance, the click of billiard balls. He waited until he had regained
his self-possession. Then, as he was on the point of descending, he
saw Seaman mounting the stairs. At a gesture he waited for him, waited
until he came, and, taking him by the arm, led him to a great settee
in a dark corner. Seaman had lost his usual blitheness. The good-
humoured smile played no longer about his lips.

"Where is Lady Dominey?" he asked.

"In my room, waiting until her own is prepared."

Seaman's manner was unusually grave.

"My friend," he said, "you know very well that when we walk in the
great paths of life I am unscrupulous. In those other hours, alas! I
have a weakness,-- I love women."

"Well?" Dominey muttered.

"I will admit," the other continued, "that you are placed in a
delicate and trying position. Lady Dominey seems disposed to offer to
you the affection which, notwithstanding their troubles together, she
doubtless felt for her husband. I risk your anger, my friend, but I
warn you to be very careful how you encourage her."

A light flashed in Dominey's eyes. For the moment angry words seemed
to tremble upon his lips. Seaman's manner, however, was very gentle.
He courted no offence.

"If you were to take advantage of your position with--with any other,
I would shrug my shoulders and stand on one side, but this mad
Englishman's wife, or rather his widow, has been mentally ill. She is
still weak-minded, just as she is tender-hearted. I watched her as she
passed through the hall with you just now. She turns to you for love
as a flower to the sun after a long spell of cold, wet weather. Von
Ragastein, you are a man of honour. You must find means to deal with
this situation, however difficult it may become."

Dominey had recovered from his first wave of weakness. His companion's
words excited no sentiment of anger. He was conscious even of
regarding him with a greater feeling of kindness than ever before.

"My friend," he said, "you have shown me that you are conscious of one
dilemma in which I find myself placed, and which I confess is
exercising me to the utmost. Let me now advise you of another. The
Princess Eiderstrom has brought me an autograph letter from the
Kaiser, commanding me to marry her."

"The situation," Seaman declared grimly, "but for its serious side,
would provide all the elements for a Palais Royal farce. For the
present, however, you have duties below. I have said the words which
were thumping against the walls of my heart."

Their descent was opportune. Some of the local guests were preparing
to make their departure, and Dominey was in time to receive their
adieux. They all left messages for Lady Dominey, spoke of a speedy
visit to her, and expressed themselves as delighted to hear of her
return and recovery. As the last car rolled away, Caroline took her
host's arm and led him to a chimney seat by the huge log fire in the
inner hall.

"My dear Everard," she said, "you really are a very terrible person."

"Exactly why?" he demanded.

"Your devotion to my sex," she continued, "is flattering but far too
catholic. Your return to England appears to have done what we
understood to be impossible--restored your wife's reason. A fiery-
headed Hungarian Princess has pursued you down here, and has now gone
to her room in a tantrum because you left her side for a few minutes
to welcome your wife. And there remains our own sentimental little
flirtation, a broken and, alas, a discarded thing! There is no doubt
whatever, Everard, that you are a very bad lot."

"You are distressing me terribly," Dominey confessed, "but all the
same, after a somewhat agitated evening I must admit that I find it
pleasant to talk with some one who is not wielding the lightnings. May
I have a whisky and soda?"

"Bring me one, too, please," Caroline begged. "I fear that it will
seriously impair the note which I had intended to strike in our
conversation, but I am thirsty. And a handful of those Turkish
cigarettes, too. You can devote yourself to me with a perfectly clear
conscience. Your most distinguished guest has found a task after his
own heart. He has got Henry in a corner of the billiard-room and is
trying to convince him of what I am sure the dear man really believes
himself--that Germany's intentions towards England are of a
particularly dove-like nature. Your Right Honourable guest has gone to
bed, and Eddy Pelham is playing billiards with Mr. Mangan. Every one
is happy. You can devote yourself to soothing my wounded vanity, to
say nothing of my broken heart."

"Always gibing at me," Dominey grumbled.

"Not always," she answered quietly, raising her eyes for a moment.
"There was a time, Everard, before that terrible tragedy--the last
time you stayed at Dunratter--when I didn't gibe."

"When, on the contrary, you were sweetness itself," he reflected.

She sighed reminiscently.

"That was a wonderful month," she murmured. "I think it was then for
the first time that I saw traces of something in you which I suppose
accounts for your being what you are to-day."

"You think that I have changed, then?"

She looked him in the eyes.

"I sometimes find it difficult to believe," she admitted, "that you
are the same man."

He turned away to reach for his whisky and soda.

"As a matter of curiosity," he asked, "why?"

"To begin with, then," she commented, "you have become almost a
precisian in your speech. You used to be rather slangy at times."

"What else?"

"You used always to clip your final g's."

"Shocking habit," he murmured. "I cured myself of that by reading
aloud in the bush. Go on, please?"

"You carry yourself so much more stiffly. Sometimes you have the air
of being surprised that you are not in uniform."

"Trifles, all these things," he declared. "Now for something serious?"

"The serious things are pretty good," she admitted. "You used to drink
whiskys and sodas at all hours of the day, and quite as much wine as
was good for you at dinner time. Now, although you are a wonderful
host, you scarcely take anything yourself."

"You should see me at the port," he told her, "when you ladies are
well out of the way! Some more of the good, please?"

"All your best qualities seem to have come to the surface," she went
on, "and I think that the way you have come back and faced it all is
simply wonderful. Tell me, if that man's body should be discovered
after all these years, would you be charged with manslaughter?"

He shook his head. "I do not think so, Caroline."

"Everard."

"Well?"

"Did you kill Roger Unthank?"

A portion of the burning log fell on to the hearth. Then there was
silence. They heard the click of the billiard balls in the adjoining
room. Dominey leaned forward and with a pair of small tongs replaced
the burning wood upon the fire. Suddenly he felt his hands clasped by
his companion's.

"Everard dear," she said, "I am so sorry. You came to me a little
tired to-night, didn't you? I think that you needed sympathy, and here
I am asking you once more that horrible question. Forget it, please.
Talk to me like your old dear self. Tell me about Rosamund's return.
Is she really recovered, do you think?"

"I saw her only for a few minutes," Dominey replied, "but she seemed
to me absolutely better. I must say that the weekly reports I have
received from the nursing home quite prepared me for a great
improvement. She is very frail, and her eyes still have that restless
look, but she talks quite coherently."

"What about that horrible woman?"

"I have pensioned Mrs. Unthank. To my surprise I hear that she is
still living in the village."

"And your ghost?"

"Not a single howl all the time that Rosamund has been away."

"There is one thing more," Caroline began hesitatingly.

That one thing lacked forever the clothing of words. There came a
curious, almost a dramatic interruption. Through the silence of the
hall there pealed the summons of the great bell which hung over the
front door. Dominey glanced at the clock in amazement.

"Midnight!" he exclaimed. "Who on earth can be coming here at this
time of night!"

Instinctively they both rose to their feet. A manservant had turned
the great key, drawn the bolts, and opened the door with difficulty.
Little flakes of snow and a gust of icy wind swept into the hall, and
following them the figure of a man, white from head to foot, his hair
tossed with the wind, almost unrecognisable after his struggle.

"Why, Doctor Harrison!" Dominey cried, taking a quick step forward.
"What brings you here at this time of night!"

The doctor leaned upon his stick for a moment. He was out of breath,
and the melting snow was pouring from his clothes on to the oak floor.
They relieved him of his coat and dragged him towards the fire.

"I must apologise for disturbing you at such an hour," he said, as he
took the tumbler which Dominey pressed into his hand. "I have only
just received Lady Dominey's telegram. I had to see you--at once."



                            CHAPTER XVIII

The doctor, with his usual bluntness, did not hesitate to make it
known that this unusual visit was of a private nature. Caroline
promptly withdrew, and the two men were left alone in the great hall.
The lights in the billiard-room and drawing-room were extinguished.
Every one in the house except a few servants had retired.

"Sir Everard," the doctor began, "this return of Lady Dominey's has
taken me altogether by surprise. I had intended to-morrow morning to
discuss the situation with you."

"I am most anxious to hear your report," Dominey said.

"My report is good," was the confident answer. "Although I would not
have allowed her to have left the nursing home so suddenly had I
known, there was nothing to keep her there. Lady Dominey, except for
one hallucination, is in perfect health, mentally and physically."

"And this one hallucination?"

"That you are not her husband."

Dominey was silent for a moment. Then he laughed a little unnaturally.

"Can a person be perfectly sane," he asked, "and yet be subject to an
hallucination which must make the whole of her surroundings seem
unreal?"

"Lady Dominey is perfectly sane," the doctor answered bluntly, "and as
for that hallucination, it is up to you to dispel it."

"Perhaps you can give me some advice?" Dominey suggested.

"I can, and I am going to be perfectly frank with you," the doctor
replied. "To begin with then, there are certain obvious changes in you
which might well minister to Lady Dominey's hallucination. For
instance, you have been in England now some eight months, during which
time you have reveled an entirely new personality. You seem to have
got rid of every one of your bad habits, you drink moderately, as a
gentleman should, you have subdued your violent temper, and you have
collected around you, where your personality could be the only
inducement, friends of distinction and interest. This is not at all
what one expected from the Everard Dominey who scuttled out of England
a dozen years ago."

"You are excusing my wife," Dominey remarked.

"She needs no excuses," was the brusque reply. "She has been a long-
enduring and faithful woman, suffering from a cruel illness, brought
on, to take the kindest view if it, through your clumsiness and lack
of discretion. Like all good women, forgiveness is second nature to
her. It has now become her wish to take her proper place in life."

"But if her hallucination continues," Dominey asked, "if she seriously
doubts that I am indeed her husband, how can she do that?"

"That is the problem you and I have to face," the doctor said sternly.
"The fact that your wife has been willing to return here to you,
whilst still subject to that hallucination, is a view of the matter
which I can neither discuss nor understand. I am here to-night,
though, to lay a charge upon you. You have to remember that your wife
needs still one step towards a perfect recovery, and until that step
has been surmounted you have a very difficult but imperative task."

Dominey set his teeth for a moment. He felt the doctor's keen grey
eyes glowing from under his shaggy eyebrows as he leaned forward, his
hands upon his knees.

"You mean," Dominey suggested quietly, "that until that hallucination
has passed we must remain upon the same terms as we have done since my
arrival home."

"You've got it," the doctor assented. "It's a tangled-up position, but
we've got to deal with it--or rather you have. I can assure you," he
went on, "that all her other delusions have gone. She speaks of the
ghost of Roger Unthank, of the cries in the night, of his mysterious
death, as parts of a painful past. She is quite conscious of her
several attempts upon your life and bitterly regrets them. Now we come
to the real danger. She appears to be possessed of a passionate
devotion towards you, whilst still believing that you are not her
husband."

Dominey pushed his chair back from the fire as though he felt the
heat. His eyes seemed glued upon the doctor's.

"I do not pretend," the latter continued gravely, "to account for
that, but it is my duty to warn you, Sir Everard, that that devotion
may lead her to great lengths. Lady Dominey is naturally of an
exceedingly affectionate disposition, and this return to a stronger
condition of physical health and a fuller share of human feelings has
probably reawakened all those tendencies which her growing fondness
for you and your position as her reputed husband make perfectly
natural. I warn you, Sir Everard, that you may find your position an
exceedingly difficult one, but, difficult though it may be, there is a
plain duty before you. Keep and encourage your wife's affection if you
can, but let it be a charge upon you that whilst the hallucination
remains that affection must never pass certain bounds. Lady Dominey is
a good and sweet woman. If she woke up one morning with that
hallucination still in her mind, and any sense of guilt on her
conscience, all our labours for these last months might well be
wasted, and she herself might very possibly end her days in a
madhouse."

"Doctor," Dominey said firmly. "I appreciate every word you say. You
can rely upon me."

The doctor looked at him.

"I believe I can," he admitted, with a sigh of relief. "I am glad of
it."

"There is just one more phase of the position," Dominey went on, after
a pause. "Supposing this hallucination of hers should pass? Supposing
she should suddenly become convinced that I am her husband?"

"In that case," the doctor replied earnestly, "the position would be
exactly reversed, and it would be just as important for you not to
check the affection which she might offer to you as it would be in the
other case for you not to accept it. The moment she realises, with her
present predispositions, that you really are her lawful husband, that
moment will be the beginning of a new life for her."

Somehow they both seemed to feel that the last words had been spoken.
After a brief pause, the doctor helped himself to a farewell drink,
filled his pipe and stood up. The car which Dominey had ordered from
the garage was already standing at the door. It was curious how both
of them seemed disinclined to refer again even indirectly to the
subject which they had been discussing.

"Very good of you to send me back," the doctor said gruffly. "I
started out all right, but it was a drear walk across the marshes."

"I am very grateful to you for coming," Dominey replied, with obvious
sincerity. "You will come and have a look at the patient in a day or
two?"

"I'll stroll across as soon as you've got rid of some of this
houseful," the doctor promised. "Good night!"

The two men parted, and curiously enough Dominey was conscious that
with those few awkward words of farewell some part of the incipient
antagonism between them had been buried. Left to himself, he wandered
for some moments up and down the great, dimly lit hall. A strange
restlessness seemed to have fastened itself upon him. He stood for a
time by the dying fire, watching the grey ashes, stirred uneasily by
the wind which howled down the chimney. Then he strolled to a
different part of the hall, and one by one he turned on, by means of
the electric switches, the newly installed lights which hung above the
sombre oil pictures upon the wall. He looked into the faces of some of
these dead Domineys, trying to recall what he had heard of their
history, and dwelling longest upon a gallant of the Stuart epoch,
whose misdeeds had supplied material for every intimate chronicler of
those days. When at last the sight of a sleepy manservant hovering in
the background forced his steps upstairs, he still lingered for a few
moments in the corridor and turned the handle of his bedroom door with
almost reluctant fingers. His heart gave a great jump as he realised
that there was some one there. He stood for a moment upon the
threshold, then laughed shortly to himself at his foolish imagining.
It was his servant who was patiently awaiting his arrival.

"You can go to bed, Dickens," he directed. "I shall not want you again
to-night. We shoot in the morning."

The man silently took his leave, and Dominey commenced his
preparations for bed. He was in no humour for sleep, however, and,
still attired in his shirt and trousers, he wrapped a dressing-gown
around him, drew a reading lamp to his side, and threw himself into an
easy-chair, a book in his hand. It was some time before he realised
that the volume was upside down, and even when he had righted it, the
words he saw had no meaning for him. All the time a queer procession
of women's faces was passing before his eyes--Caroline, with her half-
flirtatious, wholly sentimental /bon camaraderie/; Stephanie, with her
voluptuous figure and passion-lit eyes; and then, blotting the others
utterly out of his thoughts and memory, Rosamund, with all the
sweetness of life shining out of her eager face. He saw her as she had
come to him last, with that little unspoken cry upon her tremulous
lips, and the haunting appeal in her soft eyes. All other memories
faded away. They were as though they had never been. Those dreary
years of exile in Africa, the day by day tension of his precarious
life, were absolutely forgotten. His heart was calling all the time
for an unknown boon. He felt himself immeshed in a world of cobwebs,
of weakness more potent than all his boasted strength. Then he
suddenly felt that the madness which he had begun to fear had really
come. It was the thing for which he longed yet dreaded most--the faint
click, the soft withdrawal of the panel, actually pushed back by a
pair of white hands. Rosamund herself was there. Her eyes shone at
him, mystically, wonderfully. Her lips were parted in a delightful
smile, a smile in which there was a spice of girlish mischief. She
turned for a moment to close the panel. Then she came towards him with
her finger upraised.

"I cannot sleep," she said softly. "Do you mind my coming for a few
minutes?"

"Of course not," he answered. "Come and sit down."

She curled up in his easy-chair.

"Just for a moment," she murmured contentedly. "Give me your hands,
dear. But how cold! You must come nearer to the fire yourself."

He sat on the arm of her chair, and she stroked his head with her
hands.

"You were not afraid, then?" she asked, "when you saw me come through
the panel?"

"I should never be afraid of any harm that you might bring me, dear,"
he assured her.

"Because all that foolishness is really gone," she continued eagerly.
"I know that whatever happened to poor Roger, it was not you who
killed him. Even if I heard his ghost calling again to-night, I should
have no fear. I can't think why I ever wanted to hurt you, Everard. I
am sure that I always loved you."

His arm went very softly around her. She responded to his embrace
without hesitation. Her cheek rested upon his shoulder, he felt the
warmth of her arm through her white, fur-lined dressing-gown.

"Why do you doubt any longer then," he asked hoarsely, "that I am your
husband?"

She sighed.

"Ah, but I know you are not," she answered. "Is it wrong of me to feel
what I do for you, I wonder? You are so like yet so unlike him. He is
dead. He died in Africa. Isn't it strange that I should know it? But I
do!"

"But who am I then?" he whispered.

She looked at him pitifully.

"I do not know," she confessed, "but you are kind to me, and when I
feel you are near I am happy. It is because I wanted to see you that I
would not stay any longer at the nursing home. That must mean that I
am very fond of you."

"You are not afraid," he asked, "to be here alone with me?"

She put her other arm around his neck and drew his face down.

"I am not afraid," she assured him. "I am happy. But, dear, what is
the matter? A moment ago you were cold. Now your head is wet, your
hands are burning. Are you not happy because I am here?"

Her lips were seeking his. His own touched them for a moment. Then he
kissed her on both cheeks. She made a little grimace.

"I am afraid," she said, "that you are not really fond of me."

"Can't you believe," he asked hoarsely, "that I am really Everard--
your husband? Look at me. Can't you feel that you have loved me
before?"

She shook her head a little sadly.

"No, you are not Everard," she sighed; "but," she added, her eyes
lighting up, "you bring me love and happiness and life, and--"

A few seconds before, Dominey felt from his soul that he would have
welcomed an earthquake, a thunderbolt, the crumbling of the floor
beneath his feet to have been spared the torture of her sweet
importunities. Yet nothing so horrible as this interruption which
really came could ever have presented itself before his mind. Half in
his arms, with her head thrown back, listening--he, too, horrified,
convulsed for a moment even with real physical fear--they heard the
silence of the night broken by that one awful cry, the cry of a man's
soul in torment, imprisoned in the jaws of a beast. They listened to
it together until its echoes died away. Then what was, perhaps, the
most astonishing thing of all, she nodded her head slowly,
unperturbed, unterrified.

"You see," she said, "I must go back. He will not let me stay here. He
must think that you are Everard. It is only I who know that you are
not."

She slipped from the chair, kissed him, and, walking quite firmly
across the floor, touched the spring and passed through the panel.
Even then she turned around and waved a little good-bye to him. There
was no sign of fear in her face; only a little dumb disappointment.
The panel glided to and shut out the vision of her. Dominey held his
head like a man who fears madness.



                             CHAPTER XIX

Dawn the next morning was heralded by only a thin line of red parting
the masses of black-grey snow clouds which still hung low down in the
east. The wind had dropped, and there was something ghostly about the
still twilight as Dominey issued from the back regions and made his
way through the untrodden snow round to the side of the house
underneath Rosamund's window. A little exclamation broke from his lips
as he stood there. From the terraced walks, down the steps, and
straight across the park to the corner of the Black Wood, were fresh
tracks. The cry had been no fantasy. Somebody or something had passed
from the Black Wood and back again to this spot in the night.

Dominey, curiously excited by his discovery, examined the footmarks
eagerly, then followed them to the corner of the wood. Here and there
they puzzled him. They were neither like human footsteps nor the track
of any known animal. At the edge of the wood they seemed to vanish
into the heart of a great mass of brambles, from which here and there
the snow had been shaken off. There was no sign of any pathway; if
ever there had been one, the neglect of years had obliterated it.
Bracken, brambles, shrubs and bushes had grown up and degenerated,
only to be succeeded by a ranker and more dense form of undergrowth.
Many of the trees, although they were still plentiful, had been blown
down and left to rot on the ground. The place was silent except for
the slow drip of falling snow from the drooping leaves. He took one
more cautious step forward and found himself slowly sinking. Black mud
was oozing up through the snow where he had set his feet. He was just
able to scramble back. Picking his way with great caution, he
commenced a leisurely perambulation of the whole of the outside of the
wood.

Heggs, the junior keeper, an hour or so later, went over the gun rack
once more, tapped the empty cases, and turned towards Middleton, who
was sitting in a chair before the fire, smoking his pipe.

"I can't find master's number two gun, Mr. Middleton," he announced.
"That's missing."

"Look again, lad," the old keeper directed, removing the pipe from his
mouth. "The master was shooting with it yesterday. Look amongst those
loose 'uns at the far end of the rack. It must be somewhere there."

"Well, that isn't," the young man replied obstinately.

The door of the room was suddenly opened, and Dominey entered with the
missing gun under his arm. Middleton rose to his feet at once and laid
down his pipe. Surprise kept him temporarily silent.

"I want you to come this way with me for a moment," his master
ordered.

The keeper took up his hat and stick and followed. Dominey led him to
where the tracks had halted on the gravel outside Rosamund's window
and pointed across to the Black Wood.

"What do you make of those?" he enquired.

Middleton did not hesitate. He shook his head gravely.

"Was anything heard last night, sir?"

"There was an infernal yell underneath this window."

"That was the spirit of Roger Unthank, for sure," Middleton
pronounced, with a little shudder. "When he do come out of that wood,
he do call."

"Spirits," his master pointed out, "do not leave tracks like that
behind."

Middleton considered the matter.

"They do say hereabout," he confided, "that the spirit of Roger
Unthank have been taken possession of by some sort of great animal,
and that it do come here now and then to be fed."

"By whom?" Dominey enquired patiently.

"Why, by Mrs. Unthank."

"Mrs. Unthank has not been in this house for many months. From the day
she left until last night, so far as I can gather, nothing has been
heard of this ghost, or beast, or whatever it is."

"That do seem queer, surely," Middleton admitted.

Dominey followed the tracks with his eyes to the wood and back again.

"Middleton," he said, "I am learning something about spirits. It seems
that they not only make tracks, but they require feeding. Perhaps if
that is so they can feel a charge of shot inside them."

The old man seemed for a moment to stiffen with slow horror.

"You wouldn't shoot at it, Squire?" he gasped.

"I should have done so this morning if I had had a chance," Dominey
replied. "When the weather is a little drier, I am going to make my
way into that wood, Middleton, with a rifle under my arm."

"Then as God's above, you'll never come out, Squire!" was the solemn
reply.

"We will see," Dominey muttered. "I have hacked my way through some
queer country in Africa."

"There's nowt like this wood in the world, sir," the old man asserted
doggedly. "The bottom's rotten from end to end and the top's all
poisonous. The birds die there on the trees. It's chockful of reptiles
and unclean things, with green and purple fungi, two feet high, with
poison in the very sniff of them. The man who enters that wood goes to
his grave."

"Nevertheless," Dominey said firmly, "within a very short time I am
going to solve the mystery of this nocturnal visitor."

They returned to the house, side by side. Just before they entered,
Dominey turned to his companion.

"Middleton," he said, "you keep up the good old customs, I suppose,
and spend half an hour at the 'Dominey Arms' now and then?"

"Most every night of my life, sir," the old man replied, "from eight
till nine. I'm a man of regular habits, and that do seem right to me
that with the work done right and proper a man should have his
relaxation."

"That is right, John," Dominey assented. "Next time you are there,
don't forget to mention that I am going to have that wood looked
through. I should like it to get about, you understand?"

"That'll fair flummox the folk," was the doubtful reply, "but I'll let
'em know, Squire. There'll be a rare bit of talk, I can promise you
that."

Dominey handed over his gun, went to his room, bathed and changed, and
descended for breakfast. There was a sudden hush as he entered, which
he very well understood. Every one began to talk about the prospect of
the day's sport. Dominey helped himself from the sideboard and took
his place at the table.

"I hope," he said, "that our very latest thing in ghosts did not
disturb anybody."

"We all seem to have heard the same thing," the Cabinet Minister
observed, with interest,--"a most appalling and unearthly cry. I have
lately joined every society connected with spooks and find them a
fascinating study."

"If you want to investigate," Dominey observed, as he helped himself
to coffee, "you can bring out a revolver and prowl about with me one
night. From the time when I was a kid, before I went to Eton, up till
when I left here for Africa, we had a series of highly respectable and
well-behaved ghosts, who were a credit to the family and of whom we
were somewhat proud. This latest spook, however, is something quite
outside the pale."

"Has he a history?" Mr. Watson asked with interest.

"I am informed," Dominey replied, "that he is the spirit of a
schoolmaster who once lived here, and for whose departure from the
world I am supposed to be responsible. Such a spook is neither a
credit nor a comfort to the family."

Their host spoke with such an absolute absence of emotion that every
one was conscious of a curious reluctance to abandon a subject full of
such fascinating possibilities. Terniloff was the only one, however,
who made a suggestion.

"We might have a battue in the wood," he proposed.

"I am not sure," Dominey told them, "that the character of the wood is
not more interesting than the ghost who is supposed to dwell in it.
You remember how terrified the beaters were yesterday at the bare
suggestion of entering it? For generations it has been held unclean.
It is certainly most unsafe. I went in over my knees on the outskirts
of it this morning. Shall we say half-past ten in the gun room?"

Seaman followed his host out of the room.

"My friend," he said, "you must not allow these local circumstances to
occupy too large a share of your thoughts. It is true that these are
the days of your relaxation. Still, there is the Princess for you to
think of. After all, she has us in her power. The merest whisper in
Downing Street, and behold, catastrophe!"

Dominey took his friend's arm.

"Look here, Seaman," he rejoined, "it's easy enough to say there is
the Princess to be considered, but will you kindly tell me what on
earth more I can do to make her see the position? Necessity demands
that I should be on the best of terms with Lady Dominey and I should
not make myself in any way conspicuous with the Princess."

"I am not sure," Seaman reflected, "that the terms you are on with
Lady Dominey matter very much to any one. So far as regards the
Princess, she is an impulsive and passionate person, but she is also
/grande dame/ and a diplomatist. I see no reason why you should not
marry her secretly in London, in the name of Everard Dominey, and have
the ceremony repeated under your rightful name later on."

They had paused to help themselves to cigarettes, which were displayed
with a cabinet of cigars on a round table in the hall. Dominey waited
for a moment before he answered.

"Has the Princess confided to you that that is her wish?" he asked.

"Something of the sort," Seaman acknowledged. "She wishes the
suggestion, however, to come from you."

"And your advice?"

Seaman blew out a little cloud of cigar smoke.

"My friend," he confessed, "I am a little afraid of the Princess. I
ask you no questions as to your own feelings with regard to her. I
take it for granted that as a man of honour it will be your duty to
offer her your hand in marriage, sooner or later. I see no harm in
anticipating a few months, if by that means we can pacify her.
Terniloff would arrange it at the Embassy. He is devoted to her, and
it will strengthen your position with him."

Dominey turned away towards the stairs.

"We will discuss this again before we leave," he said gloomily.

Dominey was admitted at once by her maid into his wife's sitting-room.
Rosamund, in a charming morning robe of pale blue lined with grey fur,
had just finished breakfast. She held out her hands to him with a
delighted little cry of welcome.

"How nice of you to come, Everard!" she exclaimed. "I was hoping I
should see you for a moment before you went off."

He raised her fingers to his lips and sat down by her side. She seemed
entirely delighted by his presence, and he felt instinctively that she
was quite unaffected by the event of the night before.

"You slept well?" he enquired.

"Perfectly," she answered.

He tackled the subject bravely, as he had made up his mind to on every
opportunity.

"You do not lie awake thinking of our nocturnal visitor, then?"

"Not for one moment. You see," she went on conversationally, "if you
were really Everard, then I might be frightened, for some day or other
I feel that if Everard comes here, the spirit of Roger Unthank will do
him some sort of mischief."

"Why?" he asked.

"You don't know about these things, of course," she went on, "but
Roger Unthank was in love with me, although I had scarcely ever spoken
to him, before I married Everard. I think I told you that much
yesterday, didn't I? After I was married, the poor man nearly went out
of his mind. He gave up his work and used to haunt the park here. One
evening Everard caught him and they fought, and Roger Unthank was
never seen again. I think that any one around here would tell you,"
she went on, dropping her voice a little, "that Everard killed Roger
and threw him into one of those swampy places near the Black Wood,
where a body sinks and sinks and nothing is ever seen of it again."

"I do not believe he did anything of the sort," Dominey declared.

"Oh, I don't know," she replied doubtfully. "Everard had a terrible
temper, and that night he came home covered with blood, looking--
awful! It was the night when I was taken ill."

"Well no more tragedies," he insisted. "I have come up to remind you
that we have guests here. When are you coming down to see them?"

She laughed like a child.

"You say 'we' just as though you were really my husband," she
declared.

"You must not tell any one else of your fancy," he warned her.

She acquiesced at once.

"Oh, I quite understand," she assured him. "I shall be very, very
careful. And, Everard, you have such clever guests, not at all the
sort of people my Everard would have had here, and I have been out of
the world for so long, that I am afraid I sha'n't be able to talk to
them. Nurse Alice is tremendously impressed. I am sure I should be
terrified to sit at the end of the table, and Caroline will hate not
being hostess any longer. Let me come down at tea-time and after
dinner, and slip into things gradually. You can easily say that I am
still an invalid, though of course I'm not at all."

"You shall do exactly as you choose," he promised, as he took his
leave.

So when the shooting party tramped into the hall that afternoon, a
little weary, but flushed with exercise and the pleasure of the day's
sport, they found, seated in a corner of the room, behind the great
round table upon which tea was set out, a rather pale but
extraordinarily childlike and fascinating woman, with large, sweet
eyes which seemed to be begging for their protection and sympathy as
she rose hesitatingly to her feet. Dominey was by her side in a
moment, and his first few words of introduction brought every one
around her. She said very little, but what she said was delightfully
natural and gracious.

"It has been so kind of you," she said to Caroline, "to help my
husband entertain his guests. I am very much better, but I have been
ill for so long that I have forgotten a great many things, and I
should be a very poor hostess. But I want to make tea for you, please,
and I want you all to tell me how many pheasants you have shot."

Terniloff seated himself on the settee by her side.

"I am going to help you in this complicated task," he declared. "I am
sure those sugar tongs are too heavy for you to wield alone."

She laughed at him gaily.

"But I am not really delicate at all," she assured him. "I have had a
very bad illness, but I am quite strong again."

"Then I will find some other excuse for sitting here," he said. "I
will tell you all about the high pheasants your husband killed, and
about the woodcock he brought down after we had all missed it."

"I shall love to hear about that," she assented. "How much sugar,
please, and will you pass those hot muffins to the Princess? And
please touch that bell. I shall want more hot water. I expect you are
all very thirsty. I am so glad to be here with you."



                              CHAPTER XX

Arm in arm, Prince Terniloff and his host climbed the snow-covered
slope at the back of a long fir plantation, towards the little
beflagged sticks which indicated their stand. There was not a human
being in sight, for the rest of the guns had chosen a steeper but
somewhat less circuitous route.

"Von Ragastein," the Ambassador said, "I am going to give myself the
luxury of calling you by your name. You know my one weakness, a
weakness which in my younger days very nearly drove me out of
diplomacy. I detest espionage in every shape and form even where it is
necessary. So far as you are concerned, my young friend," he went on,
"I think your position ridiculous. I have sent a private despatch to
Potsdam, in which I have expressed that opinion."

"So far," Dominey remarked, "I have not been overworked."

"My dear young friend," the Prince continued, "you have not been
overworked because there has been no legitimate work for you to do.
There will be none. There could be no possible advantage accruing from
your labours here to compensate for the very bad effect which the
discovery of your true name and position would have in the English
Cabinet."

"I must ask you to remember," Dominey begged, "that I am here as a
blind servant of the Fatherland. I simply obey orders."

"I will grant that freely," the Prince consented. "But to continue. I
am now at the end of my first year in this country. I feel able to
congratulate myself upon a certain measure of success. From that part
of the Cabinet with whom I have had to do, I have received nothing but
encouragement in my efforts to promote a better understanding between
our two countries."

"The sky certainly seems clear enough just now," agreed Dominey.

"I have convinced myself," the Prince said emphatically, "that there
is a genuine and solid desire for peace with Germany existing in
Downing Street. In every argument I have had, in every concession I
have asked for, I have been met with a sincere desire to foster the
growing friendship between our countries. I am proud of my work here,
Von Ragastein. I believe that I have brought Germany and England
nearer together than they have been since the days of the Boer War."

"You are sure, sir," Dominey asked, "that you are not confusing
personal popularity with national sentiment?"

"I am sure of it," the Ambassador answered gravely. "Such popularity
as I may have achieved here has been due to an appreciation of the
more healthy state of world politics now existing. It has been my
great pleasure to trace the result of my work in a manuscript of
memoirs, which some day, when peace is firmly established between our
two countries, I shall cause to be published. I have put on record
there evidences of the really genuine sentiment in favour of peace
which I have found amongst the present Cabinet."

"I should esteem it an immense privilege," Dominey said, "to be given
a private reading of these memoirs."

"That may be arranged," was the suave reply. "In the meantime, Von
Ragastein, I want you to reconsider your position here."

"My position is not voluntary," Dominey repeated. "I am acting under
orders."

"Precisely," the other acquiesced, "but matters have changed very much
during the last six months. Even at the risk of offending France,
England is showing wonderful pliability with regard to our claims in
Morocco. Every prospect of disagreement between our two countries upon
any vital matter has now disappeared."

"Unless," Dominey said thoughtfully, "the desire for war should come,
not from Downing Street but from Potsdam."

"We serve an honourable master," Terniloff declared sternly, "and he
has shown me his mind. His will is for peace, and for the great
triumphs to which our country is already entitled by reason of her
supremacy in industry, in commerce, in character and in genius. These
are the weapons which will make Germany the greatest Power in the
world. No empire has ever hewn its way to permanent glory by the sword
alone. We have reached our stations, I see. Come to me after this
drive is finished, my host. All that I have said so far has been by
way of prelude."

The weather had turned drier, the snow was crisp, and a little party
of women from the Hall reached the guns before the beaters were
through the wood. Caroline and Stephanie both took their places by
Dominey's side. The former, however, after a few minutes passed on to
Terniloff's stand. Stephanie and Dominey were alone for the first time
since their stormy interview in the library.

"Has Maurice been talking to you?" she asked a little abruptly.

"His Excellency and I are, to tell you the truth," Dominey confessed,
"in the midst of a most interesting conversation."

"Has he spoken to you about me?"

"Your name has not yet been mentioned."

She made a little grimace. In her wonderful furs and Russian turban
hat she made a rather striking picture against the background of snow.

"An interesting conversation in which my name has not been mentioned!"
she repeated satirically.

"I think you were coming into it before very long," Dominey assured
her. "His Excellency warned me that all he had said so far was merely
the prelude to a matter of larger importance."

Stephanie smiled.

"Dear Maurice is so diplomatic," she murmured. "I am perfectly certain
he is going to begin by remonstrating you for your shocking treatment
of me."

Their conversation was interrupted for a few minutes by the sport.
Dominey called the faithful Middleton to his side for a further supply
of cartridges. Stephanie bided her time, which came when the beaters
at last emerged from the wood.

"Shocking," Stephanie repeated reverting to their conversation, "is
the mildest word in my vocabulary which I can apply to your treatment
of me. Honestly, Leopold, I feel bruised all over inside. My pride is
humbled."

"It is because you look at the matter only from a feminine point of
view," Dominey persisted.

"And you," she answered in a low tone, "once the fondest and the most
passionate of lovers, only from a political one. You think a great
deal of your country, Leopold. Have I no claims upon you?"

"Upon Everard Dominey, none," he insisted. "When the time comes, and
Leopold Von Ragastein can claim all that is his right, believe me, you
will have no cause to complain of coldness or dilatoriness. He will
have only one thought, only one hope--to end the torture of these
years of separation as speedily as may be."

The strained look passed from her face. Her tone became more natural.

"But, dear," she pleaded, "there is no need to wait. Your Sovereign
gives you permission. Your political chief will more than endorse it."

"I am on the spot," Dominey replied, "and believe me I know what is
safest and best. I cannot live as two men and keep my face steadfast
to the world. The Prince, however, has not spoken to me yet. I will
hear what he has to say."

Stephanie turned a little haughtily away.

"You are putting me in the position of a supplicant!" she exclaimed.
"To-night we must have an understanding."

The little party moved on all together to another cover. Rosamund had
joined them and hung on to Dominey's arm with delight. The brisk walk
across the park had brought colour to her cheeks. She walked with all
the free and vigorous grace of a healthy woman. Dominey found himself
watching her, as she deserted him a little later on to stand by
Terniloff's side, with a little thrill of tangled emotions. He felt a
touch on his arm. Stephanie, who was passing with another of the guns,
paused to whisper in his ear:

"There might be a greater danger--one that has evaded even your
cautious mind--in overplaying your part!"

Dominey was taken possession of by Caroline on their walk to the next
stand. She planted herself on a shooting stick by his side and
commenced to take him roundly to task.

"My dear Everard," she said, "you are one of the most wonderful
examples of the reformed rake I ever met! You have even acquired
respectability. For heaven's sake, don't disappoint us all!"

"I seem to be rather good at that," Dominey observed a little
drearily.

"Well, you are the master of your own actions, are you not?" she
asked. "What I want to say in plain words is, don't go and make a fool
of yourself with Stephanie."

"I have not the least intention of doing anything of the sort."

"Well, she has! Mark my words, Everard, I know that woman. She is
clever and brilliant and anything else you like, but for some reason
or other she has set her mind upon you. She looks at dear little
Rosamund as though she hadn't a right to exist. Don't look so sorry
for yourself. You must have encouraged her."

Dominey was silent. Fortunately, the exigencies of the next few
minutes demanded it. His cousin waited patiently until there came a
pause in the shooting.

"Now let me hear what you have to say for yourself, sir? So far as I
can see, you've been quite sweet to your wife, and she adores you. If
you want to have an affair with the Princess, don't begin it here.
You'll have your wife ill again if you make her jealous."

"My dear Caroline, there will be no affair between Stephanie and me.
Of that you may rest assured."

"You mean to say that this is altogether on her side, then?" Caroline
persisted.

"You exaggerate her demeanour," he replied, "but even if what you
suggest were true--"

"Oh, I don't want a lot of protestations!" she interrupted. "I am not
saying that you encourage her much, because I don't believe you do.
All I want to point out is that, having really brought your wife back
almost to health, you must be extraordinarily and wonderfully careful.
If you want to talk nonsense with Stephanie, do it in Belgrave
Square."

Dominey was watching the gyrations of a falling pheasant. His left
hand was stretched out towards the cartridge bag which Caroline was
holding. He clasped her fingers for a moment before he helped himself.

"You are rather a dear," he said. "I would not do anything to hurt
Rosamund for the world."

"If you can't get rid of your old tricks altogether and must flirt,"
she remarked, "well, I'm always somewhere about. Rosamund wouldn't
mind me, because there are a few grey hairs in my sandy ones.-- And
here comes your man across the park--looks as though he had a message
for you. So long as nothing has happened to your cook, I feel that I
could face ill tidings with composure."

Dominey found himself watching with fixed eyes the approach of his
rather sad-faced manservant through the snow. Parkins was not dressed
for such an enterprise, nor did he seem in any way to relish it. His
was the stern march of duty, and, curiously enough, Dominey felt from
the moment he caught sight of him that he was in some respects a
messenger of Fate. Yet the message which he delivered, when at last he
reached his master's side, was in no way alarming.

"A person of the name of Miller has arrived here, sir," he announced,
"from Norwich. He is, I understand, a foreigner of some sort, who has
recently landed in this country. I found it a little difficult to
understand him, but her Highness's maid conversed with him in German,
and I understand that he either is or brings you a message from a
certain Doctor Schmidt, with whom you were acquainted in Africa."

The warning whistle blew at that moment, and Dominey swung round and
stood at attention. His behaviour was perfectly normal. He let a hen
pheasant pass over his head, and brought down a cock from very nearly
the limit distance. He reloaded before he turned to Parkins.

"Is this person in a hurry?" he said.

"By no means, sir," the man replied. "I told him that you would not be
back until three or four o'clock, and he is quite content to wait."

Dominey nodded.

"Look after him yourself then, Parkins," he directed. "We shall not be
shooting late to-day. Very likely I will send Mr. Seaman back to talk
to him."

The man raised his hat respectfully and turned back towards the house.
Caroline was watching her companion curiously.

"Do you find many of your acquaintances in Africa look you up,
Everard?" she asked.

"Except for Seaman," Dominey replied, looking through the barrels of
his gun, "who really does not count because we crossed together, this
is my first visitor from the land of fortune. I expect there will be
plenty of them by and by, though. Colonials have a wonderful habit of
sticking to one another."



                             CHAPTER XXI

There was nothing in the least alarming about the appearance of Mr.
Ludwig Miller. He had been exceedingly well entertained in the
butler's private sitting-room and had the air of having done full
justice to the hospitality which had been offered him. He rose to his
feet at Dominey's entrance and stood at attention. But for some slight
indications of military training, he would have passed anywhere as a
highly respectable retired tradesman.

"Sir Everard Dominey?" he enquired.

Dominey nodded assent. "That is my name. Have I seen you before?"

The man shook his head. "I am a cousin of Doctor Schmidt. I arrived in
the Colony from Rhodesia, after your Excellency had left."

"And how is the doctor?"

"My cousin is, as always, busy but in excellent health," was the
reply. "He sends his respectful compliments and his good wishes. Also
this letter."

With a little flourish the man produced an envelope inscribed:


  To Sir Everard Dominey, Baronet,
    Dominey Hall,
      In the County of Norfolk,
        England.


Dominey broke the seal just as Seaman entered.

"A messenger here from Doctor Schmidt, an acquaintance of mine in East
Africa," he announced. "Mr. Seaman came home from South Africa with
me," he explained to his visitor.

The two men looked steadily into each other's eyes. Dominey watched
them, fascinated. Neither betrayed himself by even the fall of an
eyelid. Yet Dominey, his perceptive powers at their very keenest in
this moment which instinct told him was one of crisis, felt the
unspoken, unbetokened recognition which passed between them. Some
commonplace remark was uttered and responded to. Dominey read the few
lines which seemed to take him back for a moment to another world:


 "Honoured and Honourable Sir,

 "I send you my heartiest and most respectful greeting. Of the
  progress of all matters here you will learn from another source.

 "I recommend to your notice and kindness my cousin, the bearer of
  this letter--Mr. Ludwig Miller. He will lay before you certain
  circumstances of which it is advisable for you to have knowledge.
  You may speak freely with him. He is in all respects to be trusted.

                                 (Signed) "KARL SCHMIDT."


"Your cousin is a little mysterious," Dominey remarked, as he passed
the letter to Seaman. "Come, what about these circumstances?"

Ludwig Miller looked around the little room and then at Seaman.
Dominey affected to misunderstand his hesitation.

"Our friend here knows everything," he declared. "You can speak to him
as to myself."

The man began as one who has a story to tell.

"My errand here is to warn you," he said, "that the Englishman whom
you left for dead at Big Bend, on the banks of the Blue River, has
been heard of in another part of Africa."

Dominey shook his head incredulously. "I hope you have not come all
this way to tell me that! The man was dead."

"My cousin himself," Miller continued, "was hard to convince. The man
left his encampment with whisky enough to kill him, thirst enough to
drink it all, and no food."

"So I found him," Dominey assented, "deserted by his boys and raving.
To silence him forever was a child's task."

"The task, however, was unperformed," the other persisted. "From three
places in the colony he has been heard of, struggling to make his way
to the coast."

"Does he call himself by his own name?" Dominey asked.

"He does not," Miller admitted. "My cousin, however, desired me to
point out to you the fact that in any case he would probably be shy of
doing so. He is behaving in an absurd manner; he is in a very weakly
state; and without a doubt he is to some degree insane. Nevertheless,
the fact remains that he is in the Colony, or was three months ago,
and that if he succeeds in reaching the coast you may at any time be
surprised by a visit from him here. I am sent to warn you in order
that you may take whatever steps may be necessary and not be placed at
a disadvantage if he should appear."

"This is queer news you have brought us, Miller," Seaman said
thoughtfully.

"It is news which greatly disturbed Doctor Schmidt," the man replied.
"He has had the natives up one after another for cross-examination.
Nothing can shake their story."

"If we believed it," Seaman continued, "this other European, if he had
business in this direction, might walk in here at any moment."

"It was to warn you of that possibility that I am here."

"How much do you know personally," Seaman asked, "of the existent
circumstances?"

The man shook his head vaguely.

"I know nothing," he admitted. "I went out to East Africa some years
ago, and I have been a trader in Mozambique in a small way. I supplied
outfits for officers and hospitals and sportsmen. Now and then I have
to return to Europe to buy fresh stock. Doctor Schmidt knew that, and
he came to see me just before I sailed. He first thought of writing a
very long letter. Afterwards he changed his mind. He wrote only these
few lines I brought, but he told me those other things."

"You have remembered all that he told you?" Dominey asked.

"I can think of nothing else," was the reply, after a moment's pause.
"The whole affair has been a great worry to Doctor Schmidt. There are
things connected with it which he has never understood, things
connected with it which he has always found mysterious."

"Hence your presence here, Johann Wolff?" Seaman asked, in an altered
tone.

The visitor's expression remained unchanged except for the faint
surprise which shone out of his blue eyes.

"Johann Wolff," he repeated. "That is not my name. I am Ludwig Miller,
and I know nothing of this matter beyond what I have told you. I am
just a messenger."

"Once in Vienna and twice in Cracow, my friend, we have met," Seaman
reminded him softly but very insistently.

The other shook his head gently. "A mistake. I have been in Vienna
once many years ago, but Cracow never."

"You have no idea with whom you are talking?"

"Herr Seaman was the name, I understood."

"It is a very good name," Seaman scoffed. "Look here and think."

He undid his coat and waistcoat and displayed a plain vest of chamois
leather. Attached to the left-hand side of it was a bronze decoration,
with lettering and a number. Miller stared at it blankly and shook his
head.

"Information Department, Bureau Twelve, password--'The Day is
coming,'" Seaman continued, dropping his voice.

His listener shook his head and smiled with the puzzled ignorance of a
child.

"The gentleman mistakes me for some one else," he replied. "I know
nothing of these things."

Seaman sat and studied this obstinate visitor for several minutes
without speaking, his finger tips pressed together, his eyebrows
gently contracted. His vis-a-vis endured this scrutiny without
flinching, calm, phlegmatic, the very prototype of the bourgeois
German of the tradesman class.

"Do you propose," Dominey enquired, "to stay in these parts long?"

"One or two days--a week, perhaps," was the indifferent answer. "I
have a cousin in Norwich who makes toys. I love the English country. I
spend my holiday here, perhaps."

"Just so," Seaman muttered grimly. "The English country under a foot
of snow! So you have nothing more to say to me, Johann Wolff?"

"I have executed my mission to his Excellency," was the apologetic
reply. "I am sorry to have caused displeasure to you, Herr Seaman."

The latter rose to his feet. Dominey had already turned towards the
door.

"You will spend the night here, of course, Mr. Miller?" he invited. "I
dare say Mr. Seaman would like to have another talk with you in the
morning."

"I shall gladly spend the night here, your Excellency," was the polite
reply. "I do not think that I have anything to say, however, which
would interest your friend."

"You are making a great mistake, Wolff," Seaman declared angrily. "I
am your superior in the Service, and your attitude towards me is
indefensible."

"If the gentleman would only believe," the culprit begged, "that he is
mistaking me for some one else!"

There was trouble in Seaman's face as the two men made their way to
the front of the house and trouble in his tone as he answered his
companion's query.

"What do you think of that fellow and his visit?"

"I do not know what to think, but there is a great deal that I know,"
Seaman replied gravely. "The man is a spy, a favourite in the
Wilhelmstrasse and only made use of on important occasions. His name
is Wolff--Johann Wolff."

"And this story of his?"

"You ought to be the best judge of that."

"I am," Dominey assented confidently. "Without the shadow of a doubt I
threw the body of the man I killed into the Blue River and watched it
sink."

"Then the story is a fake," Seaman decided. "For some reason or other
we have come under the suspicion of our own secret service."

Seaman, as they emerged into the hall, was summoned imperiously to her
side by the Princess Eiderstrom. Dominey disappeared for a moment and
returned presently, having discarded some of his soaked shooting
garments. He was followed by his valet, bearing a note upon a silver
tray.

"From the person in Mr. Parkins' room--to Mr. Seaman, sir," the man
announced, in a low tone.

Dominey took it from the salver with a little nod. Then he turned to
where the youngest and most frivolous of his guests were in the act of
rising from the tea table.

"A game of pills, Eddy," he proposed. "They tell me that pool is one
of your greatest accomplishments."

"I'm pretty useful," the young man confessed, with a satisfied
chuckle. "Give you a black at snooker, what?"

Dominey took his arm and led him into the billiard-room.

"You will give me nothing, young fellow," he replied. "Set them up,
and I will show you how I made a living for two months at
Johannesberg!"



                             CHAPTER XXII

The evening at Dominey hall was practically a repetition of the
previous one, with a different set of guests from the outer world.
After dinner, Dominey was absent for a few minutes and returned with
Rosamund upon his arm. She received the congratulations of her
neighbours charmingly, and a little court soon gathered around her.
Doctor Harrison, who had been dining, remained upon the outskirts,
listening to her light-hearted and at times almost brilliant chatter
with grave and watchful interest. Dominey, satisfied that she was
being entertained, obeyed Terniloff's gestured behest and strolled
with him to a distant corner of the hall.

"Let me now, my dear host," the Prince began, with some eagerness in
his tone, "continue and, I trust, conclude the conversation to which
all that I said this morning was merely the prelude."

"I am entirely at your service," murmured his host.

"I have tried to make you understand that from my own point of view--
and I am in a position to know something--the fear of war between this
country and our own has passed. England is willing to make all
reasonable sacrifices to ensure peace. She wants peace, she intends
peace, therefore there will be peace. Therefore, I maintain, my young
friend, it is far better for you to disappear at once from this false
position."

"I am scarcely my own master," Dominey replied. "You yourself must
know that. I am here as a servant under orders."

"Join your protests with mine," the Prince suggested. "I will make a
report directly I get back to London. To my mind, the matter is
urgent. If anything should lead to the discovery of your false
position in this country, the friendship between us which has become a
real pleasure to me must seriously undermine my own position."

Dominey had risen to his feet and was standing on the hearthrug, in
front of a fire of blazing logs. The Ambassador was sitting with
crossed legs in a comfortable easy-chair, smoking one of the long,
thin cigars which were his particular fancy.

"Your Excellency," Dominey said, "there is just one fallacy in all
that you have said."

"A fallacy?"

"You have come to the absolute conclusion," Dominey continued, "that
because England wants peace there will be peace. I am of Seaman's
mind. I believe in the ultimate power of the military party of
Germany. I believe that in time they will thrust their will upon the
Kaiser, if he is not at the present moment secretly in league with
them. Therefore, I believe that there will be war."

"If I shared that belief with you, my friend," the Ambassador said
quietly, "I should consider my position here one of dishonour. My
mandate is for peace, and my charge is from the Kaiser's lips."

Stephanie, with the air of one a little weary of the conversation,
broke away from a distant group and came towards them. Her beautiful
eyes seemed tired, she moved listlessly, and she even spoke with less
than her usual assurance.

"Am I disturbing a serious conversation?" she asked. "Send me away if
I am."

"His Excellency and I," Dominey observed, "have reached a cul-de-sac
in our argument,--the blank wall of good-natured but fundamental
disagreement."

"Then I shall claim you for a while," Stephanie declared, taking
Dominey's arm. "Lady Dominey has attracted all the men to her circle,
and I am lonely."

The Prince bowed.

"I deny the cul-de-sac," he said, "but I yield our host! I shall seek
my opponent at billiards."

He turned away and Stephanie sank into his vacant place.

"So you and my cousin," she remarked, as she made room for Dominey to
sit by her side, "have come to a disagreement."

"Not an unfriendly one," her host assured her.

"That I am sure of. Maurice seems, indeed, to have taken a wonderful
liking to you. I cannot remember that you ever met before, except for
that day or two in Saxony?"

"That is so. The first time I exchanged any intimate conversation with
the Prince was in London. I have the utmost respect and regard for
him, but I cannot help feeling that the pleasant intimacy to which he
has admitted me is to a large extent owing to the desire of our
friends in Berlin. So far as I am concerned I have never met any one,
of any nation, whose character I admire more."

"Maurice lives his life loftily. He is one of the few great
aristocrats I have met who carries his nobility of birth into his
simplest thought and action. There is just one thing," she added,
"which would break his heart."

"And that?"

"The subject upon which you two disagree--a war between Germany and
this country."

"The Prince is an idealist," Dominey said. "Sometimes I wonder why he
was sent here, why they did not send some one of a more intriguing
character."

She shrugged her shoulders.

"You agree with that great Frenchman," she observed, "that no
ambassador can remain a gentleman--politically."

"Well, I have never been a diplomat, so I cannot say," Dominey
replied.

"You have many qualifications, I should think," she observed
cuttingly.

"Such as?"

"You are absolutely callous, absolutely without heart or sympathy
where your work is concerned."

"I do not admit it," he protested.

"I go back to London to-morrow," she continued, "a very miserable and
unhappy woman. I take with me the letter which should have brought me
happiness. The love for which I have sacrificed my life has failed me.
Not even the whip of a royal command, not even all that I have to
offer, can give me even five seconds of happiness."

"All that I have pleaded for," Dominey reminded her earnestly, "is
delay."

"And what delay do you think," she asked, with a sudden note of
passion in her tone, "would the Leopold Von Ragastein of six years ago
have pleaded for? Delay! He found words then which would have melted
an iceberg. He found words the memory of which comes to me sometimes
in the night and which mock me. He had no country then save the
paradise where lovers walk, no ruler but a queen, and I was she. And
now--"

Dominey felt a strange pang of distress. She saw the unusual softening
in his face, and her eyes lit up.

"Just for a moment," she broke off, "you were like Leopold. As a rule,
you know, you are not like him. I think that you left him somewhere in
Africa and came home in his likeness."

"Believe that for a little time," Dominey begged earnestly.

"What if it were true?" she asked abruptly. "There are times when I do
not recognise you. There are words Leopold used to use which I have
never heard from your lips. Is not West Africa the sorcerer's
paradise? Perhaps you are an imposter, and the man I love is there
still, in trouble--perhaps ill. You play the part of Everard Dominey
like a very king of actors. Perhaps before you came here you played
the part of Leopold. You are not my Leopold. Love cannot die as you
would have me believe."

"Now," he said coolly, "you are coming round to my way of thinking. I
have been assuring you, from the very first moment we met at the
Carlton, that I was not your Leopold--that I was Everard Dominey."

"I shall put you to the test," she exclaimed suddenly, rising to her
feet. "Your arm, if you please."

She led him across the hall to where little groups of people were
gossiping, playing bridge, and Seaman, the center of a little group of
gullible amateur speculators, was lecturing on mines. They stopped to
say a word or two here and there, but Stephanie's fingers never left
her companion's arm. They passed down a corridor hung with a
collection of wonderful sporting prints in which she affected some
interest, into a small gallery which led into the ballroom. Here they
were alone. She laid her hands upon his shoulders and looked up into
his eyes. Her lips drew nearer to his.

"Kiss me--upon the lips, Leopold," she ordered.

"There is no Leopold here," he replied; "you yourself have said it."

She came a little nearer. "Upon the lips," she whispered.

He held her, stooped down, and their lips met. Then she stood apart
from him. Her eyes were for a moment closed, her hands were extended
as though to prevent any chance of his approaching her again.

"Now I know the truth," she muttered.

Dominey found an opportunity to draw Seaman away from his little group
of investment-seeking friends.

"My friend," he said, "trouble grows."

"Anything more from Schmidt's supposed emissary?" Seaman asked
quickly.

"No. I am going to keep away from him this evening, and I advise you
to do the same. The trouble is with the Princess."

"With the Princess," declared Seaman. "I think you have blundered. I
quite appreciate your general principles of behaving internally and
externally as though you were the person whom you pretend to be. It is
the very essence of all successful espionage. But you should know when
to make exceptions. I see grave objections myself to your obeying the
Kaiser's behest. On the other hand, I see no objection whatever to
your treating the Princess in a more human manner, to your visiting
her in London, and giving her more ardent proofs of your continued
affection."

"If I once begin--"

"Look here," Seaman interrupted, "the Princess is a woman of the
world. She knows what she is doing, and there is a definite tie
between you. I tell you frankly that I could not bear to see you
playing the idiot for a moment with Lady Dominey, but with the
Princess, scruples don't enter into the question at all. You should by
no means make an enemy of her."

"Well, I have done it," Dominey acknowledged. "She has gone off to bed
now, and she is leaving early to-morrow morning. She thinks I have
borrowed some West African magic, that I have left her lover's soul
out there and come home in his body."

"Well, if she does," Seaman declared, "you are out of your troubles."

"Am I!" Dominey replied gloomily. "First of all, she may do a lot of
mischief before she goes. And then, supposing by any thousand to one
chance the story of this cousin of Schmidt's should be true, and she
should find Dominey out there, still alive? The Princess is not of
German birth, you know. She cares nothing for Germany's future. As a
matter of fact, I think, like a great many Hungarians, she prefers
England. They say that an Englishman has as many lives as a cat.
Supposing that chap Dominey did come to life again and she brings him
home? You say yourself that you do not mean to make much use of me
until after the war has started. In the parlance of this country of
idioms, that will rather upset the apple cart, will it not?"

"Has the Princess a suite of rooms here?" Seaman enquired.

"Over in the west wing. Good idea! You go and see what you can do with
her. She will not think of going to bed at this time of night,"

Seaman nodded.

"Leave it to me," he directed. "You go out and play the host."

Dominey played the host first and then the husband. Rosamund welcomed
him with a little cry of pleasure.

"I have been enjoying myself so much, Everard!" she exclaimed.
"Everybody has been so kind, and Mr. Mangan has taught me a new
Patience."

"And now, I think," Doctor Harrison intervened a little gruffly, "it's
time to knock off for the evening."

She turned very sweetly to Everard.

"Will you take me upstairs?" she begged. "I have been hoping so much
that you would come before Doctor Harrison sent me off."

"I should have been very disappointed if I had been too late," Dominey
assured her. "Now say good night to everybody."

"Why, you talk to me as though I were a child," she laughed. "Well,
good-bye, everybody, then. You see, my stern husband is taking me off.
When are you coming to see me, Doctor Harrison?"

"Nothing to see you for," was the gruff reply. "You are as well as any
woman here."

"Just a little unsympathetic, isn't he?" she complained to Dominey.
"Please take me through the hall, so that I can say good-bye to every
one else. Is the Princess Eiderstrom there?"

"I am afraid that she has gone to bed," Dominey answered, as they
passed out of the room. "She said something about a headache."

"She is very beautiful," Rosamund said wistfully. "I wish she looked
as though she liked me a little more. Is she very fond of you,
Everard?"

"I think that I am rather in her bad books just at present," Dominey
confessed.

"I wonder! I am very observant, and I have seen her looking at you
sometimes-- Of course," Rosamund went on, "as I am not really your
wife and you are not really my husband, it is very stupid of me to
feel jealous, isn't it, Everard?"

"Not a bit," he answered. "If I am not your husband, I will not be
anybody else's."

"I love you to say that," she admitted, with a little sigh, "but it
seems wrong somewhere. Look how cross the Duchess looks! Some one must
have played the wrong card."

Rosamund's farewells were not easily made; Terniloff especially seemed
reluctant to let her go. She excused herself gracefully, however,
promising to sit up a little later the next evening. Dominey led the
way upstairs, curiously gratified at her lingering progress. He took
her to the door of her room and looked in. The nurse was sitting in an
easy-chair, reading, and the maid was sewing in the background.

"Well, you look very comfortable here," he declared cheerfully. "Pray
do not move, nurse."

Rosamund held his hands, as though reluctant to let him go. Then she
drew his face down and kissed him.

"Yes," she said a little plaintively, "it's very comfortable.--
Everard?"

"Yes, dear?"

She drew his head down and whispered in his ear.

"May I come in and say good night for two minutes?"

He smiled--a wonderfully kind smile--but shook his head.

"Not to-night, dear," he replied. "The Prince loves to sit up late,
and I shall be downstairs with him. Besides, that bully of a doctor of
yours insists upon ten hours' sleep."

She sighed like a disappointed child.

"Very well." She paused for a moment to listen. "Wasn't that a car?"
she asked.

"Some of our guests going early, I dare say," he replied, as he turned
away.



                            CHAPTER XXIII

Seaman did not at once start on his mission to the Princess. He made
his way instead to the servants' quarters and knocked at the door of
the butler's sitting-room. There was no reply. He tried the handle in
vain. The door was locked. A tall, grave-faced man in sombre black
came out from an adjoining apartment.

"You are looking for the person who arrived this evening from abroad,
sir?" he enquired.

"I am," Seaman replied. "Has he locked himself in?"

"He has left the Hall, sir!"

"Left!" Seaman repeated. "Do you mean gone away for good?"

"Apparently, sir. I do not understand his language myself, but I
believe he considered his reception here, for some reason or other,
unfavourable. He took advantage of the car which went down to the
station for the evening papers and caught the last train."

Seaman was silent for a moment. The news was a shock to him.

"What is your position here?" he asked his informant.

"My name is Reynolds, sir," was the respectful reply. "I am Mr.
Pelham's servant."

"Can you tell me why, if this man has left the door here is locked?"

"Mr. Parkins locked it before he went out, sir. He accompanied--Mr.
Miller, I think his name was--to the station."

Seaman had the air of a man not wholly satisfied.

"Is it usual to lock up a sitting-room in this fashion?" he asked.

"Mr. Parkins always does it, sir. The cabinets of cigars are kept
there, also the wine-cellar key and the key of the plate chest. None
of the other servants use the room except at Mr. Parkins' invitation."

"I understand," Seaman said, as he turned away. "Much obliged for your
information, Reynolds. I will speak to Mr. Parkins later."

"I will let him know that you desire to see him, sir."

"Good night, Reynolds!"

"Good night, sir!"

Seaman passed back again to the crowded hall and billiard-room,
exchanged a few remarks here and there, and made his way up the
southern flight of stairs toward the west wing. Stephanie consented
without hesitation to receive him. She was seated in front of the
fire, reading a novel, in a boudoir opening out of her bedroom.

"Princess," Seaman declared, with a low bow, "we are in despair at
your desertion."

She put down her book.

"I have been insulted in this house," she said. "To-morrow I leave
it."

Seaman shook his head reproachfully.

"Your Highness," he continued, "believe me, I do not wish to presume
upon my position. I am only a German tradesman, admitted to the
circles like these for reasons connected solely with the welfare of my
country. Yet I know much, as it happens, of the truth of this matter,
the matter which is causing you distress. I beg you to reconsider your
decision. Our friend here is, I think, needlessly hard upon himself.
So much the greater will be his reward when the end comes. So much the
greater will be the rapture with which he will throw himself on his
knees before you."

"Has he sent you to reason with me?"

"Not directly. I am to a certain extent, however, his major-domo in
this enterprise. I brought him from Africa. I have watched over him
from the start. Two brains are better than one. I try to show him
where to avoid mistakes, I try to point out the paths of danger and of
safety."

"I should imagine Sir Everard finds you useful," she remarked calmly.

"I hope he does."

"It has doubtless occurred to you," she continued, "that our friend
has accommodated himself wonderfully to English life and customs?"

"You must remember that he was educated here. Nevertheless, his
aptitude has been marvellous."

"One might almost call it supernatural," she agreed. "Tell me, Mr.
Seaman, you seem to have been completely successful in the
installation of our friend here as Sir Everard. What is going to be
his real value to you? What work will he do?"

"We are keeping him for the big things. You have seen our gracious
master lately?" he added hesitatingly.

"I know what is at the back of your mind," she replied. "Yes! Before
the summer is over I am to pack up my trunks and fly. I understand."

"It is when that time comes," Seaman said impressively, "that we
expect Sir Everard Dominey, the typical English country gentleman, of
whose loyalty there has never been a word of doubt, to be of use to
us. Most of our present helpers will be under suspicion. The
authorised staff of our secret service can only work underneath. You
can see for yourself the advantage we gain in having a confidential
correspondent who can day by day reflect the changing psychology of
the British mind in all its phases. We have quite enough of the other
sort of help arranged for. Plans of ships, aerodromes and harbours,
sailings of convoys, calling up of soldiers--all these are the A B C
of our secret service profession. We shall never ask our friend here
for a single fact, but, from his town house in Berkeley Square, the
host of Cabinet Ministers, of soldiers, of the best brains of the
country, our fingers will never leave the pulse of Britain's day by
day life."

Stephanie threw herself back in her easy-chair and clasped her hands
behind her head.

"These things you are expecting from our present host?"

"We are, and we expect to get them. I have watched him day by day. My
confidence in him has grown."

Stephanie was silent. She sat looking into the fire. Seaman, keenly
observant as always, realised the change in her, yet found something
of mystery in her new detachment of manner.

"Your Highness," he urged, "I am not here to speak on behalf of the
man who at heart is, I know, your lover. He will plead his own cause
when the time comes. But I am here to plead for patience, I am here to
implore you to take no rash step, to do nothing which might imperil in
any way his position here. I stand outside the gates of the world
which your sex can make a paradise. I am no judge of the things that
happen there. But in your heart I feel there is bitterness, because
the man for whom you care has chosen to place his country first. I
implore your patience, Princess. I implore you to believe what I know
so well,--that it is the sternest sense of duty only which is the
foundation of Leopold Von Ragastein's obdurate attitude."

"What are you afraid that I shall do?" she asked curiously.

"I am afraid of nothing--directly."

"Indirectly, then? Answer me, please."

"I am afraid," he admitted frankly, "that in some corner of the world,
if not in this country, you might whisper a word, a scoffing or an
angry sentence, which would make people wonder what grudge you had
against a simple Norfolk baronet. I would not like that word to be
spoken in the presence of any one who knew your history and realised
the rather amazing likeness between Sir Everard Dominey and Baron
Leopold Von Ragastein."

"I see," Stephanie murmured, a faint smile parting her lips. "Well,
Mr. Seaman, I do not think that you need have many fears. What I shall
carry away with me in my heart is not for you or any man to know. In a
few days I shall leave this country."

"You are going back to Berlin--to Hungary?"

She shook her head, beckoned her maid to open the door, and held out
her hand in token of dismissal.

"I am going to take a sea voyage," she announced. "I shall go to
Africa."



The morrow was a day of mild surprises. Eddy Pelham's empty place was
the first to attract notice, towards the end of breakfast time.

"Where's the pink and white immaculate?" the Right Honourable
gentleman asked. "I miss my morning wonder as to how he tied his tie."

"Gone," Dominey replied, looking round from the sideboard.

"Gone?" every one repeated.

"I should think such a thing has never happened to him before,"
Dominey observed. "He was wanted in town."

"Fancy any one wanting Eddy for any serious purpose!" Caroline
murmured.

"Fancy any one wanting him badly enough to drag him out of bed in the
middle of the night with a telephone call and send him up to town by
the breakfast train from Norwich!" their host continued. "I thought we
had started a new ghost when he came into my room in a purple
dressing-gown and broke the news."

"Who wanted him?" the Duke enquired. "His tailor?"

"Business of importance was his pretext," Dominey replied.

There was a little ripple of good-humoured laughter.

"Does Eddy do anything for a living?" Caroline asked, yawning.

"Mr. Pelham is a director of the Chelsea Motor Works," Mangan told
them. "He received a small legacy last year, and his favourite taxicab
man was the first to know about it."

"You're not suggesting," she exclaimed, "that it is business of that
sort which has taken Eddy away!"

"I should think it most improbable," Mangan confessed. "As a matter of
fact, he asked me the other day if I knew where their premises were."

"We shall miss him," she acknowledged. "It was quite one of the events
of the day to see his costume after shooting."

"His bridge was reasonably good," the Duke commented.

"He shot rather well the last two days," Mangan remarked.

"And he had told me confidentially," Caroline concluded, "that he was
going to wear brown to-day. Now I think Eddy would have looked nice in
brown."

The missing young man's requiem was finished by the arrival of the
local morning papers. A few moments later Dominey rose and left the
room. Seaman, who had been unusually silent, followed him.

"My friend," he confided, "I do not know whether you have heard, but
there was a curious disappearance from the Hall last night."

"Whose?" Dominey asked, pausing in the act of selecting a cigarette.

"Our friend Miller, or Wolff--Doctor Schmidt's emissary," Seaman
announced, "has disappeared."

"Disappeared?" Dominey repeated. "I suppose he is having a prowl round
somewhere."

"I have left it to you to make more careful enquiries," Seaman
replied. "All I can tell you is that I made up my mind last night to
interview him once more and try to fathom his very mysterious
behaviour. I found the door of your butler's sitting-room locked, and
a very civil fellow--Mr. Pelham's valet he turned out to be--told me
that he had left in the car which went for the evening papers."

"I will go and make some enquiries," Dominey decided, after a moment's
puzzled consideration.

"If you please," Seaman acquiesced. "The affair disconcerts me because
I do not understand it. When there is a thing which I do not
understand, I am uncomfortable."

Dominey vanished into the nether regions, spent half an hour with
Rosamund, and saw nothing of his disturbed guest again until they were
walking to the first wood. They had a moment together after Dominey
had pointed out the stands.

"Well?" Seaman enquired.

"Our friend," Dominey announced, "apparently made up his mind to go
quite suddenly. A bed was arranged for him--or rather it is always
there--in a small apartment opening out of the butler's room, on the
ground floor. He said nothing about leaving until he saw Parkins
preparing to go down to the station with the chauffeur. Then he
insisted upon accompanying him, and when he found there was a train to
Norwich he simply bade them both good night. He left no message
whatever for either you or me."

Seaman was thoughtful.

"There is no doubt," he said, "that his departure was indicative of a
certain distrust in us. He came to find out something, and I suppose
he found it out. I envy you your composure, my friend. We live on the
brink of a volcano, and you shoot pheasants."

"We will try a partridge for a change," Dominey observed, swinging
round as a single Frenchman with a dull whiz crossed the hedge behind
them and fell a little distance away, a crumpled heap of feathers.
"Neat, I think?" he added, turning to his companion.

"Marvellous!" Seaman replied, with faint sarcasm. "I envy your nerve."

"I cannot take this matter very seriously," Dominey acknowledged. "The
fellow seemed to me quite harmless."

"My anxieties have also been aroused in another direction," Seaman
confided.

"Any other trouble looming?" Dominey asked.

"You will find yourself minus another guest when you return this
afternoon."

"The Princess?"

"The Princess," Seaman assented. "I did my best with her last night,
but I found her in a most peculiar frame of mind. We are to be
relieved of any anxiety concerning her for some time, however. She has
decided to take a sea voyage."

"Where to?"

"Africa!"

Dominey paused in the act of inserting a cartridge into his gun. He
turned slowly around and looked into his companion's expressionless
face.

"Why the mischief is she going out there?" he asked.

"I can no more tell you that," Seaman replied, "than why Johann Wolff
was sent over here to spy upon our perfect work. I am most unhappy, my
friend. The things which I understand, however threatening they are, I
do not fear. Things which I do not understand oppress me."

Dominey laughed quietly.

"Come," he said, "there is nothing here which seriously threatens our
position. The Princess is angry, but she is not likely to give us
away. This man Wolff could make no adverse report about either of us.
We are doing our job and doing it well. Let our clear consciences
console us."

"That is well," Seaman replied, "but I feel uneasy. I must not stay
here longer. Too intimate an association between you and me is
unwise."

"Well, I think I can be trusted," Dominey observed, "even if I am to
be left alone."

"In every respect except as regards the Princess," Seaman admitted,
"your deportment has been most discreet."

"Except as regards the Princess," Dominey repeated irritably. "Really,
my friend, I cannot understand your point of view in this matter. You
could not expect me to mix up a secret honeymoon with my present
commitments!"

"There might surely have been some middle way?" Seaman persisted. "You
show so much tact in other matters."

"You do not know the Princess," Dominey muttered.



Rosamund joined them for luncheon, bringing news of Stephanie's sudden
departure, with notes and messages for everybody. Caroline made a
little grimace at her host.

"You're in trouble!" she whispered in his ear. "All the same, I
approve. I like Stephanie, but she is an exceedingly dangerous
person."

"I wonder whether she is," Dominey mused.

"I think men have generally found her so," Caroline replied. "She had
one wonderful love affair, which ended, as you know, in her husband
being killed in a duel and her lover being banished from the country.
Still, she's not quite the sort of woman to be content with a banished
lover. I fancied I noticed distinct signs of her being willing to
replace him whilst she has been down here!"

"I feel as though a blight had settled upon my house party," Dominey
remarked with bland irrelevancy. "First Eddy, then Mr. Ludwig Miller,
and now Stephanie."

"And who on earth was Mr. Ludwig Miller, after all?" Caroline
enquired.

"He was a fat, flaxen-haired German who brought me messages from old
friends in Africa. He had no luggage but a walking stick, and he seems
to have upset the male part of my domestics last night by accepting a
bed and then disappearing!"

"With the plate?"

"Not a thing missing. Parkins spent an agonised half hour, counting
everything. Mr. Ludwig appears to be one of those unsolved mysteries
which go to make up an imperfect world."

"Well, we've had a jolly time," Caroline said reminiscently.
"To-morrow Henry and I are off, and I suppose the others. I must
say on the whole I am delighted with our visit."

"You are very gracious," Dominey murmured.

"I came, perhaps, expecting to see a little more of you," she went on
deliberately, "but there is a very great compensation for my
disappointment. I think your wife, Everard, is worth taking trouble
about. She is perfectly sweet, and her manners are most attractive."

"I am very glad you think that," he said warmly.

She looked away from him.

"Everard," she sighed, "I believe you are in love with your wife."

There was a strange, almost a terrible mixture of expressions in his
face as he answered,--a certain fear, a certain fondness, a certain
almost desperate resignation. Even his voice, as a rule so slow and
measured, shook with an emotion which amazed his companion.

"I believe I am," he muttered. "I am afraid of my feelings for her. It
may bring even another tragedy down upon us."

"Don't talk rubbish!" Caroline exclaimed. "What tragedy could come
between you now? You've recovered your balance. You are a strong,
steadfast person, just fitted to be the protector of anything so sweet
and charming as Rosamund. Tragedy, indeed! Why don't you take her down
to the South of France, Everard, and have your honeymoon all over
again?"

"I can't do that just yet."

She studied him curiously. There were times when he seemed wholly
incomprehensible to her.

"Are you still worried about that Unthank affair?" she asked.

He hesitated for a moment.

"There is still an aftermath to our troubles," he told her, "one cloud
which leans over us. I shall clear it up in time,--but other things
may happen first."

"You take yourself very seriously, Everard," she observed, looking at
him with a puzzled expression. "One would think that there was a side
of your life, and a very important one, which you kept entirely to
yourself. Why do you have that funny little man Seaman always round
with you? You're not being blackmailed or anything, are you?"

"On the contrary," he told her, "Seaman was the first founder of my
fortunes."

She shrugged her shoulders.

"I have made a little money once or twice on the Stock Exchange," she
remarked, "but I didn't have to carry my broker about in my pocket
afterwards."

"Seaman is a good-hearted little fellow, and he loves companionship.
He will drift away presently, and one won't see anything of him for
ages."

"Henry began to wonder," she concluded drily, "whether you were going
to stand for Parliament on the Anglo-German alliance ticket."

Dominey laughed as he caught Middleton's reproachful eye in the
doorway of the farmer's kitchen in which they were hunching. He gave
the signal to rise.

"I have had some thoughts of Parliament," he admitted, "but--well,
Henry need not worry."



                             CHAPTER XXIV

The next morning saw the breaking-up of Dominey's carefully arranged
shooting party. The Prince took his host's arm and led him to one side
for a few moments, as the cars were being loaded up. His first few
words were of formal thanks. He spoke then more intimately.

"Von Ragastein," he said, "I desire to refer back for a moment to our
conversation the other day."

Dominey shook his head and glanced behind.

"I know only one name here, Prince."

"Dominey, then. I will confess that you play and carry the part
through perfectly. I have known English gentlemen all my life, and you
have the trick of the thing. But listen. I have already told you of my
disapproval of this scheme in which you are the central figure."

"It is understood," Dominey assented.

"That," the Prince continued, "is a personal matter. What I am now
going to say to you is official. I had despatches from Berlin last
night. They concern you."

Dominey seemed to stiffen a little.

"Well?"

"I am given to understand," the Ambassador continued, "that you
practically exist only in the event of that catastrophe which I, for
one, cannot foresee. I am assured that if your expose should take
place at any time, your personation will be regarded as a private
enterprise, and there is nothing whatever to connect you with any
political work."

"Up to the present that is absolutely so," Dominey agreed.

"I am further advised to look upon you as my unnamed and unsuspected
successor here, in the event of war. For that reason I am begged to
inaugurate terms of intimacy with you, to treat you with the utmost
confidence, and, if the black end should come, to leave in your hands
all such unfulfilled work as can be continued in secrecy and silence.
I perhaps express myself in a somewhat confused manner."

"I understand perfectly," Dominey replied. "The authorities have
changed their first idea as to my presence here. They want to keep
every shadow of suspicion away from me, so that in the event of war I
shall have an absolutely unique position, an unsuspected yet fervently
patriotic German, living hand in glove with the upper classes of
English Society. One can well imagine that there would be work for
me."

"Our understanding is mutual," Terniloff declared. "What I have to say
to you, therefore, is that I hope you will soon follow us to London
and give me the opportunity of offering you the constant hospitality
of Carlton House Gardens."

"You are very kind, Prince," Dominey said. "My instructions are, as
soon as I have consolidated my position here--an event which I fancy I
may consider attained--to establish myself in London and to await
orders. I trust that amongst other things you will then permit me to
examine the memoirs you spoke of the other day."

"Naturally, and with the utmost pleasure," the Ambassador assented.
"They are a faithful record of my interviews and negotiations with
certain Ministers here, and they reflect a desire and intention for
peace which will, I think, amaze you. I venture now upon a somewhat
delicate question," he continued, changing the subject of their
conversation abruptly, as they turned back along the terrace. "Lady
Dominey will accompany you?"

"Of that I am not sure," Dominey replied thoughtfully. "I have
noticed, Prince, if I may be allowed to say so, your chivalrous regard
for that lady. You will permit me to assure you that in the peculiar
position in which I am placed I shall never forget that she is the
wife of Everard Dominey."

Terniloff shook hands heartily.

"I wanted to hear that from you," he admitted. "You I felt
instinctively were different, but there are many men of our race who
are willing enough to sacrifice a woman without the slightest scruple,
either for their passions or their policy. I find Lady Dominey
charming."

"She will never lack a protector in me," Dominey declared.

There were more farewells and, soon after, the little procession of
cars drove off. Rosamund herself was on the terrace, bidding all her
guests farewell. She clung to Dominey's arm when at last they turned
back into the empty hall.

"What dear people they were, Everard!" she exclaimed. "I only wish
that I had seen more of them. The Duchess was perfectly charming to
me, and I never knew any one with such delightful manners as Prince
Terniloff. Are you going to miss them very much, dear?"

"Not a bit," he answered. "I think I shall take a gun now and stroll
down the meadows and across the rough ground. Will you come with me,
or will you put on one of your pretty gowns and entertain me
downstairs at luncheon? It is a very long time since we had a meal
alone together."

She shook her head a little sadly.

"We never have had," she answered. "You know that, Everard, and alas!
I know it. But we are going on pretending, aren't we?"

He raised her fingers to his lips and kissed them.

"You shall pretend all that you like, dear Rosamund," he promised,
"and I will be the shadow of your desires. No! No tears!" he added
quickly, as she turned away. "Remember there is nothing but happiness
for you now. Whoever I am or am not, that is my one aim in life."

She clutched at his hand passionately, and suddenly, as though finding
it insufficient, twined her arms around his neck and kissed him.

"Let me come with you," she begged. "I can't bear to let you go. I'll
be very quiet. Will you wait ten minutes for me?"

"Of course," he answered.

He strolled down towards the gun room, stood by the fire for a moment,
and then wandered out into the courtyard, where Middleton and a couple
of beaters were waiting for him with the dogs. He had scarcely taken a
step towards them, however, when he stopped short. To his amazement
Seaman was there, standing a little on one side, with his eyes fixed
upon the windows of the servants' quarters.

"Hullo, my friend!" he exclaimed. "Why, I thought you went by the
early train from Thursford Station?"

"Missed it by two minutes," Seaman replied with a glance towards the
beaters. "I knew all the cars were full for the eleven o'clock, so I
thought I'd wait till the afternoon."

"And where have you been to for the last few hours, then?"

Seaman had reached his side now and was out of earshot of the others.

"Trying to solve the mystery of Johann Wolff's sudden departure last
night. Come and walk down the avenue with me a short way."

"A very short distance, then. I am expecting Lady Dominey."

They passed through the thin iron gates and paced along one of the
back entrances to the Hall.

"Do not think me indiscreet," Seaman began. "I returned without the
knowledge of any one, and I kept out of the way until they had all
gone. It is what I told you before. Things which I do not understand
depress me, and behold! I have found proof this morning of a further
significance in Wolff's sudden departure."

"Proceed," Dominey begged.

"I learned this morning, entirely by accident, that Mr. Pelham's
servant was either mistaken or willfully deceived me. Wolff did not
accompany your butler to the station."

"And how did you find that out?" Dominey demanded.

"It is immaterial! What is material is that there is a sort of
conspiracy amongst the servants here to conceal the manner of his
leaving. Do not interrupt me, I beg! Early this morning there was a
fresh fall of snow which has now disappeared. Outside the window of
the room which I found locked were the marks of footsteps and the
tracks of a small car."

"And what do you gather from all this?" Dominey asked.

"I gather that Wolff must have had friends in the neighbourhood,"
Seaman replied, "or else--"

"Well?"

"My last supposition sounds absurd," Seaman confessed, "but the whole
matter is so incomprehensible that I was going to say--or else he was
forcibly removed."

Dominey laughed softly.

"Wolff would scarcely have been an easy man to abduct, would he," he
remarked, "even if we could hit upon any plausible reason for such a
thing! As a matter of fact, Seaman," he concluded, turning on his heel
a little abruptly as he saw Rosamund standing in the avenue, "I cannot
bring myself to treat this Johann Wolff business seriously. Granted
that the man was a spy, well, let him get on with it. We are doing our
job here in the most perfect and praiseworthy fashion. We neither of
us have the ghost of a secret to hide from his employers."

"In a sense that is true," Seaman admitted.

"Well, then, cheer up," Dominey enjoined. "Take a little walk with us,
and we will see whether Parkins cannot find us a bottle of that old
Burgundy for lunch. How does that sound?"

"If you will excuse me from taking the walk," Seaman begged, "I would
like to remain here until your return."

"You are more likely to do harm," Dominey reminded him, "and set the
servants talking, if you show too much interest in this man's
disappearance."

"I shall be careful," Seaman promised, "but there are certain things
which I cannot help. I work always from instinct, and my instinct is
never wrong. I will ask no more questions of your servants, but I know
that there is something mysterious about the sudden departure of
Johann Wolff."

Dominey and Rosamund returned about one o'clock to find a note from
Seaman, which the former tore open as his companion stood warming her
feet in front of the fire. There were only a few lines:


 "I am following an idea. It takes me to London. Let us meet there
  within a few days.

        "S."


"Has he really gone?" Rosamund asked.

"Back to London."

She laughed happily. "Then we shall lunch /a deux/ after all!
Delightful! I have my wish!"

There was a sudden glow in Dominey's face, a glow which was instantly
suppressed.

"Shall I ever have mine?" he asked, with a queer little break in his
voice.



                             CHAPTER XXV

Terniloff and Dominey, one morning about six months later, lounged
underneath a great elm tree at Ranelagh, having iced drinks after a
round of golf. Several millions of perspiring Englishmen were at the
same moment studying with dazed wonder the headlines in the midday
papers.

"I suppose," the Ambassador remarked, as he leaned back in his chair
with an air of lazy content, "that I am being accused of fiddling
while Rome burns."

"Every one has certainly not your confidence in the situation,"
Dominey rejoined calmly.

"There is no one else who knows quite so much," Terniloff reminded
him.

Dominey sipped his drink for a moment or two in silence.

"Have you the latest news of the Russian mobilisation?" he asked.
"They had some startling figures in the city this morning."

The Prince waved his hand.

"My faith is not founded on these extraneous incidents," he replied.
"If Russia mobilises, it is for defence. No nation in the world would
dream of attacking Germany, nor has Germany the slightest intention of
imperilling her coming supremacy amongst the nations by such crude
methods as military enterprise. Servia must be punished, naturally,
but to that, in principle, every nation in Europe is agreed. We shall
not permit Austria to overstep the mark."

"You are at least consistent, Prince," Dominey remarked.

Terniloff smiled.

"That is because I have been taken behind the scenes," he said. "I
have been shown, as is the privilege of ambassadors, the mind of our
rulers. You, my friend," he went on, "spent your youth amongst the
military faction. You think that you are the most important people in
Germany. Well, you are not. The Kaiser has willed it otherwise.
By-the-by, I had yesterday a most extraordinary cable from Stephanie."

Dominey ceased swinging his putter carelessly over the head of a daisy
and turned his head to listen.

"Is she on the way home?"

"She is due in Southampton at any moment now. She wants to know where
she can see me immediately upon her arrival, as she has information of
the utmost importance to give me."

"Did she ever tell you the reason for her journey to Africa?"

"She was most mysterious about it. If such an idea had had any logical
outcome, I should have surmised that she was going there to seek
information as to your past."

"She gave Seaman the same idea," Dominey observed. "I scarcely see
what she has to gain. In Africa, as a matter of fact," he went on, "my
life would bear the strictest investigation."

"The whole affair is singularly foolish," the Prince declared, "Still,
I am not sure that you have been altogether wise. Even accepting your
position, I see no reason why you should not have obeyed the Kaiser's
behest. My experience of your Society here is that love affairs
between men and women moving in the same circles are not uncommon."

"That," Dominey urged, "is when they are all tarred with the same
brush. My behaviour towards Lady Dominey has been culpable enough as
it is. To have placed her in the position of a neglected wife would
have been indefensible. Further, it might have affected the position
which it is in the interests of my work that I should maintain here."

"An old subject," the Ambassador sighed, "best not rediscussed.
Behold, our womenkind!"

Rosamund and the Princess had issued from the house, and the two men
hastened to meet them. The latter looked charming, exquisitely gowned,
and stately in appearance. By her side Rosamund, dressed with the same
success but in younger fashion, seemed almost like a child. They
passed into the luncheon room, crowded with many little parties of
distinguished and interesting people, brilliant with the red livery of
the waiters, the profusion of flowers--all that nameless elegance
which had made the place society's most popular rendezvous. The women,
as they settled into their places, asked a question which was on the
lips of a great many English people of that day.

"Is there any news?"

Terniloff perhaps felt that he was the cynosure of many eager and
anxious eyes. He smiled light-heartedly as he answered:

"None. If there were, I am convinced that it would be good. I have
been allowed to play out my titanic struggle against Sir Everard
without interruption."

"I suppose the next important question to whether it is to be peace or
war is, how did you play?" the Princess asked.

"I surpassed myself," her husband replied, "but of course no ordinary
human golfer is of any account against Dominey. He plays far too well
for any self-respecting Ger--"

The Ambassador broke off and paused while he helped himself to
mayonnaise.

"For any self-respecting German to play against," he concluded.

Luncheon was a very pleasant meal, and a good many people noticed the
vivacity of the beautiful Lady Dominey whose picture was beginning to
appear in the illustrated papers. Afterwards they drank coffee and
sipped liqueurs under the great elm tree on the lawn, listening to the
music and congratulating themselves upon having made their escape from
London. In the ever-shifting panorama of gaily-dressed women and
flannel-clad men, the monotony of which was varied here and there by
the passing of a diplomatist or a Frenchman, scrupulously attired in
morning clothes, were many familiar faces. Caroline and a little group
of friends waved to them from the terrace. Eddy Pelham, in immaculate
white, and a long tennis coat with dark blue edgings, paused to speak
to them on his way to the courts.

"How is the motor business, Eddy?" Dominey asked, with a twinkle in
his eyes.

"So, so! I'm not quite so keen as I was. To tell you the truth," the
young man confided, glancing around and lowering his voice so that no
one should share the momentous information, "I was lucky enough to
pick up a small share in Jere Moore's racing stable at Newmarket, the
other day. I fancy I know a little more about gee-gees than I do about
the inside of motors, what?"

"I should think very possibly that you are right," Dominey assented,
as the young man passed on with a farewell salute.

Terniloff looked after him curiously.

"It is the type of young man, that," he declared, "which we cannot
understand. What would happen to him, in the event of a war? In the
event of his being called upon, say, either to fight or do some work
of national importance for his country?"

"I expect he would do it," Dominey replied. "He would do it pluckily,
whole-heartedly and badly. He is a type of the upper-class young
Englishman, over-sanguine and entirely undisciplined. They expect, and
their country expects for them that in the case of emergency pluck
would take the place of training."

The Right Honourable Gerald Watson stood upon the steps talking to the
wife of the Italian Ambassador. She left him presently, and he came
strolling down the lawn with his hands behind his back and his eyes
seeming to see out past the golf links.

"There goes a man," Terniloff murmured, "whom lately I have found
changed. When I first came here he met me quite openly. I believe,
even now, he is sincerely desirous of peace and amicable relations
between our two countries, and yet something has fallen between us. I
cannot tell what it is. I cannot tell even of what nature it is, but I
have an instinct for people's attitude towards me, and the English are
the worst race in the world at hiding their feelings. Has Mr. Watson,
I wonder come under the spell of your connection, the Duke of
Worcester? He seemed so friendly with both of us down in Norfolk."

Their womenkind left them at that moment to talk to some acquaintances
seated a short distance way. Mr. Watson, passing within a few yards of
them, was brought to a standstill by Dominey's greeting. They talked
for a moment or two upon idle subjects.

"Your news, I trust, continues favourable?" the Ambassador remarked,
observing the etiquette which required him to be the first to leave
the realms of ordinary conversation.

"It is a little negative in quality," the other answered, after a
moment's hesitation. "I am summoned to Downing Street again at six
o'clock."

"I have already confided the result of my morning despatches to the
Prime Minister," Terniloff observed.

"I went through them before I came down here," was the somewhat
doubtful reply.

"You will have appreciated, I hope, their genuinely pacific tone?"
Terniloff asked anxiously.

His interlocutor bowed and then drew himself up. It was obvious that
the strain of the last few days was telling upon him. There were lines
about his mouth, and his eyes spoke of sleepless nights.

"Words are idle things to deal with at a time like this," he said.
"One thing, however, I will venture to say to you, Prince, here and
under these circumstances. There will be no war unless it be the will
of your country."

Terniloff was for a moment unusually pale. It was an episode of
unrecorded history. He rose to his feet and raised his hat.

"There will be no war," he said solemnly.

The Cabinet Minister passed on with a lighter step. Dominey, more
clearly than ever before, understood the subtle policy which had
chosen for his great position a man as chivalrous and faithful and yet
as simple-minded as Terniloff. He looked after the retreating figure
of the Cabinet Minister with a slight smile at the corner of his lips.

"In a time like this," he remarked significantly, "one begins to
understand why one of our great writers--was it Bernhardi, I wonder?--
has written that no island could ever breed a race of diplomatists."

"The seas which engirdle this island," the Ambassador said
thoughtfully, "have brought the English great weal, as they may bring
to her much woe. The too-nimble brain of the diplomat has its parallel
of insincerity in the people whose interests he seems to guard. I
believe in the honesty of the English politicians, I have placed that
belief on record in the small volume of memoirs which I shall
presently entrust to you. But we talk too seriously for a summer
afternoon. Let us illustrate to the world our opinion of the political
situation and play another nine holes at golf."

Dominey rose willingly to his feet, and the two men strolled away
towards the first tee.

"By the by," Terniloff asked, "what of our cheerful little friend
Seaman? He ought to be busy just now."

"Curiously enough, he is returning from Germany to-night," Dominey
announced. "I expect him at Berkeley square. He is coming direct to
me."



                             CHAPTER XXVI

These were days, to all dwellers in London, of vivid impressions, of
poignant memories, reasserting themselves afterwards with a curious
sense of unreality, as though belonging to another set of days and
another world. Dominey long remembered his dinner that evening in the
sombre, handsomely furnished dining-room of his town house in Berkeley
Square. Although it lacked the splendid proportions of the banqueting
hall at Dominey, it was still a fine apartment, furnished in the
Georgian period, with some notable pictures upon the walls, and with a
wonderful ceiling and fireplace. Dominey and Rosamund dined alone, and
though the table had been reduced to its smallest proportions, the
space between them was yet considerable. As soon as Parkins had
gravely put the port upon the table, Rosamund rose to her feet and,
instead of leaving the room, pointed for the servant to place a chair
for her by Dominey's side.

"I shall be like your men friends, Everard," she declared, "when the
ladies have left, and draw up to your side. Now what do we do? Tell
stories? I promise you that I will be a wonderful listener."

"First of all you drink half a glass of this port," he declared,
filling her glass, "then you peel me one of those peaches, and we
divide it. After which we listen for a ring at the bell. To-night I
expect a visitor."

"A visitor?"

"Not a social one," he assured her. "A matter of business which I fear
will take me from you for the rest of the evening. So let us make the
most of the time until he comes."

She commenced her task with the peach, talking to him all the time a
little gravely, a sweet and picturesque picture of a graceful and very
desirable woman, her delicate shape and artistic fragility more than
ever accentuated by the sombreness of the background.

"Do you know, Everard," she said, "I am so happy in London here with
you, and I feel all the time so strong and well. I can read and
understand the books which were a maze of print to me before. I can
see the things in the pictures, and feel the thrill of the music,
which seemed to come to me, somehow, before, all dislocated and
discordant. You understand, dear?"

"Of course," he answered gravely.

"I do not wonder," she went on, "that Doctor Harrison is proud of me
for a patient, but there are many times when I feel a dull pain in my
heart, because I know that, whatever he or anybody else might say, I
am not quite cured."

"Rosamund dear," he protested.

"Ah, but don't interrupt," she insisted, depositing his share of the
peach upon his plate. "How can I be cured when all the time there is
the problem of you, the problem which I am just as far off solving as
ever I was? Often I find myself comparing you with the Everard whom I
married."

"Do I fail so often to come up to his standard?" he asked.

"You never fail," she answered, looking at him with brimming eyes. "Of
course, he was very much more affectionate," she went on, after a
moment's pause. "His kisses were not like yours. And he was far fonder
of having me with him. Then, on the other hand, often when I wanted
him he was not there, he did wild things, mad things; he seemed to
forget me altogether. It was that," she went on, "that was so
terrible. It was that which made me so nervous. I think that I should
even have been able to stand those awful moments when he came back to
me, covered with blood and reeling, if it had not been that I was
already almost a wreck. You know, he killed Roger Unthank that night.
That is why he was never able to come back."

"Why do you talk of these things to-night, Rosamund," Dominey begged.

"I must, dear," she insisted, laying her fingers upon his hand and
looking at him curiously. "I must, even though I see how they distress
you. It is wonderful that you should mind so much, Everard, but you
do, and I love you for it."

"Mind?" he groaned. "Mind!"

"You are so like him and yet so different," she went on meditatively.
"You drink so little wine, you are always so self-controlled, so
serious. You live as though you had a life around you of which others
knew nothing. The Everard I remember would never have cared about
being a magistrate or going into Parliament. He would have spent his
time racing or yachting, hunting or shooting, as the fancy took him.
And yet--"

"And yet what?" Dominey asked, a little hoarsely.

"I think he loved me better than you," she said very sadly.

"Why?" he demanded.

"I cannot tell you," she answered, with her eyes upon her plate, "but
I think that he did."

Dominey walked suddenly to the window and leaned out. There were drops
of moisture upon his forehead, he felt the fierce need of air. When he
came back she was still sitting there, still looking down.

"I have spoken to Doctor Harrison about it," she went on, her voice
scarcely audible. "He told me that you probably loved more than you
dared to show, because someday the real Everard might come back."

"That is quite true," he reminded her softly. "He may come back at any
moment."

She gripped his hand, her voice shook with passion. She leaned towards
him, her other arm stole around his neck.

"But I don't want him to come back!" she cried. "I want you!"

Dominey sat for a moment motionless, like a figure of stone. Through
the wide-flung, blind-shielded windows came the raucous cry of a
newsboy, breaking the stillness of the summer evening. And then
another and sharper interruption,--the stopping of a taxicab outside,
the firm, insistent ringing of the front doorbell. Recollection came
to Dominey, and a great strength. The fire which had leaped up within
him was thrust back. His response to her wave of passion was
infinitely tender.

"Dear Rosamund," he said, "that front doorbell summons me to rather an
important interview. Will you please trust in me a little while
longer? Believe me, I am not in any way cold. I am not indifferent.
There is something which you will have to be told,--something with
which I never reckoned, something which is beginning to weigh upon me
night and day. Trust me, Rosamund, and wait!"

She sank back into her chair with a piquant and yet pathetic little
grimace.

"You tell me always to wait," she complained. "I will be patient, but
you shall tell me this. You are so kind to me. You make or mar my
life. You must care a little? Please?"

He was standing up now. He kissed her hands fondly. His voice had all
the old ring in it.

"More than for any woman on earth, dear Rosamund!"



Seaman, in a light grey suit, a panama, and a white beflowered tie,
had lost something of the placid urbanity of a few months ago. He was
hot and tired with travel. There were new lines in his face and a
queer expression of anxiety about his eyes, at the corners of which
little wrinkles had begun to appear. He responded to Dominey's welcome
with a fervour which was almost feverish, scrutinised him closely, as
though expecting to find some change, and finally sank into an easy-
chair with a little gesture of relief. He had been carrying a small,
brown despatch case, which he laid on the carpet by his side.

"You have news?" Dominey asked.

"Yes," was the momentous reply, "I have news."

Dominey rang the bell. He had already surmised, from the dressing-case
and coats in the hall, that his visitor had come direct from the
station.

"What will you have?" he enquired.

"A bottle of hock with seltzer water, and ice if you have it," Seaman
replied. "Also a plate of cold meat, but it must be served here. And
afterwards the biggest cigar you have. I have indeed news, news
disturbing, news magnificent, news astounding."

Dominey gave some orders to the servant who answered his summons. For
a few moments they spoke trivialities of the journey. When everything
was served, however, and the door closed, Seaman could wait no longer.
His appetite, his thirst, his speech, seemed all stimulated to swift
action.

"We are of the same temperament," he said. "That I know. We will speak
first of what is more than disturbing--a little terrifying. The
mystery of Johann Wolff has been solved."

"The man who came to us with messages from Schmidt in South Africa?"
Dominey asked. "I had almost forgotten about him."

"The same. What was at the back of his visit to us that night I cannot
even now imagine. Neither is it clear why he held aloof from me, who
am his superior in practically the same service. There we are, from
the commencement, confronted with a very singular happening, but
scarcely so singular as the denouement. Wolff vanished from your house
that night into an English fortress."

"It seems incredible," Dominey declared bluntly.

"It is nevertheless true," Seaman insisted. "No member of our service
is allowed to remain more than one month without communicating his
existence and whereabouts to headquarters. No word has been received
from Wolff since that night in January. On the other hand, indirect
information has reached us that he is in durance over here."

"But such a thing is against the law, unheard of," Dominey protested.
"No country can keep the citizen of another country in prison without
formulating a definite charge or bringing him up for trial."

Seaman smiled grimly.

"That's all very well in any ordinary case," he said. "Wolff has been
a marked man for years, though. Wilhelmstrasse would soon make fuss
enough, if it were of any use, but it would not be. There are one or
two Englishmen in German prisons at the present moment, concerning
whose welfare the English Foreign Office has not even thought it worth
while to enquire. What troubles me more than the actual fact of
Wolff's disappearance is the mystery of his visit to you and his
apprehension practically on the spot."

"They must have tracked him down there," Dominey remarked.

"Yes, but they couldn't thrust a pair of tongs into your butler's
sitting-room, extract Johann Wolff, and set him down inside Norwich
Castle or whatever prison he may be in," Seaman objected. "However,
the most disquieting feature about Wolff is that it introduces
something we don't understand. For the rest, we have many men as good,
and better, and the time for their utility is past. You are our great
hope now, Dominey."

"It is to be, then?"

Seaman took a long and ecstatic draught of his hock and seltzer.

"It is to be," he declared solemnly. "There was never any doubt about
it. If Russia ceases to mobilise to-morrow, if every statesman in
Servia crawls to Vienna with a rope around his neck, the result would
still be the same. The word has gone out. The whole of Germany is like
a vast military camp. It comes exactly twelve months before the final
day fixed by our great authorities, but the opportunity is too great,
too wonderful for hesitation. By the end of August we shall be in
Paris."

"You bring news indeed!" Dominey murmured, standing for a moment by
the opened window.

"I have been received with favour in the very loftiest circles,"
Seaman continued. "You and I both stand high in the list of those to
whom great rewards shall come. His Majesty approves altogether of your
reluctance to avail yourself of his permission to wed the Princess
Eiderstrom. 'Von Ragastein has decided well,' he declared. 'These are
not the days for marriage or giving in marriage. These, the most
momentous days the world has ever known, the days when an empire shall
spring into being, the mightiest since the Continents fell into shape
and the stars looked down upon this present world.' Those are the
words of the All Highest. In his eyes the greatest of all attributes
is singleness of purpose. You followed your own purpose, contrary to
my advice, contrary to Terniloff's. You will gain by it."

Seaman finished his meal in due course, and the tray was removed. Soon
the two men were alone again, Seaman puffing out dense volumes of
smoke, gripping his cigar between his teeth, brandishing it sometimes
in his hand to give effect to his words. A little of his marvellous
caution seemed to have deserted him. For the first time he spoke
directly to his companion.

"Von Ragastein," he said, "it is a great country, ours. It is a
wonderful empire we shall build. To-night I am on fire with the mighty
things. I have a list of instructions for you, many details. They can
wait. We will talk of our future, our great and glorious destiny as
the mightiest nation who has ever earned for herself the right to
govern the world. You would think that in Germany there was
excitement. There is none. The task of every one is allotted, their
work made clear to them. Like a mighty piece of gigantic machinery, we
move towards war. Every regiment knows its station, every battery
commander knows his positions, every general knows his exact line of
attack. Rations, clothing, hospitals, every unit of which you can
think, has its movements calculated out for it to the last nicety."

"And the final result?" Dominey asked. "Is that also calculated?"

Seaman, with trembling fingers, unlocked the little despatch box which
stood by his side and took from it jealously a sheet of linen-backed
parchment.

"You, my friend," he said, "are one of the first to gaze upon this.
This will show you the dream of our Kaiser. This will show you the
framework of the empire that is to be."

He laid out a map upon the table. The two men bent over it. It was a
map of Europe, in which England, a diminished France, Spain, Portugal
and Italy, were painted in dark blue. For the rest, the whole of the
space included between two liens, one from Hamburg to Athens, the
other from Finland to the Black Sea, was painted a deep scarlet, with
here and there portions of it in slightly lighter colouring. Seaman
laid his palm upon the map.

"There lies our future Empire," he said solemnly and impressively.

"Explain it to me," Dominey begged.

"Broadly speaking, everything between those two lines belongs to the
new German Empire. Poland, Courland, Lithuania, and the Ukraine will
possess a certain degree of autonomous government, which will
practically amount to nothing. Asia is there at our feet. No longer
will Great Britain control the supplies of the world. Raw materials of
every description will be ours. Leather, tallow, wheat, oil, fats,
timber--they are all there for us to draw upon. And for wealth--India
and China! What more could you have, my friend?"

"You take my breath away. But what about Austria?"

Seaman's grin was almost sardonic.

"Austria," he said, "must already feel her doom creeping upon her.
There is no room in middle Europe for two empires, and the House of
Hapsburg must fall before the House of Hohenzollern. Austria, body and
soul, must become part of the German Empire. Then further down, mark
you. Roumania must become a vassal state or be conquered. Bulgaria is
already ours. Turkey, with Constantinople, is pledged. Greece will
either join us or be wiped out. Servia will be blotted from the map;
probably also Montenegro. These countries which are painted in fainter
red, like Turkey, Bulgaria and Greece, become vassal states, to be
absorbed one by one as opportunity presents itself."

Dominey's finger strayed northward.

"Belgium," he observed, "has disappeared."

"Belgium we shall occupy and enslave," Seaman replied. "Our line of
advance into France lies that way, and we need her ports to dominate
the Thames. Holland and the Scandinavian countries, as you observe are
left in the lighter shade of red. If an opportunity occurs, Holland
and Denmark may be incited to take the field against us. If they do
so, it means absorption. If they remain, as they probably will, scared
neutrals, they will none the less be our vassal states when the last
gun has been fired."

"And Norway and Sweden?"

Seaman looked down at the map and smiled.

"Look at them," he said. "They lie at our mercy. Norway has her
western seaboard, and there might always be the question of British
aid so far as she is concerned. But Sweden is ours, body and soul.
More than any other of these vassal states, it is our master's plan to
bring her into complete subjection. We need her lusty manhood, the
finest cannon food in the world, for later wars, if indeed such a
thing should be. She has timber and minerals which we also need. But
there--it is enough. First of all men in this country, my friend, you
Von Ragastein, have gazed upon this picture of the future."

"This is marvellously conceived," Dominey muttered, "but what of
Russian with her millions? How is it that we propose, notwithstanding
her countless millions of men, to help ourselves to her richest
provinces, to drive a way through the heart of her empire?"

"This," Seaman replied, "is where genius steps in. Russia has been
ripe for a revolution any time for the last fifteen years. We have
secret agents now in every city and country place and throughout the
army. We shall teach Russia how to make herself a free country."

Dominey shivered a little with an almost involuntary repulsion. For
the second time that almost satyr-like grin on Seaman's face revolted
him.

"And what of my own work?"

Seaman helped himself to a liqueur. He was, as a rule, a moderate man,
but this was the third time he had replenished his glass since his
hasty meal.

"My brain is weary, friend," he admitted, passing his hand over his
forehead. "I have a great fatigue. The thoughts jump about. This last
week has been one of fierce excitements. Everything, almost your daily
life, has been planned. We shall go over it within a day or so.
Meanwhile, remember this. It is our great aim to keep England out of
the war."

"Terniloff is right, then, after all!" Dominey exclaimed.

Seaman laughed scornfully.

"If we want England out of the war," he pointed out, "it is not that
we desire her friendship. It is that we may crush her the more easily
when Calais, Boulogne and Havre are in our hands. That will be in
three months' time. Then perhaps our attitude towards England may
change a little! Now I go."

Dominey folded up the map with reluctance. His companion shook his
head. It was curious that he, too, for the first time in his life upon
the same day, addressed his host differently.

"Baron Von Ragastein," he said, "there are six of those maps in
existence. That one is for you. Lock it away and guard it as though it
were your greatest treasure on earth, but when you are alone, bring it
out and study it. It shall be your inspiration, it shall lighten your
moments of depression, give you courage when you are in danger; it
shall fill your mind with pride and wonder. It is yours."

Dominey folded it carefully up, crossed the room, unlocked a little
safe and deposited it therein.

"I shall guard it, according to your behest, as my greatest treasure,"
he assured his departing guest, with a fervour which surprised even
himself.



                            CHAPTER XXVII

There was something dramatic, in the most lurid sense of the word,
about the brief telephone message which Dominey received, not so many
hours later, from Carlton House Terrace. In a few minutes he was
moving through the streets, still familiar yet already curiously
changed. Men and women were going about their business as usual, but
an air of stupefaction was everywhere apparent. Practically every
loiterer was studying a newspaper, every chance acquaintance had
stopped to confer with his fellows. War, alternately the joke and
bogey of the conversationalist, stretched her grey hands over the
sunlit city. Even the lightest-hearted felt a thrill of apprehension
at the thought of the horrors that were to come. In a day or two all
this was to be changed. People went about then counting the Russian
millions; the steamroller fetish was to be evolved. The most peaceful
stockbroker or shopkeeper, who had never even been to a review in his
life, could make calculations of man power with a stump of pencil on
the back of an old envelope, which would convince the greatest
pessimist that Germany and Austria were outnumbered by at least three
to one. But on this particular morning, people were too stunned for
calculations. The incredible had happened. The long-discussed war--the
nightmare of the nervous, the derision of the optimist--had actually
materialised. The happy-go-luck years of peace and plenty had suddenly
come to an end. Black tragedy leaned over the land.

Dominey, avoiding acquaintances as far as possible, his own mind in a
curious turmoil, passed down St. James's Street and along Pall Mall
and presented himself at Carlton House Terrace. Externally, the great
white building, with its rows of flower boxes, showed no signs of
undue perturbation. Inside, however, the anteroom was crowded with
callers, and it was only by the intervention of Terniloff's private
secretary, who was awaiting him, that Dominey was able to reach the
inner sanctum where the Ambassador was busy dictating letters. He
broke off immediately his visitor was announced and dismissed every
one, including his secretaries. Then he locked the door.

"Von Ragastein," he groaned, "I am a broken man!"

Dominey grasped his hand sympathetically. Terniloff seemed to have
aged years even in the last few hours.

"I sent for you," he continued, "to say farewell, to say farewell and
make a confession. You were right, and I was wrong. It would have
better if I had remained and played the country farmer on my estates.
I was never shrewd enough to see until now that I have been made the
cat's-paw of the very men whose policy I always condemned."

His visitor still remained silent. There was so little that he could
say.

"I have worked for peace," Terniloff went on, "believing that my
country wanted peace. I have worked for peace with honourable men who
were just as anxious as I was to secure it. But all the time those for
whom I laboured were making faces behind my back. I was nothing more
nor less than their tool. I know now that nothing in this world could
have hindered what is coming."

"Every one will at least realise," Dominey reminded him, "that you did
your best for peace."

"That is one reason why I sent for you," was the agitated reply. "Not
long ago I spoke of a little volume, a diary which I have been keeping
of my work in this country. I promised to show it to you. You have
asked me for it several times lately. I am going to show it to you
now. It is written up to yesterday. It will tell you of all my efforts
and how they were foiled. It is an absolutely faithful narrative of my
work here, and the English response to it."

The Prince crossed the room, unlocked one of the smaller safes, which
stood against the side of the wall, withdrew a morocco-bound volume
the size of a small portfolio, and returned to Dominey.

"I beg you," he said earnestly, "to read this with the utmost care and
to await my instructions with regard to it. You can judge, no doubt,"
he went on a little bitterly, "why I give it into your keeping. Even
the Embassy here is not free from our own spies, and the existence of
these memoirs is known. The moment I reach Germany, their fate is
assured. I am a German and a patriot, although my heart is bitter
against those who are bringing this blot upon our country. For that
reason, these memoirs must be kept in a safe place until I see a good
use for them."

"You mean if the governing party in German should change?"

"Precisely! They would then form at once my justification, and place
English diplomacy in such a light before the saner portion of my
fellow countrymen that an honourable peace might be rendered possible.
Study them carefully, Von Ragastein. Perhaps even your own allegiance
to the Party you serve may waver for a moment as you read."

"I serve no Party," Dominey said quietly, "only my Country."

Terniloff sighed.

"Alas! there is no time for us to enter into one of our old arguments
on the ethics of government. I must send you away, Von Ragastein. You
have a terrible task before you. I am bound to wish you Godspeed. For
myself I shall not raise my head again until I have left England."

"There is no other commission?" Dominey asked. "No other way in which
I can serve you?"

"None," Terniloff answered sadly. "I am permitted to suffer no
inconveniences. My departure is arranged for as though I were royalty.
Yet believe me, my friend, every act of courtesy and generosity which
I receive in these moments, bites into my heart. Farewell!"

Dominey found a taxicab in Pall Mall and drove back to Berkeley
Square. He found Rosamund with a little troop of dogs, just entering
the gardens, and crossed to her side.

"Dear," he asked, taking her arm, "would you mind very much coming
down to Norfolk for a few days?"

"With you?" she asked quickly.

"Yes! I want to be in retreat for a short time. There are one or two
things I must settle before I take up some fresh work."

"I should love it," she declared enthusiastically. "London is getting
so hot, and every one is so excited."

"I shall order the touring car at three o'clock," Dominey told her.
"We shall get home about nine. Parkins and your maid can go down by
train. Does that suit you?"

"Delightfully!"

He took her arm and they paced slowly along the hot walk.

"Rosamund dear," he said, "the time has come which many people have
been dreading. We are at war."

"I know," she murmured.

"You and I have had quite a happy time together, these last few
months," he went on, "even though there is still that black cloud
between us. I have tried to treat you as kindly and tenderly as though
I were really your husband and you were indeed my wife."

"You're not going away?" she cried, startled. "I couldn't bear that!
No one could ever be so sweet as you have been to me."

"Dear," he said, "I want you to think--of your husband--of Everard. He
was a soldier once for a short time, was he not? What do you think he
would have done now that this terrible war has come?"

"He would have done what you will do," she answered, with the
slightest possible tremor in her tone. "He would have become a soldier
again, he would have fought for his country."

"And so must I--fight for my country," he declared. "That is why I
must leave you for an hour now while I make some calls. I shall be
back to luncheon. Directly afterwards we must start. I have many
things to arrange first, though. Life is not going to be very easy for
the next few days."

She held on to his arm. She seemed curiously reluctant to let him go.

"Everard," she said, "when we are at Dominey shall I be able to see
Doctor Harrison?"

"Of course," he assured her.

"There is something I want to say to him," she confided, "something I
want to ask you, too. Are you the same person, Everard, when you are
in town as when you are in the country?"

He was a little taken aback at her question--asked, too, with such
almost plaintive seriousness. The very aberration it suggested seemed
altogether denied by her appearance. She was wearing a dress of black
and white muslin, a large black hat, Paris shoes. Her stockings, her
gloves, all the trifling details of her toilette, were carefully
chosen, and her clothes themselves gracefully and naturally worn.
Socially, too, she had been amazingly successful. Only the week
before, Caroline had come to him with a little shrug of the shoulders.

"I have been trying to be kind to Rosamund," she said, "and finding
out instead how unnecessary it is. She is quite the most popular of
the younger married women in our set. You don't deserve such luck,
Everard."

"You know the proverb about the old roue," he had replied.

His mind had wandered for a moment. He realised Rosamund's question
with a little start.

"The same person, dear?" he repeated. "I think so. Don't I seem so to
you?"

She shook her head.

"I am not sure," she answered, a little mysteriously. "You see, in the
country I still remember sometimes that awful night when I so nearly
lost my reason. I have never seen you as you looked that night."

"You would rather not go back, perhaps?"

"That is the strange part of it," she replied. "There is nothing in
the world I want so much to do. There's an empty taxi, dear," she
added, as they reached the gate. "I shall go in and tell Justine about
the packing."



                            CHAPTER XXVIII

Within the course of the next few days, a strange rumour spread
through Dominey and the district,--from the farm labourer to the
farmer, from the school children to their homes, from the village
post-office to the neighbouring hamlets. A gang of woodmen from a
neighbouring county, with an engine and all the machinery of their
craft, had started to work razing to the ground everything in the
shape of tree or shrub at the north end of the Black Wood. The matter
of the war was promptly forgotten. Before the second day, every man,
woman and child in the place had paid an awed visit to the outskirts
of the wood, had listened to the whirr of machinery, had gazed upon
the great bridge of planks leading into the wood, had peered, in the
hope of some strange discovery into the tents of the men who were
camping out. The men themselves were not communicative, and the first
time the foreman had been known to open his mouth was when Dominey
walked down to discuss progress, on the morning after his arrival.

"It's a dirty bit of work, sir," he confided. "I don't know as I ever
came across a bit of woodland as was so utterly, hopelessly rotten.
Why, the wood crumbles when you touch it, and the men have to be
within reach of one another the whole of the time, though we've a
matter of five hundred planks down there."

"Come across anything unusual yet?"

"We ain't come across anything that isn't unusual so far, sir. My men
are all wearing extra leggings to keep them from being bitten by them
adders--as long as my arm, some of 'em. And there's fungus there
which, when you touch it, sends out a smell enough to make a man
faint. We killed a cat the first day, as big and as fierce as a young
tigress. It's a queer job, sir."

"How long will it take?"

"Matter of three weeks, sir, and when we've got the timber out you'll
be well advised to burn it. It's not worth a snap of the fingers.--
Begging your pardon, sir," the man went on, "the old lady in the
distance there hangs about the whole of the time. Some of my men are
half scared of her."

Dominey swung around. On a mound a little distance away in the park,
Rachael Unthank was standing. In her rusty black clothes, unrelieved
by any trace of colour, her white cheeks and strange eyes, even in the
morning light she was a repellent figure. Dominey strolled across to
her.

"You see, Mrs. Unthank," he began--

She interrupted him. Her skinny hand was stretched out towards the
wood.

"What are those men doing, Sir Everard Dominey?" she demanded. "What
is your will with the wood?"

"I am carrying out a determination I came to in the winter," Dominey
replied. "Those men are going to cut and hew their way from one end of
the Black Wood to the other, until not a tree or a bush remains
upright. As they cut, they burn. Afterwards, I shall have it drained.
We may live to see a field of corn there, Mrs. Unthank."

"You will dare to do this?" she asked hoarsely.

"Will you dare to tell me why I should not, Mrs. Unthank?"

She relapsed into silence, and Dominey passed on. But that night, as
Rosamund and he were lingering over their dessert, enjoying the
strange quiet and the wonderful breeze which crept in at the open
window, Parkins announced a visitor.

"Mrs. Unthank is in the library, sir," he announced. "She would be
glad if you could spare her five minutes."

Rosamund shivered slightly, but nodded as Dominey glanced towards her
enquiringly.

"Don't let me see her, please," she begged. "You must go, of course.--
Everard!"

"Yes, dear?"

"I know what you are doing out there, although you have never said a
word to me about it," she continued, with an odd little note of
passion in her tone. "Don't let her persuade you to stop. Let them cut
and burn and hew till there isn't room for a mouse to hide. You
promise?"

"I promise," he answered.

Mrs. Unthank was making every effort to keep under control her fierce
discomposure. She rose as Dominey entered the room and dropped an old-
fashioned curtsey.

"Well, Mrs. Unthank," he enquired, "what can I do for you?"

"It's about the wood again, sir," she confessed. "I can't bear it. All
night long I seem to hear those axes, and the calling of the men."

"What is your objection, Mrs. Unthank, to the destruction of the Black
Wood?" Dominey asked bluntly. "It is nothing more nor less than a
noisome pest-hole. Its very presence there, after all that she has
suffered, is a menace to Lady Dominey's nerves. I am determined to
sweep it from the face of the earth."

The forced respect was already beginning to disappear from her manner.

"There's evil will come to you if you do, Sir Everard," she declared
doggedly.

"Plenty of evil has come to me from that wood as it is," he reminded
her.

"You mean to disturb the spirit of him whose body you threw there?"
she persisted.

Dominey looked at her calmly. Some sort of evil seemed to have lit in
her face. Her lips had shrunk apart, showing her yellow teeth. The
fire in her narrowed eyes was the fire of hatred.

"I am no murderer, Mrs. Unthank," he said. "Your son stole out from
the shadow of that wood, attacked me in a cowardly manner, and we
fought. He was mad when he attacked me, he fought like a madman, and,
notwithstanding my superior strength, I was glad to get away alive. I
never touched his body. It lay where he fell. If he crept into the
wood and died there, then his death was not at my door. He sought for
my life as I never sought for his."

"You'd done him wrong," the woman muttered.

"That again is false. His passion for Lady Dominey was uninvited and
unreciprocated. Her only feeling concerning him was one of fear; that
the whole countryside knows. Your son was a lonely, a morose and an
ill-living man, Mrs. Unthank. If either of us had murder in our
hearts, it was he, not I. And as for you," Dominey went on, after a
moment's pause, "I think that you have had your revenge, Mrs. Unthank.
It was you who nursed my wife into insanity. It was you who fed her
with the horror of your son's so-called spirit. I think that if I had
stayed away another two years, Lady Dominey would have been in a mad-
house to-day."

"I would to Heaven!" the woman cried, "that you'd rotted to death in
Africa!"

"You carry your evil feelings far, Mrs. Unthank," he replied. "Take my
advice. Give up this foolish idea that the Black Wood is still the
home of your son's spirit. Go and live on your annuity in another part
of the country and forget."

He moved across the room to throw open a window. Her eyes followed him
wonderingly.

"I have heard a rumour," she said slowly; "there has been a word
spoken here and there about you. I've had my doubts sometimes. I have
them again every time you speak. Are you really Everard Dominey?"

He swung around and faced her.

"Who else?"

"There's one," she went on, "has never believed it, and that's her
ladyship. I've heard strange talk from the people who've come under
your masterful ways. You're a harder man than the Everard Dominey I
remember. What if you should be an impostor?"

"You have only to prove that, Mrs. Unthank," Dominey replied, "and a
portion, at any rate, of the Black Wood may remain standing. You will
find it a little difficult, though.-- You must excuse my ringing the
bell. I see no object in asking you to remain longer."

She rose unwillingly to her feet. Her manner was sullen and
unyielding.

"You are asking for the evil things," she warned him.

"Be assured," Dominey answered. "that if they come I shall know how to
deal with them."



Dominey found Rosamund and Doctor Harrison, who had walked over from
the village, lingering on the terrace. He welcomed the latter warmly.

"You are a godsend, Doctor," he declared. "I have been obliged to
leave my port untasted for want of a companion. You will excuse us for
a moment Rosamund?"

She nodded pleasantly, and the doctor followed his host into the
dining-room and took his seat at the table where the dessert still
remained.

"Old woman threatening mischief?" the latter asked, with a keen glance
from under his shaggy grey eyebrows.

"I think she means it," Dominey replied, as he filled his guest's
glass. "Personally," he went on, after a moment's pause, "the present
situation is beginning to confirm an old suspicion of mine. I am a
hard and fast materialist, you know, Doctor, in certain matters, and I
have not the slightest faith in the vindictive mother, terrified to
death lest the razing of a wood of unwholesome character should turn
out into the cold world the spirit of her angel son."

"What do you believe?" the doctor asked bluntly.

"I would rather not tell you at the present moment," Dominey answered.
"It would sound too fantastic."

"Your note this afternoon spoke of urgency," the doctor observed.

"The matter is urgent. I want you to do me a great favour--to remain
here all night."

"You are expecting something to happen?"

"I wish, at any rate, to be prepared."

"I'll stay, with pleasure," the doctor promised. "You can lend me some
paraphernalia, I suppose? And give me a shake-down somewhere near Lady
Dominey's. By-the-by," he began, and hesitated.

"I have followed your advice, or rather your orders," Dominey
interrupted, a little harshly. "It has not always been easy,
especially in London, where Rosamund is away from these associations.
-- I am hoping great things from what may happen to-night, or very
soon."

The doctor nodded sympathetically.

"I shouldn't wonder if you weren't on the right track," he declared.

Rosamund came in through the window to them and seated herself by
Dominey's side.

"Why are you two whispering like conspirators?" she demanded.

"Because we are conspirators," he replied lightly. "I have persuaded
Doctor Harrison to stay the night. He would like a room in our wing.
Will you let the maids know, dear?"

She nodded thoughtfully.

"Of course! There are several rooms quite ready. Mrs. Midgeley thought
that we might be bringing down some guests. I am quite sure that we
can make Doctor Harrison comfortable."

"No doubt about that, Lady Dominey," the doctor declared. "Let me be
as near to your apartment as possible."

There was a shade of anxiety in her face.

"You think that to-night something will happen?" she asked.

"To-night, or one night very soon," Dominey assented. "It is just as
well for you to be prepared. You will not be afraid, dear? You will
have the doctor on one side of you and me on the other."

"I am only afraid of one thing," she answered a little enigmatically.
"I have been so happy lately."



Dominey, changed into ordinary morning clothes, with a thick cord tied
round his body, a revolver in his pocket, and a loaded stick in his
hand, spent the remainder of the night and part of the early morning
concealed behind a great clump of rhododendrons, his eyes fixed upon
the shadowy stretch of park which lay between the house and the Black
Wood. The night was moonless but clear, and when his eyes were once
accustomed to the pale but sombre twilight, the whole landscape and
the moving objects upon it were dimly visible. The habits of his years
of bush life seemed instinctively, in those few hours of waiting, to
have reestablished themselves. Every sense was strained and active;
every night sound--of which the hooting of some owls, disturbed from
their lurking place in the Black Wood, was predominant--heard and
accounted for. And then, just as he had glanced at his watch and found
that it was close upon two o'clock, came the first real intimation
that something was likely to happen. Moving across the park towards
him he heard the sound of a faint patter, curious and irregular in
rhythm, which came from behind a range of low hillocks. He raised
himself on his hands and knees to watch. His eyes were fastened upon a
certain spot,--a stretch of the open park between himself and the
hillocks. The patter ceased and began again. Into the open there came
a dark shape, the irregularity of its movements swiftly explained. It
moved at first upon all fours, then on two legs, then on all fours
again. It crept nearer and nearer, and Dominey, as he watched, laid
aside his stick. It reached the terrace, paused beneath Rosamund's
window, now barely half a dozen yards from where he was crouching.
Deliberately he waited, waited for what he knew must soon come. Then
the deep silence of the breathless night was broken by that familiar,
unearthly scream. Dominey waited till even its echoes had died away.
Then he ran a few steps, bent double, and stretched out his hands.
Once more, for the last time, that devil's cry broke the deep
stillness of the August morning, throbbing a little as though with a
new fear, dying away as though the fingers which crushed it back down
the straining throat had indeed crushed with it the last flicker of
some unholy life.

When Doctor Harrison made his hurried appearance, a few moments later,
he found Dominey seated upon the terrace, furiously smoking a
cigarette. On the ground, a few yards away, lay something black and
motionless.

"What is it?" the doctor gasped.

For the first time Dominey showed some signs of a lack of self-
control. His voice was choked and uneven.

"Go and look at it, Doctor," he said. "It's tied up, hand and foot.
You can see where the spirit of Roger Unthank has hidden itself."

"Bosh!" the doctor answered, with grim contempt. "It's Roger Unthank
himself. The beast!"

A little stream of servants came running out. Dominey gave a few
orders quickly.

"Ring up the garage," he directed, "and I shall want one of the men to
go into Norwich to the hospital. Doctor, will you go up and see Lady
Dominey?"

The habits of a lifetime broke down. Parkins, the immaculate, the
silent, the perfect automaton, asked an eager question.

"What is it, sir?"

There was the sound of a window opening overhead. At that moment
Parkins would not have asked in vain for an annuity. Dominey glanced
at the little semicircle of servants and raised his voice.

"It is the end, I trust, of these foolish superstitions about Roger
Unthank's ghost. There lies Roger Unthank, half beast, half man. For
some reason or other--some lunatic's reason, of course--he has chosen
to hide himself in the Black Wood all these years. His mother, I
presume, has been his accomplice and taken him food. He is still alive
but in a disgusting state."

There was a little awed murmur. Dominey's voice had become quite
matter of fact.

"I suppose," he continued, "his first idea was to revenge himself upon
us and this household, by whom he imagined himself badly treated. The
man, however, was half a madman when he came to the neighbourhood and
has behaved like one ever since.-- Johnson," Dominey continued,
singling out a sturdy footman with sound common sense, "get ready to
take this creature into Norwich Hospital. Say that if I do not come in
during the day, a letter of explanation will follow from me. The rest
of you, with the exception of Parkins, please go to bed."

With little exclamations of wonder they began to disperse. Then one of
them paused and pointed across the park. Moving with incredible
swiftness came the gaunt, black figure of Rachael Unthank, swaying
sometimes on her feet, yet in their midst before they could realise
it. She staggered to the prostrate body and threw herself upon her
knees. Her hands rested upon the unseen face, her eyes glared across
at Dominey.

"So you've got him at last!" she gasped.

"Mrs. Unthank," Dominey said sternly, "you are in time to accompany
your son to the hospital at Norwich. The car will be here in two
minutes. I have nothing to say to you. Your own conscience should be
sufficient punishment for keeping that poor creature alive in such a
fashion and ministering during my absence to his accursed desire for
vengeance."

"He would have died if I hadn't brought him food," she muttered. "I
have wept all the tears a woman's broken heart could wring out,
beseeching him to come back to me."

"Yet," Dominey insisted, "you shared his foul plot for vengeance
against a harmless woman. You let him come and make his ghoulish
noises, night by night, under these windows, without a word of
remonstrance. You knew very well what their accursed object was--you,
with a delicate woman in your charge who trusted you. You are an evil
pair, but of the two you are worse than your half-witted son."

The woman made no reply. She was still on her knees, bending over the
prostrate figure, from whose lips now came a faint moaning. Then the
lights of the car flashed out as it left the garage, passed through
the iron gates and drew up a few yards away.

"Help him in," Dominey ordered. "You can loosen his cords, Johnson, as
soon as you have started. He has very little strength. Tell them at
the hospital I shall probably be there during the day, or to-morrow."

With a little shiver the two men stooped to their task. Their prisoner
muttered to himself all the time, but made no resistance. Rachael
Unthank, as she stepped in to take her place by his side, turned once
more to Dominey. She was a broken woman.

"You're rid of us," she sobbed, "perhaps forever.-- You've said harsh
things of both of us. Roger isn't always--so bad. Sometimes he's more
gentle than at others. You'd have thought then that he was just a
baby, living there for love of the wind and the trees and the birds.
If he comes to--"

Her voice broke. Dominey's reply was swift and not unkind. He pointed
to the window above.

"If Lady Dominey recovers, you and your son are forgiven. If she never
recovers, I wish you both the blackest corner of hell."

The car drove off. Doctor Harrison met Dominey on the threshold as he
turned towards the house.

"Her ladyship is unconscious now," he announced. "Perhaps that is a
good sign. I never liked that unnatural calm. She'll be unconscious, I
think, for a great many hours. For God's sake, come and get a whisky
and soda and give me one!"



The early morning sunshine lay upon the park when the two men at last
separated. They stood for a moment looking out. From the Black Wood
came the whirr of a saw. The little troop of men had left their tents.
The crash of a fallen tree heralded their morning's work.

"You are still going on with that?" the doctor asked.

"To the very last stump of a tree, to the last bush, to the last
cluster of weeds," Dominey replied, with a sudden passion in his tone.
"I will have that place razed to the bare level of the earth, and I
will have its poisonous swamps sucked dry. I have hated that foul
spot," he went on, "ever since I realised what suffering it meant to
her. My reign here may not be long, Doctor--I have my own tragedy to
deal with--but those who come after me will never feel the blight of
that accursed place."

The doctor grunted. His inner thoughts he kept to himself.

"Maybe you're right," he conceded.



                             CHAPTER XXIX

The heat of a sulphurous afternoon--a curious parallel in its presage
of coming storm to the fast-approaching crisis in Dominey's own
affairs--had driven Dominey from his study on to the terrace. In a
chair by his side lounged Eddy Pelham, immaculate in a suit of white
flannels. It was the fifth day since the mystery of the Black Wood had
been solved.

"Ripping, old chap, of you to have me down here," the young man
remarked amiably, his hand stretching out to a tumbler which stood by
his side. "The country, when you can get ice, is a paradise in this
weather, especially when London's so full of ghastly rumours and all
that sort of thing. What's the latest news of her ladyship?"

"Still unconscious," Dominey replied. "The doctors, however, seem
perfectly satisfied. Everything depends on her waking moments."

The young man abandoned the subject with a murmur of hopeful sympathy.
His eyes were fixed upon a little cloud of dust in the distance.

"Expecting visitors to-day?" he asked.

"Should not be surprised," was the somewhat laconic answer.

The young man stood up, yawned and stretched himself.

"I'll make myself scarce," he said. "Jove!" he added approvingly,
lingering for a moment. "Jolly well cut, the tunic of your uniform,
Dominey! If a country in peril ever decides to waive the matter of my
indifferent physique and send me out to the rescue, I shall go to your
man."

Dominey smiled.

"Mine is only the local Yeomanry rig-out," he replied. "They will nab
you for the Guards!"

Dominey stepped back through the open windows into his study as Pelham
strolled off. He was seated at his desk, poring over some letters,
when a few minutes later Seaman was ushered into the room. For a
single moment his muscles tightened, his frame became tense. Then he
realised his visitor's outstretched hands of welcome and he relaxed.
Seaman was perspiring, vociferous and excited.

"At last!" He exclaimed. "Donner und!-- My God Dominey, what is this?"

"Thirteen years ago," Dominey explained, "I resigned a commission in
the Norfolk Yeomanry. That little matter, however, has been adjusted.
At a crisis like this--"

"My friend, you are wonderful!" Seaman interrupted solemnly. "You are
a man after my own heart, you are thorough, you leave nothing undone.
That is why," he added, lowering his voice a little, "we are the
greatest race in the world. Drink before everything, my friend," he
went on, "drink I must have. What a day! The very clouds that hide the
sun are full of sulphurous heat."

Dominey rang the bell, ordered hock and seltzer and ice. Seaman drank
and threw himself into an easy-chair.

"There is no fear of your being called out of the country because of
that, I hope?" he asked a little anxiously, nodding his head towards
his companion's uniform.

"Not at present," Dominey answered. "I am a trifle over age to go with
the first batch or two. Where have you been?"

Seaman hitched his chair a little nearer.

"In Ireland," he confided. "Sorry to desert you as I did, but you do
not begin to count for us just yet. There was just a faint doubt as to
what they were doing to do about internment. That is why I had to get
the Irish trip off my mind."

"What has been decided?"

"The Government has the matter under consideration," Seaman replied,
with a chuckle. "I can certainly give myself six months before I need
to slip off. Now tell me, why do I find you down here?"

"After Terniloff left," Dominey explained, "I felt I wanted to get
away. I have been asked to start some recruiting work down here."

"Terniloff--left his little volume with you?"

"Yes!"

"Where is it?"

"Safe," Dominey replied.

Seaman mopped his forehead.

"It needs to be," he muttered. "I have orders to see it destroyed. We
can talk of that presently. Sometimes, when I am away from you, I
tremble. It may sound foolish, but you have in your possession just
the two things--that map and Von Terniloff's memoirs--which would
wreck our propaganda in every country of the world."

"Both are safe," Dominey assured him. "By the by, my friend," he went
on, "do you know that you yourself are forgetting your usual caution?"

"In what respect?" Seaman demanded quickly.

"As you stooped to sit down just now, I distinctly saw the shape of
your revolver in your hip pocket. You know as well as I do that with
your name and the fact that you are only a naturalised Englishman, it
is inexcusably foolish to be carrying firearms about just now."

Seaman thrust his hand into his pocket and threw the revolver upon the
table.

"You are quite right," he acknowledged. "Take care of it for me. I
took it with me to Ireland, because one never knows what may happen in
that amazing country."

Dominey swept it carelessly into the drawer of the desk at which he
was sitting.

"Our weapons, from now on," Seaman continued, "must be the weapons of
guile and craft. You and I will have, alas! to see less of one
another, Dominey. In many ways it is unfortunate that we have not been
able to keep England out of this for a few more months. However, the
situation must be dealt with as it exists. So far as you are concerned
you have practically secured yourself against suspicion. You will hold
a brilliant and isolated place amongst those who are serving the great
War Lord. When I do approach you, it will be for sympathy and
assistance against the suspicions of those far-seeing Englishmen!"

Dominey nodded.

"You will stay the night?" he asked.

"If I may," Seaman assented. "It is the last time for many months when
it will be wise for us to meet on such intimate terms. Perhaps our
dear friend Parkins will take vinous note of the occasion."

"In other words," Dominey said, "you propose that we shall drink the
Dominey cabinet hock and the Dominey port to the glory of our
country."

"To the glory of our country," Seaman echoed. "So be it, my friend.--
Listen."

A car had passed along the avenue in front of the house. There was the
sound of voices in the hall, a knock at the door, the rustle of a
woman's clothes. Parkins, a little disturbed, announced the arrivals.

"The Princess of Eiderstrom and--a gentleman. The Princess said that
her errand with you was urgent, sir," he added, turning apologetically
towards his master.

The Princess was already in the room, and following her a short man in
a suit of sombre black, wearing a white tie, and carrying a black
bowler hat. He blinked across the room through his thick glasses, and
Dominey knew that the end had come. The door was closed behind them.
The Princess came a little further into the room. Her hand was
extended towards Dominey, but not in greeting. Her white finger
pointed straight at him. She turned to her companion.

"Which is that, Doctor Schmidt?" she demanded.

"The Englishman, by God!" Schmidt answered.

The silence which reigned for several seconds was intense and
profound. The coolest of all four was perhaps Dominey. The Princess
was pale with a passion which seemed to sob behind her words.

"Everard Dominey," she cried, "what have you done with my lover? What
have you done with Leopold Von Ragastein?"

"He met with the fate," Dominey replied, "which he had prepared for
me. We fought and I conquered."

"You killed him?"

"I killed him," Dominey echoed. "It was a matter of necessity. His
body sleeps on the bed of the Blue River."

"And your life here has been a lie!"

"On the contrary, it has been the truth," Dominey objected. "I assured
you at the Carlton, when you first spoke to me, and I have assured you
a dozen times since, that I was Everard Dominey. That is my name. That
is who I am."

Seaman's voice seemed to come from a long way off. For the moment the
man had neither courage nor initiative. He seemed as though he had
received some sort of stroke. His mind was travelling backwards.

"You came to me at Cape Town," he muttered; "you had all Von
Ragastein's letters, you knew his history, you had the Imperial
mandate."

"Von Ragastein and I exchanged the most intimate confidences in his
camp," Dominey said, "as Doctor Schmidt there knows. I told him my
history, and he told me his. The letters and papers I took from him."

Schmidt had covered his face with his hands for a moment. His
shoulders were heaving.

"My beloved chief!" he sobbed. "My dear devoted master! Killed by that
drunken Englishman!"

"Not so drunk as you fancied him," Dominey said coolly, "not so far
gone in his course of dissipation but that he was able to pull himself
up when the great incentive came."

The Princess looked from one to the other of the two men. Seaman had
still the appearance of a man struggling to extricate himself from
some sort of nightmare.

"My first and only suspicion," he faltered, "was that night when Wolff
disappeared!"

"Wolff's coming was rather a tragedy," Dominey admitted. "Fortunately,
I had a secret service man in the house who was able to dispose of
him."

"It was you who planned his disappearance?" Seaman gasped.

"Naturally," Dominey replied. "He knew the truth and was trying all
the time to communicate with you."

"And the money?" Seaman continued, blinking rapidly. "One hundred
thousand pounds, and more?"

"I understood that was a gift," Dominey replied. "If the German Secret
Service, however, cares to formulate a claim and sue me--"

The Princess suddenly interrupted. Her eyes seemed on fire.

"What are you, you two?" she cried, stretching out her hands towards
Schmidt and Seaman. "Are you lumps of earth--clods--creatures without
courage and intelligence? You can let him stand there--the Englishman
who has murdered my lover, who has befooled you? You let him stand
there and mock you, and you do and say nothing! Is his life a sacred
thing? Has he none of your secrets in his charge?"

"The great God above us!" Seaman groaned, with a sudden white horror
in his face. "He has the Prince's memoirs! He has the Kaiser's map!"

"On the contrary," Dominey replied, "both are deposited at the Foreign
Office. We hope to find them very useful a little later on."

Seaman sprang forward like a tiger and went down in a heap as he
almost threw himself upon Dominey's out-flung fist. Schmidt came
stealing across the room, and from underneath his cuff something
gleamed.

"You are two to one!" the Princess cried passionately, as both
assailants hesitated. "I would to God that I had a weapon, or that I
were a man!"

"My dear Princess," a good-humoured voice remarked from the window,
"four to two the other way, I think, what?"

Eddy Pelham, his hands in his pockets, but a very alert gleam in his
usually vacuous face, stood in the windowed doorway. From behind him,
two exceedingly formidable-looking men slipped into the room. There
was no fight, not even a struggle. Seaman, who had never recovered
from the shock of his surprise, and was now completely unnerved, was
handcuffed in a moment, and Schmidt disarmed. The latter was the first
to break the curious silence.

"What have I done?" he demanded. "Why am I treated like this?"

"Doctor Schmidt?" Eddy asked pleasantly.

"That is my name, sir," was the fierce reply. "I have just landed from
East Africa. We knew nothing of the war when we started. I came to
expose that man. He is an impostor--a murderer! He has killed a German
nobleman."

"He has committed /lese majeste/!" Seaman gasped. "He has deceived the
Kaiser! He has dared to sit in his presence as the Baron Von
Ragastein!"

The young man in flannels glanced across at Dominey and smiled.

"I say, you two don't mean to be funny but you are," he declared.
"First of all, there's Doctor Schmidt accuses Sir Everard here of
being an impostor because he assumed his own name; accuses him of
murdering a man who had planned in cold blood--you were in that, by
the by, Schmidt--to kill him; and then there's our friend here, the
secretary of the society for propagating better relations between the
business men of England and Germany, complaining because Sir Everard
carried through in Germany, for England, exactly what he believed the
Baron Von Ragastein was carrying out here--for Germany. You're a
curious, thick-headed race, you Germans."

"I demand again," Schmidt shouted, "to know by what right I am treated
as a criminal?"

"Because you are one," Eddy answered coolly. "You and Von Ragastein
together planned the murder of Sir Everard Dominey in East Africa, and
I caught you creeping across the floor just now with a knife in your
hand. That'll do for you. Any questions to ask, Seaman?"

"None," was the surly reply.

"You are well-advised," the young man remarked coolly. "Within the
last two days, your house in Forest Hill and your offices in London
Wall have been searched."

"You have said enough," Seaman declared. "Fate has gone against me. I
thank God that our master has abler servants than I and the strength
to crush this island of popinjays and fools!"

"Popinjays seems severe," Eddy murmured, in a hard tone. "However, to
get on with this little matter," he added, turning to one of his two
subordinates. "You will find a military car outside. Take these men
over to the guardroom at the Norwich Barracks. I have arranged for an
escort to see them to town. Tell the colonel I'll be over later in the
day."

The Princess rose from the chair into which she had subsided a few
moments before. Dominey turned towards her.

"Princess," he said, "there can be little conversation between us. Yet
I shall ask you to remember this. Von Ragastein planned my death in
cold blood. I could have slain him as an assassin, without the
slightest risk, but I preferred to meet him face to face with the
truth upon my lips. It was his life or mine. I fought for my country's
sake, as he did for his."

The Princess looked at him with glittering eyes.

"I shall hate you to the end of my days," she declared, "because you
have killed the thing I love, but although I am a woman, I know
justice. You were chivalrous towards me. You treated Leopold perhaps
better than he would have treated you. I pray that I shall never see
your face again. Be so good as to suffer me to leave this house at
once, and unattended."

Dominey threw open the windows which led on to the terrace and stood
on one side. She passed by without a glance at him and disappeared.
Eddy came strolling along the terrace a few moments later.

"Nice old ducks, those two, dear heart," he confided. "Seaman has just
offered Forsyth, my burly ruffian in the blue serge suit, a hundred
pounds to shoot him on the pretence that he was escaping."

"And what about Schmidt?"

"Insisted on his rights as an officer and demanded the front seat and
a cigar before the car started! A pretty job, Dominey, and neatly
cleaned up."

Dominey was watching the dust from the two cars which were
disappearing down the avenue.

"Tell me, Eddy," he asked, "there's one thing I have always been
curious about. How did you manage to keep that fellow Wolff when there
wasn't a war on, and he wasn't breaking the law?"

The young man grinned.

"We had to stretch a point there, old dear," he admitted. "Plans of a
fortress, eh?"

"Do you mean to say that he had plans of a fortress upon him?" Dominey
asked.

"Picture post-card of Norwich Castle," the young man confided, "but
keep it dark. Can I have a drink before I get the little car going?"



The turmoil of the day was over, and Dominey, after one silent but
passionate outburst of thankfulness at the passing from his life of
this unnatural restraint, found all his thoughts absorbed by the
struggle which was being fought out in the bedchamber above. The old
doctor came down and joined him at dinner time. He met Dominey's eager
glance with a little nod.

"She's doing all right," he declared.

"No fever or anything?"

"Bless you, no! She's as near as possible in perfect health
physically. A different woman from what she was this time last year, I
can tell you. When she wakes up, she'll either be herself again,
without a single illusion of any sort, or--"

The doctor paused, sipped his wine, emptied his glass and set it down
approvingly.

"Or?" Dominey insisted.

"Or that part of her brain will be more or less permanently affected.
However, I am hoping for the best. Thank heavens you're on the spot!"

They finished their dinner almost in silence. Afterwards, they smoked
for a few minutes upon the terrace. Then they made their way softly
upstairs. The doctor parted with Dominey at the door of the latter's
room.

"I shall remain with her for an hour or so," he said. "After that I
shall leave her entirely to herself. You'll be here in case there's a
change?"

"I shall be here," Dominey promised.



The minutes passed into hours, uncounted, unnoticed. Dominey sat in
his easy-chair, stirred by a tumultuous wave of passionate emotion.
The memory of those earlier days of his return came back to him with
all their poignant longings. He felt again the same tearing at the
heart-strings, the same strange, unnerving tenderness. The great
world's drama, in which he knew that he, too, would surely continue to
play his part, seemed like a thing far off, the concern of another
race of men. Every fibre of his being seemed attuned to the magic and
the music of one wild hope. Yet when there came what he had listened
for so long, the hope seemed frozen into fear. He sat a little forward
in his easy-chair, his hands griping its sides, his eyes fixed upon
the slowly widening crack in the panel. It was as it had been before.
She stooped low, stood up again and came towards him. From behind an
unseen hand closed the panel. She came to him with her arms
outstretched and all the wonderful things of life and love in her
shining eyes. That faint touch of the somnambulist had passed. She
came to him as she had never come before. She was a very real and a
very live woman.

"Everard!" she cried.

He took her into his arms. At their first kiss she thrilled from head
to foot. For a moment she laid her head upon his shoulder.

"Oh, I have been so silly!" she confessed. "There were times when I
couldn't believe that you were my Everard--mine! And now I know."

Her lips sought his again, his parched with the desire of years. Along
the corridor, the old doctor tiptoed his way to his room, with a
pleased smile upon his face.







End of Project Gutenberg's The Great Impersonation, by E. Phillips Oppenheim

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