A Prince to Order

ed chamber was for a moment almost impenetrable. Grey was conscious of the presence of several persons, but they appeared more like shadows than realities, their outlines alone di

ile his vision grew accustomed to the semi-dark

dusk a figure approached,

is d

m height, but broad of shoulder and of erect military bearing. The ends of his

head in token th

nitro-glycerine and tincture of aconite. We

lky form of the physician, who had his fingers on the dying man's pulse, and by the black-clad, slender figure of a

pe," Grey

tant he would have retreated without waiting further developments. He was nervously a-tremble, his fingers were twitching involuntarily and alternately waves of hot and cold bathed him from head to heel. The atmosphere of the room stifled him; the stertorous breathing of the invalid oppressed him, the glo

ecting the Reverend Father. I sen

it be possible that his valet was here in Paris with him, he asked himself. And instantly he negatived the answer

the group at the bedside. Johann quietly opened the door and went out, closing it as quietly behind him. The silence became painful. The inhalati

ho for hours had been gazing fixedly at the ceiling, turned his eyes upo

houlders a trifle. Qu

deftly the

e Herr Captain to the Fraülein: "he has

he invalid's gaze passed each of the four in turn. Then his lips mo

n a low tone, as he straightened himsel

rey. Captain Lindenwald raised h

met Grey's view. Very sallow, too, and parchment-like; the nose long and peaked, and the under lip, where it showed above the sno

e; "he wishes to speak to y

5 already set its mark was sickeningly repugnant. But with an effort of will he bent his head. A withered, wrinkled hand gripped his wrist and for

eard; "it is yo

rey marvelled quite as much as he did over the ambiguous command. He stood erect again and would have stepped back, but the grip of

mmenting that the speaker was delirious. But from the sentences that followed he could only glean a word here and there.

lerity Dr. Zagaie plunged the needle of a hypodermic syringe into the fainting man's arm. Simultaneously there was a gen

of consideration. And yet, he answered himself, he had made a supreme effort to convey a message and he had chosen to phrase it in not his own tongue but his listener's, to make sure that it would be unders

led Grey from his meditation. The droning of the Latin ritual, solemn and awesome, struck a new chord in his emotional being. He got to his feet and stood with clasped hands and bowed head. Now the priest was anointing the dying man's eyes. With oily thumb he made the sign of the cr

penbach, who had been breathing softly, peacefully, with closed lids, opened his eyes wide with a look of sudden horror. T

uiver with emotion. And her hair, which shone even in the dusk of that darkened apartment with a lustre of its own imparting, was very abundant and very beautiful. He realised that she was coming towards him and he took a step forward to

patiently, "Mlle. von Altdo

een speaking to the nurse, tu

ostrate girl, "my dear, let me get you some

r?ulein moti

te myself prese

gaie insisted on he

rder, and there now lay upon the table a blue envelope, addressed in a distinctly English hand to "M. Max Arndt." Though it was undoubtedly meant for him it was with rather a sense of imp

y Dea

ised, but will meet you later in the Café Américain if y

al nausea, and for some reason which he could not explain he had experienced a violent antipathy to Captain Lindenwald. He realized that, surrounding the little company of which he had so strangely found himself one, there was a mystery which baffled his understanding. Then t

ssing, and thought perhaps Herr Arndt would dine with him in the salle à manger.

s. Give my compliments to the Herr Captain, and say that I'm feeling a bi

out to go, but stopped wit

dinner now?" he queried;

found himself eating with the relish that betokens good digestion. It seemed, too, when he had finished and lighted a cigarette that he could think more calmly and coherently. The w

ust prove quite impenetrable. He would therefore42 have ample time, unhampered by either enemies or friends, to delve into the perplexing riddle that confronted him. It would be policy, he argued, to delay his return to America until he could trace his movements abroad. The difficulties that he must encounter he did not

sly watching the vari-coloured lamps of the cabs as they passed to and fro-now a green, now a red, now a yellow. He had moved his chair to the space of balcony between the windows to escape an annoying draft, and from where he sat

he heard. The speaker was Joha

s worse, a thousand tim

culty, choked ba

astonishment. "By all that's good

ppenbach, Herr Arndt is another man. He is mad, Johann, and filled with wild notions. He does n

mured Joh

e shall never get him

e Herr

am sure," Lutz assented; "but it will be a mad Pri

were going towards the door, which Grey next heard open a

ype="