In Direst Peril

s a baby, I had never known him to take the least trouble to bolster up any of his inventions, or to show the least shame when he was discovered in a lie. I am told that

like Brunow, who lie without temptation,

and bright and happy. I praised Brunow in my own mind for his sensible resolution to keep the secret of her father's existence from her, but I was constantly thinking whether there might not be some possibility of setting the prisoner free. If I had been a rich man I could see quite enough chance of advent

as the attempted rescue of the count, a thing which, at the time, I was altogether unlikely and unable to attempt, without taking account of all the pros and cons, so, far as I could see them. In my own mind I laid special stress on the friendly attendant mentioned in the count's brief an

d myself without avail, and tried to despise myself as a feather-headed fellow who had become a woman's captive at a glance. It was certainly not her wealth and my poverty which kept me away from her, for I never gave that matter a single thought-nor should I at any time in my life have regarded money as an inducement to marriage, or the want of it as a bar. It was no exalted idea of her birth as compared with mine, for I am one of the Fyffes of Dumbartonshire, and there is as good blood in my veins as flows f

er; but in spite of that, she wore a countenance of pronounced kindliness, and received me, so to speak, with open arms. Her son, Jack, had inspired her with all manner of absurd beliefs about me, and she praised me to my face about my courage until I felt inclined to prove it by running away from an old woman.

nd I don't know whether we ought to believe it or not. I don't think I have ever been so flustered in my life; and as for Violet, poor dear, it's no wonder that she's d

scourse; but Brunow's story flashed into my mind in a second, and I was sure that in some fashion it had reached Miss Rossano's ears. She ga

as the right to call herself the Contessa di Rossano; but that would be little use to her, for the Austrian government confiscated all her father's estates, and she never saw a penny from them, and I don't suppose she ever will. But her father went to Italy before she was born,

now, but that I understood he had bou

a dog's hind-leg off, and you can't believe a quarter of the things he says. Only in this case he got a letter from the count, and some busybody persuaded him to surrender it, and brought it to poor Violet, and she has compared the

ithin a yard or two of us. How much of our conversation she had heard I c

own, and, indeed, I remember well how I felt when I saw her beautiful mouth trembling with the pain and sorrow which lay at her heart. She kept her self-possession, however, but by a sort of feminine instinct, I suppose, she sat down with her face away from the light, and when s

st took my breath away. "I am glad that you have called, and if you had not done so, I should have taken the liber

wer, but I was afraid to show how eager I was to be of use to h

in which she sat, and they seemed never to leave my face for a moment. "I hear

r dress, and I took it from her hand. I told h

yffe"-she did her hardest to be business-like and commonplace in manner through all this interview, and my honor and esteem rose higher every moment-"now, Captain Fyffe, I want to ask you if in your judgment

ouble, Miss Rossano," I replied, "I can ask for no be

ess and restraint, as a mere surface compliment of no value. But I never knew her yet mistaken' in respect of that

" she answe

s were posted, and so on, and I gave her what information I had been able to acquire about the rates of possible travel. From Itzia I calculated we could, if well mounted, cross the frontier in about nine hours. There were no telegraph wir

already?" she asked, when I

I answered. "But now I must tell

s her niece. She showed it another way; for while Miss Rossano had listen

the relatives of the count are wealthy, and that they will reward him

im," cried Miss Rossano. "If I could secure my father's l

an a pension of a pound a week would look like Paradise. Much depends on his condition. If he is a single man, I may secure him. If he is married and has a fami

shall I thank you?

er I had earned the right to say that I knew no such pride as to live or die in her service. And that was simply true, though I had as yet met her but twice. I think that love at first sight must be a commoner thing than many people ima

risks, Captain Fyffe

y life," I answered, "to ru

to ask you to undertake such a hair-

be asked, Lady Rollins

to do," urged her ladyship. "Let us be sure

on the spot," I answered; "and as for d

money, Captain Fyffe," she added, turning to me, "you must not be c

I shall make my way, in the first place, to Vienna. Tell me your banker's name, and I will find out h

her bankers and I had made a note of it, we shook hands and parted. For my o

home again to pack. Travelling was slower then than it is to-day, but we thought it mighty rapid, and scarcely to be improved upon, it differed so from the post-chaise and stage-coach crawl of a few years before. There was no direct

from Miss Rossano telling me that anything within her means was fully at my disposal. I thought it not unlikely that with so persuasive a sum behind me I might be able to win over the kindly jailer to our side. My thoughts were very often with this man, and I spent a good deal of useless t

hich I had already settled. Itzia was not the sort of place for which one would make a straight road, unless one had special business there, and it was the merest seeming of having any special busin

rned. "I have been to the bank and to your hotel. I have been hunting you

to be cordial, but I was sorry for his intrusion, and wo

t him, and, seeing nobody within e

ur enterprise, Fyffe, and I

that I prefer to go thro

troduce you. My sympathetic friend-" He broke off suddenly because a foot-passenger drew near. "It is, as you say, a beastly journey, but, as you say again, it's done with, and when you know Vienna as well as I do, you will say it pays for the trouble ten times over. Vienna, my dear fellow, is the jolliest and the handsomest city in the world." The passenger went by, an

"you know what to expect i

with me along the road, sinking h

trained myself. "Now I don't mind telling you, Fyffe, that I've a little bit of a tendresse in that direction, and, between ourselves, I'm not at all sure that it isn't returned. Miss Rossano is convinced that this is a service of especial and particular danger. So it might be for a headstrong old warrior like your

t dream of allowing me to run the risk alone, and here in almost his last breath there was to be no risk at al

slightest doubt in the world that if you asked any of our common acquaintances you'd find the epithet endorsed. It's my way, my boy, but it's only a little out

ot for the fact that I think it more dangerous to leave you behind than to take you with me. You would be hinting this to this man, and that to the other, and

" he said, pettishly. "I

ny indiscretion or stupidity on your part, I will shoot you. I am going out with my life in my hand, and I mean to take care of it. You

, and I knew that he read me well enough to be sure that it was nothing of the sort. The threat