OCR Text |
Show ,,Al.:Xi.TICTEP- OF Wiij Di;!i nicy in tla LilJo Icrliri elllcrtzi ! BEdwarl l lctt v; 'Woollcy Author of -Roland of Altenburg." etc - (Copyright, by Edward Mott Woolley.) TJ CHAPTEK XIV. A, Letter and a Meetingr That morning Kretschmar," still suffering suf-fering some pain from the oil that had gone Into his eyes, visited the home of the Braithwaites. He feared to eat the food upon his own table, lest another effort be made to poison him. . There were few houses in all of Strakonets. where hefelt'free to go as he chose, and there were not many persons to whom he could, turn for consultation la the situation in which ' he now found himself. John Braithwalte alone knew his story and his heart. He had many friendsit Is .true, but at a time when enemies were concealed behind, smiling faces Ae longed to talk with one like Braithwalte, who he knew was loyal to hlKretschmar breakfasted wflh the Braithwaites, and after an hour's conversation con-versation with the artist he returned to the castle to take up his duties. He was yet nndeclded on what course to pursue. Rupert was still on his debauch, de-bauch, and it was useless to go to him. It would be folly to appeal to the secret se-cret service. He was not sure what members of the Cabinet were traitors, although" he had seen things that con-vlnced, con-vlnced, him there were others besides zi.iri - tto mnA not accu&e the Prime s tor a chop and coffee, which he ate in his study. -. As soon as he had eaten, Kretschmar ordered his carriage and was driven to the railway station, where he boarded a train for a city In Morania. ten miles from the Russian town of Szegwics. He made no secret of his Journey, for military mili-tary affairs often called him to various parts of the country. - . . Arriving at his destination before-11 o'clock he made a pretense of having business at a military post. Securing a horse at a convenient livery, he Slipped out of town and rode to a point close to the Russian boundary, where he tied his horse In a thick wood and proceeded on foot into the Czar's regions, re-gions, taking a course that avoided the highroad. There was no moon and the stars were obscured, but he needed no guide, being quite familiar with the country. He approached the abandoned, mission of St. Stanislaus with an exaltation ex-altation of spirit. The thrill of Marion's presence was already upon him. The old mission loomed big and shadowy In the night. For a century it. had been falling into decay, after having served Its purpose well for many generations. The religious order, that had occupied it a hundred i'ears before was now extinct and almost' forgotten except for the traditions that hung about the somber pile. - It was said the place was haunted, and people shunned It by nlghtr looking askance at it even by day, and hurrying past. Strange noises and weird lights were seen,' so the credulous claimed, and Kretschmar, who knew its history, wondered that Marlon should be brave enough to' fix upon it as the trystlng place. It yet lacked a few minutes .of midnight, mid-night, and the Minister, as he paused before the silent rein, feared the girl had" not yet come. He did not have to wait, however, , for a woman's figure stepped from the blacknfess that enshrouded en-shrouded the place. ' "Mademoiselle!" he said, softly. - V. r la T " .h. nnaurerori. ' I am Minister flatly with the attempted poisoning tr with being the visitor in the night. In the midst of his doubts and premonitions of further disaster a page appeared at his study door and announced that a strange courier was at the main sentry 'gate, announcing that he had a communication to deliver de-liver personally to the Minister of war. Kretschmar ordered the man-admitted, after being searched for weapons. The courier, a few minutes later, laid In Kretschmars hand a square envelope, en-velope, sealed in three places with red wax, but bearing no address whatever. The Minister noted, too, with curiosity, that the Imprint of the seal upon the wax. bore no letter or identifying mark. "Surely this envelope is noncommittal," noncommit-tal," he observed, addressing the bearer bear-er of the missive. "From whom do you come?" "In truth, your excellency, I do not know. I can. only say that I thankful you have come, your Excellency, Excel-lency, for I fear I should not have been able to endure much longer the silent horrors of this lonely mini It has seemed to me that a thousand eyes stared at me out of Its black depths, and that mysterious, creeping things were closing in upon me stealthily. Once I heard a sound, and my heart stopped beating. I thought It was a footfall within the old mission, but It must have been the dropping of a decaying stone. hTe place Is eerie enough in the day; at night it has added terrors for the timid. It was for that Very reason that I selected It for tonight's meeting. I deemed it a safe place, where we would be free from interference. I confess, however, that I faltered at the thought of coming here alone." " ' ' . I ' (To be continued.) was commissioned in. such a manner that the sender of this letter is unknown un-known to me, either in person or by name, and I received a fee sufficient to restrain my curiosity. .1 come from St; Petersburg, a fact, however, which I was especially directed to keep to my-Belf my-Belf until I had delivered the letter into in-to your hands 'alone. Farther than that, I have no knowledge." Kretschmar felt a sudden tightening of the heart. He knew instinctively whom the letter was from, and why it had been sent by special messenger with so much secrecy. He tore open the envelope. The first glance at the contents Instantly fixed his attention rigidly. The letter read: ' ' "Imperial 'matters require that I see you at once. I can not go to you, and therefore I am forced to ask that you meet me In secret where we can discuss dis-cuss the affair I have to present. At midnight of Wednesday next I shall be upon the highroad two miles south of the town of Szegwles. The meeting place will be directly In front of the old St. Stanislaus Mission, now deserted. de-serted. The matters I wish to communicate com-municate are too grave to be committed commit-ted to paper and too urgent to admit of a day's delay. "As I do not name myself, or you in this letter, for reasons you can well know. I shall quote a sentence you once used to me, so that you make no . mistake In guessing my identity, although al-though I have little fear of that. The sentence is this: " Tour coming has been to me a glimpse Into something Into some faraway, far-away, dreamy life that has been dead to me for many years.' "If the plan I have named meets with your approval, say the word ''Yes' to the courier. He is instructed to send the answer by telegraph to the person' who commissioned him, and the message mes-sage will be In my hands within an hour." Thero was no superscription, no signature. sig-nature. The writer had taken no chance of discovery, even should the missive fall into improper v hands. Kretschmar's heart beat sharply as he gt.zed upon the delicate girlish, handwriting, hand-writing, which recalled to hlm-so, vividly viv-idly the one who had penned the'mes-- the'mes-- sage. It was with a sort of rapture, too. that he read the line she quoted: "Your coming has been to me a glimpse Into something into some far away, cfreamy life that has been dead to me for many years." feven in the surprise! of the message, this slngie line was uppermost Iniis thoughts. She had remembered his words the most significant words he had used in his whole acquaintance with her. "You will communicate the answer, yes' as directed," he said to the courier. As to the motive that had prompted Marion Belllntona to take this extraordinary extraor-dinary course, Kretschmar could no more than guess. She had given no clue in the letter. He racked his brain for a possible explanation, but he could find none, unless It was that she had information in-formation concerning Humbert, which she wished to communicate to him. He could lmaglne.no other exigency that would call for a secret meeting, such as she had asked. It was ' an absorbing enigma to him, but It filled him with profound happiness, for he was to see her again. The day was Wednesday. It lacked only twelve hours of the tlmo she had set tor the meeting, but the minutes dragged them selves away as if each had been ten times sixty seconds. Kretschmar Kretsch-mar had a press of work on hand, but for onfte he found- his will weaker than his heart. Stats documents lay untouched un-touched under his idle fingers. The difficulties dif-ficulties of the kingdom and the dangers dan-gers that beset Its Minister of War were for-the time forgotten. Kretschmar saw nothing of Zeleski or 'of Bzedlak.. The latter failed trmake ' his customary afterndbn report, but Kretschmar did not send for him. The Minister was glad the head of the secret se-cret service had stayed away. At dusk Kretschmar sent word to his kitchen that he would not require dinner. He had eaten nothing sines his morning meal at the Braithwaites, and although he felt no hunger, a weakness told hint be was in heed of nourishment. He dls-. dls-. patched his valet to a neighboring cafe ' a ' ' . " ' " A |