only one course--destroy the
compact."

"No!" was the curt answer.

"I believe I know Mr. Grimm better than you do," she argued. "You think
he will weaken; I know he will not. I am not arguing for him, nor for
myself; I am arguing against the frightful loss that will come here in
this room if the compact is not destroyed."

[Illustration: "You think he will weaken; I know he will not."]

"It's absurd to let one man stand in the way," declared the prince
angrily.

"It might not be an impertinent question, your Highness," commented Mr.
Grimm, "for me to ask how you are going to _prevent_ one man standing in
the way?"

A quick change came over Miss Thorne's face. The eyes hardened, the lips
were set, and lines Mr. Grimm had never seen appeared about the mouth.
Here, in a flash, the cloak of dissimulation was cast aside, and the
woman stood forth, this keen, brilliant, determined woman who did
things.

"The compact will be destroyed," she said.

"No," declared the prince.

"It _must_ be destroyed."

"_Must? Must?_ Do you say _must to me?_"

"Yes, _must_," she repeated steadily.

"And by what authority, please, do--"

"By that authority!" She drew a tiny, filigreed gold box from her bosom
and cast it upon the table; the prince stared at it. "In the name of
your sovereign--_must_!" she said again.

The prince turned away and began pacing, back and forth across the room
with the parchment crumpled in his hand. For a minute or more Isabel
stood watching him.

"Thirteen minutes!" Mr. Grimm announced coldly.

And now broke out an excited chatter, a babel of French, English,
Italian, Spanish; those masked and cowled ones who had held silence for
so long all began talking at once. One of them snatched at the crumpled
compact in the prince's hand, while all crowded around him arguing. Mr.
Grimm sat perfectly still with the revolver barrel resting on his knees.

"Eleven minutes!" he announced again.

Suddenly the prince turned violently on Miss Thorne with rage-distorted
face.

"Do you know what it means to you if I do as you say?" he demanded
savagely. "It means you will be branded as traitor, that your name,
your property--"

"If you will pardon me, your Highness," she interrupted, "the power that
I have used was given to me to use; I have used it. It is a matter to be
settled between me and my government, and as far as it affects my person
is of no consequence now. You will destroy the compact."

"Nin