he plan has been dismissed,
thanks to you; the peace of the world is unbroken. And who am I? I know
you have wondered; I know your agents have scoured the world to find
out. I am the daughter of a former Italian ambassador to the Court of
St. James. My mother was an English woman. I was born and received my
early education in England, hence my perfect knowledge of that tongue.
In Rome I am, or have been, alas, the Countess Rosa d'Orsetti; now I am
an exile with a price on my head. That is all, except for several years
I was a trusted agent of my government, and a friend of my queen."

She rose and extended both hands graciously. Mr. Grimm seized the
slender white fingers and stood with eyes fixed upon hers. Slowly a
flush crept into her pallid cheeks, and she bowed her head.

"Wonderful woman!" he said softly.

"I shall ask a favor of you now," she went on gently. "Let all this that
you have learned take the place of whatever you expected to learn, and
go. Believe me, there can only be one result if you meet--if you meet
the inventor of the wireless cap upon which so much was staked, and so
much lost." She shuddered a little, then raised the blue-gray eyes
beseechingly to his face. "Please go."

Go! The word straightened Mr. Grimm in his tracks and he allowed her
hands to fall limply. Suddenly his face grew hard. In the ecstasy of
adoration he had momentarily forgotten his purpose here. His eyes lost
their ardor; his nerveless hands dropped beside him.

"No," he said.

"You must--you must," she urged gently. "I know what it means to you.
You feel it your duty to unravel the secret of the percussion cap? You
can't; no man can. No one knows the inventor more intimately than I, and
even I couldn't get it from him. There are no plans for it in existence,
and even if there were he would no more sell them than you would have
accepted a fortune at the hands of Prince d'Abruzzi to remain silent.
The compact has failed; you did that. The agents have scattered--gone to
other duties. That is enough."

"No," said Mr. Grimm. There was a strange fear tearing at his
heart,--"No one knows the inventor more intimately than I." "No," he
said again. "I won from my government a promise to be made good upon a
condition--I must fulfil that condition."

"But there is nothing, promotion, honor, reward, that would compensate
you for the loss of your life," she entreated. "There is still time."
She was pleading now, with her slim white