admit that the plan would have been
feasible?"

He shrugged.

"The Countess Strahni's word of honor----"

"Honor is as honor does and I am here, Captain Goritz."

"I trust that you will have no reason to regret your decision."

"That sounds like another threat."

"It isn't. I actually mean what I say. A secret agent doesn't permit
himself such a luxury very often," he laughed.

"Then you're not going to murder me offhand----"

"Countess, I protest----"

"You wish my last moments to be graced with courtesy. I shall at least
die like a rose--in aromatic pain."

Her irony was not lost on him. He was silent a moment, regarding her
soberly.

"Countess, you are too clever to be unkind--your lips too lovely to
utter words so painful. I could not do you harm--it is impossible. I
pray that you will believe me."

"I am merely taking you at face value, Herr Hauptmann," she returned
coolly. "You have told me that you are merely a thinking machine, or a
cog in the wheel of efficiency, which plans my elimination----"

"A figure of speech. Your silence was what I meant."

"Ah, silence! Perhaps. It seems that I have already said enough."

"Quite," he smiled. "You have set Europe in a turmoil--another
Helen----"

"With another Paris in your background?" she shot at him.

He smiled, lowering his gaze to the ash of his cigarette.

"You speak in riddles."

"It's your trade to solve them."

"Do not underestimate my intelligence, I understand you," he laughed.
"It is a fortunate thing for me that you are not a secret agent. My
occupation would be gone."

"It is a villainous occupation."

"Why?"

"Because no secret agent can be himself. It's rather a pity, because I'd
like to like you."

"And don't you--a little?"

"I might if I thought that I could believe in you. If a man is not true
to himself, he cannot be true to those that wish to be his friends."

He was silent for a moment.

"I think perhaps," he said quietly at last, "that you do me an
injustice. I am merely the servant of my government----"

"Which, stops at no means--even death."

"I too look death in the face, Countess," he said with a slow smile. "It
lurks in every byway--hangs in every bush."

"It is frightful," she sighed, "to live like that, preying upon others,
and being preyed upon--when the world is so beautiful."

"The world is just what men have made it. I, too, once dreamed----" His
words trailed off into silence, and he looked o