human countenance is a fine picture book.
I should like to read that belonging to your cousin Josef, providing I
could read unobserved."

"My friend!" said the king.

"Say nothing. Here is the bulldog; take him to her Royal Highness with
my compliments. There is no truer friend than an animal of his breed.
He is steadfast in his love, for he makes but few friends; he is a good
companion, for he is undemonstrative; he can read and draw inferences,
and your enemies will be his. I shall bid you good afternoon. God be
with your Majesty."

"Ah, to lose you now!" said, the king, a heaviness in his heart such as
presentiment brings.

The diplomat turned and went down the grand corridor. The bulldog tugged
at his chain. Animals are gifted with prescience. He knew that his
master had passed forever out of his life. Presently he heard the
voice of the princess calling; and the glamour of royalty encompassed
him,--something a human finds hard to resist, and he was only a dog.

Meanwhile another messenger had entered the chamber of finance and had
gone. On the minister's desk lay a crumpled sheet of paper on which was
written:

"Treason and treachery! It has at this moment been ascertained that,
while pretending to be our agents in securing the consols, M. Everard &
Co. now refuse to deliver them into the custody of Baron von Rumpf, as
agreed, and further, that M. Everard & Co. are bankers and attorneys to
his Excellency the British minister. He must not leave this city with
those consols."

With his eyes riveted on these words, the minister of finance, huddled
in his chair, had fallen into a profound study.

There were terrible times in the house of Josef that night.

CHAPTER III. AN EPISODE TEN YEARS AFTER

One fine September morning in a year the date of which is of no
particular importance, a man stepped out of a second-class carriage
on to the canopied platform of the railway terminus in the ancient and
picturesque city of Bleiberg. He yawned, shook himself, and stretched
his arms and legs, relieved to find that the tedious journey from Vienna
had not cramped those appendages beyond recovery.

He stood some inches above the average height, and was built up in
a manner that suggested the handiwork of a British drill-master, his
figure being both muscular and symmetrical. Besides, there was on his
skin that rich brown shadow which is the result only of the forces
of the sun and wind, a life in the open air.