s hiding-place, the last step or two proved too
much for the spy. He groaned, and sat down painfully, near the top. His
head lolled forward, and he supported it on two shaking hands. Thus he
sat, huddled and miserable, for five minutes or thereabouts. The chime
rang out overhead the old hymn which the little Crown Prince so often
sang to it:

"Draw me also, Mary mild,
To adore Thee and thy Child!
Mary mild,
Star in desert drear and wild."

Time had gone since the old church stood in a desert drear and wild, but
still its chimes rang the old petition, hour after hour.

At ten minutes past the hour, Nikky heard the engine of an automobile.
No machine came in sight, but the throbbing kept on, from which he
judged that a car had been stopped around the corner. Peter Niburg
heard it, and rose. A moment later a man, with the springiness of youth,
mounted the steps and confronted the messenger.

Nikky saw a great light. When Peter Niburg put his hand to his
breast-pocket, there was no longer room for doubt, nor, for that matter,
time for thinking. As a matter of fact, never afterward could Nikky
recall thinking at all. He moved away quietly, hidden by the shadows of
the colonnade. Behind him, on the steps, the two men were talking. Peter
Niburg's nasal voice had taken on a whining note. Short, gruff syllables
replied. Absorbed in themselves and their business, they neither heard
nor saw the figure that slipped through the colonnade, and dropped, a
bloodcurdling drop, from the high end of it to the street below.

Nikky's first impulse, beside the car, was to cut a tire. By getting his
opponent into a stooping position; over the damaged wheel, it would be
easier to overcome him. But a hasty search revealed that he had lost
his knife in the melee. And second thought gave him a better plan. After
all, to get the letter was not everything. To know its destination would
be important. He had no time to think further. The messenger was coming
down the steps, not stealthily, but clattering, with the ring of nails
in the heels of heavy boots.

Nikky flung his long length into the tonneau, and there crouched. It
was dark enough to conceal him, but Nikky's was a large body in a small
place. However, the chauffeur only glanced at the car, kicked a tire
with a practiced foot, and got in.

He headed for the open country. Very soon his passenger knew that he
was i