but from things the mother has dropped, they must have seen
terrible times together, she and her husband."

"A wonderful deal of poetry and romance always clung to the names of
Poland and Hungary for me. When I was young, our part of the world
thrilled at the name of Kosciuszko and Kossuth. I'd give a good deal
to know what this man's secret was. All those old tales of mystery,
like 'The Man with the Iron Mask,' and stories of noblemen spirited
away to Siberia, of men locked for many years in dungeons, like the
'Prisoner of Chillon,' which fired the fancy and genius of Byron
and sent him to fight for the oppressed, used to fill my dreams."
Larry talked on as if to himself. It seemed as if it were a habit
formed when he had only himself with whom to visit, and Harry was
interested.

"Now, to almost come upon a man of real ideals and a secret,--and just
miss it. I ought to have been out in the world doing some work worth
while--with my miserable, broken life--Boy! I knew that man McBride! I
knew him for sure. We were in college together. He left Oxford to go
to Russia, wild with the spirit of adventure and something more. He
was a dreamer--with a practical turn, too. There, no doubt, he met
these people. I judge this Manovska must have been in the diplomatic
service of Poland, from what Amalia told us. Have you any idea whether
that woman sitting there all day long rapt in her own thoughts knows
her husband's secret? Is it a thing any one now living would care to
know?"

"Indeed, yes. They lived in terror of the prince who hounded him over
the world. The mother trusted no one, but Amalia told me--enough--all
she knows herself. I don't know if the mother has the secret or not,
but at least she guesses it. The poor man was trying to live until he
could impart his knowledge to the right ones to bring about an
upheaval that would astonish the world. It meant revolution, whatever
it was. Amalia imagines it was to place a Polish king on the throne of
Russia, but she does not know. She told me of stolen records of a
Polish descendant of Catherine II of Russia. She thinks they were
brought to her father after he came to this country."

"If he had such knowledge or even thought he had, it was enough to set
them on his track all his life; the wonder is that he was let to live
at all."

"The mother never mentioned it, but Amalia told me. We talked more
freely out in the desert. That remarkable woman walked at her
husband's si