nt Julius, posted now in the Pole's mottled history, had demanded
absolute anonymity before he carried the negotiations for the picture
any further. Felix gave the pledge readily, since Joan could not be in
Delgratz a day ere she suspected the truth. At any rate, Marulitch was
satisfied; he introduced Felix to a well-known dealer in the Rue St.
Honore, and thenceforth disappeared from the transaction. Joan herself
entered into the necessary business arrangements, about which there was
nothing hidden or contraband. The terms proposed were liberal,
considering her poor status in the art world; but they were quite
straightforward. She was given return tickets to Delgratz for herself
and her maid; Felix was similarly provided for; five hundred dollars was
paid in advance, and a written guaranty was handed to her that a
similar sum, together with hotel expenses, would be forthcoming in
exchange for a copy of the Byzantine Saint Peter.

Of course, reviewing matters calmly in the train, she hardly expected
that the second portion of the contract would be fulfilled. She knew
quite well that the conspirators hoped to turn her presence in the
Kosnovian capital to their own account, and when their scheme was balked
they would devise some means of wriggling out of the bargain. But she
laughed at the notion that she, an unknown student, should have suddenly
become a pawn in the game of empire. There was an element of daring,
almost of peril, in the adventure that fascinated her. It savored of
those outlandish incidents recorded in novels of a sensational type,
wherein fur coated, sallow faced, cigarette smoking scoundrels plotted
the destruction of dynasties, and used fair maidens as decoys for
susceptible Kings. Certainly, Felix Poluski, judged by his past, was no
bad prototype of a character in that class of fiction; regarded in his
present guise, as he sat opposite her in the dining car of the Orient
Express, he looked the most harmless desperado that ever preyed on a
quivering world.

His face seemed to be smaller and more wrinkled than usual. From Joan's
superior height his hump was accentuated till it showed above the top of
his head, and the girl was conscious, though she resolutely closed her
eyes to the fact, that the admiring glances with which she was favored
by some of her fellow passengers were somewhat modified by the humorous
incongruity of Poluski's appearance.

At first, they tacitly avoided any reference to Alec