An oath."

"And you will bring me back that abominable key, and tell Count Feri
just what has happened."

"If you will swear," he insisted.

"Yes, yes, I will swear," she cried eagerly now, for indeed a heavy load
had been lifted off her heart, and her natural buoyancy of temperament
was already reasserting its sway over her terrors and agony of mind.
"What do you want me to say?"

"Swear by Almighty God," he said earnestly, "to leave Eros Bela alone,
never to flirt with him or do anything to cause Elsa the slightest
unhappiness."

"I swear it by Almighty God," she said solemnly, "and you need not be
afraid," she added slowly; "I will not break my oath."

"No! I am not afraid that you will, for if you do . . . Well! we won't
talk about that," he continued more lightly. "I suppose there isn't much
time to be lost."

"No, no, there isn't," she urged, "and don't make straight for the main
road; go up the village first and then back through the fields; Leopold
might suspect something--one never knows."

"All right, Klara, I'll do my best. We can but pray that I shall find my
lord at home, in which case I can be back in twenty minutes. I'll pick
up a friend or even two when I return, as then we can all walk into the
tap-room together. It won't be so conspicuous as if I came in alone.
What is the time now?" he asked.

She went to the partition door, opened it and peeped into her father's
room.

"Just ten minutes to nine," she said; "father will have gone by the time
you come back."

"That'll be as well, won't it?" he concluded, as he finally turned to
go. "If you are not in the tap-room when I come back, what shall I do
with the key?"

She pointed to a small brass tray which stood on the table in among the
litter of bottles, glasses, mugs and tobacco-jars.

"Just on there," she said, "then if I come into the room later, I can
see it there at a glance; and oh! what a relief it will be!"

The colour had come back to her cheeks. Indeed, she felt marvellously
cheerful now and reassured. She knew that Andor would fulfil his share
of the bargain, and the heavy cloud of trouble and of terror would be
permanently lifted from her within the next half-hour.

In her usual, light-hearted, frivolous way she blew a kiss to Andor. But
the young man, without looking again on her, had already opened the
door, and the next moment he had gone out into the dark night on his
errand of friendship.

CHAPTER XXII

"I g