our manners as well as your reason. But
since you have assumed so high a dignity, it is not seemly that you
should stand to hear what I have to say; sit down, for it looks as
though standing were a trouble to you."

Michael Roburoff, who by this time could scarcely support himself on
his trembling limbs, sank suddenly back into his chair and covered
his face with his hands.

"That is not very lover-like to cover your eyes when the bride that
you have asked for is standing in front of you; but as long as you
don't cover your ears as well, I will forgive you the slight. Now,
listen.

"I have come, as you see, and I have brought with me the answer of
the Master to your request. Until an hour ago I did not know what it
was myself, for, like the rest of the faithful members of the
Brotherhood, I obey the word of the Master blindly.

"You, as it would appear, maddened by what you are pleased to call
your love for me, have dared to attempt to make terms where you swore
to obey blindly to the death. You have dared to place me, the
daughter of Natas, in the balance against the allegiance of the
American Section on the eve of the supreme crisis of its work, thus
imperilling the results of twenty years of labour.

"If you had not been mad you would have foreseen the results of such
treachery. As it is you must learn them now. What I have said has
been proved by your own hand, and the proof is here in the hand of
the Chief. This is the answer of Natas to the servant who would have
betrayed him in the hour of trial."

She took a folded paper from her belt as she spoke, and, unfolding
it, read in clear, deliberate tones--

Michael Roburoff, late chief of the American Section of the
Brotherhood. When you joined the Order, you took an oath to obey
the directions of its chiefs to the death, and you acknowledged
that death would be the just penalty of perjury. My orders to you
were to complete the arrangements for bringing the American
Section into action when you received the signal to do so.
Instead of doing that, you have sought to bargain with me for the
price of its allegiance. That is treachery, and the penalty of
treachery is death.

NATAS.

"Those are the words of the Master," continued Natasha, throwing the
paper down upon the table with one hand, and drawing her pistol with
the other. "It rests with the Chief to say when and where the
sentence of the Master shall be carried