ome unexplained reason he had lost the
whip-hand of Count Simon.

Up to this interview, by alternate effrontery and flattery, he had kept
his place in the Count's confidence, and exerted a guiding and
restraining influence over him. Now Sagan held him at arm's length, and
was plainly determined to act according to his own judgment without
consulting the German. The mischief had, of course, been done by the
news of Elmur's engagement to Selpdorf's daughter, for Sagan, like
others of his limited mental development, was sensitively suspicious.
Hence the bond between the two men was weak, inasmuch as neither liked
nor trusted the other, but it was strong, since both were tenacious and
both had staked all the future on the chance of forcing a new _regime_
upon Maasau the Free. At this crisis, however, Elmur would gladly have
hedged or masked his position, for he knew himself to be overmuch at the
mercy of the equivocal tact and discretion of his ungovernable
coadjutor.

'I cannot help thinking that my presence at the outset will make Captain
Colendorp shy at any proposition whatever,' said Elmur again.

'Do you want to draw back? You don't wish to appear in the matter--is
that it? By St. Anthony, von Elmur, you showed me the road that has
brought me to this pass and you will have to stand by me now! Also you
are wrong about Colendorp. When he sees for himself that I have Germany
behind me, it will decide his doubts--if he has any, which I don't
expect. I have read the man. He is soured and ill-conditioned, the
readiest stuff to make a rebel and a traitor of!'

What more Elmur might have urged was cut short by the entrance of
Colendorp. He had left his sword outside.

He saluted Sagan in his stiff punctilious way, his dark and sallow face
impenetrable.

'I am glad to see you, Captain Colendorp,' said Sagan with some
constraint. Even he felt the check of the man's iron impassiveness.

'You sent for me, my lord,' returned Colendorp, as one who hints that
time is short and he would be through with business.

'Take a cigar,' said the Count, pushing a box across the table, and also
pouring out a generous glass of the liqueur, for the manufacture of
which Maasau is famous--the golden glittering poison known as _bizutte_.

Colendorp accepted both in silence, but took a seat with a certain slow
unwillingness that was suggestive. Colendorp was at the best unpliable.
His manner put an edge on Sagan's temper. He plunged into h