was true--thank God!'

But Rallywood, though he saw the purpose of her speech, would not
understand its significance. He led her towards the door by which she
had entered.

'You must go, Mademoiselle. I--dare not keep you with me longer.
Good-bye, and may God go with you, Valerie!'

She stopped suddenly and kissed the hand that held hers.

'I too am proud,' she whispered, and the door closed upon her.

CHAPTER XXVII.

THE MAN OF THE HOUR.

'Selpdorf is the man of the hour,' Counsellor once said to Rallywood,
and the Major's sayings had a trick of lingering in the memory. With the
Chancellor then still remained the key to the situation. He was
implicated in the conspiracy, but he had less to gain and far more to
lose than the others. A dangerous condition and one possible of
development.

All this passed in a flash through Rallywood's mind as the opposite door
opened to admit M. Selpdorf, who replied stiffly to Rallywood's bow.

'I was not prepared to see you this evening,' began Selpdorf.

'I have brought the despatches, your Excellency,' replied Rallywood,
taking the packet from his pocket but continuing to hold it in his hand.

Selpdorf eyed him.

'From whom?'

'Lieutenant Unziar.'

The affair was falling out in an unexpected manner. Selpdorf was a
student of human nature as all of his craft must be, and Rallywood
offered for his observation a character out of the common and hard for
a Maasaun to read. How had he escaped from the dilemma in which he had
been so carefully placed? The Chancellor was curious to hear. The man
was an artist in the human passions.

'From Lieutenant Unziar?' Selpdorf repeated tentatively. 'And your
prisoner? The man whom I ordered you to keep at the block-house?'

The Chancellor half expected to hear that Counsellor was also in
Revonde, and that Rallywood with an unassuming but unspeakable
effrontery had called to explain his own view of the matter.

'Unziar is with him--with Major Counsellor at Kofn Ford. Unziar was
unable to ride on at once after crossing the river, which is in flood.
Therefore I have come.'

Was it possible Rallywood had merely shirked facing the difficulty in
this way? thought Selpdorf.

'Ah, Major Counsellor? And these are the despatches?'

'These are Major Counsellor's private despatches, which were stolen from
him within the frontier of Maasau!' said Rallywood.

Selpdorf's round eyes showed their lids in an odd flicker. The attack