enty minutes of two," he said as he consulted his watch. A
swift inspiration caused him suddenly to raise his head. "I've got it.
The house is all still now. Two--two--two o'clock, that's the solution.
They're to meet at two o'clock. Where? I can't wait for Sobieska,
there's no time."

He bent over and slipped off his military boots and put on a pair of
moccasins he always wore about his room. Cautiously he opened the long
window and stepped gingerly upon the roof. "Josef won't dare go out the
front way; so to leave the grounds he'll have to pass beneath me, and I
can follow if he does." Placing one hand on the bow window beside him,
he leaned over to peer into the moonlit yard beneath.

After he had waited what seemed a double eternity he was rewarded by
seeing a shape disengage itself from the shadows about the servant's
quarters in the rear, and come and stand directly beneath his place of
observation. Somewhere a clock struck two. There was a grating sound as
of the moving of rusty hinges from the direction of the front of the
house, and the first comer had a companion with whom he instantly began
a whispered conversation, of which, strain his ears as he might, Carter
could catch only four words,--"Your report--and lists." The man whom he
supposed to be Josef drew a bulky sheaf of papers from his breast pocket
and passed them to the mysterious stranger. It was time to interfere,
Carter thought. Swinging by his arms until his legs encircled the stone
pillar he slid to the porch and, leaping to the ground, confronted the
conspirators. Instinctively his first act was to clutch the papers, and
as he did so he was struck from behind and fell unconscious to the
ground. As his senses passed from him, he was dimly conscious of a
surprise that neither man was Josef. A sleepy determination possessed
him to hold grimly to the papers. Then all was blank.

* * * * *

He wished they wouldn't annoy him, he remonstrated drowsily. When he was
asleep he didn't have that awful pain in his head. As he opened his eyes
he smiled vacuously into Trusia's face. That brought him to his senses
with a jerk. A candle sputtered fitfully in a gilt stand beside him on
the ground. Trusia's arm was about his shoulder. The King and, yes,
Sobieska were there. And that other figure, that was Josef. He glanced
at his own right hand. It was still tightly clenched, but held no
papers.

"How did you know I was here?" he