water, I would have a better chance. I helped Her Grace to escape.
Was sorry to leave you, but my first duty was to save her. You were
not wholly neglected either. I saw you pulled aboard a yacht,
which, not seeing my desperate signals, took its course at once
toward the mouth of the river.

"Her Grace is safe. I have offered her the poor protection of my
impoverished name, only to learn that she loves you. I assure you
that since I learned this, no sister could receive tenderer
treatment. I congratulate you. Come at once. Frankly, my scanty
funds will be exhausted in three weeks' time. It is impossible to
get employment here."

There followed some friendly phrases, their address in Vienna, and the
subscription.

"What is the date of the letter?" Carter asked apprehensively.

"June second," came the quiet reply.

"And to-day is----"

"July seventeenth."

"What has become of them?" he groaned. "What can they think of me? A
messenger boy, nurse, at once. Are you paralyzed?"

XXVIII

A RE-UNION

Four short months before, Carter and Carrick had set out for Krovitch.
It did not seem possible that so many conclusive, completed events could
have transpired in that limited time. It seemed more like some whirlwind
dream to the man who, pale and wan, sat in the reading-room of the
Racquet Club gazing indolently at the passing throng outside the club
windows. It was Calvert Carter, of course, who so reasoned.

Carrick was dead, he continued in his reflections. Of a certainty this
had been a grievous blow, but even this was overshadowed by the doubt as
to the whereabouts of his beloved Trusia.

"Four months ago," he said aloud in his surprise, "the same man sat in
this same club, before this same window, and"--he paused, while his hand
ran along the arm of the chair as he glanced down at it,--"in this very
chair. He fretted because life could not give him enough of excitement
and contest--could not give him love. Well, to show him that her
resources were boundless, Life gave him all he wanted--then took back
her gifts." Relapsing into silence again with a heavy sigh, he
contemplated the strange warp of destiny.

Trusia, his beloved Trusia,--where was she? Wealth had not been spared,
nor time, in a hitherto fruitless effort to locate her. On this, his
first excursion from the sick-room, he was already planning to take up
the search himself--to scour Europe