fter another
brief spell of silent brooding.

"Von Ragastein," he said, "my decree of banishment against you was a
just one. The morals of my people are as sacred to me as my oath to win
for them a mightier empire. You first of all betrayed the wife of one of
the most influential noblemen of a State allied to my own, and then, in
the duel that followed, you slew him."

"It was an accident, your Majesty," Dominey pleaded. "I had no intention
of even wounding the Prince."

The Kaiser frowned. All manner of excuses were loathsome to him.

"The accident should have happened the other way," he rejoined sharply.
"I should have lost a valuable servant, but it was your life which was
forfeit, and not his. Still, they tell me that your work in Africa
was well and thoroughly done. I give you this one great chance of
rehabilitation. If your work in England commends itself to me, the
sentence of exile under which you suffer shall be rescinded."

"Your Majesty is too good," Dominey murmured. "The work, for its own
sake, will command my every effort, even without the hope of reward."

"That," the Kaiser said, "is well spoken. It is the spirit, I believe,
with which every son of my Empire regards the future. I think that they,
too, more especially those who surround my person, have felt something
of that divine message which has come to me. For many years I have, for
the sake of my people, willed peace. Now that the time draws near when
Heaven has shown me another duty, I have no fear but that every loyal
German will bow his head before the lightnings which will play around
my sword and share with me the iron will to wield it. Your audience
is finished, Baron Von Ragastein. You will take your place with the
gentlemen of my suite in the retiring-room. We shall proceed within a
few minutes and leave you at the Belgian frontier."

Dominey rose, bowed stiffly and backed down the carpeted way. The Kaiser
was already bending once more over the map. Seaman, who was waiting
outside the door of the anteroom, called him in and introduced him to
several members of the suite. One, a young man with a fixed monocle,
scars upon his face, and a queer, puppet-like carriage, looked at him a
little strangely.

"We met some years ago in Munich, Baron," he remarked.

"I acknowledge no former meetings with any one in this country," Dominey
replied stiffly. "I obey the orders of my Imperial master when I wipe
from my mind every episode or reminisc