e observed, in mock concern,
addressing the assembled mourners, that she believed the heirs were
trying to get rid of their incumbrances after the good old Borgia
fashion, and that she would never again have the courage to eat a
mouthful of food so long as she stood between her husband and a hymeneal
fortune.

"You know, my dear," she concluded, turning to her Husband, "that I
_might_ have had Lord Deppingham's biscuit. His wife asked me to take
it. Goodness, you're a dreadful Borgia person, Agnes," she went on,
smiling brightly at her ladyship. Deppingham was fumbling nervously at
his monocle. "I should think you _would_ be nervous, Lord Deppingham."

The most rigid questioning elicited no information from the servants.
Baillo's sudden, involuntary look of suspicion, directed toward Lady
Agnes and Robert Browne, did not escape the keen eye of Hollingsworth
Chase.

"Impossible!" he said, half aloud. He looked up and saw that the
Princess was staring at him questioningly. He shook his head, without
thinking.

Despair settled upon the white people. They were confronted by a new and
serious peril: poison! At no time could they feel safe. Chase took it
upon himself to talk to the native servants, urging them to do nothing
that might reflect suspicion upon them. He argued long and forcefully
from the standpoint of a friend and counsellor. They listened stolidly
and repeated their vows of fidelity and integrity. He was astute enough
to take them into his confidence concerning the treachery of Jacob Von
Blitz. It was only after most earnest pleading that he persuaded them
not to slay the German's wives as a temporary expedient.

One of the stable boys volunteered to carry a note from Chase to Rasula,
asking the opportunity to lay a question of grave importance before him.
Chase suggested to Rasula that he should meet him that evening at the
west gate, under a flag of truce. The tone of the letter was more or
less peremptory.

Rasula came, sullen but curious. At first he would not believe; but
Chase was firm in his denunciation of Jacob von Blitz. Then he was
pleased to accuse Chase of duplicity and double-dealing, going so far as
to charge the deposed American with plotting against Von Blitz to
further his own ends in more ways than one. At last, however, when he
was ready to give up in despair, Chase saw signs of conviction in the
manner of the native leader. His own fairness, his courage, had appealed
to Rasula from