led his fancy to more shameless jesting.
But when he had finished, he gave a pull to his small smartly-curled
moustache and said with a sudden gravity:

"After all, though, it's a serious matter."

Rischenheim was appalled at the issue. His cousin's influence had been
strong enough to lead him into the affair of the letter; he was aghast
to think how Rupert's reckless dare-deviltry had led on from stage to
stage till the death of a king seemed but an incident in his schemes. He
sprang suddenly to his feet, crying:

"But we must fly--we must fly!"

"No, we needn't fly. Perhaps we'd better go, but we needn't fly."

"But when it becomes known?" He broke off and then cried:

"Why did you tell me? Why did you come back here?"

"Well, I told you because it was interesting, and I came back here
because I had no money to go elsewhere."

"I would have sent money."

"I find that I get more when I ask in person. Besides, is everything
finished?"

"I'll have no more to do with it."

"Ah, my dear cousin, you despond too soon. The good king has unhappily
gone from us, but we still have our dear queen. We have also, by the
kindness of Heaven, our dear queen's letter."

"I'll have no more to do with it."

"Your neck feeling--?" Rupert delicately imitated the putting of a noose
about a man's throat.

Rischenheim rose suddenly and flung the window open wide.

"I'm suffocated," he muttered with a sullen frown, avoiding Rupert's
eyes.

"Where's Rudolf Rassendyll?" asked Rupert. "Have you heard of him?"

"No, I don't know where he is."

"We must find that out, I think."

Rischenheim turned abruptly on him.

"I had no hand in this thing," he said, "and I'll have no more to do
with it. I was not there. What did I know of the king being there? I'm
not guilty of it: on my soul, I know nothing of it."

"That's all very true," nodded Rupert.

"Rupert," cried he, "let me go, let me alone. If you want money, I'll
give it to you. For God's sake take it, and get out of Strelsau!"

"I'm ashamed to beg, my dear cousin, but in fact I want a little money
until I can contrive to realize my valuable property. Is it safe, I
wonder? Ah, yes, here it is."

He drew from his inner pocket the queen's letter. "Now if the king
hadn't been a fool!" he murmured regretfully, as he regarded it.

Then he walked across to the window and looked out; he could not himself
be seen from the street, and nobody was visible at the windows opposit