ke your time."

Rudolf looked at him and broke into a smile.

"I'm not your dupe, old Sapt," said he, shaking his head. "Trust me, if
I decide to get away, I'll get away, be it what o'clock it will."

"Yes, confound you!" grinned Colonel Sapt.

So he left us, and then came that long time of scheming and planning,
and most persistent eye-shutting, in which occupations an hour wore its
life away. Rudolf had not passed out of the porch, and we supposed that
he had betaken himself to the gardens, there to fight his battle. Old
Sapt, having done his work, suddenly turned talkative.

"That moon there," he said, pointing his square, thick forefinger at the
window, "is a mighty untrustworthy lady. I've known her wake a villain's
conscience before now."

"I've known her send a lover's to sleep," laughed young Bernenstein,
rising from his table, stretching himself, and lighting a cigar.

"Ay, she's apt to take a man out of what he is," pursued old Sapt. "Set
a quiet man near her, and he dreams of battle; an ambitious fellow,
after ten minutes of her, will ask nothing better than to muse all his
life away. I don't trust her, Fritz; I wish the night were dark."

"What will she do to Rudolf Rassendyll?" I asked, falling in with the
old fellow's whimsical mood.

"He will see the queen's face in hers," cried Bernenstein.

"He may see God's," said Sapt; and he shook himself as though an
unwelcome thought had found its way to his mind and lips.

A pause fell on us, born of the colonel's last remark. We looked one
another in the face. At last Sapt brought his hand down on the table
with a bang.

"I'll not go back," he said sullenly, almost fiercely.

"Nor I," said Bernenstein, drawing himself up. "Nor you, Tarlenheim?"

"No, I also go on," I answered. Then again there was a moment's silence.

"She may make a man soft as a sponge," reflected Sapt, starting again,
"or hard as a bar of steel. I should feel safer if the night were dark.
I've looked at her often from my tent and from bare ground, and I know
her. She got me a decoration, and once she came near to making me turn
tail. Have nothing to do with her, young Bernenstein."

"I'll keep my eyes for beauties nearer at hand," said Bernenstein, whose
volatile temper soon threw off a serious mood.

"There's a chance for you, now Rupert of Hentzau's gone," said Sapt
grimly.

As he spoke there was a knock at the door. When it opened James entered.

"The Count of Luzau-Ri