I obeyed, and turned the light of my lantern or her. She was in evening dress, arrayed very sumptuously, and her dark striking beauty was marvelously displayed in the glare of the bull's-eye. The summerhouse was a bare little room, furnished only with a couple of chairs and a small iron table, such as one sees in a tea garden or an open-air café.
"Don't talk," she said. "We've no time. Listen! I know you, Mr. Rassendyll. I wrote that letter at the duke's orders."
"So I thought," said I.
"In twenty minutes three men will be here to kill you."
"Three—the three?"
"Yes. You must be gone by then. If not, to-night you'll be killed———"
"Or they will."
"Listen, listen! When you're killed, your body will be taken to a low quarter of the town. It will be found there. Michael will at once arrest all your friends—Colonel Sapt and Captain von Tarlenheim first—proclaim a state of siege in Strelsau
