An Imperial Marriage Part 62

"All is well with you?" I asked.

"Yes. You came just in time," she cried, pressing my hands and trembling. "But with you? I have been mad with fear."

"Nothing matters now," I replied, with a smile of intense relief.

"I insist on knowing the meaning of your forcing yourself into this house in this disguise, and of your attempt on Herr von Felsen's life, Mr. Bastable," said Borsen angrily, coming up to me.

For the moment I could not answer him. The reaction from the furious rage which had maddened me in my fear that I had arrived too late, and the sense of infinite relief at Althea's a.s.surances, rendered me as weak as a a girl. I leaned against the lintel of the door and met his angry look with a fatuous smile.

Quick to see this, von Felsen made an attempt to get out of the room.

"I'll send for the police," he said with an effort at bl.u.s.ter.

This roused me. I pushed him back. "Get me some brandy," I said to Borsen. "I am faint a bit. You shall have all the story you want; but that little beast must stop here."

"This is monstrous," cried Borsen indignantly.

"Lander, take my message to Herr Feldermann. If he wants the police, he shall have them," I added to Borsen.

"No, no," cried von Felsen hurriedly. "We'd better talk first."

Borsen looked at him keenly and then at me.

"You see?" I said. "You needn't go, Lander."

Borsen crossed and spoke eagerly to von Felsen, and I turned to Althea, who brought me a gla.s.s of wine.

I drank it eagerly, and as I handed her back the gla.s.s our hands touched and our eyes met. "I can scarcely believe it all yet. You are really not hurt?" she asked wistfully.

"I've lost my boots and worn out a pair of socks, but otherwise I'm all right;" and I smiled and held up one foot, the sock of which was dangling in tatters.

"How can you smile at it like that?"

"Because we've won. A narrow margin; but it's a win all right."

"But you were in the hands of the police. I saw you."

"No. That was only a make-believe. That little brute planned it to deceive you. But he won't do any more planning for a while. They were his men dressed up, and he worked it so that you should see it all for yourself."

"He told me in the afternoon that you had been arrested, and that he could get you out if I would marry him at once. I insisted on having some proof. And when I saw you to-night I--I gave in."

"These people were here for the marriage then?"

"I insisted on having witnesses and on hearing from Herr Borsen that what Herr von Felsen had promised would be done. That caused the delay.

If you had been half an hour later----"

"Von Felsen would have gone to the scaffold," I finished, when she paused.

"Oh, Paul!"

"It's true. But here comes Borsen. You had better go home to Chalice's I think."

"I don't want to leave you again. You get into such troubles."

"I've only lost my boots," I laughed. And at that she smiled too.

"We had better come to an understanding, Mr. Bastable," said Borsen, coming up then. "You know of course that you have to explain many things in regard to your a.s.sociation with the Polish plot."

Althea started in alarm at this.

"You can take that threat back, Borsen, or I shall say what I have to say before the rest of the people here," I returned sharply.

"I didn't mean it as a threat," he replied.

"So much the better. Let some one see Fraulein von Ringheim home, and then we'll talk."

The minister who was to have performed the ceremony agreed to go with her; and then Borsen, von Felsen and I were left alone.

CHAPTER x.x.x

THE END

As soon as we three were left alone, I drew an easy chair close to the door, threw myself into it and begged a cigar from Borsen.

"Now, Herr Borsen, what has von Felsen told you?" I asked sharply. "I'm dead beat and want to get to bed. We'll have this thing over as soon as possible. I'm going to let him tell you why he wouldn't allow me to send for Feldermann just now, and I'll sit here and check what he says. He can tell you as much as he likes."

"You don't appear to understand that you have to explain your connexion with the Polish party," he retorted.

"My explanation is easy. I had two objects--one, to save the Baron von Ringheim; the other, to catch von Felsen tripping. I have succeeded in both. He knows that and more than that. And I can of course prove everything."

"What does this mean?" he asked von Felsen, who was staring at me in dire fear about what I meant to tell.

"I gave him twenty-four hours in which to get out of the country. Let him tell you under what circ.u.mstances. That'll clear the ground."

Von Felsen was too frightened to attempt a reply, however; and he sat eyeing us both uneasily, and pulling at his fingers with little nervous jerks.

"The matter's a thousand times more serious than you think, Borsen, and if I did the right thing, I should send straight for the police and hand him over to them. But if he makes a clean breast of it, and if the things are done which I require, I'm willing to hold my tongue."

"You think you are in a position to make terms," cried Borsen with some show of indignation.

"I don't think it. I know it. You have two things to get into your head. In the first place, that this fellow is a most infernal scoundrel, and that I have found him out; and in the second, that I am in possession of that paper which was stolen from the Count's office, and of the set of duplicate keys which enabled the thief to steal it."

"What do you mean?" He was intensely excited on the instant.

"Look there;" and I pointed at von Felsen, who was cowering down in his chair in a condition of abject terror.