c % ^ l^iCHARp Her SAN On THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES Lost Countess Falka Lost Countess Falka A Story of the Orient By Richard Henry Savage, Author of "My Official Wife," "Checked Through/' "The Masked Venus," etc. Chicago and New York : Rand, McNally & Company. Publishers. Copyright. 1896, by Richard Henry Savage. All Rights Reserved. CONTENTS. BOOK I. PAYING OFF OLD SCORES. CHAPTER. PAGE . I _From the Dead! After the Opera, at the Stefan's Keller. A Recognition. The Wrong Man !. . . 5 II A Vanishing Pasha! The Masked Ball at Falken- stein! A Sinister Unbidden Guest! Ilma's Tryst, 25 III Lost Countess lima! Paul Denton's Life Quest! Faroe Moses' Friend on the Turkish Yacht! Too Late! 47 IV The League on the Bosporus. The Indo-European Telegraph Company's General Agent. A Slender Clue, 68 V The Pavilion on the Hill. A Gallant Frenchman! The Red Handkerchief ! Mustapha's Last Score ! 88 BOOK II. THE PEARL OF A THOUSAND PURSES. VI A Forlorn Hope. Ilma's Dream. The Transforma- tion, in VII The American Missionary Doctor at Trebizond! In the Storm on the Black Sea! The Signal! . . .131 VIII To the Rescue! Colonel Soltykoff's Dispatches, . .151 IX A Moslem Caravan ! Three Pilgrims to the Halls of the Lion and the Sun! 170 X Friend and Foe Baffled! The Pearl of the Harem! The Shah's Andarun in the Shimran Hills, . . 189 BOOK III. CLOSING THE ACCOUNT. XI Vanished! The Magic Change! "Hands Off! lam an Englishwoman!" 209 XII A Lost Pearl of Price! Mustapha's Peril! No Thoroughfare! 229 XIII The Doctor's Hegira! Betrayed! A Moslem Fanatic! 248 XIV Kassim's Warning ! At Bay in the Tower of Silence ! 268 XV Soltykoff's Coup de Main! Kassim, the Super- cargo! "'Tis the Olga!" In the Negaristan! At Moscow! The Song of the Bells! . . . . .289 2061985 LOST COUNTESS FALKA. BOOK I. Paying Off Old Scores. CHAPTER I. PROM THE DEAD! AFTER THE OPERA AT THE STEFAN'S KELLER A RECOGNITION THE WRONG MAN! "Fideles Wien!" sighed Colonel Soltykoff of the Paul Regiment. "When shall I see you again?" He turned, heavy-hearted, to rejoin his friend Fraser Den- ton, who was gazing spellbound from the entrance of the foyer, at the opera box they had just quitted. It was a Lohengrin night, and the perfumed air trem- bled still with the delicious vibrations of the "Schwan- nenlied." "All that's best of dark and bright!" murmured Den- ton, as the handsome Russian paused for a moment at his side. "She is certainly the handsomest woman in Europe!" cried the tall Muscovite, his fingers, gemmed with turquoise luck rings, tugging at his tawny mustache. "Which one, Serge? Mother or daughter?" replied Denton, with a backward glance at the box where that golden young beauty, Countess lima Falka, shone out beside the peerless Grafin Magda. "Don't ask 6 LOST COUNTESS FALKA. such a question of a poor devil who leaves Wien, the very brightest spot on earth, to vegetate on the sandy shores of Odessa, as chief aide to an old bear of a Governor! By Jove, I would rather go back to An- nenkoffs staff at Tashkend, than to be pent up among those low 'boutiquiers,' at that mongrel market town, Odessa. I have thrown my whole life away in the service! I swear, Denton, I will resign and then come back here !" "Then, Countess Falka will soon re-enter society?" The American's voice was trembling with an eager interest! "Never!" gloomily rejoined Soltykoff, "un- less your brilliant diplomat nephew makes the Repub- lic richer, by a beautiful citizeness, that star of stars, lima! No! Denton. Grafin Magda has her secret reasons! She will never marry!" "De Taudace! Toujours de 1'audace!" smiled Den- ton. "Remember Ruy Gomez!" "Mon ami," deject- edly said the Russian. "Since I came back from Asia, in my two years tour here as Military Attache, I ha\ne only learned a part of the sad story which keeps the woman whom I love a close recluse at Falkenstein!" "Bela Batthyani has promised to tell me if Arpad Falka will give him leave! But, I leave here to-mor- row for Odessa, and I have found out that a woman's 'Nay' may, for once, not be gainsaid!" The hand- somest cavalier of all the glittering throng in the splendid galleries of the Hof-Oper, Serge Soltykoff, heeded not the flashing glances of the swan-necked Viennese women! "Ah!" queried Denton, "you will not wait for the hunt and the masked ball! Do you not go to Presburg?" "I have had my answer an answer final, irrevocable!" groaned the Russian no- bleman. "How about Paul and Arpad Falka! You surely will say good-bye to them?" The American pitied the unhappy soldier. "Have they already left Vi- enna?" said Soltykoff, with a start "Arpad is down there, now, busied with hound, LOST COUNTESS FAUCA. 7 horn and huntsmen, and my nephew is to be Master of Ceremonies at the ball! They have already been two days at Falkenstein. Come down there with me, and see them!" Fraser Denton laid his hand upon Soltykoff's. shoulder in a friendly familiarity. "I tell you what I will do, Denton!" mused the Colonel. "I must go over now, and see Madame rAmbassadrice. A single word from her lips to our chief is a com- mand! I will ask for two days' delay, and then, wait at Budapest, for Paul and Arpad! We will have a jolly good-bye dinner at the Margarethen-Insel! Meet me at the Stefanskeller, after I have taken the ladies home, and then we will fix it up! I dare not trust myself, again, with Countess Magda Falka at Presburg. I might finish the work that Turcoman ball did so clumsily at Geok-Tepe!" And the soldier diplomat threaded the throng where the gilded youth of Wien envied the man whose passing brought a smile to a score of the dainty mobile faces of the mu- tine Viennoises. "What is the bar? Poor Soltykoff is hard hit ! Has she really given him the coup-de-grace at last?" Den- ton glanced back at the box he had quitted. There, a half dozen cavaliers were bending over the fair women in the loge. An Esterhazy was murmuring airy nothings to the fair-faced Hungarian blossom li- ma, while Her Britannic Majesty's Ambassador bent over Grafin Magda Falka's hand. Captain Stein, a bronzed model of Uncle Sam's light cavalrymen, was busily recalling "the Point," to Miss Aida Denton, "la belle Americaine." "I must have Paul interrogate Arpad!" mused Denton. "There must be a way to bring together these two lovers, 'held tenderly apart!' While there is life there is hope!" he decided. "There are ways, through night to light !" And, gazing across the splendid scenario, he sighed for the vanished mother of his own dear child, a human blossom in this world's rose garden of Wien ! a lovely girl, and, a beauty! 8 LOST COUNTESS FALKA. "Shipmate ahoy!" rang out a cheery cry at his very elbow, as the astounded American was vigorously ac- costed by a rubicund old English veteran of an un- mistakably salty flavor. "Mclvor Pasha, by all that's holy!" cried Fraser Denton, in delight. "Where in the world did you come from?" "London!" coolly said the old sailor. "And I'm bound again to the cloudless glow of eastern skies. To Egypt, where we two first met, twenty odd years ago. See here! I must see you; but I leave to-mor- row morning for Constantinople! I shall stay a month there, and first run up to Sebastopol, then sail down through the Greek Sea, to 'bask' again in the shadows of the Pyramids! What have you got to show for all these years? Where have you been?" The American led the stalwart old Admiral to the nearest dow! "I have been selling arms and cannon to continental governments since I doffed the fez! Russia, Austria, Germany, France, have been my stamping ground, as we Yankees say! Do you see that young girl in the second box, front row, the one in white, with violets? My Aida is all I have to show you, now! Come around to the Stefanskeller, after the opera! I shall take supper there with Soltykoff, the Russian Military Attache! We will then swop 'logbooks!'" "So! That's your girl! She is a beauty!" heartily cried the old man-o'-warsman. "And her mother?" He dropped his eyeglass hastily, as Denton sadly an- swered, "She lies sleeping in Pere la Chaise, these many years and we two are at home here in Vienna. My brother's widow takes care of Aida. Her son is Second Secretary of the United States Legation here!" "And you?" "Oh! I've been bowsing around the world since I retired from the Egyptian navy at poor old Ismail's downfall. They have made me a part of 'the British Debt,' and, I am going back to where the breeze of Araby the blest draws down the Shou- brah Road. Come over there, and sell some of your LOST COUNTESS FALKA. 9 guns and revolving cannons! We will beat up all the old haunts!" 'There goes the bell!" laughed Denton. "The British Lion's paw has 'wiped the eye' of the Ameri- can eagle in Egypt! Coals to Newcastle, now! Be sure to cast anchor after the opera at the Stefan's Kel- ler!" The jolly old sea dog nodded an assent and forged away, his broad bulk parting the waves of the Viennese "show" society, leaving a rippling wake in these shallows of this beautiful Vanity Fair! There was the magnetic thrill of a thousand hearts bound- ing in passion a thousand pairs of eyes gleaming in mocking Austrian witchery and Fraser Denton was borne backward on the tide of the rushing years! It seemed but a little span of life! The quarter of a cen- tury, when he, once the boy captain of a Rhode Island battery, sought fame and fortune in the service of Is- mail Pasha, the great Khedive. "Eheu fugaces! Gone scattered ! The strange motley court gathered around Ismail ! What a change from sixty-eight to ninety!" and, Fraser Denton's eyes were clouded with the mists of other days, as he wended his way back to the box to listen to the mimic anguish of Ortrud and Teiramund. There was a glow of triumph in Serge SoltykofFs eyes as he stole back into the box, having escaped from his vivacious countrywoman, Princess Mouravief. "Compliments of Madame 1'Ambassadrice to the three graces!" he whispered to the one woman of the whole world, the seething world, of his tortured heart. "Princess Mouravief truly says that the whole house is 'regardant!'" "Have you, too, learned to flatter, Serge? I thought that you were above such a weakness!" Grafin Falka then dropped her fan in a strange confusion, as her dark eyes rested for a moment on the face of the court- ly Russian. "I am above nothing that would lead me to your feet, Magda !" he whispered. The entreaty was not lost upon Fraser Denton, who muttered, "Poor devil! He is bound to the rack! something bars his 10 LOST COUNTESS FALKA. way. He is unhappy, and I only stand mutely wait- ing at the sealed tomb of the past waiting for the last bugle call, Lights out! For the dead never come back!" Fraser Denton, erect and soldierly still, at fifty, gazed out gloomily at the painted unrealities of the stage, while the third act dragged its mimic sor- rows away. He was conscious that there were batteries of lor- gnettes levelled upon them. Even the Imperial loge deigned to notice the three superb women of Solty- koff's last opera party. Scores of the dashing aristo- crats knew of the steadfast passion of the romantic Russian cavalier for the patrician young widow who had not graced gay Vienna's balls since Gabor Falka's tragic death left her alone in the world! There were bright eyes challenging that merry dare devil cousin Bela Batthyani, the curled darling of the "Queen's Own," who, forgetting all, chatted in easy familiarity with the sparkling lima, and light hearts beat ner- vously under swelling silks and laces to wonder where on this night of nights was Arpad, the last Count Falka, whose place as Captain of the Hungarian Body Guard led him into the august circle of the most ex- clusive court of Christendom the only one now closed to "Brummagem" and "Boodle!" But the Aus- trian men, with fierce glittering eyes, fixed their hawk- like glances on Magda Falka's queenly form ! Seated, a very queen of night, in black lace and silver, the flashing diamond stars on her brow only accentuated her dark beauty. It was a sad, noble face, with the ex- quisite tints of her pale cheek, there lit up with the dark, gleaming, mournful eyes. These eyes had lost their passion, but their sweetness lingered still. The Falka pearls were clasped around the neck of this pas- sive Venus de Milo, and her lips only parted in a smile, when she whispered in answer to Serge Solty- koff's veiled entreaty! The agony of a good-bye which might be eternal! For, womanlike, she would not have him go, and yet she dared not bid him stay! LOST COUNTESS FALKA. 11 And, this tragedy was real. lima Falka's golden hair was her legacy of love from the father she had never seen, but the eyes of the peerless mother were her natal gift to the pearl of Hungary. At eighteen, in the "primavera della vita," lima Falka's impassioned beauty was a startling foil to the sad serenity of the lovely mother, whose widowhood had given her a sis- tership of sorrow with the richest heiress of proud Hungary. The daughter of Columbia, rapt in the en- trancing melodies of the master singer, gazed out upon the princely stage with her beautiful brown eyes veiled in a mist of unshed tears ! Her exquisite face was glor- ious in the bright promise written there; there were nobles who envied the Russian violets, rising and fall- ing upon the fleecy muslin folds of her corsage. It was a strangely cemented friendship, sorrow's seal, which led grave Fraser Denton to the side of Magda Falka. Their children, nymphs of the morning of life, were already companions of the heart, and the soldier, still steadfast to the memory of the loved and lost, was far nearer to Magda Falka's sleeping heart than the haughty cold-faced Austrian magnates, who wooed in vain the beautiful Lady of Falkenstein. Countess Magda Falka's hand trembled as Soltykoff led her out into the laughing throng crowding the splendid stair- cases, and the open loggia, where knots of lovers lin- gered, now making trysts there under the stars dancing in the blue heavens ! All Vienna thronged the superb Renaissance fane on the Opernring. The winged horses, high in air above them, seemed ready to soar away in the land of light loves and happy laughter. Fraser Denton, uneasy at heart, watched keenly every movement of the princely pair, whose life path was to part here under those silent stars! For this parting was no sweet sorrow. The Russian had drawn Grafin Magda aside for a moment, and his blue eyes blazed like the wintry pole star, when he murmured: "I shall not see you again. Have you not a single word, after all these years, Magda?" 12 LOST COUNTESS FALKA. "What can divide them?" was Denton's inward query Soltykoff is of the oldest boyars! A superb soldier! His fortune is of a barbaric Russian opu- lence! The chosen friend of the Czarevitch!" He gazed while pretty Aida Denton's eyes now ruefully followed Bela Batthyani, soon lost in the departing waves of fashion, with his precious charge, the daz- zling lima. "Will she let him go without a word of hope? Ah! Magda! It is only the dead who cannot come back!" Denton sprang forward with sudden alarm, as Grafin Falka suddenly uttered a smothered shriek. A burly stranger brushed past the father, and the frightened daughter, too, was at his side, when, his face as pale as marble, Serge Soltykoff bore the senseless woman into the open door of the nearest loge. Denton, quick- witted and alert, his senses tuned to the crash of bat- tle and the 'scapes of the field, had caught the startled cry, "My God! That man here!" and he sprang quick- ly down the sculptured staircase in search of the tall intruder who had seemed to menace the Austrian beauty. There was only a single glimpse of a bearded giant, clad in the costume of a Turkish diplomat ! The red fez was lost to view at the first turn of the stairs, but Fraser Denton noted the jewelled orders and the sweeping soldierly mustache, giving a European finish to the flowing golden beard. "A strange Turk!" he muttered, darting back, as Soltykoff's voice reached him in appealing accents! "See to the carriage, Denton! Quick! And bring Batthyani here!" There was a crowd of obsequious attendants ready to aid, as the Lady of Falkenstein slowly descended the staircase at last! "Do not leave me! Not an instant! I beg of you! Let us hasten to lima !" were the faltered words which greeted Bela Batthyani's excited questions. And, clinging to the two strong men, Magda Falka shivered in abject terror, until her daughter clasped her in her arms, safe at last in the waiting carriage. "Drive on! LOST COUNTESS FALKA. 13 I will follow with Miss Aida," cried Bela, as the two elder men entered the carriage. The Opera Ring was all deserted as the carriage rolled away, and Fraser Denton gazed anxiously out of the window, while Sol- tykoff's whispers alone broke the silence. The mad- dening parting moment came all too soon, when the splendid town house of the Falkas was reached! It was Serge Soltykoff who alone aided the Countess to mount the marble steps, guarded by huge bronze lions, bearing the quartered shields of the proud patri- cian house. Denton waited, his heart beating in sym- pathy with the luckless lover. "Come to me with the news as soon as you can, at the Stefans keller!" hoarsely muttered Soltykoff, who came reeling back from the lighted drawing room, as one who had received his sudden order to lead a for- lorn hope. Denton bowed with a sorely stricken heart, for he had caught but the one farewell whisper, "I will telegraph daily, and if you need me, a single word will bring me back from Odessa!" There had been no spoken word in answer, and Fraser Denton knew too well that his friend was going out into a world now a desert to him. The old story of hopes that failed, of a hungry and sorrowing heart. "This is more than strange," mused the American, a half hour later, when Batthyani joined him in the waiting carriage. "The young ladies will both re- main with the Countess!" said the bewildered young officer. "Countess Magda has had a sudden shock of the gravest nature ! She seems to be in some mortal terror! You know that we Hungarians are a strange race! Fiery, ardent, superstitious and mercurial. It's useless ! I offered all my services ! I even proposed to telegraph to Arpad! The Countess only shook her head and demanded Josef, her house intendant. 'We leave here to-morrow as early as possible!' she said, and then in Magyar, she bade him closely guard the house during the night I can make nothing of it, for all Countess Magda would say was, 'I have 14 LOST COUNTESS FALKA. seen some one whom I had long numbered with the dead! Dead for many years! A hideous vision !"' "So!" muttered Denton, "the dead do come back! This bodes no good to Soltykoff, poor fellow!" The young soldier appealingly cried, as the coupe rolled on toward the Stephans platz, "What do you make of it, Major Denton?" "I make this of it, Bela!" reso- lutely said the American, "I can answer you if you will now tell us of this past mystery of the Falkas! Arpad is the head of your house! He is away! Here are Soltykoff and myself! You should either call Arpad and Paul up by telegraph, or else take the lead your- self! It is a grave responsibility!" "You are right!" gloomily rejoined the young guardsman, "I will tell Soltykoff and you all that I know promise or no promise! I will get leave and escort Countess Magda and lima down the Danube to-morrow. She also expects you to go with her! and she says that she only feels safe now at Falkenstein! There's an end of our family's life at court! Did you see this strange fellow who seems to have called up some old sorrow? I wish that I had him up before me at ten paces !" and the fiery young magnate ground his teeth in a helpless rage. "Was it the Turk? That fellow's face seemed strangely familiar!" anxiously brooded Denton. "He rushed down the stairs by me like a bull of Bashan! I've seen that brutal face before!" "I will leave you to your supper, after I have seen Soltykoff, and then gal- lop over to Barracks, and wake up the Adjutant. I can get a two days' leave! I will come back to you and then sleep at the house! I told Josef so! You can there confer alone with the Colonel! By heav- ens! I wish that Countess Magda would marry Sol- tykoff and go away to Russia. He has a royal old place at Moscow, and I have hunted bears at his place in Tambov! It is a dream of savage grandeur! And, Soltykoff has served his sad probation!" "How about Countess lima? Don't you see the social awkward- LOST COUNTESS FALKA. 15 ness?" gravely said Major Denton. Bela Batthyani burst out laughing. "My dear Major! You are a wonder as to cannons and small arms, but blind in Cupid's warfare! If Paul Denton is the man I take him for, he will soon lead my beautiful cousin far away from Presburg! Perhaps that event would give Soltykoff his innings ! He is of the Libro d'oro, and as fine a soldier as ever drew sword! But, here we are at the Stephans Keller!" "I think that I see day- light ahead!" cried Denton, springing from the coupe. "But I must first learn the secret of the past! There is some ground apparently for Countess Magda's se- clusion!" The young soldier paused at the door. "Major!" he said earnestly, "make Arpad himself tell you the whole story! Tell him that I feel forced to confide in you to-night! I can not let these two dear women of our house face their secret enemies un- guarded! I would die for them!" The boy's bright face was glowing with generous bravery. "So would I!" said Denton, solemnly, as the great bell of the Stephans Dom boomed out twelve, far above them, where the exquisite spire pierced the thin blue night air! The darkling shadows wrapped the vast old gothic pile, and a black mantle hid the wondrous tracery of fretted stone, as they entered the modest doorway of the famous haunt of the Wiener bon vi- vants. "Two gentlemen waiting for you, Herr Major!" gutturally cried Ernest, the autocratic Oberkellner of Vienna's "Trois Freres," when the friends passed in through the narrow hall of the unpretentious three- story habitat of the modern Brillat Savarins, "I've saved you the very best table !" The steward bowed, rattling his silver chain of office, as he pocketed a double florin. Major Denton, bewildered in the glare of the brilliantly lit rooms, gazed at the laughing mid- night congerie of the lightest hearted people on earth. The officer gazed in wonder as the portly British sailor seized Denton in his bear hug, twisting him round! "Now, I've got you, old comrade!" Mclvor shouted. 2 16 LOST COUNTESS FALKA. "Quick! Quick! Denton! Look there! Don't you know that chap? But I'm a lubber if he has not swapped his skin !" "Where?" gasped Denton, as the Admiral pointed to a throng of men squeezing out of the narrow pas- sage. There were arch women faces, beaming lan- guishing invitation from their wicked Wiener eyes, as the carriages bustled away. "Hello! What's up?" blurted out Mclvor Pasha, as Denton quickly sprang out of his grasp and rushed out bareheaded into the gloomy Stefan Platz! Lieutenant Bela Batthyani ner- vously twirled his hussar mustache, and gazed in won- der at Serge Soltykoff, who had darted after Denton. "It's the devil's own night, a Walpurgis nacht! Every one seems tarantula bitten!" growled the junker. "By God ! I lost him ! He got away in a carriage !" groaned Eraser Denton, as he returned with Solty- koff. There were dozens of eyeglasses and several dainty pince-nez centered upon the "crazy American." "Lost who, for God's sake?" demanded Bela. "That Turkish scoundrel who alarmed the Coun- tess!" growled Denton, "and I know I have seen that brute before!" "Right you are! I boarded him, too, and he denied his name!" fumed stout old Mclvor. "Don't you remember Becker Bey at Cairo?" Eraser Denton's face grew fixed and stern. "Give us a pri- vate room at once !" he abruptly said to the astonished steward; and then he addressed himself to the formal- ity of introductions! But, though Colonel Soltykoff and Admiral Mclvor Pasha fell into instant reminis- cence of a hundred mutual friends, the dashing Lieu- tenant of the Queen's Own had vanished. "It's a devil of a night! Bring the Graf Batthyani up to us, Ernest, and send up the best supper you ever cooked, for four!" "Mind that yellow seal Chambertin! Now, gen- tlemen ! I want you both behind closed doors !" Den- ton found time to whisper to Soltykoff, "Silence as to the affair at the opera! I wish to draw the old Ad- LOST COUNTESS FALKA. IT miral out!" The Russian nodded as they entered the room. They had tried but one round of the famous- brown beer that even Imperial personages dare not disdain, when Bela Batthyani rattled into the rooml His sabre clanked and his jacket was slung from h ; s- shoulder. "I've not much time to spare, Major Den- ton, my horse and jager are here! But I have tipped the head waiter! That fellow, the big Turk, is Mus- tapha Pasha, who has been a guest at the Ottoman Embassy here for a fortnight ! He is a money spinner,. fond of the little soupers a deux, above." The giddy Batthyani blushed, conscience stricken, "And, knows his Vienna to a charm ! Felix tells me that he shows up mostly at night, and the devil of it is, he chatters in Magyar, like an old Honved!" There was a roar from the old sea dog! "Mustapha Pasha be damned ! He is only our old chevalier d' in- dustrie, Waldemar Becker Bey transformed!" Serge Soltykoff delayed the introduction of the young Hussar to the irate Admiral by springing up and upsetting a half dozen beer seidels ! "There's a devil's witch dance going on somewhere! I've never seen him! But there was a famous soldier of fortune of that name in. our Guard once! A present from the lower Danube! He had been in our secret service in Roumania! When he left our Guard he took away an old general's pret- ty second wife and left his heir, a young ensign of Ours, dying from a ball in his lungs ! A smooth, versa- tile scoundrel!" "See, here, Major!" whispered Bat- thyani, "I will gallop over and get my leave! Keep a bit of supper for me ! I will not leave Countess Magda. till she is safe at Presburg! This thing looks very strange! Arpad alone knows all the old story. Now you can sound the old Egyptian Admiral! Keep him; in the dark! I will be back in two hours, and I would rather not have Soltykoff here! If he comes into our family later, then well and good! I know that Paul and lima are souls destined for each other, and you; were my foster father, almost, at the Cadet haus." 18 LOST COUNTESS FALKA. "Then we can leave it to Arpad himself to post Col- onel Soltykoff!" Denton nodded and the handsome Hussar lad sprang down the stair! In an instant the clatter of hoofs told that the wild Balthyani was on his matchless charger! It was a goodly table whereat Admiral Mclvor Pasha, retired, late of the Khedive's navy, did the honors by virtue of seniority. His round, red face shone out above a vast plateau of snowy napkin as he spliced the main brace and reeled off a plain "spun yarn!" "You are safe speaking in English here!" laughed Soltykoff. "Tell us now of your own ren- contre !" "He has the devil's own brass! This chap!" sput- tered Mclvor Pasha. "You know, Denton, Gordon and the English regime sent all your twenty-four American officers flying just after you resigned. Of the foreign army contingent there was left only Stone, Purdy (on leave), Colonel Mason and Major Fechet, with one or two more closing up their service, or scat- tered far away over Darfour and Abyssinia. But I hung on to my own Red Sea naval command, under the aegis of stout old Mother Britannia. "But Stanton, our Consul General, told me that several continental foreign equerries and officers still clung on with despairing clutch. There was Ali Bey Italiani and an English chap, a discarded Guardsman, and a little coterie of flatterers who hung around Cherif Pasha, and apparently slaved for Ismail Khedive, while really spying on him ! Now, if you remember, this Waldemar Becker Bey used to train a huge hori- zontal mustache and haunt the green rooms of the Grand Opera! He was Master of Pleasures in general to Cherif and other Moslem bon vivants. He was a sort of Monsieur Parolles. I despised his smug face and the thin white fingers covered with ladies' rings, in fact, his whole 'chessycat' exterior! If you remem- ber, there were some ugly stories about that Greek roulette game on the Esbekiehl There was the LOST COUNTESS FALKA. 19 young Arab officer, too, who was butchered in that midnight sword duel! A brave self-sacrifice, for the poor fellow was purblind!" Mclvor Pasha then slaked his rising indignation with a huge hock and seltzer. "Well! When I went back to settle about my retire- ment and pension, it was long after the bombardment of Alexandria ! I found that our sneaking elegant had really turned Mussulman, and gone off in Ismail's train as a sort of military Leporello! But he left a shining track behind ! The poor fellows who stuck to their guns at Ras-el Tin fort, waited vainly to see the English ironclads rise in the air! Lay and Beverly Lennon had a splendid torpedo system laid down and I'm told that this fellow, Becker Bey, stole all the secret plans, sold them to the English, and removed the butterfly valves and springs from all the White- heads in stock ! All was useless ! Hobart Pasha, my old shipmate, told me later this fellow had been re- warded and promoted, and was a secret spy of the Sultan, watching over Ismail in his gilded Nirvana of luxurious harem prison life! You remember Fal- ladeen, the Holder of the Girdle of Beautiful Forms! Well! This fellow became immensely rich, and changed into a sort of all round man milliner on the Bosporus! To-night I ran plump across him here in the Stefans Keller! I had an idea he was fighting a little shy ! So I walked up and hit him a whack be- tween the shoulders! 'Hello, Becker!' I hailed him! 'I knew him well, though he's taken on proud flesh, lots of it! The beggar only looked me square in the eye ! He fumbled for a card case and then mut- tered, 'Istambol!' shamming Turk! There's the card!" cried Mclvor, fishing a crumpled pasteboard from a capacious vest pocket. " 'Istambol be blowed!' say I, as he then wagged his head, and whispered to a fat little squab of a Turk with him, 'There's that fleuret mark still on your temple, my boy, and you've got the big sapphire and diamond ring on yet that you won of poor Sparrow Purdy that night at Marie de Rohan's 20 LOST COUNTESS FALKA. supper party!' Would you believe it, he scuttled off then like a fiddler crab, and you ran right over him as he cut his hawser! Now, what's he masquerading around here for?" The old veteran glared around, ob- livious of the gravity of the two elder men. He re- turned to his liquid solace, panting and indignant! "Mustapha Pasha Istambol!" slowly read off Col- onel Serge Soltykoff, as he deciphered the visiting card, whose back also bore the same title in Turkish char- acters! "See here, Denton!" said the Russian, "I will have to ask you to excuse me! I'll run around and wake up Dragmiroff, our First Secretary! He will sound the Dragoman of the Turkish Embassy about this fellow's business. I will expect you at the Sud Bahn, for my train leaves at ten. The Dragoman is a sly Armenian, and one of our spies," he faintly smiled, "and thus I'll have Mustapha's livre de service ex- plored! Dragmiroff will warn you at once, and I will wait two days at Budapest Grand Hotel Hungaria. Don't forget! I know that you want to talk over your old Nile days with the Pasha here." He saluted and sped away! Denton and Soltykoff stood a moment with clasped hands outside the door. "Fraser! I leave her to you! For God's sake! watch over Mag- da! There is some sinister influence here! You and Batthyani must put Arpad on his guard! It is a hell on earth to me that I must leave this woman, who is all of earth's brightness now! Come early to the sta- tion! Tell me all there. I must report at Odessa! No- blesse oblige! A soldier's honor! But if Magda Falka needs me, you must telegraph to the Cercle de Noblesse, Odessa. I'd throw up the Czar's favor if that woman -would only open her arms! By God! I will win her yet! Think of my lonely life! 'You have your daughter! I am only an exile from Paradise! Send Arpad and Paul to me! Come yourself also if there is any danger!" "Trust to me, Serge!" said the soldierly American. "'You may yet unlock the mystery! Away to Drag- miroff 1 I'll meet you!" LOST COUNTESS FALKA. 21 The minutes slipped rapidly away as the two old comrades, once serving under Egypt's star and cres- cent, wandered back into the clouded past of Ismail's secretly planned movement to throw off the Turkish yoke. Each had gained a high vantage ground in life, and, warmed by the matchless wine of the Stef- ans Keller, they spoke of the ardent spirits who had tempted fortune in those heyday years of the great Ismail Pasha! The brave and bright and good had succumbed ! Only the traitors and adventurers seemed to have flourished there in the world's greatest hot house of intrigue. They toasted the fallen in life's bitter fight! And "Full many a friend in battle slain, And, all the war that either knew, Was called up, once, again!" "It's time to sling hammocks now!" cried the cheery old Admiral, as two o'clock boomed out from Meister Wenzla's grand old gothic fane. "Only the boys and these diamond-eyed witch devil girls here can stand the 'dog watch!' See here, Denton, I'll secretly post Lof- tus, our Ambassador at Constantinople, about this lubber, Mustapha Becker! Look out for him! He's an ugly devil! Did you ever have any trouble with him? You were a bit gay, my boy, in those old Cairene days!" Eraser Denton laughed uneasily. "Oh! no! We got on well enough after he found I could not miss the bell at twenty paces with a revolver!" "Well! He's got it in for somebody!" growled Mc- Ivor Pasha. "Tell your Russian friend to look out for himself! Soltykoff is a fine fellow! I remember his father, Prince Soltykoff, on Mentchikoffs staff at Sebastopol ! They all came down to take a look at me when the Nicholas fort blew my little gunboat to pieces! Come to think of it, the Turk and your Rus- sian friend were glaring fiercely at each other when I 'called him down!' Did they have a row at the opera? If there's any fight, have Soltykoff choose pis- tols and get the beggar close up ! He's a regular wiz- 22 LOST COUNTESS FALKA. ard with the sword! I'll go you a five pound note there's a woman at the bottom of this row ! You see, Eraser, you and I are on the 'retired list' now! Now mind you 'Shepheard's Hotel, Cairo.' To think of that beggar turning up again jack in the box!" Major Denton returned to the "banquet hall desert- ed," and nervously strode up and down the lonely room ! His spare, neat soldierly figure was as trim and erect as in the days when he lit hand grenades with his cigar and tossed them over into the ditch of Fort San- ders at Knoxville ! Close cropped gray hair, a bronzed face, a prominent nose, and two steady steel colored eyes, he was yet of athletic mould, and a dangerous customer to tackle! He nervously puffed his cigar. "So! The dead can return! What can that heavenly woman have to hide from Serge Soltykoff? Sorrow may have touched her, but shame never! And yet these old princely houses have their skeleton closets! Is there any legal bar to her union with Serge? God help the man who comes between them now! One thing is clear! Bela and I must get both the ladies quietly, out of town ! By Jove, the steamer! Yes! If there is any chance of a rencontre, any spying, it would be on the train! I'll speak to Bela! Ah! Le voici!" The sound of springing feet was heard, and the lithe Lieutenant came bounding up the stairs! "Here! Jo- hann!" he cried. "A flask of seltzer! Your best cognac! The night air is chill! Now, Major Den- ton, let us make our plan ! We are alone !" He tossed his hussar jacket and sabre on a divan. Denton nodded, and silently watched the agitated boy as he rolled a couple of cigarettes. "I hate to speak of the old matter!" cried the youth, pushing away his glass. "Basta! We have no time to fool away. When Gabor Falka brought Magda Stahremberg home to Schloss Falkenstein, a bride at eighteen, she was the most thrilling and impassioned beauty of her time. Count Falka had been transferred from the 'Queen's Own' and given the command of a regiment of the wildest LOST COUNTESS FALKA. 23 Honveds, whom no one else could handle! He was a model soldier, a gallant sportsman and a passionate lover. You know the family pride of the Falkas! "Sternly loyal, Count Gabor could not forget in wear- ing Austrian facings that his own mail clad ancestors had ridden in the princely ring when Hungary's mon- arch challenged the world from the summit of the Konigshtigel ! When not on regimental duty he dis- dained the splendid dalliance of the court of the Haps- burgs and kept open hall at Falkenstein, going far away into the wildest fastnesses of the Carpathians in the chase! A mighty hunter and a princely host! Only old Matthias, the head forester, lives to-day at Pres- burg, to recall the days of Count Gabor's splendid rule. It may be that young Magda Stahremberg pined for the merry mummeries of Wien ! If she did, then her gentle dignity veiled it! Still, she was lonely, and at last one mad fool dared to presume upon her wifely patience! "The Adjutant of Falka's regiment, a wild young blood, one of those devilish insouciant lady killers, was mad enough to throw himself at her feet, with true Hungarian vehemence ! Arpad at this time was a two years' sturdy lad, and poor lima was born later, a fath- erless child. Then it was the one silver lock was whitened in my cousin's head as by a sword cleft! For Magda Falka, affrighted at the mad lover's insolence, screamed for help, and the fierce house retainers threw the wild Kinsky into the depths of the old stone round tower there on the hill! A man rode out as the fiends of hell ride, and Gabor Falka sped homeward with bloodshot eyes! He waited not to clasp his sob- bing wife to his arms, but he strode away to the tower with his huntsmen ! They tore off the brute's uniform, and in the open court the wretch was lashed by the maddened huntsman till his flesh hung in ribbons! "The Count stood with folded arms and never changed a muscle! When the suffering captive howled for mercy he coldly cried, 'Turn him loose T 24 LOST COUNTESS FALKA. and then the maddened hounds chased the semblance of humanity afar!" Bela Batthyani sighed. He caught Dentons eye, and muttered, "I will be brief! After four years, Gabor Falka brought Magda back from Italy. His proud spirit yet rankled under the insult and he rode far into his forests, lonely and abstracted. One night the Count's riderless horse returned alone! The forest was soon lit up with the torches of the searchers, and in a dell by a spring, where he had dismounted, they found his body stark and cold! He had been shot from ambush, but a dagger also transfixed his nerveless breast! A scrawl in Magyar bore the words, 'Death and shame, forever, to the accursed Falkas !' " Batthyani rose and paced the room. "It is nearly nineteen years since his murder! Magda hovered be- tween life and death, when lima came as a gleam of sunshine! It may be that Falka knew his doom! The Kinsky blood was as boiling as any Magyar strain, and Janos Kinsky has been lost to men's mind for many a long year! Be it as it may, Countess Magda has feared the shadowy enemy since that fatal day! Arpad knows all! Perhaps more, for Matthias fears even now to speak! But I am sure that our darling lima is unaware of the gloomy inheritance! Now as to my cousin's alarm! This strange encounter in the opera house! Was there a shadowy resemblance? She fears even the sound of the drifted leaf! Not for her- self! But for Arpad and for lima! The Kinsky s never forget! They bear the murderer's horseshoe the Tartar seal of violent death, and of the black code of revenge ! "It's a gloomy story," solemnly said Denton. "Ride over to the house! Do not leave Countess Magda a moment till I return hum seeing Soltykoff at the Sud- bahn!" Fraser Denton tossed upon a restless pillow until the morning red awakened him. He was eager in his questioning glance, as he singled out the Rus- sian guardsman in the busy throng at the station. Sol- LOST COUNTESS FALKA. 25 tykoff was haggard and his brow was dark. He drew Denton aside. "Watch over Magda like a she wolf guarding her litter! The Dragoman swears that this fellow is an impostor! There is no Mustapha Pasha known at the Legation!" and their faces grew graver until the parting came, as they talked in whispers 1 CHAPTER II. A VANISHING PASHA! THE MASKED BALL AT FALKENSTEIN! A SINISTER UNBID- DEN GUEST! ILMA'S TRYST. Fraser Denton stood for a moment irresolute, as the "Constantinople special" tore away out of the Sud Bahn ! He had fought off a last burning desire to tell Soltykoff the whole story. For the Russian was also eager to trace out the history of the man in the red fez! "Did you learn aught from Mclvor, or from Bela?" the Colonel persisted. The Major hesitated a moment. "There are a thousand scoundrelly fez wear- ers knocking around the Danube always, Soltykoff!" replied Denton. "Spies, voluptuaries, renegades, har- em officials on vile missions, and secret Turkish agents ! It looks as if we had annoyed the wrong man! As for Countess Magda, there is the emotional woman nature and the thrall of Wagner's wonder picture in song, to account for her seizure! And, Serge, you have been pressing her hard! Perhaps it was only a 'prise des nerfs !' We can tell little till Bela goes over the whole ground with Arpad, and I have Paul down there to aid me!" "You are right, Fraser!" mournfully said the Rus- sian, wringing his hand in parting. "Every other man from Buda to Galatz is a fez wearer, and the 26 LOST COUNTESS FALKA. honors are easy as to their brutality ! Only remember this, you guard my life in watching over Magda. She was certainly very exaltee ! I wait at Budapest for some turn of the tide! "Don't forget, if the Countess should wish to com- municate, Hotel Hungaria!" The blue-eyed Russian's great heart beat fondly under the hidden handkerchief he had stolen in loving duplicity the night before ; and, a knot of violets which had fallen from her breast now lay crushed therein! His own nerves still tingled, for he had borne the precious burden of her loveliness in his sinewy arms! "By God!" the son of Rurik cried, "If I only had her down in my Kherson stronghold I would plant Tartar lances on every grave mound to the far horizon and hide her from a host of foes! All the world could not harm her there!" "Wait and hope! Your time may come!" said Den- ton, pitying the anguish in the despondent lover's eyes. "I think that I'll hunt up Mclvor Pasha now and say good-bye!" mused Denton, as he called a droschky. "The old sea dog always keeps an eye to windward!" and as he sped on to the Hotel Imperial he pondered, "Shall I question the Countess?" He could not re- solve the problem. The story of the last night lin- gered in his mind ! He well knew that the Stahremberg blood was as proud and wild as the Falka or even the mad Kinsky strain! "Had she stooped to conquer? Was it a case of chateau qui parle?" He well knew the fiery philtre of Venus coursing in the veins of the fair faced children of old Vidobona, where woman's witchery once brought Maximilian I.'s realms proof against the Austrian sword! And the fiery pulses of the daughters of Arpad had thrilled to his own boyish touch! Witch women, delicate and defiant, changing as the many hued sea, fond in their light loves, fierce in their revenge! "Was this Kinsky vagabond, or vic- tim?" He sighed as he drew up at the hotel. "I will drift with the tide of events !" he decided. His spirits LOST COUNTESS FALKA. 27 rose as Mclvor Pasha, huge in tweeds, belted with glass and red book, suddenly bore down upon him from the breakfast room! "Ha! Denton! How kind of you ! Here, one mo- ment! My boat is on the shore, so to speak!" The mariner towed him into the deserted smoking room. "I -was just over at the bank and I turned out Wynd- ham, my old chum at the Embassy, too! There is a mystery about this big Moslem! Two straws I have picked up! The secret controller of Ismail's pleasures at Dolma-Baghtche has been up here a fortnight and has handled immense sums of gold, using the ex- Khe- dive's own signet ring! You know what that means! Several bright particular stars of opera and stage have quickly vanished behind this golden cloud! The local Jupiter winks at these little skirmishes under the flag of Venus! The banker won't talk! I taxed him with 'Mustapha Pasha.' He only smiled and silently of- fered me his best cigars!" The old Admiral keenly eyed the clock hands crawling along! "Now! Wyndham tells me that people here have bought the whole plans of the torpedo defenses and hidden war plant on the Bosporus and at the Darda- nelles from a chap who used to be in the Egyptian service. It's a deal that our people have been vainly having a shy at for many long years ! You know that the sick man may have a last paroxysm at any time! Well, when I suggested the name of Waldemar Becker Bey, and recalled Alexandria, Wyndham just grinned a sickly grin and then asked me to send him two dis- patch bags full of cigarettes from Cairo! Now I'm sure the beggar knows, d'ye see? He won't tell! It's too risky!" "Yes, and he will keep on knowing!" replied the Yankee artilleryman. "Old friend! If you and I wish to get at the roots of this thing, we must dig deep and dig alone! It would be just like our precious scalla- wag of olden days. I can see him as he was! The slim rascal, with his Koorbash handle set in dia- 28 LOST COUNTESS FALKA. monds and blinking at the Passing Show in Cairo with those lazy, devilish blue eyes of his! I believe it really was that military autolycus, Becker Bey! He may have blossomed into a Pasha, by the Devil's adop- tion! A smart two handed stroke, to serve both Mars and Venus here ! To sell out, both friend and foe, and fill his remarkably baggy pockets!" The old Admiral listened and snorted his adieu. "Now, my boy! Mind your eye. Remember that this devil is a dangerous pioneer in the dark! Where shall I address you?" The ancient mariner weighed anchor, for his man, "Scrubbs," rosy of hue, stood wait- ing at the door, with the regulation bundle of alpen- stocks, cricket bats, hockey clubs, canes and tennis paddles, which Britons of rank lug around with them all over the world! It was high time to set out! "Anglo-Austrian Bank, Stephans Platz 2," cried Denton. "They reach me all over the world, by wire or letter! As for me, if I am thrown up against Beck- er Bey, I will do him 'to the Queen's taste!' Fortiter in re, you know." "I've got it in for him, too, a little old grudge!" ejaculated the doughty Admiral, as he forced his man- ly brawn into a quaking carriage, and the old sailor glowered fiercely at his invisible foe ! Denton laughed in spite of all his cares, as the Admiral was borne out of his sight. "Was it his good golden Turkish pounds, or some modern Cleopatra of uneasy tenure, that Becker filched from him? It must have been some shrewd turn of villainy !" and Denton at last de- cided upon "personally conducted" roulette as the "casus belli." On his way back to the lion-guarded town house the American weighed all the stories of the past. "I have it! If it is really Becker Bey, the ubiquitous, then he may have been startled at recog- nizing stern old Mclvor, and later running up plump against me ! His discomfiture was capped by the sec- ond encounter with our party at the Stephans Keller." Denton slowly ascended the steps, where the gold LOST COUNTESS FALKA. 29 banded yagers were already in waiting. He concluded his survey of the whole incident. "Under whatever name he might masquerade, Becker would surely fear Mclvor's presence, and also shun a recognition by me. Both his deeds of darkness here needed secrecy, for the sale of these secret plans might cost him his head!" "The light flesh and corrupt blood, too, must be gingerly handled to avoid public scandal here. I'll wager that he has cut out and they have prudently ignored him at the Ottoman Embassy. The catspaw of Ismail Pasha's jaded lusts a secret spy on the whole clique of Egyptian state prisoners on the Bos- porus this rascally soldier of fortune must needs cheat all his masters, and his first care would naturally be to avoid all old Egyptian officials! The memories of the Alexandria deal might have spoiled this Bos- porus bargain, and also cost him his head ! And as to the Countess! Her nerves simply broke down under the strain of the parting from Soltykoff ! The vanish- ing Pasha was probably only getting out of our way! Still, it was a strange affair!" The young beauties in the great drawing room were visibly pouting, as Major Denton entered. He had hardly received a fatherly greeting from Miss Aida when Lieutenant Batthyani appealed to him for aid. "I have been trying to recon- cile these ladies to a week's delay in the masked ball at Falkenstein ! The doctor, while permitting Countess Magda nay, ordering her, to go to Presburg strict- ly requires a few days of quiet!" "We will miss half our Vienna friends!" mourned the golden-haired lima. "Never mind!" cried Bela, "I will return and rally them all!" Denton was over- joyed to see that neither of the laughing girls had di- vined any sinister event of the "sortie de 1'opera." Bela found time to whisper, "We are to say nothing absolutely nothing!" as Countess Magda descended the grand stair ready for her journey. Fraser Denton's reverential greeting was accepted 30 LOST COUNTESS FALKA. with a meaning smile, as the family cortege passed out of the doors guarded by the assembled house re- tainers. Denton noted the armed yager on the box of the first carriage, and he saw, too, with a secret pleas- ure, that Batthyani's orderly rode at the window, where the fair face of Countess Magda gazed out on the curious throngs passing down the Canal Quai. The Major, too, was armed at all points ; his latest de- velopment of American revolver ingenuity was ready at hand in his breast pocket! There was the sound of merry girlish laughter ringing out gaily from the second carriage, as the great Victoria trundled over the Franzens briicke ! A cable's length away lay the dainty Danube pleasure craft of the Countess, and there the attendants waited, cap in hand, at the gangway. As Major Denton stepped out of the carriage he heard a faint appeal ! "Quick, there ! That man, again !" He sprang around the carriage and had just one mo- mentary glimpse of a scarlet fez, flashing around the angle of a side street! With a smothered oath, Denton aided the trembling patrician to alight! In another moment he was hurry- ing her down to the cabin, where the blue silk cur- tains shaded the plate glass windows! "For God's sake, do not show yourself again till we are out on the Danube!" he said, with a sudden emotion. "If you are being followed, we will trap the brute later. I will tell Arpad of this as soon as I see him!" The Lady of Falkenstein then clutched Denton's arm con- vulsively and whispered, "For God's sake! not a word! Arpad must not know! I will take all the proper steps myself! For I am safe at Falkenstein!" "But you will tell me of your trouble! What do you fear?" anxiously cried Denton, who had surely recog- nized again the sturdy back and sweeping- eolden beard of the burly Turk! "Send me the captain! Not a word to Bela! I will tell you all at Presburg! We must hasten away!" The tall American walked the deck in a grave un- LOST COUNTESS FALKA. 31 rest, as the beautiful boat sped down along the Donau Canal, and passed out by the Prater Quai! He eyed the Budapest boat about to start. It was crowded with passengers! There were scores of the passengers who wore the red fez! "Pshaw!" he muttered, biting his cigar. "To be startled by a strolling vagabond! There may be another secret! What is it that Magda would hide from her children? The secret which di- vides her from Soltykoff a man of men! Loyal en tout!" Denton swore a deep oath. "If I run against Mustapha Pasha Becker Bey I will call up the past if I have to drag his flimsy character to tatters! He will never get away from me! It may be some low- minded blackmail! Some sad family secret!" "I'm glad, however, that the ball is delayed! I'll send Arpad off to Budapest, and while he is away with Soltykoff I will await the Countess' disclosure!" He stole Batthyani away from the two bright-eyed tyrants long enough to learn that he was absolutely in the dark. The gay Lieutenant was easily reassured! "The doctor tells me that it is only over-exertion ! Mag- da was always a mercurial nature! We have tele- graphed Arpad and the ball is postponed; that's all! We'll get up a rattling hunt for you! There's never a Turk can storm Falkenstein! I think it was only the sheer break-down of the Soltykoff parting! Poor old Serge! He's a rare good fellow!" Bela hastened away to the sweet laughing maids awaiting him! Nothing is lighter than the heart of youth, and Den- ton smiled to see the three young people so oblivious of the past and all heedless of the morrow! The soldier fixed his eyes on wooded Lobau with Aspern and Ess- ling masked behind its deadly fringe of graveyard trees! The theatre of Napoleon's most splendid bat- tle passion plays! Away sped the swift yacht, its en- gines throbbing to the imprisoned steam demon's im- pulse, gliding down past Fischament, and beautiful Schonau, on beyond Ellend, past Regelsbrunn and the splendid domain of Count Tramer at Petronel. 32 LOST COUNTESS FALXA. "The Countess has ordered full speed !" proudly said the captain. "See what the 'Lorelei' is doing! But we don't leave that fellow much !" Denton turned his eyes in a vague uneasiness and saw a gliding shadow stealing along behind them on the swift blue Danube! It was a powerful boat, and it was rushing on like the wild huntsmen's steeds! A dark pursuer! "Company's boat?" queried the American. The yacht captain lowered his glasses. "That's the 'Sul- tanieh/ the Ottoman Embassy's boat! She holds the record to Galatz! There! You can see the red flag! Well, she may beat us; she was built on torpedo boat lines, and only fitted with a pleasure deck! She is a wonder for speed!" "Now I wonder!" growled Denton, as they swept on past the Hiitelberg, "if the missing stars of Wien are racing down to the Point du Serail! Here the Turks turned and gave up forever from the conquest of Europe; here at the Hiitelberg! May the devil con- voy Mustapha if that is his exit! Hainburg and ruined Rollenstein flitted by, crowning the superb stream where every turn disclosed "some fresher beauty vary- ing round !" The moody American soon forgot all his cares at the merry challenge to the table, for already the March was before them! There, on the hill, the yawning ruins of Theben told of the work of the fierce Frenchmen's petards in the gloomy year of 1809. "We are in Hungary once more! Thank God!" cried Coun- tess Magda, the rose color flushing her fair cheek as she blew a kiss to the distant peaks of the Gemsenburg. She was in her own kingdom once more! Love's gar- den! The soldier left the merry party, busied now chant- ing, quaint, dreamy old Magyar love songs, and soon stood alone rapt at the lovely scene where the vine clad slopes of the Carpathians rose far above them in the glowing skies! Presburg lay before them there, nestling below the old kingly palace on the Schloss- berg. The burnished Danube wound far away, wind- LOST COUNTESS FALKA. 33 ing away beyond them like a glittering snake, and far off Karlsburg and Keltsee, nestled under the old feu- dal keep of Wolfsthal! They had now left Theben far behind, and the fair Countess Magda, sparkling- eyed, cried "Eljen!" in glee, as the old gray turrets of Falkenstein came at last into view, with the little, fluttering flag of the Falkas streaming bravely out on the crystal air! "Where is our rival?" questioned Denton. The cap- tain pointed down the stream to where a long column of black smoke cast its opaque shadow on the singing river! "Passed us like a flash, as if devil driven!" muttered the crestfallen navigator. "Beasts of Turks! They are dirty dogs, all of them!" "I am glad that the Countess saw nothing!" re- joined Denton, as the "Lorelei" swung daintily around to her landing at the boat bridge! There was a sud- den chorus of feminine shrieks as handsome Arpad Falka, in full hunting panoply, leaped over the nar- rowed water chasm, and passing his blooming sister, with true brotherly insouciance, tenderly clasped his beautiful mother in his arms! Paul Denton, diplomat- ically sedate, awaited the placing of the gang plank, and with a general round-robin salutation, then gravely placed his offering of flowers in the dainty gloved hands of Countess lima! Their eyes met in silence, and Arpad's voice was the first lifted up! "Hello! What's this? Where's Soltykoff?" "Off for Odessa, my boy!" quickly responded Eraser Denton, shaking the young officer's hand. "He will wait a couple of days at Budapest to see you ! He re- ceived the most imperative telegraphic orders!" "By Jove! See him! I'll see him if I have to swim down! There's only one Serge Soltykoff in the world! Why did you let him go?" Arpad turned to the stately Countess, whose cheeks now wore a richer red than the native roses, blushing near her! Strange- ly, the Lady of Falkenstein found no ready words to answer and Fraser Denton bit his lip, as he murmured, 3 34 LOST COUNTESS FALKA. "By Jove! She has her little secret all her own! One woman, one mystery !" he growled, and then look- ing at the black floating shadow on the silver Danube far below, he hoped the fleet boat had borne it away out of their lives forever! But there were no shadows on the faces of the merry party as they were whisked away to the domain of Falkenstein. Major Denton felt himself just a bit de trop! Paul had glided into the wagonette with that young Hebe, Countess lima; Bela Batthyani was chattering with the brown-eyed nymph, Aida Denton, and the spirited Arpad was crit- ically surveying the lovely mother, whose fame had gone far and wide as the "Veiled Beauty of Falken- stein !" "They told me that you were ill! I was even re- called from the hunting scout! But I find you are simply adorable!" the gallant young Magyar cried. "I need 'rest, Arpad ! You know that I only live when back at Falkenstein! Here in the glowing heart of Hungary!" The fair widow's eye met the glances of Fraser Denton in one last appeal. "What a loyal child of Arpad!" laughed the heir of Falkenstein, "Compliments from my kingly ancestor!" They were a royal picture, this mother and son ! "And even her mother love can dissemble!" mused Denton, and so, he mourned one more lost ideal! "What is this invisible barrier between Serge and this lovely mystery?" They were, all gathered on the grand ter- race, at Falkenstein before Denton could see the way to shape his plan of action! "Shall I wait for her to speak? Shall I speak first to Arpad? He must see Soltykoff, and as for the rest I must trust to luck, or to fate! What lies before us all now?" Major Denton eyed the assembled retainers as the graceful Countess paused in their midst, bowing right and left, in a gracious recognition. There was no mis- taking old Matthias, the head forester in his gray jerkin, faced with Lincoln green, his silver-mounted belt and buckhorn-hafted hanger! The old retainer LOST COUNTESS FALKA. 35 bowed his knee, as he doffed his cap, with its Carpathian eagle plume. As he bent over Magda's slender hand, the old hunter murmured a few broken words! The laughing girls had passed in under the great portal with the Falka arms carved high above them, and Arpad, with his diplomatic guest, had quickly fol- lowed. The seniors lingered alone a moment! Turn- ing to her guest, Countess Falka murmured, "Remem- ber! Not a single word!" Then, raising her voice, she cried in her spirited musical accents, "You are welcome to Falkenstein !" The American's eyes fol- lowed the Magyar beauty, as her son led her up the grand staircase. He did not fail to note old Matthias, following in dog-like fidelity. Turning his delighted eyes back to the Danube, the whole enchanting pan- orama of the Little Carpathians lay before him. The purpled mountains swept far away to the east and the south, with their wooded crests, surmounted by silver-capped Tatra, and the afternoon sun flashed its golden lances on the far Transylvanian peak of Butschelje. The vast old turreted pile of Falkenstein, buttressed upon its gray rocks, was bowered in splen- did gardens, sweeping down to the murmuring river there below! A splendid close of tall ilex trees en- closed the plaisaunce garden, where knight and dame had watched the river so long with love-lit eyes. A noble flight of marble steps led down to the waves, whence the water nixies wooed the shimmering mid- night stars! To the left, the Wolf's Glen led up to the mighty crags above them, and far behind the vineyards nestled in the swelling slopes of the rounded hills. Down below them storied old Presburg lay, with its four quartered environs. The Rathhaus, St. John's Chapel, the Martin Cathedral, and the great flagged Batthyani platz silently glowed in the golden flood tide. There were drifting sails, too, gleaming white on the rushing river, where the sound of merry song floated back from the crystal tide, and the far away tinkling herd bells were drowned in the hollow clang 36 LOST COUNTESS FALKA. of the joy bells of the home coming! Denton's eye sought out the stern old round tower, where the mad Kinsky had been chained like a beast! As he noted the ivy grown ruin, old Matthias emerged from the sombre richness of the castle hall! He approached the veteran, cap in hand. "I am to show you all the grounds. Herr Major! My lady says that you must accept me as guide! I will wait here until you have broken your fast! I pray you enter!" Denton started, as a huge raven, soar- ing out from the round tower's gloom, winged its way along, croaking harshly till it was only a black shadow borne on strong pinions, far away down the Danube! "The old huntsman must tell me the story of the murder and show me the Count's spring! But, has she sealed his lips?" Major Denton joined the happy circle in the great dining hall, where smoke browned trophies of the dead master's chase still hung! It was the very bower of lingering old romance! Before the huge fireplace, where Gabor Falka's cuirass, helmet and crossed swords still hung the young chief of the house wel- comed his chief guest. The Magyar chasseur costume could not hide the "service" tokens of Arpad Falka's well knit, athletic figure. Tall, bronzed, spare and lithe as a Styrian chamois, his eagle eye, overhanging brow, and air of mingled resolution and bonhomie be- spoke the Magyar race! The supple movement, winning voice, and quick, alert movement betrayed the man who danced the Czardas, scaled the Falconberg, tamed the wildest Croatian steed, and flashed into poetry or song with all the headlong abandon of Hun- gary! A modern Bayard! "Wait! Wait! Major Den- ton! When I return from Budapest I will show you the Hungarian's whole world, from the Wolf's Peak! I must run down to-morrow to see Soltykoff once again. Who knows but that one of Russia's whirl- wind wars may claim him? LOST COUNTESS FALKA. 37 "I will leave Paul here to show you all the musty glories of our old castle. In scanning our old den, you can imagine what Hungary was when we held the whole world at bay here under the Rhaetian Alps! Now, the cup of welcome!" And then, laughingly, Denton drank of the melted gold of the old Tokay, brimming the antique gemmed flagon, which Sobies- ki had once drained "to Hungary" in the glorious past! "I must send a letter off to Soltykoff!" gravely said Denton, and it seemed to him as if the silent Countess standing there, with cheeks suddenly paling, moved the trembling lips to frame the w r ord, "Remember!" For her heart was with her absent lover, too! "Would she call him back?" Major Denton found time for a few words to greet his sturdy diplomatic kinsman, Paul! I will do the ghost chambers and all the picture gallery's glories to-night! I am your 'prey' after dinner! The ladies are tired out and we can then have a 'war talk!' I am under the orders of Matthias now!" The beautiful chatelaine bowed her head! "I see that you are a loyal subject, Major Denton, and have already learned the soldier's crowning duty obe- dience! Come! Arpad, I claim you now!" "Will she tell him aught?" mused Denton. "Why does she bear her burden alone? Will Arpad carry Serge's life sentence to him?" "We are going in for some music, Major!" hastily remarked Paul Denton, as Bela Batthyani proudly bore away the younger beauties. "Aida is simply radiant; and it's a waste of time to ask you any family ques- tions! You are as fit as a Derby winner!" Paul Den- ton at twenty-five was the fellow of his Hungarian host of equal age! His elegant "pekin" garb gave no hint of soldiering, but his clear, bright eye, round- ed muscle and splendid brawn told of the old Yale days spent straining the ash and struggling in the Olympic battles of the foot ball field! A couple of years of globe trotting, with a few dashes at the elk and big 38 LOST COUNTESS FALKA. horn, stray interviews with "ursus ferox," and "bos bison Americanus," had shaken all the nonsense out of him! A decent fortune had enabled Paul to in- dulge in a brilliant post-graduate course at Berlin, and his later entry into the placid diplomatic life of the American abroad, led him to the feet of that brilliant Magyar demoiselle, Countess lima Falka! His sworn comradeship with her brother, Arpad, had easily opened mess and club to him, and, moreover, his official post- office address was more frequently "Presburg" than Vienna, for reasons "not altogether within his own control!" For, Paul was no laggard lover! Fraser Denton had curiously wondered if Paul would bear off as his bride the rarest blossom of the Magyar garden, for gentle Magda Falka as yet knew America only as a peopled waste! The gray-eyed young diplomat spent hours over this "coming international complica- tion" with much artful strategy expended in hastening slowly. His crisp brown locks covered an "old head," as men go, and the waiting game had enabled him to fend off so far all the shoals of proud Grafs and haughty nobles, who wished to quarter the Falka arms in heraldic curtesy. The son of Columbia feared only Countess Magda's pride. The silver dinner gong had sounded long before Fraser Denton threaded the darkened garden shades on his return! "It is a mountain Paradise, a gallant eyrie, here perched in the Danube barrier!" The American was no wiser than before he went out, for old Matthias only crossed himself and mumbled a prayer when Denton asked for "the Count's spring!" "'He can keep all the secrets of time, this loyal old huntsman!" was Denton's admiring comment. The stubborn old huntsman was silent and deaf. It was easy to discern that Countess Magda ruled there in medieval absolutism, for neither in the night vigil with Paul, nor when Arpad Falka waved a merry adieu from the "Lorelei" next day, was there any ref- erence to the untoward incident of the opera. The LOST COUNTESS FALKA. 39 grim Turk was ignored! "Shadows that pass!" mut- tered Denton, and yet, he noted the gentle decision with which Magda Falka vetoed the presence of the young ladies at the great forest hunting drives! "There is always some sad accident possible!" she murmured, "The lord to the chase, the dame to her place!" laughed the chatelaine. "We will avenge ourselves later at the masked ball!" There was already great spoil of ancient gear unearthed for the grand ball, which was to signalize the bringing home of boar and chamois, wolf and bear! And the whole country side was bidden! Denton and Paul roved over the castle, and in- spected the faded glories of picturesque old Presburg, while the three graces were dispatching Countess Magda's biddings to the Batthyanis, the Trauns, the Schaffgolsch, the Zichys, the Palffys, the Esterhazys, and all the magnates who ruled the March of the Empire. When Fraser Denton had curiously peered into the gloomy recesses of the raven tower, on the morrow of Arpad's departure for Budapest, he turned to old Matthias, his stalwart cicerone, "I once knew the Kinskys!" he said, "many years ago! Are they of your neighborhood here?" The American was fairly startled at the convulsion of the old huntsman's stern features! "Name them not! Herr Major! An accursed race! They are all dead, passed away, blotted out! The wolf howls over their cold hearthstone, far away yonder! Transyl- vanian devils ! Never name them here ! The Kinskys are our foes, wherever the devil drives them! Out- casts, wanderers! They betrayed their own land with the accursed Gorgey! The finger of Death followed them !" "So the wound still rankles!" mused Denton. "Did Bela really tell me all? Does he know all? There will be surely no Kinsky face at this merry masking in the old Schloss! And yet I have seen the dead JO LOST COUNTESS FALKA. come back! These border feuds are Corsican here, and it is true that the Magyar is the Circassian of Eu- rope ! They never forget or forgive !" But, Major Den- ton threw himself into the merry entertainment of the passing hours! Paul, as volunteer equerry, dragged his relative from kennel to stable, from chalet to where the beaters were now being mustered! "You do the trick as if to the manner born, Paul !" laughed the old soldier. "I must break myself in," replied the astute young diplomat. "Thy people shall be my people, you know!" They were strolling down to greet Arpad, for the returning "Lorelei" was signaled, when the Major absently queried, "What of Arpad's father? Did he die in service?" "It is a family sorrow, I believe!" lightly replied Paul! "Count Gabor, I'm told, was killed in the Bos- nian war, after a most heroic, soldierly career. He was greatly distinguished at Solferino, where a battalion of the white coats died there grimly on the hill, defying a whole French army !" And then the youngster yodled a frantic welcome to the brother of his self-elected bride! "So he knows nothing!" grimly mused Fraser Denton. "What is this old story? Amourette or ven- detta?" He was struck with Magda Falka's feverish gayety at regaining her own home ! She seemed now to have put away all shadows, and the woman, so pale and broken at Vienna, seemed to shine with a newer life! "Can it be that Arpad brings back Soltykoff?" thought Denton! "Or is he only waiting until Paul has conquered the frosty Austrian pride of caste? Per- haps he will be rewarded later! It's all woman's mys- tery!" But, Arpad Falka was alone and his brow was gloomy! He led his elder guest aside! "I must have a talk with you about Soltykoff," he said, giving Den- ton a letter. "I never saw him so cut up! Perhaps your letter may explain! I begged him to come back with me for the hunt and ball! He says that he is peremptorily ordered to Odessa. There is some new LOST COUNTESS FALKA 41 racket on the Armenian border, or over on the Tash- kend road! He has been for years the head of the secret staff, planning the coming Russian advance on Asia Minor and the Persian Gulf! He seems gloomy enough! I tried to get something out of him! He only said that he would first report, as a soldier should, and if there is no war, then throw up his commission and go into retirement on his Ukraine estates! Why, not even my mother's letter would move him! He has written to her that he will come back for the late hunt- ing if he goes 'en retraite' ! It can't be money ! He is a magnate, immensely rich, and he can have an aide de camp's place with the Emperor at the merest hint! But he is no court dangler! I wonder that he has never married!" "So you are side-tracked also, my young friend!" mused Fraser Denton! "Everyone but you can see Soltykoff's despairing love for the silent Countess!" He left the young men to join the trinity of waiting beauty on the terrace, and threw himself down on an old rustic bench! Breaking the seal of Serge Solty- koff's letter, he growled in a vain rage, as he ran over the lines. "I must look to this! By God! There is some damned deviltry hatching out! The raven is on the Danube ! Oh ! for one glimpse of the truth ! Dare I warn her? I will watch night and day! If there is a sorrow of to-day, once a shame of the past, how can I force myself into a woman's locked up heart? What could I know that Arpad must not know? Is our old enemy Soltykoff's rival of the past, and the partner of Magda Falka's secret? "She must know of this! After the guests are gone I will warn her by carelessly letting her read Solty- koff's letter! Women have a thousand wiles where men only walk the straight path!" And he again read over the words which brought to him a fresh alarm, "I have made Arpad the bearer of what I would not trust to any one else!" wrote the Russian, "for he knows nothing of my love, my hopes, 42 LOST COUNTESS FALKA. my fears! You must write me every day, addressed to Odessa, until I reply! There is some hidden danger lurking near Magda! Do sound Arpad and Bela on the story of the old times! I have already found out that the captain knows little! But his old servants would surely tell him all ! You must guard Magda! It is honor alone which makes me go forward! I shall telegraph to you from Odessa! If all is well reply by wire, 'Coast clear.' Now, here's the mystery! I ran against Faroe Moses, the great diamond dealer of Con- stantinople, at Hungaria. He came up with jewels for the Szechenyi wedding. I knew him of old on the Golden Horn. Our Ambassador, Ignatief, used him as a chief spy there, for Moses has the entree of all the harems of Istambol! Now, he remembers you very well in Cairo, where he was the chief dragoman and king of the bazaars in your time! "I cautiously brought up this 'Mustapha Pasha' fel- low's name! The old mahogany-colored island Jew scanned me very closely. 'Is he a friend of yours or an enemy?' cautiously said he. 'Look here, Moses!' I answered. 'You may need a good turn for one of your Hebrew guild over at Odessa! I shall soon be Moura- vief's second in command there! Tell me the whole truth! He is my enemy!' "'Then look out for him!' answered Moses, after peering around to see that we were safe. 'Tell your friend Denton to be also on his guard! The Major once stopped him from killing poor little Lord Wood, an English lad at Cairo, in a row over 'the Pozzoni !' This Mustapha is a self-promoted Pasha! Names are nothing to him! He was Waldemar Becker Bey in Egypt! Major Denton will remember him! Spy, pander, gambler and slave girl huckster! He was a renegade from Russia, whither he had drifted from Roumania or Bulgaria.' Now what the devil he is after up here he would not say! "But the yacht captain told me of a lovely rein- forcement for Ismail Pasha's harems of Dolma LOST COUNTESS FALKA. 43 Baghtche ! 'You are all right, Colonel !' said the timid old Jew trader, 'but, bid Major Denton beware! This Becker Bey is a born Magyar, and he knows every inch of Hungary.' 'His true name?' I queried. 'Ah! That I know not,' said Moses, 'but he is a Magyar. He is an all round spy, and has just run down several loads of women out of Austria for Constantinople! Once beyond the Iron Gate, he is safe! Any woman lured into his hands would be murdered at the first sign of escape ! Roumania and Bulgaria are only feed- ing grounds for these Turkish dogs! It is the shame of Europe!' "Now, Denton, I have promised Faroe Moses to get him passports for any Hebrew partner he sends under his sign manual to see me! In return Moses will post me at Odessa as to all this wretch's whereabouts. If you find him lurking around Countess Magda shoot him down like a dog! You will save me the trouble, and it may save your own life ! Now, dare you, dare I break in upon Countess Magda's proud reserve? You might lose a friend; I might lose the woman who is the whole world to me! Watch, guide and guard! If there is aught suspicious, warn her openly and tell her this whole story! If any strange event occurs, telegraph to me at Odessa! I have already slaked all my youthful ambitions; if love is denied to me, then there is always vengeance! I have not dared to shat- ter Arpad's faith in his entire knowledge of his moth- er's heart!" Major Denton gazed at the clean cut signature, "Serge Soltykoff," a dozen times before he slept that night! Three days of the wild romantic mountain chase brought the old soldier home tired and weary. Yet, he dared not speak to Arpad to alarm lovely lima nor to break in upon the stately chatelaine's silent in- trospection! Only once, at the great hunting feast, the Lady of Falkenstein turned to her guest of honor, "You have not spoken to any one of my fright at the 44 LOST COUNTESS FALKA. Fraser Denton gravely shook his head. "It is well, my friend!" said Countess Magda, throned in her robes of princely state. "It was only my disordered nerves! A mere vision! For the dead do not return! I was only haunted by an old sorrow ! And it was a stranger face that brought it back ! Here in my mountain home I can laugh at the world! There are stout hearts in Magyar land! And these are all my own, my loving subjects!" Fraser Denton, walking in his splendid chamber on the morning of the great masked ball, watched with a curious eye the merry groups scattered over lawn and "My Lady's Garden!" The great halls below echoed to the sound of ringing laughter. Groups of gay cavaliers and equipages thronged the splendid park! The American was, however, reminded of his anxious correspondent by a telegram from Odessa signed 'Sol- tykoff.' He had answered it briefly, and pen in hand, was now busied in framing a letter in answer to the Russian's warnings! Denton was puzzled! "When we scatter, when Paul goes back to Vienna, when Arpad and Bela re- join their regiments, and I am called away on my tours, here are these two women without a single man to guide or any cool adviser! There seems to be no way to cut this Gordian knot!" There was a strange uneasy feeling haunting him that the air was fraught with danger! "Hello, Uncle!" gaily cried Paul Denton, breaking in on the veteran's seclusion. "What are you up to? They miss your presence!" "Only writing to Solty- koff!" said Denton, offering his cigar case. Paul strolled to the window, and then turning suddenly said, "I wonder if he has received his conge! If he would only marry the Countess! But the whole world seems to be at cross purposes!" Major Denton rose and laid his hand on the young man's shoulder. "What do you mean, Paul?" "I would then be free to take lima Falka away as LOST COUNTESS FALKA. 46 my wife !" The young diplomat was gloomy. "Arpad tells me that Soltykoff has departed finally! And lima will not leave her mother alone ! We can wait, but the whole thing is at a deadlock! I am not intimate enough with Colonel Soltykoff to broach this ! He is as proud and as untamable as Peter the Great himself! You know these headlong Russians!" "Paul, my boy!" cried the startled veteran! "You can end the whole thing right here on this visit! Sol- tykoff is at the present wavering as to throwing up his appointment! His heart is here! Now if you will bring lima to her mother as your affianced then Arpad will surely sanction it! There will be surely no em- barrassment! Then the mother is free to call Serge back! I will post him by telegraph! I see it all now! How blind I have been! Countess Magda would not encourage the Russian until her daughter was first a bride! I have been blind! Speak to lima! Speak to her to-night!" Paul laughed, "You do not know these spirits of fire and flame! lima will be bewitched with the dance, the loveliest bacchante, to-night! No! To-morrow! I'll make an early morning tryst with her in the gar- den, and if I can win her, as you are the head of our family, we will join forces and try to gain Countess Magda's consent ! Say nothing to Arpad ! I will bring his sister to him! She can win him over at a touch! Then you can at once summon Soltykoff to return if we carry the day ! I believe that you are right ! Serge is a gallant fellow. He will win, especially if he would offer to retire and let Countess Magda have her sum- mers here at Falkenstein. She would have her old realm around her. The loss of lima would not be a serious one, as I am soon to be First Secretary and good for another four years at Vienna! Now, to-morrow morning you take Arpad away on a long ride and give me the whole morning alone in the garden with lima! The guests will not leave us until the afternoon!" Paul was radiant and confident! 46 LOST COUNTESS FALKA. "Success, my boy! Success to you!" cried the hap- py soldier. This will cut the Gordian knot and Coun- tess Magda will have a noble partner for life!" Fraser Denton was the lightest hearted black domi- no of the motley crowd of maskers when the great Schloss blazed out with lights that night! Two hun- dred revellers thronged the vast halls and the mirrors reflected under the glow of the wax sconces, blushing beauty and manly bravery in wild attire, in medieval armor, or clad in Renaissance riches in courtly guise. Countess Magda, as Anne of Austria, was the queen of the night. An Esterhazy followed her as a sump- tuous Buckingham ; Arpad, a glorious Andreas Hofer, rivaled that princely caballero, Paul Denton! Bela Batthyani was a dashing Don Carlos, and he chival- rously guarded Aida Denton, who as the Bohemian girl, was a piquant foil to the crowning vision of love- liness, lima Falka as Lurline! There is no wailing music as sweet as the witching waltzes of the Tziganes, no dancers lighter of foot than the courtly Magyars. Beauty born of murmuring sound thrilled in the faces of the impassioned merry- makers! Wafted perfumes, happy laughter, the ring- ing of silver and crystal, the merry sounds borne on the love laden atmosphere, all made up a witching dream of ecstatic gayety! Fraser Denton, gazing down on the splendid scene from the grand picture gallery, was dreaming of the double wedding festival to come ! He had sent a let- ter, artful in its veiled consolation, to the ardent Rus- sian! "All's well that ends well ! To-morrow will turn the golden key!" he murmured. The ball was now at its culmination of merry abandon! Suddenly a hand clasped his own roughly! He started! It was Count Arpad, still clad in his Tyrolian bravery. "Quick! Quick! The very man! Take this pistol! Come! Some fellow, some low intruder has stolen into the house, probably for robbery! He has blundered clum- sily into my father's rooms! They have been locked LOST COUNTESS FALKA. 47 ap ever since his death ! Now guard this portal ! Stop ^ny one, even at the risk of life! Old Matthias saw nim sneak out of the hall when the signal to unmask was given! The other door was left open to allow the rooms to be illuminated! I'll go in at the other end! Never mind me! I'm armed! And, Matthias watches the stair below ! He tracked the stranger there !" The merry music of the dancers was wafted up from below, as Fraser Denton waited breathless, with the heavy army revolver cocked and at a ready! There was no sound within the closed door! But soon, Arpad Fal- ka's springing feet sounded returning down the long hall! He then led the astonished American into the dimly lighted, deserted chambers! "Gone! Tricked!" he gasped! "See that, Major Denton!" he said grave- ly, pointing to a little turret door still standing open ! The night air drew in chill and fresh through the nar- row aperature. "That door was known only to my father! Some one has been here for a sinister pur- pose! Some scoundrel who has mingled with the guests! The fellow who prepared that way of escape knew long years ago of its existence! Let this be your secret and mine ! I must not alarm my mother ! Here ! What's this?" The young Count then stooped and picked up a red fez!* CHAPTER III. LOST COUNTESS ILMA! PAUL DENTON'S LIFE QUEST! FAROE MOSES' FRIEND ON THE TURKISH YACHT TOO LATE! While the startled men eyed each other, the flourishes of the grand Magyar national hymn called the revel- ers below to the banquet. For all masks were off and the sound of merry challenges rang out on the vibrant air! "I must go!" cried Arpad. "Keep this a secret! *Fez, a red Turkish cap. 48 LOST COUNTESS FALKA. I dare not excite my mother! Doctor Eschenbach wrote me from Wien that her heart action was greatly enfeebled ! I must lead the supper march ! My mother waits for me. I will have Matthias post two well armed men at every entrance of the Schloss! Come up to ny rooms when the ball breaks up!" The young Count locked the only door which had never been opened since the murdered Count Gabor lay there, slain in his prime! The old head yager stood by mutely and shuddered as the rusted key creaked in the old lock! Fraser Denton gazed at the old man in silence as Arpad hastily communed in the Magyar tongue with the ober forester. "Now, come on, Denton!" said Arpad, as he sprang down the rear staircase. But Matthias laid his heavy hand on Denton's arm! He whispered "Come back to me! You saw the raven leave the Round Tower! It is a sign of ill omen ! The dead came back to-night !" Denton held the fez in his right hand. He held it up, "Do you know this?" he said. The old man started back! "Yes! There was a Turk, who changed his garb several times! The Black Mask! Go you! I will now search the rear passage! But come back to me here! For there has been a man hidden in the Round Tower, and he knew all the secrets of the Schloss!" "He! Who? Speak?" demanded Fraser Denton, as the old man moved away. "The dead Kinsky ! He alone knew ! For, Count Gabor was a secret conspir- ator, and Kinsky always led those whose heads might fall in here at night! The rising failed after the Count's death, for the Government had the secret plans! I will search the passage now!" Fraser Denton slowly descended the stair and stood a moment at the door of the banquet hall, gazing on the blushing loveliness there and all the Magyar chiv- alry assembled around the lovely Magda. "I must tell Arpad to-morrow! He must warn his mother. The Schloss must be guarded ! For now, I know why Kinsky fled to Russia! The spy sold his LOST COUNTESS FALKA. 49 master to the Austrian! Ke would have enjoyed the Countess and her wealth would have been his own, when Austria's vengeance struck! The noble Steplen Sczechenyi died a prison starved maniac ! Count Louis Batthyani's last cry, "Eljen a haza!" was stilled by the bullets of the firing platoon of Haynau! But Kinsky's passion could not wait! And so, murder saved the Austrian hangman his rope! The wild libertine, chased out from Russia after his second sale of mas- ters, bloomed out as Waldemar Becker Bey, the Egyptian officer! It is he! Now rich, powerful, thirsting for revenge, he comes back as Mustapha Pasha to plot against the woman who once repulsed him! Yes! I will take Arpad to the forest while Paul seeks his fate at Ilma's hands! Shall I urge Soltykoff to come back? The daughter wedded, and in Paul's sturdy keeping, the mother must at once find a pro- tector in the princely Russian ! For in Moscow's palaces Mustapha's schemes will be baffled forever! The rene- fade would never dare to face the ban which drove im from Russia, and the secret police will watch this scoundrel's every movement! Soltykoff's strong arm is needed here now. I will invite him to come on at all hazards! For the fates must not be tempted! "Arpad shall know all! He must now divide his mother's fears!" and, around the old soldier, the light laughter of love swelled in a happy chorus! The grave American sat moodily at the feast, where bright eyes challenged him and love and laughter reigned! It was easy for him to leave the hall after a last meaning lance at Arpad, gallantly ruling the midnight feast! uperb in her loveliness there, Countess Magda shone among her patrician guests, the queen of a summer night! Ilma's dark eyes flashed out a greeting over the jeweled cup, and Aida Denton forgot the passing of her father in the murmured entreaties of Bela Batthy- ani ! They were of one mind ! The night breeze scarce- ly moved the trembling leaves, the river shone blue under the twinkling stars, and great fantastic black 50 LOST COUNTESS FALKA. shadows quivered on the velvet shaven lawn, as Fraser Denton followed old Matthias out into the crisp night. A little door, hidden behind the projecting angle of a tower, soon admitted the two men, and Matthias' lantern dimly lit up the winding stair, not a yard wide, hidden from sight in the projecting masonry of the great western tower of the grand portal. Matthias halted in a circular grotto through which the sinister, unbidden guest had fled from the dead Count's private apartments! He flashed his lantern around and then grunted as he tripped over several cast off garments! "The scoundrel used several dis- guises!" cried Denton, as he held up a Capuchin's robe, then a great black domino, and marveled at a common forester's suit, as well as a Magyar peasant costume. "What the devil would he do with these last?" grumbled Denton. They were travel stained and soiled! The floor was covered with half burned matches and Denton stooped and picked up an empty paper case. It was marked "Osmanli Tabac-Regie Constantinople." There was a rough boat cloak lying under their feet, as if it had been thrown down in flight! The men stood there in wonder! "Some one has been hiding here!" stoutly said old Matthias, as he held up a leathern wallet! There was bread and meat still therein and a half emptied brandy flask. "Now, I know why the Round Tower shows that some wanderer had nested there recently. This fellow watched us from there by day and hid here at night! And these dresses would do for the country villages, or the river! God protect our noble mistress!" The old forester's voice sounded hollow in the silent vault! Fraser Denton stood there, pistol in hand. "He might come back and be trapped here!" "Ah! No! He is too shy a bird! We will hear no more till he is ready to strike again! After the Countess is left alone!" "Matthias!" Denton faced the old servitor as he spoke, "does the young Count know that his father conspired against the Hapsburgs?" LOST COUNTESS FALKA. 51 The old man solemnly said "No! Only the Count, I and Kinsky knew! The Countess was a simple girl and easily hoodwinked! The secret gatherings were held here, the guests then were masked later as gen- tlemen hunters! I am the last survivor!" "And who was Kinsky?" Denton's voice trembled in eagerness. "He was the Adjutant of Gabor Falka's Honved Regi- ment, and it was his hand that struck the dead man at the Count's spring!" "Now I must go! Hear me!" cried Denton. "Keep your lips sealed as to the past, till I bid you speak! But, sleep not! Have the armed men posted at every door of the Schloss, and you must guard this door yourself! Count Arpad alone must know of what we have found ! Leave all here just as we found it !" The gray-headed forester bowed assent! "I will sleep in front of this door! My son, the under forester, alone shall be with me! I wait for you and the Count Arpad !" and the old man looked to his pistol and hunt- ing sword. "Good!" cried Denton, as he stepped out in the night, pistol in hand! But as his left hand clutched the emptied cigarette pacquet, he muttered, "Strange that Soltykoff and I should have to run down Walde- mar Becker Bey! I must telegraph to Mclvor Pasha at Constantinople! He must know of this at once!" The lights were dim in the great banquet hall, but graceful shadows still flitted across the casements of the long line of guest chambers above! The Tzigane music was mute, and serf and lord, maid and patrician beauty were alike forgetting the cares or raptures of this night of nights! Only from below, in the servants' hall, rang out the murmured echo of the feast of the night! "Go the rounds, Matthias! Watch and sleep not!" said the American veteran. "I guard my dear lady's life with my own!" sol- emnly answered the old henchman ; and so the masked ball was over, the splendid pageant of a happy night! 52 LOST COUNTESS FALKA. Arpad Falka's orderly waited in the vaulted grand cor- ridor for the American. "This way, my lord !" he whis- pered. "The Count expects you!" Denton sighed as he mounted the stair! He had seen the roofs of the old Diet Hall of Hungary sparkling there below, while above the crescent moon hung over the ruin where St. Stephen had worn the purple mantle, and the crown of Sylvester II. Nine hundred and ninety years had rolled by, and yet the restless Magyar heart still plotted against Fate's stern decrees! "The dead Count a rebel! Was Kinsky not an Austrian mouchard? Did he strike for revenge, that outraged Love had foiled his plot to betray Gabor Falka to the Austrian hangman, and enjoy wife and the confiscated estates?" The resolute American had already decided upon his course, when he noiselessly entered Arpad's private rooms. "He must never know! Let him only think the past tragedy was the result of a blood feud ! The great con- spiracy is dead forever, for Austria's Emperor is now Hungary's anointed and lawful king, and the Magyar land is restored to her autonomy! I will only hasten Paul's marriage and Soltykoff's return! Till then, Ar- pad must guard his mother with the eye of the Car- pathian eagle!" The two men were alone! Arpad strode up and down as Major Denton described the discoveries of the grotto! "What do you make of it all?" said the American. The young man threw himself into a chair. "Thank God! My mother knows nothing! I will have the Schloss doubly guarded till the guests depart! Then a thorough search must be made of the whole do- main! We will examine every nook of the hun- dred old lumber rooms of the Schloss! Our Magyar wits are sharp! If I find any scoundrel lurking here I will throw his carcass to our hounds ! Here I am mas- ter! My voice is law!" "Arpad!" said the American, "have you any blood feud? Any dangerous intrigue? Is there any danger LOST COUNTESS FALKA. 53 menacing your mother? Has she said aught to you since her return? Anything to alarm you?" Denton bid for the young Count's confidence. "Not a word!" cried Falka. "I have no enemies on my track! There are no local quarrels! I fear that this may be some device of the river bandits to linger and steal my moth- er's jewels, or perchance, in secret, to rob the plate vaults ! I might leave an easy opening for this fellow to return! I could have the outer secret door watched I The inner one he has burst loose ! Let us meet early to-morrow ! You and I will take a turn in the wald and talk it over! I will see Matthias and leave him to watch in the grotto while we are away ! I will station his son on watch in the closed up rooms! These men are as mute as the werewolf! We own them, body and soul! I do not wish to alarm my mother! Remember, the doctor's warning! But when the guests are gone I will confer guardedly with her! If this menaces any one, it is my mother! And she never leaves her own apartments till after I have visited her rooms! So to- morrow morning we will set our trap! The fez, of course, was just a bit of disguise! This scoundrel must have a thorough knowledge of the ground, and has probably some confederates! For neither Matthias nor I ever dreamed that the secret door was known to others!" Count Arpad himself conducted Major Denton back to his rooms ! The men clasped hands in parting. "All is safe for the night, and to-morrow night, I will have concealed watchers in the shrubbery!" Arpad's last word was, "This is for you and I alone as yet! Not a word to Bela! To any one! There is no present dan- ger!" Major Denton gazed after the proud young noble as he disappeared. A horrible misgiving suddenly filled his mind. "Countess Magda is but a woman! Has she stooped to disgrace? Is there some old con- nection, some mad intrigue that she dare not own to her princely heirs? Is there a desperate lover who has 54 LOST COUNTESS FALKA. followed her here? The discovery of the secret pas- sage, the unbidden guest's presence at the ball! Was it the freak of some one of the mad gallants of a land where blood is molten fire? Was Soltykoff's long pressed suit barred by a deadly impediment?" The generous blood surged back to his heart "No! I will risk my life on her honor!" mused Denton. "Mag- da Falka wears no mask! And to her, I will speak! Thank God! Paul will know his fate before we re- turn! Then the eclaircissement! Arpad and the Coun- tess consenting, I will tell all to Magda and she, Ar- pad and myself must guard the future! Yes! It is the golden' key! Ilma's *y es ' will make us relatives to be ! And so Paul, sly dog, stole away and has glad- ly made his tryst! ' It will be all over when we return!" Yet for all his sage conclusions, Fraser Denton tossed uneasily on his couch. He found himself bolt upright for once, for he had sprung from his couch! It seemed to him that the tall Turk, he of the opera, the man of the Stefans Keller, the fez wearer of the Franzens briicke, was stealing upon him in the silent night! The veteran grasped his ready pistol! "I am getting old!" muttered Denton, as he lay down again. He was ashamed to be startled at the vague shadows of the night or conjured up visions of a tired brain, for he had sat his horse unmoved while the shells of the Louisiana Light Artillery duplicated around him the havoc of his own ringing guns! A case of "give and take" to the bitter death! The old soldier was astir long before any other guest! The morning mists still veiled the Carpathians and hung over the great hill where the ruined palace spoke of other days! The household in the inverse order of rank moved around the old Schloss, jaded and heavy of eyes. To Fraser Denton's secret delight as he entered the breakfast hall, where Arpad Falka awaited him, Paul Denton joined them for a cup of coffee! "Whither away?" merrily challenged the host! "I am off for a freshener, a morning walk!" said the LOST COUNTESS FALKA. 55 diplomatist, telegraphing his "All's well" to his uncle! "Let us take a turn on the road, Major?" answered Arpad, with affected carelessness ! Join me at the sta- bles! I'll get a pair of ponies out!" As the American veteran sauntered out he paused at the great portal to light his cigar. There was old Matthias ready to greet him ! "I have seen the Count!" the sturdy old man said. "To-night we will catch him, or when he comes again ! See ! Here are many good places to hide our watchers here!" Denton eyed the protecting shrubbery and noted Paul striding off over the lawn with upturned glances at Countess Ilma's windows! The keen-eyed old sol- dier caught the glimpse of a fluttering signal there, for love's signal was a kerchief which was waved, the very oriflamme of love and hope! "I am not needed here!" laughed the Major, as he wandered away to where a smart wagonette was await- ing him at the stables. Away up the Wolf's Glen, un- der the spreading forest branches, fragrant in the scent- ed morning, the wild Croatian steeds sprang away! The black cock whirled across their pathway and the shy red deer bounded out of the copses with elastic strides ! Blue sapphire skies domed over the far purpled moun- tains, and fleecy pearl clouds parted in the golden glo- ries of the coming day! The friends were soon deep in every consideration of the unwelcome nocturnal visit! Denton warily guarded his conclusions, mentally re- joicing. "This afternoon I will tell them all! For they must both know now, mother and son!" The clouds had vanished from the gallant Hungarian's brow. "It may have been only some mean marauder! Even a kitchen intrigue ! You know this great estate needs a firm hand! I am an absentee and my moth- er's graceful hand is very light!" He sought manfully to reassure himself! But, Eraser Denton sighed heav- ily! "Perhaps an interrupted love masquerade of some one of your gay guests!" smiled Denton, whose heart 66 LOST COUNTESS FALKA. was light, knowing that Paul was keeping Ilma's tryst! "Could Arpad really be so long deceived?" "No! Denton! It was more serious!" answered Ar- pad. "The man's disguises for inside and outside work would rather hint at an attempted robbery of my moth- er's famous jewels! For the Sczechenyi's, the Batthy- anis and the Falkas were once of almost regal splendor of living! A sly maid, some plotting steward, perhaps! Well, we will see! Here's for home! It's nearly eleven, and the great stirrup cup bout awaits us ! The guests will be moving!" The flying steeds were suddenly drawn up, as Paul Denton's lithe form was seen strutting along the road a half mile from the old Schloss, as they neared the sparkling river! It's swift current bore along sloop and shallop, with rushing steam launches and long lines of towed barges, and now from the passing pleasure boats merry music was wafted ashore! All nature seemed to laugh in the summer sunshine! "Jump in, Paul!" cried the Count. "We are due for the dejeuner soon!" And the Major smiled as he saw the light of happiness in the young athlete's eyes ! Den- ton, minor, had easily vaulted into the wagon. His triumphant eyes told the story, and the Major tele- graphed back his congratulations! "It's a rare morn- ing!" said the gleeful Paul. "A morning I will never forget! Your stronghold here is an earthly Paradise, Arpad!" "There's no land like it, this Danube coun- try! 'Hearts so true, eyes so blue!'" sang the young chief as he swung the smoking team up to the great arched doorway, where the flower of Magyar land was gathered around Countess Magda on the great ter- race! The wanderers were waited for! Arpad sprang from the wagonette, and, doffing his hunter's bonnet, bent over his mother's slender hand ! "Welcome Madre mia!" he laughed. "Pardon your runaways!" The Major and Paul had hardly finished their greeting when Countess Magda turned her eyes anxiously upon LOST COUNTESS FALKA. 57 Arpad! She spoke with some little concern in her eager voice. "Where is lima? Did she not ride with you?" Paul Denton's glances were suddenly fixed upon a railway train rushing along the sculptured shores of the farther river bank ! His crimsoned face told its story to Fras- er Denton alone! The lovely, glowing girl had fled away to her rooms to hide her secret happiness, until it could be told on a mother's breast! The veiled se- cret of a first love ! Paul was silent ! "The Major and I have had a run up the road! We picked up Paul! I have not seen lima yet!" said Ar- pad, as a steward approached the Countess, bowing low. "I saw the Grafin go down through the garden to the boat house by the river an hour ago, your excel- lency!" said the retainer. "Please summon the Countess! Waldeck!" said the stately chatelaine, and then, preceding her son, she passed on into the assembly room, followed by laugh- ing Aida Denton, who had found time to whisper to her soldier father her own morning greetings. "Such a happy night! The masked ball was simply exquisite!" The brown-eyed American had stolen a glance at guilty Bela Batthyani, who had spoken the night before! But, Eraser Denton was obtuse! His mind was still full of the discovery in the grotto ! In the ceremonial salutations of the gathering guests no one noticed the return of the steward, who simply said, "Excellence! I can not find Grafin lima! She must have returned !" Arpad Falka then left his mother's side and bounded up to the beautiful boudoir of his truant sister. "lima!" he called! "We are all waiting!" and a vague misgiving chilled his heart, as the Magyar maid curtsied low! "Her excellency has not returned since she left the Schloss for her morning walk ! She must be still down by the river!" In an hour the alarm bell was pealing out wildly 58 LOST COUNTESS FALKA. from the old turret of the Schloss ! There were fierce- eyed riders spurring along the forest paths. The vil- lagers summoned by the frightened attendants were sweeping along through coppice and grove, and anx- ious crowds searched every nook of the rivers cav- erned banks! No sign! The Countess was missing! The guests who came in gladness were departing with- out ceremony, save the eager cavaliers who were ex- citedly urging on the search for lost Countess Falka! And still, no tokens! In her darkened chambers of state Magda Falka lay feebly breathing, her face pale and haggard on its silken pillows ! By her side, the frightened Aida Den- ton watched the flickering of the fluttering tide of life ! The grave-faced attendants cast anxious glances at the bevy of physicians who had been brought up from Presburg at a life and death speed ! There were great ladies clustered in silent knots, who awaited the first news of the search parties. The river! Ah! the dan- gerous river! But, on the track of the missing girl, Ar- pad Falka, with Batthyani, the Major, and the half-de- mented Paul were madly urging along the excited seekers! Not a sign of the vanished beauty! Not a trace of the proudest heiress of the Danube! In vain, Paul Denton tried to make Arpad Falka listen to his story! "Hasten! Hasten!" was the brother's cry. "We must find her, dead or alive ! lima! My lima !" Even cool Fraser Denton could not succeed in holding Arpad back ! It was Bela Batthyani who rode like a demon to Presburg to summon the river police, and to warn all the authorities of the nearest towns! And far and near the rumor of a mysterious tragedy ran on, while Fraser Denton beat his breast, in his vain rage! "My God! I thought only of the mother! And this ven- geance has stricken the innocent child! The Turk! Has he murdered her?" He called up Batthyani, as he rode back on his ex- hausted steed, and in a few words imparted to him one awful growing fear! "She has been carried off! Down LOST COUNTESS FALKA. 59 the river!" For, an awful possible vengeance now came to his mind! Batthyani bade him speak ! And then, vaulting- on a fresh steed, he rode away to the telegraph office! "There is but one hope to use the Imperial power at the Iron Gates, and search everything passing on the river! I will telegraph to the minister of justice at Vienna to send his orders to all our frontiers and to dispatch a squad of his best men here ! It is horrible ! horrible!" The frowning buttressed mountains overhanging the Danube threw their gloomy funereal shadows on the blue flood below, and the owl called from the Wolf's Glen, before the last straggling searchers returned! There was not a sign of a struggle at the boat house ! Not a stray token of the vanished heiress! Fraser Den- ton awaited the last conference of the household be- fore his departure from Falkenstein. The veteran had acted with a quick decision! "This sweeps away the last obstacle! Pride has no place here!" So in this thought he had telegraphed to Colonel Soltykoff, by way of Lemberg to Odessa. "That will bring him to the Golden Horn at once!" muttered Denton, as he scanned the words: "Countess lima kidnapped. Meet me at Constanti- nople. I go to-night via Budapest. See Faroe Moses as to our old acquaintance. Bela stays here in charge." It was but four hours before Denton's heart leaped up at the words of the gallant Russian's answer. "Have six months leave. Meet me Russian Em- bassy, Istambol. Sail to-morrow steamer 'Princess Olga.'" "It is like Serge! He may earn his heart's reward after all! Now, for Arpad, Paul and a plan!" The telegraph had summoned Paul Denton's wid- owed mother from Vienna, under the escort of Doctor Eschenbach, who was hastening to the side of the prostrated Lady of Falkenstein! When Arpad Falka slowly left his mother's room on his return, his face 60 LOST COUNTESS FALKA. had aged ten years! In his own room he gazed over the table at Major Denton, Batthyani and the dis- tracted Paul. "We must have a plan, some plan of action !" hoarse- ly said the young noble, whose trembling voice and bloodshot eyes betrayed his helpless rage. "I shall hold Eschenbach responsible for my mother! The Schloss will be garrisoned by ten men of my own regi- ment. I have already my Colonel's leave for three months! The Imperial Minister begs me to come to Vienna to confer, and promises the whole secret forces of the Empire! How shall we go to work?" They were silent till Eraser Denton spoke! "See here! Arpad! You must see the Minister and have a full conference with Countess Magda before you start! Let Paul go to Vienna with you! Bela stay here in charge! Granting there has been no ac- cident it would be futile for any one to try and hide lima Falka in Hungary, or to move to Germany, Italy, Switzerland or Russia with her! There is but one open road, down the Danube to the Principalities, or," he groaned, "to Turkey!" "Now, Soltykoff waits me at Constantinople before I can arrive. I may detain Mclvor Pasha there! I have telegraphed to the Brit- ish Embassy. I will go to Buda by boat, and down the river to Galatz and Kustendje! From there I will take the steamer to Constantinople and join Soltykoff at the Russian Embassy in Constantinople ! I will have a Roumanian visa to my passport! "You can come with Paul along the railroad to Constantinople and go direct to the Austrian Em- bassy. In this way we will have two search parties! We will search thus the railroad and the river!" "Your plan is the right one, Denton!" quickly said Arpad Falka! "I will give you Matthias' son, Janos, who was my yager in my orient tour two years ago, and every Austrian consul will have a cipher dispatch to aid you! I will bring a secret service agent on from LOST COUNTESS FALKA. 61 Vienna and at Constantinople, our Ambassador can use his cipher. Can you go with me, Paul?" The young American leaped to his feet! "I have nothing to live for but to find her! I have telegraphed my application for leave to our Minister, with a con- ditional resignation! For, Arpad, we are brothers now! When your sister left the ball last night she had promised to be mine for life! She was to meet you this very day to beg you to go with her to your mother and to plead for me ! I may not win her hand, but this is my life quest ! To find the woman I love, I swear that I will follow it to the death!" Arpad Falka's head was bowed and the tears streamed through his clenched hands! "You did not tell me, Paul!" he sobbed. "Poor darling!" cried Paul. "She would have tried her gentle arts on you alone! I left her in the garden waiting for you, to steal upon your confidence before her mother's eyes should read the secret!" "Brothers forever!" cried Arpad! "Let us be up and doing!" He turned to Bela, "What think you, Bela?" "It is the only plan to separate now and fight your hid- den enemy later, Arpad!" The young officer's face grew strangely pale. "There is but one who can now give us the clue we seek! Before you go on your way your mother must tell you all! We can have no se- crets between us four! I am your kinsman! Bid her tell you of her last days in Vienna! She would have spared you! For I know now she thought the blow would fall on herself alone! But it was this innocent white-souled child who has been carried off to slake some damnable revenge! It is too horrible! God help us all!" "Paul!" cried the young Count! "Let us make ready ! We can return from Vienna to-morrow night, and then I will speak to my mother! Eschenbach will be here ! I will take Matthias with us and to-morrow night we will take the midnight train, following down Major Denton !" cried the agonized brother. "Let me 62 LOST COUNTESS FALKA. have a dispatch from you at the police bureau of each stopping place, on the Grand Oriental train. Bela will answer your dispatches here, and send all to the Rus- sian Embassy at Constantinople. One half hour of fatherly commune with his moth- erless child steeled Fraser Denton to go out on his forlorn hope expedition. The girl who clung to her father's neck trembled at the loneliness of the Schloss. "If there should be more villainy attempted!" she murmured, hiding in her father's bosom. "Ah! My dearest!" cried the veteran, "the troops are already posted around the chateau, and an armed yager rides every path on the estate ! A lieutenant and ten men of Arpad's own company will be stationed here until we return with lima, alive or " The sentence was not finished, for the old soldier broke down. He dared not yet tell any one but Solty- koff of the hideous fate he feared for the golden-haired patrician with the midnight eyes! There were a score of gruesome tales of the past which painted horrors unspeakable before the soldier's mental vision! One burning desire possessed Fraser Denton's heart! To hound Mustapha Pasha to his lair! To bring him to bay! To see the renegade's corpse trampled under his feet! In the night, as the steam launch sped away, he strained his eyes to see Arpad, Bela and Paul there at the landing following the first one off to the rescue! Beside him the young forester stood, brave and alert, with gleaming eyes seeking to read, in the rippling waters boiling in their wake, the story of that blind trail on the Danube! Fraser Denton's first goal was Budapest! "If 'Faroe Moses' should be still at the 'Hungaria' I may learn news of the 'Sultanieh !' Perhaps Soltykoff and I may run the beast to bay before Arpad can reach Istambol !" The soldier saw Schloss Falkenstein fade behind him in the night! The September air was crisp and cool upon the river! Lights burned in happy LOST COUNTESS FALKA. 6J homes far above and below him ! The scattered river towns gleamed in lines of light, far behind the Schloss was left with the picket fires of the Honveds gleaming around it, red flashes in the forest shades ! On cliff and lofty point a single ray showed where the peasants' hut clung to the mountain side! Humble happiness! "Hap- piness, perhaps, in the cottage, with heart-break in the high hall! The bitter way of the world!" mused Denton. The tall soldier paced the deck as the launch leaped along! "It is a seven hours' trip, Herr Major, to Buda!" said the captain. "I will do it in five if we do not break down!" and so along the crystal flood, Fraser Denton carried his burden of horrible misgivings to the possibility of an awful realization! He had counted up the chances of success, and his heart sickened at the thought of the odds against them ! "Ransom! Impossible!" he mused. "Every Mag- yar heart would be steeled to tear the negotiators to shreds of mangled flesh ! What good would this girl's death avail to any one? It would not bring wealth or succession to any secret enemy ! She can not be long- concealed in continental Europe; her singular loveli- ness would betray her! 'Mistress of all the languages, a word would bring a fortune to the nearest stranger who would help her!' And again, the phantom of some baffled intriguer, seeking revenge for an olden slight, returned! 'Would any one dare to try to sway the mother by menacing the child? To what end?'" As the launch followed the path of the "Sultanieh," the warning of Faroe Moses came back to affright the American father. "Once beyond the Iron Gates he is safe! 'Roumania and Bulgaria are only feeding grounds for these Turkish dogs!'" Straining his eyes to see the Blocksberg rise over the divided city, Denton dared not ask himself, "Has the spoiler passed the Iron Gate?" and the fleet "Sul- tanieh had two days' start now !" "What are your orders, Herr Major?" said the 5 64 LOST COUNTESS FAT.KA. launch captain as the Citadel of Ofen shone out, with its red sally port lamps blazing far above them on the grim hill so often slaked with Turkish, German, Aus- trian and Magyar blood! The old fortress hovered there, the seal of Hungary's honor, the brand of Gorg- ey's eternal shame! Denton's ready mind was made up on his movements now! "Can you run me down to the Iron Gates? I wish only to stop here for an hour!" earnestly replied the American. "Yes! But we must wait till morning for fuel! We cannot get away before nine o'clock. It will take two hours to coal !" the captain sadly said. "The river boat leaves at eight, but, we are faster! It is the best I can do!" "My God! It is a life and death matter, captain!" groaned Denton, as the boat swung into the eddies of the ferry landing of Pesth! He grasped the sailor in an eager hand clutch, and his prayer for haste was broken off as both were thrown violently on the deck! The steamer drifted helplessly against the bank! Dusky forms sprang out of the ferry sheds with wild cries as the captain sprang away! When the hubbub was over, Denton realized a crowning misfortune! A floating log caught in the screw had snapped off the main shaft! Helpless now! The first ominous misfortune! With a soldier's quick decision, he cried, "Throw off all our effects, Janos! Wait here in the ferry house! We must take the morn- ing boat!" and then he groaned, "A whole night lost! The devil fights for his own!" "Herr Major Denton!" said a tall stranger at his lbow. "I have a carriage here! I am the Chief of Police ! I have orders !" he whispered, "from the Min- isterium at Wien to aid you in all ! It is now half past two! What would you?" The soldierly official added, "I will see the boat taken care of! I have Count Ar- pad's orders to use carte blanche !" "Drive me to the Hungaria Hotel!" cried the ex- LOST COUNTESS FALKA. 65 cited Denton! "Do you know if Faroe Moses is yet there, the millionaire jewel merchant of Constantino- ple?" "Yes!" answered the chief. "His passports are still at the office, but already visad fora return. He leaves for Belgrade to wait on the Princess Esme, who is there under treatment of the medical faculty. "Thank God!" cried Denton! "Has the 'Sultanieh' returned here?" "Not since she passed below a few days ago," said the chief, as they entered the carriage. "The Austrian au- thorities pass her under diplomatic courtesy, as she always flies the legation flag! And they are mean smugglers, those Turks!" Denton sprang out at the grand entrance of the Hungaria. "Please have the carriage wait for me! I would rather not have you go with me ! I do not know how far I can trust to this Faroe Moses! For his for- tune is under Moslem rule, and, many a man's heart is in his purse!" "I will await you at the ferry landing!" said the chief. "Can you get me a boat to run to the Iron Gate?" said the discouraged American. "Alas! Not to-night, our Budapest river men are sleepy heads! The morning boat at eight lands you in Belgrade in twenty-three hours, and is a dozen times more powerful than any yacht!" "Where does your frontier end?" demanded Denton. "At Orsova, below the Iron Gates!" was the reply I "All hope is lost!" cried Denton! "But you can tele- graph now and find out where the 'Sultanieh' is!" The chief bowed and sprang into the carriage. A sleepy head porter roused up, grumbled as he led the tired American to the rooms of Faroe Moses, the great Dragoman jeweller! In the broad hall a great nubian negro lay asleep on a rug before the He- brew jewel vender's door! He sprang up, and after a brief parley, grumblingly admitted Denton to where the astonished Moses stood, roused and shaking in fear! The mahogany-colored face of the old Faroe 5 66 LOST COUNTESS FALKA. islander relaxed into a happy grin as he shuffled for- ward, casing his gaunt form in a flowing gown! "Ah! Denton Kaimarkan! My old, old friend! You here! What has happened?" He pressed the soldier's hand to his lips, his forehead and his heart! "Speak! Can I do aught for you?" "When have you seen that renegade Becker Bey?" said Denton, waving the attendants out of the room. "Has he attacked you? I feared his deviltry! He has been hanging around here! I told Soltykoff!" "Cease! Tell me, where is he?" cried Denton; he easily saw that the Jew was honest! For, fear made him so! The Austrian police have sharp fangs! Faroe Moses trembled, and stroked his gray beard. "God of Jacob! You are the same, always so impetuous! Mustapha Pasha, as he calls himself, came up here with the Princess Esme, who visited Vienna incognito to see the great doctors, and went back to Belgrade a week ago! But, I always feared Becker. He brought the 'Sultanieh' back to Mahacs, three days ago, and has visited several river towns in the yacht's steam launch! He forced me to give him secret letters to all the Jewish money lenders as far asPresburg! I was here with some rich goods for the 'Sczechenyis/ Becker has power; I am a stranger, and he has the Sultan's firnian, Khedive Ismail's signet ring, and the Embassy at Vienna has secretly helped him in all his schemes! Thank God, he is gone! Avoid him! He hates you! He spoke your name with curses! He saw you at Vienna with our old friend, Mclvor!" "I must find him!" sternly cried Denton, his eyes flashing! "By the God of my fathers! Seek him not!" begged Moses. "He is all powerful in Servia, Rou- mania and Bulgaria ! He is chief of the secret harem service, and his European birth and knowledge of lan- guages aid his deviltry! The river is one nest of cut- throats from Semlin to the Three Mouths, and he has some dark designs! He sent for me to go down to Mohacs! I went down by train! He threatened me LOST COUNTESS FALKA. 67 with breaking off my business with the Sczechenyis! I went to him on the 'Sultanieh !' He forced me to tell him where Mclvor Pasha was voyaging, if Soltykoff had gone from Buda, and he demanded also to know all of your residence at Vienna! I leave to-morrow night! I fear this devil! I have taken all my monies in London drafts and I shall take the train to Con- stantinople! I will not leave the oriental express for an instant! But, I will warn Soltykoff at once! If I have trouble at Istambol, Soltykoff has promised to give me refuge on a Russian steamer and take me to Odessa by private permission of the Russian secret service! Becker is all powerful at Dolman Baghtche, for Turkey, England and Russia are all watching old Ismail! Even the French fee Becker, for he is Minis- ter of Pleasures to Abdul Hamid, to Ismail and even to the Shah of Persia! Beware! There is death on his track! Go not alone to Constantinople!" Denton sprang up. "Swear to me, Faroe Moses that you will go direct to Soltykoff at the Russian Em- bassy! Meet me there! I go down the river! I will make Colonel Soltykoff hide you in the Embassy, but be true!" "Jehovah be praised! There I am safe!" Major Den- ton strode out through the dark streets to the landing! He gazed over the rocky fastness where Attila, Arpad and St. Stephen once ruled! "What a world of shame and brute intrigue! Of crime and cowardly oppres- sion! The Danube's banks reek with unspeakable miseries !" For, Becker's dark design was now plain at last! As he stepped into the boat house the chief handed him an official dispatch. He read by the lan- tern there: "The 'Sultanieh" passed Semlin an hour ago at full speed, going down the river!" Denton groaned, "Too late!" LOST COUNTESS FALKA. CHAPTER IV. THE LEAGUE ON THE BOSPORUS THE INDO EURO- PEAN TELEGRAPH COMPANY'S GENERAL AGENT! A SLENDER CLUE. Major Denton's agony of mind touched the official's heart! "Cheer up!" he said, "I will send one of my men with my cipher down to Semlin with you! At Kalocsa, Mo'hacs, Draneck, Combos and Neusatz he can call me on the wire! At five in the morning, you will reach Semlin. There you will have my dispatches and you will also have the help of all our frontier of- ficials who will have reports as far as Galatz for you! Let me take you to my house! Your man can stay here at the Polizei station! There is nothing to be done, save for me to solemnly warn you that after you pass our frontier you are not safe until you reach the Russian Legation at Stamboul! Give up all lingering after my man leaves you at Semlin! Watch, spy and study! Keep your own counsel! Remember that the Principalities are the moral charnel house of Europe! But once in Constantinople, our Ambassador can com- municate by his Dragoman and there even the Turks fear to offend the Powers! As an individual, you can do simply nothing!" There was no gainsaying the wisdom of the official ! "It is a gloomy outlook!" muttered Denton, as he gave his last directions to Janos ! And, heavy-hearted, he slept. Fraser Denton opened his weary eyes three hours later in the guest chamber of the chiefs house! He mbbed his eyes as the chief reluctantly shook him up! ""You have just an hour for coffee, toilet and to reach the boat! My man goes on the boat! He will attend to all! I have made your own man known to him! Go to your cabin at once! He will join you there! LOST COUNTESS FALKA 69 Avoid him on deck! Now here is Moses waiting for a last word! I go to the telegraph office to wait till the last moment! I will come to the boat! I get ofl at Ofen! So, good-bye till then! I guard you to Or- sova! After that! Beware 1" Denton eyed old Faroe Moses keenly as the tall Jew, clad in a frayed gaberdine, approached him ! He wore the humble garb of a Galician Hebrew money changer. But, the keen, brilliant eyes shone out with the experience of sixty years in the Levant! The world's college of pastmasters in human duplicity. "What is it?" the soldier cried, proceeding to an un- ceremonious toilet! "I came," slowly said Moses, "to put my life in your hands! Colonel Soltykoff has promised me one pass- port in and out of Russia, as an Armenian, for any agent I may name. It may be worth a million pias- tres to me, for money can not buy the Czar's seal! I will now trust to him and you! "When I went to Mohacs, I found all the retinue of the Princess Esme on the 'Sultanieh.' I know the Aga of the eunuchs well! We have dealt together in the harems! He whispered to me that the Princess Esme had already secretly left Belgrade for Rustchuk, Shumla and Varna, where a yacht awaits her! The Turkish agent at Belgrade effected this incognito de- parture under pretense of a summer excursion of his own! He has his own river boat and Imperial Irade of Free Navigation! But the attendants and train of the Princess Esme are on the 'Sultanieh.' This wild man devil has all the papers and 'laissez passer' of the Princess! "It would be worth my head if Mustapha should find this out! Beware! He may entrap you, murder you,. and escape under the safe conduct of the pretended royal passenger! I could not sleep! I rose and sought out the Rabbi and our chief banker here! I have learned to-night what I knew not before ! This scoun- drel was once mixed up in revolutions here! His 70 LOST COUNTESS FALKA. friends were sold, betrayed, and he may have stolen back to secure some buried treasure, old papers or plun- der that he dared not remove in his former flight ! For the Magyar avengers drove the traitor from the Dan- ube! So, beware! I have bidden these men com- municate in Hebrew with all our friends along the whole river! They will trace him, and I shall know all at Istambol! For the news will follow by mouth to mouth! We, the despised Israelites, dare not write our secrets. The telegraph is denied to us! So tell Soltykoff I have earned my reward! I will earn it again! But, my own life hangs on a thread ! Mus- tapha would see me die by inches if he knew that I had warned you!" "The name of this wretch! You said that he was a Magyar!" Fraser Denton's heart beat in an agony of suspense. "Janos Kinsky !" whispered the timid old Jew. "An adjutant of Honveds! And seven of his fellow officers were shot, or walled up in Olmutz by his cowardly betrayal ! The whole Magyar nobility was endangered by his sale of his only birthright. Magyar loyalty to the foreign Austrian tyrant! There are brighter days ; perhaps, as Hungary has now its whole fabric rebuilt, he might placate the avengers of blood ! But, even the Aga knew not why he has secretly re- turned! He went in disguise to Presburg, and or- dered the 'Sultanieh' to await him there at Mohacs! Now by the God of my fathers I beg you beware ! You now know all! I have heard nothing! I leave to-day and will meet you as you have said ! My life is in your hands; yours in mine! I must away! For, if he would know of my visit to you my body would float in the Bosporus, the bloody mark of his rage !" When Major Denton saw the splendid palaces of Pesth fade away behind him and Buda's hills slowly disappear he then unfolded the papers thrust in his hand by the chief, as he sprang off at Ofen! Two dis- patches were there. One from Mclvor. The bluff old sea dog's message was a ray of light, "Waiting at Brit- LOST COUNTESS FALKA. 71 ish Embassy!" The other said simply, "Following; nothing new yet!" In that, spoke out the tortured heart of Arpad Falka! The American dared not breathe the hated name of the bloody wretch, the name of Janos Kinsky, as he gazed out of his cabin window at the dreary lower river reaches and its scattered hamlets! But, in his sad heart, he knew that the secret of the dread vengeance rested in the noble mother's untold story of the past! "Will she unveil her heart to her son?" He writhed in bitter agony to know that only, all too late, their eyes were opened! "lima, beautiful, stainless one, to be dragged away to untold shame by her father's mur- derer!" and then, the American wondered if an Aus- trian political vengeance had not stricken the great no- ble dome ! "Kinsky as a craven Judas might have been far away !" And all these thoughts were bootless ! It was five in the afternoon when the face of his henchman darkened the cabin door. He handed to the Major a folded paper, as the great Danube boat rushed past the old battlefield where Hungary's crown was once lost in the bloody swamps ! There was not a gleam of hope left to him, when Denton read the pen- ciled words: "Orsova "The Turkish yacht 'Sultanieh' with the Princess Esme on board passed the Iron Gates an hour ago!'' "She is now lost to us forever!" groaned Denton. "We have but one forlorn hope! To waylay Mus- tapha at the Golden Horn and to discover where he has hidden the woman whom he has stolen away! One false step and there would be no evidence left of this beast's foul deed! I see it all! It is disgrace for dis- grace; shame for shame! Soltykoff alone can aid us now, for they fear the Russ at the Golden Horn! Mus- tapha Becker is out of all Austrian jurisdiction now, and he has two hundred miles the lead! We must fol- low him now, from the other end of the journey! And Moses only can find him!" 72 LOST COUNTESS FALKA. Major Denton's eyes had wearied with the monotony of the flat Hungarian plain! He dared not mingle with the passengers and he noted the secret agent of the Budapest chief wandering over the boat with un- relaxing vigilance. Janos, the yager, by order avoided his master! It was already morning when the steamer stopped at Belgrade! A knock aroused Denton, who read the news that Arpad Falka and Paul would leave by rail in the night! "An Israelite came aboard, who told me you would hear from Moses at Rustchuk!" "When do we reach the Iron Gate?" wearily demand- ed the soldier. "At eleven to-night!" the secret agent answered. "Remain in your cabin! I will have you passed through the customs all right! But if you have aught to say to my chief have it ready. I take the rail from Orsova back to Buda !" "My God, there is nothing to say!" groaned Den- ton, "save that we are too late! Too late!" Denton gazed gloomily on the rapids of the Dan- ube as the boat in the afternoon shadows swung into the Defile of Kazan! The huge cliffs hung high over the rushing torrent, two hundred feet in depth! The slender road carved by Trajan a hundred years before the Savior's birth, still gashed the mighty rocks! Every cave and gorge hidden hamlet spoke to the American of the thousand hiding places available to the protean renegade. "If aught is ever found here it will be but her poor bruised body, dashing around in these black whirl- pools! But better even that, than the infamous degra- dation of the gilded harem hells, guarded by the blub- ber lipped eunuchs P He writhed in his helpless rage. It was a fearful fate! Heavy-hearted, the vet- eran passed the storied cavern of the heroic Veterani, who stopped a Turkish horde, a bloody host, with four hundred heroes, cave-hidden there! And far above him, on the hill of Gradma, the giant inscription of Trajan still told how bold were Roman hearts two thousand years before! They swung along to the Iron Gates! LOST COUNTESS FALrKA. 73 "There is nothing! Not a word to say! I will tele- graph my arrival in Rustchuk through the Austrian consul!" said Denton as the secret agent left him at Orsova! There was not a sign of the pursued vessel, but the agent told him of the strong arm stretched out in vain! "If he had only known," he mourned! "The Ministry had telegraphed to stop and search the 'Sultanieh' for kidnapped Austrian subjects ! The boat was a half mile down the river before the lazy Rou- manians sent the order down! And now, the black eagle is powerless! Beware of assassination! Go on to Rustchuk, there take the rail to Varna, and an Aus- trian Lloyds steamer to Stamboul! Do not leave die ship till the dragoman of the Russian Embassy brings his boat alongside. You will be always watched by a dozen hungry eyes ! You are now going into the realm where Turkish gold covers every villainy on earth!" Fraser Denton wearily walked the deck of the steam- er as Orsova's lights faded away and eyed the motley horde of deck passengers of every nationality. In the main saloon there was drinking, feasting and a saturn- alia of pleasure! "I will play the sick man!" he mut- tered, "and so, dodge these spies!" Two weary days brought him to Rustchuk, and fol- lowed by his servitor, he eagerly sprang ashore, and haikd a droschky driver to hurry him to the Varna railway station! Fortune favored him, for the train left in an hour! There was a secret friend awaiting him. "Let me be your guide!" said a smooth-shaven young fellow, who pressed to his side. Though clad in Mussulman garb, he whispered "Faroe Moses sent me! The Austrian consul waits you there in the car! I will lead you to him!" Muffling his face in his Ty- rol cape, Denton eyed the domes of the mosques, rising high over the hills of Rustchuk, with their sky- piercing minarets! The laden fruit trees filled the gardens that smiled around, and the mighty Danube, ?4 LOST COUNTESS FALKA. two miles wide, spread its blue lakelike sheet far over to Giurgovo! Everywhere were scowling faces, loud curses followed the giaour dog, and even the wayfarer and beggar spat in the dust after them! Every second passer-by was a Mohammedan ! "No help here !" growled Denton. "He was on the enemy's picket line!" The young disguised Hebrew pushed through the noisy throng and with a glance of his gleaming, soft Semitic eyes, signaled Denton to a reserved compartment! There was a grave faced of- ficial there, who drew the curtains as the two attend- ants watched the door outside! "I have chartered this compartment, Major!" said the anxious consul. "I shall watch outside and put my dragoman in here with you at the last moment. Your man and this young Israelite will be the only other travelers allowed to en- ter! You are armed?" Denton smiled as he showed two revolver butts projecting under his cloak. "Then say nothing to any one. The Hebrew and my drago- man understand all the languages. The Jewish boy will go on to Stamboul with you! My man comes back from Varna! The Embassy's launch will take you off the ship!" "And, the 'Sultanieh?'" hoarsely whispered Denton. "Left here forty hours ago, under full racing speed! The Princess Esme embarked here in a Pasha's barge and no one was allowed to board the yacht, which only slowed up in the stream! My dragoman will have all the refreshments you need. Do not leave the car or speak to a single stranger till you are at Varna! Once there instantly drive to the Austrian steamer! Do not leave it even for an instant! and beware of treachery! You have nothing in your luggage to betray your identity?" "Not a single scrap of paper but my passport and letter of credit, and they are here !" Denton tapped his broad breast ! "Then auf Wiedersehen ! God guard and guide you !" cried the consul, as he motioned Denton back, while LOST COUNTESS FALKA. 75 he glided from the car! "I have provided all your tick- ets! The Jew will arrange all with the dragoman!" There was not a word spoken above a whisper until the train rolled into Varna in the gray of the morning! There, on the low sand bank, the dirty town huddled with the shallow Black sea stretching far out to north- east and south! The low red-tiled houses clustered around the dingy mosques and kiosks, and the wild shouts of the Moslem throng woke the drowsy echoes of the dirty streets ! Huge clumps of cypresses marked the resting place of the thousands of French and Eng- lish who died here that the Turkish rule might spread its unspeakable horrors on the hither side of the Bos- porus ! When safely over the side of the stout steamer,"Tege- thoff," Denton swept the open sea with his eye! There was the trackless blue waste, over which lima Falka, the daughter of a princely line, was to be wafted away to the scene of her hideous death in life! Denton pressed the hand of the dragoman in adieu, and murmured a blessing on the friend in need who had made the dangerous way smooth ! His heart beat in a tumult as the great ship swept on far to the south, where low fog banks veiled the narrow Euxine pass of the Bosporus ! Filthy pilgrims, greasy Jewish beggars, swarthy Armenians and knavish Greeks screamed and jostled on the open deck forward! The cabins were empty and, a half hour after leaving, a ship's steward summoned the American voyager to the captain's cab- in. "You are my guest!" said the sturdy sailor. "I have orders from the Embassy. Pray join me here and leave your man on watch in your room! No one must see you!" Denton bowed, while his grave face lightened, as the veiled friendship touched his heart! "When do we enter the Bosporus, Captain?" he asked. "To-morrow at dawn! I'll have you roused up!" the mariner answered. "We reach Stamboul at noon! I have telegraphed your presence already! I 76 LOST COUNTESS FALKA. ask but one favor! Do not show yourself on deck at Stamboul till the launch comes for you." Denton was roused from his uneasy sleep in the captain's cabin long before daylight, as a bellowing gun greeted the steamer's lights with the order of the Turk to heave the steamer to! It was seven o'clock before the fog lifted, and the "TegethofF stood into the silver strait, which showed its great walled fortress camp on the low point to the west, and the morning sun streamed through the staring windows of the old dismantled castellated towers to the east! Hidden in the cliffs were huge red batteries and far below at the water line, the grinning Krupps lay, great black war dogs in readiness, and the blood red flag, with its white crescent, waved above the ramparts, whence the wild, barbaric bugles sang the Turkish reveille ! At half speed the "Tegethoff" entered the superb strait which for seventeen miles winds through the Thracian moun- tains. In the varying beauty of its seven bays, no other inlet of the world has the pictured beauty of the one outlet of the Euxine, where lo, as a cow, stemmed the silver tide. Before the great embattled fort on the east side of the sea outlet, the "Tegethoff" halted until a boarding officer gave practique. As a line of foreign vessels slowly followed in their wake, Eraser Denton scanned the hills where once the spears of the Var- angians shone. Covered ways, camps, forts and masked batteries dotted the slopes where ruined castle, modern kiosk, fairy chateau and water overhanging gardens filled up a scene of the wildest witchery ! Suddenly he turned and grasped the captain's arm! "What boat is that?" he cried, as a rakish yacht in black and gold sped by, her great full-sized cabin win- dows all draped in silken curtains! There were but one or two sailors on deck, but the boat passed like a vis- ion, at full speed, the red banner with Mahomet's dread crescent symbol flowing out in a crimson streak! "That is Princess Esme's yacht, the 'Sultanieh !' My LOST COUNTESS FALKA. 77 God!" cried the hardy sailor, as Denton reeled and then staggered to a seat! The veteran's eyes were glazed as in a convulsion. His lips moved and yet no sign of speech came forth ! Only a hollow groan of baffled rage, the agony of a strong man's heart! The yacht was already out of sight behind the nearest turn of the strait ! "It is nothing! I'm all right now!" gasped Denton. "Can't we overtake that boat?" The captain mournfully shook his head! "We for- eigners are forced by direst penalty to go through at half speed, so the 'Sultanieh' will be well off Seraglio Point before we reach Darius' old boat bridge crossing, half way through! And, that same boat has torpedo boat engines. She can do eighteen to twenty knots and she was doing it to-day ! She has come down from the mouth of the Danube!" Major Denton sought the prow, but his field glasses never showed him the Sultanieh again! His face was as stern as a Pawnee on the war path, and he never smiled, save when the flags on the foreign legation houses at Buyukdere caught his eye! There was the signal of the forlorn hope! Ilma's last chance! The all powerful Foreign Embassies! On past beautiful Therapia, Beicos Palace and then Tcheragan, Beylerbey and the great Genoese castle at Roumelie Hissar, where the chain was once swung over the strait, the vessel forged slowly along, Denton noting the American college perched high above, with the star flag floating there! It thrilled the old soldier to the very marrow. "I will rescue her! So help me God! and the mem- ory of my dead mother!" he swore, as he lifted his hat in adoration of his country's flag of stars ! He shivered as the captain sought him out at last and touched his arm. "There, there is your boat! Fires out now!" and the soldier saw the lean "Sultanieh" lying swinging idly on the glassy waves, before the mile length of palace splendor where Ismail Pasha held 78 LOST COUNTESS FALKA. his foul revels, outvying the classic hideousness of Tiberius. 'That is Dolma-Baghtche !" the sailor whispered. "Go into my cabin now! Do not show your face! We will be at anchor in an hour! I will give your men their orders!" From the windows of the deck cabin, Denton saw the unrivaled panorama of Constantinople gleam out before him in the setting sun! "Thank God, at last!" he cried, as sweeping by the hills of Pera he saw the Russian Embassy, perched high on the hill, under the shadow of the matchless tower of the Genoese! He was dreaming in the glamour spell when the burly cap- tain threw open the door! He cried, "Quick! Quick! The legation launch is here, and a hundred caiques are hovering around! Hold this sun umbrella over your face! Good-bye! No thanks! God bless you!" Springing down the companionway, Denton en- tered the cabin of the launch, behind which a great blue and white St. Andrew's cross floated, drooping to the water! It was the Imperial war flag of mighty Russia! In the darkness of the cabin he could not see the man who grasped him in a bear's hug, for all the windows were darkened, but the ringing voice of Soltykoff cried : "Now for our quest first, then vengeance!" They were at the custom's landing before Denton found voice to learn aught but that Arpad and Paul were in waiting! "And, Faroe Moses and Mclvor Pasha?" he cried. "Both here and we have formed our plan of action !" "How is Arpad?" faltered Denton. "On the verge of insanity, but as alert as a panther! God help him ! God help Magda !" answered Soltykoff ! Seizing Denton by the hand he almost shrieked, "Tell me, Fraser, does she love me?" Denton gazed in the Russian noble's eyes. "Serge !" he solemnly said, "behind the cloud which has kept you apart, you will find your goddess yet with her open arms stretched toward you and her heart aflame!" LOST COUNTESS FALKA. 79 Soltykoff laughed, even in his misery, "I will follow Mustapha to the gates of hell and I will have that girl, stainless and alive! I swear it! By the cross of Christ!" As the closed carriage picked its way along the thronged alleys of Galata, where a dozen nations min- gled, the hoarse cries of the street venders drowned Sol- tykoffs voice, when he hoarsely muttered, "Have you learned aught?" Denton drew him toward him and whispered, "The 'Sultanieh' anchored an hour ago off Dolma-Baghtche Palace! She passed our steamer at the Pratique station!" Soltykoff shuddered! "We must never be seen to- gether even for a single moment! There are fifty kiosks and harem haunts spread around the guarded wilderness of the clustered palaces on the European bank here! They are guarded by the fiercest merce- naries and the flinty -hearted eunuchs! We must bur- row in the dark! One false step and poor Ilma's head- less corpse would be consigned to the gloomy burrows of this vast walled tract! This hell on earth here cov- ers some thousands of acres, and five regiments of brutes guard the wall, besides myriad spies!" The carriage slowly picked its way along the inclines leading up to Pera, avoiding the clustered brown dogs blinking there in lazy knots. "Have you formed a plan?" whispered the American. "Yes!" quickly an- swered Soltykoff. "The Russian and Austrian am- bassadors, the American missionaries, the Austrian and French banks, the whole corps of diplomatic drago- men, the steamboat officials, and all the chiefs of the Indo-European Telegraph Company, know that an un- told reward awaits the daring man who will discover to us poor Ilma's place of hiding!" "But, none of these can enter the harem walls?" sad- ly replied Denton ! His face was seamed with the lines of despair. "True!" rejoined Soltykoff. "I have brought Gover- nor Mouravief's word of honor to Faroe Moses, that he 6 80 LOST COUNTESS FALKA. shall have any use of the Russian passport that he ever craves if he will work upon the court barbers, the har- em attendants, the Armenian peddlers, the jewel and trinket sellers and bring us news! "To Moses himself, I have offered half my estates should he be able to penetrate the line of her bloody guardians, and open communication with her! We have but one slight hope of final success! The re- markable beauty of this golden-haired, dark-eyed Hun- garian would excite wonder, even among the childish inmates of these gilded cages! We have other possi- ble allies! There are fifty renegade Europeans who hold various stations of rank here! The harems, too, are filled with Austrian, German, French and Italian dancers and singers who have been lured here by men like Mustapha! "Many of these stay willingly, for their life of li- cense, unfitting them for further artistic careers, is a strange aid to the harem career, these substantial Cleo- patras finding strange favor with these Turkish devils! Descending from' the Serail of the Sultan to the great Pashas, these women, loosely guarded, at last find means through attendants, to link their fortunes to the base foreign adventurers who prey upon the Sultan, even under the shadow of the bloody swords of the Nubian guards! Some of these women, mistresses of all the languages, may be safely approached! Last of all, the head eunuchs! They are misers, and all are covetous of gold! Now, Arpad will make a colossal present to the sly Aga, who may listen to Faroe Moses' honeyed tongue!" "They were already driving into the solid walled en- closure of the Russian Embassy when Denton said, "A demand of the foreign ministers jointly!" "Ah!" sighed Soltykoff, "she would be quietly spirited away at night! There is Smyrna, Salonique, guarded Les- bos and Mitylene, with Trebizonde! There is Damas- cus, Bagdad, even Teheran! All the harem women travel guarded and isolated! They force the veil and LOST COUNTESS FALKA. 81 costume on timid captives and even the willing Mes- salinas! A single sleeping potion, an opiate would baffle the poor child's watchfulness! No! It is our policy to wait with beating hearts in silence and not frighten them into hiding her far beyond any Euro- pean aid! At our slightest public action, Ilma's life would be forfeited! But, here we are! Arpad waits for you! He says that he must first see you, then to Paul and myself he will give his mother's story in your presence! Poor Arpad! He is but the wreck of himself!" As the American was ushered up into an apartment on the second floor Soltykoff said, "I will join you with Paul the moment Arpad calls us ! Your two men will be taken care of below! This Embassy is at once a fortress, palace, hotel and hiding place! No Moslem ever enters the residence wing ! We are sealed up from the world here!" Denton caught but one glance of the royal pano- rama of Scutari and the Sea of Marmora, with the far off snow-clad Mount Olympus rising far on the Asian shore, when Arpad Falka sprang into the room! He locked the door and started back, as Denton cried in horror: "My God! Arpad! You have aged twenty years!" The Magyar soldier's eyes blazed with a wild fire from sunken sockets, and his quivering lips trembled as he said, "Waste no time, Major! Listen to me! Every moment oh! my God! My sister! My lima!" He threw himself in a chair. "How is your mother?" said Denton, trying to di- vert the half crazed man. "Barely alive!" groaned Arpad. "It is of her that I would speak ! I hold you as of our house, for I have a letter for you from Aida ! Bela and her are my mother's children now! Her guardians! We are to be of one family! Hear me first!" The young noble paced the room with tiger- like strides! "All is well at Falkenstem! Paul brought his mother there! Doctor Eschenbach will stay till 2 LOST COUNTESS FALKA. the worst is known, or we have found lima! Bela is assigned to command the secret guard, a company at theSchloss! "Now there is Soltykoff, gallant, noble, headlong soul! I know his delicacy, and you can see why my mother has so long held apart from her the love which has been her only hope! Fool! I was so blind! Wrapped up in my water fly pleasures of the moment !" He sighed heavily and resumed, "I tell you the story and we must not wound Soltykoff's pride! You can relate to him what you will, for to-night Faroe Moses will be here with a report! Put me in where there is the most danger! For, remember this renegade has never seen me! He knows all the rest of you! My mother called me to her, on my return and said, 'Ar- pad ! Here is the whole story of my fears, of my past trials ! There is but one who must not know it all ! That man is Serge Soltykoff! But you and Major Den- ton must judge me alone ! I was a lonely high spirited girl when Gabor Falka brought me to the Schloss! Our perfect happiness ndured until this scoundrel was made Adjutant of your noble father's regiment! I knew this masquerading villain only as Count Janos Kinsky! I will not speak of him save to say that he had all the arts ai* ' graces! He was, to all appear- ance, a perfect soldier! So, he soon gained your fath- er's confidence ! I put away, as a loving wife, the veiled entreaty of Kinsky's bold glances, and fearful of your father's vengeance, affected not to notice the growing passion of the handsome Adjutant. I wondered at your father's strange intimacy with this would-be traitor, until I learned by many trials, that the assemblies of the nearest nobles at the Schloss had other aims than feudal hospitality, or the chase ! For, the ladies of the great families came not with these gatherings, which were held often, at night! There were forest trysts, and in time, strange men of rank from all quarters of Hungary came and went by stealth! Kinsky, en- throned in the Count's private rooms, was busied with LOST COUNTESS FALKA. 83 papers and details, and my maids soon informed me of the ingress and egress of friends, strangers, couriers, and even disguised secret agents, all using the secret entrance in the tower! Fear made me silent! I was young and had no one to advise ! At first I was madly jealous and then the truth flashed upon me! There was a budding conspiracy ! Left with you, a mere prat- tling boy, as my sole companion, it was Kinsky alone who was always near to brighten the days of gloom! Your father made many secret trips afar, as well as his usual military inspections! It was all in vain that I proudly kept my rooms, and thus avoided Kinsky, while he remained behind at the Count's bidding to guard the secrets of the central conspiracy ! He forced himself upon me ! It was in the second year of these strange occurrences that, emboldened at last by my fatal silence as to his covert advances, he threw off the mask! I dared not bring your father's head to the block! For even the hangman's halter had been the instrument of Austria's cold vengeance. Kinsky, cold and pitiless, veiling his villainy in warm and romantic pleadings, painted the secret joys of being always near me, of breathing the air of my home! I feared for my husband, I feared for you, my son ! For your father's life, for your rank and your birthright! Count Gabor was a reckless political enthusiast, and I saw his brow daily become sterner. We were alienated by his plots, and by my fears! I clad myself in an icy reserve! And so I avoided Kinsky's pursuing wiles! But the day came at last when the crafty scoundrel felt that he held the very lives of the Magyar nobles in his hands! Whether power or a mad passion emboldened him, I know not! But his brutal advances were violent! I screamed in terror! Your father had returned sud- denly at a summons of others, for a sudden confer- ence! The retainers had heard my loud alarm! Then the scales fell from my husband's eyes when they showed him the false friend caged in the round tower! You know of your father's headlong vengeance! The 84 LOST COUNTESS FALKA. brute was chased away from the lands of his fathers, but after four years the vile assassin glutted his re- venge! I had never dared to tell your father of Kins- ky's continued insolences ! Even in my girlish widow- hood I saw that some hostile influence pursued the circle who had held the secret of the tower entrance, the gallant men of the midnight juntas! Some dis- graced, some sent to exile, several ounished for fan- cied offenses, a cold remorseless hatred seemed to be hounding them all down! Now, I ;