The Argosy, Volume XLIV — page 174: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

170 have a word or two with Marvyn, per- sisted in going away with him. 1 led Helga to the carriage, and Prince Kalkov met us by the door of the prison. ‘IT shall see you to-morrow, mon- sieur ?” “Yes, assuredly. We shall be at the Imperial.” “JT will come to you there in the afternoon at three o’clock. May JI wish your wife and you all happiness? ” Helga said nothing; she would not even look at him, and I felt the pres- sure of her hand on my arm tighten. “We ought to have it, prince. We have had to fight hard to get even thus far,” I said.. “ Good-night.” “ Good-night.” ) He bared his head and bowed to Helga, and with a smile drew aside for us to pass. Helga shivered slightly and whis- pered: “JT am very foolish; but I am still afraid of him.” “It’s something to know he fears us also,” I answered. “ We have forced him to open these gates for you, and you are now the wife of an American citi- zen. So we have the laugh on him.” “For a time,” she said thoughtfully. “No, for all our time. The Stars and Stripes will see to that. Besides, you agreed to meet even our marriage with a laugh,” and then we began to keep the agreement and to put the prince and all his wiles out of our thoughts. At breakfast on the following morn- ing Helga was in excellent spirits as we discussed the prospects of our long journey and planned the day’s work of preparation for 1t. There were a hundred things to do and innumerable purchases to make; and Jielga, with paper and _ pencil, laughed gaily as the list she made grew until its length was formidable. “There is one nut we have still to crack,” I said. “ What to do with the papers;” and I told her what Marvyn had said to me on the previous night. I had not told her before, not wish- ing to kindle her inflammable anxiety. “The prince’s hand is in it, of course, and not for any good.” was her com- ment. ———“.6.9 -— =e THE ARGOSY. “That’s the best of dealing with such a man—you can always gamble on it that he means some kind of trouble.” ‘“T think we may tear this up,” she said, and held up the list we had made so carefully. | “Tear it up? But you—oh, vou think we shan’t be allowed to go, after all?” “T don’t know what I think, but I am sure there is treachery somewhere.” I was not in a suspicious mood, how- ever. The world had become very bright to me, and I thought Helga was too much under the influence of her former feelings. One can’t shake oneself free in a dozen hours from the trammels of such a life of danger and vigilance as she had lived for years. She seemed to read my thought. “You think I am fanciful, Harper,” she said with a smile. “TI hope so; but the prince does nothing without an ob- ject, and his real object is so rarely that which he lets you see.” “Tam more confident than ever,” I sald. “Probably he is reckoning on that, dear—to recover the papers. Hoping we shall make some false step.” “I belicve you’re right; but——” I paused, for it had not dawned upon me until then all that the abandonment of the journey might mean to Helga. “I have been very thoughtless, my dear, but I see now what vou mean.” She smiled gently and sadly. “T almost hope he is not alive. He was incapable of any such crimes as the prince hinted, and if he has had to en- dure the life in the mines for all these years, it would be worse than death to him. Better death than a broken heart such as his would be. You would say so if you had known him.” “Were it my own father’s case, I would rather he were dead, Helga. I know the pain of such a thought to you. The cruelty of Kalkov in raising a false hope is just dastardly, and to do it for some fresh, crafty purpose makes it diabolical.” “What we have to do is to thwart the purpose; for, depend on it, we are in as great danger from him as ever. T think I begin to see it now.” COME OO (COL