THE LITTLE ANARCHIST

Thames Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 17970, 20 August 1930, Page 3

THE LITTLE ANARCHIST

id OUR SERIAL STORY '

CHAPTER IV.—(Continued). THE LITTLE ANARCHIST. I laid the letter down with something like a chortle. She was a plucky little soul, indeed, and deserved to win, and well—Andrew was a lucky fellow. Wifh something uncommonly like a sigh I rose and went through my inner sitting-room to the bedroom beyond to get a time-table from mybag. i could not find it for a while and was returning with it when I heard a sound, like the faint crackle of a paper in the rooni i had left, followed by the rustle of someone moving quickly. Almost at the same instant there was a knock at the door and my name was called in Count Otto’s voice. When i entered he was standing well inside 'the open entrance door, looking rather confused. "Oh, there you are. I was afraid , you were not in.” f “Did you call me?” I “Just this moment as I opened the I door.” I “Oh, come in, come in.” He came in, closed the door behind him, and he seemed scrupulously careful not to approach the table. I was, of course, suspicious of him and the action looked like overplayed fastidiousness about seeing any of the open papers on my table. Then I saw the .reason. Mirla’s letter was not lying where I I had left it: but just where it might j have fallen had someone tossed it j down hurriedly when darting back to i the door. j He was not clever at the game, or J had been hurried. j Here was one reason at least why i they might wish me to remain in the I house. i j : • CHAPTER V. I . j ! “WHO IS YOUR ENEMY?"

j The incident of the letter produced

(By ARTHUR W. MARCHMONT) Author of “The Queen’s Advocate,” “When I Was Czar,” etc., etc.

a very disquieting effect upon me. I was quite certain that Count ?Otto had read it. His manner was proof enough for me. He had come apparently to make peace with me; was delighted to hear I was to stay on in

the house; professed himself most anxious to have my friendship, and remove the impression created by his visit to the hotel; would I oblige him by saying how\ he could serve me; and so on with much more to the like effect. But at the sam e time he was very restless and fidgety; and every now and then he would shoot at me quick glances of nervous scrutiny. I read the latter to mean that he would have given much to know whether I surpected him; and the former that he was keen to get away with the news he had learnt.

What use would he make of it? To whom was he to escape to tell it? Whose was the guiding hand in the matter? Was it the Prince or the Princess? To ask the question, was to answer it. It was the Princess. Her change of manner to me was proof enough. The reason for her urgent wish for me to remain in the house was, no doubt, to have me under close observation. Under the same roof surrounded by her spies, my every act could be observed, mf movements reported, my letters intercepted, even my personal safety threatened.

£ had heard of Russian hospitality of the same kind before. But for Count Otto’s blunder I should have had no suspicion. I was on my guard now, however; and was confident I could act as well as she, and far better than Count Otto. What would they do in the face of Mirla’s letter? They would not tamely submit. That was certain. What could they do? There was another question: Why were they so dead set upon Count Otto’s marriage with Mirla ?

That she had money did not seem to cover it. There were plenty of girls with money who would be glad to marry a man so good looking as

he was, with youth and rank as well

I lay awake half the night wrestling with those two questions in the light of Mirla’s words —that my arrival had brought matters to a crisis. Whatever they meant to do would be done at once; . and I must therefore see Mii'la the next morning and tell her the incident of the letter. Breakfast was served to me in my own rooms and the servant who brought it told me that the Princess always breakfasted alone • in her room; that Count Otto had gone away into the country; and that the Prince had already gone out on urgent business. He had left word that he advised me not to venture out on foot alone, and that his stables were entirely at my disposal. I resolved also to leave the Prince’s house that day, and sent Parker to the Kaiserhof to engage rooms. I was just finishing my breakfast when he returned with a very strange story. All the hotels were too full to receive me; and as in two cases the fact had only been discovered after my name had been mentioned, he had gone back to the Kaiserhof to try and learn the reason.

M. Bernhoff had at first professed to know nothing. On being pressed, however, he had admitted that there was plenty of room in the hotel but that he could not take the risk of having me there. “If the fact were, known,” he declared, “the hotel would be sacked. Tell your master that if he values his life the sooner he is out of the city the better. I would not take him here for a thousand roubles a day—nor will anyone else in Minsk.”