I
ceased to urge him. When I assented to his wishes, every shadow
vanished from his face, and he began to discuss the details of
the plan with business-like brevity.
"I shall leave James with you," said Rudolf. "He'll be very
useful, and you can rely on him absolutely. Any message that you
dare trust to no other conveyance, give to him; he'll carry it.
He can shoot, too." He rose as he spoke. "I'll look in before I
start," he added, "and hear what the doctor says about you."
I lay there, thinking, as men sick and weary in body will, of the
dangers and the desperate nature of the risk, rather than of the
hope which its boldness would have inspired in a healthy, active
brain. I distrusted the rapid inference that Rudolf had drawn
from Sapt's telegram, telling myself that it was based on too
slender a foundation. Well, there I was wrong, and I am glad now
to pay that tribute to his discernment. The first steps of
Rupert's scheme were laid as Rudolf had conjectured: Rischenheim
had started, even while I lay there, for Zenda, carrying on his
person a copy of the queen's farewell letter and armed for his
enterprise by his right of audience with the king. So far we were
right, then; for the rest we were in darkness, not knowing or
being able even to guess where Rupert would choose to await the
result of the first cast, or what precautions he had taken
against the failure of his envoy.
Pages:
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66