Through me he learned of the military strength of France, her secret
resources, of her tireless watch upon the Rhine. So he listens to
Immelan, and Immelan and he together, oh, English lady, they have made a
wonderful plan!"
"Are you going to tell me what it is?" Maggie asked, her eyes bright
with excitement.
"I cannot tell you because I do not know," was the unwilling admission,
"but I will make it so that you can discover for yourself. A few hours
ago, the plan was submitted to Prince Shan. It lies in the third drawer
of an ebony cabinet, in the room on the left-hand side of the hall after
you have entered his house in Curzon Street."
"But no one can enter it!" Maggie exclaimed. "The place is like a fort.
No stranger may pass the threshold even. The Prince has told me himself
that he receives no visitors."
La Belle Nita smiled. From a pocket somewhere within the folds of her
flowing gown, she produced two small keys.
"Listen," she said. "The house in Curzon Street has been called the
House of Silence. There are many servants there, but they come only from
beneath and when they are summoned. There is what no other person has
ever possessed--the key of the front door. There is also the key of the
cabinet. Prince Shan has ordered his automobile for two o'clock. It is
now barely midnight."
The keys lay in the palm of Maggie's hand. Her heart had begun to beat
quickly. Somehow or other, she was conscious of a thrill of excitement
which she had never before experienced, even when she had sat back in
her corner of the railway carriage, watching for the frontier, knowing
that the wires were busy with her name, and that men who knew no mercy
were on her track.
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