Princess Zara

"Yes, oh, yes," she cried unhesitatingly. "What am I to do?"

"Call the servant who is to take the message."

She turned to the door without another word, and disappeared beyond it.

The moment she was gone, I took a fountain pen and a pad of paper from

my pocket, and wrote rapidly--or seemed to write, for the pen left no

trace upon the paper.

My invisible note was completed and I was writing with another pen upon

a second sheet of paper when the princess reëntered the room. This time

the writing was plainly visible, and while I asked her for an envelope

I passed it to her to read.

It was addressed to my friend Canfield who had charge of the messenger

service, and merely instructed him to "forward the packages that had

been left with him that morning" to their several addresses without

delay. It was signed, "Dubravnik."

"Is this the note my servant is to take?" she asked, incredulously.

"Yes."

I folded the apparently blank sheet with the other and placed them both

in the envelope which I had already addressed.

"You see there is no harm in that note, even if the men outside should

read it," I added, when the servant had departed. "Your man, who is of

course a spy, will read the note, which I purposely left unsealed, as

soon as he is out of sight of the house. In an hour every man who is

waiting to take my life will be in prison. If your brother is among

them, he will not be harmed and you----"

I hesitated, and she raised her eyes to mine and said: "Well, and I?"

"You will have to do as you have agreed to do, obey me." I hesitated

again and then with a desperate courage, added: "Love, honor, and obey

me."