The Lighted Match

"I shall persuade her," declared Karyl. "She can take several

ladies-in-waiting and you can accompany her to the yacht and explain to

Benton. Direct him to cruise within wireless call and to avoid cities

where the Queen might be in danger of recognition. She must remain until

we gain some hint as to when and where the crater is apt to break into

eruption."

Jusseret was busy. His agencies were at work over the peninsula. It was

the sort of conspiracy in which the Frenchman took the keenest

delight--purely a military revolution.

The peasant on the mountains, the agriculturist in his buttressed and

terraced farm, the grape-grower in his vineyard and the artisan and

laborer in Puntal did not know that there was dissatisfaction with the

government.

But in the small army and the smaller bureaucracy there was plotting and

undermining. Subtle and devious temptations were employed. Captains saw

before them the shoulder straps of the major, lieutenants the insignia

of the captain, privates the chevrons of the sergeant.

Meanwhile, from a town in southerly Europe, near the Galavian frontier,

Monsieur Jusseret in person was alertly watching.

Martin, the "English Jackal," much depleted in fortune, drifting before

vagabond winds and hailing last from Malta, learned of the Frenchman's

seemingly empty programme. Since his dismissal by the Countess, there

had been no employer for his unscrupulous talents. Now he needed funds.

Where Jusseret operated there might be work in his particular line. He

knew that when this man seemed most idle he was often most busy. Martin

had come to a near-by point by chance. He went on to Jusseret's town,

and then to his hotel, with the same surety and motive that directs the

vulture to its carrion. The Jackal was ushered into the Frenchman's

room in the tattered and somewhat disheveled condition to which his

recent weeks of vagabondage had subjected him.

Jusseret looked his former ally over with scarcely concealed contempt.

Martin sustained the stare and returned it with one coolly audacious.

"I daresay," he began, with something of insolence in his drawl, "it's

hardly necessary to explain why I'm here. I'm looking for something to

do, and in my condition"--he glanced deprecatingly down at his faded

tweeds--"one can't be over nice in selecting one's business associates."

Jusseret was secretly pleased. He divined that before the end came there

might be use for Martin, though no immediate need of him suggested

itself. There were so few men obtainable who would, without question,

undertake and execute intrigue or homicide equally well. It might be

expedient to hold this one in reserve.