The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1906-11-02
/ gave to you out fhereY-
99
GOpmiSht. 1904. hy DOM.
Mesd and 6oHpsay

er about him. please. Wait here with
me until we have reports from the
troops. l shall not sleep until l know
what those fires meant Forget Baldos
for an hour or two for my sake"
You dear old princess; I'm an awful
brute sure 'nough. I'll forget him for
ever for your sake. 1t won't be hard
either. He's just mere guard. Pooh!
He's no prince"
Whereupon, REINFORCED by Mrs. An
guish and the Countess Halfont. she
proceeded to devote herself to the task
Of soothing and amusing the distressed
princess while the soldiers of Grau-
night passed. and the next day was far
on its way to sunset before the scouts
came in with tidings. No trace of the
mysterious signalers had been found.
The embers of the half dozen fires
were discovered, but their builders
were gone. The search took in miles
) of territory, but it was unavailing.
/ Not even a straggler was found. The
| so called troupe of actors, around
whom suspicion conferred, had been
swallowed by the capacious solitude Of
the hills. Riders from the frontier
posts to the south came in with the
report that all was quiet In the threat
ened district. Dawsbergen was lying
quiescent, but with the readiness of a
skulking dog
There was absolutely no solution to
the mystery connected with the fires
on the mountain sides. Baldos was
questioned privately and earnestly by
Lorry and Dangloss. His reply was
simple, but 1t furnished food for re-
Election and at the same time no little
relief to the troubled leaders.
ut is my belief. Mr.. Lorry, that the
fires were built by brigands and not
by your military foes. have seen
these fires In the north, near Axphain,
and they were invariably meant to es-
tablish communication between sepa-
rated squads of robbers, all belonging
to one band. My friends and | on
more than one occasion narrowly es-
capped disaster by prying into the af-
fairs of these signalers. l take it that
the squads have been operating in the
south and were brought together last
night by means of the fires. Doubtless
they have some big project of their
own sort on foot"
That night the city looked for a rep
etition of the fires, but the mountains
were black from dusk till dawn. Word
reached the castle late in the evening
from GanlOok that an Axphainian no
bleman and his followers would reach
Edelweiss the next day. The visit was
a friendly but an important one The
Iobleman was no other than the young
Duke of Mizrox. intimate friend of the
unfortunate Prince Lorenz who met
his death at the hand of Prince Ga
briel and was the leader of the party
which opposed the vengeful plans of
Princess Volga. His arrival in Edel-
weiss was awaited with deep anxiety,
for it was suspected that his news
would be of the most important char
acter.
Beverly Calhoun sat on the balcony
with the princess long after midnight.
The sky was black with the clouds of
an approaching storm. The air was
heavy with foreboding silence. Twice
from their darkened corner near the
pillar they saw Baldos as he paced
steadily past the castle on patrol, with
Haddan at his side. Dreamily the
watchers in the cool balcony looked
down upon the somber park and its
occasional guardsman. Neither was in
the mood to talk AS they rose at last
to 20 to their rooms something whizZed
through the air and dropped with a
slight thud lii the center of the balcony.
The two young women started back in
alarm. A faint light from Beverly's
window filtered across the stone floor.
Don't touch it, Beverly cried the
princess as the girl started forward
with an eager exclamation. But Bev-
erly had been thinking of the very OBJ
ject that now quivered before her In
the dull light saucy, aggressive and
jaunty as it was the night when she
saw 1t for the first time.
A long, dim red feather bobbed to
and fro as II saluting her with soldierly
fidelity. Its base was an orange, into
which it had been stuck by the hand
that tossed it from below. Beverly
grasped 1t with more ecstasy than wis
dom and then rushed to the stone rail-
ing, Yetive looking on in 'amazement.
Diligently she searched the ground be-
low for the man who had sent the red
message, but he was nowhere in sight.
Then came the sudden realization that
she was revealing a most unmaidenly
eagerness, to him as well as to the
princess, for she did not doubt that he
was watching from the shadows be-
low. She withdrew from the rail in
confusion and fed to her bedchamber,
followed by her curious companion.
There were explanations-none of
which struck speaker or listener as log
Zealand there were giggles which
completely simplified the situation.
Beverly thrust the slim red feather
into her hair and struck an attitude