Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1909-05-06
CHAPTER ~.
Capt. Basil Marriott and the Black


ming Which Swung in the Air.
What I have to tell you, Michael"
the duchess said, "is quite fragment
airy, and I cannot find the missing
parts of the puzzle. Alberto never
told me everything. But it amounts
to this. About six months before I
met him first he was at the court of
Neutrality-suspicious., in Germany. He
was actually engaged to the daughter
of the reigning Grand Duke Ernst-the
Princess Sophia Marie Eleanora It
was to have been announced in the
papers. 1 remember reading of it nv
self as girl, because. as you know,
we were quite close to Otter, and nat
urally, being on the estate, as it were,
we always felt a sort Of interest in
the doings of the duke, though neither
| father nor I had ever seen him.
Then suddenly the intended mar
riage was broken off. Alberto came
| secretly to Otter one night, and he
was found dangerously wounded In
| the leg by gunshot, close to the rec
tory. The keepers brought him in,
and father and l nursed him back to
health. But he would never tell me
anything Of the reason for his acct
dent, except that some one had at
/ $caI h hot
him and would do him all the injury
they could. When he asked me to
marry him he said that he had some
very powerful enemies, who would in
lure him II they could. He asked me
II would take him. knowing this, and
that there might be danger for both
Of us. I laughed at 1t all, and we
were married, as you know.
During the time we were together,
on two separate occasions, Alberic's
life was attempted. Once it was in
Paris. We were staying at the Ritz.
We had been to the opera. and as it
was very hot night Alberto thought
he would go for stroll before bed.
He came back with his left arm tenn
porarily disabled, and said that on the
outer boulevard man had come up
to him, looked him carefully in the
| face, and then aimed blow at his
head with a life. preserver. The man
hit him on the arm instead, and al
beric, who was always a great boxer,
knocked him down in a moment.
While heNwas calling for gendarme
the man got up and ran away. We
went to the police, but they made
very little of it, saying that the outer
boulevards were always dangerous late
at night, and that constant attacks
We're made upon we'll dressed people
by the ruft1ans who infested the quar-
ter.
Alberto was not in the least bit a
coward, Michael, but he seemed terri
bly depressed for days afterwards, far
more depressed than any ordinary at
TACK OF that sort would seem to war
4 rant.
At last, from hints which he let
drop and from one or two significant
Things | got him to say, learned he
was almost certain that this was no
ordinary casual attack, but part Of
the danger which he had told mo hing
4 over MIN when we were first married.
me second time was even more shor-
rlble. It was in this very house. Al
berlc's secretary. had brought him In
4 the letters that were marked Person
Il az, or that looked like. private letters.
Il We were at breakfast in the mo,,n;ne
room. There was little fiat parcel.
about the size of small book n WAS
4 addressed ar to Alberto and marked .Pri-
yate. He cut the string with pen
i Knife il1 remember we were talking
about somethingand he opened it
without looking at what he was doing.
! Inside the parcel WAS a fat cardboa I'd
box, Just Ike those big boxes Of wax