Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1918-03-15
CHAPTER ~.
The Letter.

Alone and storming. She had sent her
maid away with a sharp word, and
now she was pacing the floor.
Hedwig, of all peoplel
She hated her. She had always
hated her. For her youth, first later,
when she saw how things were going,
for the accident that had made her a
granddaughter to the king.
And Karll
Even this last June, when Karl had
made his looked-for visit to the sum-
mer palace where the court had been
IN residence, he had already had the
thing in mind. Even when his arms
had been about her, Olga Loschek, he
had been looking over her shoulder,
as it were, at Hedwig. He had had it
all in his wicked head, ever then. For
Karl was wicked. She loathed him
while she loved him.
Hedwig would marry Karl. She
might be troublesome, would indeed
almost certainly be troublesome.
Strangely enough, the countess hated
her the more for that. To value so
lightly the thing for which Olga
Loschek would have given her soul,
this in itself was hateful. But there
was more. The countess saw much
with her curiously wide, almost child
ishly bland eyes 1t was only now that
1t occurred to her to turn what she
knew of Hedwig and Milky to account.
She stopped pacing the floor, and
sat down. Suppose Hedwig and Milky
Larisch went away together? He'd
wig, she felt, would have the courage
even for that. That would stop things.
But Hedwig did not trust her. And
there vas about Milky a dog-like quail
ity of devotion, which warned her
that, the deeper his love for Hedwig,
the more unlikely he would be to
bring her to disgrace. Milky might
be difficult.
She must try for Hedwig's con-
idencei But Karli How to reach
him? Not with ~reproaches, not with
anger. She knew her man well. To
hold him off was the first thing. To
postpone the formal proposal, and gain
time. If the chancellor had been right,
and things were as bad as they ap-
peared, the kings death would precipi-
tate a crisis. Might, indeed, overturn
the throne.
The king was very feeble. This
affair of yesterday had told on him.
The gossip of the court was that the
day had seen a change for the worse.
His heart was conferred on the crown
prince.
All, here was another viewpoint.
Suppose the crown prince had not
come back? What would happen, with
the king dead, and no king? Chaos,
of course. A free hand to revolution.
Hedwig fighting for her throne, and
inevitably losing 1t.
But that was further than she cared
to go just then. She would finish GER
tain work that she had set out to do,
and then she was through. No longer
would dread and terror grip her in the
night hours.
But she would finish. Karl should
never say she had failed him. She
had in her possession papers for which
he waited or pretended to wait: data
secured by means she did not care to
remember plans and figures carefully
compiled-a thousand deaths In one, if
they were found on her. She would
get them out of her hands at once.
It was still but little after five. She
brought her papers together on her
small mahogany desk, from such hid
ing places as women know-the Innings
of perfumed sachets, the toes of small
slippers, the secret pocket In a muff;
and having locked her doors, put
them in order. Her hands were
She was free until the dinner hour,
but she had a great deal to do. The
papers in order, she went to q panel
In the wall of her dressing room, and,
sliding it aside, revealed the safe in
which her jewels were kept. Not that
her jewels were very valuable, but the
safe was there, and she used it.
The countess took out a jewel-case,
emptied it, lifted its channels cushions,
and took out a small book. 1t was an
Indifferent hiding place, but long i'm
munity had made her careless. Re
ferring to the book, she wrote a letter
in code. 1t was, to all appearances,
n friendly letter referring to a family
in her native town, end asking that
the recipient see that assistance be
sent them before Thursday of the fol.
lowing week. The assistance was
specified with much detail-at her ex-
pense to send SO many blankets, sc
many loaves of bread, a long list.
Having finished, she destroyed, by
burning, a number of papers, watch
ing until the last ash had turned from
dull red to smoking gray. The code
book she hesitated over, but at last,
with a shrug of her shoulders, she re-
turned it to its hiding place in the
jewel-ease.