Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1918-04-26

looking at the portrait OF MS deao
son.
>
The following morning the Countess
Loschek left for a holiday. She had
the choice of but two alternatives, to
do as she had been commanded, for it
amounted to that, or to die. The COM
mittee would not kill her, in case she
failed them. 1t would be unnecessary.
Enough that they place the letter and
the code in the hands of the author
tiles, by some anonymous means. Well
enough she knew the chaDcellor's in
flexible anger, and the Archduchess
Annunciata's cold rage. They would
sweep her away with a gesture, and
she would die the death of all traitors.
A week. Time had peer when a
week of the dragging days at the pal
ace had seemed eternity. Now the
hours flew. The gold clock on her
dressing table, a gift from the arch
duchess, marked them with flying
hands.
During the afternoon came q pack
age, rather unskillfully tied with a gilt
cord. Opening it, the countess dis
closed a glove box of wood, with a de-
sign of rather shaky violets burnt into
the cover. Inside was a note:
1 am very sorry you are sick. This is
to put your gloves in when you travel.
Please excuse the work. I have done 1t
in a hurry.
FERDINAND WILLIAM OTTO.
Suddenly the countess laughed, chok-
ing hysterical laughter that alarmed
Minna; horrible laughter, which left
her paler than ever, and gasping.
y y = n
The old castle of the Loscheks
looked grim and inhospitable when she
reached it that night. Built during the
years when the unbeliever overran
southern Europe, it stood in a COM
handing position over a valley, and a
steep, walled road led up to it.
But, its ancient glory and good re-
pute departed, it's garrison gone, its
d~rawbridge and moat things of the
past, its very hangings and furnish
ings moldering from long neglect. it
hung over the valley, a past menace,
an empty threat.
To this dreary refuge the countess
had fled. She wanted the silence of
its still rooms in which to think.
Wretched herself, its wretchedness
called her. AS the carriage which had
brought her from the railway turned
into its woods, and she breathed the
pungent odor of pine and baIsam, she
relaxed for the first time.
Why was she so hopeless? She
could escape. She knew the woods
we'll. None who followed her could
know them so well. She would get
away, and somewhere, in a new world,
make a fresh start. Surely, after all,
peace was the greatest thing in the
world.
The carriage drove on; Minna, On
the box, crossed herself at sight of the
church, and chatted with the driver,
a great figure who crowded her to the
very edge of the seat.
ST am glad to be here" she said. st
am sick Of grandeur. My home is in
Etzel." She turned and inspected the
man beside here. "You are q new
conner, l thinkT'
81 have but just come to Etzel."
"Then you cannot tell me about my
people," She was disappointed.
"And you," inquired the driver.
f'you will stay for a visit?
"a week only. But better than moth
ing"
"After that, you return to the city?"
"Yes. Madame the countess-you
would know, If you were E%tzel-born-
madame the countess is lady In wait
ing to her royal highness, the Arch
duchess Annunciata."
$50 p said the driver. But he was
not curious, and the broken road de-
manded his attention. He was but
newly come, so very newly that he did
not know his way, and once made q.
wrong turning.
The countess relaxed. She slept
that night.
When she had breakfasted and
dressed, she went out on a balcony,
and looked down at the valley. Her
eyes dropped to the old wall below,
where in the sunshine the caretaker
was beating a rug. Close to him, In In
innate and cautious conversation, was
the driver of the night before. Glanc
ing up, they saw her and at once
separated.
Gone was peace, then. The countess
knew-knew certainly. sour eyes see
everywhere" Eyes, indeed-eyes that
even now the caretaker raised furtive'
ly from his rug.
Nevertheless, the countess was
minded to experiment, to be certain
For none Is so suspicious, she knew,
as one who fears suspicion. None SO
guilty as the guilty. During the fore
loon she walked through the woods,
going briskly, with vigorous, mountain,
L.Aa aA NJ a=aaliA 0a ..darkE.ash