at seven o’clock that evening posadowski and posnovitch had entered an elevated car at houston street, bound up-town. they were dressed with more regard for appearances than usual. on their faces was an expression of suppressed excitement, and their gestures, as they talked earnestly in their native tongue, indicated that they had a grave matter under discussion.

“i will tell you all that i have done,” said posadowski, after they were seated. “part of it you know. you have fixed rudolph, and the house is ready for us. did he give you much trouble?”

“no,” answered posnovitch. “give rudolph plenty of liquor, a little money, and appeal to his patriotism, and he is an easy tool to handle.”

“good!” returned posadowski. “now i have sworn in fifteen men who have agreed to devote their time for the next few weeks to this matter. eight of them went up to rudolph’s place at six o’clock. at four o’clock to-morrow morning they will be relieved by the others. i have arranged the shifts so that the work will be easy for all of us.”

“but how,” asked posnovitch, eagerly, “will you get the prince to leave the house alone?”

[26]

“i know the man,” answered posadowski. “i am depending upon his pride and the fact that he will not dare to make a confidant of any one of his new friends.”

“how did you learn where he was going to dine?”

“that was not difficult,” answered posadowski modestly. “i heard him tell the clerk at his hotel this afternoon to send any cable despatch that came for him this evening to no.—fifth avenue. i telegraphed rukacs, in cipher, to watch the house and to have the carriage ready for us. svolak—i swore him in this morning—will be on the box alone. there is only one thing now that can defeat our scheme.”

“and that is——?” asked the gigantic rexanian, eagerly.

“the refusal of the prince to look upon us as friends.”

“he will be suspicious, of course. and we can’t use violence on fifth avenue in the early evening.”

posadowski smiled confidently. taking a letter from his pocket, he handed it to his companion. it was a short note, addressed to “my good friend posadowski,” signed by the king of rexania, and expressing the gratitude of the writer for services performed by the recipient.

“it is easily explained,” remarked the arch-conspirator. “my brother, you know, was a loyalist. he did the king many good turns in the days of the revolution. when my brother died, his effects were sent to me; i found this letter among them. the rexanian officials on the border are sometimes very careless. of course i have always taken good[27] care of this epistle. i had a feeling that it would be of value to me some time or other. i am inclined to think that the success of our plans to-night rests on the king’s signature.”

“you heard from the palace to-day?”

“a short cable despatch in cipher. the king is restless; his physicians are worried about him.”

“good!” cried posnovitch. “i think they have good cause to be. both he and his kingdom are on their last legs.”

when the train reached forty-seventh street the two rexanians made a hasty exit and hurried down the stairs. it was a hot, close night in september. somehow the summer, dissatisfied with its career, had impinged upon the fall and was now engaged in maliciously breaking a record. the sky was overhung with heavy clouds, and now and then a flash of lightning glared through the streets.

posadowski and his towering companion turned up fifth avenue, and after a short walk were accosted by rukacs. pointing to a house just opposite to where they stood, he said, with a tremor of excitement in his voice:

“there’s where he is dining. he has been in there over an hour.”

“good!” cried posadowski. “wait here until i rejoin you.”

crossing the street, the rexanian mounted the steps of gerald strong’s mansion, rang the bell, and, after a short discussion with the attendant, left in his hands the note that informed the prince that friends awaited him outside—a note that, as we know, he received and acted upon.

[28]

when he returned to the sidewalk, posadowski, noting carefully that he was not being watched from the house, approached the carriage that was awaiting the prince’s exit.

“listen, svolak,” he said to the liveried driver, who had dismounted from the box. “if you are dismissed by an order from the house, drive off and station yourself by that corner light, half a block down the street. wait there until you get another order from me. understand me?”

“thoroughly,” answered svolak, remounting the box.

a moment later posadowski had rejoined posnovitch and rukacs on the opposite side of the street. the front door of the house opened; the hall attendant ran down the steps and gave an order to svolak. the carriage rattled over the noisy pavement and made its way down-town.

“all goes well, my brothers,” cried posadowski, joyfully. “if he leaves that house alone, no power on earth can save the kingdom of rexania from destruction. never before in the history of the world did the birth of a republic depend upon whether a guest left his host in company or alone. but that is just how the crisis stands at this moment. i have played the whole game on the chance that the prince will not care to have his new friends learn his secret. i believe that he will come out to us alone. if he does, success is in our hands. if he doesn’t, we must wait for another chance.”

time went by: the conspirators grew restless and impatient. so much was at stake on the opening of the front door of a fifth[29] avenue mansion that they were appalled by the possibilities suggested by the line of thought posadowski had struck out. it was not too much to say that peace or war in europe might depend upon the details of the next exit that should take place through the entrance that glared at them across the street.

suddenly posadowski clutched rukacs’ arm. “here he comes,” he whispered. “walk down toward the carriage. i will join him at once. let me do the talking. you can put in a word of loyalty at first, but keep quiet after that. go!”

on the steps opposite to them stood the prince, gazing up and down the street, as the door closed behind him. there for a moment he paused, the incarnation of an anachronism, a youth who had failed to conceal his awful crime of being born a king. for that one moment he stood, poised on the brink of a precipice, while reaction and progress trembled in the balance. then slowly he descended the steps and found himself face to face with posadowski. as he scanned his fellow-countryman searchingly, the crown prince of rexania felt reassured.

“let us walk down the avenue together,” said posadowski, quietly, purposely avoiding the young man’s title. “i have much to say to you, and friends await us down the street.”

for one moment the prince hesitated: his eyes sought the house he had just left, as though the mansion contained something from which he had no wish to part. then he turned and accompanied posadowski down the avenue.