[Illustration: "Who are you?" she asked.]

His eyes narrowed slightly as he looked past her out of the window. Then he said politely:

"The Countess Strahni is well within her rights in asking that question.

I am Captain Leo Goritz."

That meant nothing to her and she found herself repeating her question.

He deliberated a moment.

"I see no reason why I should not tell you," he said at last. "I do not desire a misconception of my personal motives--which I beg you to understand are of the highest. I am merely carrying out my orders to bring the Countess Strahni with all dispatch within the borders of the German Empire."

"You--you are----" she paused in dismay.

"Of the German Imperial Secret Service," he said quickly.

Marishka sank back into her seat breathless with apprehension, the warnings of the hated Herr Windt dinning in her ears.

"Then you sent----" She fingered the scribbled note which had not left her fingers.

"I regret, Countess, that the situation made deception necessary. One of my men in the tree above the chimney. My orders were urgent."

Marishka glanced about the machine helplessly, her thoughts, in spite of herself, recurring to Hugh Renwick, who must before long discover her absence and guess its cause. But there seemed no chance of escape. To open the door and leap forth into the road at this speed was only courting injury, and the calm appearance of Captain Leo Goritz seemed only the mask for a resoluteness of purpose with which she could not dare to cope. To cry out seemed equally futile for the road was deserted except for a few market wagons, the occupants of which were country louts who only stared dully as they passed. But in a flash the inspiration came to her. Germany! Germany could help her carry out her purpose to warn the Duchess before she reached Sarajevo. She glanced at her companion and found that his brown eyes had turned as though by prescience to hers.

"Captain Goritz," she stammered, "I--I seem to be in your power.

Whatever your authority for this--this restraint of my liberty--I submit myself----"

He showed his fine teeth in a smile.

"I regret that the Countess Strahni should have been put to this inconvenience."

She made a motion of deprecation.

"I beg that you will spare yourself meaningless civilities. I do not know the meaning of this outrage."

"The Countess Strahni is far too clever to suppose that I can believe her----" he put in quickly.

"What do you mean?"

"Merely that an intelligence which can throw central Europe into a turmoil," and he laughed pleasantly, "does itself and me too little credit."

"Oh, you know----" she gasped.

"Yes, I know."

She examined Captain Goritz with a new interest.

"But you did not know the object of my visit to Konopisht," she went on desperately.

"I confess," he said slowly, "that your sudden departure from Vienna was most mystifying----"

"I will tell you," she went on excitedly. "I came to Konopisht to warn the Archduke Franz of a plot to assassinate him when he reaches Sarajevo----"

"Ah! So that----" Captain Goritz started suddenly forward in his seat and faced her eagerly in an attitude of sudden alertness.

"A plot! Serbian?" he asked sharply.

"No--I----" Loyalty stifled her lips.

"I see." And then keenly, "Austrian--as a result of your disclosures to the Emperor?"

She eyed the man in amazement. He was omniscient.

"A plot----" she stammered. "I do not know--I came to warn them--the Archduke and Duchess, but I was prevented from doing so. They----" she gasped again--"those who plan this dastardly thing are powerful--they control the telegraph. There was no way to reach them and so I came----"

"Herr Windt----?"

She nodded. "You know--he acts for them. He kept me in the cabin until it was too late."

"I understand----" He nodded, his brows tangled in thought. "There can be no other explanation."

"I heard. I saw--back there in the garden--Emperor and Archduke--friends. Oh, don't you understand? _He_ would do something----"

Captain Goritz had sunk lower into his seat and with folded arms was gazing at the back of the man in front of them, but under his frowning brows his eyes glowed with initiative.

"What you tell me is serious, Countess----" he muttered.

"So serious that I beg you will listen to me," she went on almost hysterically. "The Duchess was my friend--I heard and I told what I heard----"

"Yes. It is a pity, Countess Strahni."

"But I did not know," she went on breathlessly, conscious only of the imminence of Sarajevo and of the power of the man beside her perhaps to aid her. "I could not know that I should be betraying her--the friend of a lifetime--to this--I did my duty as I saw it--to Austria. I am telling you this--a stranger--an enemy perhaps--because it is in your power to help--to prevent this terrible thing. Think! Think! It is your duty as well as mine--your duty to the one who shares with Franz Ferdinand the secret of the rose garden--his friend, and if God so wills--his ally. It is all so terrible--so bewildering. But you must see that I am in earnest--that I am speaking the truth."

"Yes, yes," he said abstractedly, nodding, and then was silent, while the machine went thundering northward, every moment taking them further from Marishka's goal. She watched his face anxiously for a sign. His eyes glowed somberly but he did not more or glance aside. His problem, it appeared, was as deep as hers. For an age, he sat there like a stone figure, but she had the instinct not to speak, and after a while he straightened, leaned quickly forward and threw down the window in front of them.

"What is the village before us, Karl?" he asked in quick tones.

"Beneschau, Herr Hauptmann."

"There is a road to Brunn?"

"Yes, a fair one, Herr Hauptmann."

"Take it--and faster."

That was all. Marishka knew that she had won. Captain Goritz was frowning at the dial of his watch.

"Perhaps we are too late--but we can at least try," he muttered.