At midnight Nino was at his post, but he waited long and patiently for a sign.  It was past two, and he was thinking it hopeless to wait longer, when his quick ear caught the sound of a window moving on its hinges, and a moment later something fell at his feet with a sharp, metallic click.  The night was dark and cloudy, so that the waning moon gave little light.  He picked up the thing and found a small pocket handkerchief wrapped about a minute pair of scissors, apparently to give it weight.  He expected a letter, and groped on the damp pavement with his hands.  Then he struck a match, shaded it from the breeze with his hand, and saw that the handkerchief was stained with ink, and that the stains were letters, roughly printed to make them distinct.  He hurried away to the light of a street lamp to read the strange missive.

CHAPTER X

He went to the light and spread out the handkerchief.  It was a small thing, of almost transparent stuff, with a plain “H.L.” and a crown in the corner.  The steel pen had torn the delicate fibres here and there.

“They know you have been here.  I am watched.  Keep away from the house till you hear.”

That was all the message, but it told worlds.  He knew from it that the count was informed of his visit, and he tortured himself by trying to imagine what the angry old man would do.  His heart sank like a stone in his breast when he thought of Hedwig, so imprisoned, guarded, made a martyr of, for his folly.  He groaned aloud when he understood that it was in the power of her father to take her away suddenly and leave no trace of their destination, and he cursed his haste and impetuosity in having shown himself inside the house.  But with all this weight of trouble upon him, he felt the strength and indomitable determination within him which come only to a man who loves, when he knows he is loved again.  He kissed the little handkerchief, and even the scissors she had used to weight it with, and he put them in his breast.  But he stood irresolute, leaning against the lamppost, as a man will who is trying to force his thoughts to overtake events, trying to shape out of the present.  Suddenly he was aware of a tall figure in a fur coat standing near him on the sidewalk.  He would have turned to go, but something about the stranger’s appearance struck him so oddly that he stayed where he was and watched him.

The tall man searched for something in his pockets, and finally produced a cigarette, which he leisurely lighted with a wax match.  As he did so his eyes fell upon Nino.  The stranger was tall and very thin.  He wore a pointed beard and a heavy moustache, which seemed almost dazzlingly white, as were the few locks that appeared, neatly brushed over his temples, beneath his opera hat.  His sanguine complexion, however, had all the freshness ef youth, and his eyes sparkled merrily, as though amused at the spectacle of his nose, which was immense, curved, and polished, like an eagle’s beak.  He wore perfectly-fitting kid gloves, and the collar of his fur wrapper, falling a little open, showed that he was in evening dress.