“I can’t believe that they intend to murder you or anything like that.  They wouldn’t dare do such a thing.”

“That’s th’ game, Mr. Savage; I’m dead sure of it.  This was th’ night an’ it was to ha’ been done in th’ dance hall, riot, stampede, everybody fightin’ wild an’ then a jab in th’ back.  Nobody any th’ wiser, see?” The two paled a trifle under Turk’s blunt way of putting it.

When they entered the hotel a short time later the first man they saw was Prince Ugo.  With his dark eyes glowing, his lips parted in a fine smile, he came to meet them, his hand extended heartily.

“I have asked for you, gentlemen, and you were out.  You return just as I am ready to give up in despair.  And now, let me say how happy 1 am to see you,” he said, warmly.  The Americans shook hands with him, confusion filling their brains.  Why was he not with the Garrisons?

“I knew you were here, Prince Ugo, and would have inquired for you but that I suspected you would be closely engaged,” said Quentin, after a moment.

“Earlier in the evening I was engaged, but I am here now as the bearer of a message to you, Mr. Quentin.  Miss Garrison has asked me to deliver into your hands this missive.”  With that he drew from his pocket a sealed envelope and passed it to Quentin.  “I was commanded to give it you to-night, so perhaps you will read it now.”

“Thank you,” muttered the other, nervously tearing open the envelope as the prince turned to Dickey Savage.  At that moment the duke and the count strolled into the rotunda, jauntily, easily, as if they had been no farther than the block just beyond, instead of racing about in a bounding cab.  They approached the group” as Phil turned away to read the note which had come so strangely into his hands.  Dorothy wrote: 

“Dear Phil:  I trust you to say nothing to Prince Ugo.  I mean, do not intimate that I saw him yesterday when I went to drive with you.  He would consider it an affront.  I know it is not necessary to caution you, but I feel safe in doing so.  You will pardon me, I am sure.  My conduct, as well as yours, when we look at it calmly in an afterlight, was quite extraordinary.  So fully do I trust him and so well does he love me that I know this note comes to you inviolate.

“D.”

Phil’s brain was in a whirl.  He glanced at the handsome face of Dorothy’s noble lover and then at his swarthy fellow countrymen.  Could they be plotters?  Could he be hand-in-hand with those evil-looking men?  He had delivered the note, and yet he so feared its recipient that he was employing questionable means to dispose of him.  There could be no doubt as to the genuineness of the note.  It was from Dorothy, and the prince had borne it to him direct from her hand.