In Direst Peril | Page 9

thank you?" cried Miss Rossano.
"I shall be repaid, madame," I answered, "if I succeed." She did not
understand me then, but I told her afterwards what my meaning had
been. I told her that I should have earned the right, if I brought her
father back with me, to tell her I had earned the right to say that I knew
no such pride as to live or die in her service. And that was simply true,
though I had as yet met her but twice. I think that love at first sight
must be a commoner thing than many people imagine. If it was so real
with a sober-sided, hard-headed fellow like myself, who had spent all
the years of his manhood in rough-and-tumble warfare, what must it be
with romantic and high-strung people who are more naturally prone to
it.
"You will run great risks, Captain Fyffe," said her ladyship.
"It has been the habit of my life," I answered, "to run as few risks as

possible."
"I hardly know if we have the right to ask you to undertake such a
hair-brained enterprise," she said again.
"I have not waited to be asked, Lady Rollinson. I am a volunteer."
"Give us at least a hint of what you propose to do," urged her ladyship.
"Let us be sure that you do not intend to run into danger."
"It would be futile to plan until I am on the spot," I answered; "and as
for danger--I shall meet nothing I can avoid."
"I shall trust Captain Fyffe entirely," said Miss Rossano. "As for money,
Captain Fyffe," she added, turning to me, "you must not be cramped in
that respect. Will you call and see my bankers to-morrow?"
"I should prefer," I answered, "to start to-night. I have ample funds for
my immediate purposes, and I shall make my way, in the first place, to
Vienna. Tell me your banker's name, and I will find out his agents there.
And now good-bye, Miss Rossano. I cannot promise success, but I will
do what I can."
She answered that she was sure of that; and when she had given me the
name of her bankers and I had made a note of it, we shook hands and
parted. For my own part I was glad that Lady Rollinson's presence
made our parting commonplace.
I hailed the first hackney carriage I met and drove to my rooms. There I
found my passport, and went with it to the Foreign Office, where,
through the good offices of an old schoolfellow, I had it vised without
loss of time, and then home again to pack. Travelling was slower then
than it is to-day, but we thought it mighty rapid, and scarcely to be
improved upon, it differed so from the post-chaise and stage-coach
crawl of a few years before. There was no direct correspondence
between Hamburgh and Vienna, but the journey was shorter by a day
than it had been when I had last made it. I reached the Austrian capital
after an entirely adventureless journey, and felt that my enterprise was

begun.
I called at the Embassy, and had my papers finally put in order. I called
on the Viennese agents of Miss Rossano's bankers, and found that no
less a sum than one thousand pounds had been placed to my credit. Not
only was this liberal provision made for contingencies, but I received a
letter from Miss Rossano telling me that anything within her means
was fully at my disposal. I thought it not unlikely that with so
persuasive a sum behind me I might be able to win over the kindly
jailer to our side. My thoughts were very often with this man, and I
spent a good deal of useless time in speculating about him. Was he
married or single? That was a point on which much depended, and I
was half inclined to pray that he might prove to be a bachelor. Marital
responsibilities were all against my hopes. Marital confidences might
well upset the best-laid plans I could devise.
I was thinking thus as I paced the Ring Strasse on the third day after
my arrival in Vienna. I lingered in the capital against the grain, for I
was eager to be at work, but it was part of a policy which I had already
settled. Itzia was not the sort of place for which one would make a
straight road, unless one had special business there, and it was the
merest seeming of having any special business there which I was
profoundly anxious to avoid. So I lingered in Vienna, and on this third
day, pacing the chief street, I felt a sudden hand clapped upon my
shoulder, and, turning, faced Brunow.
"Here you are," he cried,