Page:Blackwood's Magazine volume 137.djvu/505

1885.] manian superstition. "Do you believe there is any danger? Should you be afraid to go to the hills alone?"

Again the blue eyes gazed at her in mild surprise.

"I am afraid of no man, Fräulein, when my conscience is clear."

"And if we were to meet these robbers, what would they do to us?"

"Take away our money, Fräulein."

"And if we had no money?"

"Then perhaps rut our throats," said the Bohemian in an apologetic tone, as if excusing himself for mentioning such an unpleasant subject before ladies.

Gretchen's face fell a little.

"Then must we give up our expedition?"

"Oh no," said the Bohemian, with a reassuring smile; "there is no need to give it up, if our consciences are clear. For, after ail, death must come sooner or later; and if our hour has struck, we cannot escape from it."

"Ye—es," said Gretchen, reflectively.

This was a salutary, but not a particularly cheerful view of the case.

"Oh, our consciences are all as clear as crystal," said Baron Tolnay, breaking into the conversation with a laugh. "Let us go to the cave, by all means."

And so finally it was decided; the time for the start fixed, and the Bohemian dismissed.

All this time Princess Tryphosa had stood, a silent member of the group. She had made no comment whatever upon the plans; but presently, when Mr Howard left the party, saying, "I am going to get my wading-boots and have another cast in the river," the little group was electrified by the announcement from Tryphosa's lips:

"I am going too."

There was a general start, and a few broken exclamations. Even Kurt's coolness was troubled for a moment. Baron Tolnay was the first to recover his presence of mind.

"But you have got no wading-boots, Princess."

The Princess stared at him intensely. She had to reconcile the idea of the wading-boots with the other idea which was present in her mind, and it took her some time to do it.

István attempted to assist the process of thought.

"You want to go to the river, Princess?"

"No; I want to go with you to the cave."

They had talked of the dry weather, of the departing visitors, of the principal cures of the season since then. Princess Tryphosa was still at the cave.

Here was a fresh electrical shock. Nobody believed it at first. More than one member of the party changed colour. Then there followed a pause, and a consciousness of general constraint; for there was no one present who could not easily guess what had moved the Princess to this stupendous resolution.

The Princess herself neither changed colour nor expression. She sat through it all with unmoved stolidity. She waited with inexhaustible patience until the small waves of wonder, of incredulity, of only half-suppressed amusement had broken over her, as the waves of the sea break over a massive and immovable rock.

A desperate question was ventured at last by Gretchen.

"Why are you going?"

After a minute of intense thought, the Princess gave utterance to the blackest lie of which she had ever been guilty in her life: