“And he married Aunt Ernestine. That’s where the sting comes in, you see. Why, what’s the matter, Nell?” for Helene was crying. “I never thought people could be so wicked,” she murmured at last. “Ah, you’ll find worse things done than that,” said Usk sagely. “Now do you see why Hicks thinks the Princess is mixed up in whatever has happened?” “But what could she have done?” “He’s quite certain there has been foul play, and he thinks the most likely thing is that they have hired a band of brigands to carry him off into the hills. You see, the district is a sort of No Man’s Land, and the brigands may have come from any part of the Balkans. They may even have taken him down into the Roumi territory to the south, where an army couldn’t find him. But Hicks doesn’t believe it’s as bad as that,” quickly. “He thinks it’s much more likely they have got him somewhere in the Dardanian mountains.” “And does he hope to find him?” “He’s going to try. By the bye, he is to get a camera for us, and send us hints on photography from time to time, and we have arranged a code with the technical words. So cheer up, Nell. We’ll outwit them yet.” CHAPTER XVIII. WANDERING FIRES. It was on a day of appalling dust and heat that Usk and his wife arrived at the Illyrian town of Novigrad. The place stood among hills which had been left stony and treeless by several centuries of Roumi domination, but up which patches of woodland were beginning to creep under the fostering care of the Pannonian officials in charge of the province. There was a sparkling river which flowed in a rocky channel through the town, and many of the houses on the outskirts were embowered in greenery, but the general impression was of glaring white walls, dazzling roofs and blinding dust, and an atmosphere of heat from which no refuge could be found. Helene was nearly fainting when Usk helped her out of the carriage at the door of the solitary hotel, and her plight moved an elderly man of Jewish appearance, who was sitting in a dejected attitude on the terrace in front, to catch up a glass of sherbet, and hasten to her assistance with a murmur of sympathy. “Place de younk lady in dis chair off mine, sir,” he said. “Heat such as dis iss killink for dose not accustomed to it. Your business must be fery pressink, iss it not? But why! it iss my frient Lord Usk and his most gracious lady! Ah, den I need not ask your reasson for comink here. What a loss iss dis we hef all sustained!” “I never thought of finding you here, Chevalier,” said Usk, administering a few drops of the sherbet at a time to Helene, “and yet of course it’s the natural thing. Helene, this is the Chevalier Goldberg, my uncle’s great friend----”