The countess saw that the prince’s rage sprang from his fear--his ever-present fear--that Drexel had discovered him to be the chief of the hated secret police. Also, she saw the danger of the prince ruining her new-made scheme. She threw herself between the two. “Don’t, don’t, prince!” she cried. “It was all my doing!” He turned upon her fiercely. “Your doing?” She put all the double meaning into her words that she dared. “I led him into it! The blame is all mine! He merely did what I----” “Stop, countess!” Drexel interposed. He looked at the prince with the flaming recklessness of a mastering hate. “The blame is not hers, Prince Berloff. It is all mine. So whatever you do, you must do to me alone. I might as well tell you, though, in order to save your time, that I am not in the least afraid of that pistol.” The prince was silent a moment, during which he held the pistol to Drexel’s breast and glared into his defiant eyes. “Not afraid? Why?” “Because you dare not shoot.” “You think not?” “I know not.” Berloff again was silent for a moment. “Why do I not dare shoot?” “Because you want to marry my cousin.” “Well?” “Well, if you were to shoot me down, no matter under what circumstances, my cousin would never marry you.” “Do you think the loss of your cousin will hold me back?” “No, my dear prince. But the loss of my cousin’s millions will.” The prince did not answer. As he gazed at the prince, Drexel flamed with the desire to hurl defiance, contempt, into that gleaming, passion-worked face: to tell him that he knew him for a man-hunter with the blood of rare-souled thousands upon his hands, and that he was going to disclose his perfidious business to his cousin Alice, and proclaim it broadcast to the world. He was almost overmastered by the impulse, let come what might, to grapple that false throat and hold it till life was gone. But there was the promise of silence that he had made to Sonya. His first consideration had to be her safety, and her safety depended upon his own. He thought of Captain Nadson; the captain might enter at any moment, and bring about the undoing of them both. For Sonya’s sake he must make some desperate effort to escape. He sought to get out of the room by virtue of mere audacity. “And so, prince, since you are afraid to use that weapon, you will have to think of something else,” he said. “And that you may think the better, I shall leave you to yourself.” He pushed the pistol to one side and stepped toward the door. The fear that his secret was out dominated the prince. “Stop, or I shoot!” he cried. At the same instant, drawing nearer in the corridor, sounded the deep voice of Captain Nadson. CHAPTER XIV THE FLIGHT WITH THE COUNTESS For an instant Drexel stood appalled. Then the captain’s step sounded just without the threshold--two more steps and all was lost.