“The seed has taken root, but is not growing to your wish. For this, my dear friend, do not despair. We set the twig in the earth, and heaven sends the storm to bend it to the tree’s course. We regret the storm; but better always a storm than a calm. Beware of calms in any form. They are nearly akin to death. Life is action, battle, achievement. Real success bids us shape ourselves into God’s plan as fast as it is revealed to us.” “I thank you,” Mario said, cordially, grasping the Cardinal’s hand. “It is the true, the clear way, and it is full of hope. I thank your Eminence, too, for all the kindness shown me this day. _Addio_.” “_Addio, caro_ Forza.” The man-servant who admitted Mario exclaimed in horror at sight of his bandaged head, and forgot for a time to hand him a letter inscribed “Urgent” that had arrived by the only post delivered in Milan that day. But he brought it in, with many excuses, at the moment that his master was about to seek the grateful repose of his own bed. It was the letter Tarsis had prepared the day before when he decided to exact payment of Forza--the writing forged in Hera’s hand, that should make simple the task of the Panther in collecting the bill: CASTEL-MINORE, BRIANZA, Tuesday. MY BELOVED MARIO: I have left Antonio Tarsis and returned to my father’s house. Of your counsel I have need. Come to the old monastery to-morrow (Wednesday) night at nine. Wait for me in the cloister. Yours, though all the world oppose, HERA. P.S.--Destroy this letter. The effect was precisely what Tarsis counted upon when he made the midnight run in the motor car to Castel-Minore and dropped the letter into the post-office. Mario gave the sheet to a candle flame, destroying the only scrap that might be used against Tarsis should the Panther, by chance, bungle his work. Next he looked at the clock and saw that with a good horse there was time to reach the monastery at the hour. The new excitement brought back the heavy throbbing at his temples and sharper pain from the wound. He rang for the servant and astounded him by saying: “I must go to the Brianza. There are no trains. Have Bruno saddled at once.” CHAPTER XIX WHAT MONEY COULD NOT BUY