He was interrupted by a hoarse growl of rage from the Dictator: "The Devil! He speaks the truth. Some time back I wrote one out. It disappeared. How did he get that?" Light dawned in his mind. "Apor!" Gunzi nodded. "You see, comrade, I do not exaggerate. That much I discovered, but that was all. Not only will the White Knight rely upon that letter, but he has some other plan up his sleeve. What it is I cannot tell. If you wish to keep Apor prisoner you must act now--immediately." "You are right." Bela Kun's face worked with the rage which consumed him, but presently his face calmed, and slowly a smile--a grin of wile and cunning--spread across his features. "I think," he said, chuckling, "that for once the White Knight is going to fail. Before the sun rises to-morrow morning Apor will be dead." "You mean...?" Gunzi raised his forehead inquiringly. "I mean that I shall telephone immediately to Parliament House. In less than ten minutes' time a few trusty Red guards will convey Apor to the Suspension Bridge and drop him into the Danube, bound hand and foot, that the rat shall not struggle. Do you not think that a good scheme?" "It is the only one," agreed Gunzi admiringly. _CHAPTER XIV_ Two men crouched back deep in the shadows of Parliament House, tensely waiting, waiting with a nervousness neither could conceal. "Arnold, the time goes slowly. I feel damnably afraid. Supposing my plan should miscarry, supposing I have failed to elucidate the intricate workings of Bela Kun's twisted mind, I shall have signed Apor's death-warrant just as if I had passed judgment on him myself." "You can do no more, Geoffrey, than what you have done. In any event Apor would die." "Never have I perpetrated such a thin, feeble plot, Arnold. It has so many weak links. When Gunzi passes on the news to Bela Kun, the Dictator may refuse to credit Gunzi's story; on the other hand, he may be so enraged that he will telephone through to have the poor fellow bayoneted right away. Or, if Apor is to be flung into the Danube, he may do it from Parliament House, and all we shall hear will be a splash and--and Apor will be no more." His voice broke slightly. "That--that, I am afraid, is your weakest link, Geoffrey." "No, you are wrong there, Arnold, and it is upon my estimation of the ingrained cruelty of the Red guards that I have staked the success of my plans. To you or me it would be an easy matter to dispose of--of Apor. A blow on the head, and over the balustrade into the river. Nothing could be more quiet, more secretive.