The man gazed at him with incredulous eyes, his trembling lips, his shaking hands testifying to the shock he had received, but, as the fact filtered into his brain, he dropped suddenly to his knees, and seizing Wenzel's hand in his own, he kissed it passionately, again and again, until Wenzel, in embarrassment, withdrew it. "The White Knight! The White Knight!" With the assistance of the White Knight the old man shakily rose to his feet and tottered back to his chair. "God be praised! You, Excellency, you are the man who has sworn to kill Szamuelly, you, Excellency, are the White Knight, the Enemy of the Commune, and you need my help, and the help of my--only son...." He drew himself up and gazed with steadfast eyes at Wenzel. "God forgive me!" he muttered piously. "God forgive me for my words. He has not forgotten us.... And now, Excellency?" His voice finished briskly, and the White Knight knew that he need fear no betrayal from this man. "Firstly," he said, "your promise. You must not kill yourself." The man gazed at him with reproach. "Excellency, I am yours to command." "Good! You are a railwayman?" "Yes, Excellency." "You are in the telegraph service?" "Yes, Excellency." "And your son? I believe he also is in the telegraph department at the Budapest terminus. Is that not so?" "Yes, Excellency." "Good! Your name, my friend, it is Hervesi?" "Correct, Excellency." "Now, listen, Hervesi; tell me firstly how you knew that I had sworn to kill Szamuelly." "I heard a week ago from my son in Budapest, Excellency. He met a man named Gunzi, who was searching for the White Knight. 'For why?' asked my son. 'Because he threatens to kill our great Szamuelly,' replied this Gunzi. Then my son, so he told me, chuckled inwardly, and made inquiries about the White Knight, and heard of all your wonderful deeds, Excellency, so when I saw him three days ago he told me all." "Does he hear much news?" "Plenty, Excellency. He sleeps in the same room as a man named Nyistor, a labourer who is now Assistant Commissary for Agriculture." The White Knight smiled. Matters were turning out far better than he had ever expected. "What thinks your son, then, Hervesi, of the Commune?" The railwayman's face twisted into a snarl. "As I, Excellency. He fought for glorious Hungary, for your country and mine, not for these filthy Russian murderers." "Not my country, Hervesi," said Wenzel quietly. "Not your country, Excellency?" The man looked puzzled. "I do not understand." "I am not Hungarian--I am British." "You--British? Then you are--an enemy!" Instantly Hervesi's face became suspicious. "Not an enemy of you or any other honest Hungarian, Hervesi. Only an enemy of the Commune. I--I was engaged to a Hungarian lady, Hervesi, but when I got back from the War I found that the Communists had--killed her, killed her as surely as they killed your son."