"The swine, the swine! So that is why you help us? We Hungarians never wanted to fight the British, Excellency, but we were the puppets of German intrigue. Why did England fight us? We were--we are friends of England." "England does not forget the fact, Hervesi," but Wenzel said it with a heavy heart, for even then the Peace Conference was disintegrating the unhappy country, forgetting all ties of past friendship in the wild, mad effort to punish the war-makers--and in doing so punished only the cat's-paws of Germany, while Germany herself---- At that stage the past was not yet past, and Wenzel hastened to turn the subject. "You are a thinker, Hervesi. Good, it is so much the better. But listen. It is true what your son has told you: I have sworn to kill Szamuelly. But my task is difficult. In his Death Train he tears across the country, never remaining in any one place, only just long enough to kill honest Hungarians, and then he is gone again. I cannot catch him up. Even to-night I am an hour late, even now Szamuelly is many miles away from me. "I must have an ally. Your son can help me. Whenever he can obtain news of Szamuelly's destination he can wire through to you, so that I can be there first, and by God's will I can fulfil my oath. Do you think he will do that for me, Hervesi?" "Excellency, I answer for him as I answer for myself. Szamuelly must die," and all unconsciously he uttered the words which for weeks now had haunted the White Knight. * * * * * * The country was stirring; the faint rumblings of discontent were growing louder and more insistent, the seeds sown by the counter-revolutionaries were ripening for the crop. The honest peasants were tired of selling their goods for the worthless paper money of the Soviet, the workmen were realizing that fifty Soviet crowns were of little more use than five blue crowns of the old Austro-Hungarian Bank. The knell of the Commune was sounding, the tocsin for liberty ringing, and the people of Hungary were muttering angrily, ominously. Only in Budapest was the call still unheeded, though not unheard, for there Bela Kun and his cronies ruled supreme, and people were afraid to express their feelings for fear of reprisals--revenge which might come from Cserni, whose red car continually raced the streets of the city, from Szamuelly with his Death Train, or from the inhuman spider Korvin-Klein, who sat in his web devouring the virulent as well as the inoffensive Whites with an impartiality only equalled by his insatiable appetite. Away in distant parts the Whites were openly preparing for battle. The Vends of Western Hungary, forced to flee to Austria, were being joined by Hungarian officers commanded by Baron Lehar. In Szeged, where the fuel of counter-revolution burned brightest, a White Government was being formed, with Nicholas Horthy as Minister of War and Paul Teleki as Foreign Secretary, while Generals Soos and Gombos were organizing the White Army.