"I was looking into the past."
"With a pair of opera-glasses?"
"Yes." Grumbach was perfectly serious.
"Oh, pshaw! You were following her highness with them. I want to know
why."
"She is beautiful."
"You made a promise to me not long ago."
"I did?" non-committally.
"Yes. Soon I shall be shaking the dust of Dreiberg, and I want to know
beforehand what this Chinese puzzle is. What did you do that compelled
your flight from Ehrenstein?"
Grumbach's pipe hung pendulent in his hand. He swung it to and fro
absently.
"I am waiting. Remember, you are an American citizen, for all that you
were born here. If anything should happen to you, I must know the whole
story in order to help you. You know that you may trust me."
"It isn't that, Captain. I have grown to like you in these few days."
"What has that to do with it?" impatiently.
"Nothing, perhaps. Only, if I tell you, you will not be my friend."
"Nonsense! What you did sixteen years ago doesn't matter now. It is
enough for me that you fought in my regiment, and that you were a brave
soldier."
"Those opera-glasses; it was an idea. Well, since you will know. I was a
gardener's boy. I worked under my brother Hermann. I used to ask the
nurse, who had charge of her serene highness, where she would go each
day.
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