Later a decoy telegram was sent by a Marlanx agent, informing Tullis that she had gone to Schloss Marlanx, never to return, but so shrewdly worded that he would believe that it had been sent by coercion, and that she was actually a prisoner in the hands of her own husband.

Tullis was expected to follow her to the Castle, bent on rescue.

As a matter of fact, the Countess was a prisoner in the hills near Balak, spirited away from her own garden by audacious agents of the Iron Count.

Tullis was swift to fall into the trap, but, to the confusion of the arch-plotter, he was just as swift to avoid the consequences.
He left Edelweiss with two secret service men, bound for Schloss Marlanx.

All unknown to him, a selected company of cutthroats were in waiting for him on the hills near the castle.