Far off in the hills above the Danube there lived the real leader of this deadly group--the Iron Count Marlanx, exile from the land of his birth, hated and execrated by every loyal Graustarkian, hating and execrating in return with a tenfold greater venom.

Marlanx, the man who had been driven from wealth and power by the sharp edict of Prince Robin's mother, the lamented Yetive, in the days of her most glorious reign,--this man, deep in his raging heart, was in complete accord with the desperate band of Reds who preached equality and planned disaster.
Olga Platanova was the latest acquisition to this select circle.

A word concerning her: she was the daughter of Professor Platanova, one time oculist and sociologist in a large German University.

He had been one of the most brilliant men in Europe and a member of a noble family.

There was welcome for him in the homes of the nobility; he hobnobbed, so to speak, with the leading men of time Empire.