AT THE WITCH'S HUT The next morning, before setting forth to consult the minister of police at the Tower, he called up the Perse palace on the telephone and asked for the Countess, to tell her in so many words that he had been followed from her door to the very gates of the Castle grounds.

Not by one man alone, for that would have excited suspicion, but by half a dozen at least, each one taking up the surveillance in the most casual manner as the watcher before him left off.

Tullis was amazed by the cunning which masked these proceedings; there was a wily brain behind it.
The Duke's secretary answered the call.

Tullis was completely bowled over by the curt information that the Countess Marlanx had left Edelweiss before six that morning, to join her husband, who was shooting wild boars with a party in Axphain.
"When does she return ?" demanded the American, scarcely believing his ears.

She had said nothing of this the night before.