“What do you want?” demanded the prisoner, irritably.

Instead of answering, the guard proceeded to unlock the second or grated door, stepping inside the cell a moment later.  Smothering an exclamation, Lorry jerked out his watch and then sprang to his feet, intensely excited.  It was just twelve o’clock, and he remembered now that she had said a guard would come to him at that hour.  Was this the man?  Was the plan to be carried out?

The two men stood staring at each other for a moment or two, one in the agony of doubt and suspense, the other quizzically.  A smile flitted over the face of the guard; he calmly advanced to the table, putting down his lantern.  Then he drew off his rain coat and helmet and placed in the other’s hand a gray envelope.  Lorry reeled and would have fallen but for the wall against which he staggered.  A note from her was in his hand.  He tore open the envelope and drew forth the letter.  As he read he grew strangely calm and contented; a blissful repose rushed in to supplant the racking unrest of a moment before; the shadows fled and life’s light was burning brightly once more.  She had written: 

“I entreat you to follow instructions and go to-night.  You say you will not leave Graustark until you have seen me.  How rash you are to refuse liberty and life for such a trifle.  But why, I ask, am I offering you this chance to escape?  Is it because I do not hope to see you again?  Is it not enough that I am begging, imploring you to go?  I can say no more.”

He folded the brief note, written in agitation, and, after kissing it, proceeded to place it in his pocket, determined to keep it to the last hour of his life.  Glancing up at a sound from the guard, he found himself looking into the muzzle of a revolver.  A deep scowl overspread the face of the man as he pointed to the letter and then to the lamp.  There was no mistaking his meaning.  Lorry reluctantly held the note over the flame and saw it crumble away as had its predecessor.  There was to be no proof of her complicity left behind.  He knew it would be folly to offer a bribe to the loyal guard.

After this very significant act the guard’s face cleared, and he deposited his big revolver on the table.  Stepping to the cell’s entrance he listened intently, then softly closed the heavy iron doors.  Without a word he began to strip off his uniform, Lorry watching him as if fascinated.  The fellow looked up impatiently and motioned for him to be quick, taking it for granted that the prisoner understood his part of the transaction.  Awakened by this sharp reminder, Lorry nervously began to remove his own clothes.  In five minutes his garments were scattered over the floor and he was attired in the uniform of a guard.  Not a word had been spoken.  The prisoner was the guard, the guard a prisoner.

“Are you not afraid this will cost you your life?” asked Lorry, first in English, then in German.  The guard merely shook his head, indicating that he could not understand.