A few minutes
before nine o'clock Walther told him to go to the small gate in the rear
wall.
"Reach it without being seen if you can," he said. "But if you are seen
be sure to answer no questions. I would go with you myself, but it's
forbidden. You're to be absolutely alone."
John, shrouded in the overcoat and cap and glasses, made his way in the
dark to the designated gate.
As he approached the place he saw the black shadow of a heavy bulk
against the dusk. No person was yet in sight and there was utter
silence. The beat of his heart was so hard that it gave him actual
physical pain. The shadow he knew was that of a large closed automobile,
but no driver was in the seat, and he did not believe that anybody was
inside. Both the silence and the loneliness became sinister.
John slipped forward boldly. It required no divination to know that he
was expected to drive this machine. The gate was open and two figures
hooded and cloaked came forth. But hooded and cloaked as they were John
knew at once the first and slenderer one. The step disclosed the
goddess. Julie and Suzanne were going somewhere and he was to take them
and there was the prince himself coming through the open gate to give
him his instructions.
John's first emotion was one of extraordinary wonder, qualified in a
moment or two by humor.
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