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Updated: June 29, 2025
Do you understand, I forbid it!" Now Robard's voice rose angrily. "You forbid it!" he exclaimed. "You forbid it! Well, little good will that do. I will see that the work is carried out if I have to do it myself. And what is more, I will see that the blame falls on you. You are right. I have plotted to discredit you, and I shall do it, or my name is not Robard."
Robard made no reply, but turning on his heel, strode from the room. As the boys had feared, they were given no opportunity to make a personal appeal to the Austrian ambassador. All day long they were kept in their improvised prison. They slept a little and talked a little, but try as they would they were unable to so much as loosen their bonds.
Their captors were all dressed in civilian attire, but from their military bearings, Hal and Chester concluded that they were Austrian army officers. Robard turned to one who stood somewhat apart from the others. "Everything ready?" he asked. "All ready," was the reply. "The baggage has been sent on ahead of us and the train to Venice will leave within the hour." "Good! And the ambassador?"
The other two went to the assistance of Robard, who was just getting to his feet. The latter came forward with an angry gleam in his eye. "So I've got you at last," he said. "Well, I'll see that you don't get away this time." "You weren't big enough to get me alone," said Uncle John, panting from his exertions. "I wasn't, eh!" shouted Robard, now furiously angry.
He feinted with dazzling rapidity once, twice, three times, and then, his opponent completely bewildered, planted his right fist squarely upon the point of Robard's chin. Robard staggered back, but a second terrific blow, delivered to the stomach, brought him forward again, and Chester straightened him up with another terrific drive to the point of the chin.
"Hardly," replied Uncle John. "If the ambassador has been given his passports and has made arrangements to leave Italy he'll probably go at the appointed time." It was at this juncture that footsteps were heard without. The key turned in the lock and a moment later Robard stood before them. "Well," he said cheerfully, "all ready for your little trip?"
The struggle continued, and occasionally the listeners could catch the sound of fierce ejaculations. Then, suddenly, there came the sound of a shot. Then silence, followed a moment later by a voice: "There! I guess now you will know better than to interfere with me." "Robard," said the voice of the ambassador, very weak now, "you shall pay for this."
There were scraps of tinsel and odds and ends of ornaments that had been broken or damaged by careless handling. These he hid away in a chest in his room, as carefully as a miser would have hoarded a bag of gold. Clotilde Robard, the housekeeper, wondered why she found his candle burned so low several mornings.
With one hand he seized the wrist that held the revolver, and turned it upward. With the other he clutched the man by the throat, shutting off his wind and preventing him from crying out. Hal called to Chester: "Grab him!" Chester and Uncle John wheeled about and lent a hand in subduing the Austrian. Three against one, it was easy work, and after a short struggle Robard lay panting on the floor.
"I assure you, sir " began Robard. "Enough," replied the ambassador. "I have not forgotten that you were ever my enemy at least until this war brought us closer together and put an end to all our disputes at least, so I believed. Now I know better." "Sir " Robard began again. "I have told you I would have no hand in it," declared the ambassador. "What is more, I forbid it!
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