Part of them, led by Ugo
himself, took a short cut up through the woods and met the two men in
the road.
"There is only one man in the world to-day who is a better shot at
night than Prince Ugo, and modesty keeps me from mentioning his
illustrious name. That's why I believe Ugo is the one who got the
Baron,--or Roon, as you know him. The other fellow was halted at the
cross-roads when he made a run for it. A couple of men had been sent
there for just such an emergency. Hedlund was a curiously chivalrous
chap. He went to extreme measures to protect his wife's good name by
wiping out all means of identification. His wife's good name! It is to
laugh! Now, that is the true story of the little affair, and if you
are as much of a gentleman as I take you to be, Barnes, you will
respect Hedlund's desire to shield the woman he loved, and let him lie
up yonder in an unmarked grave. That is what he figured on, you know,
in case things went against him, and I'll stake my head that if you
put it up to the Countess Therese, she will feel as I do about it. She
will beg you to keep the secret. Hedlund was a lifelong friend of her
family. He was beloved by all of them. He married an actress in Vienna
three or four years ago.
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