<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXVII">CHAPTER XXVII<br/> <span class="cheaderfont">THE MAN IN THE CLOAK SURPRISES EVERYBODY</span></h2>
<p>Franz Joseph, the aged Emperor of Austria-Hungary—whose
life history is one of the most
tragic of all contemporary royalty—tossed
uneasily as he slumbered on the great four-posted
bed, around which heavy damask curtains
had been drawn, shutting off all view of the
bed chamber. The Emperor had fled here to
his Chateau Schoenbrunn for at least a day or
so of quiet and ease from the heavy cares of
state.</p>
<p>“Go, your Imperial Highness, and sleep in
peace,” his trusted friend the Grand Chancellor
had told him. “For the time being I will take
the burden from your shoulders.”</p>
<p>“There are couriers waiting there in the ante-room,
from Plotz and the army at Lublin. There
is a messenger from the routed army before
Belgrade. There is yet another ultimatum from
Bulgaria to be considered,” said the aged
monarch doubtfully, passing a listless hand across
his careworn brow.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum">[217]</span></p>
<p>“Highness, cannot I attend to all that?”</p>
<p>The Emperor, broken in spirit and body,
acquiesced weakly.</p>
<p>“<em>Rest!</em>” he murmured, as if invoking a saint,
“undisturbed slumbers and a few hours in
which to forget a bleeding, beaten nation that
cries out for the help I cannot give.”</p>
<p>Thus it was that Franz Joseph came to go to
Schoenbrunn, but forgetfulness did not come to
him with the darkening of the lights around his
bed. The whole sad picture of his reign passed
in review before him like a horrid nightmare—murdered
relatives, degenerate heirs who had
disgraced his name, and, finally, apparitions of
the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and the Duchess
of Hohenberg, whose assassination by Serbs at
Sarajevo had been used as the excuse for the
war now convulsing the world.</p>
<p>There stood the ghastly shades of the
Emperor’s dearly beloved son and his wife whom
Franz Joseph never would recognize. They
extended bloody, mutilated hands to the old man
and seemed to say:</p>
<p>“See, we are come to take you with us to
where countless thousands of our countrymen
lately have gone. Come, Franz Joseph!”</p>
<p>With a strangling cry of terror, the aged<span class="pagenum">[218]</span>
Emperor awoke and half started up in his bed.
At that instant there came quick, catlike footfalls
in the outer rooms, a gurgling shout that
ended in a groan from the halberdiers who kept
watch by the door, and then the heavy curtains
screening the bed were wrenched violently aside
and a terrible figure towered over the palsied
Emperor.</p>
<p>It was Black-beard, his huge, knotty hands
working spasmodically as if already strangling
the poor old man in imagination. Behind him
appeared the villainous visage of the Twisted
Mouth. A knife in his hand was stained red to
the hilt with the life-blood of the door guard
whom they had caught unawares. Behind the
pair the window was open and the upper rungs
of a ladder showed above the sill.</p>
<p>Fate was upon him. The Emperor knew that,
and in that crucial moment when his life seemed
worth but a farthing, the noble bearing of his
forbears came suddenly to him, straightening the
bowed shoulders, throwing back the bent head
and putting the truly regal blaze of eleven generations
of Hapsburgs into his watery eyes.</p>
<p>“Dogs! what do you here in our presence
unannounced?” Franz Joseph thundered, and
even the pajamas covering his wasted form did<span class="pagenum">[219]</span>
not detract from the impressiveness of his mien.
“Begone!”</p>
<p>The Emperor pointed one long forefinger from
the wretches to the door.</p>
<p>Neither assassin vouchsafed a word in reply.
Black-beard crouched to hurl himself upon his
defenseless victim when—</p>
<p><em>Crash!</em> the whip-like report of a revolver
sounded from the doorway and through the
drifting smoke the figure of him they had called
the “count” was visible.</p>
<p>“Perdition!” groaned Black-beard, half-rising
from the floor. “You have killed me,
Polnychek!”</p>
<p>Twisted Mouth had dodged in amazed terror
behind the table, whence he now flourished his
knife uncertainly.</p>
<p>Pandemonium had broken loose below stairs.
Cries of alarm, screams, curses, stentorian commands
mingled with a thunderous fusillade of
shots. The staircase resounded with the rush
of many feet upon it. The treacherous Grand
Chancellor burst wildly into the room. He took
in the scene with one sweeping glance.</p>
<p>“What is the meaning of this, Polnychek?”
he cried threateningly. “Are you playing us
false?”</p>
<p><span class="pagenum">[220]</span></p>
<p>In answer, the “count” dramatically threw
aside the familiar cape and hat which had up to
this time concealed his face. A ferocious curse
burst from the astounded Chancellor.</p>
<div id="Ref_220" class="figcenter">
<ANTIMG src="images/i227.jpg" alt="" />
<div class="caption"><p class="center"><em>The Mysterious Man in the Cloak.</em></p>
</div>
</div>
<p>Instead of facing Count Polnychek, he was
confronted by the glinting muzzle of a revolver
in the hands of <em>Ned Napier</em>!</p>
<p>What followed thereafter happened far more
swiftly than it can be told. Seeing the entire
plot crumbling about him, and lacking the moral
courage to fight it out, the Chancellor sprang to
an open window and cast himself headlong down
into space. They later found him lying with
his neck broken in the gardens. Twisted Mouth
threw up his hands and surrendered as Ned
advanced upon him.</p>
<p>Meanwhile the sound of Ned’s shot had
awakened the entire household downstairs.
Weapons were quickly seized and haste was
made to secure the safety of the Emperor. The
faithless servants were among the loudest in
proclaiming their horror of the attempted
assassination.</p>
<p>Alan, Bob and Captain von Schleinitz had
attacked the nine conspirators skulking down
stairs the moment Ned’s shot rang out, and,
although the trapped men fought with unparalleled<span class="pagenum">[221]</span>
ferocity, they were driven at bay against
one wall of the building and forced to yield to
their intrepid assailants who were by then reinforced
by thirty or more domestics and imperial
guardsmen.</p>
<p>Owing to the already disturbed conditions in
Vienna it was the Emperor’s wish that all news
of this dastardly attempt on his life be kept
absolutely secret. He rode back along the Ring
Strasse, the main boulevard encircling the city,
in state the next morning and made it a point
to rise up and bow frequently in acknowledgment
of the cheering sidewalk crowds. This
effectually counteracted any premature stories of
his death which might have been circulated in
preparation for the plotted revolution.</p>
<p>The Airship Boys were given a formal
audience in his private reception chamber of the
Hofburg on the following afternoon and Captain
von Schleinitz also was ordered to be present.
The grateful emperor conferred the Order of
St. Stepan upon his faithful officer and promoted
him to the rank of lieutenant colonel of the
Imperial Aviation Corps. To the smiling boys
Franz Joseph said:</p>
<p>“It is a matter of difficulty for me to decide
how best to acknowledge my life-long indebtedness<span class="pagenum">[222]</span>
to you young gentlemen. The fact that
you are not of the nobility nor yet soldiers precludes
my decorating you with any of the Orders
of Merit in my power. So, gentlemen, I am
going to leave it for you yourselves to say how
I best may please you.”</p>
<p>Of course all of the boys blushed and were
much embarrassed by such a gracious reception.
None of them knew exactly what to say until
Buck blurted out:</p>
<p>“Why, we wouldn’t think of taking any
rewards ourselves for a thing that it was our
plain duty to do, sir, but we have a favor that
we’d like to ask for a friend who, by the way,
happens to be a subject of yours.”</p>
<p>“Your request is already granted—even
though the man be one of those implicated in
the conspiracy,” said the Emperor kindly.</p>
<p>“While we were in Przemysl,” continued
Buck, “we met an infantry officer, one Lieutenant
Racoszky, who lay dying in the hospital
for lack of proper attention to his wounds. He
is one of your most devoted subjects.”</p>
<p>Then Buck went on to tell how the lieutenant
had married above his station in life and of his
subsequent misfortunes as a result of the old
count’s brutal enmity.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum">[223]</span></p>
<p>“We want you to intercede with the count
on Racoszky’s behalf and bring the young
couple and their child together again,” Buck
concluded.</p>
<p>“Mr. Stewart hasn’t told you the entire
story yet, though,” Ned here interrupted. “It
seems that Count Polnychek was one of the moving
spirits in this plot. While trailing him down,
I fell into his power and probably would have
been murdered had it not been for his brave
daughter, Racoszky’s wife, who forced him at a
revolver’s muzzle to liberate me.</p>
<p>“Armed with the weapon she had given me,
I forced him to reveal the full details of the
conspiracy and now have him bound and locked
there in his daughter’s room. She agreed to
stand guard over him while I impersonated him
at the conspirators’ rendezvous. The lady has
asked that I beg leniency for her parent in view
of her own great services on your behalf.”</p>
<p>The Emperor paced the room thoughtfully for
a few moments. Then he said:</p>
<p>“Young gentlemen, you shall have both of
your wishes. Lieutenant Racoszky need no
longer dread separation from his family, and
Count Polnychek shall not be accorded the
sentence he so richly deserves. But he must<span class="pagenum">[224]</span>
leave Austria at once, and the first time that he
ever again sets foot across our boundaries shall
be the signal for his arrest.”</p>
<p>Thus the happiness of Racoszky was assured
and the boys were left once more free to pursue
their way.</p>
<hr class="chap" />
<p><span class="pagenum">[225]</span></p>
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