"Is it a dream
or is it you?"
"Flesh and blood!" I cried. "Flesh and blood!"
I closed the door and bolted it. He followed my movements with a
mixture of astonishment and curiosity in his eyes.
"Now," I began, "what have you done with the proofs which you took from
your wife--the proofs of the existence of a twin sister of the Princess
Hildegarde of Hohenphalia?"
CHAPTER XXI
The suddenness of this demand overwhelmed him, and he fell back into
the chair, his eyes bulging and his mouth agape.
"Do you hear me?" I cried. "The proofs!" going up to him with clenched
fists. "What have you done with those proofs? If you have destroyed
them I'll kill you."
Then, as a bulldog shakes himself loose, the old fellow got up and
squared his shoulders and faced me, his lips compressed and his jaws
knotted. I could see by his eyes that I must fight for it.
"Herr Winthrop has gone mad," said he. "The Princess Hildegarde never
had a sister."
"You lie!" My hands were at his throat.
"I am an old man," he said.
I let my hands drop and stepped back.
"That is better," he said, with a grim smile.
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