



Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed
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[Illustration: Unmasked and helpless, she maintained an attitude of
challenge and defiance]




THE WOMAN OF MYSTERY

BY MAURICE LEBLANC

AUTHOR OF "CONFESSIONS OF ARSENE LUPIN,"
"THE TEETH OF THE TIGER," ETC.

NEW YORK
THE MACAULAY COMPANY

COPYRIGHT, 1916.

BY THE MACAULAY COMPANY





CONTENTS

CHAPTER                                                 PAGE
I.      THE MURDER                                         9
II.     THE LOCKED ROOM                                   23
III.    THE CALL TO ARMS                                  39
IV.     A LETTER FROM ELISABETH                           59
V.      THE PEASANT-WOMAN AT CORVIGNY                     77
VI.     WHAT PAUL SAW AT ORNEQUIN                         94
VII.    H. E. R. M.                                      108
VIII.   ELISABETH'S DIARY                                126
IX.     A SPRIG OF EMPIRE                                141
X.      75 OR 155?                                       156
XI.     "YSERY, MISERY"                                  167
XII.    MAJOR HERMANN                                    182
XIII.   THE FERRYMAN'S HOUSE                             198
XIV.    A MASTERPIECE OF KULTUR                          220
XV.     PRINCE CONRAD MAKES MERRY                        236
XVI.    THE IMPOSSIBLE STRUGGLE                          258
XVII.   THE LAW OF THE CONQUEROR                         277
XVIII.  HILL 132                                         292
XIX.    HOHENZOLLERN                                     310
XX.     THE DEATH PENALTY--AND A CAPITAL PUNISHMENT      330




THE WOMAN OF MYSTERY


CHAPTER I

THE MURDER


"Suppose I were to tell you," said Paul Delroze, "that I once stood face
to face with him on French...."

Elisabeth looked up at him with the fond expression of a bride to whom
the least word of the man she loves is a subject of wonder:

"You have seen William II. in France?"

"Saw him with my own eyes; and I have never forgotten a single one of
the details that marked the meeting. And yet it happened very long ago."

He was speaking with a sudden seriousness, as though the revival of that
memory had awakened the most painful thoughts in his mind.

"Tell me about it, won't you, Paul?" asked Elisabeth.

"Yes, I will," he said. "In any case, though I was only a child at the
time, the incident played so tragic a part in my life that I am bound
to tell you the whole story."

The train stopped and they got out at Corvigny, the last station on the
local branch line which, starting from the chief town in the department,
runs through the Liseron Valley and ends, fifteen miles from the
frontier, at the foot of the little Lorraine city which Vauban, as he
tells us in his "Memoirs," surrounded "with the most perfect demilunes
imaginable."

The railway-station presented an appearance of unusual animation. There
were numbers of soldiers, including many officers. A crowd of
passengers--tradespeople, peasants, workmen and visitors to the
neighboring health-resorts served by Corvigny--stood amid piles of
luggage on the platform, awaiting the departure of the next train for
the junction.

It was the last Thursday in July, the Thursday before the mobilization
of the French army.

Elisabeth pressed up against her husband:

"Oh, Paul," she said, shivering with anxiety, "if only we don't have
war!"

"War! What an idea!"

"But look at all these people leaving, all these families running away
from the frontier!"

"That proves nothing."

"No, but you saw it in the paper just now. The news is very bad. Germany
is preparing for war. She has planned the whole thing.... Oh, Paul,
if we were to be separated!... I should know nothing about you...
and you might be wounded... and..."

He squeezed her hand:

"Don't be afraid, Elisabeth. Nothing of the kind will happen. There
can't be war unless somebody declares it. And who would be fool enough,
criminal enough, to do anything so abominable?"

"I am not afraid