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"We're Done For! They Are Aiming At Us!"

THE SECRET
OF SAREK

By MAURICE LEBLANC

Translated by
ALEXANDER TEIXEIRA DE MATTOS

FRONTISPIECE

A. L. BURT COMPANY
Publishers New York

Published by arrangement with The Macaulay Company

Copyright, 1920
By THE MACAULAY COMPANY

PRINTED IN U. S. A.

FOREWORD

The war has led to so many upheavals that not many people now rememberthe Hergemont scandal of seventeen years ago. Let us recall the detailsin a few lines.

One day in July 1902, M. Antoine d'Hergemont, the author of a series ofwell-known studies on the megalithic monuments of Brittany, was walkingin the Bois with his daughter Véronique, when he was assaulted by fourmen, receiving a blow in the face with a walking-stick which felled himto the ground.

After a short struggle and in spite of his desperate efforts,Véronique, the beautiful Véronique, as she was called by her friends,was dragged away and bundled into a motor-car which the spectators ofthis very brief scene saw making off in the direction of Saint-Cloud.

It was a plain case of kidnapping. The truth became known next morning.Count Alexis Vorski, a young Polish nobleman of dubious reputation butof some social prominence and, by his own account, of royal blood, wasin love with Véronique d'Hergemont and Véronique with him. Repelled andmore than once insulted by the father, he had planned the incidententirely without Véronique's knowledge or complicity.

Antoine d'Hergemont, who, as certain published letters showed, was aman of violent and morose disposition and who, thanks to his capricioustemper, his ferocious egoism and his sordid avarice, had made hisdaughter exceedingly unhappy, swore openly that he would take the mostruthless revenge.

He gave his consent to the wedding, which took place two months later,at Nice. But in the following year a series of sensational eventstranspired. Keeping his word and cherishing his hatred, M. d'Hergemontin his turn kidnapped the child born of the Vorski marriage and set sailin a small yacht which he had bought not long before.

The sea was rough. The yacht foundered within sight of the Italiancoast. The four sailors who formed the crew were picked up by afishing-boat. According to their evidence M. d'Hergemont and the childhad disappeared amid the waves.

When Véronique received the proof of their death, she entered aCarmelite convent.

These are the facts which, fourteen years later, were to lead to themost frightful and extraordinary adventure, a p