"Tell him the King is safe now."
"Oh, he knows that already. What puzzled him is the fact that the troops at the War Ministry, which lies beyond the President"s house, should have reached there before him."
"What does it matter, since help came in time? Please bid the coachman go on. I--I would like to be the first to let Princess Delgrado know that her son has escaped from those horrid men. Who were they? Why should they want to kill Alec?"
Felix did not obey her bequest instantly. He exchanged some hasty words with the strange officer, who chanced to be Drakovitch, and answered Joan"s questions only when the cab resumed its journey. "Have you forgotten the part played by the Seventh Regiment in the recent history of Delgratz?" he cried.
"I remember something about them. Alec disbanded them. Oh--they were the soldiers who revolted and murdered the late King and Queen."
"Exactly. Do women ever read the newspapers intelligently, I wonder? You state a most remarkable fact, considering that this is Delgratz and your future capital, as coolly as if it had happened in Kamchatka."
"But still I do not understand why they should turn against Alec. I have at least sufficient intelligence to recall the avowed object of their crime,--the restoration of the Delgrado line."
Felix smiled. If Joan was able to defend herself, she was certainly making a rapid recovery. "That is a mere hazy recollection of their afterthought. Of all despotisms, save me from a military one, and soldiers who slay Kings are the worst of despots. If there were no Kings, there would be few soldiers, Joan. Put that valuable truism away among the other wise saws that govern your life. You will appreciate its truth, and the even greater truth of its converse, when you are a Queen.
But soldiers are stupid creatures, obviously so, since killing is no argument, or the word philosopher would mean a man armed with a bludgeon. If they do away with a tyrant and elect his successor, they are apt to acquire the habit. Soldiers are meant to obey, not to rule, and these Kosnovian Kingmakers were not patriots but cutthroats."
Joan buried her face in her hands. The thought came unbidden that in some inexplicable way she shared with the infamous Seventh Regiment a large measure of responsibility for Alec"s dangerous kingship.
"Mademoiselle is ill. Why trouble her with your silly chatter?" demanded Pauline angrily.
"Eh, what the deuce? My name isn"t Balaam," retorted Felix.
"Nor am I a donkey, monsieur. If it wasn"t for you, miladi would now be happy in her little apartment in the Place de la Sorbonne. I keep my ears open, me!"
"I said nothing about your ears, Madame Pauline," t.i.ttered Felix.
The Frenchwoman"s homely features reddened, and a vitriolic reply was only half averted by the lurching of the carriage through a gateway.
Joan looked out, and her eyes were moist.
"I possess two good friends in Delgratz, and I hope they will not quarrel on my account," she said, with a piteous smile that silenced the woman. Poluski"s mouth twisted.
"We are not quarreling, my belle," he cried. "Pauline thinks I brought you here, whereas your presence is clearly an act of Providence. Being a modest person, I naturally protested."
If Joan was not utterly bewildered by the whirligig of events, and more than ever unnerved now at the near prospect of meeting Prince and Princess Delgrado in the perhaps unwelcome guise of their son"s affianced wife, she would certainly have discovered that Felix was saying the first thing that came uppermost in his mind. The outcome must have been a quick mental review of the day"s incidents in order to hit upon the special item he was trying to conceal, though it is probable that no girl of Joan"s candid nature would ever guess the suspicion rapidly maturing to a settled belief in the Pole"s acute brain.
For Captain Drakovitch, the officer who led the bodyguard in their belated ride to the King"s aid, had told him that a waiter, John Sobieski by name, had arrived breathless at the President"s house many minutes before the actual alarm was given. Sobieski had sobbed out some incoherent words about the King, and the Seventh Regiment; but Prince Michael, who was in the courtyard, snapped up the man immediately, bidding him hold his tongue, and hurrying him inside the building. Once there, Sobieski became more confused than ever. Prince Michael obviously regarded him as a crazy rumor-monger until Nesimir appeared. The latter, by reason of his local knowledge, instantly appreciated the true significance of an attack on the King in a crowded thoroughfare by a gang whom Sobieski was sure he had identified correctly.
Nevertheless, precious time had been consumed by the elder Delgrado"s interference. The President acted with prompt.i.tude; but the outcome was clear. If it had not been for Bosko, the King must have fallen.
"G.o.ds!" vowed Drakovitch in his emphatic story to Felix, "there were we lounging about smoking cigarettes while his Majesty was in a fair way to be cut in pieces! A nice state of affairs! If some one had not warned Stampoff, we might have been too late!"
"Better not mention it in public," was Poluski"s advice. "The mere notion of the resultant disaster would make Prince Michael seriously ill. Moreover, such things grow in the telling, and the story will be traced back to you."
The other had agreed, and Felix followed his own counsel by withholding from Joan all knowledge of the unpleasant mischance that had nearly cost the lives of the King and his companions in the besieged hotel. But his thoughts were busy, and, when he found Sobieski detained in the entrance hall, he consigned Joan and her maid to the care of a servant, briefly explaining that they were to be taken to Princess Delgrado, and forthwith questioned his fellow countryman.
Sobieski was quaking with fear. The scornful disbelief expressed by Prince Michael had discomfited him at the beginning, and now he was practically under arrest until his connection with the outrage was investigated officially. One of Stampoff"s messengers had already announced the King"s safety, or by this time Sobieski must have become the lunatic Prince Michael took him to be.
"What then, my friend, they did not credit your tale, I hear?" said Felix genially, and the sound of his voice drove some of the misery from the waiter"s pallid cheeks.
"It was my fault, monsieur. I ran so fast that I lost my breath and the gentleman could not understand me."
"Ah, is that it? Did you speak Polish?"
"No, no, monsieur. I always speak Serbian here."
"And what did you say?"
"Just what you told me to say,--that the King was in danger and that the President was to send troops instantly to the Furst Michaelstra.s.se. Then the old gentleman, he whom they call Prince Michael, came up and said he did not believe a word of it."
"Mon Dieu! He understood you, it appears?"
"Perhaps not, monsieur. I made a hash of it, especially when I told him Monsieur Poluski sent me."
"Sure you mentioned that?"
"Quite sure, monsieur. It was then he ordered me inside the house. The mention of your name seemed to annoy him. For a little while he could say nothing but "Poluski, Poluski! Is he in it?" I swore you had nothing to do with the plot, monsieur, but had acted throughout as the King"s friend; then he stormed at me again, and called me a blockhead for coming to the palace with such a mad story. He asked me what I thought would have been the consequence if the Princess heard me, and I said I knew nothing about any Princess; I was only quite sure the King would be slain if some one did not hasten to his rescue."
"But some one had more sense, some one listened?" said Felix dryly.
"Ah, yes. When the President came down the stairs, Prince Michael went to meet him, laughing all the time at my romancing, as he called it. But I shouted out, being quite desperate then, and Monsieur Nesimir heard me. Of course, by that time, I was in such a state that my knees shook.
I was certain the King would be found dead, and perhaps you, monsieur, and then would there be no one to prove that I was not mixed up in the affair, so people would think I ran to the palace in order to save my own skin. I nearly dropped with fear, feeling that so many minutes were being lost, and that made me more nervous than ever when I was answering Monsieur Nesimir"s questions."
Poluski"s worn face exhibited no more emotion than if he was a graven image, but his voice was sympathetic. "At any rate, everything has ended happily, friend John," said he. "The King is alive, you did your duty, and you will find him not unmindful of your services. By whose order are you detained here?"
The excited waiter began to snivel. "I don"t know, monsieur. Pray intercede for me and have me set at liberty, or I shall lose my situation if it gets about that I have been arrested. My patron will have nothing to do with politics. He says his business is to sell beer and coffee, and all parties are equally fond of his goods."
Felix, who was already being eyed askance by the presidential hangers-on in the entrance lobby, returned to the courtyard and appealed to the officer in charge of the escort. A brief conversation with an official elicited the fact that Sobieski awaited Prince Michael"s commands.
"Then bring Prince Michael here," said Poluski.
"Monsieur!" An astounded flunky could say no more; but this impudent hunchback was in no wise abashed.
"Exactly, Monsieur Felix Poluski wishes to see his Excellency at once.
Tell him that, and it will suffice."
The lackey was forced to yield, and, much to his surprise, Prince Michael did not hesitate an instant in obeying that imperative summons.
An expression of annoyance flitted across his florid features when he found Poluski standing near the trembling waiter; but he tackled the situation with nonchalance.
"Have you been here long, Felix?" he inquired. "No one told me you had arrived. Your young lady friend has been taken to the Princess--at her own request, I am given to understand. Dreadful business, this unforeseen attack on my son, isn"t it? I must confess that I didn"t credit a word of it when this poor fellow rushed in with his broken tale. Ah, by the way, I gave some orders in my alarm that may have been misinterpreted." He dug a hand into a pocket; but withdrew it, empty.
"His Majesty will see to it that you are suitably rewarded," he said to Sobieski. "Meanwhile, you have my hearty thanks, and I regret that any hasty words of mine should have caused you inconvenience. You can go at once, of course."
Sobieski made off, well pleased that his stormy career in the whirlpool of state affairs was ended. But Felix shook hands with him and said quietly:
"I will not forget."
Prince Michael seized Poluski"s arm with a fine a.s.sumption of dignified cordiality. "So it was really you who sent that stammering youth with such an astounding message? Come, then. Tell me all about it. Was Alec actually in peril?"