"Why, oh,--er--let me see; when did I say? Dash me--as

Mr. Anguish would say--I don't believe I gave a date. It seems to me I

said soon, that's all."

"You don't know how relieved I am," exclaimed Yetive rapturously? and

Beverly was in high dudgeon because of the implied reflection, "I

believe you are in a tiff with Baldos," went on Yetive airily.

"Goodness! How foolish you can be at times, Yetive," was what Beverly

gave back to her highness, the Princess of Graustark.

Late in the evening couriers came in from the Dawsbergen frontier with

reports which created considerable excitement in castle and army

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circles. Prince Gabriel himself had been seen in the northern part of

his domain, accompanied by a large detachment of picked soldiers. Lorry

set out that very night for the frontier, happy in the belief that

something worth while was about to occur. General Marlanx issued orders

for the Edelweiss army corps to mass beyond the southern gates of the

city the next morning. Commands were also sent to the outlying

garrisons. There was to be a general movement of troops before the end

of the week. Graustark was not to be caught napping.

Long after the departure of Lorry and Anguish, the princess sat on the

balcony with Beverly and the Countess Dagmar. They did not talk

much. The mission of these venturesome young American husbands was full

of danger. Something in the air had told their wives that the first

blows of war were to be struck before they looked again upon the men

they loved.

"I think we have been betrayed by someone," said Dagmar, after an almost

interminable silence. Her companion did not reply. "The couriers say

that Gabriel knows where we are weakest at the front and that he knows

our every movement. Yetive, there is a spy here, after all."

"And that spy has access to the very heart of our deliberations," added

Beverly pointedly. "I say this in behalf of the man whom you evidently

suspect, countess. He could not know these things."

"I do not say that he does know, Miss Calhoun, but it is not beyond

reason that he may be the go-between, the means of transferring

information from the main traitor to the messengers who await outside

our walls."

"Oh, I don't believe it!" cried Beverly hotly.

"I wonder if these things would have happened if Baldos had never come

to Edelweiss?" mused the princess. As though by common impulse, both of

the Graustark women placed their arms about Beverly.




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