"Assuming that it is Dantan, Grenfall," said Yetive, "I fancy it is not
courteous in us to let him stand over there all alone and ignored. Go to
him, please." With that she passed through the doors, accompanied by
Beverly and the young princess. Lorry and others went to greet the
emaciated visitor in rags and tags. Colonel Quinnox and Baron Dangloss
looked at one another in doubt and uncertainty. What were they to do
with Baldos, the prisoner?
"You are asking yourself what is to be done with me," said Baldos
easily. "The order is for my arrest. Only the princess can annul it. She
has retired on a mission of love and tenderness. I would not have her
disturbed. There is nothing left for you to do but to place me in a
cell. I am quite ready, Colonel Quinnox. You will be wise to put me in a
place where I cannot hoodwink you further. You do not bear me a grudge?"
He laughed so buoyantly, so fearlessly that Quinnox forgave him
everything. Dangloss chuckled, an unheard-of condescension on his
part. "We shall meet again, Count Marlanx. You were not far wrong in
your accusations against me, but you have much to account for in another
direction."
"This is all a clever trick," cried the Iron Count. "But you shall find
me ready to accommodate you when the time comes."
At this juncture Lorry and Count Halfont came up with Ravone. Baldos
would have knelt before his ruler had not the worn, sickly young man
restrained him.
"Your hand, Captain Baldos," he said. "Most loyal of friends. You have
won far more than the honor and love I can bestow upon you. They tell me
you are a prisoner, a suspected traitor. It shall be my duty and joy to
explain your motives and your actions. Have no fear. The hour will be
short and the fruit much the sweeter for the bitterness."
"Thunder!" muttered Harry Anguish. "You don't intend to slap him into a
cell, do you, Gren?" Baldos overheard the remark.
"I prefer that course, sir, until it has been clearly established that
all I have said to you is the truth. Count Marlanx must be satisfied,"
said he.
"And, Baldos, is all well with her?" asked the one we have known as
Ravone.
"She is being put to bed," said Baldos, with a laugh so jolly that
Ravone's lean face was wreathed in a sympathetic smile. "I am ready,
gentlemen." He marched gallantly away between the guards, followed by
Dangloss and Colonel Quinnox.
Naturally the Graustark leaders were cautious, even skeptical. They
awaited confirmation of the glorious news with varying emotions. The
shock produced by the appearance of Prince Dantan in the person of the
ascetic Ravone was almost stupefying. Even Beverly, who knew the
vagabond better than all the others, had not dreamed of Ravone as the
fugitive prince. Secretly she had hoped as long as she could that Baldos
would prove, after all, to be no other than Dantan. This hope had
dwindled to nothing, however, and she was quite prepared for the
revelation. She now saw that he was just what he professed to be--a
brave but humble friend of the young sovereign; and she was happy in the
knowledge that she loved him for what he was and not for what he might
have been.