"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

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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.




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