"Speak to him in your own language, your highness, and he will be sure
to understand," ventured the patient.
"I am speaking in my--I mean, I prefer to speak in English. Please tell
him to go to a hospital," she said confusedly. Baldos gave a few jovial
instructions, and then the raggedest courtier of them all handed Beverly
into the carriage with a grace that amazed her.
"You are the most remarkable goat-hunters I have ever seen," she
remarked in sincere wonder.
"And you speak the most perfect English I've ever heard," he replied.
"Oh, do you really think so? Miss Grimes used to say I was hopeless. You
know I had a--a tutor," she hastily explained. "Don't you think it
strange we've met no Axphain soldiers?" she went on, changing the
subject abruptly.
"We are not yet out of the woods," he said.
"That was a purely American aphorism," she cried, looking at him
intently. "Where did you learn all your English?"
"I had a tutor," he answered easily.
"You are a very odd person," she sighed. "I don't believe that you are a
goat-hunter at all."
"If I were not a goat-hunter I should have starved long ago," he
said. "Why do you doubt me?"
"Simply because you treat me one moment as if I were a princess, and the
next as if I were a child. Humble goat-hunters do not forget their
station in life."
"I have much to learn of the deference due to queens," he said.
"That's just like 'The Mikado' or 'Pinafore,'" she exclaimed." I believe
you are a comic-opera brigand or a pirate chieftain, after all."
"I am a lowly outcast," he smiled.
"Well, I've decided to take you into Edelweiss and--"
"Pardon me, your highness," he said firmly, "That cannot be. I shall not
go to Edelweiss."
"But I command you--"
"It's very kind of you, but I cannot enter a hospital--not even at
Ganlook. I may as well confess that I am a hunted man and that the
instructions are to take me dead or alive."
"Impossible!" she gasped, involuntarily shrinking from him.
"I have wronged no man, yet I am being hunted down as though I were a
beast," he said, his face turning haggard for the moment. "The hills of
Graustark, the plateaus of Axphain and the valleys of Dawsbergen are
alive with men who are bent on ending my unhappy but inconvenient
existence. It would be suicide for me to enter any one of your towns or
cities. Even you could not protect me, I fear," "This sounds like a dream. Oh, dear me, you don't look like a hardened
criminal," she cried.
"I am the humble leader of a faithful band who will die with me when the
time comes. We are not criminals, your highness. In return for what
service I may have performed for you, I implore you to question me no
further. Let me be your slave up to the walls of Ganlook, and then you
may forget Baldos, the goat-hunter."