"Oh, if it ever comes to that I shall be in a splendid position to
explain it all to him," said Beverly. "Don't you see, I'll have to do a
lot of explaining myself?"
"Baron Dangloss!" announced the guard of the upper hall, throwing open
the door for the doughty little chief of police.
"Your highness sent for me?" asked he, advancing after the formal
salutation. The princess exhibited genuine amazement.
"I did, Baron Dangloss, but you must have come with the wings of an
eagle. It is really not more than three minutes since I gave the order
to Colonel Quinnox." The baron smiled mysteriously, but volunteered no
solution. The truth is, he was entering the castle doors as the
messenger left them, but he was much too fond of effect to spoil a good
situation by explanations. It was a long two miles to his office in the
Tower. "Something has just happened that impels me to ask a few
questions concerning Baldos, the new guard."
"May I first ask what has happened?" Dangloss was at a loss for the
meaning of the general smile that went around.
"It is quite personal and of no consequence. What do you know of him? My
curiosity is aroused. Now, be quiet, Beverly; you are as eager to know
as the rest of us."
"Well, your highness, I may as well confess that the man is a puzzle to
me. He comes here a vagabond, but he certainly does not act like one. He
admits that he is being hunted, but takes no one into his confidence.
For that, he cannot be blamed."
"Have you any reason to suspect who he is?" asked Lorry.
"My instructions were to refrain from questioning him," complained
Dangloss, with a pathetic look at the original plotters. "Still, I have
made investigations along other lines."
"And who is he?" cried Beverly, eagerly.
"I don't know," was the disappointing answer. "We are confronted by a
queer set of circumstances. Doubtless you all know that young Prince
Dantan is flying from the wrath of his half-brother, our lamented friend
Gabriel. He is supposed to be in our hills with a half-starved body of
followers. It seems impossible that he could have reached our northern
boundaries without our outposts catching a glimpse of him at some
time. The trouble is that his face is unknown to most of us, I among the
others. I have been going on the presumption that Baldos is in reality
Prince Dantan. But last night the belief received a severe shock."
"Yes?" came from several eager lips.
"My men who are watching the Dawsbergen frontier came in last night and
reported that Dantan had been seen by mountaineers no later than Sunday,
three days ago. These mountaineers were in sympathy with him, and
refused to tell whither he went. We only know that he was in the
southern part of Graustark three days ago. Our new guard speaks many
languages, but he has never been heard to use that of Dawsbergen. That
fact in itself is not surprising, for, of all things, he would avoid his
mother tongue. Dantan is part English by birth and wholly so by
cultivation. In that he evidently finds a mate in this Baldos."