"What is it," St. George asked as they rolled away, "what is it that you have come to tell Miss Holland?"
Only one of the men spoke, the other appearing content to show two rows of exceptionally white teeth.
"May we not know, adôn," asked the man respectfully, "whether the prince has given her his news? And if the prince is still in your land?"
"The prince's servant, Elissa, has tried to stab Miss Holland and has got herself locked up," St. George imparted without hesitation.
An exclamation of horror broke from both men.
"To stab--to kill!" they cried.
"Quite so," said St. George, "and the prince, upon being discovered, disclosed some very important news to Miss Holland, and she and her friends started an hour ago for Yaque."
"That is well, that is well!" cried the little man, nodding, and momentarily hesitated; "but yet his news--what news, adôn, has he told her?"
For a moment St. George regarded them both in silence.
"Ah, well now, what news had he?" he asked briefly.
The men answered readily.
"Prince Tabnit was commissioned by the Yaquians to acquaint the princess with the news of the strange disappearance of her father, the king, and to supplicate her in his place to accept the hereditary throne of Yaque."
"Jupiter!" said St. George under breath.
In a flash the whole matter was clear to him. Prince Tabnit had delivered no such message from the people of Yaque, but had contented himself with the mere intimation that in some vanishing future she would be expected to ascend the throne. And he had done this only when Olivia herself had sought him out after an attempt had been made upon her life by his servant. It seemed to St. George far from improbable that the woman had been acting under the prince's instructions and, that failing, he himself had appeared and obligingly placed the daughter of King Otho precisely within the prince's power. Now she was gone with him, in the hope of aiding her father, to meet Heaven knew what peril in this pagan island; and he, St. George, was wholly to blame from first to last.
"Good Heavens," he groaned, "are you sure--but are you sure?"
"It is simple, adôn," said the man, "we came with this message from the people of Yaque. A day before we were to land, Akko and I--I am Jarvo--overheard the prince plan with the others to tell her nothing--nothing that the people desire. When they knew that we had heard they locked us up and we have only this morning escaped from the submarine. If the prince has told her this message everything is well. But as for us, I do not know. The prince has gone."