"By the way--Your Grace--" He broke off abruptly to mark the effect of
the title on the other man. Evidently he found it highly pleasing for he
smiled as the Dreamer winced and came violently to his feet, pale and
rigid, but as yet too astounded for speech.
"I did not tell you, did I," went on the Spaniard, "that I have been Sir
Manuel Blanco only a few days, and that the title was conferred on me by
your royal kinsman, Karyl of Galavia, for a trifling service in
confounding his enemies? Before that I was a matador in Andalusia."
Delgado stood petrified, his features livid and his eyes blazing with
rage. An instinct warned him that to surrender to passion would be only
to trap himself more deeply. The man blocking the door filled its
breadth with his strong shoulders. Louis turned his head and his eyes
caught through the open porthole a glimpse of the receding shore-line of
the Riviera. Blanco followed the glance and smiled.
"We shall be losing shore in a short time," he calmly announced. "May I
have the honor of showing Your Grace to your stateroom?"
* * * * *
On the next evening Benton emerged from his rooms at the Grand Palace
Hotel in Puntal, and threading his way through the loungers on the
galleries, sought out a remote corner of the garden, where, under a
blossom-freighted vine, he could hear the surge of the sea, and, in a
tempered softness, the Viennese waltz of the hotel band. Under him the
harbor mirrored lights along the shore and those of ships at anchor. At
a distance the windows of the Palace could be seen.
"I beg your pardon--"
Benton recognized the coldly modulated voice before he glanced up at the
cloaked figure.
"Colonel Von Ritz," he said, "I am honored."
Von Ritz bowed.
"His Majesty requests that you will do him the honor of coming to the
Palace with me--now."
Despite the form of request in which the summons was couched, Von Ritz
clothed it in a coldness that brought to Benton's mind the implacable
politeness of an arrest. At the hint he stiffened.
"If His Majesty requests my presence," he replied with some shortness,
"it will be a pleasure to present myself at once. If--" he paused and
looked at the stiffly erect figure before him, "if the peremptory tone
you assume is a part of your instruction, I must remind you that I am an
American citizen, entirely free to accept or decline invitations--even
when they come from the Palace."