A SON OF THE IMMORTALS LOUIS TRACY .f A V MV. OF CALIF. UMAftY* MMB The sight of Alec and his fair burden brought a cheer from the crowd Frontispici A Son of the Immortals By LOUIS TRACY Author of " The Stowaway," " The Message, "The Wings of the Morning," etc. Illustrations by HOWARD CHANDLER CHRISTY New York Edward J. Clode Publisher Copyright, 1909. by EDWARD J. CLODE Entered at Stationers' Hall CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. THE FORTUNE TELLER .... 1 II. MONSEIGNEUR 22 III. IN THE ORIENT EXPRESS .... 44 IV. THE WHITE CITY 64 V. FELIX SURMOUNTS A DIFFICULTY . .89 VI. JOAN GOES INTO SOCIETY . . . .112 VII. JOAN BECOMES THE VICTIM OF CIRCUM- STANCES 132 VIII. SHOWING How THE KING KEPT His AP- POINTMENT 154 IX. MUTTERINGS OF STORM . . . .176 X. WHEREIN THE SHADOWS DEEPEN . . 196 XI. JOAN DECIDES 221 XII. THE STORM BREAKS 241 XIII. WHEREIN A REASON Is GIVEN FOR JOAN'S FLIGHT 263 XIV. THE BROKEN TREATY 284 XV. THE ENVOY . 310 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS The sight of Alec and his fair burden brought a cheer from the crowd . . . Frontispiece PAGE, " Gentlemen, here stands Alexis Delgrado " . . 75 Beaumanoir and Felix fortified the position . .153 Joan laughed at Alec's masterful methods . . 199 Stampoff saluted the King in silence . . . 268 In a few minutes the three were securely bound . 298 He felt the thrill that ran through her veins . .306 A SON OF THE IMMORTALS CHAPTER I THE FORTUNE TELLEE ON a day in May, not so long ago, Joan Ver- non, coming out into the sunshine from her lodging in the Place de la Sorbonne, smiled a morning greeting to the statue of Auguste Comte, founder of Positivism. It would have puzzled her to explain what Positivism meant, or why it should be merely positive and not stoutly comparative or grandly superlative. As a teacher, therefore, Comte made no appeal. She just liked the bland look of the man, was pleased by the sleekness of his white marble. He seemed to be a friend, a counselor, strut- ting worthily on a pedestal labeled " Ordre et Pro- gres " ; for Joan was an artist, not a philosopher. Perhaps there was an underthought that she and Comte were odd fish to be at home together in that placid backwater of the Latin Quarter. Next door to the old-fashioned house in which she rented three rooms was a cabaret, a mere wreck of a wineshop, apparently cast there by the torrent of the Boule 1 A Son of the Immortals Mich, which roared a few yards away. Its luminous sign, a foaming tankard, showed gallantly by night, but was garish by day, since gas is akin to froth, to which the sun is pitiless. But the cabaret had its customers, quiet folk who gathered in the evening to gossip and drink strange beverages, whereas its nearest neighbor on the boulevard side was an empty tenement, a despondent ghost to-day, though once it had rivaled the flaunting tankard. Its frayed finery told of gay sparks extinguished. A flam- boyant legend declared, "Ici on chante, on boit, on s'amuse ( ?) " Joan always smirked a little at that suggestive note of interrogation, which lent a world of meaning to the half-obliterated statement that Madame Lucette would appear " tous les soirs dans ses chansons d'actualites." Nodding to Leontine, the cabaret's amazingly small maid of all work, who was always washing and never washed, Joan saw the query for the hun- dredth time, and, as ever, found its answer in the blistered paint and dust covered windows : Madame Lucette's last song of real life pointed a moral. Joan's bright face did not cloud on that account. Paul Verlaine, taking the air in the Boulevard Saint Michel, had he. chanced to notice the dry husk of that Cabaret Latin, might have composed a chanson on the vanity of dead cafes ; but this sprightly girl had chosen her residence there chiefly because it marched with her purse. Moreover, it was admirably suited to the needs of one who for the most part gave 2 The Fortune Teller her days to the Louvre and her evenings to the Sorbonne. She was rather late that morning. Lest that precious hour of white light should be lost, she sped rapidly across the place, down the boulevard, and along the busy Quai des Grands Augustins. On the Pont Neuf she glanced up at another statuesque acquaintance, this time a kingly personage on horse- back. She could never quite dispel the notion that Henri Quatre was ready to flirt with her. The roguish twinkle in his bronze 'eye was very taking, and there were not many men in Paris who could look at her in that way and win a smile in return. To be sure, it was no new thing for a Vernon to be well disposed toward Henry of Navarre; but that is ancient history, and our pretty Joan, blithely unconscious, was hurrying that morning to take an active part in redrafting the Berlin treaty. At the corner of the bridge, where it joins the Quai du Louvre, she met a young man. Each pretended that the meeting was accidental, though, after the first glance, the best-natured recording angel ever commissioned from Paradise would have refused to believe either of them. " What a piece of luck ! " cried the young man. " Are you going to the Louvre ? " "Yes. And you?" demanded Joan, flushing prettily. " I am killing time till the afternoon, when I play 3 A Son of the Immortals Number One for the Wanderers. To-day's match is at Bagatelle." She laughed. " ' Surely thou also art one of them ; for thy speech bewrayeth thee,' " she quoted. " I don't quite follow that, Miss Vernon." " No? Well, I'll explain another time. I must away to my copying." " Let me come and fix your easel. Really, I have nothing else to do." " Worse and worse ! En route, alors! You can watch me at work. That must be a real pleasure to an idler." " I am no idler," he protested. " What ? Who spoke but now of ' killing time,' * play,' ' Number One,' and ' Bagatelle ' ? Really, Mr. Delgrado ! " " Oh, is that what you are driving at? But you misunderstood. Bagatelle is near the polo ground in the Bois, and, as Number One in my team, I shall have to hustle. Four stiff chukkers at polo are downright hard work, Miss Vernon. By teatime I shall be a limp rag. I promised to play nearly a month ago, and I cannot draw back now." " Polo is a man's game, at any rate," she ad- mitted. " Would you care to see to-day's tie? " he asked eagerly. " We meet Chantilly, and, if we put them out in the first round of the tournament, with any ordinary luck we ought to run right into the semi- final." " 4 The Fortune Teller She shook her head. " You unhappy people who have to plan and scheme how best to waste your hours have no notion of their value. I must work steadily from two till five. That means a sixteenth of my picture. Divide two hundred and fifty by sixteen, and you have dear me! I am no good at figures." "Fifteen francs, sixty-two and a half centimes," said he promptly. She flashed a surprised look at him. " That is rather clever of you," she said. " Well, fancy a poor artist sacrificing all that money in order to watch eight men galloping after a white ball and whack- ing it and each other's ponies unmercifully." " To hit an adversary's pony is the unforgivable sin," he cried, smiling at her, and she hastily averted her eyes, having discovered an unnerving similarity between his smile and Henri Quatre's! They walked on in eloquent silence. The man was cudgeling his brains for an excuse whereby he might carry her off in triumph to the Bois. The girl was fighting down a new sensation that threat- ened her independence. Never before had she felt tonguetied in the presence of an admirer. She had dismissed dozens of them. She refrained now from sending this good-looking boy packing only because it would be cruel, and Joan Vernon could not be cruel to anyone. Nevertheless, she had to justify herself as a free lance, and it is the role of a lance to attack rather than defend. 5 A Son of the Immortals " What do you occupy yourself with when you are not playing polo or lounging about artists' studios ? " she asked suddenly. " Not much, I am afraid. I like shooting and hunting ; but these Frenchmen have no backbone for sport. Will you believe it, one has the greatest difficulty in getting a good knock at polo unless there is a crowd of ladies on the lawn ? " " Ah ! I begin to see light." " That is not the reason I asked you to come. If you honored me so greatly you would be the first woman, my mother excepted, I have ever driven to the club. To-day's players are mostly Americans or English. Of course there are some first-rate French teams ; but you can take it from me that they show their real form only before the ladies." " As in the tourneys of old? " " Perhaps. It is the same at the chateaux. Everyone wants his best girl to watch his prowess with the gun." He stopped, wishing he had left the best girl out of it ; but Joan was kind hearted and did not hesitate an instant. " So you are what is known as a gentleman of leisure and independent means ? " she said suavely. " Something of the sort." " I am sorry for you, Mr. Delgrado." " I am rather sorry for myself at times," he admitted, and if Joan had chanced to glance at him she would have seen a somewhat peculiar expression 6 on his face. " But why do you call me Mr. Del- grado ? " She gazed at him now in blank bewilderment just a second too late to see that expression. " Isn't Delgrado your name ? " she asked. " Yes, in a sense. People mostly call me Alec. Correctly speaking, Alec isn't mother's darling for Alexis ; but it goes, anyhow.' ? " Sometimes I think you are an American," she vowed. " Half," he said. " My mother is an American, my father a Kosnovian well, just a Kosnovian." " And pray what is that ? " she cried. " Haven't you heard of Kosnovia? It is a little Balkan State." " Is there some mystery, then, about your name? " " Oh, no ; plain Alec." " Am I to call you plain Alec ? " " Yes." " But it follows that you would call me plain Joan." " Let it go at Joan." " Very well. Good morning, Alec." " No, no, Miss Vernon. Don't be vexed. I really did not mean to be rude. And you promised, you know." "Promised what?" " That I might help carry your traps. Please don't send me away ! " He was so contrite that Joan weakened again. " It 7, A Son of the Immortals is rather friendly to hear one's Christian name occasionally," she declared. " I will compound on the Alec if you will tell me why the Delgrado applies only in a sense." " Done Joan," said he, greatly daring. He waited the merest fraction of time; but she gave no sign. " My stipulation is of the slightest," he added, " that I discourse in the Louvre. Where are you working? " " In the Grande Galerie; on a subject that I enjoy, too. People have such odd notions as to nice pic- tures. They choose them to match the furniture. Now, this one is quite delightful to copy, and not very difficult. But you shall see." They entered the Louvre from the Quai. Joan was undoubtedly flurried. Here, in very truth, was that irrepressible Henri descended from his bronze horse and walking by her side. That his later name happened to be Alec did not matter at all. She knew that a spiteful Bourbon had melted down no less than two statues of Napoleon in order to produce the fine cavalier who approved of her every time she crossed the Pont Neuf, and it seemed as if some of the little Corsican's dominance was allied with a touch of Bearnais swagger in the stal- wart youth whom she had met for the first time in Rudin's studio about three weeks earlier. They were steel and magnet at once. Delgrado had none of the boulevardier's abounding self-conceit, or Joan would never have given him a second look, 8 The Fortune Teller while Joan's frank comradeship was vastly more alluring than the skilled coquetry that left him cold. Physically, too, they were well mated, each obviously made for the other by a discriminating Providence. They were just beginning to discover the fact, and this alarmed Joan. She could not shake off the notion that he had waylaid her this morning for a purpose wholly un- connected with the suggested visit to the polo ground. So, tall and athletic though he was, she set such a pace up the steps and through the lower galleries that further intimate talk became impossible. Ata- lanta well knew what she was about when she ran her suitors to death, and Meilanion showed a deep insight into human nature when he arranged that she should loiter occasionally. Delgrado, however, had no golden apples to drop in Joan's path, could not even produce a conversa- tional plum; but he was young enough to believe in luck, and he hoped that fortune might favor him, once the painting was in hand. Each was so absorbed in the other that the Louvre might have been empty. Certainly, neither of them noticed that a man crossing the Pont du Carrousel in an open cab seemed to be vastly surprised when he saw them hastening through the side entrance. He carried his interest to the point of stopping the cab and following them. Young, clear skinned, black- haired, exceedingly well dressed, with the eyes and eyelashes of an Italian tenor, he moved with an air 9 'A Son of the Immortals of distinction, and showed that he was no stranger to the Louvre by his rapid decision that the Salle des Moulages, with its forbidding plaster casts, was no likely resting place for Delgrado and his pretty companion. Making straight for the nearest stairs, he almost blundered upon Alec, laden with Joan's easel and canvas; but this exquisite, having something of the spy's skill, whisked into an alcove, scrutinized an old print, and did not emerge until the chance of being recognized had passed. After that, he was safe. He appeared to be amused, even somewhat amazed, when he learned why Delgrado was patroniz- ing the arts. Yet the discovery was evidently pleas- ing. He caressed a neat, black mustache with a well- manicured hand, while taking note of Joan's lithe figure and well poised head. The long, straight vista of the gallery did not permit of a near view, and he could not linger in the narrow doorway, used chiefly by artists and officials, whence he watched them for a minute or more. So he turned on his heel and descended to the street and his waiting victoria, waving that delicate hand and smiling with the manner of one who said, " Fancy that of Alec ! The young scamp ! " Joan was copying Caravaggio's " The Fortune Teller," a masterpiece that speaks in every tongue, to every age. Its keynote is simplicity. A gallant of Milan, clothed in buff-colored doublet slashed with forown velvet, a plumed cavalier hat set rakishly on 10 The Fortune Teller his head, and a lace ruffle caught up with a string of seed pearls round his neck, is holding out his right palm to a Gypsy woman, while the fingers of his left hand rest on a swordhilt. The woman is young and pretty, her subject a mere boy, and her smug aspect of divination is happily contrasted with the youth's excitement at hearing what fate has in store. " There ! " cried Joan. " What do you think of it?" She had almost completed the Gypsy, and there was already a suggestion of the high lights in the youngster's face and his brightly colored garb. " I like your copy more than the original," said Delgrado. " Your visits to Rudin have not taught you much about art, then," said she tartly. " Not even that great master would wish me to be insincere." " No, indeed ; but he demands knowledge at the back of truth. Now, mark me ! You see that speck of white fire in the corner of the woman's eye? It gives life, intelligence, subtle character. Just a little blob of paint, put there two hundred years a g y^ it conveys the whole stock in trade of the fortune teller. Countless numbers of men and women have gazed at that picture, a multitude that must have covered the whole range of human virtues and vices ; but it has never failed to carry the same mes- 11 A Son of the Immortals sage to every beholder. Do you think that my poor reproduction will achieve that? " " You have chosen the only good bit in the paint- ing," he declared stoutly. " Look at the boy's lips. Caravaggio must have modeled them from a girl's. What business has a fellow with pouting red lips like them to wear a sword on his thigh? " Joan laughed with joyousness that was good to hear. " Pooh ! Run away and smite that ball with a long stick ! " she said. " Hum ! More than the Italian could have done." He was ridiculously in earnest. Joan colored sud- denly and busied herself with tubes of paint. She believed he was jealous of the handsome Lombard. She began to mix some pigments on the palette. Delgrado, already regretting an inexplicable out- burst, turned from the picture and looked at Murillo's " woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a diadem of twelve stars." " Now, please help me to appreciate that and you will find me a willing student," he murmured. But Joan had recovered her self-possession. " Sup- pose we come off the high art ladder and talk of our uninteresting selves," she said. " What of the mystery you hinted at on the Quai? Why shouldn't I call you Mr. Delgrado? One cannot always say ' Alec,' it's too short." Then he reddened with confusion. " Delgrado is my name, right enough," he said. " It is the prefix 12 The Fortune Teller I object to. It implies that I am sailing under false colors, and I don't like that." " I am not good at riddles, and I suspect prefix," she cried. " Ah, well, I suppose I must get through with it. Have you forgotten how Rudin introduced me ? " She knitted her brows for a moment. Pretty women should cultivate the trick, unless they fear wrinkles. It gives them the semblance of looking in on themselves, and the habit is commendable. " Rudin is fond of his little joke," she announced at last. "But what did he say?" " Oh, there was some absurdity. He addressed me as if I were a royal personage, and asked to be allowed to present his Serene Highness Prince Alexis Delgrado." The man smiled constrainedly. " It sounds rather nonsensical, doesn't it ? " he said. " Rudin often invents titles. I have heard efforts much more amusing." " That is when he is original. Unfortunately, in my case, he was merely accurate." Joan whirled round on him. " Are you a Prince? " she gasped, each word marking a crescendo of wonder. " Yes-^Toan." "But what am I to do? What am I to say? Must I drop on one knee and kiss your hand? " " I cannot help it," he growled. " And I was 13 A Son of the Immortals obliged to tell you. You would have been angry with me if I had kept it hidden from you. Oh, dash it all, Joan, don't laugh! That is irritating." " My poor Alec ! Why did they make you a Prince? " " I was born that way. My father is one. Do you mean to say you have lived in Paris a year and have never seen our names in the newspapers? My people gad about everywhere. The Prince and Prin- cess Michael Delgrado, you know." " I do not know," said Joan deliberately. Her alert brain was slowly assimilating this truly astonishing discovery. She did not attempt to shirk its significance, and her first thought was to frame some excuse to abandon work for the day ; since, no matter what the cost to herself, this friendship must go no farther. The decision caused a twinge; but she did not flinch, for Joan would always visit the dentist rather than endure toothache. She could not dismiss a Serene Highness merely because he de- clared his identity, nor was she minded to forget his rank because she had begun to call him Alec. But it hurt. She was conscious of a longing to be alone. If not in love, she was near it, and hard-working artists must not love Serene Highnesses. Delgrado was watching her with a glowering anxiety that itself carried a warning. " You see, Joan, I had to tell you," he repeated. " People make such a fuss about these empty honors " Joan caught at a straw. She hoped that a 14 The Fortune Teller display of sarcastic humor might rescue her. " Honors ! " she broke in, and she laughed almost shrilly, for her voice was naturally sweet and har- monious. " Is it an honor, then, to be born a Prince?" " If a man is worth his salt, the fact that he is regarded as a Prince should make him princely." " That is well said. Try and live up to it. You will find it a task, though, to regulate your life by copybook maxims." " The princedom is worth nothing otherwise. In its way, it is a handicap. Most young fellows of my age have some sort of career before them, while I I really am what you said I was, an idler. I didn't like the taunt from your lips ; but it was true. Well, I am going to change all that. I am tired of postur- ing as one of Daudet's ' Kings in Exile.' We ex- pelled potentates all live in Paris; that is the irony of it. I want to be candid with you, Joan. I have seen you every day since we met at Rudin's ; but I did not dare to meet you too often lest you should send me away. You have given me a purpose in life. You have created a sort of hunger in me, and I refuse to be satisfied any longer with the easygoing existence of the last few years. No, you must hear me out. No matter what you say now, the new order of things is irrevocable. I almost quarreled with my father last night; but I told him plainly that I meant to make a place for myself in the world. At any rate, I refuse to live the life he lives, and I 15 A Son of the Immortals am here to-day because the awakening is due to you, Joan." A tremor ran through the girl's limbs; but she faced him bravely. Though her lips quivered, she forced herself to utter words that sounded like a jibe. " I am to play Pallas Athene to your Perseus," she said, and it seemed to him for a moment that she was in a mood to jest at heroics. " If you mean that I regard you as my goddess, I am well content," he answered quickly. " Ah, but wait. Pallas Athene came to Perseus in a dream, and let us make believe that we are dreaming now. She had great gray eyes, clear and piercing, and she knew all thoughts of men's hearts and the secrets of their souls. My eyes are not gray, Alec, nor can they pierce as hers ; but I can borrow her beautiful words, and tell you that she turns he*r face from the creatures of clay. They may ' fatten at ease like sheep in the pasture, and eat what they did not sow, like oxen in the stall. They grow and spread, like the gourd along the ground; but, like the gourd, they give no shade to the traveler, and when they are ripe death gathers them, and they go down unloved into hell, and their name vanishes out of the land.' But to the souls of fire she gives more fire, and to those who are manful she gives a power more than man's. These are her heroes, the sons of the Immortals. They are blest, but not as the men who live at ease. She drives them forth ' by strange paths . . . through 16 The Fortune Teller doubt and need and danger and battle. . . . Some of them are slain in the flower of their youth, no man knows when or where, and some of them win noble names and a fair and green old age.' Not even the goddess herself can tell the hap that shall befall them ; for each man's lot is known only to Zeus. Have you reflected well on these things, Alec? Be sure of yourseli"! There may be Gorgons to en- counter, and monsters of the deep." He came very near to her. Her eyes were glisten- ing. For one glowing second they looked into each other's hearts. " And perhaps a maiden chained to a rock to be rescued," he whispered. Then she drew herself up proudly. " Do not for- get that I am Pallas Athene," she said. " My shield of brass is an easel and my mighty spear a mahl- stick ; but I keep to my role, Alec." He longed to clasp her in his arms ; but it flashed upon him with an inspiration from topmost Olympus that, all unwittingly, she had bound herself to his fortunes. " Then I leave it at that," he said quietly. This sudden air of confidence was bewildering. She had been swept off her feet by emotion, and the very considerations she thought she had conquered were now tugging at her heart-strings. He must not go away as her knight errant, eager and ready to slay dragons for her sake. " Do not misunderstand me," she faltered. " I 17, A Son of "the Immortals was only quoting a passage from one of Kingsley's Greek fairy tales that has always had a peculiar fascination for me." " I'll get that story and read it. But I am in- terfering with your work, and here comes your friend, the Humming Bee. If he said anything funny to me just now, I should want to strangle him. So good-by, dear Joan. I will turn up again to-morrow and tell you how I fared in each round." And he was gone, leaving her breathless and shaken ; for well she knew that he held her pledged to unspoken vows, that his eager confidences would apply alike to the day's sport and his future life. With hands that trembled she essayed a further mixing of colors ; but she scarcely realized what she was doing, until a queer, cracked voice that yet was musical sang softly in German at her elbow: If the Song should chance to wander Forth the Minstrel too must go. It was passing strange that crooked little Felix Poluski, ex-Nihilist, the wildest firebrand ever driven out of Warsaw, and the only living artist who could put on canvas the gleam of heaven that lights the Virgin's face in the " Immaculate Conception," should justify his nickname of Le Bourdon by hum- ming those two lines. " I hope you are not a prophet, Felix," said Joan with a catch in her throat. 18 The Fortune Teller " No, ma belle, no prophet, merely an avenger, a slayer of Kings. I see you have just routed one." She turned and looked into the deepset eyes of the old hunchback, and for the first time noted that they were gray and very bright and piercing. At the same time the fancy crossed her mind that perhaps Henri Quatre had had blue eyes, bold yet tender, like unto Alec's. " So you too are aware that Monsieur Delgrado is a Prince?" she said, letting her thought bubble forth at random. " Some folk call him that, and it is the worst thing I know of him so far. It may spoil him in time ; but at present I find him a nice young man." Joan swung round to her picture. " If Alec had the chance of becoming a King, he would be a very good one," she said loyally. Poluski's wizened cheeks puckered into a grin. He glanced at the easel and thence to the picture on the wall. " Perfectly, my dear Joan," he said. " And, by the bones of Kosciusko, you have chosen a proper subject, The Fortune Teller! Were you filling our warrior with dreams of empire? Well, well, I don't know which is more potent with monarchs, woman or dynamite. In Alec's case I fancy I should bet on the woman. Here, for example, is one that shook Heaven, and I have always thought that Eve was not given fair treatment, or she would surely have twisted the ser- pent's tail," and, humming the refrain of " Les Demi- 19 A Son of the Immortals Vierges," he climbed the small platform he had erected in front of the world famous Murillo. Back to back, separated by little more than half the width of the gallery, Joan and Poluski worked steadily for twenty minutes. The Pole sang to him- self incessantly, now bassooning between his thin lips the motif of some rhapsody of Lizst's, now murmur- ing the words of some catchy refrain from the latest review. Anybody else who so transgressed the rules would have been summarily turned out by the guards ; but the men knew him, and the Grande Galerie, de- spite its treasures, or perhaps because of them, is the least popular part of the Louvre. Artists haunt it ; but the Parisian, the provincial, the globe trotter, gape once in their lives at Andrea del Sarto, Titian, Salvator Rosa, Murillo of course, and the rest of the mighty dead, and then ask with a yawn, " Where are the Crown Jewels? " So the Humming Bee annoyed none by his hum- ming ; but he stopped short in an improvised variation on the theme of Vulcan's song in " Philemon and Baucis " when he heard a subdued but none the less poignant cry of distress from Joan. In order to turn his head he was compelled to twist his ungainly body, and Joan, who was standing well away from her canvas, was aware of the movement. She too turned. " I am going," she announced. " I cannot do anything right to-day. Just look at that white feather ! " 20 The Fortune Teller "Where?" " In the boy's hat, you tease ! Where else would you look? " " In your face, belle mignonne," said the Pole. It was true. Joan was not ill; but she was un- deniably low spirited, and the artist's mood has a way of expressing itself on the palette. She laughed, with a certain sense of effort. " I like you best when you sing, Felix. Some- times, when you speak, you are Infelix." " By all means go home," he grinned. " One can- not both joke and copy a Caravaggio." He began to paint with feverish industry, did not look at her again, but tossed an adieu over his humped shoulder when she hurried away. Then he gazed reproachfully, almost vindictively, at the up- lifted eyes of the transfigured Virgin. " Now, you ! " he growled. " Vous etes benie entre toutes les femmes J This affair is in your line. Why don't you help? Saperlotte! The girl is worth it." 21 CHAPTER II MONSEIGNEUR THE Wanderers beat Chantilly. One minute be- fore the close of the fourth chukkur the score stood at four all. Both teams were playing with desperation to avoid a decider on tired ponies, when the Wanderers' third man extricated the ball from a tangle of prancing hoofs and clattering sticks, and Alec Delgrado got away with it. He thought his pony was good for one last run at top speed, that and no more. Risking it, he sprinted across two hundred yards of green turf with the Chantilly Number One in hot chase. His opponent was a stone lighter and better mounted; so Alec's clear start would not save him from being overhauled and ridden off ere he came within a reasonable striking distance of the opposing goalposts. That was the Chantilly man's supreme occupation, some experts will have it that the ideal Number One should not carry a polo stick, and the pursuer knew his work. A hundred, eighty, sixty, yards in front Alec saw a goal keeping centaur waiting to intercept him. In another couple of strides a lean, eager head would be straining alongside his own pony's girths. So he 22 Monseigneur struck hard and clean and raced on, and the goal- keeper judged the flight of the white wooden ball correctly, and smote it back again fair and straight. It traveled so truly that it would have passed Alec three feet from the ground to drop almost exactly on the spot whence he had driven it. But there was more in that last gallop along the smooth lawn than might be realized by any one present save Alec himself. It was his farewell to the game. From that day he would cease to be dependent on a be- grudged pittance for the upkeep of his stable, and that meant the end of his polo playing. But he was not made of the stuff that yields before the twelfth hour. His mallet whirled in the air, there was a crack like a pistol shot, and the ball flew over the amazed goalkeeper's head and between the posts. The yelling and handclapping of the few spectators almost drowned the umpire's whistle. " ^7 gad, that was a corker ! " said he of Chan- tilly, as the ponies' wild gallop eased to a canter. " I hope that flourish of mine did not come too close, Beaumanoir," said Alec. " Don't give a tuppenny now," laughed Lord Adalbert Beaumanoir. " The match is over, and you've won it, and if you play till Doomsday you'll never score a better notch." " It was lucky, a sheer fluke." "Oh, that be jiggered for a yarn! A fellow flukes with his eyes shut. You meant it ! " 23 A Son of the Immortals " Yes, that is right. So would you, Berty, if it was your last knock." " Well, time's up, anyhow," said Beaumanoir, not comprehending. They trotted off to the group of waiting grooms. Delgrado ran the gauntlet of congratulations, for Paris likes to see Chantilly's flag lowered, and es- caped to the dressing room. He gave a letter, al- ready written and sealed, to an attendant, and drove away in his dogcart. Bowling quickly along the broad Allee de Longchamps, he turned into the Route de 1'Etoile, and so to the fine avenue where all Paris takes the summer air. He found himself eying the parade of fashion in a curiously detached mood. Yesterday he thought himself part and parcel of that gay throng. To-day he was a different being. All that had gone before was merged in " yesterday's seven thousand years." His cob's pace did not slacken until he drew rein at the giant doorway of a block of flats in the Rue Boissiere. It was then about five o'clock, and he meant to appear at his mother's tea table. He was far from looking the " limp rag " of his phrase to Joan. Indeed, it might have taxed the resources of any crack regiment in Paris that day to produce his equal in condition. Twenty-four years old, nearly six feet in height, lean and wiry, square wristed, broad shouldered, and straight as a spear, he met the physical requirements, at least, of those classic youths beloved of Joan's favorite goddess. 24 Monseigneur Usually his clean cut face, typically American in its high cheekbones, firm chin, mobile mouth, and thoughtful eyes, wore a happy-go-lucky expression that was the despair of matchmaking mamas; but to-day Alec was serious. He was thinking of the promise that to the souls of fire would be given more fire, to the manful a might more than man's. If he had not been so preoccupied, he would cer- tainly have heard the raucous shouts of newsboys running frantically along the boulevards. That is to say, he heard, but did not heed, else some shadow of a strange destiny must have dimmed his bright dreams. Their nature might be guessed from his words to Joan. The question he addressed to the con- cierge proved that his intent was fixed. " Is Monseigneur at home ? " he asked. " Out, m'sieur. His Excellency has mounted a little half-hour ago," said the man. Alec nodded. " Now for it ! " he said to himself. His father, a born fop, a boulevardier by adoption, cultivated habits that seemed to follow the mechan- ical laws of those clockwork manikins that ingenious horologists contrive for the amusement of children, big and little. Whether eating, sleeping, driving, strolling, chatting or card playing, the whereabouts and occupation of Prince Michael Delgrado could be correctly diagnosed at any given hour of the day and night. Fortune delights at times in tor- menting such men with great opportunities. Prince 25 Michael, standing now with his back to the fireplace in his wife's boudoir, was fated to be an early re- cipient of that boon for which so many sigh in vain. Of course he knew nothing of that. His round, plump, rosy face, at first sight absurdly dispropor- tionate to his dapper and effeminate body, wore a frown of annoyance. In fact, he had been obliged to think, and the effort invariably distressed him. Apparently he had a big head, and big headed men of diminutive frame usually possess brains and en- joy using them. But closer inspection revealed that his Highness' skull resembled an egg, with the narrow end uppermost. Thus, according to Lavater, he was richly en- dowed with all the baser qualities that pander to self, and markedly deficient in the higher attributes of humanity. The traits of the gormand, the cynic, the egoist, were there; but the physiognomist would look in vain for any sign of genius or true nobility. Recognition of his undoubted rank had, of course, given him the grand manner. That was unavoidable, and it was his chief asset. He liked to be addressed as " Monseigneur " ; he had a certain reputation for wit; he carried himself with the ease that marks his caste; and he had shown excellent taste in choos- ing a wife. The Princess did indeed look the great lady. Her undoubted beauty, aided by a touch of Western piquancy, had captivated the Paris salons of an earlier generation, and those same salons repaid their 26 Monseigneur debt by conferring the repose, the dignity, the subtle aura of distinction, that constitute the aristocrat in outward bearing. For this reason, Princess Del- grado was received in poverty stricken apartments where her husband would be looked at askance, since the frayed Boulevard Saint Germain still shelters the most exclusive circle in France. Here, then, was an amazing instance of a one-sided heredity. Alexis Belgrade evidently owed both mind and body to his mother. Looking at the Princess, one saw that such a son of such a father did not become sheerly impossible. To-day, unhappily, neither Prince Michael nor his wife was in tune for a family conclave. Mon- seigneur was ruffled, distinctly so, and Madame was on the verge of tears. When Alec entered the room he was aware of a sudden silence, accentuated by a half-repressed sob from his mother. Instantly he took the blame on his own shoulders. He expected difficulties; but he was not prepared for a scene. " Why, mother dear," he said, bending over her with a tenderness that contrasted strongly with Prince Michael's affected indifference, " what is the matter? Surely you and dad have not been worry- ing about me ! You can't keep me in the nest always, you know. And I only want to earn the wherewithal to live. That is not so very terrible, is it ? " The distressed woman looked up at him with a wan smile. She seemed to have aged since the 27 A Son of the Immortals morning. There was a pathetic weakness in her mouth and chin that was noticeably absent from her son's strong lineaments, and it occurred to Alec with a pang that he had never before seen his mother so deeply moved. " I suppose one must endure the world's changes," she murmured. " It was foolish on my part to imagine that things could continue forever on the same lines ; but I shall not grieve, Alec, if no cloud comes between you and me. It would break my heart " " Oh, come now ! " he cried, simulating a lively good humor he was far from feeling. " What has dad been saying? Clouds! Where are they? Not around my head, at any rate. I have dispelled the only one that existed, the silly halo of class that stops a fellow from working because he happens to be born a Prince. It was different for dad, of course. My respected grandfather, Ferdinand VII., was really a King, and dad was a grown man when the pair of them were slung out of Kosnovia. Sorry, sir ; but that is the way they talk history nowadays. It has ceased to be decorous. I am afraid Paris is largely responsible. You see, we have an Emperor in the next block, two Kings in the Avenue Victor Hugo, and a fugitive ex-President in the Hotel Metropole. I have seen the whole lot, even our noble selves, burlesqued in a Montmartre review. And I laughed! That is the worst part of it. I roared! We looked such a funny crew. And we were all 28 Monsdgneur jolly hard up, borrowing five-franc pieces from one another, and offering to sell scepters at a ridiculous sacrifice. That came rather near home. We haven't got what the storybooks calls an embarrassment of riches, have we ? So, a cup of tea, please, mother, and I'll hear the Czar's edict. It is pending. I can see it in his eye." Usually Prince Michael responded to that sort of airy nonsense. When sure of his audience, he had spoken much more disrespectfully of the Parisian band of Kings in exile. But to-day his chubby cheeks refused to crease in a grin. He remained morose, oracular, heavy jowled. In fact, he had set himself a very difficult task. Now that the moment had arrived for its fulfilment, he shirked it. " May I ask, Alec, if you have any scheme in view? " he said, strutting on the hearthrug in front of a grate filled with ferns. He always stood there, in winter because it was warm, and he was a martyr to chilblains; in summer because of the habit con- tracted in winter. " Well, sir, candidly speaking, I have not. But I saw in a newspaper the other day a paragraph of advice to a young man. ' No matter how small your income may be, live within it: that is the beginning of wealth,' it said. How profound! I applied it to myself. My income is nil. There I encountered a serious obstacle at the very start of the Great Money Stakes. But " 29 A Son of the Immortals " This is a grave discussion, Alec. I have that to say which may pain you. Pray be serious." " Oh, I am quite serious. My ponies and the dogcart are in Dumont's catalogue for the next sale. I resigned my membership of the polo club to-day. To-morrow, or eke to-night, I look for a job. As you, mother o' mine, have heard men say in your beloved west, I'm going to butt in." " I er suppose you er look to me for some assistance ? " coughed Prince Michael. His wife rose. Her face was gray-white, her eyes blazed. " Alec knows we are poor. Why tor- ture him and me ? I refuse to allow it. I refuse ! " Her voice took a tragic note, thin and shrill ; there was a pitiful quivering of her lips that wrung her son's heart, and he was utterly at a loss to under- stand why a discussion as to his future should lead to this display of passion. " But, mother darling," he cried, " why are you grieving so? You and dad must maintain a certain state, one begins by assuming that, and it is no secret that the Delgrado side of the family was not blessed with wealth. Very well. Let me try to ad- just the balance the bank balance, eh? Really, why weep ? " Alec's gallant attempt to avert the storm failed again. His Serene Highness muttered words in a foreign tongue that sounded anything but serene. The Princess did not understand; but her son did. 30 Monseigneur His brows wrinkled, and the good humored gleam died out of his eyes. "Perhaps, sir," he said stiffly, "this subject had better be discussed when my mother is not present." Prince Michael looked at him fixedly. For some reason the little man was very angry, and he seemed to resent the implied slur on his good taste. " I am determined to end this farce once and for all," he vowed. "Before you joined us, I told the Princess " The door was flung open. The young man who had followed Joan and Alec into the Louvre that morning rushed in. His pink and white face was crimson now, and his manner that of unmeasured, almost uncontrollable excitement. He gazed at them with a wildness that bordered on frenzy, yet it was clear that their own marked agitation was only what he expected to find. "Ah, you have heard?" he snapped, biting at each syllable. "Heard what, Julius?" demanded Monseigneur, with an instant lowering of the princely mask, since Julius dabbled in stocks and was reputed well to do. " The news ! The news from Kosnovia ! " Prince Michael affected to yawn. " Oh, is that all? "he asked. "All! Grand Dteu, what more would ypu havep It means everything." " My good Julius, it is long since I was so dis- Sl A Son of the Immortals turbecl. What, then, has happened? The Danube in flood is no new thing." " The Danube ! " and the newcomer's voice cracked. " So you do not know sire? " The little word seemed to have the explosive force of nitroglycerine. Its detonation rang through the room and left them all silent, as though their ears were stunned and their tongues paralyzed. Alec was the first to see that some event far out of the common had reduced his cousin, Count Julius Maru- litch, almost to a state of hysteria. " We are at cross purposes," he said quietly. " My father, like the rest of us, read this morning's telegram about the overflowing of the river " Count Marulitch waved his hands frantically. He was literally beside himself. His full red lips, not at all unlike those of the youth in Joan's picture, moved several times before sounds came. " It is at least my good fortune to be the first to congratulate my King ! " he cried at last. " Be calm, I pray you ; but a tremendous change has been affected at Delgratz. Last night, while Theodore and the Queen were at dinner, the Seventh Regiment mutinied. It was on guard at the Schwarzburg. Officers and men acted together. There was no resistance. It was impossible. Theodore and Helena were killed ! " This man, who appealed for calmness, was himself in a white heat of emotion. A stifled scream, a sob, almost a groan, broke from the Princess, and she clung to her son as though Monseigneur she sought protection from that bloodthirsty Seventh Regiment. Prince Michael, fumbling with an eye- glass, dropped it in sheer nervousness. Alec, throw- ing an arm round his mother, recalled the hoarse yelling of the newsboys on the boulevards. Was it this latest doom of a monarchy that they were bawl- ing so lustily? He glanced at his father, and the dapper little man found it incumbent on him to say something. " But, Julius is this true ? There are so many canards. You know our proverb : ' A stone that falls in the Balkans causes an earthquake in St. Peters- burg.' " " Oh, it is true, sire. And the telegrams declare that already you have been proclaimed King." " I ! " Prince Michael's exclamation was most unkingly. Rather was it the wail of a criminal on being told that the executioner waited without. His ruddy cheeks blanched, and his hands were outstretched as if in a piteous plea for mercy. There was a tumult of objurgations in the outer passage; but this King in spite of himself paid no heed. "I? " he gasped again, with relaxed jaws. " You, sire," cried Marulitch. " Our line is re- stored. There will be fighting, of course ; but what of that? One audacious week will see you enthroned once more in the Schwarzburg. Ah! Here come Stampoff and Beliani. You are quick on my heels, messieurs ; but I promised my cabman a double fare." 33 A Son of the Immortals A scared manservant, vainly endeavoring to pro- tect his master's private apartments, was rudely thrust aside, and a fierce looking old warrior entered, followed by a man who was obviously more of a Levantine than a Serb. The older man, small, slight, gray haired, and swarthy, but surprisingly active in his movements for one of his apparent age, raced up to Prince Michael. He fell on his knees, caught that nerveless right hand, and pressed it to his lips. " Thank Heaven, sire, that I have been spared to see this day ! " he exclaimed. The Greek, less demonstrative, nevertheless knelt by Stampoff's side. " I too am your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subject," said he. The Prince did then make a supreme effort to re- gain his self possession. " Thank you, General," he murmured, " and you also, Monsieur Beliani. I have only just been told. Theodore and Helena both dead ! What a thing ! They were my enemies ; but I am shocked, I may almost say grieved. And what am I to do? I am practically powerless, few friends, no money. One does not merely pack a valise and go off by train to win a throne. You say I am proclaimed King, Julius. By whom? Have the rep- resentatives met? Is there an invitation from the people? " Stampoff was on his feet instantly. A man of steel springs and volcanic energy, his alertness waged constant war against his years. " The people ! " he shouted. " What of them? What do they know? 94 Monseigneur There is talk of a Republic. Think of that ! Could folly go farther? A Republic in the Balkans, with Russia growling at one door, Austria picking the lock of another, and the Turk squatting before a third! No, Monseigneur. Start from Paris to-night, cross the Danube, reveal yourself to your supporters, and you will soon show these windbags that a man who means to rule is worth a hundred demagogues who exist only to spout." His Serene Highness was slowly but surely re- covering lost ground. He grasped the eyeglass again, and this time gouged it into its accustomed crease. " You, Beliani, you are not one to be carried away by emotion," he said. " Count Marulitch spoke of a proclamation. Who issued it? Was there any authority behind it ? " " God's bones ! what better authority is there than your Majesty's?" roared Stampoff. But the* Prince extended a protesting palm. " An excellent sentiment, my friend; but let us hear Beliani," he said. The Greek, thus appealed to, seemed to find some slight difficulty in choosing the right words. " At present, everything is vague, Monseigneur," he said. "It is certain that a battalion of the Seventh Regi- ment revolted and declared for the Delgrado dynasty. Two' other battalions of the same regiment in the capital followed their lead. But the Chamber met this morning, and there was an expression of opinion 35 A Son of the Immortals in favor of a democratic Government. No vote was taken ; but the latest reports speak of some disorder. The approaches to the Schwarzburg are held by troops. There are barricades in the main streets." Prince Michael's hands went under his coattails. His face had not regained its claret red color, and its present tint suggested that it had been carved out of a Camembert cheese ; but he was gradually taking the measure of current events in Kosnovia. " Barricades seem to argue decided opinions," he said, and there was a perceptible tinge of cynicism in the phrase that j arred on his hearers. " One must be bold at times," muttered Count Julius. General Stampoff was chewing an end of his long mustaches in impotent wrath, and Beliani merely shrugged. " Of course, my father means that prudence must be allied with boldness," broke in Alec, who had placed his mother in a chair and was now gazing sternly at Marulitch as if he would challenge the unspoken thought. , " Exactly, my boy. Well said ! One looks before one leaps, that is it ! Now I am not so young, not so young, and I have not forgotten the pleasant ways of Kosnovia. Theodore thought all was well; but you see what has happened after thirty years. Just think of it. A lifetime ! Why, I came to Paris twenty-four years ago, just after you were born, Alexis, and even then the Obrenovitch line seemed to 36 Momeigneur be well established. And here you are, a grown man, and Theodore and his Queen are lying dead in the Black Palace. It gives one to think. Now, our good Stampoff here would have me rush off and buy a ticket for Delgratz to-night. As if Austria had not closed every frontier station and was not wait- ing to pounce on any Delgrado who turned up at this awkward moment on the left bank of the Danube ! " Beliani was stroking his nose ; Stampoff evidently meant to shorten his mustache by inches ; and Julius Marulitch was waxen, and thereby rendered more than ever like a clothier's model. Alec was a dutiful son. There were elements in the composition of the senior Delgrado that he did not admire; but he had never before suspected his father of cowardice. His cousin Julius, whom he thoroughly disliked, was betraying a whole world of meaning in the scorn that leaped from his eyes, and there was no mistaking the thoughts that inspired the furious General and the impassive Greek. For the first time in his life, Alec despised Prince Michael. There was a quickening in his veins, a tingling at the roots of his hair, a tension of his muscles, at the repulsive notion that a Serene Highness might, after all, be molded of common clay. And in that spasm of sheer agony he remembered how Joan's sweet voice had thrilled him with the message of Pallas Athene. Was he, indeed, one of those sons of the immor- tals whom the goddess " drives forth by strange 37 A Son of the Immortals paths . . . through doubt and need and danger and battle ? " Surely some such hazardous track was opening up now before his feet ! His whole nature was stirred in unknown depths. It seemed to him that there was only one man in the room whose words had the ring of truth and honest purpose. He strode forward and caught old Paul Stampoff by the shoulder. " I'll tell you what," he said, unconsciously adopt- ing the free and easy style of speech that came naturally to him, " you and I must carry this thing through, General ! My father is glued to Paris, you know. He has lost some of his enthusiasm, and one must be enthusiastic to the point of death itself if he would snatch a Kingdom out of such a fire as is raging now in Kosnovia. Austria has never seen me, probably has never even heard of me. I can slip through her cordon, swim ten Danubes if need be. What say you, General? Will I fill the bill? If I fail, what does it matter? If I win well, we must reverse the usual order of things, and my re- spected parent can step into my shoes." " Alexis, I am proud of you " began Prince Michael pompously ; but a sigh that was blended with a groan came again from his wife, and Princess Delgrado drooped in a faint. Alec lifted her in his arms and carried her to a bedroom. A queer silence fell on the four men in the boudoir. Even his Serene Highness was dis- comfited, and abandoned his position on the hearth- 38 Monseigneur rug to gaze out of the window. To his displeased surprise, a small crowd had gathered. A man was pointing to the Delgrado apartments. Another man, carrying a bundle of newspapers, bore one of the curious small Parisian contents bills, but its heavy black type was legible enough : " Assassination of the King and Queen of Kosnovia! King Michael in Paris ! " Alec, having given the Princess to the care of her maid, came back. He found his father looking into the street, General Stampoff standing on the hearth- rug, and Count Julius whispering something in Beliani's ear. " My mother will soon be all right," he announced cheerily. " She was a bit upset, I suppose, by our warlike talk; but we were so excited that we forgot she was present. Well, father, what say you to my proposal? " Prince Michael turned. His face was no longer in the light. Perhaps that was his notion when he first approached the window. " I think it is an ex- cellent one," he said. " Of course, there is a re- grettable element of risk " " But what are we to understand ? " broke in StampofPs gruff accents. " These things are not to be settled as a shopkeeper appoints an agent. Does your Highness renounce all claim to the throne of Kosnovia in favor of your son ? " Words have a peculiar value on such occasions. The substitution of " Highness " for " Majesty " was 39 A Son of the Immortals not devoid of significance ; for Stampoff , though loyal to the backbone, was no courtier. " No ! " cried Alec sharply. " Yes," said Prince Michael, after a pause. Count Julius Marulitch breathed heavily, and Con- stantine Beliani threw a wary eye over Alec. " Good ! " said Stampoff. " That clears the air. I shall be ready to accompany your Majesty by the train that leaves the Gare de 1'Est at seven- thirty P.M." Prince Michael laughed dryly. " You see," he said. " I was sure Stampoff would interfere with my dinner hour." There was almost a touch of genius in the remark. Its very vacuity told of the man's exceeding unfitness for the role thrust upon him by certain desperadoes in the far off Balkans. " We must have money," growled Stampoff with a most unflattering lack of recognition of the elder Delgrado's humor. " Ah ! " said Prince Michael, plunging both hands into his trousers' pockets and keeping them there. " How much? " inquired Beliani. " To begin with, fifty thousand francs. After that, all that can be raised." " It is most unfortunate, but my er investments have been singularly unremunerative of late," said his Serene Highness. " Why fifty thousand francs? " inquired Alec, half choked with wrath at sight of his father's obvious 40 Monseigneur relief when the terrifying phantom of the Black Castle was replaced by this delectable Paris. Yet, with it all, he was aware of a consuming desire to laugh. There was a sense of utter farce in thus disposing of the affairs of nations in a flat in the Rue Boissiere. He recalled the exiled potentates of the music hall review, and the bitter wit of the dramatist was now justified. It was ludicrous, too, of StampofF to address him as " your Majesty." " Even Kings must give bribes occasionally," ex- plained the impetuous General. " Or promise them," said Count Julius. " Or take them," said Beliani. " If I am to be a King, I mean to dispense with these bad habits," said Alec. " We need our railway fares only, General. Once at Delgratz, our fickle Kosnovia must either maintain us or shoot us. In either event, we are provided for." " Still, we must have sufficient funds to secure a foothold," urged StampofF. " I charge myself with providing ten thousand francs," said the Greek. Alec glanced at his watch. " Give the money to StampofF. He may want it. I do not," he said. " Dumont, though a horse dealer, is fairly honest. My four ponies are worth another ten, and he will surely pay me five, cash down. We meet at the Gare de 1'Est. Who goes? You, Julius?" " No," said the Count, " I shall follow when you have made a beginning. My presence would hamper 41 A Son of the Immortals you now. I am too well known, and secrecy is all- important until you are at the head of the army." Alec turned on him with an air that would have delighted Joan, could she have been present. " The army ! " he cried. " I know nothing of lead- ing armies. I mean to place myself at the head of the people." " Nonsense, Alexis ! Make for the troops. They alone can make or mar you," said Prince Michael. " We shall settle those points at Delgratz," de- clared the brusk Stampoff. " You will bring the money, half in gold, to the station ? " he added to Beliani. " Yes. Gold is best. For the remainder, you will want Russian notes." Something seemed to be troubling the august mind of Prince Michael. " By the way, my dear Beliani," he began ; but the Greek awoke into a very panic of action. " Pray forgive me, your Highness," he said. " If I have to raise such a large sum before seven o'clock I cannot lose an instant." " I shall see you off from the Gare de 1'Est," cried Marulitch hurriedly, and the two quitted the room in company. Alec went to pay a brief visit to his mother, and Prince Michael was left alone with the rugged old General. Then, for a few seconds, he became a man. "You must forgive me, Paul," he said huskily. " I am not fitted for the work. I am broken down, 42 Monseigneur a trifler, a worn out old dandy. You have got the right metal in Alexis. See to it that he does not follow my example, but keeps unstained the family name." " God's bones ! he will do that at least," muttered Stampoff. " If you or your father had possessed half his spirit, there would never have been an Obreno- vitch on the throne of Kosnovia ! Ferdinand VII., Michael V., Alexis III. ! By the patriarch! somehow you Delgrados have managed at last to breed a King!" 43 CHAPTER III IN THE ORIENT EXPRESS AFTER some haggling, Alec wrung four thousand five hundred francs out of Dumont. Then, at five minutes past six, he jumped into a cab and was driven to the Place de la Sorbonne. Of course he had ascertained Joan's address easily. He made no secret of the fact that he had seen her on her way to the Louvre nearly every day of the twenty that had elapsed since their first meeting. His knowledge of the route she followed advanced quickly until he found out where she lived. He would not have dared to call on her now, if it had not been for the tremendous thing that had happened in his life ; for he was sure he would become King of Kosnovia. The art that conceals art is good; but the art that is unconscious of artifice is better, and never had soothsayer arranged more effective pre- liminaries for astounding prediction than sibyl Joan herself. Paris, too, might well witness the rising of his star. What other city stages such memorials to inspire ambition? Behind him, as his cab sped down the Champs Elysees, rose the splendid pile of the Arch 44 In the Orient Express of Triumph; in front, beyond the Place de la Con- corde, the setting sun gilded a smoke blackened frag- ment that marked the site of the Tuileries ; while near at hand the statue of France, grief stricken yet de- fiant, gazed ever and longingly in the direction of her lost Provinces. Here, within a short mile, stood the silent records of three Empires, founded, as time counts, within a few years. Two were already crumbled to the dust. The survivor, consolidated on the ruins of France, flourished beyond the Rhine. Perhaps, if read aright, these portents were not wholly favorable to one about to try his luck in that imperial game. But Alec, though a good deal of a democrat at heart, was cheered by the knowledge that so long as the world recognizes the divine right of Kings, no monarch by descent could lay better claim to a throne than he. And he was young, and in love, and ready to believe that youth and love can level mountains, make firm the morass, bridge the ocean. He wondered how Joan would take his great news. He thought he could guess her attitude. At first she would urge him to forget that such a person as Joan Vernon existed. Then he would plead that she was asking that which was not only impossible but utterly unheroic. And the minutes were flying. He would remind her that time does not wait even for Kings, nor would the Orient Express delay its departure by a single second to oblige such a fledgling potentate as he. 45 A Son of the Immortals " We must part now, my sweet," he would say. " I am going to demand my birthright. When I am admittedly a King, I shall send for you. If you do not answer, I shall become my own envoy. You will make a beautiful Queen, Joan. You and I together will raise Kosnovia from the mire of centuries." Somewhat stilted lovemaking this ; but what was a poor fellow to do who had been taken from the Rue Boissiere and plunged into empire making, all in the course of a summer's evening? He crossed the Pont Neuf without ever a look at Henri Quatre. That was a pity. The sarcastic Bearnais grin might have revealed some of the pitfalls that lay ahead. At any rate, the King of Navarre could have given him many instances of a woman's fickleness and fickleness was the ugly word that leaped into Alec's puzzled brain when an ancient dame at Joan's lodgings told him that Mademoiselle and her maid had gone away that afternoon. " Gone ! Gone where ? " he asked blankly. " It is necessary to write," said Madame, and shut the door in his face, since it is forbidden in the Quartier for good looking and unknown young men to make such urgent inquiries concerning the where- abouts of discreet young women like Mademoiselle Joan. Leontine, still scrubbing, came to the rescue. Never had she seen any one so distinguished as this Monsieur. Mon Dieul but it was a pity that the belle !A.mericaine should^iave packed her boxes that very 46 In the Orient Express day ! And diminutive Leontine was romantic to the tips of her stubby fingers. " M'sieu wishes to know where he will find the young lady who lives there? " said she archly, jerk- ing her head and a broom handle toward the neigh- boring house. " But yes, my pretty one," cried Alec. " Well, Pauline said Pauline is her domestic, see you said they were going to the forest to paint." "To Fontainebleau?" " Perhaps, m'sieu' to the forest, that was it." " No name? Barbizon? " " It might be. I have no head for those big words, m'sieu'." Alec gave her a five-franc piece. It was the first coin he found in his pocket, and the sight of it caused a frown. Confound those Montmartre playwrights! Why was their stupid travesty constantly recurring to his mind ? He frowned again, this time at Auguste Comte's smugness, and looked at his watch. Twenty- five minutes to seven! It was too late now to do other than write if he succeeded. If not ah, well ! " Some of them are slain in the flower of their youth." At least, she would remember, and those glorious eyes of hers would glisten with tears, and the belief helped to console him. Still, he was sad- dened, disappointed, almost dulled. Doubt came darkly with the dispelling of the dream that he might commence his Odyssey with Joan'* first and farewell kiss on his lips. Love and ambition seemed to be at 47. variance; but love had flown, whereas ambition re- mained. Back, then, to the Rue Boissiere, to an uproar of visitors, sightseers, journalists. Prince Michael had become Monseigneur again. He was holding a re- ception. Alec, pressing through the throng, was waylaid by a servant. " This way, monsieur," whispered the man, draw- ing him into a passage and thence to the room of Princess Delgrado. Alec was soothing his mother's grief when his father entered secretly on tiptoe with the hushed voice and stealthy air of a conspirator. He carried a parcel, long and narrow, wrapped in brown paper. " I have been consumed with anxiety," said he. " Julius came and warned me that your departure from Paris ought to be incognito. This is wise; so I remain King-elect till you reach Delgratz. The newspapers are pestering me to declare a program. They all expect that I shall leave Paris to-night or ffarly to-morrow. Indeed, an impudent fellow repre- senting * Le Soir ' says that if I don't bestir myself I shall be christened the Sluggard King. But I shall humbug them finely. Leave that to me. Your portmanteaus have been smuggled out by way of the servants' quarters, and you must vanish unseen. Buy a ticket for Vienna, ignore Stampoff during the journey, accept my blessing, and take this." He held out the parcel. " What is it ? " inquired Alec. 48 In the Orient Express " My father's sword, your grandfather's sword. I have kept it bright for you." Alec squirmed. He knew the weapon, a curved simitar inlaid with gold, and reposing in a scabbard of gilt metal and purple velvet. In its wrapping of brown paper and twine it suspiciously resembled a child's toy, and Prince Michael's grandiloquent man- ner added a touch of buffoonery to a farewell scene made poignant by a woman's tears. " I shall use it only on the skulls of eminent per- sonages," said Alec gravely. In truth, this Parisian kingship was rapidly becoming farcical. What a line, what a situation, for that review! But there was worse to come. Checked in his out- burst of family pride, Monseigneur became practical. " What of Dumont? " said he. " He was touched ; but he knocked off five hundred francs." " Ah, bah ! I rather hoped well, I must return to the salon and play my part. Remember, you will see no one except a servant at the Gare de 1'Est. Julius has arranged passports, everything." " He is taking an extraordinary interest in me. Of course, if I pull through, he becomes heir pre- sumptive." " Parbleu ! That is so. But you will marry. Bide your time, though. Choose a Queen who " his shifty eyes fell on the trembling form of his wife, who had remained strangely silent during this some- what strained interview, " who will be as good a wife 49 A Son of the Immortals to you as your mother has been to me. Farewell! may God guard you ! " Twice in one day had the pompous little man been betrayed into an avowal of honest sentiment. But he soon recovered. Once reestablished on the hearth- rug, with his eyeglass properly adjusted, his hands tucked under his coattails when they were not em- phasizing some well turned phrase, Prince Michael enjoyed himself hugely. And then Alec clasped his mother in his arms. She was almost incoherent with terror. Bid him re- main she dare not; she lacked the force of character that such a step demanded. She had given too many years to this chimera of royalty now suddenly grown into a monster to be sated only by the sacrifice of her son! But she mourned as if he was already dead, and a lump rose in Alec's throat. He had always loved his mother; his father had ever been remote, a dignified trifler, a poser. The three held nothing in common. It could hardly be doubted that every good quality of mind and body the boy pos- sessed was a debt to the brokenhearted woman now clinging to him in a very frenzy of lamentation. Small wonder if his eyes were misty and his voice choked. Ah! if Joan but knew of this sorrowing mother's plight, surely she would come to her! At last he tore himself away. Grasping that ridiculous parcel, he hurriedly descended a back stair- case. Owing to the paternal watchfulness that the French Government exercises over its subjects, he 50 In the Orient Express was obliged to pass the concierge; but none paid heed to him. If it came to that, all Paris would guffaw at the notion of dear Alec becoming a fili- buster. He hailed a passing cab. If he would catch his train, they must drive furiously, which is nothing new in Paris. Climbing the Rue La Fayette, he passed Count Julius Marulitch and Constantine Beliani com- ing the other way in an open victoria. They were so deeply engaged in conversation that they did not see him. Julius was talking and the Greek listening. It flashed into Alec's mind that the presence in Paris of the Greek on the very day of the Delgratz regicide offered a most remarkable coincidence. Beliani was no stranger to him, since he and General Stampoff, the one as Finance Minister and the other as Com- mander in Chief, were exiled from Kosnovia after an abortive revolution ten years ago. But Beliani usually lived in Vienna, indeed, he was sometimes regarded as an active agent in Austria's steady advance on Salonica, whereas dear old Paul Stampoff hated Austria, was a frequent visitor to the Delgrado receptions, and it was largely to his constant urging and tuition that Alec owed his familiarity with the Slav language. The Greek, it was evident, heard of the murders at the earliest possible moment; Julius too was singularly well in- formed, though his interest in Kosnovian affairs had long seemed dormant; even the fiery Stampoff was no laggard once the news was bruited. Alec went 51 A Son of the Immortals so far as to fix the exact time at which Julius ap- peared in the Rue Boissiere. He knew something of the ways of newspapers, and was well aware that no private person could hope to obtain such im- portant intelligence before the press. He himself had unwittingly heard the first public announcement of the tragedy, and the three men had certainly lost no time in hurrying to greet their new sovereign. What a madly inconsequent jumble it all was! Little more than two hours ago he was driving through the Bois with no other notion in his brain than to seek a means of earning a livelihood; yet here he was at the Gare de 1'Est carrying a sword as a symbol of kingship. A sword, wrapped in brown paper, tied with string! Suppose, by some lucky chance, Joan met him now, would she sympathize, or laugh? He found his father's valet waiting with his lug- gage near the ticket office. The man gave him an envelop. It contained a passport, vised by the Turk- ish Embassy, and a few scribbled words: Note the name. It is the nearest to your initials B. could procure. I shall come to you on the train. Destroy this. S. The name was that on the passport, " Alexandre George Delyanni ; nationality, Greek ; business, carpet merchant; destination, Constantinople." Alec smiled. The humor of it was steeling him against the canker of Joan's untimely disappearance. " I don't look much like a Greek," he said to himself ; 52 In the Orient Express " but the ' Alexandre ' sounds well as an omen. I'm not so sorry now. This business would tickle Joan to death." So, on the whole, it was a resigned if not light- hearted adventurer who disposed himself and his be- longings in the Orient Express, after experiencing the singular good luck of securing a section in the sleeping car returned by a Viennese banker at the last moment. He went about the business of buying his ticket and passing the barrier with a careless ease that would have excited the envy of a Russian Terror- ist. Sharp eyes attend the departure of every in- ternational train from Paris ; but never a spy gave more than casual scrutiny to this broad shouldered youth strolling down the platform, the latest pas- senger to arrive, and the least flurried. He neither saw nor looked for Stampoff. Having a minute to spare, he obtained a newspaper, took a seat voucher for the first dinner, lighted a cigarette, entered his reserved compartment, arranged his lug- gage, and burnt General Stampoff 's scrawl just as the train moved out of the station. Then he read an account of the Delgratz crime, for it was only a crime, a brutal and callous murder, not worthy to be dignified by the mantle of political hate. The unhappy King and Queen of Kosnovia were dining in company with the Queen's brother and the Minister of Ways and Communications when the regiment on duty in the palace burst in on them. King Theodore was shot down while endeavoring to 53 A Son of the Immortals protect the Queen. She too fell riddled with bullets, and both corpses were flung into a courtyard. The unhappy guests were wounded, and still remained prisoners in the hands of the regicides, who vaunted that they had " saved " the country, and meant to re- store the ancient sovereignty. Beliani's summary of subsequent events was accu- rate; but it struck Alec at once that he had said nothing of the minister nor of Sergius Vottisch, Queen Helena's brother, who was mainly instrumental in defeating Beliani's half-forgotten revolt. Did he know of their presence? How peculiar that he should utter no word of triumph concerning Vottisch ! Alec threw aside the paper. He was sick at heart. He loathed the thought that the first step toward his throne lay across the body of a woman. " Nice guards, the noble Seventh Regiment ! " he muttered. " Now, when I am King " Then he realized that during the few minutes that had elapsed since the train started, the whole aspect of the adventure had changed completely. It was no longer a snatch of opera bouffe, a fantastic con- ceit engendered in the brain of that elderly beau whom he had left in the Rue Boissiere, a bit of stage trifling happily typified by the property sword. It had become real, grim, menacing. It reeked of blood. Its first battle was there, recorded in the newspaper. He pictured those brutal soldiers mauling the warm bodies, thrusting them through an open window and proclaiming their loyalty to him! 54 In the Orient Express The train was rushing through an estate noted for its game, and he had been one of a party of guns in its coverts last October. He remembered shooting a pheasant of glorious plumage, and saying : " Ah ! What a pity ! I ought to have spared him, if only on account of his coat of many colors." " When birds are flying fast, even you, Alec, have to shoot passim" said a witty Hebrew, and Belgrade did not appreciate the mot until some one told him that passeem in Hebrew meant " patchwork," and that Jacob's offense to Joseph's brethren lay in the gift of a Prince's robe to his favorite son. The quip came to mind now with sinister signifi- cance; he wished most heartily he had missed that pheasant. It was quite a relief when dinner was announced, and he made his way to the dining car, where a polyglot gathering showed that although the Orient Express had not quitted Paris fifteen minutes it had already crossed many frontiers. There were few French or English on board, and not one American. A couple of Turks, a Bulgarian, a sprinkling of Russians and Levantines, and a crowd of Teutons, either German or Austrian, made up the company. Stampoff remained invisible, and Alec shared a table with an Armenian, who insisted on speaking execrable English, though he understood French far better. Then this newest of all Kings felt very lonely, and he began to understand something of the isolation that would surround him in that Black Castle of his 55 A Son of the Immortals daydream, where, if all went well with him, he alone would be the " foreigner." A longing for compan- ionship came upon him. He wanted some one who would laugh and talk airy nonsense, some one whose mind would not be running everlastingly in the polit- ical groove, and an irresistible impulse urged him to ask for a telegraph form and write: BEAUMANOIH, Villa Turquoise, Chantilly. Come and join in the revel. ALEC. He gave the message to an attendant, bidding him despatch it from Chalons. He reasoned that Beau- manoir would be puzzled, would call at the Rue Boissiere, see his father, and solve the mystery. In all likelihood, Lord Adalbert, who cheerfully answered to the obvious nickname would accept the invita- tion, and by the time he reached Delgratz the succes- sion to the throne of Kosnovia would be in a fair way toward settlement. Moreover, by depriving the Chantilly team of their crack Number One, Alec would equalize matters for the Wanderers, and the love of sport is ever the ruling passion in healthy and vigorous youth. " By gad ! " he said to himself, " I'm showing craft already. That is a Machiavellian wire ! " It was, as it happened, a stroke worthy of the wily Florentine himself; but neither he nor his latest pupil could possibly have estimated its true bearing on events. 56 In the Orient Express After dinner Stampoff found him. Delgrado was astounded at first. Stampoff, shorn of his immense mustache, ceased to be a General. In fact, the wiz- ened, keen faced old man bore a striking resemblance to a certain famous actor of the Comedie Fran9aise ; but he was not seated in Alec's compartment ten sec- onds with the door closed ere he showed that the loss of his warrior aspect had in no way tamed his heart. " Yes," he said, passing a lean hand over his blue- black upper lip, " it was necessary to disguise myself. Ten years are not so long, and I am known on the Danube. You see, we must get through to Delgratz and the Schwarzburg. Once there, with three thou- sand bayonets behind us, we can do things. Leave the fighting to me, your " He stopped, and glanced at a fat Turk lumbering along the corridor. " Exactly, my dear old friend," said Alec. " Drop titles, please, until we have a right to use them. Even then they can be left to gentlemen ushers and court chamberlains. Alec and Paul sound better, anyhow. But you were outlining a scheme. I go with you as far as Delgratz ; but those bayonets in the Schwarzburg will not be behind me, I hope. Some of them may come within measurable distance of my manly chest; but even that is improbable, for I have always noticed that vulgar assassins are cowards." StampofF's bushy eyebrows had been spared, and they formed a hairy seam now straight across eyes 57 A Son of the Immortals and nose. " You forget, perhaps you do not know, that these men alone have actually declared for you for a Belgrade," he growled. " And a pretty gang of cutthroats they must be ! I read the details after leaving Paris. That poor woman, Paul ! She was pretty and vivacious, I have been told. Just picture the scene in the dining hall. One woman, three unarmed men, the King leaping up and endeavoring to shield her and the gallant Sev- enth firing volleys at them. Then, when the last sob is uttered, the last groan stilled, husband and wife are pitched to the dogs. Oh, it makes my blood boil ! By the Lord ! when I am King I shall hang the whole crew ! " He spoke very quietly. Any one looking through the window in the upper half of the door would have seen a young man seemingly telling an older one something of ordinary import. But the words were crisp and hot. They came like drops of molten steel from the furnace of his heart. Stampoff's thin face grew swarthier. He bent forward, his hands on his knees. " Will you tell me why you are going to Delgratz ? " he asked with a curious huskiness in his voice. " To occupy a throne or a tomb. In either event, I am only copying the example of the vast majority of my revered ancestors." " The throne is yours by right. Theodore has fallen almost precisely as your grandfather fell. Ferdinand was shot, and escaped with his life only 58 In the Orient Express because there was a struggle and a few faithful fol- lowers carried him into safety." " If I depended on the fealty of the Seventh Regi- ment, I should not expect to find even the faithful few. Poor Theodore may have looked for them; but they did not exist." " Then we had better leave the train at Chalons and return to Paris." " Certainly, if the butchers of the Schwarzburg are to form my cohort." " God's bones ! never have I been so mistaken in a man! Your father, now, one feared he might have lost his nerve, but you, Alec ! The devil take it! I thought better of you. I suppose then, it will have to be Marulitch." " Julius ! Is he a candidate or a rival ? " Stampoff paused, irresolute. He was deeply troubled, and his fierce eyes searched Belgrade's face. " I had real hope of you," he muttered. " You would appeal to the women, and they are ever half the battle. Why are you so squeamish ? You needn't embrace the men of the Seventh. You can use them, and kick them aside. That is the fate of ladders that lead to thrones. I know it. I am old enough not to care." " I am not thinking of ladders as yet, Paul. Sufficient for the day is the foundation thereof, and I refuse to build my Kingdom on the broken vows of traitors." " Ha ! Stupid words ! The ravings of cheap 59 A Son of the Immortals philosophers! By your own showing, I am a traitor." " Yes, but an honest one. You fought fairly and were beaten. Were it otherwise, Theodore would never have tried so often to tempt you to his service." The General flung himself back in the carriage and folded his arms. The steel spring was relaxed. He was baffled, and the weariness of life had suddenly enveloped him in its chilling fog. " Very well, then. We descend at Chalons," he said, with a sigh that was a tribute to adverse fate. " Having paid for your ticket, you may as well come on to Vienna," said Alec with irritating com- posure. " Curse Vienna ! Why should I take that long journey for nothing? " " To oblige me." " You'll drive me crazy. How will it oblige you ? " " Because I am going to Delgratz, General, and there is a whole lot of things I want to ask you." Stampoff bounced up again. " Will you be so kind as to explain what you mean ? " he cried in- dignantly. " Oh, yes. We are going to talk far into the night, and it is only fair that you should know my intentions. Otherwise, the valuable counsel you will give me might be misdirected, as it is, for instance, at the present moment, when you are heatedly ad- vising me to throw in my lot with a set of rascals who, when I fail to satisfy their demands, would turn 60 In the Orient Express and rend me just as they have rended Theodore. Be sure that their object was selfish, Stampoff. Not one of these men has ever seen Prince Michael or myself. Even their leaders must have been mere boys when Ferdinand VII. was attacked probably by their fathers. Well, I shall have none of them. They and their like are the curse of Kosnovia. Who will pay taxes to keep me in the state that becomes a King? Not they. Who will benefit by good government and honest administration of the laws? Assuredly not they, for they batten on corruption; they are the maggots not the bees of industry. Over whom, then, shall I reign? " I am young, Paul ; but I have read and thought, not very deeply, perhaps, but I have looked at things in that strong, clear light of Paris, which is heady at times, like its good wine, but which enables men to view art and politics and social needs in their nakedness. And I am half an American, too, which accounts for certain elements in my composition that detract from French ideals. A Frenchman cannot understand, Paul, why some of my excellent kith and kin across the Atlantic should condemn studies of the nude. But somehow I have a glimmering sense of the moral purpose that teaches us to avoid that which is not wholly decent. So I am a blend of French realism and American level headedness, and both sides of my nature warn me that a King should trust his people. Sometimes the people are slow to learn that vital fact. Well, they must be taught, 61 A Son of the Immortals and the first lesson in a State like Kosnovia might well be given by trying those felons of the Schwarzburg before a duly constituted court of law." " Fine talk, Alec. Fine talk ! You do not know our Serbs," yet Stampoff was moved, and his Slavonic sympathies were touched. " Well, ' A King should die standing,' said one poor monarch, who thought he did know Frenchmen. I ask only for a few hours in my boots once I reach Delgratz. I shall say things that will not be for- gotten for a day or two. Come, now, my old war- horse, join me in this new campaign! It may well prove your last as it is my first ; but we shall fall honorably, you and I." There were tears in Stampoff 's eyes when Alec made an end. " Perhaps you are right," he said. " I have always given my mind to the military element. It seemed to me that the common folk require to be driven, not led, into the path they should tread. I am growing old, Alec ; yours is a new creed to me. I never thought to hear it from a Delgrado, and it will make a rare stir in more places than Kosnovia ; but by Heaven it is worth a trial ! " So Alec had won a convert, and that is the first essential of a reformer. Long and earnestly did they discuss the men and manners of Kosnovia and its chief city, and ever the Danube drew nearer ; but not a word did Alec say of his telegram to Beaumanoir until a man met him in the Western Station at Vienna, 62 In the Orient Express wrung his hand, and rushed away again with the words : " Beaumanoir leaves Paris to-night. He under- stands. So do I. Good luck, old chap! If you have to hit, hit hard and quickly." Stampoff did not speak English. He was greatly distressed .that Alec should have been recognized the instant he alighted from the train, though Paris was then twenty-two hours distant. " Who is that ? " he asked anxiously. " A friend from the British Embassy." " From an Embassy ! Then we are lost." " It seemed to me that I was found, rather." " But if the Embassies know " " They are invariably the worst informed centers in any country. The facts of which they profess total ignorance would fill many interesting volumes. Have no fear, General. I said * a friend. 5 He gave me a pleasant message." " Ah, from a woman, of course? " "No. But " Delgrado wheeled round to face a tall burly man standing stiffly at his side as though awaiting orders. Stampoff, who had been following the vanishing figure of Beaumanoir's emissary with suspicious eyes, turned and looked at the newcomer. " Oh, that is Bosko," he said, " my servant yours, too, for that matter. You can trust Bosko with your life. Can't he, you dog? " " Oui, m'sieur! " said Bosko. 63 CHAPTER IV THE WHITE CITY ALEC was sound asleep when the Orient Express rumbled over the Danube for the last time during its slow run to the Near East. He was aroused by an official examining passports, which he was informed would be restored in the railway station at Delgratz. He disliked the implied subterfuge; but it could not be helped. Austria, gracious to travelers within her bounds, excepts those who mean to cross her south- eastern frontier. There she frowns and inquires. If it was known that a Delgrado was in the train, he would have been stopped for days, pestered by officialdom ; and possibly deported. A curious element of safety was, however, revealed by newspapers purchased at Budapest. The various factions in Delgratz had declared a truce. The Delgrado partizans had telegraphed an invitation to Prince Michael to come and occupy the throne, and the Prince, or some wiser person, had sent a gracious reply stating that his matured decision would reach Kosnovia in due course. The National Assembly was still coquetting with the republican idea; but, in the same breath, avowed its patriotic impartiality. 64 The White City In a word, Delgratz wanted peace. Toward that end, the Seventh Regiment continued to occupy the Black Castle, the remainder of the troops stood fast, and the citizens pulled down their bar- ricades. Oddly enough, the Paris correspondent of " The Budapest Gazette " pointed out that Prince Michael's son was playing polo in the Bois during the afternoon of Tuesday. The journalist little dreamed that Alec was reading his sarcastic comments on the Delgrado lack of initiative at Budapest at midnight on Wednes- day. The train was abont to cross the River Tave (Delgratz stands on the junction of that stream and the Danube) when Stampoff appeared. The Al- banian servant accompanied him. " Leave everything to Bosko," said the General. " We must display no haste, and he will smooth the way through the customs." " I suppose you don't want me to ask any ques- tions ? " laughed Alec. " Better not. Do you still adhere to your pro- gram of last night ? " " Absolutely." Stampoff took off his hat, pointed through the window, and said quietly, " There, then, God willing, is your Majesty's future capital. I wish to con- gratulate your Majesty on your first sight of it." Beyond a level stretch of meadowland rose the 65 A Son of the Immortals spires and domes and minarets of a white city. The sun, not long risen, gilded its graceful contours and threw the rest of a wondrous picture into shadow so sharp that the whole exquisite vista might have been an intaglio cut in the sapphire of the sky. The Danube, a broad streak of silver, blended with the blue Tave to frame a glimpse of fairyland. For one thrilling moment Alec forgot its bloodstained history and looked only on the fair domain spread before his eyes. Then the black girders and crude latticework of a bridge shut out the entrancing spec- tacle, and he was conscious that Stampoff had caught his hand and was pressing it to his lips. The gallant old Serb meant well, for he was a patriot to the core; but his impulsive action grated. Perhaps it was better so. Alec, bred in a society that treated such demonstrations with scant respect, was suddenly recalled to earth, and the business that lay before him seemed to be more in keeping with the modern directness of the railway bridge than with daydreams founded on a picturesque vision of Delgratz. The city, too, lost its glamour when seen from those backdoor suburbs that every railway in every land appears to regard as the only natural avenue of approach to busy communities. The line turned sharply along the right bank of the Tave and ran past tobacco factories, breweries, powder mills, scat- tered hovels, and unkempt streets. Here was no sun, but plenty of bare whitewash. Even Alec, accus- 66 The White City tomed to the singularly ugly etchings of Paris viewed from its chief railways, was completely disillusioned by these drab adumbrations of commerce and squalor. The Tave was no longer blue, but dull brown with the mud of recent rain. Not even the inhabitants were attractive. They were not garbed as Serbs, but wore ungainly costumes that might have passed unnoticed in the Bowery. He was irresistibly re- minded of the stage, with its sharp contrasts between the two sides of the footlights, and in the luggage net near his head reposed that melodramatic sword, still wrapped in brown paper. The train slowed, and Stampoff went into the corridor. He came back instantly. " The station is guarded by troops," he muttered. " Some of the officers may recognize me. Perhaps we ought to separate." " No, no," said Alec. " Let us stick to the other passengers. I am the real stranger here, and they can look at me as much as they like." It was, indeed, easy to concede that Alexis III. was a man apart from his people. Swarthy old Stampoff, Prince Michael Delgrado, the pink and white Julius Marulitch, even the olive skinned, oval faced Beliani, might have mingled with the throng on the platform and found each his racial kith and kin ; not so Alec. His stature, his carriage, his fair complexion tanned brown with an open air life, picked him out among these Balkan folk almost as distinctly as a Polar bear would show among the denizens of 67 an Indian jungle. Moreover, every man of import- ance wore some sort of uniform, whereas Alec was quietly dressed in tweeds. Thus, he drew many eyes, and evoked many a whispered comment ; but never a man or woman in that crowded terminus harbored the remotest notion that he was a Delgrado. There were guesses in plenty, wherein he ranged from an English news- paper correspondent to a Greek Prince, the latter wild theory originating in the discovery of his name on the passport. Stampoff was ignored, and all went well till Bosko, laden with portmanteaus, led the way to the exit. Alec, swayed by a desire to please his father, carried under his arm the sword of Ferdinand VII. The customs officials at the barrier allowed the party to pass; but a shrewd visaged officer standing just outside eyed Alec's package. " What have you there? " he asked, probably more anxious to exchange a word with this distinguished looking stranger than really inquisitive. " A sword," said Alec. "And why are you carrying a sword?" said the other, who seemed hardly to expect this prompt reply in the vernacular. " It is a curiosity, a veritable antique." " Ha ! I must see it." " Come with me to Monsieur Nesimir's house and I will show it to you." The suspicious one became apologetic, since Mon- 68 The White City sieur Nesimir was President of the National Assem- bly. " I pray your pardon," he said. " Any friend of the President passes unchallenged. But these are troublous times in Kosnovia, so you understand " " Exactly. Brains are far more useful than swords in Delgratz to-day, and this, at the best, is but a gilded toy." Stampoff was already inside a closed carriage, and Bosko was holding the door open for Alec, who gave the driver clear instructions before he entered. The vehicle rattled off, and Stampoff swore bluntly. " Gods ! I thought there would be a row," he growled. " That fellow is Captain Drakovitch, I remember him well ; he is all nose." " I shall appoint him sanitary inspector," said Alec, sniffing. Stampoff laughed. Now that they were fairly committed to Alec's scheme, he was in excellent spirits. " By the patriarch ! you certainly believe in yourself, and I am beginning to believe in you ! " he vowed. But his faith was rudely shaken when Alec insisted on sending his own card to Nesimir. " That is a mad thing," he protested. " He will refuse to re- ceive you and hand you over to the guard." " On the contrary, he will hasten to meet us. Curi- osity is the most potent of human attributes. Even Presidents yield to it. At this moment, in all like- lihood, he is struggling into a frock coat." 69 A Son of the Immortals Alec was right. A portly person, wearing, indeed, a frock coat, a sash, and peg top trousers, appeared in the doorway of the presidential mansion. He also wore an expression of deep amazement. He glanced from the tall smiling youth to the diminutive General, on whom his eyes dwelt searchingly. " Yes," said Stampoff abruptly, speaking in French, " I am Paul Stampoff, shorn of his fleece. This is the King," and he nodded to Alec. "The King!" " Alexis III., grandson of Ferdinand VII., and son of Michael V." Nesimir hastily ordered a servant to close the outer door. As it happened, the President's military guard was stationed at a gate on the other side of the main courtyard, and no one could be aware of the visitor's identity, except the man who had taken Alec's card, while he, probably, was unable to read Roman script. " Your Excellency will doubtless permit our bag- gage to be placed in the hall ? " said Alec, using the most musical of all the Slavonic tongues with fluency. The President, in that state of trepidation best described by the homely phrase, " You could have knocked him down with a feather," seemed to collapse utterly when he heard the stranger talking like a native. " Certainly, your certainly. I don't understand, of course; but I shall give directions . . ." he stuttered. " You have come by train, from er 70 The White City from the west? You have not breakfasted? A cup of chocolate? Ah, yes, a cup of chocolate. Then we can discuss matters. The Assembly meets at ten, and I am very busy ; but I can give you half an hour, Monsieur " he looked at the card in his hand, " Monsieur " Then he gave it up. He simply dared not pro- nounce the name; so, with hospitable flourish, he ushered the two up a broad staircase and into a room. While climbing the stairs he recovered sufficiently to tell the doorkeeper that the gentlemen's port- manteaus were to be brought within and no one ad- mitted without specific permission. Once in the room he closed the door, stood with his back to it, and gasped at Stampoff with one word: " Now ! " " As soon as you like. I am famished. I ate but little en route, because I detest German cooking," said Stampoff, on whom Alec's methods were taking effect. But " "Ah, you wonder why his Majesty should appear without ceremony? Well, he quitted Paris on Tues- day night, an hour after Prince Michael had abdi- cated in his favor." " Abdicated ! " wheezed the President. " Our friend takes too much for granted," broke in Alec, smiling and unembarrassed. " My father could not vacate a throne he did not occupy. He merely resigned his claims in my favor. Kosnovia ,71 A Son of the Immortals should be governed by a constitutional King, and the power to choose him now rests solely with the hon- orable house of which you are chief. If that is your view, I share it to the uttermost. It is reported in the press that the men who murdered King Theodore and Queen Helena have declared their allegiance to the Delgrado line. My reply is that I refuse their nomination. If I am elected King by the representa- tives of the people, I shall have much pleasure in hanging every officer who took part in the infamy of the Black Castle. But it is an early hour for politics. You mentioned breakfast, Monsieur le President?" Fat and asthmatic Sergius Nesimir was not the man to deal with a candid adventurer of this type. It occurred to him that he ought to summon help and clap the soi-disant King and his henchman into prison. But on what charge? Could any royal pretender put forth more reasonable plea? And Kosnovia is near enough to the East to render sacred the claims of hospitality. " One moment, I beg," he stammered. " Why has your why have you come to me? What am I to do? The Assembly " " The Assembly seems to favor a Republic," said Alec. " Be it so. There are certain arguments against such a course which I would be glad of an opportunity to place before members. If you in- troduce me, they will give me a fair hearing. Let a vote be taken at once. If it is opposed to a. 72 The White City monarchy, I am ready to be conducted to either the railway station or the scaffold, whichever the Assem- bly in its wisdom may deem best fitted to national needs. If it is in my favor, I am King. What more is there to be said? " "What, indeed?" growled Stampoff. "Why so much talk? Let us eat ! " Poor Nesimir ! He had the unhappy history of his country at his fingers' ends, and never before had Delgrado or Obrenovitch striven for kingship in this kid-glove fashion. " Breakfast shall be served instantly," he said, trying vainly to imitate the cool demeanor of his guests. " But you will appreciate the difficulties of my position. I must consult with the ministers." " I hope I may call your Excellency a friend," said Alec, " and I shall be ever ready to accept your Ex- cellency's counsel; but on this exceptional occasion I venture to advise you. Let none know I am here. In the present disturbed condition of affairs there must be almost as many hidden forces existing in Delgratz as there are men in the Cabinet. Why per- mit them to fret and fume when you alone have power to control them? I promise faithfully to abide by the decision of the Assembly. Should it favor me, your position is consolidated ; should it prove adverse to my cause, you still remain the chief man in the State, since the world will realize that it was to you, and you only, I submitted in the first instance." " By all the saints, that is well put ! " cried 73 A Son of the Immortals Stampoff. " Now, Sergius, my lamb, a really good omelet, something grilled, and a bottle of sound Karlowitz none of your Danube water for me ! " The President surrendered at discretion. Alec's appeal to his self importance was irresistible. He was excited, elated, frightened; but happily he was strong enough to perceive that a chance of obtaining distinction was within his grasp, and he clutched at it, though with palsied hands. So it came to pass that when the hundred and fifty members of the National Assembly gathered in the great hall of the convention, none there knew why a tall, pleasant faced young man should be sitting in the President's private room, and apparently not caring a jot who came or went during the half -hour's lobbying and retailing of political gossip that pre- ceded the formal opening of the sitting. But there was an awkward moment when Nesi- mir, pale and shaken, entered the chamber through the folding doors at the back of the presidential dais. " Silence for his Excellency the President ! " shouted a loud voiced usher, and all men looked up in wonder when they discovered that the youthful stranger was standing by the President's side. The session was to be a secret one. Press and public were excluded. Who, then " Gentleman," said Sergius Nesimir, and he spoke with the slowness of ill repressed agitation, " I have a momentous announcement to make. This honorable 74 Gentlemen, here stands Alexis Belgrade Page 75 The White City house has almost committed itself to the republican form of Government " " Definitely ! " cried a voice. " No, no ! " this from a Senator. The President lifted a hand. In other circum- stances, the interruptions would have provoked rival storms of agreement and dissent from the many groups intp which the Assembly was split up; but now there was an electric feeling in the air that their trusted chief would not broach this grave question so suddenly without good cause. And who was his companion? Why did he occupy the dais? " I ask for silence," said Nesimir. " The fortunes of Kosnovia tremble in the balance. You will be given ample time for discussion; but hear me first. I have said that the republican idea has been mooted in all seriousness. We, in common with the rest of humanity, have been horrorstricken by recent events in our beloved land. Our reigning dynasty has been blotted out of existence. There is no heir of the Obrenovitch line. Were we, the representatives of the people, to declare in favor of a King, we should naturally turn to the other royal house of our own blood. We should send for a Delgrado. Gentle- men, here stands Alexis Delgrado " He could go no further. A yell of sheer amaze- ment came from all parts of the crowded chamber. Ministers, Senators, Representatives, joined in that bewildered roar. Those who were sitting rose ; those in the back benches stood on the seats in order to 75 A Son of the Immortals gaze over the heads in front. Men shouted and glared and turned to shout again at one another; but through all the turmoil Alec faced them, smiling and imperturbable, and, at what he judged to be the right moment for that volcanic outburst must be given time to exhaust itself he placed his one hand on the President's shoulder and with the other signaled his desire to be heard. Again he placed implicit confidence in the all powerful element of curiosity. He knew full well that these emotional Serbs could not hear his name unmoved, while the extraordinary racial difference between himself and every other man in the Assembly must have made a strong appeal to their dramatic instincts. And again was he justified; for the mere expression of his wish to address them was obeyed by an instant hushing of the storm. " My fellow countrymen," he began, " you whom I expect to count among my friends ere this day is out " Another wave of sound ran through the hall. Men still wondered; but their hearts were beating high, and a new note had come into their voices. He was speaking their own language, speaking it as one to the manner born, speaking it as no Austrian could ever speak it, since harsh, dominant German can never reproduce the full Slavonic resonance. Alec, but yesterday Joan's typical idler, had fathomed some uncharted deep in the mysterious art of sway- ing his fellow men. He realized at once that this 76 The White City rumble of astonishment was the very best thing that could have happened. He waited just long enough for the sympathetic murmur to merge into nods and whisperings, then he continued: " It is true that I am here as a Delgrado. I come as a candidate, not a claimant. It rests with you whether I shall remain among you as Alexis III., King of Kosnovia, or go back to my father and tell him that our people are anxious to try a new form of Government. Of course," and here Alec beamed on them most affably, " there are other alternatives. You may elect to put me in jail, or throw me into the Danube, or swing me from a gibbet as a warning to all would-be monarchs and other malefactors. But there is one thing you cannot do. You can never persuade me to wade to a throne through the blood of innocent people ! And that is why I am here, and not in the company of the wretched conspirators now skulking behind the walls of the Schwarzburg." Then a hurricane of cheers made the windows rattle, and a deputy from the Shumadia, " the heart of Kosnovia," a bigchested, deep voiced forester, sent forth a trumpet shout that reached every "Hola! That's a King! Look at him!" From that instant Alec was as surely King of Kosnovia as the German Emperor is King of Prus- sia. Of course, he had to talk till he was hoarse, and wring strong hands till he was weary, and Stampoff had to make more than one gruff speech, 77 A Son of the Immortals and eloquent Senators and Deputies had to proclaim the inviolate nature of the new constitution, and Alec had to sign it amid a scene of riotous en- thusiasm. But these things were the aftermath of a harvest reaped by half a dozen sentences. The Shumadia man's simple phrases became a formula. Men laughed and said: " Hola ! That's a King ! Look at him ! " In time it reached the streets. The people took it up as a popular catchword. It whirled through all Kosnovia. Those who had never seen Alec, nor heard of him before they were told he was King, adopted it as a token of their belief that the nation had at last obtained a ruler who surpassed all other Kings. But that was to come later. While Alec was listening to the plaudits that proclaimed his triumph, Stampoff growled at him from behind the half-closed door: " Gods ! You've done it ! And without a blow ! Never was Kingdom won so easily. God bless your Majesty! May you live long and reign worthily!" Good wishes these; but in them was the germ of an abiding canker. What would Joan say? He had taken a sleeping car ticket from Paris and had stepped into his patrimony with as little anxiety or delay as would herald a royal succession in the oldest and most firmly established monarchy in Europe. What of the goddess with the great gray eyes, clear and piercing, who knew all the thoughts of 78 The White City men's hearts and the secrets of their souls? What of her warning that she would drive her chosen ones by strange paths through doubt and need and danger and battle? Which of these had he encountered, beyond the vanished phantoms of idle hours passed in the cozy comfort of the Orient Express ? " Never was kingdom won so easily ! " Well meant ; but it rankled. That ominous line of Vergil's came to his mind. Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes (I fear the Greeks even bringing gifts). Truly the Greeks were come speedily, carrying in full measure the gifts of loyalty and dominion. Yet he feared them. A whiff of peril, pitfalls to be leaped, some days or weeks of dire uncertainty, men to be won, and factions placated, any or all of these might have appeased the jealous gods. But this instant success would shock Olympus. It cried for contrast by its very flight to the pinnacle. None suspected this mood in the chosen King. He charmed these volatile and romantic Serbs by his naturalness. He seemed to take it so thoroughly for granted that he was the one man living who could rule them according to their aspirations, that they adopted the notion without reserve. The morn- ing passed in a blaze of enthusiasm. Alec, out- wardly calm and hail fellow with all who came in contact with him, was really in a state of waking trance. His brain throbbed with ideas, words that he had never conned flowed from his lips. Thus, when asked to sign the constitution, he wrote " Alexis, 79 A Son of the Immortals Rex," with a firm hand, and then looked round on the circle of intent faces. " Gentlemen," he said, " I hereby pledge myself to our land. When I am dead, if my successor shows signs of faltering, make my skin into a drumhead for the cause of Kosnovia ! " At the moment he really did not know that this was borrowed thunder, and assuredly the Kosnovians did not care. Already his utterances were being re- tailed with gusto. Before night, every adult in- habitant of Delgratz was likening their marvelous King, fallen from the skies, to a drum that should summon the Serbs to found the Empire of their dreams. He was asked if he would not order the Seventh Regiment to evacuate the Black Castle so that he might take up his quarters there. " There is no hurry," he said. " The place needs cleaning." A review of the troops stationed in other parts of the capital was arranged for the afternoon in the beautiful park that crowns the promontory formed by the two rivers, and it was suggested that he should drive thither in the President's carriage. " I would prefer to ride," said he. " Then the people and I can see one another." A number of horses were brought from the late King's stables and Alec selected a white Arab stallion that seemed to have mettle and be up to weight. Soldiers and civilians exchanged underlooks at the 80 The White City choice. Selim was the last horse ridden by the ill fated Theodore, and, after the manner of Arabs, he had stumbled on the level roadway and the royal equestrian was thrown. During the procession, while passing through the densely packed Wassina-st., Selim stumbled again and was promptly pulled back almost on his haunches. At that very instant a revolver was fired from the crowd and a bullet flattened itself on the opposite wall. The would-be assassin was seized instantly, a hundred hands were ready to tear him to shreds, when the King's white horse suddenly pranced into the midst of the press. Grasping the man by the neck, Alec drew him free by main force. " Kill him ! " yelled the mob. " No," cried Alec, " we will put him in the recruits' squad and teach him how to shoot ! " Throughout a long day he displayed a whole hearted abandonment to the joy of finding himself accepted by the people as their ruler that did more than a year's session of the Assembly to endear him to them ; but the seal of national approval was con- ferred by his action next day, when news came that Lord Adalbert Beaumanoir was a prisoner at Semlin ! Naturally, the telegraph wires had thrilled Europe during every hour after ten o'clock on Thursday morning, but the thrills felt in Germany, Russia, and Turkey were supplemented by agonized squirming on the part of official Austria. That an upstart, a 81 A Son of the Immortals masquerader, a mountebank of a King, should actu- ally have traversed Austria from west to east, with- out ever a soul cased in uniform knowing anything about him, was ill to endure, and the minions of Kosnovia's truculent neighbor swore mighty oaths that no bottle holder from Paris or elsewhere should be allowed to follow. So Lord Adalbert Beaumanoir was watched from Passau to Maria Theresiopel, and telegrams flew over the face of the land, and Alec's British ally was hauled from the train at Semlin soon after dawn Friday. Captain Drakovitch, anxious to atone for his pry- ing of the previous day, brought circumstantial de- tails to his Majesty Alexis III., who was breakfasting with Nesimir, Stampoff, and Ministers of State. There could be no doubting Beaumanoir's identity, since his baggage was on the train, and Drakovitch had made sure of his facts before hurrying to the President's house. " Has Austria any right to arrest a British sub- ject merely because he wishes to enter Kosnovia?" asked Alec, looking round at the assembled gray- heads. " None whatever," said Nesimir. " It is an outrage," puffed the War Minister. " She would not dare act in that way on any other frontier ! " cried he of the Interior. " What, then, is to be done? " demanded the King. " Make the most emphatic protest to Vienna," came the chorus. 82 The White City " Through the usual diplomatic channels ? " " Yes of course." " But that means leaving my friend in prison for an indefinite period." Eloquent shrugs expressed complete agreement. " Has it been the habit of Kosnovia to accept tamely such treatment at the hands of Austria?" inquired Alec, looking at the President. " I fear so, your Majesty. We are small and feeble; she is mighty in size and armament." " So was Goliath, yet David slew him with a pebble," said Alec, rising. " Come, Captain Drako- vitch, you and I will call on the Austrian Ambassador. Stampoff, will you kindly arrange that a regiment of cavalry and six guns shall parade outside the station in half an hour's time? You might also ask the railway people to provide the necessary transport, though I hardly expect it will be needed. Still, we ought to make a show, just for practice." Several faces at the table blanched. " What does your Majesty mean by these prepa- rations ? " asked Nesimir. " Preparations for what ? Surely we can inspect our own troops and test our own railway accommo- dation," laughed Alec. " As for the Austrian Am- bassador, I intend to make an emphatic protest through the usual diplomatic channel. Isn't that what you all agreed to ? " He went out, followed by Drakovitch. In five minutes they were clattering through the streets 83 A Son of the Immortals accompanied by a small escort, which Alec would have dispensed with if it was not absolutely needed to clear a passage when once Delgratz knew that the King was abroad. Neither the Austrian nor Russian representative had recognized the new regime as yet. Each was waiting to see how the other would act ; so Baron von Rothstein viewed with mixed feelings the arrival of his royal visitor. But he met him with all ceremony, and began to say that instructions might reach him from Vienna at any moment to pay an official call. " Quite correct, Herr Baron," said Alec cheerfully. " I am a novice at this game ; but I fully understand that you act for your Government and not for your- self. That fact renders easy the favor I have to ask." "Anything that lies in my power, your Maj- esty " " Oh, this is a simple matter. A friend of mine, Lord Adalbert Beaumanoir, who was coming here from Paris to visit me, was arrested at Semlin this morning. There is, or can be, no charge against him. Some of your zealous agents have blundered, that is all. Now, I want you to go to Semlin in a special train I will provide and bring his Lordship here before " Alec looked at his watch " It is now nine shall we say? by eleven o'clock sharp." Von Rothstein was startled, and he showed it. " But this is the first I have heard of it," he said. 84 The White City " Exactly. That is why I came in person to tell you." " I fear I cannot interfere, your Majesty." "Is that so? Why, then, Herr Baron, are you Minister for Austria at Delgratz ? " " I mean that this matter is not within my prov- ince." " Surely it must be. I cannot allow my friends to be collared by Austrian police for no reason what- soever. This passport question concerns Kosnovia, not Austria. The action of the Semlin authorities is one of brigandage. It can be adjusted amicably by you, Herr von Rothstein. Do you refuse ? " " I fear I cannot do what you desire, your Maj- esty." " Ah ! That is a pity ! In that event, I must go to Semlin myself and liberate Lord Adalbert." " I don't quite understand " " Is my German so poor, then? " laughed Alec. " I mean, of course " " You think I am bluffing. Do you know the word ? It is American for a pretense that is not backed by action. I intend nothing of the kind. Either you or I must start for Semlin forthwith. If I go, I take with me a bodyguard sufficiently strong to in- sure my friend's freedom. I am not declaring war against Austria. If any jack in office in Kosnovia acts like these Semlin policemen, and a Kosnovian official refuses to put matters straight, by all means let Austria teach the offenders a sharp lesson. She 85 A Son of the Immortals will have my complete approval, as I hope I have yours on the present occasion." " But, your Majesty, such action on your part does really amount to a declaration of war ! " " Ridiculous ! Austria seizes an inoffensive British gentleman merely because he travels from Paris to Delgratz, I appeal to you, the Austrian minister, to go and release him, and you refuse; yet you tell me I am making war on your country if I rescue him. The notion is preposterous! At any rate, it can be argued later. I have sufficient cavalry and guns assembled near the station, and I hope to be in Semlin in twenty minutes. Good morning, Baron." " Your Majesty, I implore you to forego this rash enterprise." " It is you or I for it ! " " Let me telegraph." " Useless. That spells delay. You or I must go to Semlin now ! Which is it to be ? " The Austrian diplomat, pallid and bewildered, yet had the wit to believe that this quiet voiced young man meant every word he said. He reasoned quickly that the freeing of a pestiferous Englishman at Semlin could have no possible effect on Austria's subsequent action. She might please herself whether or not the threatened invasion of her territory should be deemed a cause of war, while to yield for the hour robbed this extraordinary adventurer of the prestige that would accrue from his bold act. 86 The White City " I will go, your Majesty," said he, after a fate- ful pause. " Good ! Permit me to congratulate you on a wise decision," said Alec. " I shall wait your return in patience until eleven." "And then?" " Oh, then I follow you, of course." Baron von Rothstein thought silence was best. He drove to the station, and did not fail to note the military preparations. His special quitted Delgratz at nine-twenty A.M. At ten-forty A.M. it came back and Alec met him and Lord Adalbert Beaumanoir on the platform. " Sorry you were held up, old chap," was the King's greeting. " Some of these frontier police are fearful asses ; but Herr von Rothstein rushed off the instant he heard of your predicament, and here you are, only five hours late after all." " Wouldn't have missed it for a pony, dear boy," grinned Beaumanoir. " There was a deuce of a shindy when three fat johnnies tried to pull me out of my compartment. I told 'em I didn't give a tinker's continental for their bally frontier, and then the band played. I slung one joker through the window. Good job it was open, or he might have been guillotined, eh, what ? " " No one was injured, I hope." " Another fellow said I bent his ribs ; but they sprang all right under the vet's thumb. Tell me, why does our baronial friend look so vinegary? He 87 A Son of the Immortals chattered like a magpie in the police bureau, or whatever it is called, at Semlin." " Lord Adalbert wishes me to explain that a dis- agreeable incident had ended happily," said Alec to von Rothstein. " I am not sure that it has ended, your Majesty," was the grim reply. " Well, then, shall we say that it has taken a satis- factory turn? You see, my dear Baron, I am quite a young King, and I shall commit many blunders before I learn the usages of diplomacy. But I mean well, and that goes a long way, much farther than Semlin, even beyond Vienna." 88 CHAPTER V FELIX SURMOUNTS A DIFFICULTY COUNT JULIUS MAEULITCH and his friend Con- stantine Beliani, the one savagely impatient, the other moody and preoccupied, sprawled listlessly in Marulitch's flat in the Avenue Victor Hugo, and, though it was evening, each was reading " The Matin." That is to say, each was pretending to read; but their thoughts did not follow the printed words. Alexis III. had reigned only ten days, yet the most enterprising of the Paris newspapers was already making a feature of a column headed : " Our dear Alec, day by day." It ought to be an interest- ing record to these two men, yet it evidently was not one-tenth so humorous as " The Matin " believed, since there was a deep frown on both faces. At last Marulitch flung the paper aside with an angry snarl. "Ah, bah!" he growled. "May the devil fly away with our dear Alec and his doings day by day ! A nice pair of fools we made of ourselves when we pitchforked him into power ! " " Patience, my friend, patience ! " said the Greek. "Everything comes to him who waits, and Alec will 89 A Son of the Immortals fall far when his luck changes. It may be to-morrow, or next week ; but he must experience a reverse. He is like a gambler at Monte Carlo who stakes max- imums just because the table is running favorably." " Fish ! " snorted Marulitch. " What else would a gambler do? " " What indeed ? " agreed Beliani, though a far less alert intelligence than Marulitch's might have known that he was annoyed. The pink and white Julius, whom his friends had nicknamed " le beau Comte," did not fail to catch the contemptuous note of that purred answer ; he sprang up from his chair, ransacked a cupboard, and threw on the table a box of those priceless cigarettes, the produce of a single southwesterly hillside at Salonica, that are manu- factured solely for the Sultan of Turkey. " There, smoke, my Constantine," he laughed harshly. " Why should we quarrel ? We were idiots. Let us, then, admit it." "Were we?" " Can you deny it? We arranged the first move beautifully. With Theodore out of the way " The Greek turned his head swiftly and looked at the door. Marulitch lowered his voice. "No need to refer to Theodore, you will say? How can one avoid it ? His death was the cornerstone of the edifice. If only that senile uncle of mine had become King the path would be clear for the final coup before the year was out. And now where are we? What purpose do we serve by self delusion? 90 Felix Surmounts a Difficulty Each day's newspaper bears witness to our folly. Alec carries the Assembly by storm; Alec captures a would-be assassin ; Alec flouts Austria ; Alec dis- bands the Seventh Regiment and hands its officers to the police ; Alec attends the funeral of Theodore and Helena, and takes over their servants and debts ; Alec tells the Sultan that he exists in Europe only on sufferance; Alec draws a map of Kosnovia and dec- orates it with railways ; Alec bathes in the Danube at six, breakfasts at seven, attends a christening at eight, a wedding at nine, a review at ten, a memorial service in the cathedral at eleven, lunches at twelve, receives provincial deputations at one, inaugurates the Delgratz Polo Club at two and the Danubian Rowing Club at three, Alec round the clock, and all Europe agape to know what next he will be up to and you and I here, unknown, unrecorded, you and I, the brains, the eyes, the organizers of the whole affair! Oh, it makes me sick when I remember how I stood like a stuck pig in old Delgrado's flat and let the son jump in and snatch from the father's hands the scepter I had purchased so dearly ! " The Greek rose languidly, strolled to the door, and threw it open. A page boy was in the lobby, and it was easy to see by his innocent face that his presence there was inspired by no more sinister motive than to deliver a newspaper. Beliani took it, closed the door, listened a moment, and unfolded the damp sheet. He glanced at its foreign news. 91 A Son of the Immortals " ' Le Soir ' gives prominence to a rumor that King Alexis will marry a Montenegrin Princess," he murmured composedly. " Mirabel, of course? " " She is unnamed." " That's it. I know, I know ! He will marry Mirabel. By Heaven! if he does, I'll shoot him myself ! " " The trial of the regicides is fixed for June," went on Beliani, wholly unmoved by Marulitch's vehemence. " Now, the vital question is, How far can Stampoff be relied on ? " " How does our reliance on Stampoff concern Mirabel? " " I am not thinking of Mirabel, but of Julius and Constantine. If Stampoff tells our young Bayard everything, Delgratz is no place for you and me, my veteran." Marulitch, though trembling with passion, could not fail to see that the Greek was remarkably non- chalant for one who had witnessed the utter collapse of ten years of work and expenditure. " Are we going there ? " he managed to ask without a curse. " Soon, quite soon, provided Stampoff keeps a still tongue." " But why ? To grace the coronation by our presence? " " It may be. Remember, if you please, that we are Alec's best friends. We gave him his chance. 92 Felix Surmounts a Difficulty I offered to finance him ; did finance Stampoff in fact. We are unknown personally to the officers of the Seventh. That was wise, Julius, far-seeing, on my part. Oh, yes, we must go to Delgratz. Delgratz is the nerve center now." " You are keeping something from me." " On my honor, no. But you sneered at my par- able of the successful gambler, whereas I believe in it implicitly. I have seen that type of fool backing the red, staking his six thousand francs on every coup, and have watched a run of twelve, thirteen, seventeen, twenty-one; but the smash came at last." " What matter ? A man who wins twenty times can well afford to lose once." " I said a gambler, not a financier," smiled Beliani. " But let it pass. I thought you told me there was a girl here in Paris " " So there is, a beauty too ; but Alec has meanwhile become a King." " A somewhat peculiar King. He has borrowed his regal notions from America rather than Kos- novia, Julius. He would laugh at any claim of divine right. One of these days you will find him chaffing the Hohenzollerns, and that is dangerous jesting in the Balkans. If he loves a girl in Paris, he will not marry your Mirabel. I fancy I have taken his measure. If I am right, he is far too honest to occupy the throne of Kosnovia." " Grand Dieu! the country is pining for honest government. Even you will grant that." 93 A Son of the Immortals " Even I, as you say ; but I should be wrong. If I have an ax to grind, so has the other fellow. Kos- novia is in the East, and the East loves deceit. Alec has dazzled the people for a few days. Wait till he begins to sweep the bureaus free of well paid sine- curists. Wait till he finds out how the money is spent that the Assembly votes for railways, education, forestry, and the like. Wait till he reduces the staff of the army and the secretaries. I know Delgratz and Kosnovia, and he does not. He will win the people, it is true; but he will alienate the men who can twist the people this way and that to suit their own purposes. Before a month is out he will be wrangling with the Assembly. See if I am not a prophet. Oh, yes, Julius, you and I must go to Delgratz. No hurry ; slow but sure. I'll break the journey at Vienna. We must sound Stampoff too. But before I go, I should like to be sure that the girl has gone there." " The artist girl to Delgratz ! " Julius was bitter and skeptical; but he reposed such confidence in Beliani's judgment that he choked his doubts. " Yes. Can it be managed? " Le beau Comte leered, and the satyr grin was highly expressive. It seemed to show the man's real nature. In repose his face was insipid; now for an instant he resembled the god Pan. " You called Alec a Bayard just now. Not a bad title for him. He has that kind of repute among his friends. Perhaps the girl is built on the same lines, Felix Surmounts a Difficulty and w,e don't want to send a pretty saint to Delgratz merely to inspire him to fresh efforts." The Greek inhaled a deep breath of the aromatic smoke. " You'll be an average sort of King, Julius ; but you are not a philosopher," said he thoughtfully. " I tell you we are safer than ever if we can bring him and the girl together. He will marry her, you short sighted one marry her, and thus alienate every Slav in the Balkans. I have turned this thing in my mind constantly since I recovered from the first shock of his achievement, and I am fairly certain of my ground. Mark you, Princess Mirabel of Montenegro will be reported, to-morrow as out of the running. If that is so, you will begin to believe me and stop clawing your hair and injuring your fine complexion by scowling." Next morning's " Matin " announced that King Alexis was greatly annoyed by the mischievous and utterly unfounded canard that bracketed his name with that of a woman he had never seen. Count Julius read, and made a hasty toilet. Beliani and he had laid their plans overnight, and he lost no time in opening the new campaign. It was a difficult and delicate task he had under- taken. Paris, big in many respects, is small in its society, which, because of its well marked limits, makes a noise in the world quite incommensurate with its importance; whereas London, close neighbor and rival, contains a dozen definite circles that seldom overlap. The woman Julius had seen with Alec in 95 the Louvre was not on Princess Michael's visiting list, of that he had no manner of doubt. Therefore, from his point of view, the only possible solution of their apparent friendship would prove to be some- thing underhanded and clandestine, an affair of secret meetings, and letters signed in initials, and a tacit agreement to move unhindered in different orbits. Being of the nature of dogs and aboriginal trackers, Marulitch made straight for the Louvre. There he had quitted the trail, and there must he pick it up again. But the hunt demanded the ut- most wariness. If he startled the quarry, he might fail at the outset, and, supposing his talking was successful, both he and Beliani must still beware of a King's vengeance if their project miscarried. Neither man had the slightest belief in Alec's innate nobility of character. Beliani likened him to Bayard, it is true, and Marulitch had scoffingly adopted the simile ; but that was because each thought Bayard not admirable, but a fool. The somber his- tory of the Kosnovian monarchy, a record of crass stupidity made lurid at times by a lightning gleam of passion, justified the belief that Alexis would follow the path that led Theodore, and Ferdinand, and Ivan, and Milosch to their ruin. Each of these rulers began to reign under favorable auspices, yet each succumbed to the siren's spell, and there was no reason at all, according to such reckoning, why the handsome and impulsive Alexis should escape. That 96 Felix Surmounts a Difficulty a pretty Parisienne who was also an artist should fail to offer herself as a willing bait did not enter at all into the calculation. " Be suave, spend money, and keep in the back- ground," said the Greek. Julius entered the Grande Galerie prepared to apply these instructions through the medium of his own subtle wit. At the outset, luck favored him. Somehow, it is always easier to do evil than good, and the longevity of evil is notorious, whereas the short lived existence of good would horrify an in- surance agent. Joan was not present; but Felix Poluski was pre- paring a canvas for his twenty-seventh copy of the famous Murillo. Two of his " Immaculate Concep- tions " were in private collections ; one had been sold to a South American millionaire as the Spanish artist's own duplicate of the picture, though Poluski was unaware of the fraud ; and twenty-three adorned the high altars of various continental churches, where they edified multitudes happily ignorant of the irrev- erent conditions under which the cheery souled an- archist hunchback droned his snatches of song and extracted from a few tubes of paint some glimpse of heaven, and rays of sunlight, and hints of divine love and divine maternity. The crooked little Pole's genius and character were alike unknown to Count Julius. He saw only a quaintly artistic personage who might possibly be acquainted with such a remarkable looking habitue 97 A Son of the Immortals of the gallery as Joan. Instead, therefore, of appeal- ing to one of the officials, he approached Poluski, and the two exchanged greetings with the politeness that Paris quickly teaches to those who dwell within her gates. " You work in this gallery most days, monsieur ? " said Julius. " But yes, monsieur," said Felix. " About a fortnight ago, monsieur," explained Marulitch, " I happened to be here at this hour, and I noticed a young lady copying one of the pictures on the opposite wall. Can you tell me who she was?" " Can you tell me which picture she was copying? " said Poluski. " I am not sure ; this one, I think," and Julius pointed to " The Fortune Teller." " Ah ! Describe her, monsieur." " She was tall, elegant, charming in manner and appearance." Poluski appeared to reflect. " The vision sounds entrancing, monsieur," he said ; " but that sort of girl doesn't usually earn her crusts by daubing canvas in the Louvre at so much a square foot." " Yet I saw her, without a doubt. She was not alone that morning. In fact, a friend of mine was with her." Poluski turned to his easel. He was in no mind to discuss Joan with this inquiring dandy. " That simplifies your search, monsieur," said he 98 Felix Surmounts a Difficulty carelessly. " All that is necessary is to go to your friend." " I cannot. He is not in Paris." " Where is he? " " Far enough away to render it impossible that he should solve my dilemma to-day. And the thing is urgent. I have a commission to offer, a good one. If you help, you will be doing the young lady a turn and yourself, too, perhaps." " Kindly explain, monsieur." " I mean that I will gladly pay for any infor- mation." " How much? Five, ten francs, a louis? " The Pole's sarcasm was not to be mistaken. Julius was warned and drew back hurriedly. " I really beg your pardon," he said ; " but I am so anxious to carry out my undertaking that I have expressed myself awkwardly, and I see now that you are misinterpreting my motives. Let me speak quite candidly. I have no desire to meet the lady in person. An art connoisseur, who admires her work, wishes to send her to a cathedral in a distant city to copy a painting. He will pay well. He offers traveling expenses, hotel bill, and five thousand francs. The picture is not a large one, and the work easy, a Byzantine study of Saint Peter, I believe. If you tell me, monsieur, that you can arrange the matter, I shall be pleased to leave it entirely in your hands." " Since when did Alec become a connoisseur ? " demanded Poluski, grinning. 99 A Son of the Immortals Marulitch was startled ; but he smiled with a ready self possession that did him credit. " It was in Monsieur Delgrado's company I saw the fair un- known," he admitted ; " but this affair does not rest with him. It is genuine, absolutely." " Nevertheless, this Byzantine Saint Peter hangs in Delgratz, I suppose ? " " I I think so." " Five thousand francs, you said, and expenses. Not bad. I'm a pretty good hand myself. Will I do?" The Pole was enjoying the stupid little plot; for it could wear no other guise to him, and Count Julius was mortified by the knowledge that he had blundered egregiously at the first step in the negotiation. What would Beliani say? This wizened elf of a man had seen clear through their precious scheme in an in- stant, and, worst of all, it had not advanced an inch. Julius made a virtue of necessity, and placed all his cards on the table. " I want you to credit my statements," he said emphatically. " This proposal is quite straightfor- ward. My principal is prepared to pay half the money down before the lady leaves Paris, and the balance when the picture is delivered. Further, he will bear the expenses of any one who accompanies her, a relative, or a friend, such as yourself, for instance. I don't figure in the matter at all. I am a mere go-between, and if you think otherwise you are utterly mistaken." 100 Felix Surmounts a Difficulty Felix began to whistle softly between his teeth, and the action annoyed Julius so greatly that he de- cided to try a new line. " I seem to have amused you by my sincerity, monsieur ! " he snapped. " Pray forget that I have troubled you " ' " But why, my paragon? Que diable! one does not spurn five thousand francs like that! I hum or whistle when I am thinking, and just now I am won- dering how this business can be arranged. Who is your client? " " Who is yours ? " retorted Julius. " She exists, at any rate." " So does the other." " Well, then, let us meet to-morrow " " But time is all important." " There can't be such a mortal hurry, seeing that Saint Peter has hung so long undisturbed in Del- gratz," said Felix dryly. " Moreover, it will clear the air if I tell you that the lady is not in Paris, so I cannot possibly give you her answer before to- morrow morning." " How can I be sure that she is the person actually intended for this commission ? " " There won't be the least doubt about it when King Alexis III. sets eyes on her." Julius was certainly not himself that day. His pink face grew crimson with amazement. " If you tell her that you will defeat my friend's object in sending her to Delgratz ! " he blurted out. 101 A Son of the Immortals " Eh, what are you saying? What, then, becomes of that poor Saint Peter? " " Exactly. She is going there to copy it, not to philander with Alec." Poluski screwed his eyes up until he was peering at Julius's excited features as if endeavoring to catch some transient color effect. " Frankly, you puzzle me," he said after a pause; "but come again to-morrow. And no tricks, no spying or that sort of thing! I am the wrong man for it. If you doubt me, ask some one who has heard of Felix Poluski. You see, Count Julius Marulitch, I am far more open than you. I knew you all the time, and as to your motives, I can guess a good deal that I don't actually know. Still, there is nothing positively dishonest about a Byzantine Saint Peter. It is not art, but five thousand francs sounds like business. Half the cash down, you said; anything by way of preliminary expenses ? " " Meaning? " " Say, one per cent., fifty francs. Otherwise, I must paint all day and trust to the post the least eloquent of ambassadors." " Oh, as to that," and Julius produced a hundred- franc note from his pocketbook. The Pole accepted it gravely. " I go instantly, monsieur," he said. He began to fold his easel and put away his brushes and colors. Once he glanced up at the rapt Madonna. " Au 'voir, ma belle," he murmured. This affair 102 Felix Surmounts a Difficulty of Saint Peter must be arranged. It presses. They change Kings speedily in Delgratz nowadays, and their taste in saints may follow suit. But, courage! I shall return, and who knows what will come of this excursion into the forgotten realm of Byzantium?" Count Marulitch, of course, had not counted on one who was a complete stranger not only recognizing him but stripping the pretense so thoroughly of the artistic commission offered to Alec's fair companion of that memorable morning. He must put the best face on his blunder when discussing it with Beliani, and he promised himself a quite definite understand- ing with Poluski ere another sou left his pocket. Meanwhile, who was Poluski? That question, at least, could be answered easily. One clue might lead to another. To-morrow, when they met, it might be his turn to astonish the warped little Pole. Felix, feeling that he had spoiled the Egyptians excellently well, hobbled off to his favorite cafe. Early as the hour was, various cronies were there already, sipping their morning refreshments; but he passed them with a nod and made for the fat proprietress throned behind a high desk. When she caught sight of him, a certain air of firmness seemed to struggle with sympathy for possession of her bulging features, and she hastily thumbed a small account book taken from beneath a pile of waiter's dockets. " How much, madame ? " asked Felix, who had missed none of this. 103 A Son of the Immortals " Twenty-seven seventy-five," she said severely. " Can one make it thirty, mignonne? " " Thirty ! Tell me, then, how market bills are to be met when one is owed these thirties? ' " Dear angel, Providence has decided that you shall deal with such problems." " Well, well, no more, not a centime beyond the thirty ! " " Monstrous, yet all heart ! " murmured Felix. He struck an attitude, and sang with exquisite feeling the opening bars of the Jewel Song from " Faust." As applied to the earthly tabernacle of madame's generous soul, the effect of that impassioned address was ludicrous. But Felix recked little of that. He threw the hundred-franc note on the counter. " There, ma petite, be rewarded for your trust," he cried. " Now give me the railway timetable ; for I have far to go ere I return, when you and I shall crack a bottle of Clos Vosgeot with our dinner." Madame, who had not betrayed the least embarrass- ment when she and her cafe were apostrophized in Gounod's impassioned strains, was utterly bewildered by Poluski's wealth. Not once in many years had he owned so much at one time, since he always drew small sums on account of his pictures and kept him- self going hand-to-mouth fashion. But here was Felix intent on the timetable and sweeping seventy- two francs twenty-five centimes of change into his pocket without troubling to count a coin. 104 Felix Surmounts a Difficulty " You have found a mad Englishman, I suppose? " tittered madame. " Better, far better, ma cherie; I have met a man who would be a King ! " He hurried out, climbed into a passing omnibus, and descended at the Gare de Lyon. Joan was just leaving the pretty hotel at Barbizon, meaning to put in some hours of work after a distracted morning, when Felix emerged from the interior of a ramshackle cab that had carried him from Melun to the edge of the forest. Now, a cab drive of several miles, plus a journey from Paris, was a sufficiently rare event in Poluski's life to make Joan stare. His unexpected appearance chimed so oddly with her own disturbed thoughts that she paled. " Felix," she cried, " have you brought ill news ? " " Of whom, chere mademoiselle? " he demanded. "Of of any one?" " Alec still reigns, if that is what you mean." " But he has sent you ? " " What, do I look like an envoy ? " He laughed. " Well, well, ma belle, there is some truth in that. I come in behalf of one before whom even Kings must bow ; I represent Saint Peter ! But even an apostolic dynamitard must eat. I am starving, having sacri- ficed my luncheon to my love of you. Commend me, then, to some deft handed waiter, and let hunger and curiosity be sated at the same time." Joan knew that Poluski would choose his own way of explaining his presence. The hour for luncheon 105 A Son of the Immortals was long past; but she hurried to the empty dining room and was able to secure some soup and a cold chicken. Felix eyed the bird distrustfully. " Although I am here in behalf of Saint Peter, there is no sense in asking me to chew the wretched fowl that proclaimed his downfall," he muttered. " Oh, Felix dear, please do tell me what has hap- pened ! " said Joan, clasping her hands in real dis- tress. " I received a letter from Alec this morning. It was sent to me from my lodgings, and, what be- tween that and the extraordinary things in the news- papers, I think I am bewitched. Now I am sure that you too have heard from him. Is it a tele- gram? " " Yes," he said, " a message sent without wires ; it came by one of those underground currents that convulse an unconscious world, sometimes agonizing mountains, at others perplexing a simple maid like yourself. You see, Joan, all things conspire to draw you to Delgratz." " I am not going ! " she vowed, thereby giving Poluski the exact information he needed; for his nimble brain was beginning to see the connection between Alec's letter and Count Julius Marulitch's intense desire to avail himself of Joan's skill as a copyist. " You are, my dear," he said, dropping his banter- ing tone and looking her straight in the eyes. " How can such an absurdity be dreamed of? " she demanded breathlessly. 106 Felix Surmounts a Difficulty " Because it is a dream that will come true. Lis- ten, now, and don't be afraid, for these gray old trees of Barbizon have heard madder whisperings than that you should become a Queen. It is in the natural order of things that I, who gave my best years to devising the ruin of Kings, should be chosen in my dotage to help in fixing a King firmly on his throne. It is some sport of the gods, I suppose, a superhuman jest, perhaps the touch of farce that makes tragedy more vivid, since even that colossal Shakespeare of yours thought fit to lighten Hamlet by introducing a comic gravedigger. Be that as it may, Joan, you are Alec's Queen, and, as he cannot come for you it follows that you must go to him. Shall I tell you why? You are necessary to him. It is decreed, and you cannot shirk your lot. He knows it, and he has written to bid you come. His enemies know it ; but there is a kind of knowledge that leads its votaries blindfold to the pit, and Alec's enemies are blindly plotting now to send you to Delgratz and thus compass his ruin. " Felix ! What are you saying ? " " The truth, the simple truth. Not a whiff of metaphor or extravagance about that statement, Joan. This morning a man came to me in the Louvre. He was seeking you. He wants to pay you five thousand francs for a copy of some blazoned daub that hangs in the cathedral at Delgratz. He will pay double, four times, the money if only you will consent to go there. Why ? Because he believes 107 A Son of the Immortals that Alec is infatuated about you, and that the mere hint of marriage with one who is not a Slav princess will shatter the throne of Kosnovia about the ears of its present occupant. My anxious visitor is mistaken, of course. He is trying to do good that evil may come of it; but while there is justice in Heaven any such perversion of an eternal principle is foredoomed to failure. " But just think of that man coming to me, Felix Poluski, who has an ear for every sob that rises from the unhappy people who dwell in the borderland be- tween Teuton and Tartar! Isn't that the cream of comedy? When I make everything clear to you, when I show you how and by whom the killing of Theodore and his wife was engineered, you will begin to understand the fantastic trick that Fate played when she sent her emissary to the hunchback artist in the Louvre. But it is a long story, and it will beguile the journey across Austria, while there are many things you must attend to ere you leave Paris in the Orient Express to-morrow night." " Felix, it is impossible ! " " Ah ! Then you don't love our Alec." " I I have not heard a word from his lips well, hardly a syllable " "Not in the letter?" " That is different. Felix, I can trust you. Per- haps, under other conditions, I might marry Alec; but now I cannot." "Why?" 108 Felix Surmounts a Difficulty " Because he is a King." " The best of reasons, if he was bred in a palace. But he has lived long enough to become a man first. Frankly, Joan, I like Alec, and I think he ought to be given a chance. At any rate, I don't see why you are afraid of him." " I am not. Indeed, I am not ! " Joan's voice was tremulous. She was on the verge of tears ; for the little Pole's persistence was breaking down the barrier that she had striven to erect against her lover's pleading. Alec had not said much in his letter ; but what he did say was wholly to the point. " Come to me, Joan," he wrote. " Don't wait. Don't stop and worry about what the world will say, since it will surely be something bitter and un- true. The people here are all right, and I think they are beginning to like me ; but I can see quite plainly that they will not be content until I am married, and hints are being thrown out already that there are several eligible young ladies in neighboring States. But if these Kosnovians take me they must take you too, and it will be far easier for me when they have seen you. " Now, no hesitation, no doubts, no weighing of pros and cons. Just set your teeth and toss your head up, and tell Pauline to sling your belongings into your boxes, and before you start send me one word in a telegram. I am horribly busy, of course (for details see daily papers), and this must be the most extraordinary love letter ever written ; but what 109 does that matter when you and I understand each other? It was you who sent me here. Don't forget that, dear teller of fortunes, and I want you to be standing by my side when the storm breaks that must surely be brewing for me after an incredible success." There was more in the same vein. Alexis the King seemed to differ in no essential from the Alec Delgrado who used to wait for her every day in the neighborhood of the Pont Neuf. Dare she risk it? The question had tortured her ever since the early morning. It was not that the prospect of being a Queen was dazzling or even dismaying in itself; she really dreaded the result of such a marriage on the fortunes of the man she loved. But against that self sacrificing attitude she was forced to admit the plea of Alec's own bewildering lack of conventionality. If half the stories in the newspapers were true, he was the most original minded monarch that ever reigned. She was quite sure that his answer to any evasive reply on her part would be a public announcement of the fact that his promised bride was a young lady in Paris, Joan Vernon by name. And that would be worse almost than going quietly to Delgratz and being married there. What was she to do? She found Felix Poluski's gray eyes looking at her steadfastly. In this dilemma he was her only trusted counselor, and he had already advised her to yield. 110 Felix Surmounts a Difficulty " If I even knew his relatives," she faltered. " His parents live in Paris. We have never met. How can I say to his mother, * Your son wants me to marry him. What do you think of me ? ' She, a Princess, would scoff at the idea." " Alec is well aware of that ; hence he has written direct to you, and said nothing to any other person. Let me assure you that if Prince Michael Delgrado had gone to Delgratz he would have died a sudden and violent death. Prince Michael knew it, and de- clined the distinction. Believe me, too, Alec has the very best of reasons for consulting no one in his choice of a wife. Now, Joan, be brave! When all is said and done, it should be far more pleasant to marry a King than fling a bomb at him, and I have met several young ladies almost as pretty as you who were ready enough to adopt the latter alternative. At any rate you will take no harm by crossing the Danube. It is not the Rubicon, you know, and you have Saint Peter to lean on in case of difficulty." So Felix did not return to Paris alone, and when he met Count Julius Marulitch next morning in the Louvre he was able to announce that Miss Joan Vernon had accepted the commission to copy the Delgratz Saint Peter and was ready to start for Kosnovia by the night mail. in CHAPTER VI JOAN GOES INTO SOCIETY JOAN did not telegraph to Alec. She destroyed each of half a dozen attempts, and ended by taking refuge in silence. It was impossible to say what she had to say in the bald language of a telegram. Merely to announce her departure from Paris would put her in the false position of having accepted Alec's proposal apparently without reserve, which was ex- actly what she meant not to do, and any other ex- planation of the journey would bewilder him. Her friend Leontine, housemaid at the Chope de la Sorbonne, did not fail to tell her of Alec's call the day she left Paris for Barbizon. There was no mistaking Leontine's description, which was impres- sionist to a degree. It was evident, then, that he not only possessed her address, as shown by the letter, but knew of her absence. So she reasoned that if he did not hear from her within forty-eight hours he would assume that she was still away from home. By that time she would be in Delgratz, and, although she felt some uneasiness at the prospect, she was brave enough not to shirk meeting him. They were not children that they should be afraid 112 Joan Goes into Society of speaking their thoughts, nor lovesick romanticists, apt to be swayed wholly by sentiment, and she could trust Alec to see the folly of rushing into a union that might imperil his career. In the depths of her heart she confessed herself proud and happy at the prospect of becoming his wife; but she would never consent to a marriage that was not commended by prudence. Better, far better, they should part for- ever than that the lapse of a few months should prove how irretrievably she had ruined him. This might be sound commonsense, but it was not love, yet all this, and more, Joan said to Felix Poluski, and the little man had nodded his head with grins of approval. Meanwhile, he sang and was busy. Count Julius, posted now in the Pole's mottled his- tory, had demanded absolute anonymity before he carried the negotiations for the picture any further. Felix gave the pledge readily, since Joan could not be in Delgratz a day ere she suspected the truth. At any rate, Marulitch was satisfied; he introduced Felix to a well-known dealer in the Rue St. Honore, and thenceforth disappeared from the transaction. Joan herself entered into the necessary business arrangements, about which there was nothing hidden or contraband. The terms proposed were liberal, considering her poor status in the art world; but they were quite straightforward. She was given return tickets to Delgratz for herself and her maid; Felix was similarly provided for ; five hundred dollars was paid in advance, and a written guaranty was 113 A Son of the Immortals handed to her that a similar sum, together with hotel expenses, would be forthcoming in exchange for a copy of the Byzantine Saint Peter. Of course, reviewing matters calmly in the train, she hardly expected that the second portion of the contract would be fulfilled. She knew quite well that the conspirators hoped to turn her presence in the Kosnovian capital to their own account, and when their scheme was balked they would devise some means of wriggling out of the bargain. But she laughed at the notion that she, an unknown student, should have suddenly become a pawn in the game of empire. There was an element of daring, almost of peril, in the adventure that fascinated her. It savored of those outlandish incidents recorded in novels of a sensational type, wherein fur coated, sallow faced, cigarette smoking scoundrels plotted the destruction of dynasties, and used fair maidens as decoys for susceptible Kings. Certainly, Felix Poluski, judged by his past, was no bad prototype of a character in that class of fiction; regarded in his present guise, as he sat opposite her in the dining car of the Orient Express, he looked the most harmless desperado that ever preyed on a quivering world. His face seemed to be smaller and more wrinkled than usual. From Joan's superior height his hump was accentuated till it showed above the top of his head, and the girl was conscious, though she reso- lutely closed her eyes to the fact, that the admiring glances with which she was favored by some of her Joan Goes into Society fellow passengers were somewhat modified by the humorous incongruity of Poluski's appearance. At first, they tacitly avoided any reference to Alec or Delgratz. Their talk dealt with art and artists, and Joan had a good deal to say about the delights of painting in the open air. Felix blinked at her sagely. " Behold, then, the beginning of the end ! " he cackled. "The end of what? " she asked, with some kindling of suspicion, since her queer little friend's tricks of conversation were not new to her. " Of your career as an artist. Barbizon is fatal to true emotion. It induces a fine sense of the beauty of sunsets, of diffused light in sylvan solitudes, of blues that are greens and browns that are reds. In a word, the study of nature inclines one toward truth, whereas art is essentially a gracious lie. That is why the Greeks were the greatest artists: because they were most pleasing liars. They understood the crassness of humanity. Long before Browning wrote Fra Lippo Lippi they realized that "We're made so that we love First when we see them painted, things we have passed Perhaps a hundred times, nor cared to see; And so they are better painted better to us, Which is the same thing." Joan laughed, and the cheery sound of her mirth seemed to startle the staid folk in the car. At a neighboring table a middle aged couple were 115 A Son of the Immortals dining, the woman dignified and matronly, the man small, slight, with a curiously bloated aspect which, on analysis, seemed to arise from puffy cheeks and thick, sensual lips. He said something that caused his companion to turn and look at Joan ; for the woman is yet unborn who will hear another woman described as pretty and not want to decide for herself how far the statement is justified. So the eyes of the two met, and Joan saw a worn, kindly face, endowed with a quiet charm of expression and delicacy of contour that offered a marked con- trast to the man's unprepossessing features. Both women were too well bred to stare, and Joan in- stantly brought her wits to bear on Poluski's quip; but that fleeting glimpse had thrilled her with subtle recognition of something grasped yet elusive, of a knowledge that trembled on the lip of discovery, like a half remembered word murmuring in the brain but unable to make itself heard. " Do you ever say what you really mean, Felix? " she asked. " Far too often, my belle. That is why I am only a copyist. " I am a painter who cannot paint; In my life, a devil rather than saint. Believe me, we artists err ridiculously when we de- part from the Greek standard. Your Whistler never achieved fame until he stopped reproducing bits of nature and devoted his superb talent to caricature." 116 Joan Goes into Society " Caricature ! Whistler ! " she repeated. "Name of a good little gray man! what else? Not portraits, surely? Wise that he was, he left those to the snapshot photographer; for even the camera can be given the artistic kink by the toucher- up. Have you forgotten, then, the rage of a stolid Englishman when he saw his wife as Whistler painted her? Oh, yes, art lies outrageously and lives long, like other fables." " But Whistler might have been bluntly accurate, a thing that is not always pleasing. For instance," and here her voice sank a little, " it might not be altogether gratifying to my pride if some one was to analyze mercilessly the precise reasons of my present journey." " Tiens! Let us do it. It will serve to pass the time." She laughed and blushed. " Wait a little. We have many hours before us." " You will never have a more appreciative audi- ence, if only you could make your voice heard above this din." " What are you driving at? Please tell me." " You have seen the two people sitting over there ? " and he twisted eyebrows and mouth awry, with a whimsical leer of caution. "Yes; what of them?" " Do you know them? " " No." "Not even the lady?" 117 A Son of the Immortals " She reminds me of some one why do you ask? " " I am surprised at you, Joan. Those charming eyes of yours should be keener. True, there is noth- ing feminine about Alec, and he has not suffered, like his mother. Still, there is a resemblance." " Felix, are you in earnest ? " " Absolutely. I, at least, have not the Greek temperament. Our friends across the gangway are none other than Prince and Princess Michael Del- grado. You will discover no prophecy of Alec in his father; but he is his mother's own son, despite her weak chin and air of resignation." Joan was dismayed, utterly astonished ; the color ebbed from her cheeks. " Are they going to Del- gratz ? " she almost whispered. " I suppose so. It is one of the oddest things about our lives how they run in grooves. Just now all the tiny furrows of our separate existences are converging on the Danube. We are like ships fore- doomed to collision, that hurry remorselessly from the ends of the earth to the preordained crash." " Oh, Felix, if you knew of this why did you bring me here? " " Who am I to resist when the gods beckon ? I love you, Joan, and I hate Kings ; but it is decreed that you shall be a Queen, so I fold my arms and bow my head like the meekest of mortals." " I shall quit the train at the next stopping place." " But why? If Alec and you are to wed, it is 118 'Joan Goes into Society only fit and proper that his parents should grace the ceremony.'* " You harp on marriage when there may be no marriage. If Alec was not a King, it might be different ; but the world will scoff when it hears that his chosen bride came to him from lodgings in the Place de la Sorbonne. What will Princess Belgrade think, now that she has seen me here, rushing off to Delgratz the instant I was summoned? Felix, I must return to Paris. Happily, I have some two thousand francs due within a week, and I can then refund the cost of our tickets, and perhaps the rail- way people will allow something for the incompleted journey." " Calm yourself, ma petite! You count like the proprietress of my favorite cafe ! And to what pur- pose? It would be a pity to act in that foolish way. There is no compulsion on you to marry Alec, and the Byzantine Saint Peter still hangs in the cathedral. Let any one so much as hint that you are throwing yourself at Alec's head, and I shall have the hinter dynamited. No, no, my Joan, we may yield to higher powers; but we do not abandon our pilgrimage because it is shared by an old scamp of a father whose sole anxiety is to fleece his son. Come, now, finish your dinner in peace, and let me explain to you why it is that Alexis III. and not Michael V. reigns in Delgratz. You don't glean many facts about monarchs from newspapers. If I brought you to a certain wineshop in the Rue Taitbout any even- 119 A Son of the Immortals ing after dinner you would hear more truth about royalty in half an hour than you will read in half a year." Joan, conscious of a telltale pallor, was leaning forward with an elbow on the table and shielding her face with widespread fingers propped against cheek and forehead. In the noise and flurry of the train it was easy to tune the voice to such a note that it must be inaudible to those at the adjacent tables; but Poluski seemed to be careless whether or not he was overheard, and the girl fancied that Prin- cess Delgrado had caught the words " Alexis," " Michael," " Delgratz." Certainly the Princess turned again and looked at her, while she did not fail to glance swiftly at the misshapen figure visible only in profile. " Not so loud, Felix," murmured Joan. " Come to my compartment when you have smoked a cig- arette. By that time I shall have recovered my wits, and I may be able to decide what to do for the best." " Wrong again ! " he laughed. " Obey your heart, not your brain, mignonne." ( He bent nearer, and his extraordinarily bright gray eyes peered up into hers.) " That is how Alec won his throne. He is all heart. Those who paved the way for him were all brain. They plotted, and contrived, and spun their web with the murderous zeal of a spider; but, poof! in buzzes bluebottle Alec, and where are the schemers ? Ah, my angel, if you knew everything you would be 120 Joan Goes into Society cheery as I and marry your King with a light con- science." The two persons who were the unwitting cause of Joan's sudden misgivings rose and quitted the dining car. No one seemed to be aware of their identity. Even the brown-liveried attendants did not give them any more attention than was bestowed on the other passengers, and the girl realized that the parents of a King, even such a newly fledged King as Alec, did not usually travel with this pronounced lack of state. " Are you quite sure they are the Prince and Princess ? " she asked, scanning Poluski's wrinkled face to learn if he had not been playing some sorry jest. " Quite sure," said he. " But " " You wonder why they condescend to mix with the common horde? Learn then, my Joan, that a French booking clerk is a skeptic who can be con- vinced only by the sight of money. Consider the number of brokendown royalties in Paris, and picture, if you can, the scowl of disbelief that would cloud the official features of the Gare de 1'Est if Prince Michael asked for a special train to Delgratz ; booked it on the nod, so to speak. It could not be done, Joan, not if one substituted ' Archangel ' for ' Prince.' As it is, the senior Delgrado has probably touched a friend for the money to buy the tickets." " Yet their names would be recognized." 121 A Son of the Immortals Felix called an attendant. " The lady and gentle- man who sat at the opposite table were the Count and Countess Polina ? " "I cannot say, monsieur. Shall I inquire?" " No need, thank you. To be precise, since you demand it," went on Poluski when the man had gone, " I asked who they were the moment we left Paris. I saw them on the platform, and the absence of any display showed that they were traveling incognito. I doubt very much if Alec knows of their journey. Can you guess why I think that? " Joan shook her head wearily. " I am living in a land of dreams," she sighed. " I do not understand the why or wherefore of anything? " " Listen, then, and you will see that your dreamland is a prosaic place, after all. There is a man in Paris who receives letters daily from Kosnovia, and they tell of events that are not printed for the multi- tude. Last night, when I was certain we should go to Delgratz, I sought him and heard the latest news. Your Alec means to economize. He has promulgated the absurd theory that the people's taxes should be spent for the people's benefit, and he says that no King is worth more than five thousand pounds a year, while many of his contemporaries would be dear at the price. He has also set up this ridiculous maximum as a standard, and intends to reduce the official salary list to about half its present dimensions. " This fantasy has reached his father's ears, and the old gentleman is hurrying to Delgratz to check 122 Joan Goes into Society the madness ere it is too late. It is a simple bit of arithmetic: if a King, who works like a horse, is to receive only five thousand a year, what is the annual value of his father, who does nothing but lounge about the boulevards? No wonder old Michael is off hotfoot to the White City ! " Despite her perplexities, Joan had to laugh, and Felix bent nearer to clinch his argument. " You and I must stand by Alec, my dear. I too am breathing a new atmosphere. I fought against Kings because they were tyrants ; but I am ready to fight for one who is a deliverer. What do you fear, you? The world? Has the world ever done anything for you that its opinion should be con- sidered? It will fawn or snarl as it thinks best fitted to its own ends; but help or pity? Never! Its votaries in Delgratz will strive to rend Alec when they realize that their interests are threatened. We must be there, you and I, you to aid him in winning the fickle mob, and I to watch those secret burrow- ings more dangerous to thrones than open revolt. It is a sacred mission, my Joan ! They who named you were wiser than they knew. You were christened a King's helpmate, while I, Felix Poluski, am fated to be the most amazing product of modern civilization, an anarchist devoted to a monarchy. " It came on me yesterday morning in the Louvre. I saw my principles crucified for the good of human- ity. Through the eyes of the Virgin I looked into a heaven of achievement, and I care not what the 123 A Son of the Immortals means so long as good results. One honest King is worth a million revolutionaries, and God, who made Alec a King, also made him honest." Excited, exuberant, bubbling over with that very emotionalism at which he had scoffed a few minutes earlier, Felix leaned back in his chair and sang a quatrain in his singularly sweet and penetrating tenor. Instantly every head was turned and necks were craned. A waiter, serving coffee, was so electrified that he poured no small quantity into the lap of an indignant German. Joan, too wrathful for mere words, dared not rush away instantly to her com- partment, though she would have given a good deal at that moment to be safe in its kindly obscurity. And the worst thing was that she saw the coffeepot incident, and was forced to laugh till the tears came. Cries of " Bravo ! " " Again ! " mingled with the iron-clamped syllables of Teutonic protest, and she distinctly heard a well bred English voice say: " Foreign music hall artists ! I told you so, though the girl looks an American. But, by gad! can't that humpbacked johnny sing ! " " Felix, how could you? " she managed to gasp at last. " I'm sorry. I forgot we were not in Paris. But there are some here who appreciate good music. If you don't mind, I'll give them Beranger*s ' Adieu to Mary Stuart.' You remember, it goes this way " Joan fled, making play with her handkerchief. Joan Goes into Society The fast speeding train threw her from side to side of the corridor during a hurried transit; but the exquisite lines followed her clearly. Felix sang like a robin till the mood exhausted itself. Then, deaf to enthusiastic plaudits and cries for " More ! " he lit a long thin cigar and smoked furiously. Passing Joan's berth later, he knocked. "Who is it? "she asked. " I, the Humming Bee." " Leave me to-night, Felix. I must think." " Better sleep. Thinking creates wrinkles. Look on me as a horrible example." He went away, bassooning some lively melody, but grinning the while, and if his thoughts took shape they would run : " The struggle has ended ere it began, sweet maid. You are in love ; but have not yet waked up to that astonishing fact. Now, why did the good God give me a big heart and a small head and a twisted spine ? Why not have made me either a man or an imp? " Joan could not face strangers in the dining car after Poluski's strange outburst. She remained in her own cramped quarters all next day, ate some meals there as best she could, and kept Felix at arm's length so far as confidence or counsel was concerned. On the platform at Vienna, where the train was made up afresh, she encountered Princess Delgrado. To her consternation, the older woman stopped and spoke. " I am sorry I missed the delightful little concert 125 A Son of the Immortals your friend provided in the dining car last night," she said in French, and her voice had that touch of condescension with which a society leader knows how to dilute her friendliness when addressing a singer or musician. " My husband and I retired early, to our great loss, I hear. Are you traveling beyond Vienna? If so, and you give us another musical this evening " " There is some mistake," faltered Joan, uncon- sciously answering in English. " People who do not know Monsieur Poluski often take him for an operatic artiste. He is a painter. He sings only to amuse himself, and seldom waits to consider whether the time and place are well chosen." " But, gracious me ! " cried the Princess, amazed to find that Joan spoke English as to the manner born. " Some one said you were Polish. I doubted my eyes when I looked at you ; but your companion well, he might be anything." " Both he and I earn our bread by painting pic- tures," said Joan. " Indeed, we are now bound for Delgratz to carry out a commission." " Delgratz ! How extraordinary ! I too am going there. It is so disturbed at present that it is the last place in the world I should have suspected of artistic longings. May I ask who has sent for you? " Luckily, in the bustle and semiobscurity of the station, Princess Delgrado did not pay much heed to the furious blushing of the pretty girl who had aroused her interest. It was impossible to regard 126 'Joan Goes into Society one whom she now believed to be an American like herself as being in any way concerned with the in- trigues that centered in the capital of Kosnovia, and she attributed Joan's confusion to the pardonable error that arose from the talk Prince Michael brought from the smoking car. But what was Joan to answer? She could not blurt out to Alec's mother the contents of that ex- ceedingly plainspoken epistle now reposing in her pocket. For one mad instant she wondered what would happen if she said : " I am being sent to Delgratz by people who wish to drive Alec out of the kingdom, and I am really considering whether or not I ought to marry him." Then she lifted her head valiantly, with just that wood-nymph flinging back of rebellious hair that Alec was thinking of while riding to his Castle of Care after a long day in the saddle. " There is nothing unusual in my being chosen to copy a picture," she said. " Art connoisseurs care little for politics. To them a new Giotto is vastly more important than a new King, and I am told that both are to be found in Delgratz nowadays." Prince Michael strolled up. He was pleased that his wife had made the acquaintance of the charming unknown, whom he had looked for in vain during the day. " Ah," he said, with polite hat flourish, " I feared we had lost the pleasant company of which I heard " 127 A Son of the Immortals " You were misinformed," broke in his wife hastily in English. " This young lady is visiting Delgratz for art purposes. The gentleman who sang last night is the celebrated painter, Monsieur Mon- sieur " "Felix Poluski," said Joan. Prince Michael started as though a scorpion had found a crack in his patent boots. " Poluski Felix Poluski ! " he cried. " I know that name; but he was fond of using strange colors on his palette if I remember rightly." Felix, owing to his small stature, was compelled to dodge among the crowd on the platform like a child. He appeared now unexpectedly, and Michael's exclamation was not lost on him. " Excellent, Monseigneur ! " he said. " You al- ways had a turn for epigram. I am glad to find that you have not forgotten the brave days of old when you and I used to spout treason together, you because you hungered after a dynasty, and I because I preferred dynamite. Odd thing, both words mean power, strength, sovereignty; the difference lies only in the method of application. But that was in our hot youth, Michael " " Imbecile ! " hissed the Prince, his red face blanch- ing, as once before when a man spoke of the perils that hedge a throne in the Balkans. " This is Vienna. I shall be recognized ! " Felix snapped his fingers. " They don't care that for you, Monseigneur never did! You could have 128 Joan Goes into Society come and gone as you pleased any time during these thirty years. If any one is feared here, it is I. But, my veteran, why this display of wrath? You know me well enough. Didn't you see me last night?" " No that is, I did not recollect. Your face was hidden." " Ah, you had something better to look at. Well, who goes to Delgratz ? Get aboard, all ! " During this brief but illuminating conversation the Princess and Joan could do nothing else but gaze from one man to the other in mute surprise, and Joan was grieved beyond measure that Felix should treat Alec's father with such scant courtesy. Even while they were making for the steps of the sleeping cars, she managed to whisper tremulously to the Princess : " Please don't be angry with Monsieur Poluski. His brusk manner often gets him into trouble. For- give me for saying it, but your son knows him well, and is very fond of him, and I am sure Felix would do anything that lay in his power to help to help King Alexis III. " My son ! Do you also know him? " " Yes." " Have you met him in Paris ? " " Yes." " But I have never seen you at the Rue Boissiere." " No. We met at Rudin's, and sometimes in the Louvre." 129 A Son of the Immortals " And does he know that you are coming to Del- gratz?" " No. I assure you " The Princess hesitated. It was not in her kind heart to think evil of this singularly frank looking and attractive girl. " Will you tell me your name? " she said, turning with one foot on the step ; for they were about to enter separate carriages. " Joan Vernon." " I suppose it is idle to ask, but you are not married? " " No, nor likely to be for a very long time." " Aboard ! " cried a guard, marveling that women could find so much to say at the very last moment. " Well," said the Princess, " I hope to see you at dinner. If not, in Delgratz." Joan took good care that no one except her maid and an attendant saw her again that evening. She felt bruised and buffeted as though she had been carried among rocks by some irresistible current. Even her mind refused to act. The why and the wherefore of events were dim and not to be grasped. Over and over again she regretted the impulse that led her to take this journey. Felix, as friend and artistic tutor, *Tas invaluable; but in the guise of mentor for a young woman who had her own way to make in the world, and nothing more to depend on than her artistic faculties and a small income from a trust fund, he was a distinct failure. What would Alec think of it all? And what would Alec's 130 Joan Goes into Society mother say when her son told her that Joan Vernon was the woman he meant to marry? So Joan grew miserable, and developed a headache, and wept a little over perplexities that were very real though she could not define them. And Felix dined alone, and smoked in dumb reverie, and when Prince Michael, warmed with wine and cheered by the knowledge that a wearisome journey was drawing to a close, unbent so far as to ask him to sing, the little man shook his head. " You'll hear me singing in Delgratz, Mon- seigneur," he said. " I shall have something to think about then, and I sing to think, just as you live to eat. At present, there isn't a note in the box. Now, if madame can spare you, just sit down there, and you and I will talk of old times. For instance, poor Amelie Constant she died the other day " " Ah, bah ! " growled Michael. " That is not in- teresting. Old times of that sort generally mean times one would rather forget. Au 'voir, M'sieur Poluski. We shall meet across the Danube. If your principles permit, come and see me at court." " My principles carry me into strange company, Monseigneur," said Felix gravely. 131 CHAPTER VII JOAN BECOMES THE VICTIM OF CIRCUMSTANCES ON arriving at Delgratz, Joan still avoided her distinguished traveling companions. Indeed, no one paid any heed to her, since Prince Michael's vanity could not resist the temptation of making himself known, and when the word went round that the King's father was in the station, there was such a press around him and the Princess that ordinary passen- gers were of little account. Monseigneur was flattered by the excitement caused by his unexpected appearance, and he momentarily regretted the lack of display that resulted from his decision to travel incognito. It would have been so much more effective if he had been greeted by the King and a glittering staff the moment he descended from the train. It was undignified, too, to pass through the streets of the capital in a disheveled hired vehicle, when a royal carriage, surrounded by a cavalry escort, might have brought him to the palace in style. It was somewhat late in the day, however, to rectify the mistake now. He could not hang round the station while a messenger went to his 132 The Victim of Circumstances son, and if he meant to effect a surprise he had suc- ceeded admirably. Leaving a valet and maid to bring the luggage, which an obsequious customs officer cleared at once, he ushered his wife into a ramshackle victoria and told the man to drive to the Schwarzburg. Every Serb is a born gossip; but a policeman had whispered the names of the eminent pair, and awe kept the driver's tongue from wagging, else Prince Michael would have received a greater shock than the welcoming bump of a singularly bad pavement. Luckily the Black Castle lay no great distance from the railway, since Delgratz was but a small place when the palace was built, and the town had long ago closed around it on every hand. During the short drive Michael tried to be cheery, though he had slept little during two nights. " These old streets have really changed very little," he said. " When I was a boy I remember thinking how mag- nificent they were. What an eye opener it must have been for Alec when he realized that he had given up Paris for this ! " and he waved a deprecating hand toward the unkempt houses, yellow washed and dingy ; for the White City, though white when seen from a distance, turns out to be an unhealthy looking saffron at close quarters. The Princess cared nothing for the squalor of the town. She was thinking of her son. " I wish we had told Alec we were coming, Michael," she said. " Now that we are here, the 133 A Son of the Immortals reasons you urged for secrecy seem to be less con- vincing than ever." " Alec would have telegraphed his prompt advice to remain where we were." " Perhaps " " Perhaps you will allow me to decide what is best to be done, Marie. Our affairs had reached a crisis. So long as there was a chance of my becoming King I was able to finance myself. Now that Alec is firmly established, and filling empty heads with all this non- sense as to retrenchment and economical administra- tion, every creditor I had in the world is pestering me. You cannot realize the annoyance to which I have been subjected during the last fortnight. Life was becoming intolerable, just because Alec was talk- ing galimatias to a number of irresponsible journal- ists." " Why not write and tell him our troubles ? He would have helped us, I am sure. And that which you call rubbish seems to have caught the ear of all Europe. Even ' The Journal des Debats ' pub- lished a most eulogistic article about him last week." "Poof!" snorted Monseigneur. "Those Paris rags pander to republicanism. Every word, every act, of an impetuous youngster like Alec is twisted into an argument against the older monarchies. Give an eye to the mean looking building on the right. That is the Chamber of Deputies. Alec made the speech there that won him a throne. Who The Victim of Circumstances would have believed it? Just a few words, and he became King ! " Something in Prince Michael's tone caused his wife to look at him sharply. " You are not growing en- vious, Michael? " she asked. "No; but I was a fool." "Because I shall keep you to our compact,- she said, with a firmness of manner that surprised the pompous little man by her side. He had been an- swered in that way so seldom during their married life that the novelty was displeasing. " Ah, bah! what are you saying? " he cried. He stifled the next words on his lips ; for the horse passed under an arch, and not even the studied repose of a princely boulevardier could conceal his new amaze- ment. An industrial army was busy in and around the famous residence of the Kings of Kosnovia. They were tearing it to pieces. The roof was off, one wing was wholly dismantled, and the beautiful gardens were strewn with debris. " In the name of Providence, what is going on ? " demanded Monseigneur of the driver. " It is the King's order, your Highness," said the man, glorying in the fact that the muzzle was off by request. " The castle is to be demolished, and a new National Assembly built on the site." " Our ancient house pulled down and made a sty for those hogs ! The King must be mad ! " " We esteem him highly in Delgratz," said the 135 A Son of the Immortals man stoutly. " He thinks more of the people than of palaces, and they say that he means to convert some of the gold lace into white bread." The bewildered and infuriated Michael now re- membered that the few officers encountered in the railway station or the streets seemed to be far less gaudily attired than in former years. In a passing thought he attributed the alteration to the wearing of undress uniform during the early hours ; but the cab driver's words seemed to hint at some fresh wave of reform. His bulging eyes continued to glare at the ruined palace; but native caution warned him against being too outspoken in the presence of one of the lower order. " When was this work begun ? " lie asked. " Three days ago, your Highness. The King de- cided that the banqueting hall should be destroyed as quickly as possible. He says it taints the air. As for the Assembly, it must wait. Money is not so plentiful." " What is it, Michael? " cried the Princess, aware that something unforeseen had happened; but un- able to grasp its significance, owing to her ignorance of the language. Monseigneur, who had stood up in the carriage, subsided again. He raised both hands in a gesture of bewilderment. " Alexis III. has signalized the first month of his reign by destroying the historic home of our race that is all, madame!" he mut- tered bitterly. 136 The Victim of Circumstances " But why are we remaining here ? Where does Alec live? He must inhabit a house of some sort. Tell the man to drive there at once ! " The Prince affected not to hear. " What could Stampoff be thinking of to permit this outrage?" he murmured. " Why was not I consulted? Idiot that I am, and coward too! I see now the mistake I made. Can it be rectified? Is it too late? " A second carriage, laden with luggage, drove in through the gateway. The valet and a French maid gazed in discreet wonder at their master and mistress seated disconsolately in front of a tumbledown build- ing. " Michael, I insist that you give the driver direc- tions ! " cried his wife vehemently., " We cannot remain here. The least shred of commonsense should warn you that we are making ourselves ridicu- lous." " Ah, yes, one must act," agreed the Prince. He glanced up at the enthusiastic supporter of the new regime. " We have traveled here from Paris, and his Majesty's recent letters have missed us," he said, with a perceptible return of the grand air that had served him in good stead for many years. " Take us to his Majesty's present residence. The error is mine. I should have told you that in the first in- stance." " The King is living in the President's house, Ex- cellency. It is not far; but you will not find his 137 A Son of the Immortals Majesty there this morning 1 . At four o'clock he rode to Grotzka with the mad Englishman " " Ha ! and who may that be ? " " An English milord, who laughs always, even when his Majesty and he are trying to break their necks at a game they play on horseback, hitting a white ball with long sticks. I have seen them. They make the young officers play it, and there are three in hospital already. This is hot weather for such an infernal amusement ! " Prince Michael nodded. Like every other person watching affairs on the Danube, he had read of Lord Adalbert Beaumanoir's adventure with the Austrian authorities, indeed, Europe had almost expected a declaration of war over the incident, but he did not know that Beaumanoir was still an inhabitant of Delgratz. " To Monsieur Nesimir's ! " he said sullenly, and left it to the Princess to give instructions to the servants to follow, though the poor woman did not yet know whither she was being taken. She was very angry with her husband, and she blamed herself for not having telegraphed to her son before leaving Paris. But she had yielded to Michael Delgrado dur- ing so many years that it was difficult to abandon the habit now; yet she promised herself a full ex- planation with Alec when they met, and that must be soon, since here she was in Delgratz, where, judg- ing by the newspapers, the King was in evidence every hour of the day. 138 The Victim of Circumstances The President's house was distant only a stone's throw, and, though obviously mystified, stout Nes- imir met his unexpected guests cordially. He was disconsolate because of the King's probable absence till late in the afternoon. " What a pity his Majesty chose to-day for a visit to the artillery camp ! " he cried. " But I shall send a courier; he can return by noon. How is it nothing was said as to your Highnesses* visit. I dined with the King last night " " We wished to surprise his Majesty," explained Prince Michael. " You know how outspoken he is, and how easily these things get into the newspaper; so we started from Paris without a word to a soul. Send no courier after him, I beg. A rest of a few hours will be most acceptable to the Princess and myself. Madame is fatigued after a long journey, while I would ask nothing better than an armchair, a cup of coffee, a cigarette, and a chat ; that is, if you can spare the time, Monsieur le President." Nesimir would be charmed to comply with Mon- seigneur's desires in every respect. Really, the elder Delgrado seemed to be even more approachable than his son ; for the President was unable to fathom many of the social views propounded by Alexis III. This unheralded advent of the King's parents, too, be- tokened some secret move. He was sure of that, and, being a man to whom political intrigue was the breath of life, he saw that a gossip with Prince Michael might convey information of much possible* value in 139 A Son of the Immortals the near future. So the Princess Belgrade was ushered to a room by Madame Nesimir with all possi- ble ceremony, and the two men established themselves on a cool veranda. By this time, Joan and Felix were seated at break- fast in the hotel. Joan had wisely left the bargain- ing with the landlord to her companion, and he, knowing something of Serbian ways, which reck little of politeness when curiosity can be sated, chose a sitting room on the first floor with three bedrooms adjoining. The sitting room was a huge place, big enough to serve as a studio if necessary. Three large windows commanded a view of the main street, and the solid oak door opened into the corridor behind, which also gave access to the bedrooms. Poluski's only motive in selecting this particular suite was to secure the maximum of privacy. Joan's appearance was far too striking that she should be subjected to the scrutiny of every lounger in the restaurant beneath. In this primitive community she would probably receive several offers of marriage the first time she sat at table in the public dining room. It was he, too, who advised her never to go out unless she was deeply veiled. Joan laughed at the reason but followed his counsel. During their first stroll in the open air she said she felt like a Moham- medan woman; yet she soon realized that a double motor veil not only shielded her from impertinent eyes but kept her face free from dust and insects. Naturally, they made straight for the cathedral 140 The Victim of Circumstances and examined the quaint picture that had provided an excuse for their visit to the Near East. They were much impressed. They gazed at its brilliant coloring and stiff pose for fully a minute. Then Joan broke a silence that was becoming irksome. " If it is really a Giotto," she whispered, " it was painted before he broke away from the Byzantine tradition." " Yes," murmured Poluski, " here we have both Giotto and Saint Peter at their worst." " Felix, how can I copy that ? " " Impossible, my belle. You must improvise, using it as a theme. When all is said and done, you know far more than Giotto about Saint Peter. Holy blue ! if you bring that back to Paris as a veritable likeness of the Chief Apostle you will be placed on the Index Expurgatorius. Moreover, it would not be fair to him, after all these years." " It needed only this to prove how farcical is the whole scheme. I am beginning to dread the idea of meeting Alec. He will laugh at me." " That will do him good. I am told he is becoming most serious." " Told by whom ? Surely you have not sent any message? " " Not a word. I leave that to you or Princess Delgrado." " How snappy you are ! It was not my fault that the Princess spoke to me. She would never have known I was on the train if you hadn't sung." 141 A Son of the Immortals " Ah, by the way, we ought to hear some decent Gregorian music in this old place. See, where they have put the choir, nearly under the dome. Yes, we must attend a service. The bass should roll like thunder up yonder " " Felix, who told you about Alec ? " " A waiter in the hotel, a waiter rejoicing in the noble name of John Sobieski, a Pole, therefore, like myself. I said to him ' What of the King? ' He answered, ' Everything that is good, if one listens to the people ; but the officers who come here to drink and play cards do not like him.' I explained that I wished to know the King's whereabouts, and he said that if I was anxious to see the gracious youth I should have a splendid opportunity at four o'clock this afternoon, as his Majesty will pass the hotel at that hour on his way to the University, where he has promised to attend a prize giving." " At four o'clock ! What shall we do meanwhile ? " asked Joan innocently. Felix winked brazenly at the picture. " Delgratz is a picturesque city," he said. " Let us inspect it." " You do not think Alec will learn of our presence and visit us before going to the University ? " *' Very improbable. He is out in the country, watching artillery at field exercise. Of course, he knows nothing about artillery; but Kings have to pretend a good deal. Now, if I were a young lady who had been traveling for a day and two nights, especially if I had slept badly during the second 142 The Victim of Circumstances night, I should stroll about the principal streets till I was tired, eat a light luncheon, sleep for an hour afterward, dress myself in some muslin confec- tion, and be ready to dine with the King at seven- thirty or thereabouts." " I shall do nothing of the kind ! " cried Joan, blushing behind her motor veil. " Very well. Behold in me your slave of the lamp. What shall we do?" " I don't object to looking at the shops and the people for a little while," she admitted, and this time Felix did not wink at the picture, but contented him- self with an expressive raising of his bushy eyebrows. The program he mapped out was adhered to faith- fully. Joan was really tired, and the midday heat of Delgratz was not only novel but highly disagree- able. She retired to her room at one o'clock, and Felix heard her telling her maid to call her at three. The elderly Frenchwoman whom Joan employed as a compendium of all the domestic virtues was scandalized by the pestering she had already under- gone at the hands of the hotel employees. They wanted to know everything about her mistress as soon as they were told that she was not Poluski's wife, and the staid Pauline was at her wit's end to parry the questions showered on her in bad French. Felix advised her not to understand when spoken to, and relieved her manifest distress by the state- ment that the hotel would see the last of them in a day or two. 143 A Son of the Immortals Then, anxious himself to be rid of Pauline, he strolled out into Fiirst Michaelstrasse, entered the hotel's public restaurant by another door, and sat there, musing and alone. Thus far, Joan and he had passed through the simple vicissitudes that might beset any other strangers in the capital of Kosnovia. Though the little man expected developments when Alec heard of Joan's presence, he certainly did not look for squalls forthwith; yet he had not been smoking and humming and sipping a cup of excellent coffee more than a minute before he became aware that the sunlit street was curiously alive. The hottest hours of a hot day might well have driven the citizens of Delgratz indoors ; but some powerful inducement was drawing loiterers to Fiirst Michaelstrasse. It was evident that the attraction, whatsoever it might be, was not supplied by the thoroughfare itself. Men lounged along the pave- ments or gathered in groups, and Poluski noted that few women were present. Soon a regiment of soldiers marched up, formed into two ranks, and lined the street on both sides. Felix betook himself to the door, where his com- patriot was dusting marble topped tables with an apron that, under other conditions, would have soiled them. " Does the King arrive earlier than four o'clock? " he asked. John Sobieski looked around furtively before he 144 The Victim of Circumstances answered. " No," said he in a low tone, " the crowd is gathering to see the regicides. Their trial ended to-day, and they are being taken to the Old Fort to await sentence." "Found guilty?" " I should think so, indeed, monsieur ! They gloried in their crime. They claim that they cleared the way for Alexis III. by removing Ferdinand. Some people say the King cannot really be severe on them, though it was he who brought them to justice." " Have they many sympathizers ? " The waiter, a pallid creature, flicked a table loudly to cover his reply. " Some of our customers talk big; but it is a strange thing that the authorities allow the men of the disbanded Seventh Regiment to remain in Delgratz. There are hundreds of them in the street at this moment." " It reminds one of Warsaw." A sudden moisture glistened in John Sobieski's eyes. " Ah, Warsaw ! " he muttered. " Shall I ever see my beautiful city again ? But it is different here, monsieur. Even though they quarrel among them- selves, they have at least got rid of their conquerors." A quickening of interest on the part of the mob, a general craning of necks, and a sharp command to the soldiers showed that the criminals were en route from the law courts. A squad of cavalry trotted into sight, followed by eight closed carriages. An armed policeman sat near every driver, and an- other stood on the step outside each door. Mounted 145 A Son of the Immortals soldiers in single file surrounded the dismal proces- sion, and a second strong detachment guarded the rear. It was a doleful spectacle, and Felix was puzzled by the absence of anything in the nature of a popular demonstration. He had been led to believe that Del- gratz abhorred these murders committed in the name of progress, and he naturally expected an emotional people to betray their feelings. He listened in vain for a yell of execration. A queer murmur ran through the crowd, that was all, a murmur that was ominous, almost sinister. He scanned the faces of the crowd, trying to pierce their stolid aspect. Some of the bystanders obviously belonged to the mutinous regiment ; but he looked in vain for any sign of anger or regret. Skilled conspirator that he was, Poluski seemed rather to discern a deep laid purpose behind their unnatural phlegm, yet his suspicions died away when the street began to empty as soon as the prisoners' vehicles and the escort had clattered past. The foot regiment marched off, and within ten minutes Felix was back in his nook, smoking and coffee drinking, and thanking the chance that left Joan unconscious of this grim episode, since her bedroom windows looked out on the garden in rear of the hotel. He sat there quietly, sternly repressing his musical instincts when he caught himself humming some fa- vorite melody; nor would he have budged until Alec appeared had not his keen eyes noted another curious 146 The Victim of Circumstances movement in the street. About half-past three several men strolled past the cafe, men whom he distinctly remembered having seen in the earlier crowd. In twos and threes they came, and he fancied that the complete disregard each set paid the others was rather overdone. At any rate, he ordered a fresh supply of coffee and sought enlightenment from Sobieski. " Just peep at some of those fellows in the street and tell me if they are not soldiers of the Seventh Regiment," he said. The waiter obeyed. He determined the point quickly. " I recognize a few, monsieur," he mut- tered, " and I believe there are scores of them. I wish they would patronize some other street. Our patrons will not care to mix with such rascals." Poluski rose wearily ; for his energetic soul was housed in a frail body, and the long journey from Paris had exhausted him. " I have read in the newspapers that King Alexis dispenses with a bodyguard? " he said, lighting a fresh cigar. " He hates ceremony, that young man," was the ready answer. " At first the people mobbed him. Now he rides through Delgratz like a courier, some- times alone, at others with a friend or two, and perhaps an orderly." Felix laughed. " He is a fine fellow," said he. " Do the King a good turn, John, and you will be able to buy a cafe in Warsaw one of these days." 147 A Son of the Immortals " Me, monsieur ! How can a poor waiter hope to serve a King? " " Que diable! You never know your luck. Life is a lottery, and some day you may draw the great prize." Felix sauntered into the street and took a keen interest in its architecture. In front of the hotel and down a slight gradient to the right it was a wide and straight thoroughfare ; but to the left and uphill it narrowed rapidly and took a sharp left turn. In the angle stood a popular restaurant, and the rooms on the first and second stories were full of customers. No one, apparently, was looking out ; but small parties of men sat near each open window, and they were not playing cards or dominoes, though the greater part of the male inhabitants of Delgratz seem to do little else when not eating or sleeping. Moreover, an empty bullock cart was halted in front of the ground floor entrance. " There's thunder in the air," said Poluski to him- self ; but he continued to admire the irregular out- lines of Fiirst Michaelstrasse. Thus, he could not fail to notice that the upper rooms of three cafes exactly similar to that at the corner were untenanted, while there was a disposition on the part of the late Seventh Regiment to group itself either at the turn- ing or a good deal lower down the street, perhaps a hundred yards beyond the hotel. " Yes," said he, eying the glittering expanse of unclouded blue overhead, " a storm is certainly brew- 148 The Victim of Circumstances ing. I can feel it in my bones. It reminds me of the afternoon we removed the Governor of Silesia. He was fused by a thunderbolt, from just such a summer sky. Obviously, what he lacked was a light- ning conductor. Now, the question is, even if he had owned one, whereabouts would he have put it?" The reply was given by the appearance of two men on horseback advancing at a fast trot up the easy slope of the hill. They were notable because they wore the ordinary costume adopted by riders in the Bois or the Row, and in Delgratz, where rank was marked by uniform, this fact conferred distinc- tion. A few yards behind them cantered a couple of soldiers. " You are ten minutes before time, my dear Alec," murmured Felix. " Joan will never forgive me if she is still asleep ; but what is one to do? Saperlotte! One must act." A hasty glance over his shoulder showed that the gentry in the corner cafe were stirred by some common impulse that led them to the windows, while the bullock cart was now drawn awkwardly across the narrow way. As the horsemen came near, the loungers in the . lower part of the street displayed a singularly unanimous desire to close in and follow them. There were hundreds of townspeople gathered on the pavements, and not a few vehicles occupied the roadway ; so these concerted movements were not discernible to any one who was not a past master 149 A Son of the Immortals in the revolutionary art like Poluski, and to him only because his suspicions were already active. The King and Beaumanoir were coming on at such a pace that Felix, owing to his low stature, would be quite invisible to them if he stood among the crowd now hovering on the curb ; so he pushed boldly out into the middle of the street, took off his hat with a flourish, and sang lustily: " O, Alec ! O, mon roll " * The thunderbolt that removed the Governor of Silesia, had it struck the paving stones in front of the King's horse, could hardly have startled Alec more than the sight of Felix, standing there, bare headed and grinning, and chanting an improvised version of a famous song at the top of his voice. "You, Felix!" he cried. "You here?" " It is far more to the point that Joan is there," said Poluski, with expressive pantomime. "In the hotel?" " Yes, up the stairs, first door on the right, across the landing. You have a few minutes to spare. Go quickly ! " Alec required no second bidding. Leaping from the saddle, he threw the reins to one of the orderlies. " Give me a few seconds, Berty," he cried to Beau- manoir, and before the onlookers could grasp the motive of this sudden halt, he had vanished through the doorway. " You come, too ; you are wanted," said Felix, addressing Beaumanoir in English. 150 The Victim of Circumstances " Sure ? " asked his Lordship, gazing at the quaint figure with some degree of astonishment. " Yes, it is a matter of life or death. Come ! " Beaumanoir dismounted leisurely. " Who's going to die?" he demanded, drawing the reins over his charger's head ere he handed them to the second soldier. Felix quivered, yet he realized that the English- man's cool demeanor was wholly in accord with the plan outlined in his own alert brain. " Everybody of any consequence in this bally menagerie if you don't hurry up," said Felix. The use of British slang at that crisis was a touch of real genius. It appealed to Beaumanoir. " Gad! it's a treat to hear you talk," he grinned; but he thrust through the gapers in his turn. Felix rushed into the restaurant and clutched Sobieski. " Here's your chance ! " he growled in Polish. " The King's life is in danger. Run to the President and tell him to despatch a strong body of troops on whom he can rely. If he refuses to listen, say that Felix Poluski sent you, and bid him ask Prince Michael what that signifies. Remember the names Poluski, Michael now run! Delay, and your throat will be cut ! " John Sobieski was trained to obey. He made off without a word. Felix entered the hotel by a side door. He darted up the stairs, breathless and almost spent. He was in time to see Beaumanoir open the door of the sitting room and close it again hastily. 151 A Son of the Immortals " Oh, dash it all ! " began his Lordship ; for Alec, not to be denied, had just clasped Joan in his arras. " In, in ! Not a second to lose ! Barricade the door ! " gasped Felix. " But, man alive, where is the fire ? " " In, I tell you ! Sacre nom! Act first and talk afterward ! " Felix himself flung wide the door, and Alec, at this second interruption, was compelled to free the scarlet faced Joan from his eager embrace. " Too bad ! " he laughed. " You promised me a minute, Felix ! " Beaumanoir came in, diffident for once in his life, since none knew so well as he how dear to his friend was the blushing and embarrassed girl whom he now met for the first time. " Sorry, old chap," he said ; " but this other johnny will have it that somebody is thirsting for your gore." Poluski, all trembling with excitement, slammed and locked the door and pointed to a heavy side- board. "Drag it here!" he shrieked in a high fal- setto. " The street is crammed with men belonging to the Seventh Regiment, and they have a short way with Kings they don't like. The instant they see how they have been tricked they will be after you like a pack of wolves. I have sent a messenger for help. I dared not use one of your orderlies, because that would have given the game away. While the men sit their horses out there the mutineers may 152 Beaumanoir and Felix fortified the position Pare 153 The Victim of Circumstances believe you will soon reappear. Nevertheless, block the doorway with all the furniture. We must gain ten minutes at least, or it may be twenty." Joan was the first to credit him. She ran to the window. " Oh, Alec, it is true ! " she cried. " I was watching the crowd before you came, and it looks quite different now. Hundreds of men have gath- ered, and they are armed with knives and pistols. Something has made them angry, and the two sol- diers are becoming alarmed. Oh, my dear, my dear ! misfortune and I have come to you hand in hand ! " " It seems to me that you and Felix have saved my life," said Alec quietly. " Now, Beaumanoir, you and I must fortify the position. Joan, stand with your back to the wall between the windows. Felix, watch the houses opposite, and don't let the enemy take us in flank without warning. Thank goodness for an oak sideboard and a heavy table! Are you ready, Berty ? Heave away, then ! We shall occupy a box in the front row when Stampoff arrives with his hussars ! By Jove ! what a day ! Twelve hours in that scorching sun and Joan wait- ing here all the time! Well, wonders will never cease ! I wish we had one of those live shells we were experimenting with this morning. It would come in handy when the first panel gives way." 153 CHAPTER VIII SHOWING HOW THE KING KEPT HIS APPOINTMENT JOAN'S eyes could not leave Alec. She followed each movement of his lithe, strongly knit frame as he and Beaumanoir hauled the heavy pieces of furni- ture into position behind the door. She was not fully alive as yet to the real menace of the gesticulat- ing mob surging in the street beneath, and her thoughts ran riot in the newly discovered paradise of being loved and in love. For Alec had asked no questions, listened to no explanations. When he entered the room, he found her, half turned from the window, conscious that he was near, though trying to persuade her throbbing heart that Felix would not depart from an implied promise by sending him to her without warning. She strove to utter some words of greeting. Before she could speak, Alec's arms were around her, and he was kissing her lips, her forehead, her hair. She saw him as through a mist. Her first fleeting im- pression was that he had become older, sterner, more commanding. Kingship had set its seal on him. A short month of power had stamped lines on his face that would never vanish. But that sense of 154 The King Keeps His Appointment imperiousness was quickly dispelled by the enchant- ment of her presence. Somehow, almost without spoken word, he brought the thrilling conviction that he was hungering for her. The light in his eyes, the overwhelming ardor of his embrace, the magnetic force that leaped the intervening space while yet they were separated by half the length of the room, these things bewildered, charmed, subdued her wholly, and she kindled under them ere her brain could summon to aid the feeblest of remonstrances. She abandoned the nebulous idea of protest when she found that she in turn was clinging to him, giv- ing kiss for kiss with a delirious intensity that re- fused to be denied. Nevertheless, the sheer joy of her emotions frightened her, and she was endeavor- ing to subdue its too sensuous expression when Beau- manoir opened the door, to close it again hurriedly. She recovered her faculties slowly. She was still quivering under the stress of that moment of in- effable delight, and her brown eyes sparkled with the glow of a soul on fire, and she was brought back to earth only by the knowledge that Felix, standing at his post near a window, was on the verge of collapse. The sideboard contained a flask of brandy, which Pauline had insisted on stowing in a dressing bag in case of illness. Joan, glad of the pretext to do some commonplace thing, thankful for the mere utterance of commonplace words, called for help. " Please remove the table for an instant," she 155 A Son of the Immortals cried. " Felix is ill, and I want to get at some cognac that is in the cellarette." " 111 ! He was lively enough in the street a min- ute ago, singing like a thrush," said Alec cheerily, though he did not fail to pull the table clear of the cupboard. " What is it, my Humming Bee? " he demanded, turning to Poluski. " Is it a surfeit of excitement, or late hours, or what? " " I am yielding to the unusual, my King," crackled the Pole's voice thinly. " During three whole days I have done naught but think, and that would in- commode an elephant, leave alone a rat like me." - " Rat, indeed ! When we are all out of this trap, Felix, you must tell me what caused your alarming exercise of brain power. Already you have bothered me to guess how you fathomed the pretty scheme you are now upsetting." '* There, dear Felix, drink that, and you will soon feel strong again," put in Joan. " Ha, dear Felix, am I? I expected to be called anything but that after breaking my word so dis- gracefully ! " "You are forgiven," said she with a tender smile at Alec. Beaumanoir, discreetly peeping through the win- dow over Poluski's shoulder, saw something that per- plexed him. " I say, Alec," he exclaimed, " I thought you told me that Stampoff's man Bosko was a thoroughly re- liable sort of chap." 156 The King Keeps His Appointment " I have always found him so." " Well, just at present he looks jolly like a de- serter. He is making a speech to the mob and tear- ing off his uniform obligate. The other joker is scared to death." " Bosko making a speech ! Why, he never says anything but * Oui, monsieur,' or * Non, monsieur* which is all the French he knows. Well, this is a day of wonders, anyhow." Neglecting the precautions he had insisted on a minute earlier, Alec himself went to the window and drew Joan with him. There were two other windows in the room; but the four clustered in the one deep recess, for the thick walls of this old building were meant to defy extremes of heat and cold. By this time one of the two orderlies had dismounted and was stamping on his smart cavalry jacket and plumed shako, thus announcing by eloquent pantomime, that he was discarding forever the livery of a tyrant. The mob in the street was now swollen to unrecog- nizable dimensions, and Alec's charger, which Bosko was holding, resented the uproar by lashing out viciously with his heels. A man who had narrowly escaped being kicked drew a revolver, fired, and the spirited Arab fell with a bullet in its brain. The dastardly act was cheered ; for the Seventh Regiment remembered that this same white horse had stumbled and thrown King Theodore on the day of his murder. " Oh, the coward, the hateful coward ! " wailed 157 A Son of the Immortals Joan, and two of the men muttered expressions of opinion that must be passed over in silence. But Felix happened to be watching Bosko, and noted the black rage that convulsed his face when the Arab dropped dead at his feet. The Al- banian's feelings mastered him only for an instant. He began at once to harangue the crowd again, evi- dently offering to lead his own horse out of harm's way, and loudly bidding his frightened comrade to do likewise. A path was being cleared when some one looked up at the window, and a fierce yell proclaimed the King's presence. Bosko was forgotten. Sight of their quarry had frenzied the pack. " Down everyone ! " cried Alec, bending double and dragging Joan with him. Several panes of glass were starred with little round holes, mortar fell from the ceiling, and the crackle of shots below showed that revolvers were popular in Delgratz. But Felix had seen enough to set his shrewd wits working. " That man of yours is Bosko his name? is no fool," said he, when they had crept from the glass strewn area into the shelter of the stout wall. " He is gulling your beloved subjects, Alec. He realizes that trouble is brewing, and he means to steal off and bring help. Fortunately, my brave Sobieski will be at the President's house by this time, and your guards may arrive before those cutthroats in the street de- cide to storm the hotel." 158 The King Keeps His Appointment " Sobieski who is he? " asked Alec. " A waiter in the restaurant. I have pledged you to buy him a cafe in Warsaw if the troops come speedily." " Make it a brewery, Alec," said Beaumanoir ; " these bounders mean business." A constant fusillade of bullets was now tearing the windows to atoms, and shattering the ceiling on the other side of the room. Lord Adalbert was justi- fied in offering liberal terms for relief. The King, standing with one arm thrown round Joan's shoulders, felt the tremors she strove vainly to repress. "Don't be afraid, sweetheart. They cannot reach us here," he said. " I have one un- known protector, it seems, and I feel sure that Felix is right about Bosko. The only drawback is that our friendly waiter may find some difficulty in per- suading the officers on duty at Monsieur Nesimir's house that we are in danger. We must risk that." " Oh, to safeguard against delay, I told him to ask for the Prince," said Felix. " What Prince? " " Your father, of course. Ha ! Name of a good little gray man ! You don't know that Prince Michael and your mother are in Delgratz." " Mark cock ! " cried Beaumanoir, as a bullet flew breast high across the room and imbedded itself in the inner wall. The heroes of the Seventh Regiment were firing from the upper floors of the houses opposite. 159 Alec did not seem to heed. The look of blank amazement on his face proved that he had ridden straight from the review ground to the university, whereas a call at the President's house would have enlightened him. " It is true, dear," whispered Joan. " They came with us from Paris ; in the same train, that is. We all arrived at Delgratz this morning. Your mother spoke to me on the platform at Vienna." He smiled with something of the old careless humor of Paris days. " I suppose everything is for the best," he said. "Nothing surprises me now, not even this," and he nodded cheerfully toward the land- ing and stairs, whence a rush of footsteps and clamor of voices were audible. The handle of the door was wrenched violently, and shots were fired into the lock and at the panels ; but the wood was seasoned and stanch, and nothing short of a rifle would drive a bullet through. The door creaked and ^trained under the pressure of the mutineers' shoulders. Had it not been reinforced by the solid sideboard and equally heavy table, it must have given way. As it was, no four men in Delgratz could hope to force an entrance, and no more than four could attack it simultaneously. It was noteworthy that no one called on the King to come out. These hirelings, enraged against a ruler who had brought to the Danube a new evangel of justice and uprightness, of honest government and clean handed service to the State, made no pretense 160 The King Keeps His Appointment of requesting a hearing for their grievances. They had planned to shoot him in cold blood while he and his three companions were momentarily delayed by the barrier of the bullock cart in front of the corner cafe. Balked of this easy means of attaining their end, they were still sure of success. But their cries and curses were intended only for self encouragement. Not even the bloodstained Seventh Regiment had the effrontery to ask their victim to admit them. There was a momentary quieting of their wild beast fury when the door resisted their utmost efforts. Joan tried to persuade her tortured mind that the conspiracy had failed. " They will not dare to remain," she whispered. " They know that assistance may arrive at any moment. Listen, they are going now ! " " Are you gentlemen armed ? " asked Felix, grimly. " Yes, with riding whips," said Alec. " For my part, I have refused to carry any more dangerous weapon ; though it is true that I entered Delgratz with a sword in my hand," he added, remembering with a twinge his imagining of Joan's ready laugh when she heard of Prince Michael's brown paper parcel. " Pity you don't possess a revolver apiece. They would prove useful when the panels are broken, which will happen just as soon as these high spirited poli- ticians on the landing secure axes," went on Felix remorselessly. He wanted Joan to realize the certain fate that 161 A Son of the Immortals awaited her once the door gave way. Concealment was useless, and he hoped she would faint before the end came. "What price the leg of a chair?" asked Beau- manoir. The Pole bent his gleaming gray eyes on the Briton with a curious underlook of inquiry. " No, no. We can do better than that. You would be shot before you could strike a blow. Joan, please crawl past the window and stand upright in the corner close to the wall. You follow, Alec. I go next, and this young gentleman, who must be Lord Adalbert Beaumanoir, since he has all the outward signs of the British aristocracy, will place himself near the door. If he does exactly what I tell him, we still have a fighting chance." The change of position advised by Poluski ren- dered them safe from their assailants' bullets until the door was actually off its hinges and the furniture thrust aside. In the last resort, Alec meant to show himself at a window and offer a fair target to the men in the houses across the street. When he fell the shooting from that quarter would cease. Then, acting on his precise instructions, Beaumanoir and Felix must lift Joan through another window and allow her to drop to the pavement. It was not far. She might escape uninjured, and there was a possi- bility that the mob would spare a woman who was an utter stranger, one in no way mixed up in Kos- novian affairs. 162 The King Keeps His Appointment Time enough to take this final step when their de- fense was forced, and that would be soon. In all likelihood, he had not much more than a minute to live, and he devoted that minute to Joan. " Sweetheart," he murmured tenderly, " you saw the beginning of my career as a King, and it seems that you are fated to see its end. Have you for- gotten what Pallas Athene said to Perseus? It is not so long ago, that morning in the Louvre. But why did you run away from Paris? Why have you not written? If you knew how I hoped for a word from you ! My heart told me you loved me ; but even one's heart likes to be assured that it is not mis- taken." He was looking into her eyes. The fantasy seized her that he was able to read her secret soul, and she swept aside any thought of concealment. " Alec," she said, "tell me truly, are we in danger of death? " " I am," he replied simply. It was better so, he thought. " Then I thank God that I am here to die with you." He dared not hint that she might escape. " We still have a remote chance," he went on. " Let us talk of ourselves, not of death." " But I don't want to die, Alec," she whispered brokenly. " I want to live, dear. I want to live and be your wife. Oh, Alec, let us ask Heaven for one year of happiness, one short year " She 163 A Son of the Immortals choked, and the tears so bravely repressed hitherto dimmed her glorious eyes. Her piteous appeal in- creased the torment of his impotence. His face grew marble white beneath the bronze, and he bent jn mute agony over her bowed head. Felix, crouching behind Beaumanoir, assured him- self that the King and his chosen lady were momen- tarily deaf to all else than the one supreme fact that each loved the other. He sighed, and touched the stalwart Beaumanoir's shoulder, which he was just able to reach with uplifted hand. " Drop on your knees," he said. " I want to tell you something." " You think it is high time I said my prayers eh, what?" Yet the younger man obeyed, since there was a calm authority in the pinched and wrinkled face raised to his that seemed to despise the uproar of the mob. Felix was singularly unmoved by the bestial din. He evidently cared naught for the continuous shooting from street and houses, or the renewed outburst on the stairs that welcomed the arrival of axes and sledge hammers rifled from a neighboring shop. " Pay heed to what I am going to say," he mut- tered, bringing his mouth close to Beaumanoir's ear, " I don't wish Joan or the King to know what we are doing. They will be wise after the event, not before, which is often the better part of wisdom. Have you a steady hand? Will you flinch if I ask 164, The King Keeps His Appointment you to destroy every man on the other side of that door?" Beauraanoir twisted his head round and grinned. " If asking will do the trick, try me ! " said he. Felix took from an inner pocket of his coat a gunmetal cigarcase. He pressed a spring, and the lid flew open. Inside were four cigar shaped cyl- inders, each studded with a number of tiny knobs. He withdrew a cylinder, and from a small cup in its base obtained six percussion caps, which he pro- ceeded to adjust on the iron nipples. " My own patent ! " he exclaimed, with an air of pride that was grotesque under the conditions. " Each cigar is a bomb, warranted to clear any ordinary room of its occupants. It does not dis- criminate. It will dismember the most exalted per- sonages." "By gad!" ejaculated Beaumanoir, shrinking away slightly. Felix pressed closer in his enthusiasm. " The point carrying the detonators is loaded with lead. If properly handled, it is sure to fly with that end in front. You take it between your thumb and second finger, thus, and poise it by placing the tip of the first finger behind it, thus; but you must throw hard, and wait until the upper part of the door is smashed, and you can fling it clear, or three ounces of dynamite will explode in front of your nose, with disastrous effect. I will have a second bomb ready if the first one fails ; but it will not." 165 A Son of the Immortals " By gad ! " said Beaumanoir again, gazing at the deadly contrivance as if fascinated by it. He could retreat no farther, being jammed against the sideboard. * " Do you understand? " demanded Felix coolly. " Perfectly. Is it er Russian or Spanish ? " " Neither. I call it the International. Are you ready? " A thunderous blow shook the door. Another and another fell on lock and hinges. " Felix ! " said Alec, turning from Joan and stoop- ing over the hunchback. " Don't bother me, I am busy," growled the Pole. " But we must act. We are done for now, and Joan must be saved. I mean to draw the enemy's fire. When I am hit, you and Beaumanoir must take Joan to the third window over there take her by force if necessary " " My good Alec, at present you are a King without power. Please don't talk nonsense. Keep in your corner, pacify Joan, and leave the rest to me." " Felix," and Alec's tone grew curt and sharp, "this is no time for jest! Look, you madman, the door is splitting! Is Joan to die, then, to please your whim? Either attend to me or stand aside!" Poluski groaned. He was such an amalgam of contrarieties that he hated the notion of explaining to a monarch the subtle means he had devised for ridding the world of its unpopular rulers. Where Alec was concerned, the bomb ought to remain a 166 The King Keeps His Appointment trade secret, so to speak. He would not have trusted even Beaumanoir with its properties had he not known that his own nerve would fail at the critical moment. For that was Felix Poluski's weakness. He could not use his diabolical invention an an- archist in theory, in practice he would not harm a fly. " I think just as much of Joan as you! " he blazed back at the pallid man whose next step promised to lead to the grave. " I am King here, not you ! Keep yourself and Joan out of harm's way, and don't interfere ! Stand flat against the wall, both of you ! Back, I say ! There is the first axhead ! Now you, who were born a lord, be ready to lord it over these groundlings ! " He whirled round on Beaumanoir, and Alec saw in his friend's hand some object, what he could not guess, while Felix carried a similar article in re- serve, as it were. The little man's earnestness was so convincing that the King could not choose but believe that some scheme that offered salvation was in train. But it might fail! The door might be forced before his own desperate alternative could be adopted, and the consequences to Joan of failure were too horrible to be risked. A panel shivered into splinters and the muzzles of two revolvers frowned through the aperture. " Wait ! " bellowed Poluski ; for Beaumanoir's hand was raised. Lord Adalbert did more than wait. With the 167 A Son of the Immortals quickness born of many a hard won victory on the polo ground, his free left hand flew out and grasped the wrist behind one of the pistols. He pulled fiercely and irresistibly. An arm appeared, and a yell of pain signalized a dislocated shoulder. The weapon exploded harmlessly and fell to the floor. A living stop gap now plugged the first hole made by the ax wielders, while the writhing body of their comrade interfered with further operations. Beaumanoir gave an extra wrench, and his victim howled most dolorously. He slipped the bomb into his coat pocket. " Pick up that revolver, Alec," he cried. " If it is still loaded it will help us to hold the fort." The King rushed forward, and butted against Beaumanoir in his haste. Felix, whose skin was always sallow, became livid; but nothing happened, and he snatched the bomb from its dangerous resting place. Then he burst into a paroxysm of hysterical laughter which drowned for an instant a new hubbub in the street.. Alec, hastily examining his prize, found that three chambers were loaded. He was about to search for a crack in the door through which he could fire at least one telling shot, when his ear caught the pranc- ing of horses on the paving stones. Joan, thoroughly enlightened now as to their common peril, had behaved with admirable coolness since Alec implored her not to stir from the corner between door and window. She was sure they would 168 The King Keeps His Appointment all be killed, and her lips moved in fervent prayer that death might be merciful in its haste; but she was not afraid ; that storm of tears had been succeeded by a spiritual exaltation that rescued her from any ignoble panic. Yet her senses were strained to a tension far more exhausting than the display of emotion natural to one plunged without warning into the most horrible of the many horrors of civil war, and she had heard, long before the others, the onrush of cavalry and the stampede of the mob. So, when her eyes met Alec's, and she saw that questioning look in his face, she smiled at him with a radiant confidence that was astounding at such a moment. " Heaven has been good to us, dear," she said. " Your soldiers are here. Your enemies are running away. Listen ! they are fighting now on the stairs. The unhappy men who raved for our lives will lose their own. Can nothing be done to save them ? " He ran to the window. Those leaden blasts that had swept the room from the first floors of the opposite houses had ceased, and not one potvaliant marksman of them all was to be seen ; but the street was full of hussars, and directly beneath, mounted on an excited horse, Stampoff was giving furious orders which evidently demanded an energetic storm- ing of the hotel entrance. Alec threw open the window and leaned out. " Just in time, old friend ! " he cried. Stampoff heard him and looked up. " God's 169 bones ! " he roared. " Here is the King safe and sound. At them, my children! Dig them out with your sabers ! Don't leave a man alive ! " " Stop ! " shouted Alec. " No more slaughter ! I forbid it!" Stampoff wheeled round on his charger and ad- dressed the press of soldiers who had been unable to take any part in the street clearing, since the mob broke and fled when the first rank of plumed caps and flashing swords became visible. " You hear, my children," he vociferated. " Don't harm anybody who does not resist. The King's com- mands must be obeyed." Joan, of course, could only guess what was being said; but she could not fail to recognize the sounds of conflict on the stairs. Men are strangely akin to tigers when they see red, and the tiger's roar when he pounces on a victim differs greatly from his own death scream. Alec, powerless to move Stampoff, who believed, rightly, as it transpired, that the ringleaders were foremost in the attack, turned to Beaumanoir. " Release that fellow," he said. " If I am able to make my voice heard through the racket, I can put an end to this butchery." Beaumanoir let go the arm, and a body fell on the other side of the door. " You ar