"He shall have the best of care," interrupted the captain. "Leave
him to me, Miss Calhoun."
"Now, let me tell you something," said she, after due reflection. "You
must not pay any attention to what he says. He is liable to be delirious
and talk in a terrible sort of way. You know delirious people never talk
rationally." She was loyally trying to protect Baldos, the hunted,
against any incriminating statements he might make.
"Quite right, Miss Calhoun," said the baron very gravely.
"And now, I'd like to go to the princess," said Beverly, absolutely sure
of herself." You know we are great friends, she and I."
"I have sent a messenger to announce your arrival. She will expect you."
Beverly looked about the room in perplexity.
"But there has been no messenger here," she said.
"He left here some minutes before you came. I knew who it was that came
knocking at our gates, even though she traveled as Princess Yetive of
Graustark."
"And, oh! that reminds me, Baron Dangloss, Baldos still believes me to
be the princess. Is it necessary to--to tell him the truth about me?
Just at present, I mean? I'm sure he'll rest much easier if he doesn't
know differently."
"So far as I am concerned, Miss Calhoun, he shall always regard you as a
queen," said Dangloss gallantly.
"Thank you. It's very nice of you to--"
A man in uniform entered after knocking at the door of the room. He
saluted his superior and uttered a few words in his own language.
"Her royal highness is awaiting you at the home of the countess, Miss
Calhoun. A detail of men will escort you and your servant to her place."
"Now, please, Baron Dangloss," pleaded Beverly at the door, "be nice to
him. You know it hurts him to walk. Can't you have him carried in?"
"If he will consent," said he quietly. Beverly hurried into the outer
room, after giving the baron a smile he never forgot. Baldos looked up
eagerly, anxiously.
"It's all right," she said in low tones, pausing for a moment beside his
chair. "Don't get up! Good-bye. I'll come to see you to-morrow. Don't be
in the least disturbed. Baron Dangloss has his instructions."
Impulsively giving him her hand which he respectfully raised to his
lips, she followed Aunt Fanny and was gone.
Almost immediately Baldos was requested to present himself before Baron
Dangloss in the adjoining room. Refusing to be carried in, he resolutely
strode through the door and stood before the grim old captain of police,
an easy, confident smile on his face. The black patch once more covered
his eye with defiant assertiveness.
"They tell me you are Baldos, a goat-hunter," said Baron Dangloss,
eyeing him keenly.