"You should have heard him call me 'your highness,'" cried Beverly. "He

will loathe me if he ever learns that I deceived him."

"Oh, I think he deceived himself," spoke Yetive easily." Besides, you

look as much like a princess as I."

"There is something I want to speak very seriously about to you,

Yetive," said Beverly, making ready for the cast. "You see, he did not

want to enter Ganlook with me, but I insisted. He had been so brave and

gallant, and he was suffering so intensely. It would have been criminal

in me to leave him out there in the wilderness, wouldn't it?"

"It would have been heartless."

"So I just made him come along. That was right, wasn't it? That's what

you would have done, no matter who he was or what his objections might

have been. Well, you see, it's this way, Yetive: he is some sort of a

fugitive--not a criminal, you know--but just some one they are hunting

for, I don't know why. He wouldn't tell me. That was perfectly right, if

he felt that way, wasn't it?"

"And he had fought a lion in your defense," supplemented Yetive, with a

schoolgirl's ardor.

"And I had shot him in the arm, too," added Beverly. "So of course, I

just had to be reasonable. In order to induce him to come with me to a

hospital, I was obliged to guarantee perfect safety to him. His men went

back to the hills, all except old Franz, the driver. Now, the trouble is

this, Yetive: I am not the princess and I cannot redeem a single

promise I made to him. He is helpless, and if anything goes wrong with

him he will hate me forever."

"No; he will hate me for I am the princess and he is none the

wiser."

"But he will be told that his princess was Beverly Calhoun, a supposedly

nice American girl. Don't you see how awkward it will be for me? Now,

Yetive, darling, what I wish you to do is to write a note, order or

edict or whatever it is to Baron Dangloss, commanding him to treat

Baldos as a patient and not as a prisoner; and that when he is fully

recovered he is to have the privilege of leaving Ganlook without

reservation."

"But he may be a desperate offender against the state, Beverly."

plaintively protested Yetive. "If we only knew what he is charged with!"

"I'm afraid it's something dreadfully serious," admitted Beverly

gloomily." He doesn't look like the sort of man who would engage in a

petty undertaking. I'll tell you his story, just as he told it to me,"

and she repeated the meagre confessions of Baldos.

"I see no reason why we should hesitate," said the princess. "By his own

statement, he is not a desperate criminal. You did quite right in

promising him protection, dear, and I shall sustain you. Do you want to

play the princess to Baldos a little longer?"




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