"It is precisely because I do that I wish to move slowly. Wait. Let the police find out why they are here. There will be time enough then to declare war. They have never seen her highness. Who knows?"
"Ah! But they have violated the treaty."
"That depends upon whether their presence here is or is not a menace to the state. If they are here on private concerns which in no wise touch Ehrenstein, it would be foolhardy to declare war. Your highness is always letting your personal wounds blur your eyesight. Some day you will find that Jugendheit is innocent."
"God hasten the day and hour!"
"Yes, let us hope that the mystery of it all will be cleared up. You are just and patient in everything but this." Herbeck idled with his quill. The little finger of his right hand was badly scarred, the mutilation of a fencing-bout in his student days.
"What do you advise?" wearily. It seemed to the duke that Herbeck of late never agreed with him.
"My advice is to wait. In a day or so arrest them under the pretext that you believe them to be spies. If they remain mute, then the case is serious, and you will have them on the hip. If, on the other hand, this invasion is harmless and they declare themselves, the matter can be adjusted in this wise: ignore their declaration and confine them a day or two in the city prison, then publish the news broadcast. Having themselves broken the letter if not the spirit of the treaty, they will not dare declare war. Every court in Europe will laugh."
The duke struck his hands together. "You are always right, Herbeck. This plan could not have been devised better or more to my satisfaction." The duke laughed. "You are right. Ah, here is the chief."
Herbeck read the letter in part to the chief, who jotted down the words, repeating aloud in a kind of mutter: "A mountaineer, a vintner, a carter, a butcher, and a baker. You will give me their descriptions, your Excellency?"
Herbeck read the postscript.
"But you don't tell him who--"
"Why should he know?" said Herbeck, glancing shrewdly at the duke. "His ignorance will be all the better for the plot."
"Then this is big game, your Highness?" asked the chief.
"Big game."
"One is as big and powerful as a Carpathian bear. Look out," warned Herbeck.
"And he is?"
"The mountaineer."
"And the vintner?"
"Oh, he is a little fellow, and hasn't grown his bite yet," said Herbeck dryly.
The duke laughed again. It would be as good as a play.