Part 41 (1/2)
”The story! The story of his capture! Tell us the story,” came eagerly from those a.s.sembled. Ravone leaned back languidly, his face tired and drawn once more, as if the mere recalling of the hards.h.i.+ps past was hard to bear.
”First, your highness, may I advise you and your cabinet to send another ultimatum to the people of Dawsbergen?” he asked. ”This time say to them that you hold two Dawsbergen princes in your hand. One cannot and will not be restored to them. The other will be released on demand. Let the emba.s.sy be directed to meet the Duke of Matz, the premier. He is now with the army, not far from your frontier. May it please your highness, I have myself taken the liberty of despatching three trusted followers with the news of Gabriel's capture. The two Bappos and Carl Vandos are now speeding to the frontier. Your emba.s.sy will find the Duke of Matz in possession of all the facts.”
”The Duke of Matz, I am reliably informed, some day is to be father-in-law to Dawsbergen,” smilingly said Yetive. ”I shall not wonder if he responds most favorably to an ultimatum.”
Ravone and Candace exchanged glances of amus.e.m.e.nt, the latter breaking into a deplorable little gurgle of laughter.
”I beg to inform you that the duke's daughter has disdained the offer from the crown,” said Ravone. ”She has married Lieutenant Alsanol, of the royal artillery, and is as happy as a b.u.t.terfly. Captain Baldos could have told you how the wayward young woman defied her father and laughed at the beggar prince.”
”Captain Baldos is an exceedingly discreet person,” Beverly volunteered. ”He has told no tales out of school.”
”I am reminded of the fact that you gave your purse into my keeping one memorable day--the day when we parted from our best of friends at Ganlook's gates. I thought you were a princess, and you did not know that I understood English. That was a sore hour for us. Baldos was our life, the heart of our enterprise. Gabriel hates him as he hates his own brother. Steadfastly has Baldos refused to join us in the plot to seize Prince Gabriel. He once took an oath to kill him on sight, and I was so opposed to this that he had to be left out of the final adventures.”
”Please tell us how you succeeded in capturing that--your half-brother,”
cried Beverly, forgetting that it was another's place to make the request. The audience drew near, eagerly attentive.
”At another time I shall rejoice in telling the story in detail. For the present let me ask you to be satisfied with the statement that we tricked him by means of letters into the insane hope that he could capture and slay his half-brother. Captain Baldos suggested the plan. Had he been arrested yesterday, I feel that it would have failed. Gabriel was and is insane. We led him a chase through the Graustark hills until the time was ripe for the final act. His small band of followers fled at our sudden attack, and he was taken almost without a struggle, not ten miles from the city of Edelweiss. In his mad ravings we learned that his chief desire was to kill his brother and sister and after that to carry out the plan that has long been in his mind. He was coming to Edelweiss for the sole purpose of entering the castle by the underground pa.s.sage, with murder in his heart. Gabriel was coming to kill the Princess Yetive and Mr. Lorry. He has never forgotten the love he bore for the princess, nor the hatred he owes his rival. It was the duty of Captain Baldos to see that he did not enter the pa.s.sage in the event that he eluded us in the hills.”
Later in the day the Princess Yetive received from the gaunt, hawkish old man in the fortress a signed statement, withdrawing his charges against Baldos the guard. Marlanx did not ask for leniency; it was not in him to plead. If the humble withdrawal of charges against Baldos could mitigate the punishment he knew Yetive would impose, all well and good. If it went for naught, he was prepared for the worst. Down there in his quarters, with wine before him, he sat and waited for the end. He knew that there was but one fate for the man, great or small, who attacked a woman in Graustark. His only hope was that the princess might make an exception in the case of one who had been the head of the army--but the hope was too small to cherish.
Baldos walked forth a free man, the plaudits of the people in his ears. Baron Dangloss and Colonel Quinnox were beside the tall guard as he came forward to receive the commendations and apologies of Graustark's ruler and the warm promises of reward from the man he served.
He knelt before the two rulers who were holding court on the veranda. The cheers of n.o.bles, the shouts of soldiery, the exclamations of the ladies did not turn his confident head. He was the born knight.
The look of triumph that he bestowed upon Beverly Calhoun, who lounged gracefully beside the stone bal.u.s.trade, brought the red flying to her cheeks. He took something from his breast and held it gallantly to his lips, before all the a.s.sembled courtiers. Beverly knew that it was a faded rose!
CHAPTER x.x.x
IN THE GROTTO
The next morning a royal messenger came to Count Marlanx. He bore two sealed letters from the princess. One briefly informed him that General Braze was his successor as commander-in-chief of the army of Graustark.
He hesitated long before opening the other. It was equally brief and to the point. The Iron Count's teeth came together with a savage snap as he read the signature of the princess at the end. There was no recourse. She had struck for Beverly Calhoun. He looked at his watch. It was eleven o'clock. The edict gave him twenty-four hours from the noon of that day. The gray old libertine despatched a messenger for his man of affairs, a lawyer of high standing in Edelweiss. Together they consulted until midnight. Shortly after daybreak the morning following. Count Marlanx was in the train for Vienna, never to set foot on Graustark's soil again. He was banished and his estates confiscated by the government.
The ministry in Edelweiss was not slow to reopen negotiations with Dawsbergen. A proclamation was sent to the prime minister, setting forth the new order of affairs and suggesting the instant suspension of hostile preparations and the restoration of Prince Dantan. Accompanying this proclamation went a dignified message from Dantan, informing his people that he awaited their commands. He was ready to resume the throne that had been so desecrated. It would be his joy to restore Dawsbergen to its once peaceful and prosperous condition. In the meantime the Duke of Mizrox despatched the news to the Princess Volga of Axphain, who was forced to abandon--temporarily, at least--her desperate designs upon Graustark. The capture of Gabriel put an end to her transparent plans.
”But she is bound to break out against us sooner or later and on the slightest provocation,” said Yetive.
”I daresay that a friendly alliance between Graustark and Dawsbergen will prove sufficient to check any ambitions she may have along that line,” said Ravone significantly. ”They are very near to each other now, your highness. Friends should stand together.”
Beverly Calhoun was in suspense. Baldos had been sent off to the frontier by Prince Dantan, carrying the message which could be trusted to no other. He accompanied the Graustark amba.s.sadors of peace as Dantan's special agent. He went in the night time and Beverly did not see him. The week which followed his departure was the longest she ever spent. She was troubled in her heart for fear that he might not return, despite the declaration she had made to him in one hysterical moment. It was difficult for her to keep up the show of cheerfulness that was expected of her. Reticence became her strongest characteristic. She persistently refused to be drawn into a discussion of her relations with the absent one. Yetive was piqued by her manner at first, but wisely saw through the mask as time went on. She and Prince Dantan had many quiet and interesting chats concerning Beverly and the erstwhile guard. The prince took Lorry and the princess into his confidence. He told them all there was to tell about his das.h.i.+ng friend and companion.
Beverly and the young Princess Candace became fast and loving friends. The young girl's wors.h.i.+p of her brother was beautiful to behold. She huddled close to him on every occasion, and her dark eyes bespoke adoration whenever his name was mentioned in her presence.
”If he doesn't come back pretty soon, I'll pack up and start for home,”
Beverly said to herself resentfully one day. ”Then if he wants to see me he'll have to come all the way to Was.h.i.+ngton. And I'm not sure that he can do it, either. He's too disgustingly poor.”
”Wha's became o' dat Misteh Baldos, Miss Bev'ly?” asked Aunt f.a.n.n.y in the midst of these sorry cogitations. ”Has he tuck hit int' his haid to desert us fo' good? Seems to me he'd oughteh--”