Part 6 (1/2)

”I have no doubt,” she averred, ”my father's words can bear but one construction.”

”It would seem so-yet I've long learned that, in this life, it's the certain things that usually are lost.”

She sprang up. ”Why not settle it at once-let us send for the Book; of course it is at the Palace-it was there last night.”

He shook his head decisively. ”No, dear, no; believe me it is not wise now for either of us to touch the Book. It were best that it be opened only by the Prime Minister in presence of the Royal Council. We must give Lotzen no reason to cry forgery.”

She shrugged her shoulders. ”Small good would it do him, as against Frederick's writing and my testimony. However, we can wait-the Council meets in the morning, I a.s.sume?”

”Yes; at ten o'clock, at the Palace.”

She looked up quickly. ”The key?” she asked; ”it was always on his watch chain-have you got it?”

”No,” said he; ”I never thought of it.”

She rang the bell and sent for the Chamberlain.

”Bring me King Frederick's watch, and the Orders he was wearing,” she said. When they came she handed the Orders to Armand.

”They are yours now, dear,” she said. She took the watch and held up the chain, from the end of which hung the small, antique key of the bra.s.s bound box, in which the Book of Laws had been kept for centuries that now reached back to tradition. She contemplated, for a moment, the swaying bit of gold and bronze, then loosed it from the ring.

”This also is yours, Sire,” she said, and proffered it to him.

But he declined. ”To-morrow,” he said.

”And in the meantime?”

”If Count Epping is still in the Castle, we will let him hold it.”

The Princess nodded in approval. ”Doubtless that is wiser,” she said, ”though quite unprecedented; none but the King ever holds that key, save when he rides to war.”

”We are dealing with a situation that has no precedents,” he smiled; ”we must make some.”

As he went toward the bell, a servant entered with a card.

”Admit him,” he said.... ”It is Epping,” he explained.

The Prime Minister of Valeria was one of those extraordinary exceptions that occasionally occur in public officials; he had no purpose in life but to serve his King. Without regard to his own private ends or personal ambition, he had administered his office for a generation, and Frederick trusted him as few monarchs ever trusted a powerful subject. To the Nation, he was honesty and justice incarnate, and only the King and the Princess Royal excelled him in popularity and respect. Seventy years had pa.s.sed over the tall and slender figure, leaving a crown of silver above the pale, lean face, with its tight-shut mouth, high cheek bones and faded blue eyes; but they had brought no stoop to the shoulders, nor feebleness to the step, nor dullness to the brain.

He saluted Armand with formal dignity; then bent over Dehra's hand, silently and long-and when he rose a tear was trembling on his lashes. He dashed it away impatiently and turned to the Archduke.

”Sire,” he said-and Armand, in sheer surprise, made no objection-”I have brought the proclamation announcing His late Majesty's death and your accession. It should be published in the morning. Will it please you to sign it now?”

There are moments in life so sharp with emotion that they cut into one's memory like a sculptor's tool, and, ever after, stand clear-lined and cameoed against the blurred background of commonplace existence. Such was the moment at the Palace when Frederick had handed him the patents of an Archduke, and such now was this. ”Sire!” the word was pounding in his brain. ”Sire!” he, who, less than a year ago, was but a Major in the American Army; ”Sire!” he-he-King of Valeria!

Then, through the mirage, he saw Dehra's smiling face, and he awoke suddenly to consciousness and the need for speech, and for immediate decision. Should he sign the proclamation on the chance that the decree was in his favor, and that he was, in truth, the King? He hesitated just an instant-tempted by his own desires and by the eager eyes of the fair woman before him; then he straightened his shoulders and chose the way of prudence.

He waved the Prime Minister to a chair.