rid. No, it was not the King for whom the seven men had prepared.

Who, then, was to have been their prey?

I believed that I could have answered this question, but I kept silent;
and there was no reason why the King should guess that I had a suspicion.

"At all events," he said, "we have you and your friend to thank that the
affair was not more serious. I hope we should have been able to give a
good account of ourselves; but seven against two are long odds. And there
seems a fate in it that you should have come to me in the nick of time
to-day as well as at Biarritz. I should like to know your names."

I had dreaded this. Foolishly, perhaps, I felt that I could not bear to
see the cordial light in his eyes fade to proud coldness, as it must when
he knew me for a son of the man who had tried to place another on his
throne. Besides, that I should at such a moment announce myself a Casa
Triana would seem like bidding for pardon as a reward for what I had done.
The confession stuck in my throat; and while I hesitated, Dick spoke.

"My friend didn't mean you to know, sir," said he, gabbling so fast that I
could not stop him; "but this isn't the _second_ time he's happened to be
around when there was a little thing to be done for your Majesty,--it's the
third. Yesterday it was he who snatched that bomb away from the man under
the _paso_, collared the other fellow, and stuck the bomb in a smashed
water-jar, although he gave the credit to the chauffeur--who, by the way,
is 'shover' to this car. My friend here is travelling, as you might say,
incog. for important private reasons, which he'll want you to know some
day, sir, if he doesn't now; and that's why, when Ropes the chauffeur
happened along, he made him a present of all the praise."

The King flushed, looking me straight in the eyes with an expression so
noble and at the same time so kind that, had we lived a century or two
ago, when men were not ashamed to show their true feelings, I should have
thrown myself at his feet.

"I thank you again," he said, "for _everything_. I'm glad to know you are
Spanish, even if I am to know no more. But am I to know no more?"

"Will your Majesty pardon me," I asked, "if I beg to remain nameless for
the present?"

"I could pardon you far graver crimes," the King said smiling; "and I'm
sure your reason, whatever it is, reflects nothing but honour on yourself.
I owe you a debt. Claim it's payment in my gratitude whenever you will;