that you stooped
and lifted me. God!"--he threw back his head and looked upward, with
his hat in his hand and the light on his face--"God, forget me if
ever I forget that. Amen!" he added, very quietly, very earnestly;
then dropped his chin until it rested on his breast, and was very
still for a long time.

* * * * *

"Yes," he said, taking up the thread of conversation where it had
been broken so long a time ago, "there is but one more debt to be
cleared off: the value of the Princess Goroski's tiara. A thousand
pounds will wipe that off--it was not a very expensive one--and I
could have had that sum to-day if I had thought of myself alone.
Mr. Narkom thinks me a fool. I wonder what you will think when you
hear?" And forthwith he told her.

"If you are again 'fishing'," she replied with a quizzical smile,
"then again you are going to be successful. I think you a hero. Kiss
me, please. I am very, very proud of you. And that was what made you
late in coming, was it?"

"Not altogether that. I might have been earlier but that we ran
foul of Waldemar and the Apaches again, and I had to lose time in
shaking them off. But I ought not to have told you that. You will
be getting nervous. It was a shock to Mr. Narkom. He was so sure
they had given up the job and returned home."

"I, too, was sure. I should have thought that the rebellion would
have compelled that, in Count Waldemar's case at least," she
answered, gravely. "And particularly in such a grave crisis as his
country is now called upon to face. Have you seen to-day's papers?
They are full of it. Count Irma and the revolutionists have piled
victory on victory. They are now at the very gates of the capital;
the royal army is disorganized, its forces going over in hordes to
the insurgents; the king is in a very panic and preparing, it is
reported, to fly before the city falls."

"A judgment, Alburtus, a judgment!" Cleek cried with such vehemence
that it startled her. "Your son drinks of the cup you prepared for
Karma's. The same cup, the same result: dethronement, flight, exile
in the world's wildernesses, and perhaps--death. Well done, Irma!
A judgment on you, Mauravania. You pay! You pay!"

"How wonderful you are--you seem to know everything!" declared Ailsa.
"But in this at least you appear to be misinformed, dear. I have been
reading the reports faithfully and it seems that death was not
the end of all who shared in Q