es he was
back, and Josef with him. The latter carried a jug of hot water, soap
and razors. He was trembling as Sapt told him how the land lay, and bade
him shave me.

Suddenly Fritz smote on his thigh:

"But the guard! They'll know! they'll know!"

"Pooh! We shan't wait for the guard. We'll ride to Hofbau and catch a
train there. When they come, the bird'll be flown."

"But the King?"

"The King will be in the wine-cellar. I'm going to carry him there now."

"If they find him?"

"They won't. How should they? Josef will put them off."

"But--"

Sapt stamped his foot.

"We're not playing," he roared. "My God! don't I know the risk? If
they do find him, he's no worse off than if he isn't crowned today in
Strelsau."

So speaking, he flung the door open and, stooping, put forth a strength
I did not dream he had, and lifted the King in his hands. And as he did
so, the old woman, Johann the keeper's mother, stood in the doorway.
For a moment she stood, then she turned on her heel, without a sign of
surprise, and clattered down the passage.

"Has she heard?" cried Fritz.

"I'll shut her mouth!" said Sapt grimly, and he bore off the King in his
arms.

For me, I sat down in an armchair, and as I sat there, half-dazed, Josef
clipped and scraped me till my moustache and imperial were things of the
past and my face was as bare as the King's. And when Fritz saw me thus
he drew a long breath and exclaimed:--

"By Jove, we shall do it!"

It was six o'clock now, and we had no time to lose. Sapt hurried me into
the King's room, and I dressed myself in the uniform of a colonel of the
Guard, finding time as I slipped on the King's boots to ask Sapt what he
had done with the old woman.

"She swore she'd heard nothing," said he; "but to make sure I tied her
legs together and put a handkerchief in her mouth and bound her hands,
and locked her up in the coal-cellar, next door to the King. Josef will
look after them both later on."

Then I burst out laughing, and even old Sapt grimly smiled.

"I fancy," said he, "that when Josef tells them the King is gone they'll
think it is because we smelt a rat. For you may swear Black Michael
doesn't expect to see him in Strelsau today."

I put the King's helmet on my head. Old Sapt handed me the King's sword,
looking at me long and carefully.

"Thank God, he shaved his beard!" he exclaimed.

"Why did he?" I asked.

"Because Princess Flavia said he grazed her cheek when he