y, and
see this thing out. Let them follow her and punish her. She could not.
She had done her part. The governess lay in, a drugged sleep. A turn of
the key, and the door to the passage beyond which Oskar waited would be
closed off. Let follow what must, she would not see it.

The boy still bent over his work. She wandered about the room, casually,
as if examining the pictures on the wall. She stopped, for a bitter
moment, before Hedwig's photograph, and, for a shaken one, before those
of Prince Hubert and his wife. Then she turned the key, and shut Oskar
safely away.

"Highness," she said, "Lieutenant Larisch will be here in a moment. Will
you permit me to go?"

Otto was off his chair in an instant. "Certainly," he said, his mind
still on the "O" which he was shading.

Old habit was strong in the Countess. Although the boy's rank was
numbered by moments, although his life was possibly to be counted by
hours, she turned at the doorway and swept him a curtsy. Then she went
out, and closed the door behind her.

The two sentries stood outside. They were of the Terrorists. She knew,
and they knew she knew. But neither one made a sign. They stared ahead,
and Olga Loschek went out between them.

Now the psychology of the small boy is a curious thing. It is, for one
thing, retentive. Ideas become, given time, obsessions. And obsessions
are likely to lead to action.

The Crown Prince Ferdinand William Otto was only a small boy, for all
his title and dignity. And suddenly he felt lonely. Left alone, he
returned to his expectations for the day, and compared them with the
facts. He remembered other carnivals, with his carriage moving through
the streets, and people showering him with fresh flowers. He rather
glowed at the memory. Then he recalled that the Chancellor had said he
needed fresh air.

Something occurred to him, something which combined fresh air
with action, yet kept to the letter of his promise--or was there a
promise?--not to leave the Palace.

The idea pleased him. It set him to smiling, and his bright hair to
quivering with excitement. It was nothing less than to go up on the roof
and find the ball. Nikky would be surprised, having failed himself. He
would have to be very careful, having in mind the fate of that unlucky
child at the Crystal Palace. And he would have to hurry. Nikky would be
sure to return soon.

He opened the door on to the great corridor, and stepped out, saluting
the sentries, as h