eleven."

"And then?"

"Oh, then--I follow you, of course."

Baron von Rothstein thought silence was best. He drove to the station,
and did not fail to note the military preparations. His special quitted
Delgratz at nine-twenty A.M. At ten-forty A.M. it came back and Alec met
him and Lord Adalbert Beaumanoir on the platform.

"Sorry you were held up, old chap," was the King's greeting. "Some of
these frontier police are fearful asses; but Herr von Rothstein rushed
off the instant he heard of your predicament, and here you are, only
five hours late after all."

"Wouldn't have missed it for a pony, dear boy," grinned Beaumanoir.
"There was a deuce of a shindy when three fat johnnies tried to pull me
out of my compartment. I told 'em I didn't give a tinker's continental
for their bally frontier, and then the band played. I slung one joker
through the window. Good job it was open, or he might have been
guillotined, eh, what?"

"No one was injured, I hope."

"Another fellow said I bent his ribs; but they sprang all right under
the vet's thumb. Tell me, why does our baronial friend look so vinegary?
He chattered like a magpie in the police bureau, or whatever it is
called, at Semlin."

"Lord Adalbert wishes me to explain that a disagreeable incident had
ended happily," said Alec to von Rothstein.

"I am not sure that it has ended, your Majesty," was the grim reply.

"Well, then, shall we say that it has taken a satisfactory turn? You
see, my dear Baron, I am quite a young King, and I shall commit many
blunders before I learn the usages of diplomacy. But I mean well, and
that goes a long way,--much farther than Semlin, even beyond Vienna."

CHAPTER V

FELIX SURMOUNTS A DIFFICULTY

Count Julius Marulitch and his friend Constantine Beliani, the one
savagely impatient, the other moody and preoccupied, sprawled listlessly
in Marulitch's flat in the Avenue Victor Hugo, and, though it was
evening, each was reading "The Matin." That is to say, each was
pretending to read; but their thoughts did not follow the printed words.
Alexis III. had reigned only ten days, yet the most enterprising of the
Paris newspapers was already making a feature of a column headed: "Our
dear Alec, day by day." It ought to be an interesting record to these
two men, yet it evidently was not one-tenth so humorous as "The Matin"
believed, since there was a deep frown on both faces.

At last Marulitch flung the paper aside with an angr