in the Pole's acute brain.

For Captain Drakovitch, the officer who led the bodyguard in their
belated ride to the King's aid, had told him that a waiter, John
Sobieski by name, had arrived breathless at the President's house many
minutes before the actual alarm was given. Sobieski had sobbed out some
incoherent words about the King, and the Seventh Regiment; but Prince
Michael, who was in the courtyard, snapped up the man immediately,
bidding him hold his tongue, and hurrying him inside the building. Once
there, Sobieski became more confused than ever. Prince Michael obviously
regarded him as a crazy rumor-monger until Nesimir appeared. The latter,
by reason of his local knowledge, instantly appreciated the true
significance of an attack on the King in a crowded thoroughfare by a
gang whom Sobieski was sure he had identified correctly.

Nevertheless, precious time had been consumed by the elder Delgrado's
interference. The President acted with promptitude; but the outcome was
clear. If it had not been for Bosko, the King must have fallen.

"Gods!" vowed Drakovitch in his emphatic story to Felix, "there were we
lounging about smoking cigarettes while his Majesty was in a fair way to
be cut in pieces! A nice state of affairs! If some one had not warned
Stampoff, we might have been too late!"

"Better not mention it in public," was Poluski's advice. "The mere
notion of the resultant disaster would make Prince Michael seriously
ill. Moreover, such things grow in the telling, and the story will be
traced back to you."

The other had agreed, and Felix followed his own counsel by withholding
from Joan all knowledge of the unpleasant mischance that had nearly cost
the lives of the King and his companions in the besieged hotel. But his
thoughts were busy, and, when he found Sobieski detained in the
entrance hall, he consigned Joan and her maid to the care of a servant,
briefly explaining that they were to be taken to Princess Delgrado, and
forthwith questioned his fellow countryman.

Sobieski was quaking with fear. The scornful disbelief expressed by
Prince Michael had discomfited him at the beginning, and now he was
practically under arrest until his connection with the outrage was
investigated officially. One of Stampoff's messengers had already
announced the King's safety, or by this time Sobieski must have become
the lunatic Prince Michael took him to be.

"What then, my friend, they did not credit your tale, I hear?