spoke to me some
few days ago. He said the man had done his best to bring assistance; but
his efforts were frustrated by some stupid blunder here, and he thought
something ought to be done for him. I promised to attend to it; but the
thing slipped my mind."

By this time he had reached the policeman, who, assisted by a soldier,
was dragging the protesting waiter to the guardroom.

"Release that man!" he said.

The man saluted, and the trembling Sobieski fell on his knees on the
pavement.

"Oh, get up," said the King, who felt a special aversion to such a
display of abasement. "Recover your wits, man, and tell me what you
want!"

"I ask protection, your Majesty," murmured the desperate Sobieski. "My
life is in danger. I came here to see Monsieur Poluski; but they told me
he was not at home. I have been turned out of my situation; so I have
nowhere to go. If I am found wandering in the streets to-night, I shall
be killed."

"At any rate, you seem to be thoroughly frightened," cried Alec with a
reassuring smile. "Take charge of him," he said to the pandur, "and have
him sent to my bureau in five minutes!"

The bureau in question was that apartment on the first floor overlooking
the courtyard, in which Alec had preferred his claim to the throne of
Kosnovia to the perplexed President of the embryo Republic. It was
there, too, that Felix Poluski had spoken those plain words to Prince
Michael Delgrado, and its situation was so convenient for the King's
daily comings and goings that he had utilized it temporarily as an
office and private audience chamber.

At the top of the stairs he happened to catch sight of Pauline, Joan's
staid looking maid. Though he obtained only a casual glimpse of her, he
fancied that she was distressed about something, and it occurred to him
after he was in the room and the door was closed that perhaps she wished
to give him a message. Bosko, the taciturn Albanian whom he had now
definitely appointed as his confidential attendant, was standing near
the table with a bundle of documents that demanded the King's signature.

Realizing that the Frenchwoman would meet Bosko in a minute or two when
he went out with the signed papers, and could then make known her wish
to speak to the King if such was her intention, Alec bent over the table
and began to peruse several departmental decrees hurriedly. He made it a
rule never to append his name to any State paper without mastering its
contents, and o