ntemplating, entered the room with as businesslike an air as they
could assume at a crisis so fraught with import to their own future.

"We ought to be alone," said Beliani in English, with a wary glance at
Bosko.

"Oh, for goodness' sake don't disturb my man! I have so little time and
so much to do! Tell me exactly what you want me to sign," and he strode
to the door and closed it behind Marulitch.

The eyes of the three were on him and not on the harmless looking
attendant. During those few seconds they were completely deceived.

Prince Michael, finding the path so easy, took the lead. "Just a formal
renunciation of the crown," he said. "Give as your reason, if you
choose, your inability to fall in with the expressed desire of the
Cabinet that you should marry a Serbian lady. It is essential that you
should name me----"

The door opened and Lord Adalbert Beaumanoir came in leisurely. He
carried an assortment of straps, rifled from leather trunks and
hatboxes. He saw the three men facing Alec, and behind them Bosko's
leveled revolvers.

"Not a bally rope to be had, dear boy; but here's leather enough to go
round," he grinned. "By gad! what a tableau! I suppose you mean to gag
'em and then tie 'em back to back, eh, what?"

Alec picked up a chair. "Yes," he said. "Begin with his Excellency
Prince Michael."

Julius Marulitch's right hand sought the pocket of the dinner jacket he
was wearing.

"No, Julius," said Alec pleasantly, "move an inch and you are a dead
man. Bosko has my orders, and he will obey them. You may look at him if
you doubt my word."

Marulitch's well poised head had never before turned so quickly; but he
shrank from a wicked looking muzzle pointed straight between his eyes.
In such circumstances, the caliber of a revolver seems to become
magnified to absurdly large proportions, and behind the fearsome weapon
Bosko's immovable face was that of an automaton.

Beliani's olive complexion assumed a sickly green tint for the second
time that evening. "I was right," he muttered; "but you would not
listen."

"It is a common delusion of the thief that an honest man has no brains,"
said Alec coolly. "Now, Beaumanoir, get busy. Time is flying, and we
have little more than an hour to spare."

Prince Michael, never noted for his courage, began to whimper some words
of expostulation; but Beaumanoir's strong hands soon silenced him with
an improvised gag, for the effeminate little rascal realized that