hy some of my excellent kith and kin across the
Atlantic should condemn studies of the nude. But somehow I have a
glimmering sense of the moral purpose that teaches us to avoid that
which is not wholly decent. So I am a blend of French realism and
American level headedness, and both sides of my nature warn me that a
King should trust his people. Sometimes the people are slow to learn
that vital fact. Well, they must be taught, and the first lesson in a
State like Kosnovia might well be given by trying those felons of the
Schwarzburg before a duly constituted court of law."

"Fine talk, Alec. Fine talk! You do not know our Serbs," yet Stampoff
was moved, and his Slavonic sympathies were touched.

"Well, 'A King should die standing,' said one poor monarch, who thought
he did know Frenchmen. I ask only for a few hours in my boots once I
reach Delgratz. I shall say things that will not be forgotten for a day
or two. Come, now, my old war-horse, join me in this new campaign! It
may well prove your last as it is my first; but we shall fall honorably,
you and I."

There were tears in Stampoff's eyes when Alec made an end. "Perhaps you
are right," he said. "I have always given my mind to the military
element. It seemed to me that the common folk require to be driven, not
led, into the path they should tread. I am growing old, Alec; yours is a
new creed to me. I never thought to hear it from a Delgrado, and it will
make a rare stir in more places than Kosnovia; but by Heaven it is worth
a trial!"

So Alec had won a convert, and that is the first essential of a
reformer. Long and earnestly did they discuss the men and manners of
Kosnovia and its chief city, and ever the Danube drew nearer; but not a
word did Alec say of his telegram to Beaumanoir until a man met him in
the Western Station at Vienna, wrung his hand, and rushed away again
with the words:

"Beaumanoir leaves Paris to-night. He understands. So do I. Good luck,
old chap! If you have to hit, hit hard and quickly."

Stampoff did not speak English. He was greatly distressed that Alec
should have been recognized the instant he alighted from the train,
though Paris was then twenty-two hours distant. "Who is that?" he asked
anxiously.

"A friend from the British Embassy."

"From an Embassy! Then we are lost."

"It seemed to me that I was found, rather."

"But if the Embassies know----"

"They are invariably the worst informed centers in any country. The
facts