m he opened a door and looked in. Wogan laughed again
as though Gaydon's examination of the cupboard was a very good joke.

"There will be nobody in it," he cried. "Gaydon will never feel a hand
gripping the life out of his throat because he forgot to search a
cupboard."

The cupboard was empty, as it happened. But Gaydon had left the door of
the street open when he went out to meet Wogan; there had been time and
to spare for any man to creep upstairs and hide himself had there been a
man in Schlestadt that night minded to hear. Gaydon returned to his
chair.

"We are to draw the biggest prize in all Europe," said Wogan.

"There!" cried O'Toole. "Will you be pleased to remember when next I
have an idea that I was right?"

"But not for ourselves," added Wogan.

O'Toole's face fell.

"Oh, we are to hand it on to a third party," said he.

"Yes."

"Well, after all, that's quite of a piece with our luck."

"Who is the third party?" asked Misset.

"The King."

Misset started up from his chair and leaned forward, his hands upon the
arms.

"The King," said O'Toole; "to be sure, that makes a difference."

Gaydon asked quietly, "And what is the prize?"

"The Princess Clementina," said Wogan. "We are to rescue her from her
prison in Innspruck."

Even Gaydon was startled.

"We four!" he exclaimed.

"We four!" repeated Misset, staring at Wogan. His mouth was open; his
eyes started from his head; he stammered in his speech. "We four against
a nation, against half Europe!"

O'Toole simply crossed to a corner of the room, picked up his sword and
buckled it to his waist.

"I am ready," said he.

Wogan turned round in his chair and smiled.

"I know that," said he. "So are we all--all ready; is not that so, my
friends? We four are ready." And he looked to Misset and to Gaydon.
"Here's an exploit, if we but carry it through, which even antiquity
will be at pains to match! It's more than an exploit, for it has the
sanctity of a crusade. On the one side there's tyranny, oppression,
injustice, the one woman who most deserves a crown robbed of it. And on
the other--"

"There's the King," said Gaydon; and the three brief words seemed
somehow to quench and sober Wogan.

"Yes," said he; "there's the King, and we four to serve him in his
need. We are few, but in that lies our one hope. They will never look
for four men, but for many. Four men travelling to the shrine of Loretto
with the Pope's passport may well sta