ING PRINCESS AND THE MISTAKEN COUNTESS 112

XII BENTON MUST DECIDE 123

XIII CONCERNING FAREWELLS AND WARNINGS 137

XIV COUNTESS AND CABINET NOIR JOIN FORCES 144

XV THE TOREADOR BECOMES AMBASSADOR 155

XVI THE AMBASSADOR BECOMES ADMIRAL 167

XVII BENTON CALLS ON THE KING 178

XVIII IN WHICH THE SPHINX BREAKS SILENCE 190

XIX THE JACKAL TAKES THE TRAIL 203

XX THE DEATH OF ROMANCE IS DEPLORED 214

XXI NAPLES ASSUMES NEW BEAUTY 222

XXII THE SENTRY-BOX ANSWERS THE KING'S QUERY 229

XXIII "SCARABS OF A DEAD DYNASTY" 244

XXIV IN WHICH KINGS AND COMMONERS DISCUSS LOVE 255

XXV ABDUL SAID BEY EFFECTS A RESCUE 265

XXVI IN A CURIO SHOP IN STAMBOUL 276

XXVII BENTON SAYS GOOD-BY 288

XXVIII JUSSERET MAKES A REPORT 300

THE LIGHTED MATCH

CHAPTER I

AN OMEN IS CONSTRUED

"When a feller an' a gal washes their hands in the same basin at the
same time, it's a tol'able good sign they won't git married this year."

The oracle spoke through the bearded lips of a farmer perched on the top
step of his cabin porch. The while he construed omens, a setter pup
industriously gnawed at his boot-heels.

The girl was bending forward, her fingers spread in a tin basin, as the
man at her elbow poured water slowly from a gourd-dipper. Heaped, in
disorder against the cabin wall, lay their red hunting-coats, crops, and
riding gauntlets.

The oracle tumbled the puppy down the steps and watched its return to
the attack. Then with something of melancholy retrospect in his pale
eyes he pursued his reflections. "Now there was Sissy Belmire an' Bud
Thomas, been keeping company for two years, then washed hands in common
at the Christian Endeavor picnic an'--" He broke off to shake his head
in sorrowing memory.

The young man, holding his muddied digits over the water, paused to
consider the matter.

Suddenly his hands went down into the basin with a splash.

"It is now the end of October," he enlightened; "next year comes in nine
weeks."

The sun was dipping into a cloud-bank already purpled and gold-rimmed.
Shortly it would drop behind