et on behind!"

The two men had their hands full to keep pace on foot with those wild
horses, but the distance was short. In less than an hour the group was
all on board the yacht which had her nose pointed straight for the
open sea.

CHAPTER XXIX

_The Open Door Closes_

It was an excited but happy group of people who sat down that night in
the cozy cabin of the yacht after a good day's rest. Each of them had
more than he could tell, for no one would allow the other to omit any
details of these last adventurous weeks. Each had been held in the
clutch of a widely differing set of circumstances and each had been
forced to make something of a lone fight of it. Here in the calm and
luxury of this cabin their lives, by the grace of God, had come to a
focus. First Danbury, as the host, was forced to begin from the time
he was lost at the gate to the palace.

He told of how he awoke in a certain house and found himself under the
care of the best nurse in the world. But that didn't last long, for
the next thing he knew he was on board his yacht and fifty miles out
at sea with a mutinous captain--a captain who refused to put back to
port when ordered to do so at once. Instead of that, the fellow ran
him into a strange port, took on board a surgeon (shanghaied him, in
fact) and refused to obey orders until three weeks later Danbury was
himself again plus a limp. Then he had come back to Bogova only to be
refused permission to anchor in the harbor. He had come ashore one
night in a dory, been arrested and carried before Otaballo who refused
to recognize him and gave him the alternative of going to jail or
leaving the coast at once. It had all been an incomprehensible mystery
to him; the only explanation he could think of being that the Queen
was seized by the General who had usurped the throne. He tried once
more to land and this time learned of the movement afoot by the
Republican party. He had made a dash for the palace, forced his way
through the guards, and reached the Queen. Now he'd like an
explanation from her Majesty of the unfair advantage she had taken of
a wounded prisoner.

Her Majesty with an excited, happy laugh said that if boys would get
excited and act foolishly, the only thing to do was to keep them out
of trouble by force. It was true that she had conspired to have him
transported and kept safe aboard his ship, because she knew that if
he came back, he would resent a great many things she was fo