rspiring, packed together with cheap
trippers, but exalted with the one hope of saving the King, we at last
staggered out on the Kohlslau platform utterly exhausted. As we did so
we heard a distant roar from the city. Fritz turned an ashen gray,
Spitz a livid blue. "Are we too late?" he gasped, as we madly fought
our way into the street, where shouts of "The King! The King!" were
rending the air. "Can it be Black Michael?" But here the crowd
parted, and a procession, preceded by outriders, flashed into the
square. And there, seated in a carriage beside the most beautiful
red-haired girl I had ever seen, was the King,--the King whom we had
left two hours ago, dead drunk in the hut in the forest!

CHAPTERS III TO XXII (Inclusive)

IN WHICH THINGS GET MIXED

We reeled against each other aghast! Spitz recovered himself first.
"We must fly!" he said hoarsely. "If the King has discovered our
trick--we are lost!"

"But where shall we go?" I asked.

"Back to the hut."

We caught the next train to Bock. An hour later we stood panting
within the hut. Its walls and ceiling were splashed with sinister red
stains. "Blood!" I exclaimed joyfully. "At last we have a real
mediaeval adventure!"

"It's Burgundy, you fool," growled Spitz; "good Burgundy wasted!" At
this moment Fritz appeared dragging in the hut-keeper.

"Where is the King?" demanded Spitz fiercely of the trembling peasant.

"He was carried away an hour ago by Black Michael and taken to the
castle."

"And when did he LEAVE the castle?" roared Spitz.

"He never left the castle, sir, and, alas! I fear never will, alive!"
replied the man, shuddering.

We stared at each other! Spitz bit his grizzled mustache. "So," he
said bitterly, "Black Michael has simply anticipated us with the same
game! We have been tricked. I knew it could not be the King whom they
crowned! No!" he added quickly, "I see it all--it was Rupert of
Glasgow!"

"Who is Rupert of Glasgow?" I cried.

"Oh, I really can't go over all that family rot again," grunted Spitz.
"Tell him, Fritz."

Then, taking me aside, Fritz delicately informed me that Rupert of
Glasgow--a young Scotchman--claimed equally with myself descent from
the old Rupert, and that equally with myself he resembled the King.
That Michael had got possession of him on his arrival in the country,
kept him closely guarded in the castle, and had hid his resemblance in
a black wig and false mustache; that the yo