The George Barr McCutcheon MEGAPACK ®. George Barr McCutcheon

city guard except through St. Valentine’s.”

      “Yetive, has it not occurred to you that I may not wish to escape the city guard?”

      “May not wish to escape the—what do you mean?” she cried, bewildered.

      “I am not going to leave Edelweiss, dearest. It is my intention to surrender myself to the authorities.”

      She gazed at him in horror for a moment and then fell back with a low moan.

      “For God’s sake, do not say that!” she wailed. “I forbid you to think of it. You cannot do this after all I have done to save you. Ach, you are jesting; I should have known.”

      He sat down and drew her to his side. Some moments passed before he could speak.

      “I cannot and will not permit you to make such a sacrifice for me. The proposition of Bolaroz is known to me. If you produce me for trial you are to have a ten years’ extension. My duty is plain. I am no cowardly criminal, and I am not afraid to face my accusers. At the worst, I can die but once.”

      “Die but once,” she repeated, as if in a dream.

      “I came here to tell you of my decision, to ask you to save your lands, protect your people, and to remember that I would die a thousand times to serve you and yours.”

      “After all I have done—after all I have done,” she murmured, piteously. “No, no! You shall not! You are more to me than all my kingdom, than all the people in the world. You have made me love you, you have caused me to detest the throne which separates us, you have made me pray that I might be a pauper, but you shall not force me to destroy the mite of hope that lingers in my heart. You shall not crush the hope that there may be a—a—some day!”

      “A some day? Some day when you will be mine?” he cried.

      “I will not say that, but, for my sake,—for my sake,—go away from this place. Save yourself! You are all I have to live for.” Her arms were about his neck and her imploring words went to his heart like great thrusts of pain.

      “You forget the thousands who love and trust you. Do they deserve to be wronged?”

      “No, no,—ach, God, how I have suffered because of them! I have betrayed them, have stolen their rights and made them a nation of beggars. But I would not, for all this nation, have an innocent man condemned—nor could my people ask that of me. You cannot dissuade me. It must be as I wish. Oh, why does not Quinnox come for you!” She arose and paced the floor distractedly.

      He was revolving a selfish, cowardly capitulation to love and injustice, when a sharp tap was heard at the door. Leaping to his feet he whispered:

      “Quinnox! He has come for me. Now to get out of your room without being seen!”

      The Princess Yetive ran to him, and, placing her hands on his shoulders, cried with the fierceness of despair:

      “You will go back to the monastery? You will leave Graustark? For my sake—for my sake!”

      He hesitated and then surrendered, his honor falling weak and faint by the pathway of passion.

      “Yes!” he cried, hoarsely.

      Tap! tap! tap! at the door. Lorry took one look at the rapturous face and released her.

      “Come!” she called.

      The door flew open, an attendant saluted, and in stepped—Gabriel!

      CHAPTER XXIV

      OFF TO THE DUNGEON

      The tableau lasted but a moment. Gabriel advanced a few steps, his eyes gleaming with jealousy and triumph. Before him stood the petrified lovers, caught red-handed. Through her dazed brain struggled the conviction that he could never escape; through his ran the miserable realization that he had ruined her forever. Gabriel, of all men!

      “I arrive inopportunely,” he said, harshly, the veins standing out on his neck and temples. “Do I intrude? I was not aware that you expected two, your highness!” There was no mistaking his meaning. He viciously sought to convey the impression that he was there by appointment, a clandestine visitor in her apartments at midnight.

      “What do you mean by coming to my apartment at this hour?” she stammered, trying to rescue dignity from the chaos of emotions. Lorry was standing slightly to the right and several feet behind her. He understood the Prince, and quickly sought to interpose with the hope that he might shield her from the sting.

      “She did not expect me, sir,” he said, and a menacing gleam came to his eyes. His pistol was in his hand. Gabriel saw it, but the staring Princess did not. She could not take her eyes from the face of the intruder. “Now, may I ask why you are here?”

      Gabriel’s wit saved him from death. He saw that he could not pursue the course he had begun, for there was murder in the American’s eye. Like a fox he swerved and, with a servile promise of submission in his glance, said:

      “I thought you were here, my fine fellow, and I came to satisfy myself. Now, sir, may I ask why you are here?” His fingers twitched and his eyes were glassy with the malevolence he was subduing.

      “I am here as a prisoner,” said Lorry, boldly. Gabriel laughed derisively.

      “And how often have you come here in this manner as a prisoner? Midnight and alone in the apartments of the Princess! The guard dismissed! A prisoner, eh? Ha, what—a prison!”

      “Stop!” cried Lorry, white to the lips.

      The Princess was beginning to understand.

      Her eyes grew wide with horror, her figure straightened imperiously and the white in her cheeks gave way to the red of insulted virtue.

      “I see it all! You have not been outside this castle since you left the prison. A pretty scheme! You could not marry him, could you, eh? He is not a prince! But you could bring him here and hide him where no one would dare to think of looking for him—in your apartments!”

      With a snarl of rage Lorry sprang upon him, cutting short the sentence that would have gone through her like the keenest knife-blade.

      “Liar! Dog! I’ll kill you for that!” he cried, but, before he could clutch the Prince’s throat, Yetive had frantically seized his arm.

      “Not that!” she shrieked. “Do not kill him! There must be no murder here!”

      He reluctantly hurled Gabriel from him, the Prince tottering to his knees in the effort to keep from falling. She had saved her maligner’s life, but courage deserted her with the act. Helplessly she looked into the blazing eyes of her lover and faltered:

      “I—I do not know what to say or do. My brain is bursting!”

      “Courage, courage!” he whispered, gently.

      “You shall pay for this,” shrieked Gabriel. “If you are not a prisoner you shall be. There’ll be scandal enough in Graustark tomorrow to start a volcano of wrath from the royal tombs where lie her fathers. I’ll see that you are a prisoner!” He started for the door, but Lorry’s pistol was leveled at his head.

      “If you move I’ll kill you!”

      “The world will understand how and why I fell by your hand and in this room. Shoot!” he cried, triumphantly. Lorry’s hand trembled and his eyes filled with the tears of impotent rage. The Prince held the higher card.

      A face suddenly appeared at the door, which had been stealthily opened from without. Captain Quinnox glided into the room behind the Prince and gently closed the door, unnoticed by the gloater.

      “A prisoner?” sneered Gabriel. “Where is your captor, pray?”

      “Here!” answered a voice at his back. The Prince wheeled and found himself looking at the stalwart form of the captain of the guard. “I am surely privileged to speak now, your Highness,” he went on, addressing the Princess significantly.

      “How