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Maenck looked at his male prisoner and staggered back as though struck between the eyes. "Mein Gott," he exclaimed, "the impostor!" "You told me he was dead," repeated the king accusingly. "As God is my judge, your majesty," cried Peter of Blentz, "this man was shot by an Austrian firing squad in Burgova over a week ago."
At the gate they were refused admittance unless the king would accept conditions. Barney refused there was another way to gain entrance to Blentz that not even the master of Blentz knew. Butzow urged him to accede to anything to save the life of the American. He recalled all that the latter had done in the service of Lutha and Leopold. Barney leaned close to the other's ear.
One of the Blentz soldiers had told him how the "king," after being wounded by Maenck, had raised himself upon his elbow and saved the prisoner's life by shooting three of his assailants. "I thought I was done for," answered Barney Custer, "but I rather guess the bullet struck only a glancing blow. It couldn't have entered my lungs, for I neither cough nor spit blood.
The moment Lieutenant Butzow had reached Lustadt he had gone directly to Prince von der Tann; but the moment his message had been delivered to the chancellor he sought out the chancellor's daughter, to tell her all that had occurred at Blentz. "I saw but little of Mr. Custer," he said. "He was very quiet. I think all that he has been through has unnerved him.
As Barney Custer took her in his arms he was happier than he had ever before been in all his life, and so, too, was the Princess Emma von der Tann. After the American had shoved him through the secret doorway into the tower room of the castle of Blentz, Leopold had stood for several minutes waiting for the next command from his captor.
"If it can go forty we are safe enough," replied Barney; "but we'll give it a chance to go as fast as it can the farther we are from the vicinity of Blentz the safer I shall feel for the welfare of your highness." A shot rang behind them, and a bullet whistled high above their heads. The princess seized the carbine that rested on the seat between them.
At their head rode Lieutenant Butzow and a tall young man in soiled and tattered khaki, whose gray eyes and full reddish-brown beard brought an exclamation from Captain Maenck who commanded the guard about Peter of Blentz. "Mein Gott the king!" cried Maenck, and at the words Peter went white. In open-mouthed astonishment the spectators saw the hurrying troopers and heard Butzow's "The king!
"The rope, Joseph! And for God's sake be quick about it." For half an hour the Princess von der Tann succeeded admirably in immersing herself in the periodical, to the exclusion of her unhappy thoughts and the depressing influence of the austere countenance of the Blentz Princess hanging upon the wall behind her. But presently she became unaccountably nervous.
If you can satisfactorily explain to him how you chance to be in possession of military passes bearing his name I shall be very glad to give you the benefit of every other doubt." Peter of Blentz. Send for Peter of Blentz! Barney wondered just what kind of a sensation it was to stand facing a firing squad. He hoped that his knees wouldn't tremble they felt a trifle weak even now.
There had been murmurings then when the lad's uncle, Peter of Blentz, had announced to the people of Lutha the sudden mental affliction which had fallen upon his nephew, and more murmurings for a time after the announcement that Peter of Blentz had been appointed Regent during the lifetime of the young King Leopold, "or until God, in His infinite mercy, shall see fit to restore to us in full mental vigor our beloved monarch."
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