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You will make me a wrecker of governments a traitor to my duty." The King turned and looked out to sea. "I must think," he said in a tired voice. "Perhaps it is only a matter of time. Delgado is free. Perhaps I shall not have to present him with my throne. Conceivably he may come and take it." Von Ritz approached again and took Karyl's hand.
Louis, the King, may prove forgetful of those who are forgetful of Louis, the Duke." Lapas still stood silent, pitiably unnerved. If the man was Karyl's spy an incautious reply might cost him his life. If he was genuinely a messenger from the Pretender any hesitation might prove equally fatal. Time was important.
Karyl's hair was rumpled; his eyes darkly ringed, and the line of his lips close set. Benton glanced out of his window. Across the gardens the wall was growing blanker, as lighted panes fell dark. One window, which he knew was Cara's, still showed a parallelogram of light behind its drawn shade. Karyl in passing followed the glance. He, too, recognized the window. At last the Galavian spoke.
Small boats were rushed toward the beach and Louis, the Dreamer, with his party waded knee-deep into the water to meet the rescuers. At the same moment a bugle call announced the coming of Karyl's soldiery. As Louis Delgado went over the side, he turned quickly back and, leaning over the rail, gazed through the settling darkness toward shore.
Von Ritz distrusts France. Let the suggestion come from Portugal, a friend who can speak persuasively and convincingly. Let him see the inevitable result unless he consents. Let all which we have done be denounced. Lead him to believe that he holds as steward" Jusseret raised his hands as he concluded "for Karyl's heir, if there should be one. These things are mere details."
He read it and for an instant a look of pain crossed the features that rarely yielded to expression. Then he sought out Karyl's stateroom. Karyl turned wearily from the wintry picture of a sullenly heaving sea, to answer the rap on the door. His face did not brighten as he recognized Von Ritz. The Colonel was that type of being upon whom men may depend or whom they must fear.
"And how do you propose," he demanded, "to persuade this loyal adviser of Karyl to accept a deputyship at the hands of Karyl's enemies?" Again Jusseret smiled. "It will be Von Ritz or a foreigner," he explained. "We must convince him that his beloved Kingdom can henceforth be only a province in any event that it may prosper under his guidance or suffer under a more oppressive hand.
As Benton paced the ledge impatiently, awaiting the outcome of Blanco's reconnoiter, he noticed with a nauseating sense of onrushing peril how the purpled shadows of the mountains were lengthening across the valley and beginning to creep up the other side. Each time his pacing brought him to the edge of the clearing he paused to look down at the sullen walls of Karyl's castle.
"Messieurs, we have wrecked Karyl's dynasty, but it still devolves upon us in workmanlike fashion to clear away the débris." Martin leaned forward and put his query like an attorney cross-examining a witness. "Where was this Queen when the King was taken?" "That," replied Jusseret, "is a question to be put to Von Ritz or Karyl.
Suddenly the complacency deserted the Englishman's features, for a startled expression. With a violent malediction he bent forward listening. Karyl's ears also caught the sound of feet on the stairs, immediately followed by a crash upon the door.
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