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Updated: May 28, 2025
Lapas nodded and, turning, led the way through the pine trees to a small kiosk that was something between a sentinel box and a signal station built against the walls of the old observatory. "I think I understand," said Lapas, "but I shall be glad to have you repeat the Duke's commands and inform me if any changes have been made." "No, the arrangements stand unaltered," replied the Spaniard.
There was a brief silence, then the Spaniard uttered a low exclamation of satisfaction. Benton glanced up to see a young man of frank face, blond mustache and Paris clothes drop into the vacant place with evident apologies for his tardiness. "Ah," breathed Blanco again, "I feared it would be someone I did not know. He is the Teniente Lapas, of Karyl's Palace guard. The pobrecito!
For an instant the Spaniard stood contemptuously regarding the other's terror, then with a disgusted exclamation he turned on his heel and started to the door of the kiosk. But Lapas was in a moment catching at his elbow and protesting himself convinced. He led Blanco back to a seat. "Listen."
"This matter," said Jusseret dubiously, "might cost you your life. Possibly I should not tell you. As a politician I can have nothing to do with it, but as a man, I wish I were myself free to act." "Who has offended the Countess?" demanded Lapas hotly. "Offended, my young friend! This is not an offense. It is the gravest indignity that can be shown a woman.
"Tell Von Ritz or Karyl that Lapas is a traitor and a prisoner in the observatory; that Louis is at his lodge and that the Countess Astaride is a conspirator in a plot to assassinate the King. Tell them that a percussion cap and key connect the magazines of do Freres with the city." The Princess looked at him with eyes that slowly widened in amazed comprehension. "I understand," she whispered.
Then he cautiously added the inquiry: "Have you heard the plans that were discussed by the Duke, and Jusseret and Borttorff?" "And yourself and Lieutenant Lapas," she augmented. "And Lapas and myself," admitted Benton, lying fluently.
At length she straightened herself, let go her support upon the table and went slowly like a sleep-walker from the room. She had not spoken. She had not said good-by, but Louis Delgado knew that she had walked out of his life. That evening Monsieur Jusseret of the French Cabinet Noir met, as if by chance, young Lieutenant Lapas, who was now high in the favor of the new government.
His own vision went farther into the future, and recognized in the present only a mile-post far from the ultimate. He led Lapas to his own rooms. He was leaving for Paris the following morning, he explained, and wished a brief conference. Jusseret could, when occasion demanded, be not only calm and self-sufficient, but also emotional. Now he was emotional.
Has he reached his hunting lodge? Does he know that guards are at the rock? Do you, or Lapas, wait to flash the signal from the look-out? Ah, how my gaze shall be bent toward the flag-staff." Then, as her eyes wandered out to sea, her voice became soft with dreams. She laughed low and shook her head. "Louis, Louis!" she murmured. "When you are King!
"I wish to God, Benton, you had let that traitor Lapas and his constituents touch their damned button. I wish to God you had let them lift me, amid the stones of do Freres, into eternity! But that wish is uncharitable to Von Ritz and the others who must have gone with me." The King broke off with a short laugh. "After all," he added, "of course, as you say, you couldn't do it."
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