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Updated: May 22, 2025
Three times he wandered from the way and was forced to stop at farmhouses to inquire the proper direction; but darkness hid his features from the sleepy eyes of those who answered his summons, and daylight found him still forging ahead in the direction of the capital of Lutha. The American was sunk in unhappy meditation as his weary little mount plodded slowly along the dusty road.
"What?" cried Butzow, and upon his face there was little to indicate the rejoicing that a loyal subject of Leopold of Lutha should have felt at that announcement. "There is a man in the next room," went on Barney, "who can lead us to the spot where Coblich and Maenck guard the king. Get him in here."
"Peter is recruiting an army to aid him in seizing the palace at Lustadt, and king or no king, we must ride for the capital in time to check that move. Thank God," he added, "that we shall have a king to place upon the throne of Lutha at noon tomorrow in spite of all that Peter can do." "What do you mean?" asked Barney. "Have you any clue to the whereabouts of Leopold?"
One was to cross the frontier into Lutha; and the other, which of course was quite out of the question, was to prevent Peter of Blentz, Von Coblich, and Maenck from doing so. But was that altogether impossible?
And possibly, too, it was dear to him because of the royal blood his mother had bequeathed him. His meal disposed of to the last morsel, and paid for, Barney entered the stolen car and resumed his journey toward Lutha.
Behind him were a score of officers. A trumpeter raised his instrument to his lips, and above the din of the fleeing multitude rose the sharp, triple call that announces the coming of the king. The mob halted and turned. Looking down upon them from his saddle was Leopold of Lutha. His palm was raised for silence and there was a smile upon his lips.
With his hand upon the knob a sudden thought stayed the fugitive's flight. He glanced quickly back at the sleeper he had not moved. Then the man who wore the uniform of the king of Lutha recrossed the apartment to the bed, reached beneath one of the pillows and withdrew two neatly folded official-looking documents. These he placed in the breastpocket of his uniform.
"Your highness wrongs not only my loyalty, but my intelligence," he said quietly, "by even so much as intimating that I have any guilty knowledge of Leopold's escape. With Leopold upon the throne of Lutha, where, think you, my prince, would old Coblich be?" Peter smiled. "You are right, Coblich," he said. "I know that you would not be such a fool; but whom, then, have we to thank?"
But the other only shook his head obstinately, and so they came to the great granite monument which marks the boundary between Lutha and her powerful neighbor upon the north. Barney held out his hand. "Good-bye, old man," he said. "If I've learned the ingratitude of kings here in Lutha, I have found something that more than compensates me the friendship of a brave man.
How Leopold of Lutha hated him, and yet, in the hands of this American lay not only his throne but his very life as well. Evidently the negotiations proved unsuccessful for after a time the party wheeled their horses from the gate and rode back toward Blentz. As the sound of the iron-shod hoofs diminished in the distance, with them diminished the hopes of the king.
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