The startling assertion created a fresh sensation. Sensations had come
so thick and so fast, however, that they seemed component parts of one
grand bewildering climax. The new actor in the drama held the center of
the stage undisputed.
“Harry!” cried Lorry.
“Prince Gabriel, why do you shake like a leaf? Is it because you
know what I am going to say?” exclaimed Anguish, pointing his finger
accusingly at the astonished Prince of Dawsbergen.
Gabriel's lips parted, but nothing more than a gasp escaped them.
Involuntarily his eyes sought the door, then the windows, the peculiar
uncontrollable look of the hunted coming into them. Bolaroz allowed his
gaze to leap instantly to that pallid face and every eye in the room
followed. Yetive was standing again, her face glowing.
“An accomplice has confessed all. I have the word of the man who saw
the crime committed. I charge Prince Gabriel with the murder of His
Highness, Prince Lorenz.”
With a groan, Gabriel threw his hands to his heart and tottered forward,
glaring at the merciless face of the accuser.
“Confessed! Betrayed!” he faltered. Then he whirled like a maniac upon
his little coterie of followers. “Vile traitor!” he shrieked, “I will
drink your heart's blood!”
With a howl he leaped toward one of the men, a darkfaced nobleman named
Berrowag. The latter evaded him and rushed toward the door, crying:
“It is a lie! a lie! He has tricked you! I did not confess!”
The Prince was seized by his friends, struggling and cursing. A peculiar
smile lit up the face of Harry Anguish.
“I repeat, he is the assassin!”
Gabriel broke from the detaining hands and drawing a revolver, rushed
for the door.
“Out of the way! I will not be taken alive!”
Allode met him at the curtains and grasped him in his powerful arms,
Baron Dangloss and others tearing the weapon from his hand. The utmost
confusion reigned--women screaming, men shouting--and above all could be
heard the howls of the accused Prince.
“Let me go! Curse you! Curse you! I will not surrender! Let me kill that
traitor! Let me at him!” Berrowag had been seized by willing hands,
and the two men glared at each other, one crazy with rage, the other
shrinking with fear.
Dangloss and Allode half carried, half dragged the Prince forward. As
he neared Bolaroz and the Princess he collapsed and became a trembling,
moaning suppliant for mercy. Anguish's accusation had struck home.
“Prince Bolaroz, I trust you will not object if the Princess Yetive
substitutes the true assassin for the man named in your promise to
Graustark,” said Anguish, dramatically. Bolaroz, as if coming from a
dream, turned and knelt before the throne.
“Most adorable Yetive,” he said; “I sue for pardon. I bow low and lay
my open heart before the truest woman in the world.” He kissed the black
lace hem of her gown and arose. “I am your friend and ally; Axphain and
Graustark will live no more with hatred in their hearts. From you I have
learned a lesson in justice and constancy.”
Prince Gabriel was raving like a madman as the officers hurried him and
Berrowag from the room. A shout went up from those assembled. Its
echo, reaching the halls, then the gardens, was finally taken up by
the waiting masses beyond the gates. The news flew like wild-fire.
Rejoicing, such as had never been known, shook Edelweiss until the monks
on the mountain looked down in wonder.
After the dazed and happy throng about the throne had heaped its
expressions of love and devotion upon the radiant Princess a single
figure knelt in subjection, just as she was preparing to depart. It was
the Duke of Mizrox.
“Your Royal Highness, Mizrox is ready to pay his forfeit. My life is
yours,” he said, calmly. She did not comprehend until her uncle reminded
her of the oath Mizrox had taken the morning after the murder.
“He swore, on his life, that you killed Lorenz,” she said, turning to
Lorry.
“I was wrong, but I am willing to pay the penalty. My love for Lorenz
was greater than my discretion. That is my only excuse, but it is one
you should not accept,” said Mizrox, as coolly as if announcing the time
of day. Lorry looked first at him and then at the Princess, bewildered
and uncertain.
“I have no ill will against you, my Lord Duke. Release him from his bond
your Highness.”
“Gladly, since you refuse to hold him to his oath,” she said.
“I am under an eternal obligation to you, sir, for your leniency, and
I shall ever revere the Princess who pardons so graciously the gravest
error.”
Yetive begged Bolaroz to continue to make the Court his home while in
Graustark, and the old Prince responded with the declaration that he
would remain long enough to sign and approve the new covenant, at least.
Before stepping from the throne, Yetive called in low tones to Lorry, a
pretty flush mantling her cheek:
“Will you come to me in half an hour?”
“For my reward?” he asked, eagerly.
“Ach?” she cried, softly, reprovingly. Count Halfont's face took on a
troubled expression as he caught the swift communication in their eyes.
After all, she was a Princess.
She passed from the room beside Halfont, proud and happy in the victory
over despair, glorying in the exposure of her heart to the world, her
blood tingling and dancing with the joys of anticipation. Lorry and
Anguish, the wonder and admiration of all, were given a short but
convincing levee in the hallway. Lords and ladies praised and lauded
them, overwhelming them with the homage that comes to the brave. But
Gaspon uttered one wish that struck Lorry's warm, leaping heart like a
piece of ice.
“Would to God that you were a Prince of the realm,” said the minister of
finance, a look of regret and longing in his eyes. That wish of Gaspon's
sent Lorry away with the sharp steel of desolation, torturing intensely
as it drove deeper and deeper the reawakened pangs of uncertainty. There
still remained the fatal distance between him and the object of his
heart's desire.
He accompanied Captain Quinnox to his quarters, where he made himself
presentable before starting for the enchanted apartment in the far end
of the castle. Eager, burning passion throbbed side by side with
the cold pulsing of fear, a trembling race between two unconquerable
emotions. Passion longed for the voice, the eyes, the caresses; fear
cried aloud in every troubled throb: “You will see her and kiss her and
then you will be banished.”
The two emotions thus thrown together, clashing fiercely for supremacy,
at last wove themselves into a single, solid, uncompromising whole. Out
of the two grew an aggressive determination not to be thwarted. Love
and fear combined to give him strength; from his eyes fled the hopeless
look, from his brain the doubt, from his blood the chill.
“Quinnox, give me your hand--don't mind the blood! You have been my
friend, and you have served her almost to the death. I injured and would
have killed you in that cell, but it was not in anger. Will you be my
friend in all that is to follow?”
“She has said that she loves you,” said the captain, returning the hand
clasp. “I am at your service as well as hers.”
A few moments later Lorry was in her presence. What was said or done
during the half hour that passed between his entrance and the moment
that brought them side by side from the room need not be told. That the
interview had had its serious side was plain. The troubled, anxious eyes
of the girl and the rebellious, dogged air of the man told of a conflict
now only in abeyance.
“I will never give you up,” he said, as they came from the door. A
wistful gleam flickered in her eyes, but she did not respond in words.
Near the head of the stairway an animated group of persons lingered.
Harry Anguish was in the center and the Countess Dagmar was directly in
front of him, looking up with sparkling eyes and parted lips. The Count
and Countess Halfont, Gaspon, the Baron Dangloss, the Duke of Mizrox,
with other ladies and gentlemen, were being entertained by the
gay-spirited stranger.
“Here he comes,” cried the latter, as he caught sight of the approaching
couple.
“I am delighted to see you, Harry. You were the friend in need, old
man,” said Lorry, wringing the other's hand. Yetive gave him her hand,
her blue eyes overflowing.
“Mr. Anguish had just begun to tell us how he--how he--” began Dagmar,
but paused helplessly, looking to him for relief.
“Go ahead, Countess; it isn't very elegant, but it's the way I said
it. How I 'got next' to Gabriel is what she wants to say. Perhaps
your Highness would like to know all about the affair that ended so
tragically. It's very quickly told,” said Anguish.
“I am deeply interested,” said the Princess, eagerly.
“Well, in the first place, it was all a bluff,” said he, coolly.
“A what!” demanded Dagmar.
“Bluff,” responded Harry, briefly; “American patois, dear Countess.”
“In what respect,” asked Lorry, beginning to understand.
“In all respects. I didn't have the slightest sign of proof against the
festive Prince.”
“And you--you did all that 'on a bluff'?” gasped the other.
“Do I understand you to say that you have no evidence against Gabriel?”
asked Halfont, dumbfounded.
“Not a particle.”
“But you said his confederate had confessed,” protested Dangloss.
“I didn't know that he had a confederate, and I wasn't sure that he
was guilty of the crime,” boasted Anguish, complacently enjoying the
stupefaction.
“Then why did you say so?” demanded Dangloss, excited beyond measure.
“Oh, I just guessed at it!”
“God save us!” gasped Baron Dangloss, Chief of Police.
“Guessed at it?” cried Mizrox.
“That's it. It was a bold stroke, but it won. Now, I'll tell you this
much. I was morally certain that Gabriel killed the Prince. There was
no way on earth to prove it, however, and I'll admit it was intuition
or something of that sort which convinced me. He had tried to abduct the
Princess, and he was madly jealous of Lorenz. Although he knew there was
to be a duel, he was not certain that Lorenz would lose, so he adopted
a clever plan to get rid of two rivals by killing one and casting
suspicion on the other. These deductions I made soon after the murder,
but, of course, could secure no proof. Early this morning, at the hotel,
I made up my mind to denounce him suddenly if I had the chance, risking
failure but hoping for such an exhibition as that which you saw. It was
clear to me that he had an accomplice to stand guard while he did the
stabbing, but I did not dream it was Berrowag. Lorry's sensational
appearance, when I believed him to be far away from here, disturbed me
greatly but it made it all the more necessary that I should take the
risk with Gabriel. As I watched him I became absolutely convinced of his
guilt. The only way to accuse him was to do it boldly and thoroughly, so
I rang in the accomplice and the witness features. You all know how the
'bluff' worked.”
“And you had no more proof than this?” asked Dangloss, weakly.
“That's all,” laughed the delighted strategist.
Dangloss stared at him for a moment, then threw up his hands and
walked away, shaking his head, whether in stupefied admiration or utter
disbelief, no one knew. The others covered Anguish with compliments, and
he was more than ever the hero of the day. Such confidence paralyzed
the people. The only one who was not overcome with astonishment was his
countryman.
“You did it well,” he said in an undertone to Anguish; “devilish well.”
“You might at least say I did it to the queen's taste,” growled Anguish,
meaningly.
“Well, then, you did,” laughed Lorry.