it's been
in power for years. Do you know," she looked at me frankly, "I've never
forgiven him for letting them kill my mother! Throughout all of my
childhood I used to hold indignation meetings with myself and consign
him to every imaginable punishment--both for that, and running away
without avenging her."

She was quiet then. This news of the South American republic showed what
an accomplished liar old Efaw Kotee could be. Very plausible, indeed,
and an adequate excuse for keeping her in a potential prison.

"I fear that I've been terribly outspoken," she said at last, with a
wistful expression that held both laughter and apology.

"You've been wonderful," I whispered, deliberately turning away my head
and gazing out across the prairie. I could not have met her eyes just
then.

CHAPTER XIX

ENLIGHTENING A PRINCESS

As gently as I could, after I felt that my voice might be trusted not to
betray itself, I told her of Monsieur Dragot's deductions, who we
thought she really was--not the daughter of that old scoundrel, at all.
I let her see the record of his crimes, her mother's discovery of the
plates, the kidnaping, and, unless something most recent and unexpected
had happened, the queen regent of Azuria was waiting at this minute for
the little princess to return.

She had been sitting very still, like a child with parted lips
enchantingly absorbed by a fairy tale. When I finished she turned her
wondering eyes to mine, and gasped:

"It can't be true!"

"I think it is," I said. "I mean that it is so far as Monsieur can judge
from the threads of evidence he holds, and what you've told me makes his
theory more convincing."

"Oh--and I've called this man Father for so long! You don't suppose he
still might be, somehow?"

"There's no somehow about it," I had to smile at this question. "He
either is, or isn't; in the same indefeasible sense that white isn't
black."

"I didn't mean that he might be just partly, of course," she said so
quietly and seriously that I burst out laughing. "But it's awfully hard
to understand, all at once! That must account for the subtle antagonism
I felt for him. It really accounts for so much!--for the way he
encouraged me to spend money, heaps and heaps of it! Why, I've
everything I can think of--from Havana, New Orleans and Vera Cruz!"

"He wanted you to spend his large bills so he could get good money in
change," I suggested.

"That's obvious now, but suppose I'd be