d marry a Serb? And what mad prank of fortune
sent her here to-day? By thunder! I thought things were quieting down in
Delgratz; but I was wrong--they are just beginning to wake up!"

CHAPTER IX

MUTTERINGS OF STORM

Before Joan's carriage had traveled a hundred yards it was halted by a
loud command. An officer, galloping at the head of a detachment of
cavalry, sought news of the King, and an escorted vehicle coming from
the upper end of Fuerst Michaelstrasse promised developments. Joan was
startled back into consciousness by the sudden stoppage. The excited
babble going on without was incomprehensible and therefore alarming, nor
did the polite assurances of the officer, as he bent in the saddle and
peered in at the window while he aired his best French, serve to still
this fresh tumult in her veins.

"What is he saying?" she asked Felix, turning her frightened eyes from
the urbane personage on horseback to Poluski's intent face.

"He was sent to rescue the King," was the explanation. "He says the
bodyguard received warning less than two minutes ago."

"Tell him the King is safe now."

"Oh, he knows that already. What puzzled him is the fact that the troops
at the War Ministry, which lies beyond the President's house, should
have reached there before him."

"What does it matter, since help came in time? Please bid the coachman
go on. I--I would like to be the first to let Princess Delgrado know
that her son has escaped from those horrid men. Who were they? Why
should they want to kill Alec?"

Felix did not obey her bequest instantly. He exchanged some hasty words
with the strange officer, who chanced to be Drakovitch, and answered
Joan's questions only when the cab resumed its journey. "Have you
forgotten the part played by the Seventh Regiment in the recent history
of Delgratz?" he cried.

"I remember something about them. Alec disbanded them. Oh--they were the
soldiers who revolted and murdered the late King and Queen."

"Exactly. Do women ever read the newspapers intelligently, I wonder? You
state a most remarkable fact, considering that this is Delgratz and your
future capital, as coolly as if it had happened in Kamchatka."

"But still I do not understand why they should turn against Alec. I have
at least sufficient intelligence to recall the avowed object of their
crime,--the restoration of the Delgrado line."

Felix smiled. If Joan was able to defend herself, she was certainly
making a rapi