President; but Sergius Nesimir's
vacuous features so obviously revealed his condition of speechless
surprise and distress that there remained only Stampoff, Prince
Michael--and his mother.

Adhering rigidly to his scheme of narrowing the field of inquiry by
putting the same straight question to each individual in turn, Alec next
appealed to the man who had helped him to gain a throne.

"Paul," he said, "you who were my friend and have become my enemy, you,
at least, will speak the truth. Tell me, then, who has done this thing!"

Stampoff strode forward. He feared no one, this determined advocate of
his country's cause, and he alone knew the real menace of the impending
tornado. "Your mother ought not to be here, Alec," he muttered. "A
little more of this and she will faint. Look at her! Have you no pity in
your heart? This is no place for a woman. Unlock the door and let her be
taken away!"

Alec moistened his dry lips with his tongue. He felt that he was finally
touching sure ground in the morass through which he was floundering.
"She and all of you must remain!" was his grim reply. "Answer my
question! Was it you who drove Joan from Delgratz?"

"I counseled it," said Stampoff, folding his arms defiantly, and
apparently careless whether or not the King sprang at his throat the
next instant.

"Ah! At last! Thank God for one man who is honest, though he seems to
have acted like a fiend! To whom did you counsel it? To Joan herself?"

"No."

"Tell me, then, to whom?"

"I refuse."

"Stampoff, I shall draw a confession from you even though you die under
my hands."

"I have faced death many times for the King of Kosnovia," said the harsh
Serbian voice, "and I shall not shrink from it now, whether at the hands
of the King or his foes. Send your mother away; then, perhaps, I may
tell you what you want to know. The thing is done, and I, for one, shall
not shirk the consequences."

"My mother again! Must she be spared though you have sacrificed her
son?"

With a quick movement that sent tremors through Julius and the Greek,
since he was compelled to pass close to both, he strode to the quaking
Princess and caught her almost roughly by the shoulder.

"I feared this from the outset," he cried. "Did Stampoff make you the
agent of his hellish work? Joan would trust you. Speak to me, mother!
Was it you who wrought this evil?"

Her head was bent low, and she gasped something that sounded like an
excuse. Alec recoil