elgratz."

Prince Michael, who had recovered some of his jauntiness, looked at Alec
with the crafty eye of a cowed hyena; but he said coolly, "There is
nothing to be gained by publishing our blunders to all the world."

"Have I your promise?" insisted Alec.

"Yes."

"And yours?" he said to Marulitch.

"Of course I agree," came the ready answer. "I, like Prince Michael,
feel that it would be folly----"

"Prince Michael!" snarled the royal Delgrado. "You must learn to school
your tongue, Julius! From this moment I am King of Kosnovia. Let there
be no manner of doubt about that!"

Alec might not have heard the blusterer. His calm glance fell on
Beliani. "And what say you?" he asked.

"I agree most fully and unreservedly," murmured the Greek, conveying,
with a deep bow, his respectful regret that such an assurance should be
necessary. The greatly perturbed President had already quitted the room;
so Alec turned to Stampoff. His manner was quite friendly. Well he knew
that this fiery soul was not to be judged by the Delgrado standard.

"I will not inflict on you, my trusty comrade," he said, "the indignity
of a demand that I felt was imperative in the case of some others
present. Let us shake hands and think rather of what we have gone
through together when I was King and you were my most loyal supporter,
than of the poor climax to my brief reign that reveals me as an
impostor."

Those keen eyes were raised in a half-formed resolution. "Is it too
late, Alec?" he growled sullenly.

"For what?"

Alec's smile of surprise was the only bit of affectation he had indulged
in that night. The fantasy flitting through Stampoff's brain was not
hidden from him; but he wanted to dismiss it lightly.

"God's bones! Need you ask? Say but the word, and you will be more
firmly established on the throne than ever. Trust me to find means to
still those babbling tongues!" and Stampoff flung out an arm in the
direction of the uncle and nephew, each manifestly anxious to hurry
away, yet each so distrustful of the other that he dared not go.

"Paul, you are incorrigible," said Alec. "You ought to have been a
marshal under Napoleon, who would have had no scruples. No, you will not
see civil war in the streets of Delgratz as to whether a Delgrado or an
American adventurer shall reign in Kosnovia. Yet, I thank you for the
thought. It shows that you, at least, do not rate me poorly, and it is
not in my heart to be vexed with you, thoug