ssed of
the fabled wings.

She had seen the rear line in the storming forces hesitate and then turn
to meet the whirlwind charge of the cavalrymen. Her brother was out
there and all was well. She was crying the joyous news from the head of
the grand stairway when Truxton King caught sight of her.

Smoke writhed about her slim, inspiriting figure. Her face shone through
the drab fog like an undimmed star of purest light. He bounded up the
steps toward her, drawn as by magnet against which there was no such
thing as resistance.

He was powder-stained and grimy; there was blood on his face and shirt
front.

"You are shot," she cried, clutching the post at the bend in the stairs.
"Truxton! Truxton!"

"Not even scratched," he shouted, as he reached her side. "It's not
my--" He stopped short, even as he held out his arms to clasp her to his
breast. "It's some one else's blood," he finished resolutely. She swayed
toward him and he caught her in his arms.

"I love you--oh, I love you, Truxton!" she cried over and over again. He
was faint with joy. His kisses spoke the adoration he would have cried
out to her if emotion had not clogged his throat.

"Eric?" she whispered at last, drawing back in his arms and looking up
into his eyes with a great pity in her own. "Is he--is he dead,
Truxton?"

"No," he said gently. "Badly hurt, but--"

"He will not die? Thank God, Truxton. He is a brave--oh, a very brave
man." Then she remembered her mission into this whirlpool of danger.
"Go! Don't lose a moment, darling! Tell Colonel Quinnox that Jack has
come! The dragoons are--"

He did not hear the end of her cry. A quick, fierce kiss and he was
gone, bounding down the stairs with great shouts of encouragement.

Leaderless, between the deadly fires, the mercenaries gave up the fight
after a brief stand at the terrace. Six hundred horsemen ploughed
through them, driving them to the very walls of the Castle. Here they
broke and scattered, throwing down their arms and shouting for mercy. It
was all over inside of twenty minutes.

The Prince reigned again.

* * * * *

Nightfall brought complete restoration of order, peace and security in
the city of Edelweiss. Hundreds of lives had been lost in the terrific
conflict of the early morning hours; hundreds of men lay on beds of
suffering, crushed and bleeding from the wounds they had courted and
received.

"I knowed we'd whip them," shouted the Prin