gain. "Gentlemen,
you are my prisoners." Turning to the Colonel, he added: "You have clung
to the waning dynasty, Von Ritz, until it fell, but your sword may still
find service in Galavia. I offer you the opportunity. We have often
crossed wits. Now, for the first time, I win--and offer amnesty."

For a moment Von Ritz stood white and trembling with rage, then with his
open hand he struck the smiling face that seemed to float tauntingly
before his eyes, and drawing his sword, stepped between the King and the
suddenly concentrated group of officers who moved frontward with a
single accord, hands on swords. They spread from a group into a line,
and the line quickly closed in a circle around the King and the one man
who remained loyal.

Karyl was himself unarmed. He raised a restraining hand to Von Ritz's
shoulder, but before he could speak his head sagged forward under the
impact of some sudden shock--some blow from behind--and things went dark
about him as he crumpled to his knees and fell.

Von Ritz, struggling desperately with a broken blade in his hand was
slowly overwhelmed by seeming swarms of men. Like a tiger caught in a
net, his ferocity gradually waned until, bleeding from scratch-wounds
in a half-dozen places, he felt himself sinking into a haze. His useless
sword-hilt fell with a clatter to the tiles. As his arms were pinioned
by several of his captors, he was dreamily aware that music still
floated up from the Botanical Gardens and the German man-of-war. Nearer
at hand, Von Ritz heard--or perhaps dreamed through his stupor that he
heard--a voice exclaiming: "Long live King Louis!"

There had been no noise which could have penetrated beyond the King's
suite. Less than ten minutes had elapsed since the sentinel had been
pacing below. Jusseret, passing unostentatiously out through the Palace
gate, glanced at his watch and smiled. It had been excellently managed.

Later, Karyl recovered consciousness to find things little changed. He
was lying on a leather couch in his own rooms. The windows on the small
garden still stood open and the moon, riding farther down the west,
bathed the outer world in shimmer of silver, but at each door stood a
sentinel.

Karyl remembered that during Louis Delgado's recent captivity he had
fared in precisely the same manner, neither better nor worse.

The King rose, still a trifle unsteady from the blow he had received,
and went out into the garden. There was no effort on the p