"I am," said Gorman, "infernally curious. Who is Smith?"

"For five years," said the King, "perhaps for more--who knows--he has
walked on my shadow. He has been a beagle hound, nose down, on my
smell, pursuing it. Never until last April has he run off the tracks."

"Blackmail?" said Donovan.

The King looked puzzled, though "blackmail" is a word he might have
been expected to know. Gorman explained.

"Getting money out of you," he said, "for hushing up any inconvenient
little episodes, undertaking not to tell stories he happened to have
heard. You know the sort of thing I mean."

"No man," said the King sadly, "can get money out of me. It is
like--how do you say?--the riding breeches of the Scottish soldiers,
not there. Nor do I say hush about my little episodes. Pooh! my friend
Gorman. These episodes, what are they? The English middling classes
like to pretend that there are no episodes. But there are, always, and
we others--we do not say hush."

"If it wasn't blackmail," said Donovan, "what kept him tracking you?"

"Ask my friend Gorman," said the King. "He knows."

"I do not," said Gorman, "unless----"

King Konrad Karl smiled pleasantly.

"Unless----" said Gorman. "Oh, damn it all. I suppose it was the
Emperor."

"You have it," said the King. "He is of the Emperor's secret service.
He and Steinwitz. Steinwitz I do not like. He is an arrogant. He
assumes always the attitude of the dog on top. But of Fritz I make no
complaint. He is always civilian."

"I'd gather that," said Gorman, "from the little I've seen of him. If
we must have a spy here--and of course there's no help for that since
the Emperor says so--it's better to have an agreeable one. His job at
present, I suppose, is to keep an eye on Donovan and the island
generally."

"That Emperor," said Donovan, "seems to me to butt in unnecessarily.
But I'm obliged to him. Smith is the best servant I've struck since I
first took to employing a hired help."

"It will be sad," said the King, "when you kill him. A great loss."

"I don't know," said Donovan, "that I mean to kill him. He's a
valuable man."

"The proper thing to do," said Gorman, "is to put him on board the
Megalian navy and leave him to the admiral."

"Seems a pity," said Donovan. "I don't see how I could make my way
along the rugged path of life without Smith. He hasn't done me any
kind of harm so far. I think I'll wait a bit. It would worry me to
have to step down and take hold