n a
hole like this all your life?"

"Horrible!" said Gabriel, shuddering like a leaf.

"Then take my advice: don't commit any murders. Hire some one else."

The two men eyed each other steadily for a moment or two. Then the
Prince looked out of the cell, a mad desire to fly from some dreadful,
unseen horror coming over him.

Quinnox locked the door, and, striking a match, bade His Highness
precede him up the stone steps.

In the cell the prisoner read and reread the incoherent message from
Yetive:

"It is the only way. Quinnox will assist you to escape to-night. Go,
I implore you; as you love me, go. Your life is more than all to me.
Gabriel's story will not be entertained and he can have no proof. He
will be torn to pieces, Quinnox says. I do not know how I can live until
I am certain you are safe. This will be the longest night a woman ever
spent. If I could only be sure that you will do as I ask, as I beg and
implore! Do not think of me, but save yourself. I would lose everything
to save you."

He smiled sadly as he burned the "pardon." The concluding sentences
swept away the last thought he might have had of leaving her to bear
the consequences. "Do not think of me, but save yourself. I would lose
everything to save you." He leaned against the stone wall and shook his
head slowly, the smile still on his lips.

XXV. "BECAUSE I LOVE HIM"

The next morning Edelweiss was astir early. Great throngs of people
flocked the streets long before the hour set for the signing of the
decree that was to divide the north from the south. There were men and
women from the mountains, from the southern valleys, from the plains to
the north and east. Sullen were the mutterings, threatening the faces,
resentful the hearts of those who crowded the shops, the public places
and the streets. Before nine o'clock the great concourse of people began
to push toward the castle. Castle Avenue was packed with the moving
masses. Thousands upon thousands of this humbled race gathered outside
the walls, waiting for news from the castle with the spark of hope that
does not die until the very end, nursing the possibility that something
might intervene at the last moment to save the country from disgrace and
ruin.

A strong guard was required to keep the mob back from the gates, and the
force of men on the wall had been quadrupled. Business in the city
was suspended. The whole nation, it seemed, stood before the walls,
awaiting, wit