eir horses from the gate and rode back toward
Blentz. As the sound of the iron-shod hoofs diminished in the
distance, with them diminished the hopes of the king.

When they ceased entirely his hopes were at an end, to be supplanted
by renewed terror at the turning of the knob of his prison door as
it swung open to admit Maenck and a squad of soldiers.

"Come!" ordered the captain. "The king has refused to intercede in
your behalf. When he returns with his army he will find your body at
the foot of the west wall in the courtyard."

With an ear-piercing shriek that rang through the grim old castle,
Leopold of Lutha flung his arms above his head and lunged forward
upon his face. Roughly the soldiers seized the unconscious man and
dragged him from the room.

Along the corridor they hauled him and down the winding stairs
within the north tower to the narrow slit of a door that opened upon
the courtyard. To the foot of the west wall they brought him,
tossing him brutally to the stone flagging. Here one of the soldiers
brought a flagon of water and dashed it in the face of the king. The
cold douche returned Leopold to a consciousness of the nearness of
his impending fate.

He saw the little squad of soldiers before him. He saw the cold,
gray wall behind, and, above, the cold, gray sky of early dawn. The
dismal men leaning upon their shadowy guns seemed unearthly specters
in the weird light of the hour that is neither God's day nor devil's
night. With difficulty two of them dragged Leopold to his feet.

Then the dismal men formed in line before him at the opposite side
of the courtyard. Maenck stood to the left of them. He was giving
commands. They fell upon the doomed man's ears with all the cruelty
of physical blows. Tears coursed down his white cheeks. With
incoherent mumblings he begged for his life. Leopold, King of Lutha,
trembling in the face of death!

XIII

THE TWO KINGS

Twenty troopers had ridden with Lieutenant Butzow and the false king
from Lustadt to Blentz. During the long, hard ride there had been
little or no conversation between the American and his friend, for
Butzow was still unsuspicious of the true identity of the man who
posed as the ruler of Lutha. The lieutenant was all anxiety to reach
Blentz and rescue the American he thought imprisoned there and in
danger of being shot.

At the gate they were refused admittance unless the king would
accept conditions. Barney refused--there was a