ove him leaned the American, uninjured,
ripping long strips from a sheet torn from the bed, twisting them
into rope-like strands and, with them, binding the wrists and ankles
of his defeated foe. Finally he stuffed a gag between the toothless
gums.

Running to the wardrobe, he discovered that the king's uniform was
gone. That, with the witness of the empty bed, told him the whole
story. The American smiled. "More nerve than I gave him credit for,"
he mused, as he walked back to his bed and reached under the pillow
for the two papers he had forced the king to sign. They, too, were
gone. Slowly Barney Custer realized his plight, as there filtered
through his mind a suggestion of the possibilities of the trick that
had been played upon him.

Why should Leopold wish these papers? Of course, he might merely
have taken them that he might destroy them; but something told
Barney Custer that such was not the case. And something, too, told
him whither the king had ridden and what he would do there when he
arrived.

He ran back to the wardrobe. In it hung the peasant attire that he
had stolen from the line of the careless house frau, and later
wished upon his majesty the king. Barney grinned as he recalled the
royal disgust with which Leopold had fingered the soiled garments.
He scarce blamed him. Looking further toward the back of the
wardrobe, the American discovered other clothing.

He dragged it all out upon the floor. There was an old shooting
jacket, several pairs of trousers and breeches, and a hunting coat.
In a drawer at the bottom of the wardrobe he found many old shoes,
puttees, and boots.

From this miscellany he selected riding breeches, a pair of boots,
and the red hunting coat as the only articles that fitted his rather
large frame. Hastily he dressed, and, taking the ax the old man had
brought to the room as the only weapon available, he walked boldly
into the corridor, down the spiral stairway and into the guardroom.

Barney Custer was prepared to fight. He was desperate. He could
have slunk from the Castle of Blentz as he had entered it--through
the secret passageway to the ravine; but to attempt to reach Lustadt
on foot was not at all compatible with the urgent haste that he felt
necessary. He must have a horse, and a horse he would have if he had
to fight his way through a Blentz army.

But there were no armed retainers left at Blentz. The guardroom was
vacant; but there were arms there and ammun