The George Barr McCutcheon Megapack: 25 Classic Novels and Stories

by George Barr McCutcheon

  “You don’t mean to say that the princess tried to find me in St. Petersburg?” cried Beverly, in wonder and delight.

  “That was one of the purposes of her visit,” said he brusquely.

  “Oh, how jolly!” cried she, her gray eyes sparkling. The grim old captain was startled for the smallest fraction of a minute, but at once fell to admiring the fresh, eager face of the visitor.

  “The public at large is under the impression that she visited the Czar on matters of importance,” he said, with a condescending smile.

  “And it really was of no importance at all, that’s what you mean?” she smiled back securely.

  “Your message informing her highness of your presence in St. Petersburg had no sooner arrived than she set forth to meet you in that city, much against the advice of her counsellors. I will admit that she had other business there but it could have waited. You see, Miss Calhoun, it was a great risk at this particular time. Misfortune means disaster now. But Providence was her friend. She arrived safely in Ganlook not an hour since.”

  “Really? Oh, Baron Dangloss, where is she?” excitedly cried the American girl.

  “For the night she is stopping with the Countess Rallowitz. A force of men, but not those whom you met at the gates, has just been dispatched at her command to search for you in the lower pass. You took the most dangerous road, Miss Calhoun, and I am amazed that you came through in safety.”

  “The Russians chose the lower pass, I know not why. Of course, I was quite ignorant. However, we met neither brigands nor soldiers, Axphain or Graustark. I encountered nothing more alarming than a mountain lion. And that, Baron Dangloss, recalls me to the sense of a duty I have been neglecting. A poor wanderer in the hills defended me against the beast and was badly wounded. He must be taken to a hospital at once, sir, where he may have the proper care.”

  Whereupon, at his request, she hurriedly related the story of that trying journey through the mountains, not forgetting to paint the courage of Baldos in most glowing colors. The chief was deeply interested in the story of the goat-hunter and his party. There was an odd gleam of satisfaction in his eyes, but she did not observe it.

  “You will see that he has immediate attention, won’t you?” she implored in the end.

  “He shall have our deepest consideration,” promised he.

  “You know I am rather interested, because I shot him, just as if it were not enough that his legs were being torn by the brute at the time. He ought not to walk, Baron Dangloss. If you don’t mind, I’d suggest an ambulance,” she hurried on glibly. He could not conceal the smile that her eagerness inspired. “Really, he is in a serious condition. I think he needs some quinine and whiskey, too, and—”

  “He shall have the best of care,” interrupted the captain. “Leave him to me, Miss Calhoun.”

  “Now, let me tell you something,” said she, after due reflection. “You must not pay any attention to what he says. He is liable to be delirious and talk in a terrible sort of way. You know delirious people never talk rationally.” She was loyally trying to protect Baldos, the hunted, against any incriminating statements he might make.

  “Quite right, Miss Calhoun,” said the baron very gravely.

  “And now, I’d like to go to the princess,” said Beverly, absolutely sure of herself. “You know we are great friends, she and I.”

  “I have sent a messenger to announce your arrival. She will expect you.” Beverly looked about the room in perplexity.

  “But there has been no messenger here,” she said.

  “He left here some minutes before you came. I knew who it was that came knocking at our gates, even though she traveled as Princess Yetive of Graustark.”

  “And, oh! that reminds me, Baron Dangloss, Baldos still believes me to be the princess. Is it necessary to—to tell him the truth about me? Just at present, I mean? I’m sure he’ll rest much easier if he doesn’t know differently.”

  “So far as I am concerned, Miss Calhoun, he shall always regard you as a queen,” said Dangloss gallantly.

  “Thank you. It’s very nice of you to—”

  A man in uniform entered after knocking at the door of the room. He saluted his superior and uttered a few words in his own language.

  “Her royal highness is awaiting you at the home of the countess, Miss Calhoun. A detail of men will escort you and your servant to her place.”

  “Now, please, Baron Dangloss,” pleaded Beverly at the door, “be nice to him. You know it hurts him to walk. Can’t you have him carried in?”

  “If he will consent,” said he quietly. Beverly hurried into the outer room, after giving the baron a smile he never forgot. Baldos looked up eagerly, anxiously.

  “It’s all right,” she said in low tones, pausing for a moment beside his chair. “Don’t get up! Good-bye. I’ll come to see you tomorrow. Don’t be in the least disturbed. Baron Dangloss has his instructions.” Impulsively giving him her hand which he respectfully raised to his lips, she followed Aunt Fanny and was gone.

  Almost immediately Baldos was requested to present himself before Baron Dangloss in the adjoining room. Refusing to be carried in, he resolutely strode through the door and stood before the grim old captain of police, an easy, confident smile on his face. The black patch once more covered his eye with defiant assertiveness.

  “They tell me you are Baldos, a goat-hunter,” said Baron Dangloss, eyeing him keenly.

  “Yes.”

  “And you were hurt in defending one who is of much consequence in Graustark. Sit down, my good fellow.” Baldos’ eyes gleamed coldly for an instant. Then he sank into a chair. “While admitting that you have done Graustark a great service, I am obliged to tell you that I, at least, know you to be other than what you say. You are not a goat-hunter, and Baldos is not your name. Am I not right?”

  “You have had instructions from your sovereign, Baron Dangloss. Did they include a command to cross-question me?” asked Baldos haughtily. Dangloss hesitated for a full minute.

  “They did not. I take the liberty of inquiring on my own responsibility.”

  “Very well, sir. Until you have a right to question me, I am Baldos and a goat-hunter. I think I am here to receive surgical treatment.”

  “You decline to tell me anything concerning yourself?”

  “Only that I am injured and need relief.”

  “Perhaps I know more about you than you suspect, sir.”

  “I am not in the least interested, Baron Dangloss, in what you know. The princess brought me into Ganlook, and I have her promise of help and protection while here. That is all I have to say, except that I have implicit faith in her word.”

  Dangloss sat watching him in silence for some time. No one but himself knew what was going on in that shrewd, speculative mind. At length he arose and approached the proud fellow in rags.

  “You have earned every consideration at our hands. My men will take you to the hospital and you shall have the best of care. You have served our princess well. Tomorrow you may feel inclined to talk more freely with me, for I am your friend, Baldos.”

  “I am grateful for that, Baron Dangloss,” said the other simply. Then hewas led away and a comfortable cot in the Ganlook hospital soon held his long, feverish frame, while capable hands took care of his wounds. He did not know it, but two fully armed soldiers maintained a careful guard outside his door under instructions from the head of the police. Moreover, a picked detail of men sallied forth into the lower pass in search of the goat-hunter’s followers.

  In the meantime Beverly was conducted to the home of the Countess Rallowitz. Her meeting with the princess was most affectionate. There were tears, laughter and kisses. The whole atmosphere of the place suggested romance to the eager American girl. Downstairs were the royal guards; in the halls were attendants; all about were maidservants and obsequious lackeys, crowding the home of the kindly countess. At last, comfortable and free from the dust of travel, the two friends sat down to a dainty meal.

&nb
sp; “Oh, I am so delighted,” murmured Beverly for the hundredth time.

  “I’m appalled when I think of the dangers you incurred in coming to me. No one but a very foolish American girl could have undertaken such a trip as this. Dear me, Beverly, I should have died if anything dreadful had happened to you. Why did you do it?” questioned the princess. And then they laughed joyously.

  “And you went all the way to St. Petersburg to meet me, you dear, dear Yetive,” cried Beverly, so warmly that the attentive servant forgot his mask of reverence.

  “Wasn’t it ridiculous of me? I know Gren would have forbidden it if he had been in Edelweiss when I started. And, more shame to me, the poor fellow is doubtless at the conference with Dawsbergen, utterly ignorant of my escapade. You should have heard the ministry—er—ah—” and the princess paused for an English word.

  “Kick?” Beverly supplied.

  “Yes. They objected violently. And, do you know, I was finally compelled to issue a private edict to restrain them from sending an appeal to Grenfall away off there on the frontier. Whether or no, my uncle insisted that he should be brought home, a three-days’ journey, in order that he might keep me from going to St. Petersburg. Of course, they could not disobey my edict, and so poor Gren is none the wiser, unless he has returned from the conference. If he has, I am sure he is on the way to Ganlook at this very minute.”

  “What a whimsical ruler you are,” cried Beverly. “Upsetting everything sensible just to rush off hundreds of miles to meet me. And Axphain is trying to capture you, too! Goodness, you must love me!”

  “Oh, but I did have a trifling affair of state to lay before the Czar, my dear. Tomorrow we shall be safe and sound in the castle and it will all be very much worth while. You see, Beverly, dear, even princesses enjoy a diversion now and then. One wouldn’t think anything of this adventure in the United States; it is the environment that makes it noticeable. Besides, you traveled as a princess. How did you like it?”

  And then the conversation related particularly to the advantages of royalty as viewed from one side and the disadvantages as regarded from another. For a long time Beverly had been wondering how she should proceed in the effort to secure absolute clemency for Baldos. As yet she had said nothing to Yetive of her promise to him, made while she was a princess.

  “At any rate, I’m sure the goat-hunters would not have been so faithful and true if they had not believed me to be a princess,” said Beverly, paving the way. “You haven’t a man in your kingdom who could be more chivalrous than Baldos.”

  “If he is that kind of a man, he would treat any woman as gently.”

  “You should have heard him call me ‘your highness,’” cried Beverly. “He will loathe me if he ever learns that I deceived him.”

  “Oh, I think he deceived himself,” spoke Yetive easily. “Besides, you look as much like a princess as I.”

  “There is something I want to speak very seriously about to you, Yetive,” said Beverly, making ready for the cast. “You see, he did not want to enter Ganlook with me, but I insisted. He had been so brave and gallant, and he was suffering so intensely. It would have been criminal in me to leave him out there in the wilderness, wouldn’t it?”

  “It would have been heartless.”

  “So I just made him come along. That was right, wasn’t it? That’s what you would have done, no matter who he was or what his objections might have been. Well, you see, it’s this way, Yetive: he is some sort of a fugitive—not a criminal, you know—but just some one they are hunting for, I don’t know why. He wouldn’t tell me. That was perfectly right, if he felt that way, wasn’t it?”

  “And he had fought a lion in your defense,” supplemented Yetive, with a schoolgirl’s ardor.

  “And I had shot him in the arm, too,” added Beverly. “So of course, I just had to be reasonable. In order to induce him to come with me to a hospital, I was obliged to guarantee perfect safety to him. His men went back to the hills, all except old Franz, the driver. Now, the trouble is this, Yetive: I am not the princess and I cannot redeem a single promise I made to him. He is helpless, and if anything goes wrong with him he will hate me forever.”

  “No; he will hate me for I am the princess and he is none the wiser.”

  “But he will be told that his princess was Beverly Calhoun, a supposedly nice American girl. Don’t you see how awkward it will be for me? Now, Yetive, darling, what I wish you to do is to write a note, order or edict or whatever it is to Baron Dangloss, commanding him to treat Baldos as a patient and not as a prisoner; and that when he is fully recovered he is to have the privilege of leaving Ganlook without reservation.”

  “But he may be a desperate offender against the state, Beverly.” plaintively protested Yetive. “If we only knew what he is charged with!”

  “I’m afraid it’s something dreadfully serious,” admitted Beverly gloomily. “He doesn’t look like the sort of man who would engage in a petty undertaking. I’ll tell you his story, just as he told it to me,” and she repeated the meagre confessions of Baldos.

  “I see no reason why we should hesitate,” said the princess. “By his own statement, he is not a desperate criminal. You did quite right in promising him protection, dear, and I shall sustain you. Do you want to play the princess to Baldos a little longer?”

  “I should love it,” cried Beverly, her eyes sparkling.

  “Then I shall write the order to Dangloss at once. Oh, dear, I have forgotten, I have no official seal here.”

  “Couldn’t you seal it with your ring?” suggested Beverly. “Oh, I have it! Send for Baron Dangloss and have him witness your signature. He can’t get away from that, you see, and after we reach Edelweiss, you can fix up a regular edict, seal and all,” cried the resourceful American girl.

  Ink and paper were sent for and the two conspirators lent their wisdom to the task of preparing an order for the salvation of Baldos, the fugitive. The order read:

  To BARON JASTO DANGLOSS, COMMANDING THE CIVIC AND MILITARY POLICE OF GRAUSTARK:

  “You are hereby informed that Baldos, the man who entered the city with Miss Calhoun, is not to be regarded as a prisoner now or hereafter. He is to be given capable medical and surgical attention until fully recovered, when he is to be allowed to go his way in peace unquestioned.

  “Also, he is to be provided with suitable wearing apparel and made comfortable in every way.

  “Also, the members of his party, now in the hills (whose names are unknown to me), are to be accorded every protection. Franz, the driver, is to have his freedom if he desires it.

  “And from this edict there is no recourse until its abatement by royal decree.

  “YETIVE.”

  “There,” said the princess, affixing her signature “I think that will be sufficient.” Then she rang for a servant. “Send to Baron Dangloss and ask him to come here at once.”

  Fifteen minutes later the chief of police stood in the presence of the eager young interpreters of justice.

  “I want you to witness my signature, Baron Dangloss,” said the princess after the greetings.

  “Gladly,” said the officer.

  “Well, here is where I signed,” said Yetive, handing him the paper. “I don’t have to write my name over again, do I?”

  “Not at all,” said the baron gallantly. And he boldly signed his name as a witness.

  “They wouldn’t do that in the United States,” murmured Beverly, who knew something about red tape at Washington.

  “It is a command to you, baron,” said Yetive, handing him the document with a rare smile. He read it through slowly. Then he bit his lip and coughed. “What is the matter, baron?” asked Yetive, still smiling.

  “A transitory emotion, your highness, that is all,” said he; but his hand trembled as he folded the paper.

  CHAPTER X

  INSIDE THE CASTLE WALLS

  Bright and early the next morning the party was ready for the last of the journey to Edelweiss. Less than twenty miles s
eparated Ganlook from the capital, and the road was in excellent condition. Beverly Calhoun, tired and contented, had slept soundly until aroused by the princess herself. Their rooms adjoined each other, and when Yetive, shortly after daybreak, stole into the American girl’s chamber, Beverly was sleeping so sweetly that the intruder would have retreated had it not been for the boisterous shouts of stable-boys in the courtyard below the windows. She hurried to a window and looked out upon the gray-cloaked morning. Postillions and stable-boys were congregated near the gates, tormenting a ragged old man who stood with his back against one of the huge posts. In some curiosity, she called Beverly from her slumbers, urging the sleepy one to hasten to the window.

  “Is this one of your friends from the wilderness?” she asked.

  “It’s Franz!” cried Beverly, rubbing her pretty eyes. Then she became thoroughly awake. “What are they doing to him? Who are those ruffians?” she demanded indignantly.

  “They are my servants, and—”

  “Shame on them! The wretches! What has old Franz done that they should—Call to them! Tell ’em you’ll cut their heads off if they don’t stop. He’s a dear old fellow in spite of his rags, and he—”

  The window-sash flew open and the tormentors in the court below were astonished by the sound of a woman’s voice, coming, as it were, from the clouds. A dozen pairs of eyes were turned upward; the commotion ended suddenly. In the window above stood two graceful, white-robed figures. The sun, still far below the ridge of mountains, had not yet robbed the morning of the gray, dewy shadows that belong to five o’clock.

  “What are you doing to that poor old man?” cried Yetive, and it was the first time any of them had seen anger in the princess’s face. They slunk back in dismay. “Let him alone! You, Gartz, see that he has food and drink, and without delay. Report to me later on, sir, and explain, if you can, why you have conducted yourselves in so unbecoming a manner.” Then the window was closed and the princess found herself in the warm arms of her friend.

  “I couldn’t understand a word you said, Yetive? but I knew you were giving it to them hot and heavy. Did you see how nicely old Franz bowed to you? Goodness, his head almost touched the ground.”