Karyl took a few turns across the floor.

“And by that you mean that we are over a volcano which may break into eruption at any moment?”

Von Ritz nodded.

“And the Queen—­” began Karyl.

“I have been thinking of Her Majesty,” said the Colonel.  “She should leave Puntal, but she will not go, if it occurs to her that she is being sent away to escape danger.  Her Majesty’s courage might almost be called stubborn.”

The King made no immediate response.  He was standing at a window, looking out at the serenity of sea and sky.  His forehead was drawn in thought.  He knew that Von Ritz was right.  Had Cara hated him, instead of merely finding herself unable to love him, he knew that the first threat of danger would arouse the ally in her, and that the suggestion of flight would throw her into the attitude of determined resistance.  She was like the captain who goes down with his ship, not because he loves the ship, but because his place is on the bridge.

Von Ritz went on quietly.

“God grant that Your Majesty may be in no actual danger.  But we must face the situation open-eyed.  Your place is here.  If by mischance you should fall, there is no reason why—­” he hesitated, then added—­“why the dynasty should end with you.  In Galavia there is no Salic law.  Her Majesty could reign.  Undoubtedly the Queen should be in some safer place.”

The King dropped into a chair and sat for some minutes with his eyes thoughtfully on the floor.  Abstractedly he puffed a cigarette.  At last he raised his face.  It was pale, but stamped with determination.

“There is only one thing to do, Von Ritz.  There is one available refuge.”

The soldier read the reluctant eyes of the other, and spared him the necessary explanation with a question.  “Mr. Benton’s yacht?” he inquired.

Karyl nodded.  “The yacht.”

“I, too, had thought of that, but how can you arrange it, Your Majesty?”

“We must persuade her that she requires a change of scene and that this is the one way she can have it without conspicuousness.  It can be given out that she has gone to Maritzburg, and I shall tell her”—­Karyl smiled with a cynical humor—­“that I am over-weary with this task of Kingship, and that I shall join her within a few days for a brief truancy from the cares of state.”

“It may be the safest thing,” reflected the officer.  “It at least frees our minds of a burdensome anxiety.”

“I shall persuade her,” declared Karyl.  “She can take several ladies-in-waiting and you can accompany her to the yacht and explain to Benton.  Direct him to cruise within wireless call and to avoid cities where the Queen might be in danger of recognition.  She must remain until we gain some hint as to when and where the crater is apt to break into eruption.”

Jusseret was busy.  His agencies were at work over the peninsula.  It was the sort of conspiracy in which the Frenchman took the keenest delight—­purely a military revolution.