“He seemed to know what he was doing when he ran for that hole in the wall,” replied Barney with a grin.  “But come, it won’t pay to let them find us should they return.”

Together they hastened to the window beyond which the girl could see a rope dangling from above.  The sight of it partially solved the riddle of the king’s almost uncanny presence upon her window sill in the very nick of time.

Below, the lights in the watch tower at the outer gate were plainly visible, and the twinkling of them reminded Barney of the danger of detection from that quarter.  Quickly he recrossed the apartment to the wall-switch that operated the recently installed electric lights, and an instant later the chamber was in total darkness.

Once more at the girl’s side Barney drew in one end of the rope and made it fast about her body below her arms, leaving a sufficient length terminating in a small loop to permit her to support herself more comfortably with one foot within the noose.  Then he stepped to the outer sill, and reaching down assisted her to his side.

Far below them the moonlight played upon the sluggish waters of the moat.  In the distance twinkled the lights of the village of Blentz.  From the courtyard and the palace came faintly the sound of voices, and the movement of men.  A horse whinnied from the stables.

Barney turned his eyes upward.  He could see the head and shoulders of Joseph leaning from the window of the chamber directly above them.

“Hoist away, Joseph!” whispered the American, and to the girl:  “Be brave.  Shut your eyes and trust to Joseph and—­and—­”

“And my king,” finished the girl for him.

His arm was about her shoulders, supporting her upon the narrow sill.  His cheek so close to hers that once he felt the soft velvet of it brush his own.  Involuntarily his arm tightened about the supple body.

“My princess!” he murmured, and as he turned his face toward hers their lips almost touched.

Joseph was pulling upon the rope from above.  They could feel it tighten beneath the girl’s arms.  Impulsively Barney Custer drew the sweet lips closer to his own.  There was no resistance.

“I love you,” he whispered.  The words were smothered as their lips met.

Joseph, above, wondered at the great weight of the Princess Emma von der Tann.

“I love you, Leopold, forever,” whispered the girl, and then as Joseph’s Herculean tugging seemed likely to drag them both from the narrow sill, Barney lifted the girl upward with one hand while he clung to the window frame with the other.  The distance to the sill above was short, and a moment later Joseph had grasped the princess’s hand and was helping her over the ledge into the room beyond.

At the same instant there came a sudden commotion from the interior of the room in the window of which Barney still stood waiting for Joseph to remove the rope from about the princess and lower it for him.  Barney heard the heavy feet of men, the clank of arms, and muttered oaths as the searchers stumbled against the furniture.