“God save us!” gasped Baron Dangloss, Chief of Police.

“Guessed at it?” cried Mizrox.

“That’s it.  It was a bold stroke, but it won.  Now, I’ll tell you this much.  I was morally certain that Gabriel killed the Prince.  There was no way on earth to prove it, however, and I’ll admit it was intuition or something of that sort which convinced me.  He had tried to abduct the Princess, and he was madly jealous of Lorenz.  Although he knew there was to be a duel, he was not certain that Lorenz would lose, so he adopted a clever plan to get rid of two rivals by killing one and casting suspicion on the other.  These deductions I made soon after the murder, but, of course, could secure no proof.  Early this morning, at the hotel, I made up my mind to denounce him suddenly if I had the chance, risking failure but hoping for such an exhibition as that which you saw.  It was clear to me that he had an accomplice to stand guard while he did the stabbing, but I did not dream it was Berrowag.  Lorry’s sensational appearance, when I believed him to be far away from here, disturbed me greatly but it made it all the more necessary that I should take the risk with Gabriel.  As I watched him I became absolutely convinced of his guilt.  The only way to accuse him was to do it boldly and thoroughly, so I rang in the accomplice and the witness features.  You all know how the ‘bluff’ worked.”

“And you had no more proof than this?” asked Dangloss, weakly.

“That’s all,” laughed the delighted strategist.

Dangloss stared at him for a moment, then threw up his hands and walked away, shaking his head, whether in stupefied admiration or utter disbelief, no one knew.  The others covered Anguish with compliments, and he was more than ever the hero of the day.  Such confidence paralyzed the people.  The only one who was not overcome with astonishment was his countryman.

“You did it well,” he said in an undertone to Anguish; “devilish well.”

“You might at least say I did it to the queen’s taste,” growled Anguish, meaningly,

“Well, then, you did,” laughed Lorry.

XXVII

ON THE BALCONY AGAIN

Three persons in the royal castle of Graustark, worn by the dread and anxiety of weeks, fatigued by the sleepless nights just past, slumbered through the long afternoon with the motionless, deathlike sleep of the utterly fagged.  Yetive, in her darkened bed chamber, dreamed, with smiling lips, of a tall soldier and a throne on which cobwebs multiplied.  Grenfall Lorry saw in his dreams a slim soldier with troubled face and averted, timid eyes, standing guard over him with a brave, stiff back and chin painfully uplifted.  Captain Quinnox dreamed not, for his mind was tranquil in the assurance that he had been forgiven by the Princess.

While Lorry slept in the room set apart for him, Anguish roamed the park with a happy-faced, slender young lady, into whose ears he poured the history of a certain affection, from the tender beginning to the distracting end.  And she smiled and trembled with delight, closing not her ears against the sound of his voice nor her heart to the love that craved admission.  They were not dreaming.