“I have been standing on this spot for an hour.  You have been very much excited, I’ll agree, but it is strange you did not see me,” lied Quinnox.

Gabriel looked about helplessly, nonplussed.

“You were here when I came in?” he asked, wonderingly.

“Ask Her Royal Highness,” commanded the captain, smiling.

“Captain Quinnox brought the prisoner to me an hour ago,” she said, mechanically.

“It is a lie!” cried Gabriel.  “He was not here when I entered!”

The captain of the guard laid a heavy hand on the shoulder of the Prince and said, threateningly: 

“I was here and I am here.  Have a care how you speak.  Were I to do right I should shoot you like a dog.  You came like a thief, you insult the ruler of my land.  I have borne it all because you are a Prince, but have a care—­have a care.  I may forget myself and tear out your black heart with these hands.  One word from Her Royal Highness will be your death warrant.”

He looked inquiringly at the Princess as if anxious to put the dangerous witness where he could tell no tales.  She shook her head, but did not speak.  Lorry realized that the time had come for him to assert himself.  Assuming a distressed air he bowed his head and said, dejectedly: 

“My pleading has been in vain, then, your Highness.  I have sworn to you that I am innocent of this murder, and you have said I shall have a fair trial.  That is all you can offer?”

“That is all,” she said, shrilly, her mind gradually grasping his meaning.

“You will not punish the poor people who secreted me in their house for weeks, for they are convinced of my innocence.  Your captain here, who found me in their house to-night, can also speak well of them.  I have only this request to make, in return for what little service I may have given you:  Forgive the old people who befriended me.  I am ready to go to the Tower at once, captain.”

Gabriel heard this speech with a skeptical smile on his face.

“I am no fool,” he said, simply.  “Captain,” shrewdly turning to Quinnox, “if he is your prisoner, why do you permit him to retain his revolver?”

The conspirators were taken by surprise, but Lorry had found his wits.

“It is folly, your Highness, to allow this gentleman and conquering Prince to cross-examine you.  I am a prisoner, and that is the end of it.  What odds is it to the Prince of Dawsbergen how and where I was caught or why your officer brought me to you?”

“You were ordered from my house once today, yet you come again like a conqueror.  I should not spare you.  You deserve to lose your life for the actions of tonight.  Captain Quinnox, will you kill him if I ask you to end his wretched life?” Yetive’s eyes were blazing with wrath, beneath which gleamed a hope that he could be frightened into silence.

“Willingly—­willingly!” cried Quinnox.  “Now, your Highness?  ’Twere better in the hall!”