"Why, oh,--er--let me see; when did I say? Dash me--as
Mr. Anguish would say--I don't believe I gave a date. It seems to me I
said soon, that's all."
"You don't know how relieved I am," exclaimed Yetive rapturously? and
Beverly was in high dudgeon because of the implied reflection, "I
believe you are in a tiff with Baldos," went on Yetive airily.
"Goodness! How foolish you can be at times, Yetive," was what Beverly
gave back to her highness, the Princess of Graustark.
Late in the evening couriers came in from the Dawsbergen frontier with
reports which created considerable excitement in castle and army
circles. Prince Gabriel himself had been seen in the northern part of
his domain, accompanied by a large detachment of picked soldiers. Lorry
set out that very night for the frontier, happy in the belief that
something worth while was about to occur. General Marlanx issued orders
for the Edelweiss army corps to mass beyond the southern gates of the
city the next morning. Commands were also sent to the outlying
garrisons. There was to be a general movement of troops before the end
of the week. Graustark was not to be caught napping.
Long after the departure of Lorry and Anguish, the princess sat on the
balcony with Beverly and the Countess Dagmar. They did not talk
much. The mission of these venturesome young American husbands was full
of danger. Something in the air had told their wives that the first
blows of war were to be struck before they looked again upon the men
they loved.
"I think we have been betrayed by someone," said Dagmar, after an almost
interminable silence. Her companion did not reply. "The couriers say
that Gabriel knows where we are weakest at the front and that he knows
our every movement. Yetive, there is a spy here, after all."
"And that spy has access to the very heart of our deliberations," added
Beverly pointedly. "I say this in behalf of the man whom you evidently
suspect, countess. He could not know these things."
"I do not say that he does know, Miss Calhoun, but it is not beyond
reason that he may be the go-between, the means of transferring
information from the main traitor to the messengers who await outside
our walls."
"Oh, I don't believe it!" cried Beverly hotly.
"I wonder if these things would have happened if Baldos had never come
to Edelweiss?" mused the princess. As though by common impulse, both of
the Graustark women placed their arms about Beverly.