"Oh, we shall be killed!" she half shrieked. "Can you not stop him? This is madness--madness!"
"Pray be calm! I was to blame, for I had become careless. He is earning his money, that's all. It was not stipulated in the contract that he was to consider the comfort of his passengers." Grenfall could feel himself turn pale as something warm began to trickle down his neck. "Now tell me which despatch it was. I read all of them."
"You did? Of what interest could they have been?"
"Curiosity does not recognize reason."
"You read every one of them?"
"Assuredly."
"Then I shall grant you the right to guess which interested me the most. You Americans delight in puzzles, I am told."
"Now, that is unfair."
"So it is. Did you read the despatch from Constantinople?" Her arm fell to her side suddenly as if she had just realized its position.
"The one that told of the French ambassador's visit to the Sultan?"
"Concerning the small matter of a loan of some millions--yes. Well, that was of interest to me inasmuch as the loan, if made, will affect my country."
"Will you tell me what country you are from?"
"I am from Graustark."
"Yes; but I don't remember where that is."
"Is it possible that your American schools do not teach geography? Ours tell us where the United States are located."
"I confess ignorance," he admitted.
"Then I shall insist that you study a map. Graustark is small, but I am as proud of it as you are of this great broad country that reaches from ocean to ocean. I can scarcely wait until I again see our dear crags and valleys, our rivers and ever-blue skies, our plains and our towns. I wonder if you worship your country as I love mine."
"From the tenor of your remarks, I judge that you have been away from home for a long time," he volunteered.
"We have seen something of Asia, Australia, Mexico and the United States since we left Edelweiss, six months ago. Now we are going home--home!" She uttered the word so lovingly, so longingly, so tenderly, that he envied the homeland.
There was a long break in the conversation, both evidently wrapped in thought which could not be disturbed by the whirl of the coach. He was wondering how he could give her up, now that she had been tossed into his keeping so strangely. She was asking herself over and over again how so thrilling an adventure would end.
They were sore and fatigued with the strain on nerve and flesh. It was an experience never to be forgotten, this romantic race over the wild mountain road, the result still in doubt. Ten minutes ago--strangers; now--friends at least, neither knowing the other. She was admiring him for his generalship, his wonderful energy; he was blessing the fate that had come to his rescue when hope was almost dead. He could scarcely realize that he was awake. Could it be anything but a vivid fancy from which he was to awaken and find himself alone in his berth, the buzzing, clacking carwheels piercing his ears with sounds so unlike those that had been whispered into them by a voice, sweet and maddening, from out the darkness of a dreamland cab?