"
"I have much to learn of the deference due to queens," he said.
"That's just like 'The Mikado' or 'Pinafore,'" she exclaimed." I believe
you are a comic-opera brigand or a pirate chieftain, after all."
"I am a lowly outcast," he smiled.
"Well, I've decided to take you into Edelweiss and--"
"Pardon me, your highness," he said firmly, "That cannot be. I shall not
go to Edelweiss."
"But I command you--"
"It's very kind of you, but I cannot enter a hospital--not even at
Ganlook. I may as well confess that I am a hunted man and that the
instructions are to take me dead or alive."
"Impossible!" she gasped, involuntarily shrinking from him.
"I have wronged no man, yet I am being hunted down as though I were a
beast," he said, his face turning haggard for the moment. "The hills of
Graustark, the plateaus of Axphain and the valleys of Dawsbergen are
alive with men who are bent on ending my unhappy but inconvenient
existence. It would be suicide for me to enter any one of your towns or
cities. Even you could not protect me, I fear,"
"This sounds like a dream. Oh, dear me, you don't look like a hardened
criminal," she cried.
"I am the humble leader of a faithful band who will die with me when the
time comes. We are not criminals, your highness. In return for what
service I may have performed for you, I implore you to question me no
further.
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