"There are three vital points of weakness, your highness. The magazine
can be reached from the outside if one knows the lay of the land; the
parade-ground exposes the ammunition building to certain disadvantages,
and the big guns could be silenced in an hour if an enemy had the sense
first to bombard from the elevation northeast of the city."
"Good heavens!" gasped poor Beverly. "Have you studied all this out?"
"I was once a real soldier, your highness," he said, simply. "It was
impossible for me not to see the defects in your fort."
"You--you haven't told anyone of this, have you?" she cried, white-faced
and anxious.
"No one but your highness. You do not employ me as a tale-bearer, I
trust."
"I did not mean to question your honor," she said. "Would you mind going
before the heads of the war department and tell them just what you have
told me? I mean about the weak spots."
"If it is your command, your highness," he said quietly, but he was
surprised.
"You may expect to be summoned then, so hold yourself in readiness. And,
Baldos--"
"Yes, your highness?"
"You need say nothing to them of our having talked the matter over
beforehand--unless they pin you down to it, you know."
CHAPTER XV
THE TESTING OF BALDOS
A few hours later, all was dark and silent within the castle. On the
stone walks below, the steady tread of sentinels rose on the still air;
in the hallways the trusted guardsmen glided about like spectres or
stood like statues.
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