"The King!"--he gasped--"The King!"
"Yes, man, the King!" repeated De Lutera impatiently,--"Only yesterday
morning his Majesty, having mislaid his own ring for the moment,
borrowed mine just before starting on his yachting cruise. How you
stare! You have been fooled!--that is perfectly plain and evident!"
"The King!" repeated Jost stupidly--"Then the man who came to me last
night--" He broke off, unable to find any words for the expression of
the thoughts which began to terrify him.
"Well!--the man who came to you last night," echoed the Marquis,--"He
was not the King, I suppose, was he?" And he laughed derisively.
"No--he was not the King," said Jost slowly; "I know _him_ well
enough! But it might have been someone in the King's service! For he
knew, or said he knew, the King's intentions in a certain matter
affecting both you and Carl Perousse,--and in a more distant way,
myself--and warned me of a coming change in the policy. Ah!--it is
now your turn to stare, Marquis! You had best be on your guard, for if
the person who came to me last night was not your messenger, he was the
King's spy! And, in that case, we are lost!"
The Marquis paced the room with long uneven strides,--his mind was
greatly agitated, but he had no wish to show his perturbation too
openly to one whom he considered as a mere tool in his service.
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