The Prisoner of Zenda

y Sleeps i

ten minutes or more we sat silent in the dining-room. Then old Sapt rubbed his knuckles into his eyes, gave one gre

e got t

What a moment it must have been for him when the royal salutes f

They must have sent it before news of your arrival at

med. "Upon my honour, I'm not the only man wh

tter? What does he

to my

every soldier in Strelsau. We ought to

d carefully lit it from the can

urdered while we s

n for a momen

how. I see the game. They came up to kidnap the King, and-as I say-somehow they foun

the K

re the King is

he sat still. And suddenly he burs

ve shaken up

" I repeated

kled, weather-beaten face, and his teeth working on an end of his grizzled moustache.

e K

rowned

mad!"

e trick we played, what wo

they're wor

ll enjoy being fooled as you've fooled them? Do you think they'll love a K

ged-and I'm

Black Michae

e, and laid his ha

n, you may save the King yet. Go ba

s-the villains he

t speak!" roared S

cing themselves? This is not the King, because we kidnap

produced the King, what could he do? And if he produced the King, where was he? For a mo

found out

trelsau, or the city will be Michael's in four-and-twenty hours, and what

they kill

ll him, if

they have kil

shall reign in Ruritania! But I don't believe they have; nor will the

; but as I listened to Sapt I saw the strong points in our game. And then I was a young man an

e found ou

Strelsau! We shall be caught lik

cried, "I'

I hope they've left us th

that poor fe

e," sai

l do

him, while I look to the horses. He can't lie very deep, but I doubt if

into the passage and thence towards the door of the house. Just inside I laid him d

wn brother to the one that brought you h

o before he

you

Sapt; not for

said he. "

nda, I made out a party of men. There were seven or eight of them; four were on horseback and the rest were wal

the trouble," said

ke Michael's men, come to remove the traces of their evil wor

se of poor little Jo

ght to strike a

e company, eh! But it's too

a slap at '

wav

been good boy-and if we come to grief, why, hang me, it'll

osed the open ch

way to the back entrance. Here our horses were st

ready?"

l for me,

y tonight," chuckle

nute or two. Then we heard the tramp of men on the drive the

n, fetch

whisper

big man, and I was half conscious of another to my right. It was too warm to stay, and with a simultaneous action I drove my spurs into my horse again and my sword full into the big man's breast. His bullet whizzed past my ear-I could almost swear it touched it. I wrenched at the sword, but it would not come, and I dropped i

u, with decent luck," said he.

," said I. My blood was up, and

rk to the rest!" said he. "I

as I stuck him I hear

give Black Michael some

nd a farmer just up, and made him give us sustenance for ourselves and our horses. I, feigning a toothache, muffled my face closely. Then ahead again, till Strelsau lay before us. It was eight o'clock or nearing nine, and the gates were all open, as they always were save when the duke's caprice or intrigues shut them. We rode

ell, sir?

and the man, coming to

's hurt!"

as I dismounted; "I caug

"Ah! but, my good Freyler, I

ow shrugged

in, why not the King?" said he; and Sapt's lau

bserved Sapt, fitting the key in t

tched, fully dressed, on the sofa. He seemed to have been sleeping, but our entry woke him. He lea

're safe!" he cried, stretching

For a moment I could not bear to speak or break the poor fellow's illusion. But

" cried he.

n bewilderment. I

ded, sire!"

ratch," said I,

my hand, he looked me up and down, and down and u

ng? Where's the

ssed Sapt. "Not so l

the door. Sapt se

ff with your cap and boots. Get

who came up to my bedside, bowing again and again, and informed me that he was of the household of the Princess Flavia, and that her Ro

said I; "and tell her Royal Highnes

to find, loved a good lie for its own sak

ut again. The farce was over, and Fritz von Tarlenheim's pale face recall

g dead?" he

I. "But he's in the h