II
OVER THE PRECIPICE
THE EFFECT of his words upon the girl were quite different
from what he had expected. An American girl would have
laughed, knowing that he but joked. This girl did not laugh.
Instead her face went white, and she clutched her bosom
with her two hands. Her brown eyes peered searchingly into
the face of the man.
"Leopold!" she cried in a suppressed voice. "Oh, your
majesty, thank God that you are free--and sane!"
Before he could prevent it the girl had seized his hand
and pressed it to her lips.
Here was a pretty muddle! Barney Custer swore at himself
inwardly for a boorish fool. What in the world had ever
prompted him to speak those ridiculous words! And now
how was he to unsay them without mortifying this beautiful
girl who had just kissed his hand?
She would never forgive that--he was sure of it.
There was but one thing to do, however, and that was to
make a clean breast of it. Somehow, he managed to stumble
through his explanation of what had prompted him, and
when he had finished he saw that the girl was smiling in-
dulgently at him.
"It shall be Mr. Bernard Custer if you wish it so," she said;
"but your majesty need fear nothing from Emma von der
Tann. Your secret is as safe with me as with yourself, as the
name of Von der Tann must assure you."
She looked to see the expression of relief and pleasure
that her father's name should have brought to the face of
Leopold of Lutha, but when he gave no indication that he
had ever before heard the name she sighed and looked
puzzled.
"Perhaps," she thought, "he doubts me. Or can it be pos-
sible that, after all, his poor mind is gone?"
"I wish," said Barney in a tone of entreaty, "that you
would forgive and forget my foolish words, and then let me
accompany you to the end of your journey."
"Whither were you bound when I became the means of
wrecking your motor car?" asked the girl.
"To the Old Forest," replied Barney.
Now she was positive that she was indeed with the mad
king of Lutha, but she had no fear of him, for since child-
hood she had heard her father scout the idea that Leopold
was mad. For what other purpose would he hasten toward
the Old Forest than to take refuge in her father's castle upon
the banks of the Tann at the forest's verge?
"Thither was I bound also," she said, "and if you would
come there quickly and in safety I can show you a short
path across the mountains that my father taught me years
ago. It touches the main road but once or twice, and much
of the way passes through dense woods and undergrowth
where an army might hide."
"Hadn't we better find the nearest town," suggested Bar-
ney, "where I can obtain some sort of conveyance to take
you home?"
"It would not be safe," said the girl. "Peter of Blentz will
have troops out scouring all Lutha about Blentz and the Old
Forest until the king is captured."
Barney Custer shook his head despairingly.
"Won't you please believe that I am but a plain Ameri-
can?" he begged.
Upon the bole of a large wayside tree a fresh, new placard
stared them in the face. Emma von der Tann pointed at one
of the paragraphs.
"Gray eyes, brown hair, and a full reddish-brown beard,"
she read. "No matter who you may be," she said, "you are
safer off the highways of Lutha than on them until you can
find and use a razor."
"But I cannot shave until the fifth of November," said
Barney.
Again the girl looked quickly into his eyes and again in
her mind rose the question that had hovered there once be-
fore. Was he indeed, after all, quite sane?
"Then please come with me the safest way to my father's,"
she urged. "He will know what is best to do."
"He cannot make me shave," insisted Barney.
"Why do you wish not to shave?" asked the girl.,
"It is a matter of my honor," he replied. "I had my choice
of wearing a green wastebasket bonnet trimmed with red
roses for six months, or a beard for twelve. If I shave off the
beard before the fifth of November I shall be without honor
in the sight of all men or else I shall have to wear the green
bonnet. The beard is bad enough, but the bonnet--ugh!"
Emma von der Tann was now quite assured that the poor
fellow was indeed quite demented, but she had seen no in-
dications of violence as yet, though when that too might
develop there was no telling. However, he was to her Leo-
pold of Lutha, and her father's house had been loyal to
him or his ancestors for three hundred years.
If she must sacrifice her life in the attempt, nevertheless
still must she do all within her power to save her king from
recapture and to lead him in safety to the castle upon the
Tann.
"Come," she said; "we waste time here. Let us make
haste, for the way is long. At best we cannot reach Tann
by dark."
"I will do anything you wish," replied Barney, "but I
shall never forgive myself for having caused you the long
and tedious journey that lies before us. It would be per-
fectly safe to go to the nearest town and secure a rig."
Emma von der Tann had heard that it was always well to
humor maniacs and she thought of it now. She would put
the scheme to the test.
"The reason that I fear to have you go to the village," she
said, "is that I am quite sure they would catch you and
shave off your beard."
Barney started to laugh, but when he saw the deep serious-
ness of the girl's eyes he changed his mind. Then he recalled
her rather peculiar insistence that he was a king, and it
suddenly occurred to him that he had been foolish not to
have guessed the truth before.
"That is so," he agreed; "I guess we had better do as you
say," for he had determined that the best way to handle her
would be to humor her--he had always heard that that was
the proper method for handling the mentally defective.
"Where is the--er--ah--sanatorium?" he blurted out at last.
"The what?" she asked. "There is no sanatorium near here,
your majesty, unless you refer to the Castle of Blentz."
"Is there no asylum for the insane near by?"
"None that I know of, your majesty."
For a while they moved on in silence, each wondering
what the other might do next.
Barney had evolved a plan. He would try and ascertain
the location of the institution from which the girl had es-
caped and then as gently as possible lead her back to it.
It was not safe for as beautiful a woman as she to be roam-
ing through the forest in any such manner as this. He won-
dered what in the world the authorities at the asylum had
been thinking of to permit her to ride out alone in the first
place.
"From where did you ride today?" he blurted out sud-
denly.
"From Tann."
"That is where we are going now?"
"Yes, your majesty."
Barney drew a breath of relief. The way had become
suddenly difficult and he took the girl's arm to help her
down a rather steep place. At the bottom of the ravine there
was a little brook.
"There used to be a fallen log across it here," said the
girl. "How in the world am I ever to get across, your
majesty?"
"If you call me that again, I shall begin to believe that
I am a king," he humored her, "and then, being a king, I
presume that it wouldn't be proper for me to carry you
across, or would it? Never really having been a king, I do
not know."
"I think," replied the girl, "that it would be eminently
proper."
She had difficulty in keeping in mind the fact that this
handsome, smiling young man was a dangerous maniac,
though it was easy to believe that he was the king. In fact,
he looked much as she had always pictured Leopold as
looking. She had known him as a boy, and there were many
paintings and photographs of his ancestors in her father's
castle. She saw much resemblance between these and the
young man.
The brook was very narrow, and the girl thought that it
took the young man an unreasonably long time to carry her
across, though she was forced to admit that she was far
from uncomfortable in the strong arms that bore her so
easily.
"Why, what are you doing?" she cried presently. "You
are not crossing the stream at all. You are walking right up
the middle of it!"
She saw his face flush, and then he turned laughing eyes
upon her.
"I am looking for a safe landing," he said.
Emma von der Tann did not know whether to be frightened
or amused. As her eyes met the clear, gray ones of the man
she could not believe that insanity lurked behind that laugh-
ing, level gaze of her carrier. She found herself continually
forgetting that the man was mad. He had turned toward the
bank now, and a couple of steps carried them to the low
sward that fringed the little brooklet. Here he lowered her
to the ground.
"Your majesty is very strong," she said. "I should not have
expected it after the years of confinement you have suffered."
"Yes," he said, realizing that he must humor her--it was
difficult to remember that this lovely girl was insane. "Let
me see, now just what was I in prison for? I do not seem to
be able to recall it. In Nebraska, they used to hang men for
horse stealing; so I am sure it must have been something
else not quite so bad. Do you happen to know?"
"When the king, your father, died you were thirteen years
old," the girl explained, hoping to reawaken the sleeping
mind, "and then your uncle, Prince Peter of Blentz, an-
nounced that the shock of your father's death had unbal-
anced your mind. He shut you up in Blentz then, where you
have been for ten years, and he has ruled as regent. Now,
my father says, he has recently discovered a plot to take
your life so that Peter may become king. But I suppose you
learned of that, and because of it you escaped!"
"This Peter person is all-powerful in Lutha?" he asked.
"He controls the army," the girl replied.
"And you really believe that I am the mad king Leopold?"
"You are the king," she said in a convincing manner.
"You are a very brave young lady," he said earnestly. "If
all the mad king's subjects were as loyal as you, and as
brave, he would not have languished for ten years behind
the walls of Blentz."
"I am a Von der Tann," she said proudly, as though that
was explanation sufficient to account for any bravery or
loyalty.
"Even a Von der Tann might, without dishonor, hesitate
to accompany a mad man through the woods," he replied,
"especially if she happened to be a very--a very--" He
halted, flushing.
"A very what, your majesty?" asked the girl.
"A very young woman," he ended lamely.
Emma von der Tann knew that he had not intended say-
ing that at all. Being a woman, she knew precisely what he
had meant to say, and she discovered that she would very
much have liked to hear him say it.
"Suppose," said Barney, "that Peter's soldiers run across
us--what then?"
"They will take you back to Blentz, your majesty."
"And you?"
"I do not think that they will dare lay hands on me,
though it is possible that Peter might do so. He hates my
father even more now than he did when the old king lived."
"I wish," said Mr. Custer, "that I had gone down after my
guns. Why didn't you tell me, in the first place, that I was a
king, and that I might get you in trouble if you were found
with me? Why, they may even take me for an emperor or a
mikado--who knows? And then look at all the trouble we'd
be in."
Which was Barney's way of humoring a maniac.
"And they might even shave off your beautiful beard."
Which was the girl's way.
"Do you think that you would like me better in the green
wastebasket hat with the red roses?" asked Barney.
A very sad look came into the girl's eyes. It was pitiful to
think that this big, handsome young man, for whose return
to the throne all Lutha had prayed for ten long years, was
only a silly half-wit. What might he not have accomplished
for his people had this terrible misfortune not overtaken
him! In every other way he seemed fitted to be the savior
of his country. If she could but make him remember!
"Your majesty," she said, "do you not recall the time that
your father came upon a state visit to my father's castle?
You were a little boy then. He brought you with him. I was
a little girl, and we played together. You would not let me
call you 'highness,' but insisted that I should always call
you Leopold. When I forgot you would accuse me of lese-
majeste, and sentence me to--to punishment.'
"What was the punishment?" asked Barney, noticing her
hesitation and wishing to encourage her in the pretty turn
her dementia had taken.
Again the girl hesitated; she hated to say it, but if it
would help to recall the past to that poor, dimmed mind,
it was her duty.
"Every time I called you 'highness' you made me give
you a--a kiss," she almost whispered.
"I hope," said Barney, "that you will be guilty of lese-
majeste often."
"We were little children then, your majesty," the girl re-
minded him.
Had he thought her of sound mind Mr. Custer might have
taken advantage of his royal prerogatives on the spot, for
the girl's lips were most tempting; but when he remembered
the poor, weak mind, tears almost came to his eyes, and
there sprang to his heart a great desire to protect and guard
this unfortunate child.
"And when I was Crown Prince what were you, way back
there in the beautiful days of our childhood?" asked Barney.
"Why, I was what I still am, your majesty," replied the
girl. "Princess Emma von der Tann."
So the poor child, beside thinking him a king, thought
herself a princess! She certainly was mad. Well, he would
humor her.
"Then I should call you 'your highness,' shouldn't I?" he
asked.
"You always called me Emma when we were children."
"Very well, then, you shall be Emma and I Leopold. Is
it a bargain?"
"The king's will is law," she said.
They had come to a very steep hillside, up which the half-
obliterated trail zigzagged toward the crest of a flat-topped
hill. Barney went ahead, taking the girl's hand in his to help
her, and thus they came to the top, to stand hand in hand,
breathing heavily after the stiff climb.
The girl's hair had come loose about her temples and a
lock was blowing over her face. Her cheeks were very red
and her eyes bright. Barney thought he had never looked
upon a lovelier picture. He smiled down into her eyes and
she smiled back at him.
"I wished, back there a way," he said, "that that little
brook had been as wide as the ocean--now I wish that
this little hill had been as high as Mont Blanc."
"You like to climb?" she asked.
"I should like to climb forever--with you," he said
seriously.
She looked up at him quickly. A reply was on her lips, but
she never uttered it, for at that moment a ruffian in pictur-
esque rags leaped out from behind a near-by bush, con-
fronting them with leveled revolver. He was so close that
the muzzle of the weapon almost touched Barney's face. In
that the fellow made his mistake.
"You see," said Barney unexcitedly, "that I was right
about the brigands after all. What do you want, my man?"
The man's eyes had suddenly gone wide. He stared with
open mouth at the young fellow before him. Then a cunning
look came into his eyes.
"I want you, your majesty," he said.
"Godfrey!" exclaimed Barney. "Did the whole bunch es-
cape?"
"Quick!" growled the man. "Hold up your hands. The
notice made it plain that you would be worth as much dead
as alive, and I have no mind to lose you, so do not tempt
me to kill you."
Barney's hands went up, but not in the way that the
brigand had expected. Instead, one of them seized his
weapon and shoved it aside, while with the other Custer
planted a blow between his eyes and sent him reeling back-
ward. The two men closed, fighting for possession of the gun.
In the scrimmage it was exploded, but a moment later the
American succeeded in wresting it from his adversary and
hurled it into the ravine.
Striking at one another, the two surged backward and
forward at the very edge of the hill, each searching for the
other's throat. The girl stood by, watching the battle with
wide, frightened eyes. If she could only do something to
aid the king!
She saw a loose stone lying at a little distance from the
fighters and hastened to procure it. If she could strike the
brigand a single good blow on the side of the head, Leopold
might easily overpower him. When she had gathered up the
rock and turned back toward the two she saw that the man
she thought to be the king was not much in the way of need-
ing outside assistance. She could not but marvel at the
strength and dexterity of this poor fellow who had spent
almost half his life penned within the four walls of a prison.
It must be, she thought, the superhuman strength with
which maniacs are always credited.
Nevertheless, she hurried toward them with her weapon;
but just before she reached them the brigand made a last
mad effort to free himself from the fingers that had found
his throat. He lunged backward, dragging the other with
him. His foot struck upon the root of a tree, and together
the two toppled over into the ravine.
As the girl hastened toward the spot where the two had
disappeared, she was startled to see three troopers of the pal-
ace cavalry headed by an officer break through the trees at a
short distance from where the battle had waged. The four
men ran rapidly toward her.
"What has happened here? shouted the officer to Emma
von der Tann; and then, as he came closer: "Gott! Can it
be possible that it is your highness?"
The girl paid no attention to the officer. Instead, she hur-
ried down the steep embankment toward the underbrush
into which the two men had fallen. There was no sound
from below, and no movement in the bushes to indicate that
a moment before two desperately battling human beings
had dropped among them.
The soldiers were close upon the girl's heels, but it was
she who first reached the two quiet figures that lay side by
side upon the stony ground halfway down the hillside.
When the officer stopped beside her she was sitting on
the ground holding the head of one of the combatants in
her lap.
A little stream of blood trickled from a wound in the
forehead. The officer stooped closer.
"He is dead?" he asked.
"The king is dead," replied the Princess Emma von der
Tann, a little sob in her voice.
"The king!" exclaimed the officer; and then, as he bent
lower over the white face: "Leopold!"
The girl nodded.
"We were searching for him," said the officer, "when we
heard the shot." Then, arising, he removed his cap, saying
in a very low voice: "The king is dead. Long live the king!"
