V
THE ESCAPE
For half an hour the Princess von der Tann succeeded admirably inimmersing herself in the periodical, to the exclusion of her unhappythoughts and the depressing influence of the austere countenance ofthe Blentz Princess hanging upon the wall behind her.
But presently she became unaccountably nervous. At the slightestsound from the palace-life on the floor below she would start upwith a tremor of excitement. Once she heard footsteps in thecorridor before her door, but they passed on, and she thought shediscerned the click of a latch a short distance further on along thepassageway.
Again she attempted to gather up the thread of the article she hadbeen reading, but she was unsuccessful. A stealthy scratchingbrought her round quickly, staring in the direction of the greatportrait. The girl would have sworn that she had heard a noisewithin her chamber. She shuddered at the thought that it might havecome from that painted thing upon the wall.
What was the matter with her? Was she losing all control of herselfto be frightened like a little child by ghostly noises?
She tried to return to her reading, but for the life of her shecould not keep her eyes off the silent, painted woman who stared andstared and stared in cold, threatening silence upon this ancientenemy of her house.
Presently the girl's eyes went wide in horror. She could feel thescalp upon her head contract with fright. Her terror-filled gaze wasfrozen upon that awful figure that loomed so large and sinisterabove her, for the thing had moved! She had seen it with her owneyes. There could be no mistake--no hallucination of overwroughtnerves about it. The Blentz Princess was moving slowly toward her!
Like one in a trance the girl rose from her chair, her eyes gluedupon the awful apparition that seemed creeping upon her. Slowly shewithdrew toward the opposite side of the chamber. As the paintingmoved more quickly the truth flashed upon her--it was mounted on adoor.
The crack of the door widened and beyond it the girl saw dimly, eyesfastened upon her. With difficulty she restrained a shriek. Theportal swung wide and a man in uniform stepped into the room.
It was Maenck.
Emma von der Tann gazed in unveiled abhorrence upon the leering faceof the governor of Blentz.
"What means this intrusion?" cried the girl.
"What would you have here?"
"You," replied Maenck.
The girl crimsoned.
Maenck regarded her sneeringly.
"You coward!" she cried. "Leave my apartments at once. Not evenPeter of Blentz would countenance such abhorrent treatment of aprisoner."
"You do not know Peter, my dear," responded Maenck. "But you need notfear. You shall be my wife. Peter has promised me a baronetcy forthe capture of Leopold, and before I am done I shall be made aprince, of that you may rest assured, so you see I am not so bad amatch after all."
He crossed over toward her and would have laid a rough hand upon herarm.
The girl sprang away from him, running to the opposite side of thelibrary table at which she had been reading. Maenck started topursue her, when she seized a heavy, copper bowl that stood upon thetable and hurled it full in his face. The missile struck him aglancing blow, but the edge laid open the flesh of one cheek almostto the jaw bone.
With a cry of pain and rage Captain Ernst Maenck leaped across thetable full upon the young girl. With vicious, murderous fingers heseized upon her fair throat, shaking her as a terrier might shake arat. Futilely the girl struck at the hate-contorted features soclose to hers.
"Stop!" she cried. "You are killing me."
The fingers released their hold.
"No," muttered the man, and dragged the princess roughly across theroom.
Half a dozen steps he had taken when there came a sudden crash ofbreaking glass from the window across the chamber. Both turned inastonishment to see the figure of a man leap into the room, carryingthe shattered crystal and the casement with him. In one hand was anaked sword.
"The king!" cried Emma von der Tann.
"The devil!" muttered Maenck, as, dropping the girl, he scurriedtoward the great painting from behind which he had found ingress tothe chambers of the princess.
Maenck was a coward, and he had seen murder in the eyes of the manrushing upon him. With a bound he reached the picture which stillstood swung wide into the room.
Barney was close behind him, but fear lent wings to the governor ofBlentz, so that he was able to dart into the passage behind thepicture and slam the door behind him a moment before the infuriatedman was upon him.
The American clawed at the edge of the massive frame, but all to noavail. Then he raised his sword and slashed the canvas, hoping tofind a way into the place beyond, but mighty oaken panels barred hisfurther progress. With a whispered oath he turned back toward thegirl.
"Thank Heaven that I was in time, Emma," he cried.
"Oh, Leopold, my king, but at what a price," replied the girl. "Hewill return now with others and kill you. He is furious--so furiousthat he scarce knows what he does."
"He seemed to know what he was doing when he ran for that hole inthe wall," replied Barney with a grin. "But come, it won't pay tolet them find us should they return."
Together they hastened to the window beyond which the girl could seea rope dangling from above. The sight of it partially solved theriddle of the king's almost uncanny presence upon her window sill inthe very nick of time.
Below, the lights in the watch tower at the outer gate were plainlyvisible, and the twinkling of them reminded Barney of the danger ofdetection from that quarter. Quickly he recrossed the apartment tothe wall-switch that operated the recently installed electriclights, and an instant later the chamber was in total darkness.
Once more at the girl's side Barney drew in one end of the rope andmade it fast about her body below her arms, leaving a sufficientlength terminating in a small loop to permit her to support herselfmore comfortably with one foot within the noose. Then he stepped tothe outer sill, and reaching down assisted her to his side.
Far below them the moonlight played upon the sluggish waters of themoat. In the distance twinkled the lights of the village of Blentz.From the courtyard and the palace came faintly the sound of voices,and the movement of men. A horse whinnied from the stables.
Barney turned his eyes upward. He could see the head and shouldersof Joseph leaning from the window of the chamber directly abovethem.
"Hoist away, Joseph!" whispered the American, and to the girl: "Bebrave. Shut your eyes and trust to Joseph and--and--"
"And my king," finished the girl for him.
His arm was about her shoulders, supporting her upon the narrowsill. His cheek so close to hers that once he felt the soft velvetof it brush his own. Involuntarily his arm tightened about thesupple body.
"My princess!" he murmured, and as he turned his face toward herstheir lips almost touched.
Joseph was pulling upon the rope from above. They could feel ittighten beneath the girl's arms. Impulsively Barney Custer drew thesweet lips closer to his own. There was no resistance.
"I love you," he whispered. The words were smothered as their lipsmet.
Joseph, above, wondered at the great weight of the Princess Emma vonder Tann.
"I love you, Leopold, forever," whispered the girl, and then asJoseph's Herculean tugging seemed likely to drag them both from thenarrow sill, Barney lifted the girl upward with one hand while heclung to the window frame with the other. The distance to the sillabove was short, and a moment later Joseph had grasped theprincess's hand and was helping her over the ledge into the roombeyond.
At the same instant there came a sudden commotion from the interiorof the room in the window of which Barney still stood waiting forJoseph to remove the rope from about the princess and lower it forhim. Barney heard the heavy feet of men, the clank of arms, andmuttered oaths as the searchers stumbled against the furniture.
Presently one of them found the switch and instantly the room wasflooded with light, which revealed to
the American a dozen Luthaniantroopers headed by the murderous Maenck.
Barney looked anxiously aloft. Would Joseph never lower that rope!Within the room the men were searching. He could hear Maenckdirecting them. Only a thin portiere screened him from their view.It was but a matter of seconds before they would investigate thewindow through which Maenck knew the king had found ingress.
Yes! It had come.
"Look to the window," commanded Maenck. "He may have gone as hecame."
Two of the soldiers crossed the room toward the casement. From aboveJoseph was lowering the rope; but it was too late. The men would beat the window before he could clamber out of their reach.
"Hoist away!" he whispered to Joseph. "Quick now, my man, and makeyour escape with the Princess von der Tann. It is the king'scommand."
Already the soldiers were at the window. At the sound of his voicethey tore aside the draperies; at the same instant the pseudo-kingturned and leaped out into the blackness of the night.
There were exclamations of surprise and rage from the soldiers--awoman's scream. Then from far below came a dull splash as the bodyof Bernard Custer struck the surface of the moat.
Maenck, leaning from the window, heard the scream and the splash,and jumped to the conclusion that both the king and the princess hadattempted to make their escape in this harebrained way. Immediatelyall the resources at his command were put to the task of searchingthe moat and the adjacent woods.
He was sure that one or both of the prisoners would be stunned byimpact with the surface of the water, and then drowned before theyregained consciousness, but he did not know Bernard Custer, nor thefacility and almost uncanny ease with which that young man couldnegotiate a high dive into shallow water.
Nor did he know that upon the floor above him one Joseph washastening along a dark corridor toward a secret panel in anotherapartment, and that with him was the Princess Emma bound for libertyand safety far from the frowning walls of Blentz.
As Barney's head emerged above the surface of the moat he shook itvigorously to free his eyes from water, and then struck out for thefurther bank.
Long before his pursuers had reached the courtyard and alarmed thewatch at the barbican, the American had crawled out upon dry landand hastened across the broad clearing to the patch of stunted treesthat grew lower down upon the steep hillside before the castle.
He shrank from the thought of leaving Blentz without knowingpositively that Joseph had made good the escape of himself and theprincess, but he finally argued that even if they had been retaken,he could serve her best by hastening to her father and fetching theonly succor that might prevail against the strength of Blentz--armedmen in sufficient force to storm the ancient fortress.
He had scarcely entered the wood when he heard the sound of thesearchers at the moat, and saw the rays of their lanterns flittinghither and thither as they moved back and forth along the bank.
Then the young man turned his face from the castle and set forthacross the unfamiliar country in the direction of the Old Forest andthe castle Von der Tann.
The memory of the warm lips that had so recently been pressed to hisurged him on in the service of the wondrous girl who had come sosuddenly into his life, bringing to him the realization of a lovethat he knew must alter, for happiness or for sorrow, all thebalance of his existence, even unto death.
He dreaded the day of reckoning when, at last, she must learn thathe was no king. He did not have the temerity to hope that hercourage would be equal to the great sacrifice which theacknowledgment of her love for one not of noble blood must entail;but he could not believe that she would cease to love him when shelearned the truth.
So the future looked black and cheerless to Barney Custer as hetrudged along the rocky, moonlit way. The only bright spot was therealization that for a while at least he might be serving the onewoman in all the world.
All the balance of the long night the young man traversed valley andmountain, holding due south in the direction he supposed the OldForest to lie. He passed many a little farm tucked away in thehollow of a hillside, and quaint hamlets, and now and then the ruinsof an ancient feudal stronghold, but no great forest of black oaksloomed before him to apprise him of the nearness of his goal, nordid he dare to ask the correct route at any of the homes he passed.
His fatal likeness to the description of the mad king of Luthawarned him from intercourse with the men of Lutha until he mightknow which were friends and which enemies of the hapless monarch.
Dawn found him still upon his way, but with the determination fullycrystallized to hail the first man he met and ask the way to Tann.He still avoided the main traveled roads, but from time to time heparalleled them close enough that he might have ample opportunity tohail the first passerby.
The road was becoming more and more mountainous and difficult.There were fewer homes and no hamlets, and now he began to despairentirely of meeting any who could give him direction unless heturned and retraced his steps to the nearest farm.
Directly before him the narrow trail he had been following for thepast few miles wound sharply about the shoulder of a protrudingcliff. He would see what lay beyond the turn--perhaps he would findthe Old Forest there, after all.
But instead he found something very different, though in its wayquite as interesting, for as he rounded the rugged bluff he cameface to face with two evil-looking fellows astride stocky,rough-coated ponies.
At sight of him they drew in their mounts and eyed him suspiciously.Nor was there great cause for wonderment in that, for the Americanpresented aught but a respectable appearance. His khaki motoringsuit, soaked from immersion in the moat, had but partially driedupon him. Mud from the banks of the stagnant pool caked his legs tothe knees, almost hiding his once tan puttees. More mud streaked hisjacket front and stained its sleeves to the elbows. He wasbare-headed, for his cap had remained in the moat at Blentz, and hisdisheveled hair was tousled upon his head, while his full beard haddried into a weird and tangled fringe about his face. At his sidestill hung the sword that Joseph had buckled there, and it was thisthat caused the two men the greatest suspicion of this strangelooking character.
They continued to eye Barney in silence, every now and then castingapprehensive glances beyond him, as though expecting others of hiskind to appear in the trail at his back. And that is precisely whatthey did fear, for the sword at Barney's side had convinced themthat he must be an officer of the army, and they looked to see hiscommand following in his wake.
The young man saluted them pleasantly, asking the direction to theOld Forest. They thought it strange that a soldier of Lutha shouldnot know his own way about his native land, and so judged that hisquestion was but a blind to deceive them.
"Why do you not ask your own men the way?" parried one of thefellows.
"I have no men, I am alone," replied Barney. "I am a stranger inLutha and have lost my way."
He who had spoken before pointed to the sword at Barney's side.
"Strangers traveling in Lutha do not wear swords," he said. "You arean officer. Why should you desire to conceal the fact from twohonest farmers? We have done nothing. Let us go our way."
Barney looked his astonishment at this reply.
"Most certainly, go your way, my friends," he said laughing. "Iwould not delay you if I could; but before you go please be goodenough to tell me how to reach the Old Forest and the ancient castleof the Prince von der Tann."
For a moment the two men whispered together, then the spokesmanturned to Barney.
"We will lead you upon the right road. Come," and the two turnedtheir horses, one of them starting slowly back up the trail whilethe other remained waiting for Barney to pass him.
The American, suspecting nothing, voiced his thanks, and set outafter him who had gone before. As he passed the fellow who waitedthe latter moved in behind him, so that Barney walked between thetwo. Occasionally the rider at his back turned in his saddle to scanthe trail behind, as though still fearful that Barney had bee
n lyingto them and that he would discover a company of soldiers chargingdown upon them.
The trail became more and more difficult as they advanced, untilBarney wondered how the little horses clung to the steepmountainside, where he himself had difficulty in walking withoutusing his hand to keep from falling.
Twice the American attempted to break through the taciturnity of hisguides, but his advances were met with nothing more than sultrygrunts or silence, and presently a suspicion began to obtrude itselfamong his thoughts that possibly these "honest farmers" weresomething more sinister than they represented themselves to be.
A malign and threatening atmosphere seemed to surround them. Eventhe cat-like movement of their silent mounts breathed a sinistersecrecy, and now, for the first time, Barney noticed the short, uglylooking carbines that were slung in boots at their saddle-horns.Then, prompted to further investigation, he dropped back beside theman who had been riding behind him, and as he did so he saw beneaththe fellow's cloak the butts of two villainous-looking pistols.
As Barney dropped back beside him the man turned his mount acrossthe narrow trail, and reining him in motioned Barney ahead.
"I have changed my mind," said the American, "about going to the OldForest."
He had determined that he might as well have the thing out now aslater, and discover at once how he stood with these two, and whetheror not his suspicions of them were well grounded.
The man ahead had halted at the sound of Barney's voice, and swungabout in the saddle.
"What's the trouble?" he asked.
"He don't want to go to the Old Forest," explained his companion,and for the first time Barney saw one of them grin. It was not atall a pleasant grin, nor reassuring.
"He don't, eh?" growled the other. "Well, he ain't goin', is he?Who ever said he was?"
And then he, too, laughed.
"I'm going back the way I came," said Barney, starting around thehorse that blocked his way.
"No, you ain't," said the horseman. "You're goin' with us."
And Barney found himself gazing down the muzzle of one of the wickedlooking pistols.
For a moment he stood in silence, debating mentally the wisdom ofattempting to rush the fellow, and then, with a shake of his head,he turned back up the trail between his captors.
"Yes," he said, "on second thought I have decided to go with you.Your logic is most convincing."