The Lighted Match Part 23

"Yours is hunger and thirst--yes!" exclaimed the King of Galavia. "But mine is the hunger and thirst of Tantalus."

There was a low pained exclamation from the balcony and both men wheeled in recognition of the voice and the shadow that divided the band of light in the doorway.

The Queen stood on the low sill and though her head and figure were only sketched in shade against the tempered luminance at her back her exclamation told them that she had heard. She stood in the unbroken sweep of her Court gown. Her slim hands gripped the ermine which fell from her shoulders to the floor and slowly crushed it between clenched fingers. About her head the light touched her hair into a soft nimbus.

Karyl stepped impetuously forward and held out his hand to lead her into the garden. Benton, who had involuntarily started toward the balcony at the first sight of her, caught his lip in his teeth and halted where he stood.

The girl remained for a moment, astonished at the sight of the two men, incredulous of what she had heard.

She had slipped away for a moment of respite from the fatiguing requirements of the ball-room. She had come here because she had felt sure that here she could be alone. She had come, driven by the prompting of her heart, to look out to the Mediterranean and wonder where, between its gates at Gibraltar and Suez, Benton might at that moment be. And from the balcony she had seen him in the garden and had heard a part of this talk before the spell of her astounded muteness broke into exclamation.

"You heard what we were saying." Karyl spoke gently, deferentially. "And it seemed to you incredible that we should be confidential on such a subject. It would be so, except that we are both seeking the same end--your service--" he paused, then added miserably--"and your happiness."

She listened in wonderment as she held out her hand to Benton and watched trance-like his lowered head as he bent his lips to her fingers.

"Cara!" Karyl had stepped back and was leaning over, his elbows resting on the stone back of one of the low benches. His fingers tightly grasped the carved ornaments at its top. His words were carefully chosen and measuredly spoken. He knew that if he permitted one expression to escape him unguardedly, with it would slip away the command by which he was curbing mutinous emotions.

"Cara, I happened to be born a Prince, who should one day develop into a King. It chanced that Nature had a sense of humor--so Nature paid me a droll compliment. She gave me a futile ambition to be a man--me, whom she had decided was to be only a King!"

The group stood silent and attentive in a strained tableau, except for Von Ritz, who paced back and forth just beyond the fountain, as though respectfully repudiating the whole unseemly episode.

"Then I fell in love with you," went on the King of Galavia. "You married me--because State reasons demanded it. I could not win your love--he did!" He turned toward Benton, and his voice, though it held its slow control, was bitter.

"Benton, do you fancy this puny game amuses me? Do I not know that you could buy a princ.i.p.ality like this for a souvenir of Europe if it happened to please you? The one time I have been allowed to feel a man was in your country, where we met as equal rivals.... No, not equal even then, because you were the winner, I the loser."

"Karyl," the Queen spoke in a low voice, "I can give you loyalty, admiration, respect and my life to use as you see fit to use it. I give as freely as I can. My love I do not refuse--it is just ... just that it is not mine to give." She spoke with unutterable weariness. "I seem to bring only sorrow to those who love me."

"You can give me all but love," Karyl repeated very softly, leaning forward toward her, "and love is all there is! Without it I take all else you give me as a thief takes, without right. If being a King means being your jailer, then I am done with being a King!"

"Your Majesty," cut in Von Ritz sharply, "it is time to terminate this talk. It has no end. It is aimless argument which comes only back to the starting point."

The King wheeled and met the eyes of his adviser. The studied self-control he had maintained since Cara's arrival slipped from him and his voice broke out explosively.

"It has an end!" he cried. "I will show you the end. If I cannot build empire I can do something else, I can throw this d.a.m.nable little Kingdom down into the chaos it deserves!... I can abdicate to my cousin, Louis Delgado, who wants the throne I don't want!... I can stamp on this tinseled trumpery.... I can break jail!" He turned with an impa.s.sioned out-sweeping of his hands. Coming swiftly from behind the bench, he halted tensely before Benton and leaned defiantly forward. "Then I can free her--and by G.o.d I shall fight you for her on equal terms, inch by inch, not holding her in duress, but fighting for her free consent. She has been trapped by Fate into marrying me and at heart she rebels. I shall set her free and then by G.o.d I will win her back!"

Von Ritz had stood by as the King rushed on in climax after climax of heated words. Now he took one swift stride forward. From his quiet face had fallen every trace of impa.s.siveness. When he spoke his voice trembled with the irresistible eloquence of power and fire.

"My G.o.d, boy!" He seized Karyl by his shoulders and wheeled him so that they stood face to face. There was in his manner nothing of deference, nothing of the subordinate. Now he stood transformed, the man of action; the dominant, compelling force before whom littler men must wither. This was no longer Von Ritz the emotionless. It was Von Ritz the King-maker, burning with vitalizing pa.s.sion.

"My G.o.d, boy, are you mad? Do you think other men have never loved and sacrificed themselves for duty--kept unuttered, locked in their hearts, things they were hungry to say?... Do you think that your hard task of Kings.h.i.+p is yours to play with--to desert?... Why, boy, I've taught you your manual of arms, I've drilled you, trained you, watched you grow from childhood. My heart has beaten with joy because you were free of every degenerate trace that has marked and scarred Europe's cancerous Royalty! I've seen you come clean-hearted, straight-minded into man-hood; prepared you to show the world what a Kingdom can be with a clean King--a strong King! I've fitted you to bear a burden which only a man could bear--to remind the world that 'King' means the Man Who Can--and I thought you could do it!" He paused only to draw a long breath, then hastened on again. "Yes, your task is thankless. Your Princ.i.p.ality is small, but it is a keystone in Europe's arch. It is such Princelings as you who must send clean blood down to the thrones of to-morrow.... Is that not enough?... Have I built a King, day by day, year by year, idea by idea, only to see him wither and crumple under the first blast? Go on with your task, in G.o.d's name! Probably they will murder you ... a.s.sa.s.sination may at the end be your reward, but only the coward fears the outcome! For G.o.d's sake, Karyl, don't desert me under fire!"

He paused with a gesture eloquent of appeal. When next he spoke his voice was slow, deliberate.

"And the other picture! The cafe tables of Paris are crowded with Royalty that has been; with the miserable children of conquered and abdicated Kings!"

The King dropped exhaustedly to the bench, his fore-arms on his knees, his gloved fingers hanging limp. After a moment he rose again and went to Cara.

"I want to fight for you," he said simply. "I want to free you first--then fight for you."

"Karyl," she answered gently, "if you do _this_, you will enslave my soul, and my imprisonment will be only harder. You will make me a wrecker of governments--a traitor to my duty."

The King turned and looked out to sea.

"I must think," he said in a tired voice. "Perhaps it is only a matter of time. Delgado is free. Perhaps I shall not have to present him with my throne. Conceivably he may come and take it."

Von Ritz approached again and took Karyl's hand. To him a King was, at last a.n.a.lysis, only the best product of the King-maker's craft. He was a King-maker--before him stood a tired boy whom he loved.

"You will fight," he said, "and you will fight with h.e.l.l's fury. The first step will be to recapture this Pretender. With him in hand--"

"Which is in itself impossible," retorted Karyl.

At the window appeared the young Captain who had been left at the hotel.

His hand was at his forehead in salute. Von Ritz went to meet him and in a moment returned for Benton. Together the two men went out. Five minutes later they had come again into the garden. With them came Manuel Blanco.

The bull fighter paused to bow low to the Queen, then to the King. At last he spoke with some diffidence.

"I have taken the very great liberty," he said, "of making the Duke Louis Delgado an enforced guest on the yacht--where he awaits Your Majesty's pleasure."

CHAPTER XIX

THE JACKAL TAKES THE TRAIL

"When the Duke avowed himself to be kidnaped, he committed an error so grave that it can hardly be--overestimated." The speaker used the last word as an afterthought. His first inclination was to say, forgiven.

Monsieur Jusseret sat upright in the brougham, scorning the supporting cus.h.i.+ons at his back. His small, shrewd eyes frowned his deep disapproval over the roofs of Algiers outspread below him. He scowled on the gaudy and tatterdemalion color of the native city. He scowled on the smart brilliancy of the French quarter basking along the _Place du Government_ and the _Boulevard de la Republique_.

The Countess Astaride leaned back and smiled from the depths of the cus.h.i.+ons.

"It is usually a mistake to be made a prisoner," she smiled.

"But such a foolish mistake," quarreled Jusseret. "To permit oneself to be lured into so palpable a trap. It is most absurd."

"Now that it is done," inquired the woman, "is it not almost as absurd to waste time deploring the spilled milk? We must find a way to set him free."

"I have done all that could be done. I have stationed men whom I can trust throughout Puntal and Galavia. They are men Karyl likewise thinks he can trust. The distinction is that I know--where he merely thinks."

"And these men--what have they done?" The Countess laid one gloved hand eagerly on the Frenchman's coat-sleeve.

"These men have gradually and quietly reorganized the army, the bureaucracy, the very palace Guard. We have undermined the government's power, until when the word is pa.s.sed to strike the blow, a honey-combed system will crumble under its own weight. When Karyl calls on his troops, not one man will respond. Well--" Jusseret smiled dryly--"perhaps I overstate the case. Possibly one man will. I think we will hardly convert Von Ritz."

"Ah, that is good news, Monsieur." The Countess breathed the words with a tremor of enthusiasm.

"It is, however, all useless, Madame--since His Grace is unavailable. In captivity he is absolutely valueless."

"In captivity he has a stronger claim upon our loyalty than in power!"