New Mexico state record. (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1914-19??, 1918-05-31

should hear all there was to hear-tht
very worst-from me than from
someone else"
don't speak like that" the prince
implored her tenderly. "What was
there to hear, after all? Only that 8
man whom | shall kill one day wher
| have the time terrOrized you cruelty
At this moment arrived an anxious.
looking gentleman, whose face cleared
at sight of the group of three. Bowling
rourteously to Miss Dauvray, at WHOM
he glanced quickly with yelled curios.
ity, he announced in indifferent French
that he had been searching everywhere
for his royal h~ighncss, in the hope OF
introducing him-by special request
to Il very great parsonage.
Such II request was a command, and
ElOise smiled permission to go.
THAT is the Dalvanian ambassa-
dor" she murmurcd, as the tall, youth
full figure and the short, middle-aged
one moved away together.
"Ile looks clever" said Christopher.
"He is clever" replied ElOise, land
We believe-he is on our side. Not
for me- don't mean that. l hope
and pray he knows nothing, and may
guess nothing until too late to inter-
fere. l mean something of more i'm
portance to Dalvania than a love af-
fair. Perhaps, after all, it's just as
well that l al tell you what l have
to tell you alone. First, l thank you
for coming, and-isn't he g%lorious?"
Yes" said Christopher. "If l we're
n soldier l should like to fight for
him"
"How strange you should say that !"
half whispered the girl. ut Is exactly
what want you to do. VIII you be
Il Soldier of fortune and fight for us
both? But no; it isn't fair to ask you
that until you know the whole story"
SO she told him the story, briefly
as she could, keeping down her own
excitement, which would grow with
the tale. Christopher knew little or
nothing of Dalvanian affairs, except
that the people of that turbulent coun-
try had risen some years ugo against
their king and killed him that the
queen and her children had been saved
only by flight that a distant relative
of the dead mana person favored by
Turkey-had been raised to the
throne; and that the Dalvunians, who
ought to have been elated at their sue
cess, had been more or less dissatis-
fed ever since.
Now Eloise Dauvray told him that
the story of the flight and the mas
sacre was twelve years old. The
queen had lived in great s~eclusion, in
cognitO, sometimes in France and
England, sometimes in Austria and
Hungary. Now she was dead-had
been dead for two years. Her last
words to her two sOns-MirkO, TWEEN
ty-six, and Peter, twenty-One-had
been: "Win back Dalvania. Mirko
must be king"
This chimed with Mirko's hearts
desire. But there was no money; and
Dalvania-even If willing to accept
him-was weak. while Turkey was
near and powerful. Still, he was the
rightful heir; and Dalvania was very
tired of King Alexander, spendthrift
and prOfligate.
Now, Prince MirkO's errand in the
most important island of the world
was to enlist sympathy for his cause
among those who would lend him their
money OF their help in organizing a
raid; and the adventure, so
Dauvray eagerly explained to
Christopher Race, was not so hopeless
rs it might seem.
The Dalvanian Ambassador, who
had just called the Prince away, had
been put in his place by Turkey, like
other Dalvanian diplomats of
King Alexander's day; nevertheless,
he had private reasons for being at
leart Mirko's friend. Damiello Rudo-
'ics knew what was Mirko's mission
n England knew that he was trying
o get together a hundred thousand
pounds to buy arms and feed a small
knew that he was inviting ad-
;enturous o r rich young Englishmen
o join him secretly at the Montenegro
rontier of Dalyania, for a certain pur-
bose; yet Rudovics was giving no hint
o Turkey, his real employer, of the
business afoot. "And that is not be-
of any personal love for the
'%rince," finished the woman who loved
he Prince above all, "but because he
wants Mirko to marry his wife's daugh-
er. If MirkO would take her, Turkey
% more than a mere theatrical strug-
lie. Thereby hangs a strange tale.
"Once upon a time q sultan loved a
air lady who was not his sultana,
ct she vas of high rank ard had im-
ortant relatives who must not be Of
ended. So the Sultan heaped upon
er all the honors he could, and
her off to a colonel in his
rmy, who died rather suddenly soon
fter the wedding day. Perhaps by
hat time the great man had tired Of
er beauty; at all events, when she
been long enough a widow. with
pretty little girl, he smiled upon a
between the lady and the new
'alvanian Ambassador to the Court of
t. James. Now the girl is grown up
that is, she's sixteen or seventeen
you a see that, if Mirko of
would please to fall in love
18th and marry her, there would be