THE UNKNOWN MR. KENT
to give. I ask nothing but to serve. The king's wish is to me an order."
"Phwew! That's going some! Takes me back to a gallery seat at the melodrama," Kent said in English, much to the chancellor's bewilderment. But with the chancellor, too, the American shook hands as if this were to seal a binding contract, and then, almost abruptly, he swung round to his desk, seated himself, and was the man in command. His head appeared to set more doggedly, his voice to become more crisp and authoritative.
"I'll take your word for the concession until we can draw it up. Now who is this friend of whom you spoke?" he asked the king.
"Baron Von Hertz, distantly related, who dwells most of the time in a mediæval castle he has rehabilitated. It is less than ten miles from Marken."
"And you can depend on him?"
"Implicitly. On him and all his followers and tenants."
"And how far is his castle from here?"
"About thirty miles, I should think."
"All right. We shall have to use the car the princess arrived in. We three will start at once."
"And leave my sister here alone — undefended?"
Kent stepped to the door, and turned back to answer over his shoulder.
