“So,” says he, “well enough—you’ve the look of a man of your hands. We may have cause to be glad of that. Now then, here’s the position. You tell us that Prince Carl Gustaf is in Jotunberg under guard of Bismarck’s men, and that they can do away with him—and leave no evidence—at the first sign of alarm. They’ll weight his body, shove it down this hell-hole of theirs—and goodbye.” I noticed Grundvig shudder. “So if we were to storm the place—and it wouldn’t be easy—all that we would find would be a party of gentlemen who no doubt would have an innocent tale of being the guests of Adolf Bülow, the owner—he’s tactfully out of the country, by the way. And we’d have lost Prince Carl. The Jotunsee is deep, and we’d never even find his body.”

Hansen gave a little gasp, and I saw there were absolute tears on his cheek.

“So that won’t do,” says Sapten, puffing away. “Now—suppose we leave Jotunberg alone. Suppose we return you to Strelhow, and wait and see what our German friends in the castle do then. It would gain us time.”

By God, I didn’t like this. De Gautet might have-failed with me, but some one else would surely succeed—the last place I wanted to be was anywhere on public view in Strackenz.

“They would hardly murder the prince,” says Grundvig, “while you were on the consort’s throne. At least, they have not done it yet.”

“It offers us time,” repeated Sapten slowly, “but what could we do with it, eh?”

I tried to think of something—anything.

“Perhaps if I were to abdicate,” I suggested hurriedly. “I mean…if it would help….”

“Waiting increases the risks, though,” went on Sapten, as though I hadn’t spoken, “of your discovery; of the Prince’s murder.”

“We cannot leave him there, with those villains!” burst out Hansen.

“No, so we’ve rejected that,” says Sapten. “And we come back to the only course—a desperate and dangerous one, for it may cost his life in the end. But nothing else remains.”

He paused, and I felt my spine dissolve. Oh, Jesus, here it was again—whenever I hear the words “desperate and dangerous” I know that I’m for it. I could only wait to hear the worst.