“Just for a bit,” says I. “And then—ah, but I can’t stop now.” She was getting me into a fever. “No, I promise I shall take care. I won’t get hurt—and if I do, there’ll be another chap along shortly—that is, no…I mean…I shall return, my darling.” I gave her one last tremendous hug, and left her stretching out her arms to me. It was quite touching, really—she loved me, you know, and if I hadn’t been in such a damned hurry I’d have been quite sorry to leave her.

Next door Mistress Helga had restored herself to decency, but from the flush on her cheeks I suspected she’d been listening at the door. I instructed her sternly to look after her mistress and to see that she kept to her room; then I stepped out into the passage. The sentries were stiff as ramrods; I repeated my orders that no one was to pass, either way, and set off for the clock tower.

It wasn’t difficult to find; up another flight of the main stairs—there were two more sentries at the top, whom I sent to join Irma’s guard—and then up a spiral stairway and along a short passage to a wrought-iron gateway. Just before the gate there was a little guard-room, where I found an ensign and two sentries; the men were playing cards and the ensign was lounging in a chair, but at sight of me they were on their feet in an instant, goggling and fumbling with buttons. I lost no time.

“Fahnrich,” says I, “there has been an attempt at a coup d’etat. The duchess’s life has been threatened.”

They stared at me aghast.

“No time to tell you more,” I went on briskly. “The situation is in hand, but I have to leave the palace at once in order to take charge at the scene of the outbreak. You understand? Now, then, what’s your name?”

“W-w-wessel, please your highness,” he stammered.

“Very good, Fahnrich Wessel. Now, attend to me. For the safety of the duchess, I have already mounted a guard on her apartments. You, with your men here, will proceed there at once, and you will take command. You will permit no one—no one, you understand—to pass into her highness’s apartment until I return. Is that clear?”

“Why—why, yes, your highness. But our post here—the crown jewels….”

“There is a jewel, infinitely more precious to us all, to be guarded,” says I portentously. “Now, take your men and go quickly.”

“Of course, highness…on the instant.” He hesitated. “But, pardon, highness—it is the first order of the palace guard that never shall the jewels be left unwatched. These are explicit instructions….”