"My pleasure? I? How?"
"I humbly beg Your Majesty's permission--may I tell all?"
"You must--!"
Summoning all his strength, Baum now said:
"Your Majesty, I found the shoes myself, but I got the hat from a man who is fit to do anything--the gend'arme thinks--that it may perhaps be good for the man--he might be pardoned at the end of a year and sent to America--a brother of his--is said to be--there--"
"You speak incoherently."
Baum regained his self-command.
"She may have been murdered by some poacher. The worst of it all is that she sent a letter to her majesty the queen."
"A letter to the queen! Where is it? Give it to me!"
"I haven't it, the maid snatched it from me."