It was Baron Sluben who knocked and entered. He came up to me and bowed low.

"The usurper is dead; long live the King!"

I know that from that minute I felt one, I do not know why.

Mr. Smith took a pair of revolvers from a desk, handed one to me and put the other in his pocket.

"Come," he said, "it is time."

The three of us went out to the car. I felt cool, and made some cheerful remark to Carruthers.

"Good old Splosh, what is it to be, 150 not out?"

"Or a duck," I said.

Sluben, who understood a little English, looked at Mr. Smith with a puzzled expression on his face.

"It is all right, Baron," he said, answering the look, "his Majesty is talking of an English game."