"Benton, do you remember the talk we had about Romance?"
Benton looked quickly up to forestall any possible personality to which he might object, but Harcourt continued.
"Do you know that chap, Martin—he doesn't call himself Browne now—has turned up again? He's been here. Not ragged this time, but well groomed and in high feather. To-day he left to go back to Galavia."
"Back to Galavia?" Benton repeated the words in astonishment. "What do you mean?"
Harcourt laughed. "The scales have turned and his Grand Duke is to be King after all."
Benton seized the boy by the elbow and steered him into one of the empty writing-rooms.
"Now, for God's sake, what do you mean?" he demanded.
"That's all," replied the young tourist. "They've switched Kings. Oh, it was so quietly done that the people of the city of Puntal don't know yet it's happened. The King died suddenly and Louis will ascend his throne."
"The King died suddenly!" Benton echoed the words blankly. "I don't understand."
"Neither do I. But Martin said the King was taken prisoner and tried to escape. He was shot."