"But you have not given up hope?"
"I never had any."
"Dale, old chum," said Nick, "you have beaten me at chess; I have beaten you at billiards. It's a draw with the gloves. But, after every defeat or victory, we have always shaken hands. It was always a fair game. I know you, Dale. You never give up without a struggle. Therefore there will be a battle. We are older now and we strike harder. But, here's my hand on it—that no matter which way this may end it will make no difference between us. As far as I am concerned a woman can never come between David and Jonathan."
"As far as I am concerned she never can either, Nick," I said.
The grip of friendship we exchanged was sincere. Whatever of disappointment the future has in store for me, Nick's place in my heart would always remain as fixed as Polaris. And I know that nothing could alter his feeling for me.
It was plain that his position in his own country was such as would enable him some day to aspire to the hand of a Princess, a privilege denied to me, a plain American. By the accident of birth, then, he had an advantage over me; but in one thing I had the advantage over him.
When we mounted to follow the pack, he rode after the Prince while I rode after the Princess.
CHAPTER XIV
THE ABDUCTION
He thought at heart, like courtly Chesterfield
Who, after a long chase o'er hills, dales, bushes,
And what not, though he rode beyond all price,
Asks next day, "if men ever hunted twice?"
—Byron: Don Juan.