"Yes, your highness. He carried a message to me from Ravone. That is why Ravone and the others waited for me in the hills."
"You amaze me!"
"I have seen Franz often," he confessed easily. "He is an excellent messenger."
"So it would seem. We must keep a lookout for him. He is the go-between for you all, I see."
"Did you learn to say 'you all' in America?" he asked. Her heart gave a great leap. There was something so subtle in the query that she was vastly relieved.
"Never mind about that, sir. You won't tell me what you said in your note to Ravone."
"I cannot."
"Well, he gave you one in return. If you are perfectly sincere, Baldos, you will hand that note over to me. It shall go no farther, I swear to you, if, as you vow, it does not jeopardize Graustark. Now, sir, prove your loyalty and your honesty."
He hesitated for a long time. Then from an inner pocket he drew forth a bit of paper.
"I don't see why it has not been destroyed," he said regretfully. "What a neglectful fool I have been!"