"Pardon me, your highness," he said firmly, "That cannot be. I shall not go to Edelweiss."
"But I command you—"
"It's very kind of you, but I cannot enter a hospital—not even at Ganlook. I may as well confess that I am a hunted man and that the instructions are to take me dead or alive."
"Impossible!" she gasped, involuntarily shrinking from him.
"I have wronged no man, yet I am being hunted down as though I were a beast," he said, his face turning haggard for the moment. "The hills of Graustark, the plateaus of Axphain and the valleys of Dawsbergen are alive with men who are bent on ending my unhappy but inconvenient existence. It would be suicide for me to enter any one of your towns or cities. Even you could not protect me, I fear."
"This sounds like a dream. Oh, dear me, you don't look like a hardened criminal," she cried.
"I am the humble leader of a faithful band who will die with me when the time comes. We are not criminals, your highness. In return for what service I may have performed for you, I implore you to question me no further. Let me be your slave up to the walls of Ganlook, and then you may forget Baldos, the goat-hunter."
"I never can forget you," she cried, touching his injured arm gently. "Will you forget the one who gave you this wound?"
"It is a very gentle wound, and I love it so that I pray it may never heal." She looked away suddenly.
"Tell me one thing," she said, a mist coming over her eyes. "You say they are hunting you to the death. Then—then your fault must be a grievous one. Have you—have you killed a man?" she added hastily. He was silent for a long time.