"Good heavens, Aunt Yvonne, don't suggest anything so distressing," said Yetive. "He must be one of them."
"I suggest a speedy way of determining the matter," said Anguish. "Let us send for Baldos and ask him point blank who he is. I think it is up to him to clear away the mystery."
"No!" cried Beverly, starting to her feet.
"It seems to be the only way," said Lorry.
"But I promised him that no questions should be asked," said Beverly, almost tearfully but quite resolutely. "Didn't I, yet—your highness?"
"Alas, yes!" said the princess, with a pathetic little smile of resignation, but with loyalty in the clasp of her hand.
CHAPTER XIV — A VISIT AND ITS CONSEQUENCES
That same afternoon Baldos, blissfully ignorant of the stir he had created in certain circles, rode out for the first time as a member of the Castle Guard. He and Haddan were detailed by Colonel Quinnox to act as private escort to Miss Calhoun until otherwise ordered. If Haddan thought himself wiser than Baldos in knowing that their charge was not the princess, he was very much mistaken; if he enjoyed the trick that was being played on his fellow guardsman, his enjoyment was as nothing as compared to the pleasure Baldos was deriving from the situation. The royal victoria was driven to the fortress, conveying the supposed princess and the Countess Dagmar to the home of Count Marlanx. The two guards rode bravely behind the equipage, resplendent in brilliant new uniforms. Baldos was mildly surprised and puzzled by the homage paid the young American girl. It struck him as preposterous that the entire population of Edelweiss could be in the game to deceive him.