"Must I continue to hold my hands in the air?" asked Karl. "I am very tired."
"Your Majesty!" gasped Saunders.
"Good-evening, gentlemen," said the King, at length lowering his arms. "This is an unexpected pleasure. You are indefatigable."
"Pardon me," said Meyer yawning; "we are exceedingly tired. But as I have been constantly reminding my comrades,—almost to the point of boredom,—we are a pack of fools and must pay for our folly by the inconvenience of a night in the snow."
"If you are fools," said Karl, "I am the king of fools. But at least there is something noble in your folly, if it leads you from warmth and shelter to a hopeless search over a snow-bound countryside."
"But you have escaped, sire?" said Bilderbaum.
"Yes and no," replied Karl. "When the grand coup occurred on the bob-sleigh run I was partially stupefied by the fumes of chloroform. I quickly recovered, however, from its effects, and was even beginning to appreciate the fascinations of a moonlight abduction when an accident occurred to the sleigh."
"You were hurt?" inquired Saunders anxiously.
"No; I fell on my head—which is vastly harder than the snow."
"What happened, sire?" asked Lexa.