"The king has ordered me to bring you both before him," he said. "He has heard of the part you played in the destruction of the Semlin arsenal and he has learned that it was that feat that made the great victory of Schabatz possible. If the Austrians had had ammunition enough to serve their guns, they would have beaten us there."
Dick was embarrassed and timid when he was called upon to stand forth and meet King Peter. But the old man, simple and, democratic, soon put him at his ease. He held out his hand and gripped Dick's, and then he spoke to him in English.
"Servia thanks you, through me, her king," he said. "I wish you to wear this decoration with our gratitude! And I have heard of the mission that brought you to Semlin—so fortunately for us. General Dushan knows my pleasure in that matter."
"Come with me, both of you," said General Dushan. He took them to the citadel, and there, in a little while, Hallo was brought before the general, his hands linked with steel handcuffs.
"Michael Hallo," said General Dushan, sternly, "you have been tried and found guilty, and sentenced to death as a spy and a traitor. But His Majesty has been pleased to grant you a reprieve—on a certain condition. If you will sign an order to Richard Warner upon the State Bank here for the payment of a sum equivalent to two hundred thousand dollars, you will be confined as a political prisoner until the end of the war, and then released. Do you agree?"
There was hate in Hallo's eyes, but he was helpless—and he agreed, to save his life.
"I told you it would be arranged," said Stepan, three days later, when Mr. Denniston, the consul in Semlin, had arranged for the transfer of Dick's money to New York. "And now you are going to Salonica, with an escort to the border—and I am going all the way to Athens to see you off! Think of us sometimes—and when the war is over, I will visit you in New York!"