Prince Michael, who had recovered some of his jauntiness, looked at Alec with the crafty eye of a cowed hyena; but he said coolly, "There is nothing to be gained by publishing our blunders to all the world."
"Have I your promise?" insisted Alec.
"Yes."
"And yours?" he said to Marulitch.
"Of course I agree," came the ready answer. "I, like Prince Michael, feel that it would be folly——"
"Prince Michael!" snarled the royal Delgrado. "You must learn to school your tongue, Julius! From this moment I am King of Kosnovia. Let there be no manner of doubt about that!"
Alec might not have heard the blusterer. His calm glance fell on Beliani. "And what say you?" he asked.
"I agree most fully and unreservedly," murmured the Greek, conveying, with a deep bow, his respectful regret that such an assurance should be necessary. The greatly perturbed President had already quitted the room; so Alec turned to Stampoff. His manner was quite friendly. Well he knew that this fiery soul was not to be judged by the Delgrado standard.
"I will not inflict on you, my trusty comrade," he said, "the indignity of a demand that I felt was imperative in the case of some others present. Let us shake hands and think rather of what we have gone through together when I was King and you were my most loyal supporter, than of the poor climax to my brief reign that reveals me as an impostor."
Those keen eyes were raised in a half-formed resolution. "Is it too late, Alec?" he growled sullenly.