"No!" cried Alec sharply.
"Yes," said Prince Michael, after a pause.
Count Julius Marulitch breathed heavily, and Constantine Beliani threw a wary eye over Alec.
"Good!" said Stampoff. "That clears the air. I shall be ready to accompany your Majesty by the train that leaves the Gare de l'Est at seven-thirty P.M."
Prince Michael laughed dryly. "You see," he said. "I was sure Stampoff would interfere with my dinner hour."
There was almost a touch of genius in the remark. Its very vacuity told of the man's exceeding unfitness for the rôle thrust upon him by certain desperadoes in the far off Balkans.
"We must have money," growled Stampoff with a most unflattering lack of recognition of the elder Delgrado's humor.
"Ah!" said Prince Michael, plunging both hands into his trousers' pockets and keeping them there.
"How much?" inquired Beliani.
"To begin with, fifty thousand francs. After that, all that can be raised."