The lead figure in the bowler hat seemed to be in a bad way. Several dozen Boznovian soldiers were aiming an assortment of firearms at him; cavalry were coming at a gallop, too, not to mention a three-gun battery on a dead run.
The problem seemed to be how, in the face of such a situation, was the lead gentleman in the bowler hat to get away, much less penetrate the city?
Flight seemed hopeless, but presently Smith picked him up, marched him along the edge of the moat, and gave him a shove into it.
"He's swimming," said Smith, aloud to himself. "Bang! Bang! But they don't hit him.... Yes, they do; they graze his shoulder. It is the only wound possible to polite fiction. There is consequently a streak of red in the water. Bang—bang—bang! Crack—crack! The cavalry [85]empty their pistols. Boom! A field piece opens—— Where the devil is that battery——"
Smith reached over, drew horses, cannoniers, gun and caisson over the drawbridge, galloped them along the moat, halted, unlimbered, trained the guns on the bowler hatted swimmer, and remarked, "Boom!"
"The shell," he murmured with satisfaction, "missed him and blew up in the casemates. Did it kill anybody? No; that interferes with the action.... He dives, swims under water to an ancient drain." Smith stuck a peg where the supposed drain emptied into the moat.
"That drain," continued Smith thoughtfully, "connects with the royal residence.... Where's that Princess? Can she see him dive into it? Or does she merely suspect he is making for it? Or—or—doesn't she know anything about it?"
"She doesn't know anything about it!" exclaimed Lady Alene Innesly. The tint of excitement glowed in her cheeks. Her lilac-tinted eyes burned with a soft, blue fire.[86]
