"Stay where you are," he said, smiling and cool. And placing a powerful hand on King Ferdinand's chest he shoved him backward onto a chair. Then, to my surprise, Raoul slipped a pair of automatic pistols from his side pockets and cast a merry glance around him at the company.
"The first man that moves," he remarked, "is not likely to continue the movement."
The dead silence which fell over everybody was startling. Raoul, resting gracefully on a table with one leg on the floor, looked about him as though immensely amused. Then, as we awaited further developments, his countenance assumed a thoughtful expression—and he absent-mindedly hummed aloud his favorite air:
"Crack-brain-cripple-arm
You have done a heap of harm——"
XXIV
RAOUL
Raoul looked up, thoughtfully, playing with his pistols, and said to King Constantine in an unaccented and conversational tone:
"After all, who were you to rule Naxos?—you cheap, treacherous, yellow dog!"
That partly cleared the king's muddy mind and he lurched to an upright position and began to take notice.
"You sold Greece to the boche," continued Raoul in his serene, even voice, toying idly with his pistols. "What else you did—what else you are—is a trifle too vile to repeat aloud——"