The Mad King | Page 7

need not be afraid."
Barney Custer looked up at her quickly, and then he grinned. His only fear had been that
he would not meet brigands, for Mr. Bernard Custer, Jr., was young and the spirit of
Romance and Adventure breathed strong within him.
"Why do you smile?" asked the girl.
"At our dilemma," evaded Barney. "Have you paused to consider our situation?"
The girl smiled, too.
"It is most unconventional," she said. "On foot and alone in the mountains, far from home,
and we do not even know each other's name."
"Pardon me," cried Barney, bowing low. "Permit me to introduce myself. I am," and then
to the spirits of Romance and Adventure was added a third, the spirit of Deviltry, "I am
the mad king of Lutha."

II
OVER THE PRECIPICE
THE EFFECT of his words upon the girl were quite different from what he had expected.
An American girl would have laughed, knowing that he but joked. This girl did not laugh.
Instead her face went white, and she clutched her bosom with her two hands. Her brown
eyes peered searchingly into the face of the man.
"Leopold!" she cried in a suppressed voice. "Oh, your majesty, thank God that you are
free--and sane!"
Before he could prevent it the girl had seized his hand and pressed it to her lips.
Here was a pretty muddle! Barney Custer swore at himself inwardly for a boorish fool.
What in the world had ever prompted him to speak those ridiculous words! And now how
was he to unsay them without mortifying this beautiful girl who had just kissed his hand?
She would never forgive that--he was sure of it.
There was but one thing to do, however, and that was to make a clean breast of it.
Somehow, he managed to stumble through his explanation of what had prompted him,
and when he had finished he saw that the girl was smiling in- dulgently at him.
"It shall be Mr. Bernard Custer if you wish it so," she said; "but your majesty need fear
nothing from Emma von der Tann. Your secret is as safe with me as with yourself, as the

name of Von der Tann must assure you."
She looked to see the expression of relief and pleasure that her father's name should have
brought to the face of Leopold of Lutha, but when he gave no indication that he had ever
before heard the name she sighed and looked puzzled.
"Perhaps," she thought, "he doubts me. Or can it be pos- sible that, after all, his poor
mind is gone?"
"I wish," said Barney in a tone of entreaty, "that you would forgive and forget my foolish
words, and then let me accompany you to the end of your journey."
"Whither were you bound when I became the means of wrecking your motor car?" asked
the girl.
"To the Old Forest," replied Barney.
Now she was positive that she was indeed with the mad king of Lutha, but she had no
fear of him, for since child- hood she had heard her father scout the idea that Leopold was
mad. For what other purpose would he hasten toward the Old Forest than to take refuge
in her father's castle upon the banks of the Tann at the forest's verge?
"Thither was I bound also," she said, "and if you would come there quickly and in safety
I can show you a short path across the mountains that my father taught me years ago. It
touches the main road but once or twice, and much of the way passes through dense
woods and undergrowth where an army might hide."
"Hadn't we better find the nearest town," suggested Bar- ney, "where I can obtain some
sort of conveyance to take you home?"
"It would not be safe," said the girl. "Peter of Blentz will have troops out scouring all
Lutha about Blentz and the Old Forest until the king is captured."
Barney Custer shook his head despairingly.
"Won't you please believe that I am but a plain Ameri- can?" he begged.
Upon the bole of a large wayside tree a fresh, new placard stared them in the face. Emma
von der Tann pointed at one of the paragraphs.
"Gray eyes, brown hair, and a full reddish-brown beard," she read. "No matter who you
may be," she said, "you are safer off the highways of Lutha than on them until you can
find and use a razor."
"But I cannot shave until the fifth of November," said Barney.
Again the girl looked quickly into his eyes and again in her mind rose the question that
had hovered there once be- fore. Was he indeed, after all, quite sane?

"Then please come with me the safest way to my father's," she