Truxton King

Truxton King, by George Barr
McCutcheon

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Title: Truxton King A Story of Graustark
Author: George Barr McCutcheon
Release Date: December 7, 2004 [EBook #14284]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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KING ***

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[Illustration: "'DON'T YOU KNOW ANY BETTER THAN TO COME
IN HERE?' DEMANDED THE PRINCE"]
TRUXTON KING A STORY of GRAUSTARK

BY GEORGE BARR McCUTCHEON
Author of "Graustark" "Beverly of Graustark" etc.
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY HARRISON FISHER
NEW YORK DODD, MEAD & COMPANY 1909

CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I TRUXTON KING 1 II A MEETING OF THE CABINET 23 III
MANY PERSONS IN REVIEW 40 IV TRUXTON TRESPASSES 59
V THE COMMITTEE OF TEN 80 VI INGOMEDE THE
BEAUTIFUL 94 VII AT THE WITCH'S HUT 114 VIII LOOKING
FOR AN EYE 130 IX STRANGE DISAPPEARANCES 147 X THE
IRON COUNT 161 XI UNDER THE GROUND 177 XII A NEW
PRISONER ARRIVES 190 XIII A DIVINITY SHAPES 205 XIV ON
THE RIVER 219 XV THE GIRL IN THE RED CLOAK 231 XVI
THE MERRY VAGABOND 245 XVII THE THROWING OF THE
BOMB 263 XVIII TRUXTON ON PARADE 278 XIX TRUXTON
EXACTS A PROMISE 295 XX BY THE WATER-GATE 312 XXI
THE RETURN 329 XXII THE LAST STAND 345 XXIII "YOU
WILL BE MRS. KING" 357

ILLUSTRATIONS
"'Don't you know any better than to come in here?' demanded the
Prince" (page 67) Frontispiece
"'You are the only man to whom I feel sure that I can reveal myself and
be quite understood'" Facing page 104
"'Bobby! Don't be foolish. How could I be in love with him?'" 158

"'His Majesty appears to have--ahem--gone to sleep,' remarked the
Grand Duke tartly" 366

TRUXTON KING A STORY OF GRAUSTARK
CHAPTER I
TRUXTON KING
He was a tall, rawboned, rangy young fellow with a face so tanned by
wind and sun you had the impression that his skin would feel like
leather if you could affect the impertinence to test it by the sense of
touch. Not that you would like to encourage this bit of impudence after
a look into his devil-may-care eyes; but you might easily imagine
something much stronger than brown wrapping paper and not quite so
passive as burnt clay. His clothes fit him loosely and yet were
graciously devoid of the bagginess which characterises the appearance
of extremely young men whose frames are not fully set and whose
joints are still parading through the last stages of college development.
This fellow, you could tell by looking at him, had been out of college
from two to five years; you could also tell, beyond doubt or
contradiction, that he had been in college for his full allotted time and
had not escaped the usual number of "conditions" that dismay but do
not discourage the happy-go-lucky undergraduate who makes two or
three teams with comparative ease, but who has a great deal of
difficulty with physics or whatever else he actually is supposed to
acquire between the close of the football season and the opening of
baseball practice.
This tall young man in the panama hat and grey flannels was Truxton
King, embryo globe-trotter and searcher after the treasures of Romance.
Somewhere up near Central Park, in one of the fashionable cross streets,
was the home of his father and his father's father before him: a home
which Truxton had not seen in two years or more. It is worthy of
passing notice, and that is all, that his father was a manufacturer; more
than that, he was something of a power in the financial world. His

mother was not strictly a social queen in the great metropolis, but she
was what we might safely call one of the first "ladies in waiting."
Which is quite good enough for the wife of a manufacturer; especially
when one records that her husband was a manufacturer of steel. It is
also a matter of no little consequence that Truxton's mother was more
or less averse to the steel business as a heritage for her son. Be it
understood, here and now, that she intended Truxton for the diplomatic
service: as far removed from sordid steel as the New York post office is
from the Court of St. James.
But neither Truxton's father, who wanted him to be a manufacturing
Croesus, or Truxton's mother, who expected him to become a social
Solomon, appears to have taken