Resistance was the one thing worse than to yield. Wit, and not force, must find escape this time. Rudolf stopped, looking round again with a surprised air. Then he drew himself up with an assumption of dignity, and waited for the constable. If that last card must be played, he would win the hand with it.
"Well, what do you want?" he asked coldly, when the man was a few yards from him; and, as he spoke, he withdrew the scarf almost entirely from his features, keeping it only over his chin. "You call very peremptorily," he continued, staring contemptuously. "What's your business with me?"
With a violent start, the sergeant—for such the star on his collar and the lace on his cuff proclaimed him—leant forward in the saddle to look at the man whom he had hailed. Rudolf said nothing and did not move. The man's eyes studied his face intently. Then he sat bolt upright and saluted, his face dyed to a deep red in his sudden confusion.
"And why do you salute me now?" asked Rudolf in a mocking tone. "First you hunt me, then you salute me. By heaven, I don't know why you put yourself out at all about me! "
"I—I—" the fellow stuttered. Then trying afresh start, he stammered, "Your Majesty, I didn't know—I didn't suppose"
Rudolf stepped towards him with a quick, decisive tread.
"And why do you call me 'Your Majesty'?" he asked, still mockingly.
"It—it—isn't it Your Majesty?"
Rudolf was close by him now, his hand on the horse's neck. He looked up into the sergeant's face with steady eyes, saying:
"You make a mistake, my friend. I am not the king."
"You are not—?" stuttered the bewildered fellow.
"By no means. And, sergeant?"
"Your Majesty?"
"Sir, you mean."
"Yes, sir."
"A zealous officer, sergeant, can make no greater mistake than to take for the king a gentleman who is not the king. It might injure his prospects, since the king, not being here, mightn't wish to have it supposed that he was here. Do you follow me, sergeant?"
The man said nothing, but stared hard. After a moment Rudolf continued:
"In such a case," said he, "a discreet officer would not trouble the gentleman any more, and would be very careful not to mention that he had made such a silly mistake. Indeed, if questioned, he would answer without hesitation that he hadn't seen anybody even like the king, much less the king himself."
A doubtful, puzzled little smile spread under the sergeant's mustache.
"You see, the king is not even in Strelsau," said Rudolf.
"Not in Strelsau, sir?"
"Why, no, he's at Zenda."
"Ah! At Zenda, sir?"
"Certainly. It is therefore impossible—physically impossible—that he should be here."
The fellow was convinced that he understood now."
"It's certainly impossible, sir," said he, smiling more broadly.
"Absolutely. And therefore impossible also that you should have seen him." With this Rudolf took a gold piece from his pocket and handed it to the sergeant. The fellow took it with something like a wink. "As for you, you've searched here and found nobody," concluded Mr. Rassendyll "So hadn't you better at once search somewhere else?"
"Without doubt, sir," said the sergeant, and with the most deferential salute, and another confidential smile, he turned and rode back by the way he had come. No doubt he wished that he could meet a gentleman who was—not the king—every morning of his life. It hardly need be said that all idea of connecting the gentleman with the crime committed in the Königstrasse had vanished from his mind. Thus Rudolf won freedom from the man's interference, but at a dangerous cost—how dangerous he did not know. It was indeed most impossible that the king could be in Strelsau.
He lost no time now in turning his steps towards his refuge. It was past five o'clock, day came quickly, and the streets began to be peopled by men and women on their way to open stalls or to buy in the market. Rudolf crossed the square at a rapid walk, for he was afraid of the soldiers who were gathering for early duty opposite to the barracks. Fortunately he passed by them unobserved, and gained the comparative seclusion of the street in which my house stands, without encountering any further difficulties. In truth, he was almost in safety; but bad luck was now to have its turn. When Mr. Rassendyll was no more than fifty yards from my
