THE WORLD SET FREE
The king glanced up and met a calm, round eye of light, that seemed to wink at him and vanish, leaving him blinded. . . .
The three men went on their way. Near the little gate in the garden railings that Pestovitch had caused to be unlocked, the king paused under the shadow of an flex and looked back at the place. It was very high and narrow, a twentieth-century rendering of mediævalism, mediævalism in steel and bronze and sham stone and opaque glass. Against the sky it splashed a confusion of pinnacles. High up in the eastward wing were the windows of the apartments of the ex-king Egbert. One of them was brightly lit now, and against the light a little black figure stood very still and looked out upon the night.
The king snarled.
"He little knows how we slip through his fingers," said Pestovitch.
And as he spoke they saw the ex-king stretch out his arms slowly, like one who yawns, knuckle his eyes and turn inward—no doubt to his bed.
Down through the ancient winding back streets of his capital hurried the king, and at an appointed corner a shabby atomi-automobile waited for the three. It was a hackney-carriage of the lowest grade, with dinted metal panels and deflated cushions. The driver was one of the ordinary
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