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 stared at Kent, made a significant gesture of warning with his hand, and changed to a dialect language that was plainly a mixture of German, French and Italian in quality. Had he been observing the financial agent he might have been startled by another flicker of a smile on that absorbed gentleman's features due to the fact that Kent, the polyglot, spoke the language of Marken almost as fluently as he did his own tongue.

"And a close call it was, too, Your Majesty. It was very fortunate that I had the foresight to divert them from following Captain Paulo across the border by"

The king of Marken interrupted him impatiently.

"Your foresight? Humph! It seems to me that if your foresight as chancellor of my kingdom had amounted to much, we should never have been compelled to run like a hutch of rabbits to save our lives! But, anyway, my sister is safe," he concluded, and then observing that the acting chauffeur, Captain Paulo, appeared restlessly eager to speak, added, "What is it, Paulo?"

"Does it not seem best, Sire, that I stand guard outside the door for at least an hour or two to make certain that we are not pursued, even here across the border? We are but an hour's ride from it" [29]