one tender word, for one soft caress! Ah, do not be so cruel! I will be
your slave--"

"Enough! Stop, I say! If you dare to touch me!" she cried, drawing away
from her tormentor, her voice trembling with anger. The little
conductor's manner changed on the instant. He gave a snarl of rage and
despair combined as he raised his clenched hands in the air. For a
moment words seemed to fail him. Then he cried out:

"By heaven, I'll make you pay for this some day! You shall learn what a
man can do with a woman such as you are! You--"

Just at that moment a tall figure leaped from the shadows and confronted
the quivering musician. A heavy hand fell upon his collar and he was
almost jerked from his feet, half choked, half paralysed with alarm. Not
a word was spoken. Chase whirled the presumptuous suitor about until he
faced the gates to the garden. Then, with more force than he realised,
he applied his boot to the person of the offender--once, twice, thrice!
The military jacket of the recipient of these attentions was of the
abbreviated European pattern and the trousers were skin tight.

The Princess started back with a cry of alarm--ay, terror. The onslaught
was so sudden, so powerless to avert, that it seemed like a visitation
of wrath from above. She stared, wide-eyed and unbelieving, upon the
brief tragedy; she saw her tormentor hurled viciously toward the gates
and then, with new alarm, saw him pick himself up from the ground,
writhing with pain and anger. His sword flashed from its scabbard as,
with a scream of rage, he dashed upon the tall intruder. She saw
Chase--even in the shadows she knew him to be the American--she saw
Chase lightly leap aside, avoiding the thrust for his heart. Then, as if