and a mauvais quat' d'heure! What'll you bet me she doesn't laugh
you out of countenance the very first time you meet? Come now--
what'll you bet?"

"Not in the habit," King answered, glancing at his watch. "Will
you see about their rations, please, and the blankets? Thanks!"

They went then in opposite directions and the prisoners were left
squatting under the eyes and bayonets of a very suspicious prison
guard, who made no secret of being ready for all conceivable emergencies.
One enthusiast drew the cartridge out of his breech-chamber and
licked it at intervals of a minute or two, to the very great interest
of the Hillmen, who memorized every detail that by any stretch of
imagination might be expected to improve their own shooting when
they should get home again.

King found his way on foot through a maze of streets to a palace
where he was admitted through one door after another by sentries
who saluted when he had whispered to them. He ended by sitting
on the end of the bed of a gray-headed man who owns three titles
and whose word is law between the borders of a province. To him
he talked as one schoolboy to a bigger one, because the gray-haired
man had understanding, and hence sympathy.

"I don't envy you!" said he under the sheet. "There was an American
here not long ago--most amusing man I ever talked to. He had the
right expression. 'I do not desiderate that pie!' was his way of
putting it. Good, don't you think?"

All the while he talked the older man was writing on a pad that he