Colonel Einarson stiffened. He had an audience now—one that saw his humiliation. He was likely to do something. I’d have to handle him with gloves, or—maybe the other way was better. I kicked him on the ankle and snarled:
“Get over in the corner and sit down!”
He spun around to me. I jabbed the muzzle of the pistol in his face, grinding his lip between it and his teeth. When his head jerked back I slammed him in the belly with my other fist. He grabbed for air with a wide mouth. I pushed him over to a chair in one corner of the room.
Romaine laughed and shook a finger at me, saying:
“You’re a rowdy!”
“What else can I do?” I protested, chiefly for my prisoner’s benefit. “When somebody’s watching him he gets notions that he’s a hero. I stuck him up and made him crown the boy king. But this bird has still got the army, which is the government. I can’t let go of him, or both Lionel the Once and I will gather lead. It hurts me more than it does him to have to knock him around, but I can’t help myself. I’ve got to keep him sensible.”
“You’re doing wrong by him,” she replied. “You’ve got no right to mistreat him. The only polite thing for you to do is to cut his throat in a gentlemanly manner.”
“Ach!” Einarson’s lungs were working again.
“Shut up,” I yelled at him, “or I’ll come over there and knock you double-jointed.”
He glared at me, and I asked the girl: “What’ll we do with him? I’d be glad to cut his throat, but the trouble is, his army might avenge him, and I’m not a fellow who likes to have anybody’s army avenging on him.”
“We’ll give him to Vasilije,” she said, swinging her feet over the side of the bed and standing up. “He’ll know what to do.”
“Where is he?”
“Upstairs in Grantham’s suite, finishing his morning nap, I suppose.”
Then she said lightly, casually, as if she hadn’t been thinking seriously about it: “So you had the boy crowned?”
“I did. You want it for your Vasilije? Good! We want five million American dollars for our abdication. Grantham put in three to finance the doings, and he deserves a profit. He’s been regularly elected by the Deputies. He’s got no real backing here, but he can get support from the neighbors. Don’t overlook that. There are a couple of countries not a million miles away that would gladly send in an army to support a legitimate king in exchange for whatever concessions they liked. But Lionel the First isn’t unreasonable. He thinks it would be better for you to have a native ruler. All he asks is a decent provision from the government. Five million is low enough, and he’ll abdicate tomorrow. Tell that to your Vasilije.”
She went around me to avoid passing between my gun and its target, stood on tiptoe to kiss my ear, and said:
“You and your king are a couple of brigands. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
She went out.
“Ten millions,” Colonel Einarson said.
“I can’t trust you now,” I said. “You’d pay us off in front of a firing squad.”
“You can trust this pig Djudakovich?”
“He’s got no reason to hate us.”
“He will when he’s told of you and his Romaine.”
I laughed.
“Besides, how can he be king? Ach! What is his promise to pay if he cannot become in a position to pay? Suppose even I am dead. What will he do with my army? Ach! You have seen the pig! What kind of king is he?”
“I don’t know,” I said truthfully. “I’m told he was a good Minister of Police because inefficiency would spoil his comfort. Maybe he’d be a good dictator or king for the same reason. I’ve seen him once. He’s a bloated mountain, but there’s nothing ridiculous about him. He weighs a ton, and moves without shaking the floor. I’d be afraid to try on him what I did to you.”
This insult brought the soldier up on his feet, very tall and straight. His eyes burned at me while his mouth hardened in a thin line. He was going to make trouble for me before I was rid of him. I scowled at him and wondered what I should do next.
The door opened and Vasilije Djudakovich came in, followed by the girl. I grinned at the fat Minister. He nodded without smiling. His little dark eyes moved coldly from me to Einarson.
The girl said:
“The government will give Lionel the First a draft for four million dollars, American, on either a Vienna or Athens bank, in exchange for his abdication.” She dropped her official tone and added: “That’s every nickel I could get out of him.”
“You and your Vasilije are a couple of rotten bargain hunters,” I complained. “But we’ll take it. We’ve got to have a special train to Saloniki—one that will put us across the border before the abdication goes into effect.”
“That will be arranged,” she promised.
“Good! Now to do all this your Vasilije has got to take the army away from Einarson. Can he do it?”
“Ach!” Colonel Einarson reared up his head, swelled his thick chest. “That is precisely what he has got to do!”
The fat man grumbled sleepily through his yellow beard. Romaine came over and put a hand on my arm.
“Vasilije wants a private talk with Einarson. Leave it to him. We’ll go upstairs.”
I agreed and offered Djudakovich my automatic. He paid no attention to the gun or to me. He was looking with a clammy sort of patience at the officer. I went out with the girl and closed the door. At the foot of the stairs I took her by the shoulders and turned her around.
“Can I trust your Vasilije?” I asked.
“Oh my dear, he could handle half a dozen Einarsons.”
“I don’t mean that. He won’t try to gyp me?”
She frowned at me, asking: “Why should you start worrying about that now?”
“He doesn’t seem to be exactly all broken out with
