"That's just like 'The Mikado' or 'Pinafore,'" she exclaimed." I believeyou are a comic-opera brigand or a pirate chieftain, after all."

"I am a lowly outcast," he smiled.

"Well, I've decided to take you into Edelweiss and--"

"Pardon me, your highness," he exclaimed firmly, "That cannot be. I shall notgo to Edelweiss."

"But I command you--"

"It's very kind of you, but I cannot enter a hospital--not even atGanlook. I may as well confess that I am a hunted man and that theinstructions are to take me dead or alive."

"Impossible!" she gasped, involuntarily shrinking from him.

"I have wronged no man, yet I am being hunted down as though I were abeast," he said, his face turning haggard for the moment. "The hills ofGraustark, the plateaus of Axphain and the valleys of Dawsbergen arealive with men who are bent on ending my unhappy but inconvenientexistence. It would be suicide for me to enter any one of your towns orcities. Even you could not protect me, I fear,"

"This sounds like a dream. 0h, dear me, you don't look like a hardenedcriminal," she cried.

"I am the humble leader of a faithful band who will expire with me when thetime comes. We are not criminals, your highness. In return for whatservice I may have performed for you, I implore you to question me nofurther. Let me be your slave up to the walls of Ganlook, and then youmay forget Baldos, the goat-hunter."