"
"Sapt, suppose they have killed the King?"
"Then, by heaven, you're as good an Elphberg as Black Michael, and you
shall reign in Ruritania! But I don't believe they have; nor will they
kill him if you're on the throne. Will they kill him, to put you in?"
It was a wild plan--wilder even and more hopeless than the trick we
had already carried through; but as I listened to Sapt I saw the strong
points in our game. And then I was a young man and I loved action, and I
was offered such a hand in such a game as perhaps never man played yet.
"I shall be found out," I said.
"Perhaps," said Sapt. "Come! to Strelsau! We shall be caught like rats
in a trap if we stay here."
"Sapt," I cried, "I'll try it!"
"Well played!" said he. "I hope they've left us the horses. I'll go and
see."
"We must bury that poor fellow," said I.
"No time," said Sapt.
"I'll do it."
"Hang you!" he grinned. "I make you a King, and--Well, do it. Go and
fetch him, while I look to the horses. He can't lie very deep, but I
doubt if he'll care about that. Poor little Josef! He was an honest bit
of a man."
He went out, and I went to the cellar. I raised poor Josef in my arms
and bore him into the passage and thence towards the door of the house.
Just inside I laid him down, remembering that I must find spades for our
task.
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