Harold Macgrath

The Puppet Crown Harold Macgrath

The king, who had been leaning forward, fell back heavily in his seat, his eyes full wide and his mouth agape. Then, to express his utter bewilderment, he raised his hands above his head and limply dropped them."Five millions of crowns?" he gasped."Yes; what would your Majesty say to such a proposition?" complacently."I should say," answered the king, with a nervous laugh, "that my friend had lost his senses, completely and totally.""The fact is," the Englishman declared, "they were never keener nor more lucid than at this present moment.""But five millions!""Five millions; a bagatelle," smiling."Certainly you can not be serious, and if you were, it is out of the question. Death of my life! The kingdom would be at my ears. The people would shout that I was selling out to the English, that I was putting them into the mill to grind for English sacks.""Your Majesty will recollect that the measure authorizing this loan was rather a peculiar one. Five millions were to be borrowed indiscriminately, of any man or body of men willing to advance the money on the securities offered. First come, first served, was not written, but it was implied. It was this which roused my curiosity, or cupidity, if you will."