"Burroughs, Edgar Rice - The Mad King" - читать интересную книгу автора (Burroughs Edgar Rice)

Now she was positive that she was indeed with the mad
king of Lutha, but she had no fear of him, for since child-
hood she had heard her father scout the idea that Leopold
was mad. For what other purpose would he hasten toward
the Old Forest than to take refuge in her father's castle upon
the banks of the Tann at the forest's verge?

"Thither was I bound also," she said, "and if you would
come there quickly and in safety I can show you a short
path across the mountains that my father taught me years
ago. It touches the main road but once or twice, and much
of the way passes through dense woods and undergrowth
where an army might hide."

"Hadn't we better find the nearest town," suggested Bar-
ney, "where I can obtain some sort of conveyance to take
you home?"

"It would not be safe," said the girl. "Peter of Blentz will
have troops out scouring all Lutha about Blentz and the Old
Forest until the king is captured."

Barney Custer shook his head despairingly.

"Won't you please believe that I am but a plain Ameri-
can?" he begged.

Upon the bole of a large wayside tree a fresh, new placard
stared them in the face. Emma von der Tann pointed at one
of the paragraphs.

"Gray eyes, brown hair, and a full reddish-brown beard,"
she read. "No matter who you may be," she said, "you are
safer off the highways of Lutha than on them until you can
find and use a razor."

"But I cannot shave until the fifth of November," said
Barney.

Again the girl looked quickly into his eyes and again in
her mind rose the question that had hovered there once be-
fore. Was he indeed, after all, quite sane?

"Then please come with me the safest way to my father's,"
she urged. "He will know what is best to do."

"He cannot make me shave," insisted Barney.

"Why do you wish not to shave?" asked the girl.,