General Petko, the Serbian minister to Lutha, brought to the
audience the memory of a series of unpleasant encounters with the
king. Leopold had never exerted himself to hide his pro-Austrian
sentiments. Austria was a powerful country--Serbia, a relatively
weak neighbor. Leopold, being a royal snob, had courted the favor of
the emperor and turned up his nose at Serbia. The general was
prepared for a repetition of the veiled affronts that Leopold
delighted in according him; but this time he brought with him a
reply that for two years he had been living in the hope of some day
being able to deliver to the young monarch he so cordially despised.
It was an ultimatum from his government--an ultimatum couched in
terms from which all diplomatic suavity had been stripped. If Barney
Custer, of Beatrice, could have read it he would have smiled, for in
plain American it might have been described as announcing to Leopold
precisely "where he got off." But Barney did not have the
opportunity to read it, since that ultimatum was never delivered.
Barney took the wind all out of it by his first words. "Your
excellency may wonder why it is that we have summoned you at such an
early hour," he said.
General Petko inclined his head in deferential acknowledgment of the
truth of the inference.
"It is because we have learned from our chancellor," continued the
American, "that Serbia has mobilized an entire army corps upon the
Luthanian frontier.
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