His Royal Highness descended from the big cream-coloured "Mercedes" in
the Place Royale, drew off his gloves, and entered the quiet, eminently
aristocratic Hotel de l'Europe.
All Brussels knew that Prince Albert of Hesse-Holstein was staying
there. Hence, as the car pulled up, and the young man in long dust-coat
and motor-goggles rose from the wheel and gave the car over to the smart
chauffeur Garrett in the grey uniform with crimson facings, a small
crowd of gaping idlers assembled to watch his entrance to the hotel. In
the hall a few British tourists in tweeds or walking-skirts stared at
him, as though a real live prince was of different clay, while on
ascending the main staircase to his private suite, two waiters bowed
themselves almost in two.
In his sitting-room his middle-aged English man-servant was arranging
his newspapers, and closing the door sharply behind him he said:
"Charles! That girl is quite a sweet little thing. I've seen her
again!"
"And your Highness has fallen in love with her?" sniffed the man.
"Well, I might, Charles. One never knows." And he took a "Petroff"
from the big silver box, and lit it with care. "I am very lonely, you
know."
Charles's lips relaxed into a smile, but he made no remark. He was well
aware how confirmed was his master's bachelordom. He often admired
pretty girls, just as much as they adored him--because he was a prince--
but his admiration was tinged with the acidity of sarcasm.
When Charles had gone, his Highness flung off his motor-coat and threw
himself into a big chair to think. With a smart rat-a-plan, an infantry
regiment of _les braves Belges_ was crossing the Place to relieve the
guard at the Palace. He rose and gazed across the square:
"Ah!" he laughed to himself, "my dear uncle, the Red Rubber King, is
closely guarded, it seems! I suppose I ought to call upon him. He's at
home, judging from the royal standard. Whew! What a bore it is to have
been born a prince! If I'd been a policeman or a pork-butcher I daresay
I'd have had a much better time. The world never guesses how badly we
fellows are handicapped. Men like myself cannot cross the road without
some scoundrelly journalist working up a `royal scandal' or a political
complication."
Then his thoughts ran off into another direction--the direction in which
they had constantly flowed during the past week--towards a certain very
charming, sweet-faced girl, scarcely out of her teens, who was staying
with her father and mother at the Grand Hotel, down on the boulevard.
The Northovers were English--decidedly English. They were of that
insular type who, in a Continental hotel, demand bacon and eggs for
breakfast, denounce every dish as a "foreign mess," and sigh for the
roast beef and Yorkshire pudding of middle-class suburbia. James
Northover, Charles had discovered to be a very estimable and trusted
person, manager of the Stamford branch of the London and North Western
Bank, who was now tasting the delights of Continental travel by three
weeks' vacation in Belgium. His wife was somewhat obese and rather
strong-minded, while little Nellie was decidedly pretty, her light brown
hair dressed low and secured by a big black velvet bow, a pair of grey,
rather mischievous eyes, sweetly dimpled cheeks, and a perfect
complexion. Not yet nineteen, she had only left the High School a year
before, and was now being afforded an opportunity of inflicting her
school-girl French upon all and sundry with whom she came into contact.
And it was French--French with those pronounced "ong" and "onny" endings
for which the tourist-agents are so terribly responsible.
But with all her linguistical shortcomings little Nelly Northover, the
slim-waisted school-miss with the tiny wisp of unruly hair straying
across her brow, and the rather smart and intelligent chatter, had
attracted him. Indeed, he could not get the thought of her out of his
head.
They had met at a little inn at the village of Anseremme, on the Meuse,
close to Dinant--that paradise of the cheap "hotel-included" tourist.
Something had gone wrong with the clutch of his car, and he had been
held up there for two days while an engineer had come out from Brussels
to repair the damage. Being the only other guest in the place beside
the eminently respectable bank manager and his wife and daughter, he
lost no time in ingratiating himself with them, and more especially with
the last-named.
Though he spoke English perfectly and with but the very slightest
accent, he had given his name at the inn as Herr Birkenfeld, for was not
that one of his names? He was Count of Birkenfeld, and seigneur of a
dozen other places, in addition to being Prince of the royal house of
Hesse-Holstein. The bank manager and his wife, of course, believed him
to be a young German gentleman of means until, on the morning of the day
of his departure, Charles, in greatest confidence, revealed to them who
his master really was.
The English trio were utterly staggered. To Nellie, there was an
element of romance at meeting a real prince in those rural solitudes of
river and forest. As she declared to her mother, he was so nice and so
unassuming. Just, indeed, like any ordinary man.
And in her young mind she compared Albert Prince of Hesse-Holstein with
the provincial young gentlemen whom she had met last season at the
popular county function, the Stamford Ball.
As constantly Nellie Northover's thoughts reverted to the affable
prince, so did his Highness, on his part, sit hour upon hour smoking his
pet Russian cigarettes in quick succession, pondering and wondering.
His position was one of terrible weariness. Ah! how often he wished
that he had not been born a prince. As an ordinary mortal he might have
dared to aspire to the hand of the sweet young English miss. But as
Prince Albert of Hesse-Holstein, such a marriage would be denounced by
press and public as a _misalliance_.
He liked James Northover. There was something of the John Bull about
him which he admired. A keen, hard-headed business man, tall and bald,
who spoke with a Nottingham brogue, and who had been over thirty years
in the service of the bank, he was a highly trusted servant of his
directors. In allowing overdrafts he seldom made mistakes, while his
courtesy had brought the bank a considerably increased business.
The Prince knew all that. A couple of days after meeting Nellie in
Anseremme he had written to a certain Reverend Thomas Clayton, who lived
in Bayswater, and had only that morning received a long letter bearing
the Stamford postmark.
It was on account of this letter that he went out after luncheon in the
car along the Rue Royale, and down the Boulevard Botanique, to the Grand
Hotel on the Boulevard d'Anspach.
He found Nellie alone in the big _salon_, reading an English paper. On
seeing him the girl flushed slightly and jumped to her feet, surprised
that he should call unexpectedly.
"Miss Northover!" he exclaimed, raising his motor-cap, "I've called to
take you all for a little run this afternoon--if you can come. I have
the car outside."
"I'm sure it's awfully kind of you, Prince," the girl replied with some
confusion. "I--well, I don't know what to say. Father and mother are
out."
"Ah!" he laughed; "and of course you cannot come with me alone. It is
against your English ideas of _les convenances_--eh?"
She laughed in chorus, afterwards saying:
"I expect them back in half an hour."
"Oh, then, I'll wait," he exclaimed, and taking off his motor-coat, he
seated himself in a chair and began to chat with her, asking what sights
of Brussels she had seen, at the same time being filled with admiration
at her fresh sweetness and _chic_. They were alone in the room, and he
found an indescribable charm in her almost childlike face and girlish
chatter. She was so unlike the artificial women of cosmopolitan society
who were his friends.
Yes. He was deeply in love with her, and by her manner towards him he
could not fail to notice that his affection was reciprocated.
Presently her parents appeared. They had noticed the big cream-coloured
car with the chauffeur standing outside, and at once a flutter had run
through both their hearts, knowing that the august visitor had arrived
to call upon them.
Northover was full of apologies, but the Prince cut them short, and
within a quarter of an hour they were all in the car and on the road to
that goal of every British tourist, the battlefield of Waterloo. The
autumn afternoon was perfect. The leaves had scarcely begun to turn,
and the sun so hot that it might still have been August.
Nellie's father was just as proud of the Prince's acquaintance as she
was herself, while Mrs Northover was filled with pleasurable
anticipations of going back to quiet, old-world Stamford--a place where
nothing ever happens--and referring, in the hearing of her own
tea-drinking circle, to "my friend Prince Albert."
A week passed. Mr and Mrs Northover could not fail to notice how
constantly the Prince was in Nellie's society.
Only once, however, did her father mention it to his wife, and then in
confidence.
"Nellie seems much struck by the Prince, don't you think? And I'm sure
he admires her. He's such a good fellow. I like him. I suppose it's a
mere harmless flirtation--and it amuses them both."
"Fancy, if she became Princess of Hesse-Holstein, James!"
But James Northover only grunted dubiously. He was ignorant of the
truth; ignorant of the fact that on the previous night, while they had
been taking a stroll along the boulevard after dinner, the Prince, who
had been walking with Nellie, had actually whispered to her a
declaration of love.
It had all been done so secretly. The pair had been following a little
distance behind her worthy parents, and in the star-lit night he had
pressed her hand. He had told her hurriedly, whispering low, how fondly
he had loved her from the very first moment they had met. How devoted
he was to her, and declaring that no woman had ever touched the chord of
love in his heart as she had done.
"To-morrow, dearest, we shall part," he whispered; "but before we do so
will you not give me one word of hope--hope that you may some day be
mine! Tell me, can you ever reciprocate my love?" he whispered in deep
earnestness, as he bent to her, still holding her little hand in his
strong grip as they walked.
For a few moments she was silent; her dimpled chin sank upon her breast.
He felt her quivering with emotion, and as the light of a gas-lamp fell
across her beautiful face he saw tears in her eyes.
She turned to him and lifted her gaze to his. Then he knew the truth
without her spoken word. She was his--his own!
"We will keep our secret, dearest," he said presently. "No one must
know. For family reasons it must not yet leak out. Think how lonely I
shall be at this hour to-morrow--when you have left!"
"And I also," she sobbed. "You know--you must have seen--that I love
you!"
At that moment her mother turned to look back, and consequently they
both instantly assumed an attitude of utter unconcern. And next
afternoon when he saw the three off from the Gare du Nord by the Harwich
service, neither the estimable Northover, nor his rather obese spouse,
had the slightest idea of the true secret of the two young hearts.
Nellie grasped her lover's hand in adieu. Their eyes met for a single
instant, and it was all-sufficient. Each trusted the other implicitly.
It was surely a charming love-idyll between prince and school-girl.
His Highness remained in Brussels for about three weeks, then crossed to
London. He stayed at the Carlton, where, on the night of his arrival,
he was visited by the rather ruddy-faced jovial-looking clergyman, the
Reverend Thomas Clayton.
It was Charles who announced him, saying in an abrupt manner:
"The Parson's called, your Highness."
"Show him in," was the Prince's reply. "I was expecting him."
The greeting between Prince Albert and his old clerical friend was
hearty, and the two men spent a couple of hours over whisky and sodas
and cigarettes, chatting confidentially.
"You're in love with her, Prince!" laughed his reverend friend.
"Yes, I really and honestly believe I am," the other admitted, "and
especially so, after your report."
"My inquiries were perfectly satisfactory," the clergyman said.
"I want to have an excuse for going up to Stamford, but don't see well
how it can be managed," remarked the Prince pensively, between whiffs of
his cigarette.
"With my assistance it might, my dear boy," replied the Reverend Thomas.
"It wants a little thinking over. You're a prince, remember."
"Yes," sighed the other wearily. "That's just the confounded
difficulty. I wonder what the world would say if they knew my secret?"
"Say?" and the clergyman pulled a wry face. "Why bother about what the
world thinks? I never do."
"Yes. But you're a parson, and a parson can do practically just what he
likes."
"As long as he's popular with his parishioners."
And it was not till near midnight, after a dainty snack of supper,
served in the Prince's sitting-room, that the pair parted.
A fortnight later Mr James Northover was agreeably impressed to receive
a letter from the Prince stating that a great friend of his, the Rev
Thomas Clayton, of St Ethelburga's, Bayswater, was staying in Stamford,
convalescent after an illness, and that he was coming to visit him.
The Northover household was thrown into instant confusion. Its head was
for inviting the Prince to stay with them, but Mrs Northover and Nellie
both declared that he would be far more comfortable at the Stamford
Hotel, or at the "George." Besides, he was a prince, and Alice, the
cook, could not possibly do things as was his Highness's habit to have
them done. So a telegram was sent to the Carlton saying that the
Northovers were most delighted at the prospect of seeing the Prince
again.
Next day his Highness arrived in the big cream-coloured car at the
Stamford Hotel, causing great excitement in the town. Charles had come
down by the morning train and engaged rooms for his master, and within
half an hour of the Prince's arrival the worthy mayor called and left
his card.
The Prince's first visit, however, was to his old friend, the Rev
Thos. Clayton, whom he found in rather shabby apartments in Rock
Terrace seated in an armchair, looking very pale, and quite unlike his
usual self.
"I'm sure it's awfully good of you to become an invalid on my account?"
exclaimed the Prince the moment they were alone. "However do you pass
your days in this sleepy hollow?"
"By study, my dear boy! Study's a grand thing! See!" And he exhibited
a big dry-as-dust volume on "The Extinct Civilisations of Africa."
He remained an hour, and then, remounting into the car, drove out along
the Tinwell Road, where, half a mile from the town, Mr Northover's
comfortable, red-brick villa was situated. He found the whole family
assembled to welcome him--as they had, indeed, been assembled in eager
expectation for the past four hours.
Nellie he found looking particularly dainty, with the usual big black
velvet bow in her hair, and wearing a neat blouse of cream washing-silk
and a short black skirt. She was essentially the type of healthy
hockey-playing English girl.
As he grasped her hand and greeted her with formality, he felt it
tremble within his grasp. She had kept his secret; of that there was no
doubt.
The home life of the Northovers he found quite pleasant. It was so
unlike anything he had even been used to. He remained to tea, and he
returned there to dine and spend a pleasant evening listening to
Nellie's performances on the piano.
Afterwards, when the ladies had retired as they did discreetly at
half-past ten, he sat smoking his "Petroffs" and chatting with Mr
Northover.
"I hope you found your friend, the clergyman, better, Prince. Where is
he living?"
"Oh, yes; he's much better, thanks. But he has rather wretched
quarters, in a house in Rock Terrace. I've urged him to move into an
hotel. He says, however, that he hates hotels. He's such a good
fellow--gives nearly all he has to the poor."
"I suppose he's down here for fresh air?"
"Yes. He's very fond of this neighbourhood. Often came here when a
boy, I believe."
"When you go again I'd like to call upon him. We must not allow him to
be lonely."
"I shall call to-morrow. Perhaps you could go with me, after the bank
has closed?"
"Yes. At four-thirty. Will you call at the bank for me?"
And so it was arranged.
Punctually at the hour named the Prince stepped from his car before the
bank--which was situated in a side street between two shops--and was at
once admitted and ushered through to the manager's room.
Then the pair went on to Rock Terrace to pay the visit. The invalid was
much better, and Northover found him a man entirely after his own heart.
He was a man of the world, as well as a clergyman.
In the week that followed, Nellie's father made several visits, and
once, on a particularly bright day, the Prince brought the Rev Thomas
round in the car to return the visit at Tinwell Road.
Within ten days the vicar of St Ethelburga's, Bayswater, had become
quite an intimate friend of the Northovers; so much so, indeed, that
they compelled him to give up his rooms in Rock Terrace, and come and
stay as their guest. Perhaps it was more for the Prince's sake they did
this--perhaps because they admired Clayton as "a splendid fellow for a
parson."
Anyhow, all this gave the Prince plenty of opportunities for meeting
Nellie clandestinely. Instead of going to her music-lesson, or to her
hockey-club, or visiting an old schoolfellow, she went daily to a
certain secluded spot on the Worthope Road, where she was joined by the
man she loved.
Her romance was complete. She adored Albert, utterly and devotedly;
while he, on his part, was her slave. On the third day after his
arrival in Stamford she had promised to become Princess of
Hesse-Holstein, and now they were closely preserving their secret.
The advent of his Highness had raised Mrs Northover to the very
pinnacle of the social scale in Stamford. Times without number she
tried to obtain from Nellie the true state of affairs, but the girl was
sly enough to preserve her lover's secret.
If the truth were yet known to the family of Hesse-Holstein, all sorts
of complications would assuredly ensue. Besides, it would, he felt
certain, bring upon him the displeasure of the Emperor. He must go to
Potsdam, and announce to the Kaiser his engagement with his own lips.
And so little Nellie Northover, the chosen Princess of Hesse-Holstein,
the girl destined to become husband of the ruler of a principality half
the size of England, and the wealthiest of the German princes, often
wandered the country roads alone, and tried to peer into her brilliant
future. What would the girls of Stamford say when they found that
Nellie Northover was actually a princess! Why, even the Marchioness who
lived at the great ancestral mansion, mentioned in Tennyson's well-known
poem, would then receive her!
And all through the mere failing of a motor-car clutch at that tiny
obscure Belgian village.
The Reverend Thomas gradually grew stronger while guest of Mr
Northover, and both he and the Prince, together with the Northovers, Mr
Henry Ashdown, the assistant manager of the bank who lived on the
premises, and others of the Northovers' friends went for frequent runs
in the nobleman's car.
The Prince never hedged himself in by etiquette. Every friend of
Northover at once became his friend; hence, within a fortnight, his
Highness was the most popular figure in that quaint old market town.
One afternoon while the Prince and the clergyman were walking together
up the High Street, they passed a thin, pale-faced man in dark grey
flannels.
Glances of recognition were exchanged, but no word was uttered.
"Max is at the `George,' isn't he?" asked the Prince.
"Yes," replied his companion. "Arrived the night before last, and
having a particularly dull time, I should think."
"So should I," laughed the Prince.
That evening, the two ladies being away at the Milton Hound Show, they
took Northover and his assistant, Ashdown, after their business, over to
Peterborough to bring them back. Ashdown was some ten years younger
than his chief, and rather fond of his whisky and soda. At the Great
Northern Hotel in Peterborough they found the ladies; and on their
return to Stamford the whole party dined together at the Prince's hotel,
an old-fashioned hostelry with old-fashioned English fare.
And so another fortnight went past. The autumn winds grew more chilly,
and the leaves fell with the advance of October.
Nellie constantly met the Prince, in secret, the only person knowing the
truth besides themselves being the Parson, who had now become one of the
girl's particular friends.
While the Prince was dressing for dinner one evening, Charles being
engaged in putting the links in his shirt-cuffs, he suddenly asked:
"Max is still in Stamford, I suppose?"
"I believe so, your Highness."
"Well, I want you to take this up to London to-night, Charles." And he
drew from a locked drawer a small sealed packet about four inches
square, looking like jewellery. "You'll see the address on it. Take it
there, then go to the Suffolk Hotel, in Suffolk Street, Strand, and wait
till I send you instructions to return."
"Very well, your Highness," answered the man who always carried out his
master's instructions with blind obedience.
Next day, in conversation with Mr Northover, the Prince expressed
regret that he had been compelled to discharge his man Charles at a
moment's notice.
"The man is a thief," he said briefly. "I lost a valuable scarf-pin the
other day--one given me by the Emperor. But I never suspected him until
a few days ago when I received an anonymous letter telling me that my
trusted man, Charles, had, before I took him into my service, been
convicted of theft, and was, indeed, one of a gang of clever swindlers!
I made inquiries, and discovered this to be the actual truth."
"By Jove!" remarked the Reverend Thomas. "Think what an escape the
Prince has had! All his jewellery might have suddenly disappeared!"
"How very fortunate you were warned!" declared Mr Northover. "Your
correspondent was anonymous, you say?"
"Yes. Some one must have recognised him in London, I think, and,
therefore, given me warning. A most disagreeable affair--I assure you."
"Then you've lost the Emperor's present?" asked Nellie.
"Yes," sighed the Prince; "It's gone for ever. I've given notice to the
police. They're sending a detective from London to see me, I believe,
but I feel certain I shall never see it again."
This conversation was repeated by Mrs Northover to her husband, when he
returned from business that evening.
About the same hour, however, while the Prince was smoking with his
clerical friend in his private room at the hotel, the waiter entered,
saying that a Mr Mason had called upon his Highness.
"That's the man from Scotland Yard!" exclaimed the Prince aloud. "Show
him up."
A few moments later a rather pale-faced, fair-haired man in shabby brown
tweeds was ushered in, and the waiter, who knew the story of Charles's
sudden discharge, retired.
"Good evening, Prince," exclaimed the new-comer. "I got your wire and
came at once." At the same time he produced from his pocket a small
cartridge envelope containing something slightly bulky, but carefully
sealed.
"Right! Go over there, Max, and help yourself to a drink. You're at
the `George,' I suppose?"
"No. I've got a room here--so as to be near you--in case of necessity,
you know," he added meaningly.
The two men exchanged glances.
It was evident at once that Mr Mason was no stranger, for he helped
himself to a cigarette uninvited, and, mixing a small drink, drained it
off at a single gulp.
Then, after chatting for a quarter of an hour or so, he went out "just
to get a wash," as he put it.
The Prince, when he had gone, turned over the small packet in his hand
without opening it.
Then he rose, walked to the window, and in silence looked out upon the
old church opposite, deep in thought.
The Parson, watching him without a word, knit his brows, and pursed his
lips.
Next morning the Prince sent Garrett with the car to London, as he
wanted some alteration to the hood, and that afternoon, as he crossed
the marketplace, he again met Max. Neither spoke. A glance of
recognition was all that passed between them. Meanwhile, the detective
from London had been making a good many inquiries in Stamford,
concerning the associates and friends of the discharged valet Charles.
The latter was, the detective declared, an old hand, and his Highness
had been very fortunate in getting rid of him when he did.
That evening Mr and Mrs Ashdown invited the Prince and the clergyman
to dinner, at which they were joined by the sweet-faced Nellie and her
father and mother. With true provincial habit, the party broke up at
ten-thirty, and while the Parson walked home with the Northovers, his
Highness lit a cigar and strolled back to the hotel alone.
Until nearly two o'clock he sat smoking, reading, and thinking--thinking
always of pretty Nellie--and now and then glancing at the clock. After
the church-bell had struck two he had a final "peg," and then turned in.
Next morning, when the waiter brought his coffee, the man blurted forth
breathlessly:
"There's been a great robbery, your Highness, last night. The London
and North Western Bank has been entered, and they say that four thousand
pounds in gold has been stolen."
"What!" gasped the Prince, springing up. "Mr Northover's bank?"
"Yes, sir. The whole town is in an uproar! I've told Mr Mason, and
he's gone down to see. They say that a week ago a youngish man from
London took the empty shop next door to the bank, and it's believed the
thieves were secreted in there. There doesn't seem any evidence of any
of the locks being tampered with, for the front door was opened with a
key, and they had keys of both the doors of the strong-room. The police
are utterly mystified, for Mr Northover has one key, and Mr Ashdown
the other, and the doors can't be opened unless they are both there
together. Both gentlemen say their keys have never left them, and none
of the burglar-alarms rang."
"Then it's an absolute mystery--eh," remarked the Prince, utterly
astonished. "Perhaps that scoundrel Charles has had something to do
with it! He went to the bank for me on several occasions!"
"That's what Mr Mason and the other police officers think, sir," the
waiter said. "And it seems that the men must have got out the coin,
brought it into the empty shop, carried it through the back of the
premises and packed it into a dark-green motor-car. A policeman out on
the Worthorpe Road, saw the car pass just before two o'clock this
morning. There were two men in it, besides the driver."
The Prince dressed hastily, and was about to rush down to the bank to
condole with Northover when the latter burst into his room in a great
state of mind.
"It's an absolute mystery, and so daring!" he declared. "The thieves
must have had duplicate keys of the whole bank! They left all the
notes, but cleared out every bit of gold coin. We had some unusually
heavy deposits lately, and they've taken three thousand four hundred and
thirty-two pounds!"
"What about that man who took the shop next door?"
"He's perfectly respectable, the police assure me. He knows nothing
about it. He's hardly finished stocking the place with groceries, and
opens the day after to-morrow. His name is Newman."
"Then how did they get their booty away?"
"That's the mystery. Unless through the back of the shop next door. No
motor-car came along the street in the night, for Ashdown's child was
ill, and Mrs Ashdown was up all night and heard nothing. The means by
which they got such a heavy lot of coin away so neatly is as mysterious
as how they obtained the keys."
"Depend upon it that my scoundrelly valet has had a finger in this!" the
Prince declared. "I'll assist you to try and find him. I happen to
know some of his friends in London."
Northover was delighted, and at the police-station the superintendent
thanked his Highness for his kind promise of assistance. Mr Mason was
ubiquitous, and the parson full of astonishment at the daring coup of
the unknown thieves. Two bank directors came down from town in the
afternoon, and after a discussion, a full report was telegraphed to New
Scotland Yard.
That same evening the Prince went up to London, accompanied by the
keen-eyed Mr Mason, leaving the Parson still the guest of Mr
Northover.
The latter, however, would scarcely have continued to entertain him, had
he known that, on arrival at King's Cross, his Highness and Mr Mason
took a cab to a certain house in Hereford Road, Bayswater, where Charles
and Garrett were eagerly awaiting him. In the room were two other men
whom the Prince shook by the hand and warmly congratulated.
Charles opened the door of the adjoining room, a poorly furnished
bedroom, where stood a chest of drawers. One drawer after the other he
opened.
They were full of bags of golden sovereigns!
"Those impressions you sent us, Prince, gave us a lot of trouble,"
declared the elder of the two men, with a pronounced American accent.
"The keys were very difficult to make, and when you sent us word that
the parson had tried them and they wouldn't act, we began to fear that
it was no go. But we did the trick all right, after all, didn't we?
Guess we spent a pretty miserable week in Stamford, but you seemed to be
having quite a good time. Where's the Sky-pilot?"
"He's remaining--convalescent, you know. And as for Bob Newman, he'll
be compelled to carry on that confounded grocery business next door for
at least a couple of months--before he fails, and shuts up."
"Well," exclaimed the man Mason, whom everybody in Stamford--even the
police themselves--believed to be a detective. "It was a close shave!
You know, Prince, when you came out of the bank after dinner and I
slipped in past you, I only just got into the shadow before that slip of
a girl of Northover's ran down the stairs after you. I saw you give her
a kiss in the darkness."
"She deserved a kiss, the little dear," replied his Highness, "for
without her we could never have brought off so complete a thing."
"Ah! you always come in for the good things," Charles remarked.
"Because I'm a prince," was his Highness's reply.
The police are still looking for the Prince's valet, and his Highness
has, of course, assisted them. Charles, however, got away to Copenhagen
to a place of complete safety, and he being the only person suspected,
it is very unlikely that the bank will ever see their money again--
neither is Nellie Northover ever likely to see her prince.