THE SOLUTION
"And that," said Tony, leaning back in his chair, "is absolutely
every damned thing that I could get out of him."
His three companions, Molly, Guy, and Jimmy, who were seated in
various attitudes round the cabin table, surveyed him for a moment in
deep and reflective silence.
Then Guy cleared his throat. "On the whole," he said, "I think you
have managed remarkably well."
"I did my best," replied Tony modestly, "but he's a reticent blighter
for a Colonel. I didn't dare pump him any further for fear that he
might get suspicious. As it is I think he was half sorry he had told
me as much as he had before I got him over the side."
"Well, we've collected quite a lot of interesting stuff to go on
with," said Jimmy contentedly. "The great question is how are we
going to use it?"
"Do you know where these two places are?" asked Tony. "The Château
of Saint Anna--and the bridge at Valona?"
Jimmy nodded. "Both of 'em. There isn't a yard of this country I
haven't tootled over at some time or other." He looked hopefully at
Tony. "Have you got any bright notion at the back of your mind?"
"Not yet," said Tony. "I haven't had the chance of working things
out. That's what I've called this Cabinet Council for." He turned
to his cousin.
"What do you think about it, Guy?" he asked. "You're the eldest, so
you shall speak first."
"It seems to me," said Guy deliberately, "that there is not the
faintest chance of rescuing Isabel, except by the employment of
violence."
There was a soft and delighted chuckle from Jimmy to which he paid no
attention.
"That being so," he continued calmly, "the question resolves itself
into where and how we should make the attempt. As far as I can see
there is only one answer. If we can reach Valona, it's just possible
that in the confusion of this attack one or other of us might manage
to get away with Isabel. Of course it's much more likely that we
shall all be killed, but if one chooses to mix oneself up in this
sort of insane business that is an objection which one must be
prepared to face."
He closed his lips tight in their customary precise line, and looked
round at the assembled company.
"Thank you, Guy," said Tony. "That's just the sort of spirited
speech I should have expected from one of your aggressive character."
He paused. "Now, Jimmy, what have you got to say?"
Jimmy rose solemnly to his feet. "I have much pleasure," he
observed, "in seconding the proposal of our honourable friend. I'm
for a forward policy every time." He looked across the table. "How
about the Reverend Mr. Monk?" he added. "It seems to me we ought to
have asked his opinion first."
"I think," said Molly sweetly and clearly, "that it's just about the
silliest suggestion I ever heard."
Guy sat up suddenly in his chair, and Jimmy, who was still standing
on his feet, broke into another long chuckle of laughter.
Tony rapped the table gravely with a teaspoon.
"Order, please," he said, "order! This is no time for misplaced
merriment." He turned to Molly. "Don't worry about Guy's feelings,"
he added kindly. "Say exactly what you think."
"I'm going to," replied Molly with brisk determination. "I'm awfully
sorry if I was rude to you, Mr. Oliver; but really you know your
plan's a rotter. Do you suppose that even if we got to Valona, these
people would allow us to hang about there waiting for something to
happen? Why, they would guess what we were up to the very moment
they spotted us."
"But we know the time, roughly," protested Jimmy. "We could arrange
to reach the place just when the fighting started."
"And what then?" demanded Molly scornfully. "Here you've got a large
party of armed men, who are cheerfully ready to murder a whole escort
in order to get hold of this girl. Do you really imagine they are
going to let us waltz in and pick her up under their noses? Not
likely!"
She stopped to take breath.
"I thought I had made it clear," remarked Guy a little chillingly,
"that I didn't regard the suggestion as a very safe or hopeful one."
"You did," said Molly, "but you didn't go half far enough. It's a
dead certain frost from the very start. We should just be committing
suicide without doing any good to anybody."
Guy shrugged his shoulders. "I daresay you're right. The
unfortunate point is that there's no alternative."
Molly leaned forward, her blue eyes shining with excitement.
"Yes, there is," she said quietly.
For an instant nobody spoke.
"Go on, Molly," said Tony. "We are all listening to you."
"If we can get to Valona," said Molly, speaking in a rapid and eager
voice, "what is there to stop us getting to the other place--the
Château of Saint Anna?"
There was another and longer pause.
"Good Lord!" remarked Jimmy, and with this non-committal observation
he reseated himself at the table.
"Well?" continued Molly defiantly. "We can't do anything without
running a big risk, so while we're about it we may just as well shove
all our money on the best chance."
"But surely," protested Guy, "if there is an utterly hopeless----"
"Let Molly explain," said Tony. "We can criticize her afterwards."
Once again there was a brief silence.
"It's like this," said Molly. "At the present moment, so far as we
know, there isn't a soul on Peter's side who has the remotest notion
that we're in Livadia. That's our strongest card, and if we don't
play it for all it's worth we shall be simply chucking the game
away." She wheeled round on Jimmy. "Where is this Château,
exactly?" she asked. "Can you get to it from here in your car
without going through Portriga or the other place--Valona?"
Jimmy nodded. "We should turn off the main road up into the hills
about five miles from here. The car would manage it all right, but
as for getting there--" he grinned cheerfully--"well, from what the
Colonel told Tony, I should think we had about as much chance as a
snowflake in hell."
"You needn't worry about that part of it," returned Molly coolly.
"So long as you know the road you can leave the rest to me." She put
her hand into her breast pocket, and produced the thick and
impressive looking half sheet of note-paper, which she had shown Tony
in the flat. "If that won't get us past a few soldiers," she added,
throwing it on the table, "we may as well turn the boat round now and
go straight home."
"By Jove!" exclaimed Tony. "I believe you've got hold of the right
idea, Molly!"
Guy looked from one to the other of them in a sort of baffled
bewilderment.
"I may be very stupid," he said, "but I can't see in the least what
you hope to do even if we reach the Château."
Molly drew in a long breath. "There's only one thing to do," she
said slowly. "Somehow or other this Princess girl and I have got to
change places. There's absolutely no other way in which we can
possibly work it."
If she had suddenly placed a live bomb upon the table, Guy's face
could hardly have assumed a more startled expression. Even Jimmy,
who did not seem to be easily perturbed, remained staring at her for
a moment with his mouth open.
"Change places!" repeated Guy at last. "Are you speaking seriously?"
"Of course I am," said Molly a little impatiently. "Don't you see
how easily it could be done? According to what you all tell me, this
girl and I are as like each other as two peas: but no one would guess
that if they'd only seen me in this rig-out. Well, if I could get a
quarter of an hour alone with her, all we should have to do would be
to swap clothes, and then she could just walk out of the place
instead of me." She swept a triumphant glance at the others. "It's
a hundred to one nobody would notice the difference: not if she's got
the pluck and sense to carry it off properly."
"I can guarantee the pluck and the sense," said Tony. "They are two
things in which Isabel happens to specialize rather deeply."
"But do you mean you are ready to stop behind in her place?"
It was Jimmy who put the question.
"Certainly I am," replied Molly. "That's what I have come out here
for."
He gazed at her for a moment in voiceless admiration.
"My Lord, you've got some nerve," he said. "What do you think will
happen to you?"
Molly smiled pleasantly. "I think," she answered, "that I shall be
respectably and properly married to Peter in the Portriga Cathedral.
I don't see what the devil else they can afford to do. They have got
to have a wedding, and as I'm quite ready to pretend that I'm the
Princess, and nobody's ever likely to contradict it, it seems to me
they'll jolly well have to make the best of it."
Tony laid down his cigarette and leaned back in his chair.
"Molly," he said, "you are as brilliant as you are beautiful. I
don't believe there is any one else alive who could have thought of a
notion like that when they were full of eggs and bacon."
"It's a terrific idea," admitted Jimmy, still gazing respectfully at
the author. "The one great difficulty will be to fix up this
interview between you and the Princess."
Molly nodded. "I know," she said. "I haven't got that part of it
clear yet. You see the whole thing only came into my head quite
suddenly."
"That part of it," remarked Tony in his tranquil voice, "seems to me
delightfully simple and easy."
They all three turned towards him.
"We are personal friends of Peter's," he went on; "at least I am. I
think I shall call myself Lord Haverstock. It's a very nice title
and no one's taken it yet. Do you think it suits me, Guy?"
"Oh, go on," exclaimed Guy impatiently.
"At Peter's suggestion," continued Tony, "I have accompanied him from
England in my own yacht, in order to be in at the death, so to speak.
Molly here is my chaplain. All really respectable English peers
travel with a private chaplain."
He paused as if for confirmation.
"I've no doubt you're right," said Jimmy gravely, "but how does that
interesting fact help us?"
"Why, don't you see? Isabel has been brought up with English ideas
about these sort of things, and it's surely only natural that she
should feel a little upset at the thought of being married so
suddenly, and without any of her old friends to help her. She has
told Peter that if it was possible she would like to have a talk with
an English clergyman, and knowing that I have got the Reverend Mr.
Monk on board, Peter has suggested that I should take him along to
the Château. Of course, for various reasons, he didn't want a fuss
made about it, so he has just given me his own private pass, and told
me to explain the rest to the Count of Saint Anna. What could be
more beautifully simple and probable?"
Molly clapped her hands softly. "Splendid, Tony!" she said.
"Absolutely splendid!"
"And suppose," remarked Guy in his depressingly matter-of-fact voice,
"that the first person we run into at the Château is Isabel's uncle
or the Marquis da Freitas or the King himself. What's going to
happen then?"
"I don't know exactly," said Tony, "but I should say that in all
probability there will be the hell of a row."
"It's no good worrying about that," said Molly decisively. "We've
got to chance something, and the odds are that all three of them will
be down in Portriga. I imagine that that's why they've sent the girl
to this place--in order to have their hands free."
Tony nodded his agreement. "There's a lot of hard work about running
a revolution," he observed. "I shouldn't think they would be able to
spare anybody this morning."
Molly looked round at the other two. "Well," she said, "Tony and I
have made up our minds at all events. Are you ready to back us up?"
There was a pause.
"I will do anything I can," remarked Guy simply.
Jimmy leaned back and thrust his hands into his trouser pocket's.
"So will I, of course," he said. "The only thing I don't like about
it is leaving you behind. Suppose they turn nasty when they find
out?"
Molly smiled at him comfortingly. "That's all right," she said.
"Peter has got his weak points, but if any one was to hurt the tip of
my little finger he would have the last drop of blood they've got.
Da Freitas knows that as well as I do."
"I'm glad to hear he appreciates you," said Jimmy with feeling. "You
are much too good for him." He hesitated. "Look here," he added
suddenly, "suppose he's killed, suppose somebody shoots him--it's
quite possible you know--will you come back to England and marry me?"
Molly broke into a little ripple of silvery laughter.
"I daresay I might," she said. "Anyhow, it's nice to have something
to fall back on in case one wants it."
"I hate to interrupt a really passionate love affair," observed Tony
apologetically, "but don't you think we ought to discuss our
arrangements--such as they are? We haven't too much time to spare."
"Well, they're pretty straight sailing, aren't they?" replied Jimmy.
"There's plenty of petrol in the car, so all we've got to do is to go
ashore and start off."
"Who's we?" demanded Molly. "You and I and Tony?"
"Can't I come too?" inquired Guy in a rather disappointed voice.
"I'm quite ready to do my share--whatever it is?"
Tony got up from where he was sitting and laid a sympathetic hand on
his cousin's shoulder..
"I know that, Guy," he aid. "I know that you would cut the throats
of half Livadia if it would help Isabel in any way. The point is
that we can't afford to do any fighting this trip. We have got to
bring it off peacefully, if we bring it off at all, and it's quite
possible that the real danger will be at this end, and not at the
Château. I told you what Saltero said about the police here. Well,
don't you see, if they chose to interfere they might put the hat on
everything. I want you to take charge while we're away, and whatever
happens--even if you have to murder every policeman in the
town--there must be a nice comfy boat awaiting us when we get back."
Guy nodded grimly. "Very well," he said; "you can count on that, if
there're any of us left alive!"