Rushford, leaning over the desk, watching the confusion with an amusement which had banished every trace of ennui, felt his arm touched. He turned and recognised the be-gilt messenger of the day before. "A second telegram for monsieur," said that functionary, with an amiable grin, and produced the message. There was no time for hesitation. Rushford took it, signed the blank, and fished up the expected tip. "Oh, what a tangled web we weave!" he murmured, and looked at the address on the little white envelope. It read: _M. le Propriétaire, Grand Hôtel Royal, Weet-sur-Mer._ "The plot thickens!" he murmured. "Well, it's really for me. Let's see," and he tore it open. He whistled again as he read the message; then he called the nearest boy. "Tell Monsieur Pelletan to come here at once," he said. "Tell him I must speak to him on a matter of importance." At the end of a moment, the little man puffed down the stair, exhausted, radiant! "Iss eet not grand!" he cried. "What a change from yesterday! T'ough how you haf accomplishe' eet, monsieur--" "No matter," interrupted Rushford. "Which is the next best of your apartments, Pelletan?" "T'e nex' best? Why, apartment B, monsieur. Eet iss t'e counterpart of apartment A, only on t'e nort' side of t'e house instead of t'e sout'." "And it is still empty?" "At two hundret francs t'e tay? Oh, yess, monsieur; only a Prince can afford eet now." "Well, you will prepare it at once--" "Ah, monsieur himself will take eet! T'at iss just! I shall pe too happy--" "No, no; you've just said that only a Prince can afford it and it's my business to produce him! Let's see--it's nearly nine--well, at ten o'clock, there will arrive in a special train--" Monsieur Pelletan had turned pale. "Een a special train?" he faltered. "What! Some one else?" "Yes--at ten o'clock--" "Who iss eet will arrive, monsieur?" questioned Pelletan faintly. "His Highness, Prince Frederick of Markeld, ambassador from the court of Schloshold-Markheim," answered Rushford, dwelling upon every word. "We will give him apartment B." CHAPTER IV An Adventure and a Rescue It was not until Rushford opened his paper an hour later that he fully understood the remarkable situation of which the Grand Hôtel Royal had, by the merest chance, become the centre. "It is extremely unfortunate [said the _Times_] that Lord Vernon should have been taken ill at just this time, when the question of the succession of Schloshold-Markheim is hanging in the balance. Lord Vernon is the only man in the cabinet capable of dealing with the situation, which is as delicate as can be imagined. On the one side are arrayed the sympathies of our reigning house and perhaps even our own honour; on the other, the plainly expressed desires of the German Emperor.