Further inquiry in the direction thus indicated had to be carried on elsewhere, since the students had now separated for the vacation; and wherever inquiry was made the same stealthy secrecy had to be adopted; nobody must be allowed to suppose that the Princess Royal of Jingalo was missing. And so--on a sort of all-fours not at all conducive to speed--the quest went on. On the fifth day, however, some relief had arrived to reduce the parental anxiety to bearable proportions. A letter, dropped from nowhere, bearing the metropolitan postmark, came to the King's hands. It gave only the barest, yet very essential information. "Dearest papa," it ran, "I am quite well, and enjoying myself. I shall be back in a fortnight." News of the arrival of this letter was immediately conveyed to the Constabulary Chief; and after three days of deep cogitation the absence of all reference to the outrage and to the risk run by those near and dear to her seemed to strike him as peculiar, and supplied him with what hitherto the police had lacked--a clue. And after two more days of strenuously directed search it bore fruit. Late one afternoon the King was sitting at work in his study when his Comptroller-General entered hastily and in evident excitement; for though the King was then busily engaged in writing he presumed to interrupt, not waiting for the royal interrogating glance to give him his permission. "I beg your pardon, sir," he said, in a tone of very urgent apology. "Well, well?" said the King rather testily, for he did not like his writing-hour to be thus disturbed, "what is it?" "The Prime Minister wishes to see you, sir, on a matter of extreme urgency." The King had so long been pestered by ministers on matters which they considered urgent and which he did not, that he had little patience for such pleas, coming at the wrong time. "What about?" he inquired curtly. The Comptroller-General, who was supposed not to know, replied discreetly but in a tone of veiled meaning, "Something in the Home Department I believe, sir. Just now, while there is no chief secretary, the Prime Minister himself is seeing to matters." "Dear, dear!" sighed his Majesty, "I do wish he would manage to get his urgent business done at the proper time!" "I think, sir," said the General, "that this matter is one of sufficient importance to justify a suspension of the ordinary rules." He paused, as though about to say more, but thought better of it; after all the matter did not lie within his department. "Very well," said the King, "let him come in, then!" And in due course the Premier entered. It was evident at a glance that he was the bearer of important, nay, even alarming, intelligence; his eye was startled and anxious, his manner full of discomposure, and without waste of a moment he opened abruptly upon the business which had brought him. "I have come to inform your Majesty," said he, "that we have at last discovered the Princess Charlotte's whereabouts."