SPORT ROYAL BY THE SAME AUTHOR _Uniform, 75 cents each_ THE PRISONER OF ZENDA THE INDISCRETION OF THE DUCHESS THE DOLLY DIALOGUES A MAN OF MARK A CHANGE OF AIR SPORT ROYAL [Illustration: "_The Princess rushed to the other door, and, on finding it locked, screamed again._"--P. 88. (Copyright, 1895, by HENRY HOLT & CO.)] SPORT ROYAL _AND OTHER STORIES_ BY ANTHONY HOPE AUTHOR OF "THE PRISONER OF ZENDA," ETC. [Illustration] NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 1895 THE MERSHON COMPANY PRESS, RAHWAY, N. J. CONTENTS. PAGE SPORT ROYAL: CHAPTER I. THE SEQUEL TO THE BALL, 1 " II. AT THE HÔTEL MAGNIFIQUE, 31 " III. THE MISSION OF THE RUBY, 54 A TRAGEDY IN OUTLINE, 99 A MALAPROPOS PARENT, 102 HOW THEY STOPPED THE "RUN," 115 A LITTLE JOKE, 126 A GUARDIAN OF MORALITY, 139 NOT A BAD DEAL, 154 MIDDLETON'S MODEL, 169 MY ASTRAL BODY, 185 THE NEBRASKA LOADSTONE, 204 A SUCCESSFUL REHEARSAL, 216 SPORT ROYAL. _An Extract from the Journals of Julius Jason, Esquire._ CHAPTER I. The Sequel to the Ball. Heidelberg seems rather a tourist-ridden, hackneyed sort of place to be the mother of adventures. Nevertheless, it is there that my story begins. I had been traveling on the Continent, and came to Heidelberg to pay my duty to the castle, and recruit in quiet after a spell of rather laborious idleness at Homburg and Baden. At first sight I made up my mind that the place would bore me, and I came down to dinner at the hotel, looking forward only to a bad dinner and an early bed. The room was so full that I could not get a table to myself, and, seeing one occupied only by a couple of gentlemanly looking men, I made for it, and took the third seat, facing one of the strangers, a short, fair young man, with a little flaxen mustache and a soldierlike air, and having the other, who was older, dark, and clean-shaved, on my left. The fourth seat was empty.