“Very well; then I need not keep you.” He looked away towards the
outer door of the room, but the girl stood hesitating.
“Will it--shall you--the body?” she inquired in a broken voice.
“The body must be removed to my house first for me to ascertain the
cause of death,” Tarleton said kindly. “After that I hope to arrange
for it to be buried from your house privately. Meanwhile, the less you
say to anyone the better.”
She bent her head gratefully, and I took her as far as the door of the
studios, and saw her walk away. When I got back the Inspector was in
the full flood of his report.
“I have never seen the Foreign Office more upset about anything,” he
was saying. “And the Slavonian Embassy is in a regular turmoil. It
appears that the Ambassador had no idea of where His Royal Highness
was last night. He slipped out quietly without saying anything, with
the Chancellor of Legation, Baron Novara. Baron Novara is a member of
the Domino Club; he has always looked on it as a perfectly reputable
place, a fashionable resort--in fact, like Hurlingham or the Prince’s
skating-rink; and he had no idea that he was risking anything in
bringing the Crown Prince here. At least so he says. The Ambassador
is furious and has ordered him to go home by to-night’s express and
explain matters to the King, if he can.”
My chief listened to the excited Charles with a good deal of
indifference, I thought.
“The sum and substance of it all is that they want the affair hushed
up, I suppose?”
I listened for the Inspector’s answer with an eagerness which I did my
very best to hide. I am not sure that I did hide the relief with which
I heard it.
“It _must_ be hushed up,” he cried with positive indignation. “The
Chancellor was fool enough to put in the official circular to the Press
of the Crown Prince’s movements that he was present at a dance at the
Domino Club last night.”
“That will be good news for Madame Bonnell,” the consultant observed
dryly. “Is there any idea at the Embassy that the Prince’s life was
aimed at?”
Captain Charles glanced round cautiously and lowered his voice.
“That’s the worst of it. The Bolsheviks are working their hardest to
upset the monarchy in Slavonia, and it is believed that one of their
agents in this country obtained admission to the club last night
disguised as a woman.”
“Zenobia!” I could no more keep in the ejaculation than I could still
the beating of my heart as I gave it vent.
My two companions turned sharply and looked at me, the Inspector with
a certain grudging respect, my chief with a slight frown of something
very like disdain. I bit my tongue too late.
“Zenobia seems to have made a bad guess at the Prince’s identity,”
Tarleton said mercilessly. “Unless His Royal Highness wore an
Inquisitor’s costume, too?”
The Captain’s face fell as he responded to the question.
“I didn’t inquire about that, Sir Frank,” he admitted. “I’ll go round
again and find out.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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