The guns consisted of five well-known officers from Berlin, together with Dr. Zeising, the Master-General of Forests, and Lieut.-General von Oertzen, the fat old Inspector-General of Cavalry. As usual, we all had a most enjoyable time. On the third day, after a champagne luncheon taken at the forester's little house at Neue Schenke, we were about to resume our sport. Indeed, all the guests had gone outside, preparing to go to their allotted stations, when the head forester, a stalwart man in green livery, entered, and, addressing the Crown-Prince, said: "There is a man to see Your Imperial Highness, and refuses to leave. He gives his name as Karl Krahl." In an instant I pricked up my ears. His Highness's brows narrowed for a second, which showed his annoyance, then, smiling affably, so clever was he, like his Imperial father, in the concealment of his real feelings--he replied: "Oh, yes--Krahl! I recollect. Yes, I will see him here." Next moment the person whom I had heard discussed so strangely in the little old woman's beautiful winter garden was ushered in. He was dark-haired, aged about twenty-eight, I judged, with small, shrewd black eyes, dressed in a well-cut suit of grey country tweeds, and but for his German name I should have taken him for an English tourist, one of those familiar objects of the Harz in peace time. His appearance instantly interested me, the more so owing to the fact that he had come to that remote spot and at that hour to pay a visit to the Emperor's son. "Come in, Karl!" exclaimed the Crown-Prince affably, as he grasped his visitor's hand. His Highness did not often offer his manicured hand to others, and at this I was, I admit, greatly surprised. "The forester did not know you, of course. Well, I am very pleased to see you. Have you come straight here?" "Yes, your Highness. I went first to Berlin, and learning that you were here I thought I had better lose no time." "Quite right," laughed his Highness who, turning to me, said: "Heltzendorff, will you tell the others to go on--that I am detained for an hour on State business, and--and that I will join them as soon as possible. I will find you in the woods, on the left of the Quedlinburg Road, before one comes to the Wurmtal. Apologize for me, but the delay is inevitable. I have a conference with Herr Krahl." While His Highness remained behind at the forester's house to chat alone with the mysterious Karl Krahl, we went out among the birds and had some excellent sport. Yet the sight of that ferret-eyed young man, whom I had long endeavoured in vain to trace, caused me considerable wonderment. Who was that young fellow in whom the little old Countess seemed to take such deep and peculiar interest? What was his offence that she, with the Crown-Prince, should concoct, as it seemed to me, such a plot as that I had partly overheard?