The Lady in the Car Part 36

It was two o'clock when they went upstairs. The Bayswater vicar had to pa.s.s the Prince's room, in order to get to his own, but he did not enter further than the threshold. Both men looked eagerly across at the dressing-table, upon which Charles had left two candles burning.

That was a secret sign. Both men recognised it, and the Prince instantly raised his finger with a gesture indicative of silence. Then he exclaimed aloud: "Well, good-night, Clayton. We'll go for a run in the morning," and closed his door noisily, while the Parson went along to his own room.

The Prince, always an early riser, was up at eight o'clock, and was already dressed when Charles entered his room.

"Well?" he inquired, as was his habit.

"There's a rare to-do below," exclaimed the valet. "The whole house has been ransacked in the night, and a clean sweep made of all the jewellery. The old woman is asking to see you at once."

Without ado, his Highness descended, sending Charles along to alarm the Parson.

In the morning-room he found the widow, with the two male guests and two ladies, a.s.sembled in excited conclave. As he entered, his hostess rushed towards him, saying:

"Oh, Prince! A most terrible thing has happened! Every sc.r.a.p of jewellery, including my tiara and necklet, has been stolen!"

"Stolen!" he gasped, pretending not to have heard the news.

"Yes. I placed them myself in the safe in the butler's pantry, together with several cases the maids brought me from my guests. I locked them up just after one o'clock and took the key. Here it is. It has never left my possession. I--"

She was at that moment interrupted by the entrance of the Parson, who, having heard of the robbery from the servants, began:

"My de-ah Mrs Edmondson. This is really a most untoward circ.u.mstance-- most--"

"Listen," the widow went on excitedly. "Hear me, and then advise me what to do. I took this key,"--and she held it up for their inspection--"and hid it beneath the corner of the carpet in my room.

This morning, to my amazement, my maid came to say that the safe-door had been found ajar, and that though the plate had been left, all the jewellery had disappeared. Only the empty cases remain!"

"How has the safe been opened?" asked the Prince, standing amazed.

Was it possible that some ingenious adventurer had got ahead of him? It certainly seemed so.

"It's been opened by another key, that's evident," replied the widow.

"And where's Ferrini?" inquired his Highness quickly.

"He's missing. n.o.body has seen him this morning," answered the distressed woman. "Ah, Prince, you were right--quite right in your surmise. I believed in him, but you summed him up very quickly. I intended to discharge him to-morrow, but I never dreamed he possessed a second key."

"He has the jewels, evidently," remarked Sir Henry Hutton, himself a county magistrate. "I'll run into Whitby, and inform the police, Mrs Edmondson. We have no idea which direction the fellow has taken."

At that moment the door opened, and Garrett, cap in hand, stood on the threshold.

"Well, what's the matter?" asked his master.

"Please, your Highness, our car's gone. It's been stolen from the garage in the night!"

The announcement caused an electrical effect upon the a.s.sembly.

"Then this man could also drive a car, as well as wait at table!"

exclaimed Sir Henry. "Myself, I always distrust foreign servants."

"Ferrini had one or two lessons in driving from my chauffeur, I believe," remarked the widow, now in a state of utter collapse.

"Never mind, Mrs Edmondson," said his Highness cheerily. "Allow Sir Henry and myself to do our best. The fellow is bound to be caught.

I'll give the police the number of my car, and its description. And what's more, we have something very valuable here." And he drew out his pocket-book. "You recollect the suspicions of Ferrini which I entertained, and which I explained in confidence to you? Well, my valet has a pocket camera, and with it three days ago I took a snap-shot of your exemplary servant. Here it is!"

"By Jove. Excellent!" cried Sir Henry. "This will be of the greatest a.s.sistance to the police."

And so it was arranged that the police of Whitby should be at once informed.

At breakfast--a hurried, sc.r.a.ppy meal that morning--every one condoled with the Prince upon the loss of his car. Surely the whole affair had been most cleverly contrived by Ferrini, who had got clear away.

Just as the meal had concluded and the Parson had promised to accompany Sir Henry over to Whitby to see the police, he received a telegram calling him to his brother, who had just landed in Liverpool from America, and who wished to see him at the Adelphi Hotel that evening.

To his hostess he explained that he was bound to keep the appointment, for his brother had come from San Francisco on some important family affairs, and was returning to New York by the next boat.

Therefore he bade adieu to Mrs Edmondson--"de-ah Mrs Edmondson," he always called her--and was driven in the dog-cart to Grosmont station, while a few minutes later, the Prince and Sir Henry set out in the widow's Mercedes for Whitby.

The pair returned about one o'clock, and at luncheon explained what they had done.

In the afternoon, the widow met his Highness out in the tent upon the lawn, and they sat together for some time, he enjoying his eternal "Petroff." Indeed, he induced her to smoke one, in order to soothe her nerves.

"Don't upset yourself too much, my dear Gertrude," he urged, placing his hand upon hers. "We shall catch the fellow, never fear. Do you know, I've been wondering whether, if I went up to town and saw them at Scotland Yard, it would not be the wisest course. I know one of the superintendents. I met him when my life was threatened by anarchists, and the police put me under their protection. The Whitby police seem very slow. Besides, by this time Ferrini is far afield."

"I really think, Albert, that it would be quite a good plan," exclaimed the widow enthusiastically. "If you went to Scotland Yard they would, no doubt, move heaven and earth to find the thief."

"That's just what I think," declared his Highness. "I'll go by the six-twenty."

"But you'll return here to-morrow, won't you?" urged the widow. "The people I have here will be so disappointed if you don't--and--and as for myself," she added, her fat face flus.h.i.+ng slightly--"well, you know that I am only happy when you are near me."

"Trust me, Gertrude. I'll return at once--as soon as ever I've set the machinery of Scotland Yard in motion. I have the negative of the photo I took, and I'll hand it to them."

And so that evening, without much explanation to his fellow guests, he ran up to town, leaving Charles and most of his baggage behind.

Next day, Mrs Edmondson received a long and rea.s.suring telegram from him in London.

Two days pa.s.sed, but nothing further was heard. Garrett, without a car, and therefore without occupation, decided to go up to London. The theft of the car had utterly puzzled him. Whatever _coup_ his master and his friends had intended had evidently been effected by the man Ferrini.

All their clever scheming had been in vain.

They had been forestalled.

CHAPTER TWELVE.

CONCLUSION.

A week later.

The soft summer afterglow flooded the pretty pale-blue upholstered sitting-room in the new Palast Hotel, overlooking the Alster at Hamburg, wherein the Prince, the Parson, and the pale-faced Englishman, Mason, were seated together at their ease.

The Prince had already been there two days, but Clayton was staying over at the Hamburgerhof, while Mason, who had arrived _via_ Copenhagen only a couple of hours before, had taken up his quarters at the Kronprinzen, a smaller establishment in the Jungfernstieg.