THE PRINCE OF GRAUSTARK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15900, 24 April 1915, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE PRINCE OF GRAUSTARK.

BY GEORGE BARE McCUTCHEON, Author of "Brewster's Millions," "Nodra," " Tho Daughter of Anderson Crow," "The Man From Brodney's." "The Butterfly Man." " A Pool and His Money," etc.

(COPYRIGHT.) CHAPTER XX.-(Continued.) There was ono little excursion to Grindelwald and its glacier, and later an ascent of the Schynigo Piatt*. Even a desperate horror of the rack and pinion railway up and down the steep mountain did not daunt the incomparable cliaperone. (True, she closed her eyes and shrank as far away from the edge of eternity as possible, but.sho stuck manfully to her post.) He dined with them on the two evenings, and with them heard the concerts. There were times when he was perplexed, and uncertain of her. At no time did she relax into what might have been considered a receptive or even an encouraging mood. He watched eagerly for the iove-light that he hoped to surprise in her eyes, but it never appeared. She was serene, self-contained, natural. That momentary dissolving on her part when, she sat with him in the shadows was the only circumstance ho had to base Ins hopes upon. She had betrayed herself then by word and manner, but now she had her emotions well in hand. Her lovely eyes met his frankly and without the faintest sign of diffidence or self-consciousness. Her soft laugh was free and unconstrained, her smile gay and remotely suggestive of mischief. At times he thought she was playing the game too well for one who professed to be concerned about the future.

I On the third day he was convicted of I duplicity. Sho went off for a walk alone, leaving him safely anchored in what he afterwards came to look upon as a prearranged game- of auction-bridge. When sho came in after an absence of at least two hours the game_was just breaking up. He notiaed the questioning look that Mrs. Gaston bestowed upon her fair charge, and also remarked that it contained no sign of reproof! The girl went up to her room without so much as a word with him. Her face was flushed and sho carried her head disdainfully. He was greatly puzzled. The puzzle was soon explained. He waited for her on the stairway as sho came down alone to dinner.

"You told me that your friends were not in Interlaken, Mr. Schmidt," she said coldly. "Why did you feel called upon to deceive me?"

He bit his lip. For an instant he reflected, and then gave an evasive answer. " I think I told you that I was alone in this hotel, Miss Guile. My friends are at another hotel. I am not aware that—"

"I hjave seen and talked with that charming old man, Mr. Totten," she interrupted. "Ho has been here for. days, and Mr. Dank a well. Do you think'that you have been quite fair with me?"

He lowered his eyes. "I think I have been most fair to both of us," he replied. "Will you believe me when I say that in a way i personally requested them to leave this hotel and seek another? And will it decrease your respect for me if I add that I wanted to have you all to myself, so to speak, and not to feel that these good friends of mine were—" "Why don't you look me In the fare. Mr. Schmidt?" she broke in. He looked up at once prepared to meet a look of disdain. To his surprise she was smiling. " I have talked it all over with Mrs. Gaston, and she advised mc to forgive you if you were in the least penitent, and— holiest. Well, you have made an honest confession, I am satisfied. Now. 1 have a confession to make. I have suspected all along that Mr. Totten and Mr. Dank and the shadowy Mr. Gourou were in the town?" You. suspected?" he cried in amazement and chagrin. "I was morally certain that they were here. To-day my suspicions were justified. I encountered Mr. 'Totten in the park beyond the Jungfraublick. He was very much upset, I can assure you, but ho recovered with amazing swiftness. We sat on one of the benches in a nice little nook and had a long, long talk. Ho is •a charming man. 1 havo asked him to como to luncheon with us to-morrow, and to bring Mr. Dank." " Good Lord, will wonders never—" "But I did not include tho still invisible Mr. Gourou. 1 was afraid that you would bo too uncomfortable under the hawk-liko eye of the gentleman who so kindly warned us at the Pavilion Bleu." Thero was gentle raillery in her maimer. "I shall expect you to join us, Mr. Schmidt. You have no other engagement?"

"I— shall be delighted," he stammered.

She laid her hand gently upon his arm and a serious sweetness camo into her eyes.

"Come," sho said, "let us go in ahead of • Mrs. Ga6ton. Let us have just one little minute to ourselves, Mr. Schmidt."

It was true that sho camo upon the count in one of the paths of the Kleine Rugon. He was walking slowly toward her, his eyes fixed thoughtfully upon the ground. When she accosted him, he was .plainly confused', as she had said. After the first few passages in polite though stilted conversation, his keen, grey eyes resumed their thoughtful— it was even a calculating look.

" Will you sit here with me for a while, Miss Guile?" ho a6ked gently, "I have something of the gravest importance to say to you." She sat beside him on the sequestered bench, and when sho arose to leave him an hour later, her cheek was warm with colour and her eyes were filled with tenderness towards this grim, staunch old man who was the friend of her friend. Sho laid her hand in his and suffered him to raise it to his lips.

"I hope, my dear young lady," said he with simple directness, " that you will not regard mo as a stupid, interfering old meddler. God is my witness, I have your best interests at heart. You are too good and beautiful to—"

"I shall always look upon you as tho kindest of men!" she cried impulsively, and left • him.

Ho stood watching her slender, graceful figure as she moved down tho sloping path and turned into the broad avenue. A smallish man with a lean face came up from the opposite direction and stopped beside him.

" Could you resist her, Quinnox, if you wero twenty-two?" asked this man in his quiet voico Quinnox did not look around, but shook his head slowly. " 1 cannot resist lier at sixty-two, my friend. She is adorable." "1 do not blame him. It is fate. She is fate. Our work is done, my friend. We have served our country well, but fate has taken the matter out of our hands. There i 6 nothing left for us to do but to fold our arms and wait." Gourrou revealed his inscrutable smile as he pulled at his thin, scraggly moustache. He was shaking his head, as one who resigns himself to the inevitable.

After a long silence Quinnox spoke. "Our people will come to love their princess, Gourou." "Even as you and I, my friend," said the baron.

And then they held their heads erect and walked confidently down the road their future sovereign bad traversed before them. When Mrs. Gaston joined Robin and Bedelia at the table which had been set for them in the salle a manger, she laid several letters before the girl, who picked them up instantly and glanced at the superscription on each. " I think that all of them are important," said Sirs. Gaston significantly. The smile on the girl's face had given way to a clouded brow. She was visibly perturbed..

"You will forgive me, Mr. Schmidt," she said nervously. " I must took at them at once."

He tried not to watch her face as she read what appeared to be a brief and yet evidently important letter, but his rapt gaze was not to be so easily managed. An exclamation of annoyance fell from her lips. " This is from a friend in Paris, Mr. Schmidt," she said, hesitatingly. Then, as if doming to a quick decision : "My father has heard that I am carrying on atrociously with a strange young man. It seems that it is a new young man. He is beside himself with rage. My friends have already rome in for severe criticism. He blames them for permitting his daughter to run at large and to pick up with every Tom, Dick, and Harry. Dear me, I shudder when I think of what lie will do to you, Mrs. Gaston. Ho will take off your head completely. But never fear, you old dear, I will see that it is put on again as neatly as ever. So, you sec, Mr. Schmidt, you now belong to that frightful order of nobodies, the Toms and the Dicks and the Harrys."

"I see that there is a newspaper clipping attached," he remarked. Perhaps your father has been saving something to the newspapers." It was a mean speech, and he regretted it instantly. She was not offended, however. Indeed, she may not have heard what he said, for she was reading the little slip of printed matter. Suddenly she tore it into tiny bits and scattered them under the table. Her cheeks were red and her eyes glistened unmistakably with mortification. He was never to know what was in that newspaper cutting, but he was conscious of a sharp sensation of anger and pity combined. Whatever it was, it was offensive to her, and his blood boiled. He noted the expression of alarm and apprehension deepen in Mrs. Gaston's face. Bedelia slashed open another envelope. and glanced at its contents. Her eyes flew open with surprise. For an instant she 6tared, a frown of perplexity on her brow.

"We are discovered!" she cried a moment later, clapping her hands together in an ecstasy of delight. "The pursuers are upon our heels. Even now they may be watching me from behind some convenient post or through some handy window pane. Isn't it fine? Don't look so horrified, you old dear. They can't eat us, you know, even though we are in a dining-room. I love it all Followed by man-hunters! What could be more thrill-

ing? The chase is on again. Quick! We must prepare for flight!" "Flight?" gasped Robin. Her eyes were dancing. His were filled with dismay. "It is as I feared," she cried. "They have found me out. Hurry! Let us finish this wretched dinner, I must leave here to-night." " Impossible!" cried Mrs. Gaston. " Don't be silly. To-morrow will be time enough. Calm yourself, my dear."

'"To-morrow at sunrise," cried Bedelia enthusiastically. "It is already planned, Mr. Schmidt. 1 have engaged an automobile in anticipation of this very emergency. The trains are not safe. Tomorrow I fly again. This letter is from the little stenographer in Paris. I bribed her—yes, I bribed her with many francs. She is in the offices of the great detective agency—' the Eye that never Sleeps!' I shall give her a great many more of those excellent francs, my friends. She is an honest girl She did not fail me." '' I don't see how you can say she is honest if she accepted a bribe," said Mrs. Gaston severely.

"Pooh!" was Miss Guile's sufficient answer to this. "We cross the Brunig Pass by motor. That really is like flying, isn't it?" "To Lucerne?" demanded Robin, still hazilv.

No. no! That would be madness.

We shall avoid Lucerne. Miles and miles

to the north we will find a safe retreat for a day or two. Then there will be a journey by rail to— your own city of Vienna, Mr. Schmidt. You 'See here," said Robin flatly, "I don't understand the necessity for all this rushing about by motor and—

" 01 course you don't," she cried. ".You are not being sought by a cruel, inhuman monster of a father who would consign you to a most slradderable fate! You don't have to marry a man whose very name you have hated. You can pick and choose (or yourself. And so shall I, for that matter. You i

• " You at ore your father," cut in Mrs. Gaston sin '/ply. "I don't think you should speak of him in that"

"Of course I adore him! Ha is a dear

old bear. Hut he is a monster, an ogre, a tyrant, a—oh, well, he is everything that's dreadful! You look dreadfully serious, Mr. Schmidt. Do you think that I should submit to my father's demands and marry the man he has chosen for me?"

"I do," said Robin, abruptly and so emphatically that both of his hearers jumped :n their seats. He made haste to dissemble. "Of course, I'd much rather have yo.i do that than to break your neck rolling over a precipice or something of the sort in a crazy automobile dash."

Miss Guile recovered her poise with admirable promptness. Her smile was a trifle uncertain, but she had a dependable wit. "If that is all that you are afraid of, I'll promise to save my neck at all costs," she said. "I could have many husbands but only one poor little neck."

"You can have only one husband," said he, almost savagely. "By the way, why don't you read the other letter?" Ho was regarding it with jealous eyes, for she had flipped it, face downward, under the edge of her plate.

"It isn't important," she said, with a quick look into his eyes. She convicted herself in that glance, and knew it on the instant. '

Angry with herself, she snatched up the letter and tore it opW. Her cheeks were flushed. She read however without betraying any additional evidence of uneasiness or embarrassment. When the had finished she deliberately folded the shoots and stuck them, back into the envelope without comment. One looking over her shoulder as she read, however,' might have caught snatches of sentences here end there on the heavily scrawled page. They were such as these: " You have led me to hope," • .... " for years I have been your faithful admirer," . . . *' Nor have I wavered for an instant despite your whimsical attitude," . . "therefore I felt justified in believing that you were sincere in your determination to defy your father." And others of an even more caustic nature: " I'ou are going to many this prince after all" ..." not that you have ever by word or deed bound yourself to me, yet I had every reason to hope." . . . "Your father will be pleased to find that you are obedient," . . . "I am not mean enough to wish you anything but happiness, although I know you will never achieve it through this sickening surrender to vanity," . . . "if I were a prince with a crown and a debt that I couldn't pay," . . . "admit that I have no real chanco to win out against such odds." etc.

She faced Robin coolly. "It will be necessary to abandon our little luncheon for to-mororw. lam sorry. Still Mr. Tctten informs mo that he will be in Vienna shortly. The pleasure is merely postponed."

'' Are you in earnest about this trip by motor to-morrow morning?" demanded Robin darkly. " You surely cannot be—"

" I am very much in earnest," she said decisively. Ho looked to Mrs. Gaston (or help That lady placidly shook her head. In fact, she appeared to he rather in favour of the preposterous plan, if one were to judge by the rapt expression on her countenance. " I had the supposedly honest word of these crafty gentlemen that I was not to be interfered with again. They gave me their piomise. I shall now give them all the trouble possible." " But it will be a simple matter for them to find out how and when you left this hotel and to trace you perfectly."

Don't bo too sure of that," she said exultantly. "I have a trick or two up my sleeve that will balße them properly, Mr. Schmidt."

"My dear," interposed Mrs.' Gaston severely, "do not forget yourself. It isn't necessary to resort to slang in order—"

"Slang is always necessary," avowed Bedelia, undisturbed. " Goodness, • I know I shall not sleep a wink to-night." "Nor I," said Robin gloomily. Suddenly his face lightened. A wild, reckless gleam shot into his eyes and, to then? amazement, he banged his hand into his fist. "By jove, I know what I shall do. I'll go with you!"

"No!" cried Bedelia, aghast. "I—l cannot permit it, Mr. Schmidt. Can't you understand ? You—you are the man with whom I am supposed to be carrying on atrociously. What could bo more convicting than to bo discovered racing over a mountain pass Oh, it is not to be considered—not for an instant."

"Well, I can tell you flatly just what I intend to do," said he, setting his jaws. " I shall hire another car and keep you in sight every foot of the way. You may be able to elude the greatest detective agency in Europe, but you can't get (•way from me. I intend to keep you now that I've got you, Bedelia. You can't shake me off. Whero vou go, I go-" "Do you moan ii?" sho cried, a new thrill in her voice. He looked deep into her eyes and reed there a message that invited him to perform vast though foolhardy deeds. Her eyes were suddenly sweet with the love she had never expected to know; her lips trembled with the ponging for kisses. "I shall travel far," she murmured. "You may find the task an arduous one—keeping up with me, I mean." h "I am young and strong," he said, "and. if God is good to me, I shall lira for fifty years to come, or oven longer I tmgb with joy. Bedelia, when I think of being near you for fifty years or more. Have— you thought 'of it in that I'ght? Have you looked ahead and said to yourself: Fifty years hare I to live and all of them with—"

. Hush! I was speaking of a week's journey, not of a life's vovage. Mr belmudt,' she said, her face suflused. " I was speaking of a honeymoon,' said he, and then remembered Airs. Gaston. She was leaning back in her chair, smiling benignly. He had an uncomfortable thought. was he walking into a trap set for him by this clever woman? Had sho an ulterior motivo in advancing ' his cause? °

But it would bo perfectly silly of you to follow me in a car," said Bedelia, trying to regain her lost composure. " Perfectly silly, wouldn't it, Mrs. Gaston?" " Perfectly,"said Mrs. Gaston. " I will promise to see you in Vienna—" "I intend to see you everv dav," he declared, "from now till the end of time." "Really, Mr. Schmidt, you—*' " If there is one thing I despise beyond all reason, Bedelia, it is the name of Schmidt I wish you wouldn't call me by that name."

."I can't just call you- 'Mister,'" she demurred.

„ " Call mc Rex for the present," said he. " I will supply you with a better one later on. " May I call him Rex?" she inquired of her companion. " In moderation," said Mrs. Gaston. " Very well, then, Rex, I have chanced my mind. I shall not cross the motor since you insist upon risking your neck in pursuit of me. I shall go by train in the morning—calmly, complacently, stupidly by train. Instead of a thrilling dash for liberty over rocky heights and through perilous gorges, I shall travel like any bourgeoise in a second—or third-class carriage, and the only thrill 1 shall have will be when we stop for Baker's chocolate at the top of the pass. By that time I expect to be sufficiently hungry to be thrilled even by the sight of a cake of chocolate. Will you travel in the carriage behind me? I fancy it will be safe and convenient and you can't possibly be far from my heels."

"That's a sensible idea," he cried. "And we may be able to accommodate your other' pursuers on the same train. What's the sense of leaving them behind ? They'd only catch us up in the end, so we might just as well take them along with us."

" No. We will keep well ahead of them. I insist on that. They can't get here before to-morrow afternoon, so we will be far in the lead. We will be in Vienna in two days. There I shall say good-bye to you, for I am going on beyond. lam going to Graustark, the new Blithers estate. Surely you will not follow me there."

" You are very much mistaken. I shall he there as soon as you and if shall stay just as long, provided Mr. Blithers has no objections," said Robin with more calmness than ho had hoped to display in tho face of her sudden thrust.

"We are forgetting our dinner," said Mrs. Gaston quietly. " I think the waiter is annoyed."

CHAPTER XXI. MR. BLITHERS ARRIVES IX GRAT7STARK. Mr. William W. Blithers arrived in Edelweiss, the capital of Graustark, on the same day that the prince returned from his tour of the world. As a matter of fact, he travelled by special train and beat the prince homo by the matter of three hours. The procession of troops, beaded by the Royal Castle Guard, it was announced would pass the historic Hotel Regengetz at five in tho afternoon, so Mr, Blithers had front seats on the.extension porch facing the Platz.

He did not know it, but if he bad waited for the regular train in Vienna, he would have had the honour of travelling in the same railway carriage with the royal young man. (" Would" is used advisedly m the place of " might," for he would have travelled in it, you may be sure.) Moreover, he erred in another particular for arriving at the same instant and virtually arm-in-arm with the country's sovereign, he could hardly have been kept out of the procession itself. When you stop to think that next to the, prince he was the most important personage in the realm on this day of celebration, it ought not to be considered at all unreasonable for him. to have expected some notable attention, such as being placed in the first carriage immediately behind the , country's sovereign, or possibly on the seat* ■facing him. Missing an opportunity like this, wasn't at all Mr. Blither's idea of success. He was very sorry about the special train. If it hadn't been for that tr:.in ho might now be preparing to ride castlewards behind a royal band instead of sitting with his wife in the -front row of seats on a hotel porch, just like a regular guest, waiting for the parade to come along. It certainly was a wasted opportunity.

He had lost no time in his dash across the continent. In the first place, his agents in Paris made it quite clear to him that there was likely to be " ructions" in Graustark over the loan and the prospect of a plebeian princess being seated on the throne whether the people liked it or not; and in the second place, Maud Applegate had left a note on his desk in the Paris offices, coolly informing him that she was likely'to turn up in Edelweiss almost as soon as lie. She added an annoying postscript. She said she was curious to see what sort of a place it was that he had been wasting his money on! To say that he was put out by Maud's aggravating behaviour would bo stating the case with excessive gentleness. He was furious. He sent for the head of the detective agency and gave him a blowing up that he was never to forget. It appears that the detectives had followed a false lead and had been fooled by the wary Maud in a most humiliating manner. They hadn't the remotest notion where she was, and evinced great surprise when informed in a voice loud enough to be heard a -block away that she was on her way to Graustark. They said ib couldn't be possible, and he said they didn t know what they were talking about. Ho was done with them. They could step out and ask the cashier to give them a cheque for their services, and so on and so forth. He did not forget to notify them that they were a gang of loafers. Then he dragged Mrs. Blithers off to the Gare de I'Este and took the express to Vienna. He would see to the loan first and to Maud afterward.

I Ho had no means of knowing that a certain Miss Guile was doing more to shape the destiny of the principality of Graustark than all the millions he had poured into its* treasury. Nor had he tho faintest suspicion that she was even then on Graustark soil and waiting as eagerly as he for the procession to pass a given point.

(To bo continued on Saturday pext.) ,-j I . .:-■ mm -'^\.'--•■*;■ ■ >-■-'■';*'