y question now is how am
I to get back?"

"I can get you a cab, sir, at once. Or would your Majesty rather I sent
word to the palace?"

"No, certainly not. If I have not been missed, nobody need know."

"Your Majesty was missed by us four hours ago. That is what brought me
here."

"You come from the palace?"

"Yes, sir. As head of the special department, I have to be there every
night."

"I'm sorry to have given you so much trouble."

"Oh, not at all, sir."

And then, a cab having been summoned, he led the way out.

No one was by; the street had not a soul in it, and the King knew that
once more foresight and care were watching over him.

"I have paid the cabman, sir," said the inspector, as he closed the
door. "And, sir, would you kindly say where he is to go?"

There was a hint of discretion in the man's tone.

"Ah, yes," said the King, "to be sure--yes. Tell him to stop at the park
gates."

The inspector, saluting, gave the required direction, and the cab drove
off. Arriving a few minutes later at his destination, the King got out,
and passed in through the gates.

The palace was now shrouded in gloom; only in the guard-room, within the
high-railed quadrangle, a light still burned. Dimly through the night a
sentry could be seen pacing up and down.

By a subconscious instinct the King was returning along the same route
that he had come. Only as he approached the postern in the wall did it
occur to him that it would almost certainly be locked; and yet for no
other door had he a key. Attended constantly by servants, and leading a
scrupulously regular life, requiring neither secret passages nor late
hours, he had never possessed a latch-key of his own.

How, then, was he to get in now without attracting attention?

Having come so far, however, he went forward on chance and tested the
door. The attendant policeman was no longer there, the road-lamp had
been turned low, giving only a glimmer.

He tried the handle, but found that it would not respond. A figure
glided forward and inserted a key. "Allow me, sir," came the inspector's
voice.

"You?" exclaimed the King, surprised.

"It was my duty to see your Majesty safe home."

"Very kind of you, I'm sure." He passed in, and the inspector followed.

"Pardon me for asking, sir. Was this the way your Majesty came out?"

"Yes."

"Ah, that accounts for it! We never thought of your Majesty coming this
way, and the man put here was only on beat, not