Perse palace on the telephone and asked
for the Countess, to tell her in so many words that he had been followed
from her door to the very gates of the Castle grounds. Not by one man
alone, for that would have excited suspicion, but by half a dozen at
least, each one taking up the surveillance in the most casual manner as
the watcher before him left off. Tullis was amazed by the cunning which
masked these proceedings; there was a wily brain behind it.

The Duke's secretary answered the call. Tullis was completely bowled
over by the curt information that the Countess Marlanx had left
Edelweiss before six that morning, to join her husband, who was shooting
wild boars with a party in Axphain.

"When does she return?" demanded the American, scarcely believing his
ears. She had said nothing of this the night before. What could it mean?

"I do not know, sir."

"In a day or two?"

"She took sixteen trunks, sir," was the laconic reply, as if that told
the story in full.

"Well, I'm damned!"

"I beg pardon, sir!"

"I beg _your_ pardon. Good morning."

* * * * *

In the meantime, our excellent young friend, Truxton King, was having a
sorry time of it. It all began when he went to the Cathedral in the
hope of seeing the charming aunt of the little Prince once more. Not
only did he attend one service, but all of them, having been assured
that the royal family worshipped there quite as regularly and as
religiously as the lowliest communicant. She did not appear.

More than all this, he met with fresh disappointment when he ambled down
to the armourer's shop. The doors were locked and there was no sign of
life about the shuttered place. The cafes were closed on this day of
rest, so there was nothing left for him to do but to slink off to his
room in the Regengetz, there to read or to play solitaire and to curse
the progress of civilisation.

Monday was little better than Sunday. Hobbs positively refused to escort
him to the Castle grounds again. No amount of bribing or browbeating
could move the confounded Englishman from his stand. He was willing to
take him anywhere else, but never again would he risk a personally
conducted tour into hot waters royal. Mr. King resigned himself to a
purely business call at the shop of Mr. Spantz. He looked long, with a
somewhat shifty eye, at the cabinet of ancient rings and necklaces, and
then departed without having seen the interesting Miss Platanova.