the harbour,
and with much trouble put it on the yacht of the Conte Corramini, which
had come into this port, the saints alone know why."

"I should say the saints had little to do with the affair," remarked
Ralph, but I cut him short.

"What then?" I asked.

"Then it must be covered up, His Highness said, in case of rain--though
the sky was as dry as my throat--till you could not tell the automobile
from a haystack, on the forward deck where it had been placed."

"And after that?"

"After that I know nothing, except that His Highness condescended to
remark that he would go away for a trip to-day, and I was to wait for
him until I heard further. That will be soon, for when it comes to real
work on the car it breaks his heart. He can drive, but apart from that
he knows no more of the automobile than does the little black dog
adopted by the beautiful mademoiselle."

"I suppose you'll get a wire to-morrow at latest," said I. "Well, _au
revoir_. We're turning here."

"Going to the harbour?" Ralph asked, dryly, and I nodded.

I am afraid that we did the mile to Gravosa in a good deal less than the
legal limit, but luckily no one was the worse for it, and there were no
policemen about.

At Gravosa we found some men on the quay who could talk Italian, and in
five minutes I knew for certain what I had suspected. A white yacht
answering the description I gave of "Arethusa," had sent a boat before
noon to meet a cab bringing to the port two ladies and a gentleman. The
Signore were in long brownish coats and close hats. One was stout, with
much colour; the other, a young girl, transcendently beautiful.

"That impudent fellow has whisked them off to Cattaro, to see his
beastly ancestral ruin," suggested Ralph. "That's what he's done. He's
probably chuckling now with savage glee to think that willy-nilly
Countess Kidder-Dalmar can't get out of her bargain."

"I don't believe they would willingly have left the little girl lying
there ill, to say nothing of leaving us in the lurch without a word,"
said I. "Ralph, there's something pretty devilish under this, or I'll
eat my hat."

"Well, I should expect to see you devouring it, if--I hadn't heard
Beechy's confess--if she hadn't told me some things," Ralph amended his
sentence.

"I'm hanged if I won't give chase!" I exclaimed.

"How can you? You were saying at lunch that so far as you'd been able to
fog it out, there wasn't more than the ghost of a road after Castelnu