Part 27 (1/2)
said His Highness, as he tossed his overcoat upon the couch of that luxurious little sitting-room within sight of the Maison Jules. ”You will stay here and attend to anything that may come through from Potsdam. A courier should arrive to-morrow night, or is it Knof who is coming? I forget.”
”Your Highness sent Knof over to get the correspondence,” I reminded him, for it was necessary that all pressing matters should be attended to, or the Emperor's suspicions might be aroused that his son was absent abroad.
”Ah, the good Knof! Of course, he will be back to-morrow night. He will have seen the Princess and told her how ill I have been, and how I am gradually growing better,” he laughed. ”Trust Knof to tell a good, sound lie.”
”All chauffeurs can do that, my dear Caesar,” exclaimed Von Hochberg, with a grin.
Naturally I was filled with wonder regarding the nature of the expedition which the pair were about to undertake, but, though we all three smoked together for an hour, ”Willie” seemed unusually sober, and did not let drop a single hint regarding their mysterious destination.
Von Hochberg was living at the Coburg Hotel, and before he left ”Willie”
arranged to breakfast with him at eight o'clock next morning, so that they might leave Euston together by the ten o'clock express.
I roused the valet, who worked for an hour packing His Highness's suit-case.
”One case only,” the Crown-Prince had ordered. ”I shall only be up there a couple or three days. No evening clothes. I shall not want them.”
That remark told me that he did not intend to pay any formal visit, as he had done on most of his journeys to Scotland.
”Your Imperial Highness will take guns, of course,” I remarked.
”Guns!” he echoed. ”No--no guns this time. If I want to shoot rabbits I can borrow a farmer's blunderbuss,” he laughed.
That ”Mickie,” the hare-brained seeker after pleasure, was to be his companion caused me some uneasiness. It was all very well for the Crown-Prince to live in London as Herr Lehnhardt. London was a big place, and those who catered for his Imperial pleasures were paid well, and did not seek to inquire into his antecedents or whether he was really what he represented himself to be.
Money talks in the underground London, just as it does on the Stock Exchange. But it sometimes, I a.s.sure you, took a long purse to keep the foreign papers quiet regarding the wild escapades of the Kaiser's heir.
That night somehow I felt a good deal of apprehension regarding this mysterious flying visit to Scotland. That the pair had some deeply-laid scheme on hand I knew from their evasiveness. But what it was I failed to discover.
Early that morning I put ”Caesar” into a taxi with his suit-case. He wore a rough suit of tweeds, and took with him his walking-stick and a khaki-coloured waterproof coat, presenting the picture of a young man going North to shoot.
”I'll be back in a few days, Heltzendorff. Attend to the letters,” he urged. ”Throw away as many as you can. If I want you I will telegraph.”
And with that he drove to the ”Coburg” to meet his old chum, ”Mickie.”
About three o'clock that same afternoon, while walking along Piccadilly, I was surprised to come face to face with Von Hochberg.
”Why! I thought you had gone North!” I exclaimed.
”No, Heltzendorff. Caesar went alone,” he replied, somewhat confounded at our unexpected meeting. ”He wanted to be alone, I think.”
”Where has he gone?” I inquired. ”He left me no address.”
”No. And I have none either,” the Count replied.
This set me thinking. The situation was even worse with the Crown-Prince wandering in Scotland alone. His indiscretions were such that his ident.i.ty might very easily leak out, and the truth concerning his absence would quickly reach the Emperor's ears.
As I stood chatting with His Highness's gay companion I confess that I felt annoyed at the manner in which I had been tricked. He was often afraid of my caustic tongue when I spoke of his indiscretions, and it was further quite plain to me that Von Hochberg had simply pretended that he was accompanying his friend North.
That evening Knof arrived from Potsdam with a satchelful of correspondence, and until a late hour I was kept busy inventing replies which would eventually be taken to Holzemme, in the Harz Mountains, and posted from there. We always made arrangements for such things when His Highness was secretly out of Germany.
I s.n.a.t.c.hed a meal at Jules', close by, and resumed my work till long after midnight, inventing some picturesque fictions in reply to many official doc.u.ments.