Part 43 (1/2)

It was half past twelve, and every table at the Berkeley Bridge Club was occupied. On the threshold of the princ.i.p.al room a visitor, who was being shown around, was asking questions of the secretary.

”Is there any gambling here?” he inquired.

The secretary shrugged his shoulders.

”I am afraid that some of them go a little beyond the club points,”

he answered. ”You see that table against the wall? They are playing s.h.i.+lling auction there.”

The table near the wall was, perhaps, the most silent. The visitor looked at it last and most curiously.

”Who is the dissipated-looking boy playing there?” he asked.

”Prince Albert of Trent,” the secretary answered.

”And who is the little man, rather like Napoleon, who sits in the easy-chair and watches?”

”The Baron de Grost.”

”Never heard of him,” the visitor declared.

”He is a very rich financier who has recently blossomed out in London,”

the secretary said. ”One sees him everywhere. He has a good-looking wife, who is playing in the other room.”

”A good-looking wife,” the visitor remarked, thoughtfully. ”But, yes! I thank you very much, Mr. Courtledge for showing me round. I will find my friends now.”

He turned away, leaving Courtledge alone, for a minute or two, on the threshold of the card room. The secretary's attention was riveted upon the table near the wall, and the frown on his face deepened. Just as he was moving off, the Baron de Grost rose and joined him.

”They are playing a little high in here this evening,” the latter remarked quietly.

Courtledge frowned.

”I wish I had been in the club when they started,” he said, gloomily.

”My task is all the more difficult now.”

The Baron de Grost looked pensively, for a moment, at the cigarette which he was carrying.

”By the bye, Mr. Courtledge,” he asked, with apparent irrelevance, ”what was the name of the tall man with whom you were talking just now?”

”Count von Hern. He was brought in by one of the attaches at the German Emba.s.sy.”

Baron de Grost pa.s.sed his arm through the secretary's and led him a little way through the corridor.

”I thought I recognized our friend,” he remarked. ”His presence here this evening is quite interesting.”

”Why this evening?”

Baron de Grost avoided the question.

”Mr. Courtledge,” he said, ”I think that you will allow me to ask you something without thinking me impertinent. You know that my wife and I have taken some interest in Prince Albert. It is on his account, is it not, that you look so gloomy to-night, as though you had an execution in front of you?”