Part 16 (1/2)
”Bear with him, Your Highness,” said Courtney-”I a.s.sure you he will learn in time.... Meanwhile, Monsieur le Prince, I'm all attention.”
Armand leaned over to Lady Helen. ”His manners are rather cra.s.s,” he remarked, in a confidential whisper, ”but he really means well.” Then he pushed the cigarettes across to Courtney.
”Take a fresh one, old chap; the story may be a bit long.”
VIII INFERENCE OR FACT
Through the story Courtney sat with half closed eyes, pulling at his gray imperial, the unlighted cigarette between his lips. With the main facts he was already familiar, as was every Emba.s.sy in Dornlitz, but much of the small details were new to him; and at the end, for a while, he was silent, fitting the incidents together in his mind.
”Do you care to tell me what the police make of it?” he asked.
”Nothing, as usual,” Armand answered. ”Their intelligence doesn't run beyond a hidden panel, and sounding every wall and floor in the Palace; they scorn any theory but that His Majesty concealed the Book.”
”Which is perfectly absurd,” Dehra added; ”why should he conceal it, with the box and the vault at hand?”
”Why don't you make them take another lead?” Lady Helen asked.
”Because I'm sick of them and their ways.-I've sent them away-and away they stay; in another day there wouldn't have been a wall in the Palace.”
”She told the officer in charge the only way he could ever find the Book was not to search for it,” Armand laughed. ”And then gave him a grade in rank to salve the words.”
”Don't interrupt, sir!” the Princess exclaimed. ”And remember I can't give you a grade.”
”Was any one with the King after you left him that night?” Courtney asked.
”Only Adolph, the valet,” Dehra replied. ”I'm quite sure he would receive no one at that hour.”
”And what did Adolph say as to the Book?”
”That he hadn't seen it for four days prior to Frederick's death,” said Armand.
”Who told you that?” the Princess asked quickly.
”He told the Council.”
”Then he deliberately deceived you; he saw it the night I did-the last night;-he came to the door just after the King spoke of Armand's decree.”
Courtney struck a match and carefully lit the cigarette.
”Where is Adolph?” he asked.
”He has gone back to France, I think.”
Courtney sent a quick, inquiring look at Armand, which the latter missed, having turned toward Lady Helen.
”Oh, I remember,” he replied; ”there was a stray line about him in the paper-grief and so forth. At the time, I inferred he had been banished by the police, for some reason.”
”We can have him back,” she interjected.