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Afterwards it turned out that the message announcing my arrival a day ahead of the time agreed upon was never delivered." "Sprouse's fine work, I suppose," put in Barnes. "I haven't the remotest doubt. Nor do I doubt that he intended to waylay me at some point along the road.
Barnes felt Sprouse's grip on his shoulder tighten, and the quick intake of his breath was evidence of the little secret agent's relief. After a moment or two of suspense, Barnes experienced a peculiar, almost electric shock. Some one had seized the tip of the rod; it stiffened suddenly, the vibrations due to its flexibility ceasing.
He had decided to take a chance with the resourceful, indefatigable rascal. There was nothing to be lost by setting him on the track of Prince Ugo, who, if the man's story was true, had betrayed his best friends. There was something convincing about Sprouse's version of the affair at Green Fancy. He called out to Peter.
Is she even remotely eligible to her country's throne?" "Remotely, yes," said Sprouse without hesitation. Barnes waited, but nothing further was volunteered. "So remotely that she could marry a chap like O'Dowd without giving much thought to future complications?" he ventured. "She'd be just as safe in marrying O'Dowd as she would be in marrying you," was Sprouse's unsatisfactory response.
"You have said so, Mr. Sprouse, but your idea of wrong and mine may not jibe." "There cannot be two ways of looking at it, sir," said Sprouse, after a moment. "She could do no wrong." Whereupon Barnes reached his hand across the table and laid it on Sprouse's. His eyes were dancing. "That's just what I want to be sure about," he said. "It was my way of finding out your intentions concerning her."
She told him of the man who watched across the hall from the room supposed to be occupied by Loeb the secretary, and of Sprouse's incomprehensible daring. "Where is Mr. Curtis?" he asked. Her breath fanned his cheek, her lips were close to his ear. "There is no Mr. Curtis here. He died four months ago in Florida." "I suspected as much." He did not press her for further revelations.
"He is not in sympathy with all of the plans advanced by his leader," she said, after a moment's reflection. "Your sympathies are with the Entente Allies, the prince's are opposed? Is that part of Sprouse's story true?" "Yes." "And O'Dowd?" "O'Dowd is anti-English, Mr. Barnes, if that conveys anything to you. He is not pro-German. Perhaps you will understand."
There are two contenders for the throne in my land. One is a prisoner in Austria, the other is at liberty somewhere in in the world. The Teutonic Allies are now in possession of my country. It has been ravished and despoiled." "So far Sprouse's story jibes," said he, as she paused. "My countrymen conceived the notion that Germany would one day conquer France and over-run England.
I must get away to-night but I cannot leave I dare not leave without something that is concealed in another part of the house. I do not know how to secure it. My door is locked from the outside. What am I to do? I would rather die than to go away without it." Barnes whispered in Sprouse's ear.
Ten minutes later he was in Sprouse's room, calling for Green Fancy over an extension wire that had cost the company nothing and yielded nothing in return. After some delay, O'Dowd's mellow voice sang out: "Hello! How are you this morning?"
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