The Weight of the Crown
Page 34
CHAPTER XXXIV
A ROYAL ACTOR
Lechmere darted along in the direction of the secondary staircase fromwhence the noise of the falling body had come. It was somewhat darkthere, for the gas jet at that point had been turned down and there wereno electrics there. At the foot of the stairs could be seen the outlineof somebody who had become entangled with a maze of salmon line and whowas held up like a great blundering bee in a spider's web. Lechmerecould hear him muttering and swearing to himself as he struggled to befree.
But there was no time to waste. Doubtless Mazaroff would be out of hisroom in a little time, and it was just possible that he might come thatway. Lechmere slid down the bannisters as a schoolboy might have done;he had an open pocket knife in his teeth. Noiselessly he came down uponthe struggling man and gripped him by the shoulders.
"Don't you make a sound," he hissed. "Not one word unless you want thisknife plunged into your body. Be still, and no harm shall come to you."
"_'Don't you make a sound,' he hissed._"]
The other man said nothing. He allowed himself to be cut free from thesalmon line and dragged behind a kind of housemaid's closet at the footof the stairs. At the same moment Mazaroff came along. The two men therecould see the dark outline of his anxious face as he lighted a vesta toaid him in seeing what was going on.
"Got away, I expect," he muttered. "A precious near thing, anyway. Butif he is clear off the premises I may as well go this way myself."
So close did Mazaroff pass the other two that Lechmere could easily havetouched him. His companion gave no sign, perhaps Lechmere's fingersplaying about his throat warned him of the danger of anything of thekind. Mazaroff disappeared in the gloom, a door closed with a click,there was a muffled echo of retreating footsteps and then Lechmere'sgrim features relaxed into a smile. He jogged up his captive.
"Now we shall be able to get along," he said. "Will you be so good as toprecede me, sir?"
"Do you know who I am?" the other man replied. "Because if you are notaware of my identity----"
"I am quite aware of your identity," Lechmere said coolly. "And I shoulddo again what I am doing now if necessary. I daresay you regard thething as a magnificent joke, but when you come to realise the enormousmischief that you have done, why----"
Lechmere shrugged his shoulders by way of completing his sentence. Hepushed the other man along the corridor until he came to Maxgregor'srooms, where he hustled his prisoner inside. He stood winking andblinking there in the light, the very image of the king with his orderson his breast and his flame-coloured hair gleaming in the light.Shamefaced as he appeared, there was yet a kind of twinkle in his eyes.
"Behold your king," Lechmere said. "Behold the source of the trouble.Your majesty must find the heat very much in that wig. Let me removeit."
He coolly twitched the flame-coloured thatch away and disclosed a closecrop of black hair. The queen threw up her hands with a gesture ofamazement.
"Peretori," she cried. "Prince Peretori! So you are the cause of all themischief. Will you be so good as to explain yourself?"
"There is no very great resemblance to the king, now that the wig isremoved," Jessie whispered to Maxwell who stood beside her. "Do you knowI rather like his face. Who is he?"
"Prince Peretori of Nassa, a second cousin of the King of Asturia,"Maxwell explained. "There are many mad princes in Europe but none quiteso mad as Peretori. He is not bad or wicked, he is simply utterlyirresponsible. The great object in his life is the playing of practicaljokes. Also he is a wonderfully fine actor--he would have made a greatname on the stage. It is one of his boasts that he can make up toresemble anybody."
"He doesn't look like an enemy," Jessie said in the same low voice.
"He's not," Maxwell replied. "In fact Peretori is nobody's enemy but hisown. I should not be in the least surprised to find that he had beenmade use of in this business."
"Why have you committed this crowning act of folly?" the queen askedcoldly.
"Is it any worse than usual?" the prince asked. "My dear cousin, I didit for a wager. The price of my success was to be a thousand guineas.Now a thousand guineas to me at the present moment represents somethinglike salvation. I am terribly hard up, I am painfully in debt. In thiscountry those commercial brutal laws take no heed of station. I ignoredcertain civil processes with the result that a common tradesman canthrow me into gaol at any moment for a debt that I simply cannot pay.That I am always ready for a joke you are aware. But a remunerative jokelike this was not to be denied."
"Therefore you believe that you have won the bet from Countess Saens andPrince Mazaroff?" Lechmere asked. "Do they admit that you have won?"
"They do, my somewhat heavy-handed friend," the prince cried gaily."Though how on earth you came to know that the countess and Mazaroff hadany hand in the business----"
"We will come to that presently," Lechmere resumed. "You talked thatmatter over with the countess and Mazaroff and they gradually persuadedyou to try this thing. You were to go to the editor of the _Mercury_ andpass yourself off as the King of Asturia. You were to tell him all kindsof damaging things, and he was to believe you. If he believed you to bethe king, you earned your money."
"Never was a sum of money gained more easily," Peretori cried.
"Yes, but at what a cost!" the queen said sternly. "Peretori, do youever consider anything else but your own selfish amusements? Look at theharm you have done. Once the printed lie crosses the border intoAsturia, what is to become of us all! Did you think of that? Can't youunderstand that all Europe will imagine that the king has resigned histhrone? Desperate as things are, you have made then ten times worse."
Peretori looked blankly at the speaker. He was like a boy who had beendetected in some offence and for the first time realized theseriousness of it.
"I give you my word that I never thought of that for a moment," he said."It is one of my sins that I never think of anything where a jest isconcerned. That smug little editor swallowed everything that I said inthe most amusing fashion. I had won my money and I was free. My dearcousin, if there is anything that I can do----"
The queen shook her head mournfully. She was quite at a loss for themoment. Unless, perhaps, the tables could be turned in another way.
"You have been the dupe of two of our most unscrupulous enemies," thequeen went on. "They are agents of Russia, and at the present momenttheir great task is to try and bring about the abdication of the King ofAsturia. Once this is done, the path is fairly clear. To bring thisabout these people can use as much money as they please. They have beenbaffled once or twice lately, but when they found you they saw a goodchance of doing our house a deadly harm. A thousand pounds, or fiftytimes that amount mattered little. How did they find you?"
"I have been in England six months," Peretori said. "I dropped my rank.There was an English girl I was very fond of. I was prepared tosacrifice everything so long as she became my wife. It doesn't matterhow those people found me. The mischief is done."
"The mischief is almost beyond repair," Lechmere said. "But why did youcome here? Why did you sit before the open windows in the next suite ofrooms?"
"That was part of the plan, my dear sir," Peretori exclaimed. "Probablythere was somebody watching who had to be convinced that I was the Kingof Asturia. I flatter myself that my make-up was so perfect that nobodycould possibly----"
"Still harping on that string," the queen said reproachfully. "Why don'tyou try and realize that the great harm that you have done has to berepaired at any cost? With all your faults, you were never a traitor toyour country. Are you going to take the blood-money, knowing what itmeans? I cannot believe that you have stooped so low as that."
The face of Peretori fell; a shamed look came into his eyes.
"I shall take it," he said. "I shall spoil the Egyptians. But at thesame time, I can see a way to retrieve the mischief that I have done. Itis not too late yet."