by John Buchan
Dickson had on the whole a pleasant evening. In the first place he had Mr Glynde, an exquisite velvet-footed attendant, whose presence made other servants needless except for the mere business of fetching and carrying. Then he enjoyed the business of writing his abdication. The draft was prepared by Count Casimir, but he took pains to amend the style, assisted by Randal, in whom he discovered a literary connoisseur of a high order. I am afraid that the resulting document was a rather precious composition, full of Stevensonian cadences and with more than a hint of the prophet Isaiah. Happily Count Casimir was there to turn it into robust Evallonian prose.
Dickson and Randal dined alone together, and the former heard with excitement of the doings in the Street of the White Peacock. The peril of Alison and the Roylances, not to speak of Jaikie, made him catch his breath, and the manner of Mastrovin’s end gave him deep satisfaction.
“I’m glad yon one is out of the world,” he said. “He was a cankered body. It was your shot that did it? What does it feel like to kill a man?”
“In Mastrovin’s case rather like breaking the back of a stoat that is after your chickens. Have you ever been the death of anyone, Mr McCunn?”
“I once had a try,” said Dickson modestly. Then his thoughts fastened on Jaikie.
“You tell me he’s safe and well? And he gets on fine with the Countess?”
“He promises to be her white-headed boy. She is a lady of violent likes and dislikes, and she seems to have fallen completely for Master Jaikie. Prince John, of course, is deep in his debt. I think that if he wants it he might have considerable purchase at the new Court of Evallonia.”
“Do you say so? That would be a queer profession for a laddie that came out of the Gorbals. There’s another thing.” Dickson hesitated. “I think Jaikie is terrible fond of Miss Alison.”
Randal smiled. “I believe that affair is going well. Last night, I fancy, clinched it. They clung together like two lovers.”
Dickson’s eyes became misty.
“Well — well. It’s a grand thing to be young. That reminds me of something where I want you to help me, Mr Glynde. My will was made years ago, and is deposited with Paton and Linklater in Glasgow. I haven’t forgot Jaikie, but I think I must make further and better provision for him, as the lawyers say. I’ve prepared a codicil, and I want it signed and witnessed the morn. I’ve determined that Jaikie shall be well-tochered, and if Miss Alison has the beauty and the blood he at any rate will have the siller. No man knows what’ll happen to me in the next day or two, and I’d be easier in my mind if I got this settled.”
“To-morrow you must stay in bed,” said Randal, as he said good night. “You must profess to be exceedingly unwell.”
Dickson grinned. “And me feeling like a he-goat on the mountains!”
III
Next day an unwilling Dickson kept his bed. He had the codicil of his will signed and witnessed, which gave him some satisfaction. Randal translated for him the comments of the Evallonian Press on his abdication, and he was gratified to learn that he had behaved with a royal dignity and the self-abnegation of a patriot. But after that he grew more restless with every hour.
“What for am I lying here?” he asked repeatedly. “I should be up and off or I’ll be grippit.”
“Juventus works to a schedule,” Randal explained, “and its formal entry into Melina is timed for to-morrow. The Press announces to-day that you are seriously indisposed, and therefore you cannot appear in public before the people, which is what Melina is clamouring for. News of your being confined to bed this morning has already been issued, and a bulletin about your health will be published at midday. You appreciate the position, Mr McCunn?”
“Fine,” said Dickson.
“It is altogether necessary that you get away in good time, but it is also necessary that you have a good reason for your going — an excuse for Melina, and especially for Juventus. They are not people whose plans can be lightly disregarded. If there is to be peace in Evallonia, Count Casimir and his friends must be in favour with Juventus, and that will not happen if we begin by offending it. We must get a belief in your critical state of health firm in the minds of the people, and our excuse for your going must be that any further excitement would endanger your life. So we must move carefully and not too fast. Our plan is to get you out of here to-night very secretly, and the fact that you did not leave till the question of your health became urgent will, we hope, convince Juventus of our good intentions.”
“That’s maybe right enough,” said Dickson doubtfully, “but it’s a poor job for me. I have to lie here on my back, and I’ve nothing to read except Sir Thomas Browne, and I can’t keep my mind on him. I’m getting as nervous as a peesweep.”
Luncheon saw an anxious company round his bed, Prince Odalchini, Count Casimir, Dougal and Mr Glynde. They had ominous news. The advanced troops of Juventus had arrived, a picked body who had been instructed to take over the duty of palace guards. They had accordingly replaced the detachment of National Guards, which had been sent to occupy the approaches to the city. There had been no difficulty about the transference, but it appeared that there was going to be extreme difficulty with the palace’s new defenders. For these Juventus shock-troops had strict orders, and a strict notion of fulfilling them. No movement out of the city was permitted for the next twenty-four hours. No movement out of the Palace was permitted for the same period. Count Casimir had interviewed the officer commanding and had found him respectful but rigid. If any member of the Archduke’s entourage wished to leave it would be necessary to get permission by telephone from headquarters at Krovolin.
“I do not think that Juventus is suspicious,” said the Count. “It is only its way of doing business. It has youth’s passion for meticulous detail.”
“That puts the lid on it for us,” said Dougal. “We can’t ask permission for Mr McCunn to leave, for Juventus would be here in no time making inquiries for itself. And it will be an awful business to smuggle him out. I can tell you these lads know their work. They have sentries at every approach, and they are patrolling every yard of the back parts and the park side. Besides, once he was out of here, what better would he be? He would have still to get out of the city, and the whole countryside between here and Tarta is policed by Juventus. They are taking no chances.”
There were poor appetites at luncheon. Five reasonably intelligent men sat in a stupor of impotence, repeating wearily the essentials of a problem which they could not solve. They must get Dickson away within not more than twenty hours, and they must get him off in such a manner that they would have a convincing story to tell Juventus. Dickson sat up in his bed in extreme discomposure, Dougal had his head in his hands, Count Casimir strode up and down the room, and even Randal Glynde seemed shaken out of his customary insouciance. Prince Odalchini had left them on some errand of his own.
The last-named returned about three o’clock with a tragic face.
“I have just had a cipher telegram,” he said. “I have my own means of getting them through. The Archduke Hadrian died this morning at eleven o’clock. His death will not be announced till I give the word, but the announcement cannot be delayed more than two days — three at the most. Therefore we must act at once. There is not an hour to waste.”
“There is not an hour to waste,” Casimir cried, “but we are an eternity off having any plan.”
“I’m dead,” said Dickson. “At least the man I’m pretending to be is dead. Well, I’ll maybe soon be dead myself.” His tone was almost cheerful, as if the masterful comedy of events had obliterated his own cares.
“There is nothing to do but to risk it,” said Prince Odalchini. “We must go on with our plan for to-night, and pray that Juventus may be obtuse. The odds I admit are about a thousand to one.”
“And on these crazy odds depends the fate of a nation,” said Casimir bitterly.
To this miserable conclave entered Jaikie — Jaikie, trim, brisk and purposeful. He wore the uniform of a Juventus
staff-officer, and on his right arm was the Headquarters brassard. To Dickson’s anxious eyes he was a different being from the shabby youth he had last seen at Tarta. This new Jaikie was a powerful creature, vigorous and confident, the master, not the plaything, of Fate. He remembered too that this was Alison’s accepted lover. At the sight of him all his fears vanished.
“Man Jaikie, but I’m glad to see you,” he cried. “You’ve just come in time to put us right.”
“I hope so,” was the answer. “Anyway, I’ve come to represent Juventus Headquarters here till they take over to-morrow.”
He looked round the company, and his inquiring eye induced Casimir to repeat his mournful tale. Jaikie listened with a puckered brow.
“It’s going to be a near thing,” he said at last. “And we must take some risks. . . . Still, I believe it can be done. Listen. I’ve brought a Headquarters car with the Headquarters flag on the bonnet. Also I have a pass which enables me and the car and anyone I send in the car to go anywhere in Evallonia. I insisted on that, for I expected that there might be some trouble. That is our trump card. I can send Mr McCunn off in it, and that will give us a story for Juventus tomorrow. . . . But on the other hand there is nothing to prevent the Juventus sentries from looking inside, and if they see Mr McCunn — well, his face is unfortunately too well known from their infernal papers, and they have their orders, and they’re certain to insist on telephoning to Krovolin for directions, and that would put the fat in the fire. We must get them into a frame of mind when they won’t want to look too closely. Let me think.”
“Ay, Jaikie, think,” said Dickson, almost jovially. “It must never be said that a Gorbals Die-hard was beat by a small thing like that.”
After a little Jaikie raised his head.
“This is the best I can do. Mr McCunn must show himself to Melina. In spite of his feebleness and the announcement in the Press to-day, he must make an effort to have one look at his affectionate people. Ring up the newspaper offices, and get it into the stop-press of the evening papers that at seven o’clock the Archduke will appear on the palace balcony. You’ve got that? Then at a quarter-past seven my car must be ready to start. You must go with it, Prince. Have you a man of your own that you can trust to drive, for I daren’t risk the Juventus chauffeur.”
Prince Odalchini nodded. “I have such a man.”
“What I hope for is this,” Jaikie went on. “The Juventus guards, having seen the Archduke on the balcony a few minutes before, and having observed a tottering old man who has just risen from a sick-bed, won’t expect him to be in the car. I’ll have a word with their commandant and explain that you are taking two of your servants to Tarta, and that you have my permission, as representing the Headquarters staff.”
He stopped.
“But there’s a risk, all the same. If they catch a glimpse of Mr McCunn they will insist on ringing up Krovolin. I know what conscientious beggars they are, and I’m only a staff-officer, not their commander. Couldn’t we do something to distract their attention at the critical moment?” He looked towards Randal with a sudden inspiration.
Mr Glynde smiled.
“I think I can manage that,” he said. “If I may be excused, I will go off and see about it.”
As the hour of seven chimed from the three and thirty towers of Melina, there was an unusual bustle in the great front courtyard of the Palace. The evening papers had done their work, rumour with swift foot had sped through the city, and the Juventus sentries had permitted the entrance of a crowd which the Press next day estimated as not less than twenty thousand. On the balcony above the main portico, flanked by a row of palace officials, stood a little group of men. Some wore the uniform of the old Evallonian Court, and Jaikie alone had the Juventus green. They made a passage, in which appeared Count Casimir and Prince Odalchini, both showing the famous riband and star of the White Falcon. Between them they supported a frail figure which wore a purple velvet dressing-gown and a skull-cap, so that it looked like some very ancient Prince of the Church. It was an old man, with a deathly white face, who blinked his eyes wearily, smiled wanly, and bowed as with a great effort to the cheering crowds. There was a dignity in him which impressed the most heedless, the dignity of an earlier age, and an extreme fragility which caught at the heart. The guards saluted, every hat was raised, but there was some constraint in the plaudits. The citizens of Melina felt that they were in the presence of one who had but a slender hold on life.
Dickson was stirred to his depths. The sea of upturned faces moved him strangely, for he had never before stood on a pinnacle above his fellow-men. He did not need to act his part, for in that moment he felt himself the authentic Archduke, an exile returning only to die. He was wearing a dead man’s shoes. Next day the papers were to comment upon the pathetic spectacle of this old man bidding Ave atque vale to the people he loved.
The car was waiting in a small inner courtyard. It was a big limousine with the blinds drawn on one side, so that the interior was but dimly seen. Dickson entered and sat himself in the duskiest corner, wearing the military overcoat in which he had arrived, with the collar turned up and a thick muffler. Dougal took the seat by the driver. The car moved through the inner gateway and came into the outer court, which was the private entrance to the Palace. At the other end the court opened into the famous thoroughfare known as the Avenue of the Kings, and there stood the Juventus sentries.
The Headquarters flag fluttered at the car’s bonnet, and Prince Odalchini’s hand through the open window displayed the familiar green and white Headquarters pass. The sentries saluted, and their officer, whom Jaikie had already interviewed, nodded and took a step towards the car. It may have been his intention to examine the interior, but that will never be known, for his activities were suddenly compelled to take a different form.
In the Avenue was a great crowd streaming away from the ceremony in the main palace courtyard. The place was broad enough for thousands, and the sounding of the car’s horn had halted the press and made a means of egress. But coming from the opposite direction was a circus procession, which, keeping its proper side of the road, had got very close to the palace wall. It had heard the horn of the car and would have stopped, but for the extraordinary behaviour of an elephant. The driver of the animal, a ridiculous figure of a man in flapping nankeen trousers, an old tunic of horizon blue and a scarlet cummerbund, apparently tried to check it, but at the very moment that the car was about to pass the gate it backed into the archway, scattering the Juventus guards.
There was just room for the car to slip through, and, as it swung into the avenue, Dickson, through a crack in the blind, saw with delight that his retreat was securely covered by the immense rump of Aurunculeia.
IV
The last guns of the royal salute had fired, and the cheering of the crowds had become like the murmur of a distant groundswell. The entrance hall of the Palace was lined with the tall Juventus guards, and up the alley between them came the new King-designate of Evallonia. There was now nothing of McTavish and less of Newsom about Prince John. The Juventus uniform well became his stalwart figure, and he was no more the wandering royalty who for some years had been the sport of fortune, but a man who had found again his land and his people. Yet in all the group, in the Prince and his staff and in the wing commanders, there was a touch of hesitation, almost of shyness, like schoolboys who had been catapulted suddenly into an embarrassing glory. The progress from Krovolin to Melina had been one long blaze of triumph, for again and again the lines of the escort had been broken by men and women who kissed the Prince’s stirrup, and it had rained garlands of flowers. The welcome of Melina had been more ceremonial, but not less rapturous, and they had listened to that roar of many thousands, which, whether it be meant in love or in hate, must make the heart stand still. All the group, even the Countess Araminta, had eyes unnaturally bright and faces a little pale.
At the foot of the grand staircase stood Count Casimir and Jaikie. Ashie translated for the latte
r the speeches that followed. The Count dropped on his knee.
“Sire,” he said, “as the Chamberlain of the king your father I welcome you home.”
Prince John raised him and embraced him.
“But where,” he asked, “is my beloved uncle? I had hoped to be welcomed by him above all others.” His eye caught Jaikie’s for a moment, and what the latter read in it was profound relief.
“Alas, Sire,” said the Count, “His Royal Highness’s health has failed him. Being an old man, the excitement of the last days was too much for him. A little more and your Majesty’s joyful restoration would have been clouded by tragedy. The one hope was that he should leave at once for the peace of his home. He crossed the frontier last night, and will complete his journey to France by air. He left with profound unwillingness, and he charged me to convey to Your Majesty his sorrow that his age and the frailty of his body should have prevented him from offering you in person his assurances of eternal loyalty and affection.”
The Countess’s face had lost its pallor. Once again she was the Blood-red Rook, and it was on Jaikie that her eyes fell, eyes questioning, commanding, suspicious. It was to her rather than to Prince John that he spoke, having imitated the Count and clumsily dropped on one knee.
“I was faithful to your instructions, Sire,” he said, “but a higher Power has made them impossible. I was assured that you would not wish this happy occasion to be saddened by your kinsman’s death.”
He saw the Countess’s lips compressed as if she checked with difficulty some impetuous speech. “True public-school,” thought Jaikie. “She would like to make a scene, but she won’t.”
Prince John saw it too, and his manner dropped from the high ceremonial to the familiar.
“You have done right,” he said aloud in English. “Man proposeth and God disposeth. Dear Uncle Hadrian — Heaven bless him wherever he is! And now, my lord Chamberlain, I hope you can give us something to eat.”