The Weight of the Crown

CHAPTER XXXI
A SURPRISE FOR JESSIE

Her majesty was in the hall as Jessie had anticipated. She was chatting quite gaily with Lady Merehaven as the girl came up. She flashed Jessie a significant glance.

"Your aunt has been pleased to accede to my whim," she said. "And so you are coming with me, Vera. I understand your maid is sending everything to our hotel. Good-night, Lady Merehaven, and please do not allow those people to play cards too long. My dear child, come along."

"It is a very great honour for the child," Lady Merehaven murmured. "Good-night, madame, good-night."

The queen swept Jessie into the brougham before her. There was a tiny electric lamp behind the queen's head so that it shone full on Jessie's face. Jessie felt the latter's eyes going all over her.

"Now tell me your story," she said. "Tell me freely and don't be afraid. I shall be your good friend."

"You give me courage to proceed," Jessie murmured. "In the first place I'll tell you why I so dreaded passing the night at Merehaven House. I should certainly have been found out in the morning and then everything would have been ruined. Not that I cared for myself, but for the sake of others. Madame, is it possible that you fail to see that I am not Miss Galloway at all?"

The queen fairly gasped with astonishment. Those dark eyes of hers took in Jessie's identity. It was a long time before she spoke again.

"You are quite right," she said slowly and thoughtfully. "I notice little subtle differences now you mention it. And yet the likeness is wonderful. My dear, you are a lady."

"I am a lady, yes. My father was Colonel Harcourt, in fact I am a connection of the Merehavens. There has been nothing vulgar about my adventure to-night."

"That I am absolutely certain of. Really, the likeness is marvellous. And I have been talking to you and confiding in you all the evening as if you were my friend Vera Galloway."

"Instead of your friend Jessie Harcourt," the girl said with a wistful smile. "Believe me, I am as devoted to your interests as is the one whose part I play. I have given proof of it enough to-night. I might have gone on deceiving you to the end but I could not do it."

"I see, I see. You are telling the truth, you are making me love you. And why did you do this for one who a little time ago was a perfect stranger to you? If you know anything of our cause – "

"But I do now – and you can command me in any way. Perhaps I had better begin at the beginning. It was Vera Galloway who took me up. She came to me at a moment when I was absolutely desperate. It is strange how the warp of fate has dragged me into this business!"

"You cannot tell how deeply I am interested," the queen said softly.

"It is very good of your majesty. Miss Galloway came to me. She had heard of me, evidently. She came to me at the very moment when I was dismissed from my situation. I had been accused of a disgraceful flirtation with the son of one of the shop customers. As a matter of fact the coward had tried to kiss me and he let all the blame rest on my shoulders. I was dismissed without any chance of a further situation, I had only a few shillings in the world and an invalid sister partially dependent upon me. At that moment I was desperate enough for anything. Quite early the complication began. The name of the coward who brought all this trouble on me was Prince Boris Mazaroff."

"I am not surprised," the queen said with just a touch of weary scorn in her voice. "We are all creatures of fate. I know that I am. But the coincidence is a little strange."

"Miss Galloway wrote me a letter and asked me to call upon her in my working dress. When I saw her I could not but be struck by the amazing likeness between us. Then she unfolded her plan – the plan that we were to change places for a little time. Someone whom she cared for was in trouble and it was impossible that she should get away without being suspected. Your Majesty may guess that the somebody in trouble was no other than Mr. Charles Maxwell and at the bottom of the trouble was the missing papers relating to Asturia."

The queen nodded, her dark eyes gleaming in the light of the lamp.

"I see," she exclaimed. "Those papers that found their way into the hands of the Countess Saens. The papers that she was robbed of almost as soon as she had obtained possession of them. What an amazing daring thing to do. I seem to see quite clearly now. Miss Galloway slipped off and stole them while all the time her friends and relations thought that she was in the house of her uncle! Ah, what will not a woman do for the sake of the man she loves! And she was quite successful!"

"Quite. We know that by the scene made by the countess' maid at Merehaven House. I did not guess until the maid looked at me and said that I was the thief. Of course everybody who heard it laughed, but the woman stuck to her story. The statement was a flood of light to me, when I heard it I knew then exactly what had happened as well as if I had been present and seen the robbery."

"Vera Galloway saved Asturia and her lover at the same time," the queen said. "But why did not Miss Galloway come back and resume her proper place?"

"Oh, that is the unfortunate part of it," Jessie said sadly. "She was so overcome with her good fortune that she walked down Piccadilly in a dazed state. Then she was run over by a cab and taken to Charing Cross Hospital. She is there at this moment."

A cry of passionate anger broke from the queen. Her hands were clasped together closely.

"Of all the misfortunes!" she gasped. "Will nothing ever come right here? Go on and tell me the worst."

"The worst is that Vera lost the papers," Jessie resumed. "When the news of the accident came to me, I slipped out and with great risk went to the hospital. Dr. Varney gave me a permit. Vera had lost the papers, she had not the least idea what had become of them. But that is not all. Countess Saens has found out that a girl answering to my description had been taken to the hospital and she went there. Fortunately she was refused admission. But she will get this in the morning and that is why I want to go out so early. The suspicions of the countess are aroused, she begins to understand. And there is Prince Mazaroff."

"What can he possibly have to do with it?" the Queen asked.

"Your Majesty is forgetting that Prince Mazaroff knows both Vera Galloway and Jessie Harcourt, the shop girl whom he honoured with his hated attentions. He knows that there is a girl in London identical in looks to Miss Galloway, he heard what Countess Saens's maid said. Indeed he went so far to-night to hint to Lord Merehaven that a trick was being played upon her ladyship. There is only one thing that prevented his discovery outright."

"And what was that?" the queen asked. "Why should he hesitate?"

"Because he was not absolutely sure of his ground," Jessie said. "He knew the shop girl Jessie Harcourt. But he was puzzled because he did not imagine that a shop girl would be so wonderfully at ease in good society and have all the manners of it at her fingers' ends. He did not know that the Bond Street girl was of gentle birth, and he was puzzled. Do you see my point?"

The queen saw the point perfectly well and admitted that it was a very clever one.

"I am more than glad that you have told me all this," she said in a thrilling voice. "Your frankness may save the situation in the long run. One thing is certain, we must get Vera out of the hospital and back again here without delay. And for the time being you must disappear. I seem to have as many enemies here as I have in Asturia, only they are cleverer ones. These people are all in the pay of Russia. Countess Saens must be baffled at any cost. Wait a moment."

The carriage had pulled up, but the footman did not dismount from the box. So far as Jessie could judge, the carriage had stopped nowhere near the Queen of Asturia's headquarters. She smiled as Jessie looked up with a questioning eye.

"You are wondering why we are here," she said. "It is imperative before I sleep to-night that I should have a few words with General Maxgregor. I understand that he has a suite of rooms in the big block of flats. I fancy those are his windows on the second floor, those with the lights up. Somebody has just come in and looked out of the window. My child, who is that?"

The queen's voice changed suddenly, her tones were harsh and rasping. A man in evening dress stood in one of the lighted windows looking out.

"You saw what happened at Lady Merehaven's," the queen went on. "We left the king there with the faithful Alexis behind his chair. We have come direct here. The whole thing is maddening. Who do you reckon that man to be who was looking out of the window?"

Jessie looked up with bewildered eyes. The old dreamy feeling was coming over her again. She gazed steadily at the figure framed in the flood of light.

"There is no mistake about it," she gasped. "That is his majesty the King of Asturia!"

CHAPTER XXXII
NO TIME TO LOSE

Lechmere would have walked off with his fishing line, but Maxgregor called him back. There was no reason for mystery over this business so far as the General could see. But Lechmere shook his head.

"I'll be back in a very few minutes," he said, "and then you can tell me what has happened. On the other hand I shall have a great deal to tell you. Which way did Mazaroff go?"

So far as Maxwell could judge, Mazaroff had not left the building. He was pretty sure that the Russian had not come to Maxgregor with any sinister design. Beyond question, Mazaroff was looking for a certain suite of rooms, though Maxgregor doubted it.

"The fellow would have shewn his teeth fast enough if it had not been for Maxwell," he said. "It is possible that he is looking for a certain suite of rooms, I should not be at all surprised to find that he has not yet left the building."

Lechmere muttered something to the effect that he was absolutely certain of it. He was very anxious to know if there was a back staircase from the floor and whether it was much used so late at night.

"It isn't used at all after the servants have gone," Maxgregor explained. "There are several very rapid young men living on this floor and they find the back staircase useful for the purpose of evading creditors. The stairs are at the far end of the corridor."

Lechmere murmured his thanks and hurried away. He had hardly disappeared before there was a tiny tap on the door and Jessie came in. She seemed anxious and uneasy, nor was her confusion lessened by the expression of blank astonishment, not to say displeasure, on Maxwell's face.

"Vera," he cried reproachfully. "Oh, I forgot. Events are moving so fast that it is difficult to keep pace with them. And you are so wonderfully like Vera Galloway. I had to be told the facts, you see. Oh, of course you told me yourself by the hospital. But what are you doing here?"

"I came with the queen," Jessie explained. "I am going to her hotel with her. But the queen declared that she could not rest to-night unless she had seen General Maxgregor. Is he better?"

"I am going on as well as possible," Maxgregor said from his bed. "It is dreadful to be laid up just now, at this time of all others. It was good of the queen to think of me, but it occurs to me to be dreadfully imprudent for her to come here now."

"But she had to," Jessie persisted. "There was no help for it. And another extraordinary thing happened. We left the king at Merehaven House being closely guarded by Captain Alexis. When we came away his majesty was actually playing bridge. And yet, as the carriage pulled up outside these mansions, we saw the king seated in one of the windows."

"Impossible," Maxgregor cried. "The king has not been here at all."

"So I should have said if I had been able to disbelieve my own eyes," Jessie went on. "I tell you I have just seen the king. At first I thought that he was actually here. Now I know that he must be on the next suite to this. He was in evening dress just as we left him, but he had his orders on. And the queen is in a position to confirm what I say."

"I am certainly in a position to do what Miss – er – this lady says," came a voice from the doorway as the queen came in. "We must get to the bottom of this."

Maxgregor groaned. He admired the pluck and spirit of the queen but he deplored the audacity that brought her here. The thing was absolutely madness. The queen smiled anxiously.

"Are you any worse, my dear old friend," she asked. "Are you suffering at all?"

"My pain is more mental than physical," Maxgregor replied. "Oh, why did you come here, why did you not leave matters to me? Heaven only knows how many spies are dogging your footsteps. And it is impossible that the king can be where you say he is."

"The king's recuperative powers are marvellous," Maxwell remarked. "At one hour he is apparently at the point of death, an hour later he is an honoured guest of the Foreign Secretary. A little time later this young lady and I see him seated in the drawing-room of Countess Saens's house and quite at his ease there. At this moment he seems to be in two places at once. Can anybody explain. Can you?"

The last question was put to Lechmere, who had stepped into the room again. The diplomatist smiled.

"I hope to explain the whole thing and prove what has happened before long," he said. "It was to aid you in that purpose that I borrowed the salmon line. Is your majesty safe here?"

"Is my majesty safe anywhere?" the queen asked in bitter contempt. "I have taken every precaution. There was nobody to be seen as I drove up and I have sent my horses to wait for me in the square. Then I could not stop any longer, I could not wait for my dear little friend here to bring me news. And I was most miserably anxious about General Maxgregor. Is there any news?"

"I was just coming to the news," Lechmere said. "Our enemies have tried on the most dangerous and daring thing that I have ever heard of. When the Mercury appears to-morrow it will contain a long and particular account of an interview between the King of Asturia and the Editor. I have seen the Editor of the Mercury, and by a stratagem I became possessed of an advanced copy of the paper. I should like your majesty to see what it is that the British public will find on their breakfast tables later on."

Lechmere produced his copy of the Mercury and flattened it on the table. Then he handed it to the queen. She waved the sheet aside impatiently, she could not read to-night, her eyes were too heavy.

"Let us have the pith of it," she said. "I am curious to know what it all means."

Lechmere proceeded to read the article aloud. It was well done and the insinuations it conveyed were worse than the actual truth. For instance, it was not boldly said that the King of Asturia had visited the offices of the Mercury in a state of intoxication, but it was shrewdly inferred. The brutal callous indifference of the whole thing was most strongly marked. The king had abdicated his throne, he cared nothing for his country or what his subjects thought of it. Here was an article calculated to arouse the greatest sensation in Europe. The queen was not slow to see the danger of it.

"But the thing is all a lie," she cried. "It is impossible. We know that the king has not left Merehaven House since dinner-time. And this interview is stated to have taken place later. Is this what your journalism is coming to in this country, Mr. Lechmere?"

"Not our journalism, madame," Lechmere said coolly. "No English daily paper would have been so depraved and unpatriotic as to print that interview without consulting some Minister of State. As a matter of fact the Mercury is American, it is published to sell, it is the pioneer paper floated to capture the cream of our Press. Hunt has no scruples."

"But he has invented the whole thing," the queen said. "It is a dastardly fraud."

"No," Lechmere said calmly. "No doubt somebody called on Hunt and told him that story. I believe Hunt to be genuinely under the impression that he had the honour of the confidence of the King of Asturia. In a way he has been hoaxed with the rest."

"If we could only prove it," the queen said under her breath. "If we could only prove it."

"I hope to be able to do so within the next half hour," Lechmere went on in his cool way. "I have a pretty shrewd idea what has taken place. In a measure we have to thank the little scheme planned out between this young lady here and her double, Miss Vera Galloway. It suggested an idea to Countess Saens. And fortunately for her the material was at hand. After all said and done the Editor of the Mercury could only have seen the king in the most casual way and he would be easily imposed on. In the circumstances, he would be quite ready and even eager to be imposed upon. The fact that the whole affair subsequently proved to be a hoax would not in the least disturb Hunt. He would get his sensation and his extra copies sold, the mistake itself would be forgotten in a day or two."

"But not in Europe," the queen cried. "By to-morrow Europe will be ringing with that vile lie. The telegraph will be put in motion, our enemies will see that it is promptly reported from one end of Asturia to another. Once the lie is floated on the stream of public opinion we shall never catch it up again. The whole thing has been engineered with the deliberate intention of ruining us. What can we do?"

"What man can do I have already done," Lechmere said. "The thing will be contradicted and proved to be a lie by the Herald newspaper, to whose Editor I have told everything. The two papers will start fairly, the one with the lie and the other with the truth. And as you know the Herald is looked upon as a respectable journal. The telegraph that flashes the news for the one will flash the refutation for the other. And I have taken an extremely bold step. The Herald to-morrow will be responsible for the announcement that so far from resigning his crown, King Erno of Asturia has started already by a series of special trains to Asturia. Madame, you will see that this is done?"

CHAPTER XXXIII
THE FISH ON THE LINE

A gleam of admiration flashed into the eyes of the queen. Here was a man after her own heart. And Lechmere had done marvellously well. True, he could not stamp out the lie, he could not prevent the thing being reported from one end of Europe to another, but he could refute it. The mere fact that King Erno had started for Asturia would naturally create a great impression.

"It shall be done," the queen cried. "I will go back to Merehaven House and fetch the king. He shall travel without delay under the care of Captain Alexis. I would that I had another trusty friend to accompany him, but it seems to me that I need you all in London.

"You do not need me, madame," said Maxwell earnestly. "I mean you don't need me here. For the moment the good friends you have here will suffice. It is necessary that I should be out of the way for a time, and nobody would guess where I have gone. Let me go to Asturia."

The queen thanked Maxwell with a look of gratitude from her dark eyes. Then she turned to Lechmere. "How can all this travelling machinery be put in motion so quickly?" she asked.

"Fortunately you have come to the right quarter for information," Lechmere said. "As an old queen's messenger, there are few services for getting over the ground that I do not know. Before now I have been despatched at a minute's notice to the other end of Europe with instructions to reach my destination in a given time. In an hour or so, the programme will be complete. I will see to the special train to Dover and the special steamer to cross the Channel. After that it is a mere matter of using the cables. If the king does not care to undertake the journey – "

The queen laughed in a strange metallic fashion. Her eyes were gleaming with intensity of purpose.

"The king is going," she said between her teeth. "You may be quite sure about that. If he declines, or shews the least infirmity of purpose, he will be drugged and taken home that way. He will shew himself in the capital. A manifesto will be issued directly he gets there. There is one thing yet to be done."

The queen paused and looked significantly at Lechmere. He smiled and shook his head.

"I know exactly what your majesty means," he said. "It is useless for us to take all this trouble if we are to be confronted with a mystery which will enable certain people to say that the King of Asturia is still in London. I have taken a step to entirely obviate that business. If your majesty has a few minutes to spare I shall be able to render your mind easy on that score."

The queen expressed her willingness to stay, and Lechmere left the room. He paused to light a cigar in the corridor and don his overcoat again. Then he walked casually to the outer door of the next suite of rooms and strolled calmly in. The second door of the suite was locked and Lechmere gently tried the handle.

"So far so good," he muttered. "There is another door into the corridor leading to the back stairs. I need not worry about the back stairs as my ferret is there. If the thing were not so serious, what a fine comedy it would make! Now for it!"

Lechmere tapped smartly on the door, a murmur of voices within ceased and the door was opened and shewed the face of Prince Mazaroff himself. He turned a little pale as he saw Lechmere and stammeringly asked what the latter wanted. Lechmere laughed in an irritating kind of way.

"Well, that's pretty cool," he said. "I come to the suite of rooms of my friend Bevis to smoke a cigar and I find you here demanding why I come. Is Bevis here?"

"No, he isn't," Mazaroff said curtly as he came into the front room and closed the door behind him. "And, what is more, he is not likely to be in. I have a friend in there if you must know."

Mazaroff grinned with an assumption that Lechmere could understand that the situation was rather a delicate one. But Lechmere knew better than that for the voice in the inner room had been unmistakably that of a man. But it served the purpose of the old diplomat to let the thing pass.

"Very well," he said. "I will take your word for it. But where is my friend Bevis?"

"I haven't the remotest idea where your friend Bevis is or where he has got to," Mazaroff said with a sneer in his voice. "Bevis is a young man who has lately outrun the constable. He inferred to me that he was going to retire to the country for a time. He offered me this little place on my own terms and I am to give it back to our friend if I get tired of it. It is a more swagger pied à terre than my own and I jumped at the chance. Now you know everything."

Lechmere nodded as if perfectly satisfied, though he did not know everything by any means. He sat down and helped himself to a cigarette to Mazaroff's annoyance. But Lechmere appeared not to see it. He had his own game to play and he was not to be deterred.

"I want to have a little chat with you," he said. "We shall never get a better chance than this. I want if possible to enlist your sympathies on the side of the Queen of Asturia. If I could gain your assistance and that of Madame Saens I should be more than satisfied."

Mazaroff muttered something to the effect that he should be delighted. But his aspect was uneasy and guilty. He could not shake off his air of fear. From time to time he cocked his ears as if listening for something in the inner room. Lechmere sat there grimly smoking and looking at the ceiling. He was not quite sure what card he should play next.

"I am thinking of going to Asturia myself," he said. "I'm not quite old enough to get rusty yet. And there is a fine field for intrigue and adventure yonder. I understand that the king returns to-morrow. It will be in all the papers in the morning."

"The deuce it will!" Mazaroff exclaimed blankly. "Why that will upset all our plans – I mean, that it will be a checkmate to Russia. Considering all that we have done … is that a fact, Lechmere?"

"My dear chap, surely I have no object in telling you what is false!" Lechmere said. "Of course it is a fact. The king ought never to have come away, he would not have come away if the queen could have trusted him. She thought that she could do her country good by visiting London. But the king will be looked after much better in future, I promise you. Have you seen Peretori lately?"

The latter question was shot dexterously at Mazaroff like a snap from a gun. The latter glanced swiftly at Lechmere, but he could make nothing of the other's inscrutable face. The Russian began to feel as if he had blundered into a trap; he had the same fear as a lying witness in the box under the horror of a rasping cross-examination from a sharp barrister.

"I don't know that I am acquainted with the man you mention?" he faltered.

"Oh, nonsense. Take your memory back, man. Not know Peretori! Think of that night five years ago in Paris when you and I and Scandel and the rest were supping with those Oderon people. And you say that the name of Peretori is not known to you!"

Mazaroff laughed in a sulky kind of way. He said something to the effect that his memory was not as good as it might be. From time to time he glanced at the inner door of the suite, he seemed as if he could not keep his eyes off it.

"Do you think that you could find his address for me?" Lechmere persisted. "I have every reason to believe that he is somewhere in London at the present moment. Ah, look there. To think of it! And you pretending all this when the very man in question is in the next room. What a coincidence!"

"Call me a liar at once," Mazaroff said thickly "How dare you insinuate that I am not – not – "

"Telling the truth," Lechmere said coolly. "That stick yonder belongs to Peretori. Nobody else possesses one like it, as I have heard Peretori boast. If you can deny what I say after – but I shall make no apologies for seeing into the matter for myself."

With a sudden dart Lechmere was by the door leading into the inner room. Mazaroff started after him crying out something in Russian at the top of his voice. But he was too late to prevent Lechmere from entering the inner room. The place was quite empty now save for a hat and a pair of gloves on the table, both of which tended to prove that the room had been occupied a few moments before.

"This is a most unpardonable outrage," Mazaroff cried. He had quite recovered himself within the last minute or two, he was his cunning self again. "I did not ask you to come here at all. And as to the evidence of that stick it is worth nothing. I could get a copy of it made that – but after what has happened I think you had better give me the benefit of your absence."

"Quite so," Lechmere said pleasantly, "I apologise. I'll go out this way, I think. Awfully sorry to have ruffled you so much. Good-night."

Lechmere departed into the corridor by the far door, which he closed swiftly behind him. As he did so there came a sound of stumbling and falling from the region of the back stairs and curses in a ruffled voice that had a note of pain in it.

"Got him," Lechmere said triumphantly. "I was certain of my man. Now for it!"