a little further - and then, if we fail to accomplish anything, there would still be ample opportunity to consult the police?'
'How do you suggest we should begin?' asked Racksole.
'Well, there is the house which Miss Racksole so intrepidly entered last evening' -
he gave her the homage of an admiring glance; 'you and I, Mr Racksole, might examine that abode in detail.'
'To-night?'
'Certainly. We might do something.'
'We might do too much.'
'For example?'
'We might shoot someone, or get ourselves mistaken for burglars. If we outstepped the law, it would be no excuse for us that we had been acting in a good cause.'
'True,' said the Prince. 'Nevertheless - ' He stopped.
'Nevertheless you have a distaste for bringing the police into the business.
You want the hunt all to yourself. You are on fire with the ardour of the chase. Is not that it? Accept the advice of an older man, Prince, and sleep on this affair. I have little fancy for nocturnal escapades two nights together. As for you, Nella, off with you to bed. The Prince and I will have a yarn over such fluids as can be obtained in this hole.'
'Papa,' she said, 'you are perfectly horrid to-night.'
'Perhaps I am,' he said. 'Decidedly I am very cross with you for coming over here all alone. It was monstrous. If I didn't happen to be the most foolish of parents -
There! Good-night. It's nine o'clock. The Prince, I am sure, will excuse you.'
If Nella had not really been very tired Prince Aribert might have been the witness of a good-natured but stubborn conflict between the millionaire and his spirited offspring. As it was, Nella departed with surprising docility, and the two men were left alone.
'Now,' said Racksole suddenly, changing his tone, 'I fancy that after all I'm your man for a little amateur investigation to-night. And, if I must speak the exact truth, I think that to sleep on this affair would be about the very worst thing we could do. But I was anxious to keep Nella out of harm's way at any rate till to-morrow.
She is a very difficult creature to manage, Prince, and I may warn you,' he laughed grimly, 'that if we do succeed in doing anything to-night we shall catch it from her ladyship in the morning. Are you ready to take that risk?'
'I am,' the Prince smiled. 'But Miss Racksole is a young lady of quite remarkable nerve.'
'She is,' said Racksole drily. 'I wish sometimes she had less.'
'I have the highest admiration for Miss Racksole,' said the Prince, and he looked Miss Racksole's father full in the face.
'You honour us, Prince,' Racksole observed. 'Let us come to business. Am I right in assuming that you have a reason for keeping the police out of this business, if it can possibly be done?'
'Yes,' said the Prince, and his brow clouded. 'I am very much afraid that my poor nephew has involved himself in some scrape that he would wish not to be divulged.'
'Then you do not believe that he is the victim of foul play?'
'I do not.'
'And the reason, if I may ask it?'
'Mr Racksole, we speak in confidence - is it not so? Some years ago my foolish nephew had an affair - an affair with a feminine star of the Berlin stage. For anything I know, the lady may have been the very pattern of her sex, but where a reigning Prince is concerned scandal cannot be avoided in such a matter. I had thought that the affair was quite at an end, since my nephew's betrothal to Princess Anna of Eckstein-Schwartzburg is shortly to be announced. But yesterday I saw the lady to whom I have referred driving on the Digue. The coincidence of her presence here with my nephew's disappearance is too extraordinary to be disregarded.'
'But how does this theory square with the murder of Reginald Dimmock?'
'It does not square with it. My idea is that the murder of poor Dimmock and the disappearance of my nephew are entirely unconnected - unless, indeed, this Berlin actress is playing into the hands of the murderers. I had not thought of that.'
'Then what do you propose to do to-night?'
'I propose to enter the house which Miss Racksole entered last night and to find out something definite.'
'I concur,' said Racksole. 'I shall heartily enjoy it. But let me tell you, Prince, and pardon me for speaking bluntly, your surmise is incorrect. I would wager a hundred thousand dollars that Prince Eugen has been kidnapped.'
'What grounds have you for being so sure?'
'Ah! said Racksole, 'that is a long story. Let me begin by asking you this.
Are you aware that your nephew, Prince Eugen, owes a million of money?'
'A million of money!' cried Prince Aribert astonished. 'It is impossible!'
'Nevertheless, he does,' said Racksole calmly. Then he told him all he had learnt from Mr Sampson Levi.
'What have you to say to that?' Racksole ended. Prince Aribert made no reply.
