Dieter took a deep breath. 'Excellent! Perhaps you would care to tell me what all this delay is about. Or is it just an idle moment for a family reunion?'
The Colonel ignored him and bowed towards Faro, clicking his heels. 'We have not been introduced,' and to George, 'Perhaps you will do the necessary.'
Beaming, George introduced Faro to his uncle, adding proudly, ‘Mr Faro saved both our lives, Anton and me. We owe it all to him, Uncle Karl. Will you please see that he is properly rewarded?'
'Of course.' Another clicking of heels produced a weary sigh from Dieter.
'May we now proceed, Colonel? With your permission.'
The Colonel regarded him solemnly. 'You may proceed, by all means, sir.'
'Thank you.'
'I have not finished. I have said you may proceed into Luxoria, with the royal train.' He paused. 'Alone.' And cutting short Dieter's protest, he added, 'His Highness and Anton are to remain with me here in Germany.'
'What!' Dieter demanded angrily. ‘I have my orders to deliver Anton personally to his father.'
The Colonel shook his head and Dieter shouted, 'You will answer for this. He is the President's son.'
The Colonel smiled. 'His Highness comes with me by his mother's wishes, who still has legal custody of their son.' At Faro's puzzled expression, he explained. 'She is my sister, and Anton my nephew. Is that not so, Anton?' he asked gently.
'Yes, Uncle Karl. But I wish to stay with George,' he said moving closer to the boy he believed was his half-brother.
'Please, Uncle Karl,' George added.
Dieter could hardly conceal his fury. 'Very well. We will see what the President has to say about this. Meanwhile, I am to return George to his mother the Grand Duchess, who is eagerly awaiting his arrival in the royal palace.'
The Colonel shook his head. 'You have been misinformed. The Grand Duchess is still in Mosheim at the Kaiser's hunting-lodge where she has remained since her accident.'
Dieter looked even more angry. Touching his pocket, he said, ‘I have here a telegraph saying that she is well and awaiting George.' He turned to the boy. 'You read it.'
It was George's turn to look bewildered. He shook his head. 'How do we know it was from her, Dieter? Anyone can send a telegraph message. Helga could have sent it when she left us in Paris.'
Faro gave him an admiring glance. The boy was sharp and the full measure of the plot to separate him from his mother was now beginning to emerge. The reason for Anton's so called kidnapping to get him safe to the President. And when Gustav knew that George had survived the journey and the bomb attempt, Faro feared that his days would be numbered once he set foot in Luxoria.
'Are we ready to leave?' asked the Colonel. 'Very well, if you care to look out of the window, Anton, you will see that the Imperial train is approaching on the line behind us. We just transfer from one to the other.'
With their luggage gathered together, the boys and Faro jumped down on to the track. An angry-faced Dieter watched them from the window and the Colonel went over and spoke to him briefly as the train gathered up steam to cross the border into Luxoria. Not even Anton gave Dieter a backward glance or offered a word of thanks to his ex-bodyguard.
The Imperial train was waiting for them some hundred yards down the line. The carriages were painted dark blue and ivory outside; the Kaiser's drawing-room carriage, as Faro was soon to discover, was magnificent in upholstered blue silk with crystal chandeliers that tinkled like musical chimes as the train moved smoothly on its way.
Such delights were of no interest to George and Anton who insisted, with Uncle Karl's permission, that once again they ride on the engine, a much grander locomotive than the one they had just left, with engineers and footplatemen in tall hats and frock coats.
The Colonel relaxed in the chair opposite Faro. Removing his shako, he took out a gold cigar case. Faro declined the offer. At that moment he would have given much for a pipe of tobacco and a dram - or several - of an excellent Scotch whisky.
He was intrigued by the magnificence of the Colonel - the uniform, the splendid moustache, the famous Prussian 'peg-top' haircut. The lightest brightest blue eyes now regarding him with equal curiosity and ready to crinkle into merriment could, he did not doubt, also turn to ice. Even on this, the merest acquaintance, Faro felt that beyond the bravura there lurked an honest man, one he would trust with his life. It was the same instinct that had made him dislike and distrust Dieter from the very outset of their journey.
After some polite exploratory conversation in which the Colonel continued to regard him with that friendly but curious intensity, it became clear that he had reached the same deadly conclusions about the President's actions regarding George's future.
'I presume that the fake telegraph regarding his mother, sent to the Orient Express, was arranged with one of the man's fellow-conspirators. Once the President had him back in Luxoria, he would be useful as a hostage.'
'A hostage?' asked Faro. 'I don't understand. It seems to me that he would want to get rid of him more permanently.'
'By no means, though that might have come later. First he planned to use George as an instrument to give the President enormous bargaining power over the Grand Duchess - and Luxoria. He knew that Amelie would give anything - anything - '
He paused and added what Faro already knew. 'It is my opinion that she would sign any agreement to save her only son. Even to handing over the country and forsaking all future rights of George as heir. That is how much the boy means to her.'
'And the Grand Duchess's health?' Faro put in carefully, trying not to sound too eager for the news he longed to hear.
'She is recovering. The spray
