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Show jin Tommy mm " rporire A. Birmingham f,---N-v- s"'c r 7dynorheysi" 6TN f th. .tory of th. adven-t.llr adven-t.llr o' "King Tommy," and taC" h.rtftr "Unci. Bill," """I" Zlt by Lord Norhey.. son 'lo(orm0ld friend, that Lord head of the British for-I""''V for-I""''V Norhey.' uncle, has a 'T. to make him (Norhoys) ch,m , Lvstrla. in central Eu-" Eu-" through marrlase to Ca-daughter Ca-daughter of King Wladls-'""d'po.ed Wladls-'""d'po.ed monarch of thai U A financier, Procoplus ?M know, there Is oil In pro- in Lystrla, and with an U'Zh king on the throne the Sut could be secured for Eng. ?T Norh.y.. in I"" with a V,0'tt emP'6' 13 "'Enthusiastic over the propo- I The patriarch, Menelaus, v,X.t ecclesiastical dignitary f gL)- Ha h"tlly in favor of h. restoration of the monarchy d Cable has generously financed . sentiment. Calypso Is mak- . . living dancing In the "Mas- ";,: Berlin cabaret. Norheys TM1 to entertain the Idea of ,lvinl up Viola Temple, to whom J I. secretly engaged. "Uncle Sill'." lister Emily urges him to I "r. a passport from Lord Troy" for a certain Janet church, strongminded female M wants to visit Lystrla In th, interests of a society for world peace. Janet Church leaves Tor Berlin. "Uncle Bill" Is again .ppealed to by his sister to find certain curate (name not given) who has left his parish In Ireland for a visit to Berlin, and cannot ba found. Lord Norheys and Viola Temple disappear from London. CHAPTER VI Continued It occurred to me at once that Nor-bevi, Nor-bevi, goaded to exasperation by Cable', Ca-ble', conduct to Miss Temple, had jone off with her and got married lomewhere. "Did you," I asked, "find out whether wheth-er Miss Temple Is in London or not?" "No, I didn't. You surely don't think he's gone off with her?" "It might be worth while finding cut whether she's In London or not." I went over to the telephone and rang tip the Belvedere theater. I isted whether Miss Temple was there wd at what hour she might be expected ex-pected to dance. Someone who was either In a hurry or a bad temper replied re-plied that Miss Temple was unable to dance owing to Indisposition. He added that if I had taken the trouble trou-ble to look at the advertisements of his entertainment I should have seen that Miss Temple had not danced for two nights In that way, so. he said quite plainly, I should have avoided wasting his time with silly questions. That was a plain hint to me to ring off and hang up the receiver; but I ventured on another question. "Do you happen to know If Miss Temple is at home in her flat?" "No, I don't," came the reply, "and 1 shouldn't tell you if I did. We don't encourage strangers to run after our ladies." I told Troyte what I had heard. "I suppose," I said, "that putting two and two together in the usual way we arrive at four." "Tou mean that he'' gone off with her?" "1 should have expressed myself more plainly," I said. "I should have said that putting one and one together togeth-er we arrive at another one. 'They twain,' you know." "Married?" "He told me he was perfectly determined de-termined to marry her, and I expect he was." My opinion was that. Troyte had driven the boy Into marrying ratfier '"oner than he meant to" by continuously contin-uously pushing the Princess Calypso him and worrying him about the crown of Lystrla. Cable, with his at-lerapt at-lerapt at bribery and his Ill-timed treats, had settled the matter. But there was no use making things orse for Troyte by telling him that t "as largely his own fault. I tried "often the blow to him. "I'm told," I said "that she's a ', lady-like girl. He might have none worse." Troyte sat sipping a glass of cog-c cog-c without speaking. I went on : "and, after all, it wouldn't have w all Joy marrying a Balkan prin- I don't know this Calypso girl """y. cut I can't help feeling a young woman brought up Bong bearded brigands, with snowy bo main. aU roundj heayy ba Jewels glven her for bIrthday the tr ?'ght tUrn out t0 be what LtT'i Ca" farouche- I don't to hint that she isn't a lady; reoit? be 8 bit lacklnS ln ''I don't believe he's gone off with w Tempi,,., said Trovte. that t ,1 Seeined 80 obvious to me tout o 866 D0 reason for doubt" "arUea me. " Wn'T 1S" he said' "that Nor- ri8etdr three days e thut real . ,0 LystrIa- He sal he'd "Did b 6t8rt tomorrow." ,,, e My he'd marry the prln- nMt'wort.all,n't U yX Want hIs t that i n' 8aW' T11 nave a g0 J t0 , old crown, Uncle Ned, I have 6 VU'' " on h-BeVer known Norneys go wtaint. Word' If he said that he "And m t0 d0 It- ,e fromised to start tomor-.,v tomor-.,v 1 "aid; te6. t t kU ne may have changed "a started the day before yesterday. I told hlra that everything every-thing was ready. As a matter of fnct, Cable has had an agent from Lystrin waiting lu Berlin for a week, ready to mnke a dart across the frontier the very moment NorheyB arrives. Kvery one ln Lystrla Is prepared pre-pared for the coup d'etat. The patriarch patri-arch and most of the leading nobles are to be In the Schloss Amberg, one of the old royal palaces. Cable has poured money Into the country and has got the whole thing thoroughly organized., In fact, he told me that he'd managed to bribe the President of the Megallan republic and three of his cabinet ministers, so that they won't make a fuss when Lystrla declares de-clares its Independence. I've settled things with the French, more or less, that Is to say, they've agreed to leave It to the League of Nations." "Which means?" Troyte smiled slightly. "Talk," he said, "and time." "So you really think that if Norheys Nor-heys has gone there " "Everything will go quite smooth-Jy," smooth-Jy," said Troyte. "But I wish he'd told me he was starting at once." "And it might have been better," I said, "If he hadn't taken Miss Temple Tem-ple with him." "I don't believe he's done that," said Troyte. "Hang it all, the boy's a gentleman. He wouldn't go off to marry the princess with that other woman in attendance." I felt as sure as I could be about anything that Norheys had not gone off to marry the princess. But he might possibly have gone to Lystrla to see If he could secure the crown without the princess. He told me he was anxious to please his uncle and to supply the empire with oil. "What would happen," I said, "if he asked for the crown and refused to marry the princess?" "He wouldn't get it," said Troyte. "The Lystrians are legitimists to the backbone." "And if by any chance I'm not saying that it is so, I'm only making a suggestion if by any chance Miss Temple followed him there of her own accord, what would happen?" "I should think," said Troyte, "that the patriarch would probably hang Norheys and imprison Miss Temple. But that can't have happened. The girl wouldn't be such a fool as to go there on her own." Then a servant came in and murmured mur-mured to Troyte that Mr. Cable wanted want-ed to see him on very important business. bus-iness. "Show him in," said Troyte. I had never seen Procoplus Cable. With Norhey's description fresh ln my mind I expected a repulsive looking look-ing man. Norheys called him "a Semitic Se-mitic toad," an "octopus," and "a slimy money-lender." I was agreeably agree-ably surprised. He did not look like a gentleman, but there was no doubt about his being masterful and strong. I saw that he possessed ability of an uncommon kind. I could understand how it was that Troyte believed him to be an empire-builder. Clive and Warren Hastings, in earlier days Drake and Froblsher, later on perhaps per-haps Cecil Rhodes, must have been men of essentially the same sort of character. But looking at the man, it was tolerably certain that he was not by birth an Englishman. He had become English 'because England is the natural home of men of his type, the only country which has ever understood un-derstood how to use them. But the foreign strain was unmistakable. It was not Semitic. It was not Latin. I do not think It was Slav. It was something that made him more excitable ex-citable and more, liable to display excitement ex-citement than a man of our blood would be. His eyes were sparkling. His face seemed to shine and his movements were jumpy when he walked into the room. When he saw me he stopped, half way between the door and the fireplace. Troyte Introduced me formally, told him that he need not hesitate to speak In my presence and Invited him to sit down. Cable still looked at me doubtfully. Troyte explained that I was Norheys godfather and knew all about the Lystrian business.. Then Cable blurted out the news. "I came round to tell you," he said, "that I've Just had a telegram from Casimir. Tou recollect, don't you, Count Istvan Casimir is the most In fluential of the Lystrian nomes. tie s my agent in Berlin." "Yes," said Troyte. "He was to receive re-ceive Norheys there." "Everything has gone capitally so far," said Cable. "Lord Norheys arrived ar-rived ln Berlin., Casimir met him. They crossed the Megallan frontier today." "Today?" said Troyte. "Norheys and Casimir?" "Lord Norheys and the princess," said Cable. "Casimir couldn't , go with them. He wouldn't hnve been allowed to cross the frontier. The patriarch is waiting for them ln the Schloss Amberg. They ought to arrive ar-rive there tomorrow evening. Next morning the wedding will be celebrated cele-brated in the Royal chapel. Tomorrow Tomor-row afternoon the coronation will take place." , Cable was excited, wildly excited. He stepped forward, toolt Troyte's liqueur glass," filled It with cognac and raised it high above his head. "God save the king of Lystrla," he said. . . , He swallowed the cognac, and, following fol-lowing the best precedents, threw down the glass. It ought no doubt to have emphasized the toast by being be-ing shivered to atom But Troyt.'l Persian carpet 1 soft. Ths glass merely rolled about a little. I picked it up quite unharmed and set it on the tray. "I suppose," I said, "that there's no possibility of a mistake about your news?" "There can't be a mistake," said Cable. "Casimir lg thoroughly reliable. reli-able. The telegram Is ln my private code, so you couldn't read It If I showed It to you. But you may take my word for it that It comes from Casimir. No one else has the code." "I don't see any reason to suppose there Is a mistake," said Troyte. "Norheys told me he meant to go to Lystrla, though I didn't know he meant to start day before yesterday." "He started a week ago," said Cable. Ca-ble. That puzzled me. I was quite certain cer-tain that I had seen Norheys less than a week ago. Certainly Miss Temple was dancing la the Belvedere Belve-dere four days before. I saw her there myself. Whatever Norheys had done, she had certainly not left London Lon-don a week ago. "Does your telegram say whether there was any one else with Norheys and the princess?" I said. "You've told us that the Count Casimir couldn't go with them. Did they go off to Lystrla alone?" "There was a lady with the princess," prin-cess," said Cable. "Who?" I asked. "I don't know," said Cable. "Some lady-ln-waiting, of course," said Troyte. I was more puzzled than ever. I felt convinced that Miss Temple Tem-ple was with Norheys wherever h was. Unless he had succeeded in working out his plan for marrying both of them I failed to see what could have happened. "I think," said Troyte, "that we ought to follow Mr. Cable's example, and drink the health of the king and queen of Lystrla." He rang the bell. In a few minutes min-utes we had a bottle of champagne on the table between us. Troyte filled three glasses. He and I stood up. Cable had not sat down. "Long life to the king and queen," said Troyte. "The restored monarchy of Lystrla," Lys-trla," said Cable. "Oil," I said, "and plenty of It" Troyte drank. Cable hesitated, looking doubtfully at me. He suspected sus-pected that I might be poking fun at him, and that kind of man always hates a Joke. I held up my glass and smiled amiably. Then things occasionally happen ln this dramatic way even in real life Norheys and Viola Temple walked in. "Hullo ! Uncle Ned," said Norheys, Nor-heys, "Just ran round, don't you know, to tell you that Tlola and I were married the day before yesterday. yester-day. Did the trick ln Dover and ran over to Paris for twenty-four hours. Excuse our not being dressed and that sort of thing. The train's only just in." Troyte stared at him. So did Cable. Ca-ble. Neither of them spoke. I felt it was my duty to break a silence that was becoming awkward. "Oddly enough," I said, "we were just drinking to your health when you came in." "Were you?" said Norheys. "Now how the devil did you know? I suppose sup-pose It got Into the papers somehow. What I always say is : It's no use trying to keep things out of papers. 'The marquis of Norheys and his beautiful bride leaving the church after the ceremony, and all that sort of thing. What? With a photograph' of some other fellow and quite a different dif-ferent girl grinning' at you. I don't know how It's done; but there it is, you know. Anyhow, I'm glad It was broken to you, Uncle Ned. I was afraid it might be a bit of a facer at first. Not that I'm going to back out of Lystrla. I always told you I was quite on for that, So's Viola. Viola is as keen as I am and we'll start tomorrow to-morrow if you like." "Are you Lord Norheys?" gasped Cable. "That exact man, and this is Lady Norheys." "If you're Lord Norheys " said Cable. "I don't blame you for not recognizing recog-nizing me," said Norheys. "I expect the photographs you saw in the papers pa-pers gave me a long white beard or something. But I'm the man, the actual and only original. Do tell him who I am, Uncle Bill. He doesn't seem to believe me." "If you're Lord Norheys, some one else must have gone off to Lystrla with the princess." "Good old Calypso," said Norheys. "Done a bolt on her own, I suppose. Family chauffeur, perhaps. What I. always say is this: If a girl has any spirit It's a mistake to drive her up against the ropes, telling her she's got to marry some fellow she's never seen. They won't stand it, and I don't altogether blame them. Jolly independent, all of them, specially since the war." "If you're Lord Norheys," Cable said, "who has gone off to Lystrla with the princess?" He spoke In a dull flat tone. Troyte Troy-te made no attempt to answer him. Norheys put his arm round his wife's waist and winked vulgarly at me. There was a long and embarrassing silence. I broke it ln the end with an Idiotic answer to Cable's question. "Unless it's my sister Emily's lost curate, I don't see who it can be." Then I giggled nervously. I Well, well! If this Lord Norheys has married Viola Temple, who's the Dther Lord j Norheys? (TO BE CONTINUED.! |