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Show King 1 ommy ' JBy GEORGE A. BIRMINGHAM jj I Copyright by Bobbs-Merrill Co. W. N. U. Service j for that sort of thing. Well, you know, if the worst comes to the worst and they still want a king, I'll be there." Cable, who had been drumming impatiently im-patiently with his fingers on the table, moved over suddenly and looked at Norheys. I do not know whether he actually thought that it might still be possible to make Norheys king of Lys-tria. Lys-tria. If the thing were possible, it would certainly be a way out of a nasty situation. Even the Balkan war might be averted. "I always said," said Norheys, "that I'd no objection to being a king, so long as I didn't have to marry that princess. Well, that part of the program pro-gram is off now. But If the Lystrians don't care for the chauffeur, why not pop me and Viola on to a couple of thrones? Not that we want to hoof out the princess. We don't. Only just if she happens to have done herself, in by. skipping off with the chauffeur. And that's the sort of thing it takes a girl a long time to get over specially If she happens to be a princesswhy, prin-cesswhy, in that case what I say is: Why not us?" Cable is an adventurer with no sense of responsibility and little regard re-gard for convention. He may have seriously contemplated financing another an-other revolution in Lystria and setting up Norheys as a kin?, at tJ.ie end of it. But Troyte is a serios statesman. He could not possibly have regarded Norheys' plan as worthy of consideration. considera-tion. Nevertheless, lie agreed to take the young couple to Lystria. It was Viola who persuaded him. She left her seat, went over to him in the prettiest possible manner, put one arm round his neck and set her lull disagreeable to me, for I am a man of sociable disposition with a very strongly formed habit of conversation. I could not blame Norheys and his wife for deserting us. They were on a honeymoon and it was natural enough that they should shut themselves them-selves up together In their own compartment. com-partment. I did not see them, except at meals in the restaurant car. Troyte and Cable ignored me. Cable resented my being with the party at all and kept Troyte to himself in another compartment on pretense of talking business. They could not talk business busi-ness in any useful way because they did not know what had happened in Lystria. All they could do was to speculate, specu-late, and I might have been useful to them there. In fact, my guess about Emily's curate was the only good guess any of them made. Casimir, Count Istvan, who lives somewhere In that neighborhood, got Into the train at Charlottenberg station, sta-tion, just outside Berlin. King Wladis-laws Wladis-laws joined us at the Friedrichstrasse station farther on. There is not enough room for four people to ba comfortable in a wagon-lit's compartment, compart-ment, so Cable, who does not care what he spends, engaged an ordinary first-class compartment farther down "the train. There the four, Troyte, Cable, Casimir and the king, settled down. I was not invited to join the party. Neither the king rior Casimir could cross the frontier into Megalia, but they were willing to go as far as Bres-lau Bres-lau and tell all they knew about what had happened. Unfortunately, they did not know very much. Casimir explained that he had all along believed Tommy to be the Lord Norheys. He had regarded the "Reverend "Rev-erend Thomas A. Norreys' " passport as a clever trick intended to deceive Von Steinveldt and the Germans while conveying to him the news that ,Lord Norheys had arrived in Berlin. That would have been an ingenious plan, much more ingenious than anything any-thing Troyte or Cable had thought of. It did make Casimir certain that Lord Norheys had arrived. It would, apparently, ap-parently, have deceived Von Steinveldt Stein-veldt and his police if their suspicions had not been awakened by what happened hap-pened In the Mascotte the night after Tommy's arrival. Von Steinveldt heard all about that from one of his spy waiters. The king also believed that Tommy was Lord Norheys ; but he understood the passport differently. His view was that Norheys pretended to be a curate in order to clear himself of the charge of being entangled with Miss Temple: Here he expressed the greatest great-est desire to see Viola, and it was with the utmost difficulty that Troyte kept him from wandering along the train to look for Norheys' compartment. compart-ment. He said that he had particularly particu-larly admired the way in which Lord Norheys had kept up his pretense, even acting the part of a curate when there was no real need for it. Then came the question of who Rev. Thomas A. Norreys really was. The king did not know. Nor did Casimir. Casimir could tell "exactly what was on the passport, and the king repeated all that Tommy had said about himself. him-self. But that got them no further. They had to send for me. Cable was unwilling to do so; but Troyte insisted. insist-ed. Cable remembered that I had said something about a curate. When I heard the story told by the king and Casimir. I saw at once that my guess was very likely to be right. "My sister Emily lost a curate early last week," I said. "He was last heard of at the Adlon hotel in Berlin, where he stayed two nights and then disappeared. The dates " We discussed the dates and they fitted In with each other very well. I could not help looking at Cable with an expression of satisfaction. The man had been abominably rude to me since we left London and had snubbed me 'pitilessly. I did not actually say I "I told you so." But I looked as if I thought it. "Anyhow," said Cable, "no enrate would dare to marry the princess." j Like many successful business men, 1 Cable underestimates the courage and ! ability of the clergy. In all proba-hility proba-hility he never speaks to a clergyman '; at all ar.d only sees one once in two 1 years or so clad in a surplice, at some '. wedding or funeral which he's obliged ' to attend. A curate in a surplice looks innocent and mild, not at all the kind of a man who would seize a . vacant European throne. The same : curate on the golf links is a very riif- 1 ferent person. Besides. Tommy was an exceptional curate. I told them what F.mily and Canon Pyke had said about him. (TO EE CONTINUED.) CHAPTER XVIII Continued 25 "All Asia Minor is more or less Persian," said Norheys, "and, anyway, I don't want to take an action against her. I don't believe I could even if I wanted to, on account of having got married myself before she did. So that's that ; and there's no use worrying." wor-rying." -A , Troyte was talking fast to someone In the foreign office. "There'll be the devil of a fuss," said Norheys, "if Uncle Ned stirs up all those ambassadors and people. And they won't like it. . Nobody would like it. I say, Uncle Ned !" Troyte, working steadily through Cable's telegrams, waved an impatient hand at Norheys. "It's all very fine," said Norheys to me. "Uncle Ned may say what be likes, but they won't like it. No ambassador am-bassador would like being pulled out of his bed at this hour of the night and set on to chase a princess up and down the Himalaya mountains, as if she was a goat or a chamois or something some-thing of that kind.. And what I al- m ways say is: If nobody wants a thing done, why do it? There are lots of unpleasant things every fellow has to do. Why chip in with unnecessary ones and make everyone uncomfortable?" uncomfort-able?" "Notify the legations at Sophia," said Troyte into the telephone, "and Prague and Bukarest, and Warsaw, and Budapest, and Belgrade " "Just listen to him," said Norheys. "Jolly glad I didn't go into the diplomatic diplo-matic service. They wanted me to. You remember that. Uncle Bill? But I was firm about that. 'Not my -line at all,' 1 said. 'Hate complications and always did.' Now I see I was quite right. I simply couldn't stand being set on to persecute some poor girl who'd run off with the chauffeur. And I expect that's what's happened. Looks like It anyhow. What I always say is : If a girl wants to marry a chauffeur, let her, and be jolly thankful thank-ful It's no worse." Cable had edged over to the table at which Troyte was sitting at the telephone. "Tell them," he said, "to engage places for us In the Warsaw express. We must go tomorrow." "I suppose we must," said Troyte with a sigh. "Of course we must," said Cable. "Heaven knows what muddle there'll be if we're not there. It's a complicated compli-cated business and you and I are the only two people who understand the whole of It. Tell them to book two sleepers for us." "I say," said Norheys. "I say, Uncle Ned, are you really going off to this whiit-you-call-'em place to see the princess?" Troyte took no notice of this, so I answered for him. "lie must," I said. "As minister for Balkan affairs, it's his duty to have his hand on the helm when the ship is in the rapids." , Norheys turned to his wife, who had tieon sitting quietly and very comfortably comfort-ably where Troyte left her. "1 say, Vi, old thing, what about it?" She understood him at once, though I confess that I did not. "I should simply love it," she said, "and you promised that we should have a honeymoon." "llighto." stiid Norheys. "I say, Uncle Ned, tell him to hook four sleepers, sleep-ers, will you. Vi and I are going to trot along with you." Troyte very nearly dropped the receiver re-ceiver in his astonishment. I was a little startled myself. The very last place a man ought to take his wife for a honeymoon is into the middle of a Balkan war. and that, If I could trust Troyle's Judgment, was just what there was going to be. "You can't go with us," said Troyte. " "I'm d d if you do." said Cable. "You ought to be pleased to have us," said Norheys. "We'd cheer you up and all that when you're feeling a bit down and out." "You've done mischief enough already." al-ready." said Cable. "You sha'n't go near Lystria if I can stop you." "I don't suppose you can stop us." eald Norheys. "I say, Uncle Ned, do book those sleepers. I promised VI that she should see the black princess, and she wants to. don't you. Vi?" "I should like to see Lystria," she said. "So there you are, Uncle Ned,'' said Norheys. "You can't go back on Vi when she comes rushing home all the way from Paris just to tell you that she'd married me. Very few girls would have done that." "I protest strongly " said Cable. "That's no use," said Norheys. "If Uncle Ned won't book the sleepers for us we'll have to go without them. I've got my passport all right. Y"ou gave it to me yourself. Uncle Ned. and I'll manage to slip Viola through somehow. some-how. Y'ou generally can, you know. If you tip the right man. Besides, I might come In useful. You never know. That princess has run off with the chauffeur and the Lystrians may not want him for a king. It's a bit awkward for them. A fellow who's touching his hnt to you one day and you have to take yours off to him the next day. Nobody likes to be let in I "Do Take Us," She Said. "We Want to Go Most Awfully, and I Ought to Have a Honeymoon, Oughtn't I?" cheek quite close to his. "Do take us," she said. "We want to go most awfully, and I ought to have a honeymoon, honey-moon, oughtn't I?" Troyte picked up the telephone receiver re-ceiver again. "Hullo!" he said. "Y'es, Foreign office. Lord Edmund Troyte speaking again. Did I say two sleepers on the Warsaw express? Well, four will be wanted. Engage four." "Say five." I said; "I'd rather like to go, too." Troyte took no notice of nie. He laid down the receiver, crossed the room holding Viola's hand, and sat down. "Why on earth do you want to go?" said Cable. "Well," 1 Said, "I'm thinking of applying ap-plying for shares In the oil company of yours, so. of course. I'd like to look into things for myself. And Lord Norheys Nor-heys is my godson, so if you're going to make him a king, I ought to be there to help to crown him. Godparents God-parents have duties as well as rights. And, besides. I want to find out who that princess lias run away with. I believe myself that my sister Emily's curate lias got her. and that Janet Church has gone along with tliem to be bridesmaid." I picked up the telephone receiver, and asked for the foreign office. Cable growled. Troyte lit a cigarette and poured himself out a glass of brandy. Norheys clapped me on the hack. "Good old Uncle Bill 1" he said. "I always knew you were a snort. Tell us all about that curate, won't you?" "That the Foreign otlice?" I shouted down the telephone. "Yes. I'm speaking speak-ing for Lord Edinind Troyte. Please engage five sleepers in the Warsaw express tomorrow instead of four. If they haven't that number vacant tell them to put on another coach. Y'es. A whole coach. Never mind about the expense. Mr. Cable will settle that whatever it is." CHAPTER XIX I did not enjoy the first part of the Journey to Lystria, for I was left almost al-most entirely aloaa. That is always |