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Show King Tommy i CHAPTER XIV Continuod 19 In the end Tommy got out of his dliliculty in a way which struck him as neat. He led Allen across the din-Irig din-Irig room at luncheon nxt day and brought him to the table where the I'rincess and Janet sat. "Allow me to Introduce Mr. Allen to rou," he said. Then, turning to Allen, he murmured: "My wife, and my lecretary, Miss Gisborne." That left Allen to decide for hlm-se'f hlm-se'f which was the wife and which the secretary. He wns puzzled. He I looked at Janet and then at Tommy. He looked at Calypso, and thought of his sister and the other unruly maidens maid-ens In the canteen. At last he decided de-cided In favor of Janet. "I want to thank you," he said to her, "for all your kindness to my sister." sis-ter." Janet took that very well. She had been kind, after her own fashion, to so many different peopU that she could not possibly recollect them all. She Inquired graciously for Miss Allen, Al-len, and received an account of her marriage to a young oflicer she had met at the canteen. The Introduction passed oft surprisingly surpris-ingly well ; but Tommy was by no means done with Alleu. That evening eve-ning they met again. "Ever see any of the fellows from the old regiment nowadays?" said Allen. Tommy would have been glad to know what the old regiment was. He wished verv much that he had thought of asking Casimir and the king for a little more Information before he undertook un-dertook to be Colonel Heard. "I ran into Simpson the other day," said Allen. "You remember Soapy Simpson and the old Frenchwoman in the rest billets behind Givenchy." "Rather," said Tommy heartily, "that's how he got the name Soapy, wasn't it?" "Was It?" he said. "But there wasn't any soap In that business, was there?" "It may have been cheese," said Tommy. "One gets confused about these things." "Oh," said Allen, "you're thinking of Collins. They always said it was on account of that cheese that you recommended rec-ommended Collins for the D. S. O." "That," said Tommy, "is a gross slander. As a matter of fact, Collins' recommendation for the D. S. O. went In before any one heard a word about the cheese." He felt that he owed that much to Colonel Heard's reputation. Whatever Collins had done about the cheese, whether he had eaten it, refrained from eating it, stolen it, or baited a mousetrap with it, no conscientious colonel would have recommended him for a D. S. O. on that account alone. "Oddly enough," said Allen, "I heard from Collins the other day. I suppose sup-pose you know he married that little red-haired V. A. D. who used to be at Wlmereux." "I always expected he would," said Tommy, "though in my opinion she was a great deal too good for him. I can't imagine what any girl could see In Soapy Simpson?" "It was Collins who married her, not Simpson. Did I say Simpson?" "Oh, Collins," said Tommy. "That's different, of course. What's Collins doing now?" "He and she are running a chicken farm in Monte Carlo," said Allen, "making quite a good. thing out of it, I believe." After that Tommy escaped and went to bed. But Allen came at him again the next morning. He had a passion for reminiscence, and seemed to have known every single officer in "the old regiment" except Colonel Heard himself. him-self. Young Bright had come to grief over a dud check which he cashed In a night club In London. Tommy expressed ex-pressed great regret for his fate. Poor Styles was still limping about and would never get back the use of his leg. Tommy regretted that, too. After a while Allen got back to the subject of his sister, and Mrs. Heard and the ' canteen. "She'll be surprised when I tell her I've met Mrs. Heard out here," said Allen. "That last letter I had from her she said she'd been invited to meet Mrs. Heard at a teaparty somewhere some-where in Kensington. Unfortunately she couldn't go." "That must have been a long while ago," said Tommy. "Nst so long," said Allen. "I only-got only-got the letter last week " "If your sister had gone to that tea-party," tea-party," said Tommy, "site wouldn't have met my wife. She's been out here for the last six months." That, he felt, ought to put a stop to any chance meeting in London between be-tween Mrs. Heard and Miss Allen, whose name of course was not Allen any longer, for she had married an officer of-ficer whom she met in the canteen a thing which showed that Mrs. Heard had not kept a tight enough hand over her. Tommy went to bed very well satisfied sat-isfied with himself. It had proved surprisingly e3sy to play the part of Colonel Heard. It would, no doubt, have neon equally easy to play that of Lord Norheys. He began to feel sorry that he had not done so in-i in-i stead of claimisg his own name and I position. Then he remembered Miss 1 'Ompie and felt glad that he had re-: re-: r.iseu to be Lord Norheys. Mis.i Tem-! Tem-! -jie would, apparently, have been a j oopeless obstacle to his marriage with Calypso. He wondered a little wheih- By George A. Birmingham Copyrisht by Bobbs-Merrill Co.-W. N. V. Service er the existence of a Mrs. Heard would be another obstacle. If Calypso objected ob-jected to a man who was engaged to be married, she might very well object ob-ject even more strongly to a man who had been married for at least seven years. CHAPTER XV The princess, Janet Church and Tommv sat at lunch on the third day after their arrival in Breslau. Thanks to the king's influence with the manager man-ager of the hotel, they had a very pleasant table, placed In a bow window win-dow from which they had a view of the town's market place. A large motor car drove slowly across the square and pulled up at the door of the hotel. The driver wns remarkable. He wore a high cap of black fur with two long black ribbons hanging from the back of It, a brown overcoat, double-brensted and adorned with great silver buttons. The collar and cuffs of the coat were of curly black fur. Even while he sat at the steering wheel it could be seen that he was a very big man, probably tall, certainly broad and strongly built. A thick black mustache covered his mouth. He had heavy eyebrows which met across his forehead. His face was almost mahogany-colored. Tommy stared at him with interest and pointed him out to the princess. A Large Motor Car Drove Slowly Across the Square and Pulled Up at the Door of the Hotel. The moment she saw him she Jumped to her feet and clapped her hands In excitement and delight. "It's Sandor," she said, "Syindor from the schloss. He has come to take me home." Tommy realized that they were entering en-tering a new stage of their adventure, that the journey Into Lystria was to begin. They hurried over luncheon. They spent half an hour in frenzied packing. pack-ing. Hotel porters dragged down bags and rugs. The little party gathered in the porch of the hotel. But the start was delayed. An official in uniform, perhaps a policeman, po-liceman, perhaps a military oflicer, appeared ap-peared from the room of the hotel manager, and walked up to Tommy. He dialted, saluted and in a long speech asked to be allowed to see the passports of the party. Tommy did not understand anything the man said except the word passport. That made him uneasy. Breslau is not a frontier town. The examination of travelers' passports there is unusual, and in most cases unnecessary. Tommy turned to Janet. "Is It our passports he wants?" Janet, who knew she was traveling with a stolen passport, became nervous. nerv-ous. She spoke to the officer bad-tem-peredly, asking him what right he had to inspect their passports. It was the worst thing she could have done. Ier nervous irritation aroused the man's suspicions. Her question did not frighten him at all. His uniform gave him a right to do almost anything he chose. "Come on," said Calypso. "We can't stand here all day." She seized Janet Church by the arm and pulled her into the car. The oflicer hesitated and stepped forward to stop them. He was a shade too late, but he stood between Tommy and the car, clearly determined that he at least should not get into It. Tommy's mind worked quickly. One of two things had happened. Perhaps Colonel Heard had discovered the loss of his passports and set the German police looking for them. In that case Tommy saw no hope at all for himself him-self and his party. Colonel Heard's passports would be recognized at once. But perhaps it was Prince von Steln-veldt Steln-veldt who had set the police In motion. mo-tion. He might have changed his mind about leaving Tommy free to go where he liked. He might not care to run the risk of allowing the princess to enter Lystria. But he would not know what passports the party held. It might be possible to persuade this troublesome officer that he was Colonel Col-onel Heard and that the two ladies i were his wife and secretary. He took the passports out of hit I pockets and handed them over. Th9 officer scrutinized them carefully. rj appeared to read through all the vlsm and to examine all the official stamps. At last he fixed his eyes on the pho. tograph. As a rule, passport photo, graphs are totally useless for the pur-poses pur-poses of Identification and might just as well represent any one else. But Colonel Heard had a heavy mustache Tommy was clean shaved. The officer of-ficer looked at the photograph, looked at Tommy, looked at the photograph and became suspicious. Mrs. Heard was a' plump, good-nn-tured lady of about forty-five, with round cheeks, a double chin and fuzzy hair. The officer looked at her photo and compared It with Janet's lean face and sinewy neck. Then he tcied to see If It In any way resembles Oalyp-so. Oalyp-so. It did not. "These are not your passports," he said. Tommy was actually uneonifort. able; but he was not yet desperate. The oflicer was not searching for Colonel Col-onel Heard's passports. He was merely mere-ly looking out for suspicious travelers. travel-ers. It was possible that a bold ut-tempt ut-tempt at bluff might cow the man. "Here," he said, "I've had about enough of this tomfoolery. Hand over those passports at once and let us get away out of this." The man did not understand a word that was said to him, but he was Impressed Im-pressed by the codfidence with which Tommy spoke. He might possibly have given back the passports, If the nrlncess had not tried n nlnn of i.,. own for getting away. She leaned forward and whispered to the driver of her car. The man stepped out of the car and stood, a huge and threatening figure, in front of the officer. He deliberately unbuttoned his long overcoat, flung It open and displayed a whole row of weapons tucked Into his belt. There were two large pistols, silver mounted, mount-ed, with very long barrels. They looked as If they might be of some value as antiques. There was also a heavy modern revolver vvhlch was certainly cer-tainly valuable as a weapon of offense. of-fense. There were five large knives, two of them straight and pointed like daggers, the other three curved In a manner that struck Tommy as horribly horri-bly murderous. These were evidently the man's favorite weapons. His Angers An-gers closed round the handle of one of them. But the police officer was a man of courage. H had, besides, help at hand. From various parts of the market mar-ket squnre rmiformed men appeared, all of them with swords, some of them with revolvers. They gathered round the group in front of the hotel. The swarthy driver was not at all dismayed, nis heavy eyebrows were slightly raised. The eyes under them shone with a joyful anticipation of battle. He gripped his revolver with his left hand. His right hand held over the curved knife. Tommy was frightened. A fight In the streets of Breslau might end In a victory for the German police, or It might end that seemed almost probable prob-able In a victory for the militant chauffeur. Either way Tommy and his party would get Into serious trouble. trou-ble. "Look here, he said to the officer, "if you don't believe we're the people w-e say we are, send In to the hotel and ask for Mr. Allen. He'll Identify us." The officer, who did not understand a word Tommy said, stared at him angrily. "Oh, hang It," said Tommy. "Why, can't the fool understand plain English? Eng-lish? Say it to him," he turned to Janet, "In German or some language he does understand. And at the same time tell this swashbuckler to stop fiddling with his revolver and get back into the car." Janet, who was quite as frightened as Tommy was, began with the orders to the chauffeur. She gave them in German, and the man took no notice of them at all. He understood German Ger-man no better than the officer understood under-stood English. "You tell him," said Tommy to the princess. Calypso spoke to the man In a language lan-guage which sounded as if several hungry ducks were quacking, all at the same time. The man replied with a number of deep bass quacks, which sounded threatening. Calypso quacked back at him. The man bowed low to her, kissed her hand, and stepped back Into the car. (TO BE CONTINUED.) |