The Illustrious Prince

by E. Phillips Oppenheim

  CHAPTER XVI. CONCERNING PRINCE MAIYO

  The Duchess looked up from her writing table and nodded to her husband,who had just entered.

  "Good morning, Ambrose!" she said. "Do you want to talk to me?"

  "If you can spare me five minutes," the Duke suggested. "I don't thinkthat I need keep you longer."

  The Duchess handed her notebook to her secretary, who hastened from theroom. The Duke seated himself in her vacant chair.

  "About our little party down in Hampshire next week," he began.

  "I am waiting to hear from you before I send out any invitations," theDuchess answered.

  "Quite so," the Duke assented. "To tell you the truth, I don't wantanything in the nature of a house party. What I should really like wouldbe to get Maiyo there almost to ourselves."

  His wife looked at him in some surprise.

  "You seem particularly anxious to make things pleasant for this youngman," she remarked. "If he were the son of the Emperor himself, no onecould do more for him than you people have been doing these last fewweeks."

  The Duke of Devenham, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, whose wifeentertained for his party, and whose immense income, derived mostly fromher American relations, was always at its disposal, was a person almostas important in the councils of his country as the Prime Ministerhimself. It sometimes occurred to him that the person who most signallyfailed to realize this fact was the lady who did him the honor topreside over his household.

  "My dear Margaret," he said, "you can take my word for it that we knowwhat we are about. It is very important indeed that we should keep onfriendly terms with this young man,--I don't mean as a personal matter.It's a matter of politics--perhaps of something greater, even, thanthat."

  The Duchess liked to understand everything, and her husband's reticenceannoyed her.

  "But we have the Japanese Ambassador always with us," she remarked. "Amost delightful person I call the Baron Hesho, and I am sure he loves usall."

  "That is not exactly the point, my dear," the Duke explained. "PrinceMaiyo is over here on a special mission. We ourselves have only beenable to surmise its object with the aid of our secret service in Tokio.You can rest assured of one thing, however. It is of vast importance tothe interests of this country that we secure his goodwill."

  The Duchess smiled good humoredly.

  "Well, my dear Ambrose," she said, "I don't know what more we can dothan feed him properly and give him pleasant people to talk to. Hedoesn't go in for sports, does he? All I can promise is that we will doour best to be agreeable to him."

  "I am sure of it, my dear," the Duke said. "You haven't committedyourself to asking any one, by the bye?"

  "Not a soul," his wife answered, "except Sir Charles. I had to ask him,of course, for Penelope."

  "Naturally," the Duke assented. "I am glad Penelope will be there. Ionly wish that she were English instead of American, and that Maiyowould take a serious fancy to her."

  "Perhaps," the Duchess said dryly, "you would like him to take a fancyto Grace?"

  "I shouldn't mind in the least," her husband declared. "I never met ayoung man whom I respected and admired more."

  "Nor I, for that matter," the Duchess agreed. "And yet, somehow orother--"

  "Somehow or other?" the Duke repeated courteously.

  "Well, I never altogether trust these paragons," his wife said. "In allthe ordinary affairs of life the Prince seems to reach an almost perfectstandard. I sometimes wonder whether he would be as trustworthy in thebig things. Nothing else you want to talk about, Ambrose?"

  "Nothing at all," the Duke said, rising to his feet. "I only wanted tomake it plain that we don't require a house party next week."

  "I shan't ask a soul," the Duchess answered. "Do you mind ringing thebell as you pass? I'll have Miss Smith back again and send these lettersoff."

  "Good!" the Duke declared. "I'm going down to the House, but I don'tsuppose there'll be anything doing. By the bye, we shall have to be alittle feudal next week. Japan is a country of many ceremonies, and,after all, Maiyo is one of the Royal Family. I have written Perkins, tostir him up a little."

  The Duke drove down to the House, but called first in Downing Street. Hefound the Prime Minister anxious to see him.

  "You've arranged about Maiyo coming down to you next week?" he asked.

  "That's all right," the Duke answered. "He is coming, for certain. Onegood thing about that young man--he never breaks an engagement."

  The Prime Minister consulted a calendar which lay open before him.

  "Do you mind," he asked, "if I come, too, and Bransome?"

  "Why, of course not," the Duke replied. "We shall be delighted. We haveseventy bedrooms, and only half a dozen or so of us. But tell me--isthis young man as important as all that?"

  "We shall have to have a serious talk," the Prime Minister said, "in afew days' time. I don't think that even you grasp the exact position ofaffairs as they stand today. Just now I am bothered to death about otherthings. Heseltine has just been in from the Home Office. He is simplyinundated with correspondence from America about those two murders."

  The Duke nodded.

  "It's an odd thing," he remarked, "that they should both have beenAmericans."

  "Heseltine thinks there's something behind this correspondence," thePrime Minister said slowly. "Washington was very secretive about the manFynes' identity. I found that out from Scotland Yard. Do you know, I'mhalf inclined to think, although I can't get a word out of Harvey, thatthis man Fynes--"

  The Prime Minister hesitated.

  "Well?" the Duke asked a little impatiently.

  "I don't want to go too far," his chief said. "I am making some freshinquiries, and I am hoping to get at the bottom of the matter veryshortly. One thing is very certain, though, and that is that no twomurders have ever been committed in this city with more cold-bloodeddeliberation, and with more of what I should call diabolical cleverness.Take the affair of poor young Vanderpole, for instance. The person whoentered his taxi and killed him must have done so while the vehicle wasstanding in the middle of the road at one of the three blocks. Notonly that, but he must have been a friend, or some one posing as afriend--some one, at any rate, of his own order. Vanderpole was over sixfeet high, and as muscular as a young bull. He could have thrown any oneout into the street who had attempted to assault him openly."

  "It is the most remarkable case I ever heard of in my life," the Dukeadmitted, helping himself to a cigarette from a box which he had justdiscovered.

  "There is another point," the Prime Minister continued. "There arefeatures in common about both these murders. Not only were they both thework of a most accomplished criminal, but he must have been possessed ofan iron nerve and amazing strength. The dagger by which Hamilton Fyneswas stabbed was driven through the middle of his heart. The cord withwhich Vanderpole was strangled must have been turned by a wristof steel. No time for a word afterwards, mind, or before. It was awonderful feat. I am not surprised that the Americans can't understandit."

  "They don't suggest, I suppose," the Duke asked, "that we are not tryingto clear the matter up?"

  "They don't suggest it," his chief answered, "but I can't quite makeout what's at the back of their heads. However, I won't bother you aboutthat now. If I were to propound Heseltine's theory to you, you wouldthink that he had been reading the works of some of our enterprisingyoung novelists. Things will have cleared up, I dare say, by next week.I am coming round to the House for a moment if you're not in a hurry."

  The Duke assented, and waited while the secretary locked up the paperswhich the Prime Minister had been examining, and prepared others to becarried into the House. The two men left the place together, and theDuke pointed toward his brougham.

  "Do you mind walking?" the Prime Minister said. "There is another matterI'd like to talk to you about, and there's nowhere better than thestreets for a little conversation. Besides, I need the air."

  "With pleasure," the Duke answered,
who loathed walking.

  He directed his coachman to precede them, and they started off, arm inarm.

  "Devenham," the Prime Minister said, "we were speaking, a few minutesago, of Prince Maiyo. I want you to understand this, that upon thatyoung man depends entirely the success or failure of my administration."

  "You are serious?" the Duke exclaimed.

  "Absolutely," the Prime Minister answered. "I know quite well what heis here for. He is here to make up his mind whether it will pay Japan torenew her treaty with us, or whether it would be more to her advantageto enter into an alliance with any other European power. He has been tomost of the capitals in Europe. He has been here with us. By this timehe has made up his mind. He knows quite well what his report will be.Yet you can't get a word out of him. He is a delightful young fellow,I know, but he is as clever as any trained diplomatist I have ever comeacross. I've had him to dine with me alone, and I've done all that Icould to make him talk. When he went away, I knew just exactly as muchas I did before he came."

  "He seems pleased enough with us," the Duke remarked.

  "I am not so sure," the Prime Minister answered. "He has travelled abouta good deal in England. I heard of him in Manchester and Sheffield,Newcastle and Leicester, absolutely unattended. I wonder what he wasdoing there."

  "From my experience of him," the Duke said, "I don't think we shall knowuntil he chooses to tell us."

  "I am afraid you are right," the Prime Minister declared. "At the sametime you might just drop a hint to your wife, and to that remarkablyclever young niece of hers, Miss Penelope Morse. Of course, I don'texpect that he would unbosom himself to any one, but, to tell youthe truth, as we are situated now, the faintest hint as regards hisinclinations, or lack of inclinations, towards certain things wouldbe of immense service. If he criticised any of our institutions, forinstance, his remarks would be most interesting. Then he has beenspending several months in various capitals. He would not be likely totell any one his whole impressions of those few months, but a phrase,a word, even a gesture, to a clever woman might mean a great deal. Itmight also mean a great deal to us."

  "I'll mention it," the Duke promised, "but I am afraid my womenfolk arescarcely up to this sort of thing. The best plan would be to tackle himourselves down at Devenham."

  "I thought of that," the Prime Minister assented. "That is why I amcoming down myself and bringing Bransome. If he will have nothing to sayto us within a week or so of his departure, we shall know what to think.Remember my words, Devenham,--when our chronicler dips his pen into theink and writes of our government, our foreign policy, at least, willbe judged by our position in the far East. Exactly what that will bedepends upon Prince Maiyo. With a renewal of our treaty we could go tothe country tomorrow. Without it, especially if the refusal should comefrom them, there will be some very ugly writing across the page."

  The Duke threw away his cigarette.

  "Well," he said, "we can only do our best. The young man seems friendlyenough."

  The Prime Minister nodded.

  "It is precisely his friendliness which I fear," he said.