Fred M. White

“ That I require something is obvious. I want you to stay away from Windsor to-morrow.”
Nana Rau smiled at the suggestion.
“Absurd,” he said; “you know I dare not do so.”
“Under ordinary circumstances, no. But these are not ordinary circumstances. You are merely going semi-officially. There will be no State fuss; you will dine at the Castle, and return here next morning. What is intended to take place yonder you know as well as I do.”
“I don’t want to go. It’s certain to be deuced slow. ”

“ Gryde concluded; “in that case there is no more to be said. We ought to find enough within easy reach yonder to reward us for all our trouble. And the servants of the sovereign shall assist us in getting it away. I hope you won’t find it altogether too slow.”
Gryde settled the score and they rose to depart. In the street they separated, and each took a different way. Then they went to bed early and virtuously as befit men who have before them matters of importance on the morrow. On the whole they slept better than Nana Rau, Mahrajah of Curriebad. ”

“ Order a dozen, and say the housekeeper will call to interview them on a certain day. Each of us, till the time for changing comes, retains his present disguise.”
As a “make-up” artist Gryde had no equal. Several society acquaintances there passed him without a sign of recognition.
“That’s all very well,” suggested one of the lieutenants; “but suppose any of the Castle people happen to have seen Nana Rau?”
“Which they haven’t done,” said Gryde. “I have made the most minute inquiries on this head. Besides, one Eastern Potentate is as like another as two peas when he is in his full war paint. ”

“ Gryde smiled.
“They’ve found it out and telegraphed,” he chuckled, “or else two shining lights like Marsh and Elliott would not have been put on the job. If they have found Nana Rau, why we have no time to lose. If not, why so much the better.”
It was about nine o’clock the same evening, and the three conspirators, absolutely without disguise, and qua Gryde and Co., were seated over dinner in the former’s rooms. They had the air of men who had done well and virtuously
“You managed to get rid of your lot?” Gryde asked. ”

“ We leave by a train about seven, as I have an engagement in Manchester to fill to-morrow night, or, at least, the real Nana has, so we shall be away before anything is missing.”
“And if things are missed just after we start?”
“What matter? We should be the last to be suspected. And you may be certain the common or garden police would never be consulted in a matter like this. Absolutely nothing in the way of a public scandal would be permitted. And say they looked like bringing it home to us. Would they care to stop us, and cart us off to a police-station? ”

“ Vaughan interrupted. “You don’t leave Paddington till a train somewhere about six. Here is my card with my address. My place is out at Epsom. Come out there and lunch with me to-morrow, and bring your suite with you, baggage and all, and if we can’t come to terms, my carriage shall take you to Paddington.”
“I have only two chaps with me besides my cook,” said the Prince.
“Good. So much the better. Then you will come?”
“Well, there is no harm in that,” said Nana Rau. “I will.”
A few minutes later Wilfred Vaughan, alias Felix Gryde, was placidly walking along Piccadilly. ”

“ With him was all his baggage, a formidable-looking amount for a night out; but then the dazzling splendour of Eastern attire cannot be measured by Western sartorial restrictions. These big trunks contained the full war paint which Nana Rau and suite intended to don after luncheon, and ere proceeding to Windsor.
One thing Nana Rau was fully resolved upon. Nothing should induce him to play into “Vaughan’s” hands unless the latter could provide him with a proper way out of the difficulty. ”

“ It’s any money nobody yonder speaks the language, and if they do I shall make it my pleasure to stick to English. As you have both presumably been in England before, you can do the same. You have carefully studied the plans of the apartments I gave to you? ”

“ Gryde smiled. He did not appear to be suffering from the same malady. On the contrary, he was perfectly at his ease.
“The great charm of this mode of life,” he muttered,” lies in the fact that it never lacks variety.”
CHAPTER III
As far as their reception was concerned, even the sensitive mind of an Indian could find nothing at which to take offence. It was, of course, with profound regret that the pseudo Nana Rau heard that no visitors could be expected at the royal table the same evening in consequence of a slight indisposition on the part of a certain great ruler. ”