The great Prince Shan

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

OF CALIF. LIBRARY, LOS ANGELES

THE
GREAT PRINCE SHAN

BY

E. PHILLIPS OPPENHEIM

BOSTON

LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY
1922

Copyright,
BY LITTLE, BHOWN, AND COMPANY.

All rights reserved
Published March,

PRINTED IN THE UKITED STATES OP AMERICA

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

CHAPTER I

" A club for diplomats and gentlemen," Prince
Karschoff remarked, looking lazily through a little
cloud of tobacco smoke around the spacious but al
most deserted card room. " The classification seems
comprehensive enough, yet it seems impossible to get
even a decent rubber of bridge."

Sir Daniel Harker, a many years retired pleni
potentiary to one of the smaller Powers, shrugged
his shoulders.

" Personally, I have come to the conclusion," he
declared, " that the raison d'etre for the club seems
to be passing. There is no diplomacy, nowadays,
and every man who pays his taxes is a gentleman.
Kingley, you are the youngest. Ransack the club
and find a fourth."

The Honourable Nigel Kingley smiled lazily from
the depths of his easy-chair. He was a young Eng
lishman of normal type, long-limbed, clean-shaven,
with good features, a humorous mouth and keen grey
eyes.

" In actual years," he admitted, " I may have the

4 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

advantage of you two, but so far as regards the
qualities of youth, Karschoff is the youngest man
here. Besides, no one could refuse him anything."

" It is a subterfuge," the Prince objected, " but if
I must go, I will go presently. We will wait five
minutes, in case Providence should be kind to us."

The three men relapsed into silence. They were
seated in a comfortable recess of the card room of
the St. Philip's Club. The atmosphere of the apart
ment seemed redolent with suggestions of faded splen
dour. There was a faint perfume of Russian calf
from the many rows of musty volumes which still
filled the stately bookcases. The oil paintings which
hung upon the walls belonged to a remote period.
In a distant corner, four other men were playing
bridge, speechless and almost motionless, the white
faces of two of them like cameos under the electric
light and against the dark walls. There was no
sound except the soft patter of the cards and the
subdued movements of a servant preparing another
bridge table by the side of the three men. Then
the door of the room was quietly opened and closed.
A man of youthful middle-age, carefully dressed,
with a large, clean-shaven face, blue eyes, and fair
hair sprinkled with grey, came towards them. Pic
was well set up, almost anxiously ingratiating in
manner.

" You see now what Providence has sent," Sir
Daniel Harker observed under his breath.

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 5

" It is enough to make an atheist of one, this ! " the
Prince muttered.

" Any bridge? " the newcomer enquired, seating
himself at the table and shuffling one of the packs
of cards.

The three men rose to their feet with varying de
grees of unwillingness.

" Immelan is too good for us," Sir Daniel
grumbled. " He always wins."

" I am lucky," the newcomer admitted, " but I
may be your partner; in which case, you too will
win."

" If you are my partner," the Prince declared,
" I shall play for five pounds a hundred. I desire
to gamble. London is beginning to weary me."

" Mr. Kingley is a better player, though not so
lucky," Immelan acknowledged, with a little bow.

" Never believe it, with all due respect to our
young friend here," Sir Daniel replied, as he cut a
card. " Kingley plays like a man with brain but
without subtlety. In a duel between you two, I
would back Immelan every time."

Kingley took his place at the table with a little
gesture of resignation. He looked across the table
to where Immelan sat displaying the card which
he had just cut. The eyes of the two men met. A
few seconds of somewhat significant silence followed.
Then Immelan gathered up the cards.

6 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

" I have the utmost respect for Mr. Kingley as an
adversary," he said.

The latter bowed a little ironically.

" May you always preserve that sentiment ! To
day, chance seems to have made us partners. Your
deal, Mr. Immelan."

" What stakes ? " the Prince enquired, settling
himself down in his chair.

" They are for you to name," Immelan declared.

The Prince laughed shortly.

" I believe you are as great a gambler at heart
as I am," he observed.

" With Mr. Kingley for my partner, and the
game one of skill," was the courteous reply, " I do
not need to limit my stakes."

A servant crossed the room, bringing a note upon
a tray. He presented it to Kingley, who opened
and read it through without change of countenance.
When he had finished it, however, he laid his cards
face downwards upon the table.

" Gentlemen," he said, " I owe you my most pro
found apologies. I am called away at once on a
matter of urgent business."

" But this is most annoying," the Prince declared
irritably.

" Here comes my saviour," Kingley remarked, as
another man entered the card room. " Henderson
will take my place. Glad I haven't to break you up,
after all. Henderson, will you play a rubber? "

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 7

The newcomer assented. Nigel Kingley made his
adieux and crossed the room. Immelan watched him
curiously.

" What is our friend Kingley's profession ? " he
enquired.

" He has no profession," Sir Daniel replied. " He
has never come into touch with the sordid needs
of these money-grubbing days. He is the nephew
and heir of the Earl of Dorminster."

Immelan looked away from the retreating figure.

" Lord Dorminster," he murmured. " The same
Lord Dorminster who was in the Government many
years ago ? "

" He was Foreign Secretary when I was Governor
of Jamaica," Sir Daniel answered. " A very bril
liant man he was in those days."

Immelan nodded thoughtfully.

" I remember," he said.

Nigel Kingley, on leaving the St. Philip's Club,
was driven at once, in the automobile which he found
awaiting him, to a large corner house in Belgrave
Square, which he entered with the air of an habitue.
The waiting major-domo took him at once in charge
and piloted him across the hall.

" His lordship is very much occupied, Mr. Nigel,"
he announced. " He is not seeing any other callers.
He left word, however, that you were to be shown
in the moment you arrived."

" His lordship is quite well, I hope? "

8 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

" Well in health, sir, but worried, and I don't
wonder at it," the man replied, speaking with the
respectful freedom of an old servant. " I never
thought I'd live to see such times as these."

A man in the early sixties, still good-looking, not
withstanding a somewhat worn expression, looked
up from his seat at the library table on Kingley's
entrance. He nodded, but waited until the door
was closed behind the retreating servant before he
spoke.

" Good of you to come, Nigel," he said. " Bring
your chair up here."

" Bad news? " the newcomer enquired.

"Damnable!"

There was a brief silence, during which Nigel,
knowing his uncle's humours, leaned back in his
chair and waited. Upon the table was a little pile
of closely written manuscript, and by their side
several black-bound code books, upon which the
" F.O. Private " still remained, though almost oblit
erated with time. Lord Dorminster's occupation
was apparent. He was decoding a message of un
usual length. Presently he turned away from the
table, however, and faced his nephew. His hands
travelled to his waistcoat pocket. He drew out a
cigarette from a thin gold case, lit it and began
to smoke. Then he crossed his legs and leaned a
little farther back in his chair.

" Nigel," he said, " we are living in strange times."

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 9

" No one denies that, sir," was the grave assent.

Lord Dorminster glanced at the calendar which
stood upon the desk.

" To-day," he continued, " is the twenty-third
day of March, nineteen hundred and thirty-four.
Fifteen years ago that terrible Peace Treaty was
signed. Since then you know what the history of
our country has been. I am not blowing my own
trumpet when I say that nearly every man with true
political insight has been cast adrift. At the pres
ent moment the country is in the hands of a body
of highly respectable and well-meaning men who,
as a parish council, might conduct the affairs of
Dorminster Town with unqualified success. As
statesmen they do not exist. It seems to me, Nigel,
that you and I are going to see in reality that
spectre which terrified the world twenty years ago.
We are going to see the breaking up of a mighty
empire."

" Tell me what has happened or is going to hap
pen," Nigel begged.

" Well, for one thing," his uncle replied, " the
Emperor of the East is preparing for a visit to
Europe. He will be here probably next month. You
know whom I mean, of course? "

" Prince Shan ! " Nigel exclaimed.

" Prince Shan of China," Lord Dorminster as
sented. " His coming links up many things which
had been puzzling me. I tell you, Nigel, what hap-

io THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

pens during Prince Shan's visit will probably decide
the destinies of this country, and yet I wouldn't
mind betting you a thousand to one that there isn't
a single official of the Government who has the
slightest idea as to why he is coming, or that he is
coming at all."

" Do you know ? " Nigel asked.

" I can only surmise. Let us leave Prince Shan
for the moment, Nigel. Now listen. You go about
a great deal. What do people say about me —
honestly, I mean? Speak with your face to the
light."

" They call you a faddist and a scaremonger,"
Nigel confessed, " yet there are one or two, especially
at the St. Philip's Club, diplomatists and ambassa
dors whose place in the world has passed away, who
think and believe differently. You know, sir, that
I am amongst them."

Lord Dorminster nodded kindly.

" Well," he said, " I fancy I am about to prove
myself. Seven years ago, it was," he went on
reminiscently, " when the new National Party came
into supreme power. You know one of their first
battle cries — ' Down with all secret treaties !
Down with all secret diplomacy ! Let nothing exist
but an honest commercial understanding between the
different countries of the world ! * How Germany and
Russia howled with joy! In place of an English
statesman with his country's broad interests at

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN n

heart, we have in Berlin and Petrograd half a dozen
representatives of the great industries, whose object,
in their own words, is, I believe, to develop friendly
commercialism and a feeling of brotherhood between
the nations. Not only our ambassadors but our
secret service were swept clean out of existence. I
remember going to Broadley, the day he was ap
pointed Foreign Minister, and I asked him a simple
question. I asked him whether he did not consider
it his duty to keep his finger upon the pulses of the
other great nations, however friendly they might
seem, to keep himself assured that all these expres
sions of good will were honourable, and that in the
heart of the German nation that great craving for
revenge which is the natural heritage of the present
generation had really become dissipated. Broadley
smiled at me. * Lord Dorminster,' he said, ' the chief
cause of wars in the past has been suspicion. We
look upon espionage as a disgraceful practice. It
is the people of Germany with whom we are in
touch now, not a military oligarchy, and the people
of Germany no more desire war than we do. Besides,
there is the League of Nations.' Those were
Broadley's views then, and they are his views to-day.
You know what I did? "

Nigel assented cautiously.

" I suppose it is an open secret amongst a few
of us," he observed. " You have been running an
unofficial secret service of your own."

12 THE GREAT PRINCE, SHAN

" Precisely ! I have had a few agents at work
for over a year, and when I have finished decoding
this last dispatch, I shall have evidence which will
prove beyond a doubt that we are on the threshold
of terrible events. The worst of it is — well, we
have been found out."

" What do you mean ? " Nigel asked quickly.

His uncle's sensitive lips quivered.

" You knew Sidwell? "

" Quite well."

" Sidwell was found stabbed to the heart in a cafe
in Petrograd, three weeks ago," Lord Dorminster
announced. " An official report of the enquiry into
his death informs his relatives that his death was due
to a quarrel with some Russian sailors over one
of the women of the quarter where he was found."

" Horrible ! " Nigel muttered.

" Sidwell was one of those unnatural people, as
you know," Lord Dorminster went on, " who never
touched wine or spirits and who hated women. To
continue. Atcheson was a friend of yours, wasn't
he?"

" Of course! He was at Eton with me. It was I
who first brought him here to dine. Don't tell me
that anything has happened to Jim Atcheson ! "

" This dispatch is from him," Lord Dorminster
replied, indicating the pile of manuscript upon the
table, — " a dispatch which came into my hands in
a most marvellous fashion. He died last week in a

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 13

nursing home in — well, let us say a foreign capital.
The professor in charge of the hospital sends a long
report as to the unhappy disease from which he
suffered. As a matter of fact, he was poisoned."

Nigel Kingley had been a soldier in his youth and
he was a brave man. Nevertheless, the horror of
these things struck a cold chill to his heart. He
seemed suddenly to be looking into the faces of
spectres, to hear the birth of the winds of destruc
tion.

" That is all I have to say to you for the moment,"
his uncle concluded gravely. " In an hour I shall
have finished decoding this dispatch, and I propose
then to take you into my entire confidence. In the
meantime, I want you to go and talk for a few
minutes to the cleverest woman in England, the
woman who, in the face of a whole army of police
men and detectives, crossed the North Sea yesterday
afternoon with this in her pocket.**

" You don't mean Maggie ? " Nigel exclaimed
eagerly.

His uncle nodded.

" You will find her in the boudoir," he said. " I
told her that you were coming. In an hour's time,
return here."

Lord Dorminster rose to his feet as his nephew
turned to depart. He laid his hand upon the lat-
ter's shoulder, and Nigel always remembered the
grave kindliness of his tone and expression.

i4 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

" Nigel," he sighed, " I am afraid I shall be put
ting upon your shoulders a terrible burden, but there
is no one else to whom I can turn."

" There is no one else to whom you ought to turn,
sir," the young man replied simply. " I shall be
back in an hour."

CHAPTER II

Lady Maggie Trent, a stepdaughter of the Earl
of Dorminster, was one of those young women who
had baffled description for some years before she
had commenced to take life seriously. She was
neither fair nor dark, petite nor tall. No one could
ever have called her nondescript, or have extolled
any particular grace of form or feature. Her com
plexion had defied the ravages of sun and wind and
that moderate indulgence in cigarettes and cocktails
which the youth of her day affected. Her nose was
inclined to be retrousse, her mouth tender but impu
dent, her grey eyes mostly veiled in expression but
capable of wonderful changes. She was curled up
in a chair when Nigel entered, immersed in a fashion
paper. She held out her left hand, which he raised
to his lips.

" Well, Nigel, dear," she exclaimed, " what do you
think of my new profession ? "

" I hate it," he answered frankly.

She sighed and laid down the fashion paper re
signedly.

" You always did obj ect to a woman doing any
thing in the least useful. Do you realise that if

16 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

anything in the world can save this stupid old coun
try, I have done it? "

• " I realise that you've been running hideous risks,"
he replied.

She looked at him petulantly.

" What of it ? " she demanded. " We all run risks
when we do anything worth while."

" Not quite the sort that you have been facing."

She smiled thoughtfully.

" Do you know exactly where I have been ? " she
asked.

" No idea," he confessed. " What my uncle has
just told me was a complete revelation, so far as I
was concerned. I believed, with the rest of the world,
what the newspapers announced — that you were
visiting Japan and China, and afterwards the South
Sea Islands, with the Wendercombes."

She smiled.

" Dad wanted to tell you," she said, " but it was
I who made him promise not to. I was afraid you
would be disagreeable about it. We arranged it all
with the Wendercombes, but as a matter of fact I
did not even start with them. For the last eight
months, I have been living part of the time in Berlin
and part of the time in a country house near the
Black Forest."

" Alone? "

" Not a bit of it ! I have been governess to the
two daughters of Herr Essendorf ."

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 17

" Essendorf, the President of the German Re
public? "

Lady Maggie nodded.

" He isn't a bit like his pictures. He is a huge
fat man and he eats a great deal too much. Oh, the
horror of those meals ! " she added, with a little
shudder. " Think of me, dear Nigel, who never
eat more than an omelette and some fruit for
luncheon, compelled to sit down every day to a
mittagessen! I wonder I have any digestion left at
all."

" Do you mean that you were there under your
own name? " he asked incredulously.

She shook her head.

" I secured some perfectly good testimonials be
fore I left," she said. " They referred to a Miss
Brown, the daughter of Prebendary Brown. I was
Miss Brown."

" Great Heavens ! " Nigel muttered under his
breath. " You heard about Atcheson ? "

She nodded.

" Poor fellow, they got him all right. You talk
about thrills, Nigel," she went on. " Do you know
that the last night before I left for my vacation, I
actually heard that fat old Essendorf chuckling
with his wife about how his clever police had laid
an English spy by the heels, and telling her, also,
of the papers which they had discovered and handed
over. All the time the real dispatch, written by

i8 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

Atcheson when he was dying, was sewn into my cor
sets. How's that for an exciting situation? "

" It's a man's job, anyhow," Nigel declared.

She shrugged her shoulders and abandoned the
personal side of the subject.

" Have you been in Germany lately, Nigel? " she
enquired.

" Not for many years," he answered.

She stretched herself out upon the couch and lit
a cigarette.

" The Germany of before the war of course I can't
remember," she said pensively. " I imagine, how
ever, that there was a sort of instinctive jealous
dislike towards England and everything English,
simply because England had had a long start in
colonisation, commerce and all the rest of it. But
the feeling in Germany now, although it is mar
vellously hidden, is something perfectly amazing.
It absolutely vibrates wherever you go. The silence
makes it all the more menacing. Soon after I got
to Berlin, I bought a copy of the Treaty of Peace
and read it. Nigel, was it necessary to have been
so bitterly cruel to a beaten enemy? "

" Logically it would seem not," Nigel admitted.
" Actually, we cannot put ourselves back into the
spirit of those days. You must remember that it
was an unprovoked war, a war engineered by Ger
many for the sheer purposes of aggression. That is

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 19

why a punitive spirit entered into our subsequent
negotiations."

She nodded.

" I expect history will tell us some day," she con
tinued, " that we needed a great statesman of the
Beaconsfield type at the Peace table. However,
that is all ended. They sowed the seed at Versailles,
and I think we are going to reap the harvest."

" After all," Nigel observed thoughtfully, " it is
very difficult to see what practical interference there
could be with the peace of the world. I can very
well believe that the spirit is there, but when it
comes to hard facts — well, what can they do ?
England can never be invaded. The war of 1914
proved that. Besides, Germany now has a repre
sentative on the League of Nations. She is bound
to toe the line with the rest."

" It is not in Germany alone that we are disliked,"
Maggie reminded him. " We seem somehow or other
to have found our way into the bad books of every
country in Europe. Clumsy statesmanship is it, or
what? "

"I should attribute it," Nigel replied, "to the
passing of our old school of ambassadors. After
all, ambassadors are born, not made, and they should
be — they very often were — men of rare tact and
perceptions. We have no one now to inform us of
the prejudices and humours of the nations. We
often offend quite unwittingly, and we miss many

20 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

opportunities of a rapprocJwment . It is trade,
trade, trade and nothing else, the whole of the time,
and the men whom we sent to the different Courts
to further our commercial interests are not the type
to keep us informed of the more subtle and intricate
matters which sometimes need adjustment between
two countries."

" That may be the explanation of all the bad feel
ing," Maggie admitted, " and you may be right when
you say that any practical move against us is almost
impossible. Dad doesn't think so, you know. He is
terribly exercised about the coming of Prince Shan."

" I must get him to talk to me," Nigel said. " As
a matter of fact, I don't think that we need fear
Asiatic intervention over here. Prince Shan is too
great a diplomatist to risk his country's new pros
perity."

" Prince Shan," Maggie declared, " is the one
man in the world I am longing to meet. He was
at Oxford with you, wasn't he, Nigel ? "

" For one year only. He went from there to
Harvard."

" Tell me what he was like," she begged.

" I have only a hazy recollection of him," Nigel
confessed. " He was a most brilliant scholar and a
fine horseman. I can't remember whether he did
anything at games."

" Good-looking? "

" Extraordinarily so. He was very reserved,

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 21

though, and even in those days he was far more
exclusive than our own royal princes. We all
thought him clever, but no one dreamed that he
would become Asia's great man. I'll tell you all that
I can remember about him another time, Maggie.
I'm rather curious about that report of Atcheson's.
Have you any idea what it is about ? "

She shook her head.

" None at all. It is in the old Foreign Office
cipher and it looks like gibberish. I only know that
the first few lines he transcribed gave dad the jumps."

" I wonder if he has finished it by now."

" He'll send for you when he has. How do you
think I am looking, Nigel? "

" Wonderful," he answered, rising to his feet and
standing with his elbow upon the mantelpiece, gaz
ing down at her. " But then you are wonderful,
aren't you, Maggie? You know I always thought
so."

She picked up a mirror from the little bag by
her side and scrutinized her features.

" It can't be my face," she decided, turning
towards him with a smile. " I must have charm."

" Your face is adorable," he declared.

" Are you going to flirt with me? " she asked,
with a faint smile at the corners of her lips. " You
always do it so well and so convincingly. And I
hate foreigners. They are terribly in earnest but

22 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

there is no finesse about them. You may kiss me
just once, please, Nigel, the way I like."

He held her for a moment in his arms, tenderly,
but with a reserve to which she was accustomed from
him. Presently she thrust him away. Her own
colour had risen a little.

"Delightful," she murmured. "Think of the
wasted months ! No one has kissed me, Nigel, since
we said good-bye."

" Have you made up your mind to marry me
yet ? " he asked.

" My dear," she answered, patting his hand, " do
restrain your ardour. Do you really want to marry
me?"

"Of course I do!"

" You don't love me."

" I am awfully fond of you," he assured her, " and
I don't love any one else."

She shook her head.

" It isn't enough, Nigel," she declared, " and,
strange to say, it's exactly how I feel about you."

" I don't see why it shouldn't be enough," he
argued. " Perhaps we have too much common sense
for these violent feelings."

" It may be that," she admitted doubtfully.
" On the other hand, don't let's run any risk. I
should hate to find an affinity, and all that sort of
thing, after marriage — divorce in these days is such
shocking bad form. Besides, honestly, Nigel, I don't

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 23

feel frivolous enough to think about marriage just
now. I have the feeling that even while the clock
is ticking we are moving on to terrible things. I
can't tell you quite what it is. I carried my life
in my hands during those last few days abroad. I
dare say this is the reaction.*'

He smiled reassuringly.

" After all, you are safe at home now, dear," he
reminded her, " and I really am very fond of you,
Maggie."

" And I'm quite absurdly fond of you, Nigel," she
acknowledged. " It makes me feel quite uncomfort
able when I reflect that I shall probably have to
order you to make love to some one else before the
week is out."

" I shall do nothing of the sort," he declared
firmly. " I am not good at that sort of thing. And
who is she, anyhow? "

They were interrupted by a sudden knock at the
door — not the discreet tap of a well-bred domestic,
but a flurried, almost an imperative summons. Be
fore either of them could reply, the door was opened
and Brookes, the elderly butler, presented himself
upon the threshold. Even before he spoke, it was
clear that he brought alarming news.

" Will you step down to the library at once, sir? "
he begged, addressing Nigel.

" What is the matter, Brookes ? " Maggie de
manded anxiously.

24

" I fear that his lordship is not well," the man
replied.

They all hurried out together. Brookes was evi
dently terribly perturbed and went on talking- half
to himself without heeding their questions.

" I thought at first that his lordship must have
fainted," he said. " I heard a queer noise, and when
I went in, he had fallen forward across the table.
Parkins has rung for Doctor Wilcox."

" What sort of a noise ? " Nigel asked.

" It sounded like a shot," the man faltered.

They entered the library, Nigel leading the way.
Lord Dorminster was lying very much as Brookes
had described him, but there was something alto
gether unnatural in the collapse of his head and
shoulders and his motionless body. Nigel spoke to
him, touched him gently, raised him at last into a
sitting position. Something on which his right hand
seemed to have been resting clattered on to the
carpet. Nigel turned around and waved Maggie
back.

" Don't come," he begged.

"Is it a stroke?" she faltered.

" I am afraid that he is dead," Nigel answered
simply.

They went out into the hall and waited there in
shocked silence until the doctor arrived. The lat-
ter's examination lasted only a few seconds. Then
he pointed to the telephone.

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 25

" This is very terrible," he said. " I am afraid
you had better ring up Scotland Yard, Mr. Kingley.
Lord Dorminster appears either to have shot him
self, as seems most probable,'* he added, glancing
at the revolver upon the carpet, " or to have been
murdered."

" It is incredible ! " Nigel exclaimed. " He was
the sanest possible man, and the happiest, and he
hadn't an enemy in the world."

The physician pointed downwards to the revolver.
Then he unfastened once more the dead man's waist
coat, opened his shirt and indicated a small blue
mark just over his heart.

" That is how he died," he said. " It must have
been instantaneous."

Time seemed to beat out its course in leaden
seconds whilst they waited for the superintendent
from Scotland Yard. Nigel at first stood still for
some moments. From outside came the cheerful but
muffled roar of the London streets, the hooting of
motor horns, the rumbling of wheels, the measured
footfall of the passing multitude. A boy went by,
whistling ; another passed, calling hoarsely the news
fiom the afternoon papers. A muffin man rang his
bell, a small boy clattered his stick against the area
railing. The whole world marched on, unmoved
and unnoticing. In this sombre apartment alone
tragedy reigned in sinister silence. On the sofa,
Lord Dorminster, who only half an hour ago had

26 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

seemed to be in the prime of life and health, lay dead.
Nigel moved towards the writing-table and stood
looking at it in wonder. The code book still re
mained, but there was not the slightest sign of any
manuscript or paper of any sort. He even searched
the drawers of the desk without result. Every trace
of Atcheson's dispatch and Lord Dorminster's
transcription of it had disappeared!

CHAPTER III

On a certain day some weeks after the adjourned
inquest and funeral of Lord Dorminster, Nigel ob
tained a long-sought-for interview with the Right
Honourable Mervin Brown, who had started life as
a factory inspector and was now Prime Minister of
England. The great man received his visitor with
an air of good-natured tolerance.

" Heard of you from Scotland Yard, haven't I,
Lord Dorminster? " he said, as he waved him to a
seat. " I gather that you disagreed very strongly
with the open verdict which was returned at the
inquest upon your uncle? "

" The verdict was absolutely at variance with the
facts," Nigel declared. " My uncle was murdered,
and a secret report of certain doings on the con
tinent, which he was decoding at the time, was
stolen."

" The medical evidence scarcely bears out your
statement," Mr. Mervin Brown pointed out dryly,
" nor have the police been able to discover how any
one could have obtained access to the room, or left
it, without leaving some trace of their visit behind.
Further, there are no indications of a robbery hav
ing been attempted."

23 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

" I happen to know more than any one else about
this matter," Nigel urged, — " more, even, than I
thought it advisable to mention at the inquest — and
I beg you to listen to me, Mr. Mervin Brown. I
know that you considered my uncle to be in some
respects a crank, because he was far-seeing enough
to understand that under the seeming tranquillity
abroad there is a universal and deep-seated hatred
of this country."

" I look upon that statement as misleading and
untrue," the Minister declared. " Your late uncle
belonged to that mischievous section of foreign poli
ticians who believed in secret treaties and secret
service, and who fostered a state of nervous unrest
between countries otherwise disposed to be friendly.
We have turned over a new leaf, Lord Dorminster.
Our efforts are all directed towards developing an
international spirit of friendliness and trust."
. " Utopian but very short-sighted," Nigel com
mented. " If my uncle had lived to finish decoding
the report upon which he was engaged, I could have
offered you proof not only of the existence of the
spirit I speak of, but of certain practical schemes
inimical to this country."

" The papers you speak of have disappeared,"
Mr. Mervin Brown observed, with a smile.

" They were taken away by the person who mur
dered my uncle," Nigel insisted.

The Right Honourable gentleman nodded.

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 29

" Well, you know my views about the affair," he
said. " I may add that they are confirmed by the
police. I am in no way prejudiced, however, and am
willing to listen to anything you may have to say
which will not take you more than a quarter of an
hour," he added, glancing at the clock upon his
table.

" Here goes, then," Nigel began. " My uncle was
a statesman of the old school who had no faith in
the Utopian programme of the present Government
of this country. When you abandoned any pretence
of a continental secret service, he at his own ex
pense instituted a small one of his own. He sent
two men out to Germany and one to Russia. The
one sent to Russia was the man Sidwell, whose mur
der in a Petrograd cafe you may have read of. Of
the two sent to Germany, one has disappeared, and
the other died in hospital, without a doubt poisoned,
a few days after he had sent the report to England
which was stolen from my uncle's desk. That report
was brought over by Lady Maggie Trent, Lord
Dorminster's stepdaughter, who was really the brains
of the enterprise and under another name was act
ing as governess to the children of Herr Essendorf,
President of the German Republic. Half an hour
before his death, my uncle was decoding this dis
patch in his library. I saw him doing it, and I saw
the dispatch itself. He told me that so far as he had
gone already, it was full of information of the

30 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

gravest import; that a definite scheme was already
being formulated against this country by an abso
lutely unique and dangerous combination of enemies."

" Those enemies being? "

Nigel shook his head.

" That I can only surmise," he replied. " My
uncle had only commenced to decode the dispatch
when I last saw him."

" Then I gather, Lord Dorminster," the Minister
said, " that you connect your uncle's death directly
with the supposed theft of this document? "

" Absolutely ! "

" And the conclusion you arrive at, then? "

" Is an absolutely logical one," Nigel declared
firmly. " I assert that other countries are not fall
ing into line with our lamentable abnegation of all
secret service defence, and that, in plain words, my
uncle was murdered by an agent of one of these
countries, in order that the dispatch which had come
into his hands should not be decoded and passed on
to your Government."

The Right Honourable gentleman smiled slightly.
He was a man of some natural politeness, but he
found it hard to altogether conceal his incredulity.

" Well, Lord Dorminster," he promised, " I will
consider all that you have said. Is there anything
more I can do for you?"

" Yes ! " Nigel replied boldly. " Induce the Cabi
net to reestablish our Intelligence Department and

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 31

secret service, even on a lesser scale, and don't rest
until you have discovered exactly what it is they
are plotting against us somewhere on the continent."

" To carry out your suggestions, Lord Dormin-
ster," the Minister pointed out, " would be to be
guilty of an infringement of the spirit of the League
of Nations, the existence of which body is, we be
lieve, a practical assurance of our safety."

Nigel rose to his feet.

" As man to man, sir," he said, " I see you don't
believe a word of what I have been telling you."

" As man to man," the other admitted pleasantly,
as he touched tHe bell, " I think you have been de
ceived."

Nigel, even as a prophet of woe, was a very human
person and withal a philosopher. He strolled along
Piccadilly and turned into Bond Street, thoroughly ^
enjoying one of the first spring days of the season.
Flower sellers were busy at every corner; the sky
was blue, with tiny flecks of white clouds, there
was even some dust stirred by the little puffs of
west wind. He exchanged greetings with a few
acquaintances, lingered here and there before the
shop windows, and presently developed a fit of con
templation engendered by the thoughts which were
all the time at the back of his mind. Bond Street
was crowded with vehicles of all sorts, from wonder
fully upholstered automobiles to the resuscitated

32 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

victoria. The shop windows were laden with the
treasures of the world, buyers were plentiful, prom-
enaders multitudinous. Every one seemed to be
cheerful but a little engrossed in the concrete act of
living. Nigel almost ran into Prince Karschoff, at
the corner of Graf ton Street.

" Dreaming, my friend? " the latter asked quietly,
as he laid his hand upon Nigel's shoulder.

" Guilty," Nigel confessed. " You are an ob
servant man, Prince. Tell me whether anything
strikes you about the Bond Street of to-day, com
pared with the Bond Street of, say, ten years ago? "

The Russian glanced around him curiously. He
himself was a somewhat unusual figure in his dis
tinctively cut morning coat, his carefully tied
cravat, his silk hat, black and white check trousers
and faultless white spats.

" A certain decline of elegance,'* he murmured.
" And is it my fancy or has this country become a
trifle Americanised as regards the headgear of its
men? "

Nigel smiled.

" I believe our thoughts are moving in the same
groove," he said. " To me there seems to be a differ
ent class of people here, as though the denizens of
West Kensington, suddenly enriched, had come to
spend their money in new quarters. Not only that,
but there is a difference in the wares set out in the
shops, an absence of taste, if you can understand

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 33

what I mean, as though, the shopkeepers themselves
understood that they were catering for a new class
of people."

" It is the triumph of your bourgeoisie," the Rus
sian declared. " Your aristocrat is no longer able
to survive. Noblesse oblige has no significance to
the shopman. He wants the fat cheques, and he
caters for the people who can write them. Let us
pursue our reflections a little farther and in a
different direction, my friend," he added, glancing
at his watch. " Lunch with me at the Ritz, and
we will see whether the cookery, too, has been
adapted to the new tastes."

Nigel hesitated for a moment, a somewhat curious
hesitation which he many times afterwards remem
bered.

" I am not very keen on restaurants for a week
or two," he said doubtfully. " Besides, I had half
promised to be at the club."

" Not to-day," Karschoff insisted. " To-day let
us listen to the call of the world. Woman is at her
loveliest in the spring. The Ritz Restaurant will
look like a bouquet of flowers. Perhaps * One for
you and one for me.' At any rate, one is sure of
an omelette one can eat."

The two men turned together towards Piccadilly.

CHAPTER IV

Luncheon at the Ritz was an almost unexpectedly
pleasant meal. The two men sat at a table near
the door and exchanged greetings with many ac
quaintances. Karschoff, who was in an unusually
loquacious frame of mind, pointed out many of the
habitues of the place to his companion.

" I am become a club and restaurant lounger in
my old age," he declared, a little bitterly. " Almost
a boulevardier. Still, what else is there for a man
without a country to do ? "

" You know everybody," Nigel replied, without
reference to his companion's lament. " Tell me who
the woman is who has just entered? "

Karschoff glanced in the direction indicated, and
for a moment his somewhat saturnine expression
changed. A smile played upon his lips, his eyes
seemed to rest upon the figure of the girl half turned
away from them with interest, almost with pleasure.
She was of an unusual type, tall and dark, dressed
in black with the simplicity of a nun, with only a
little gleam of white at her throat. Her hair — so
much of it as showed under her flower-garlanded
hat — was as black as jet, and yet, where she stood

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 35

in the full glare of the sunlight, the burnish of it
was almost wine-coloured. Her cheeks were pale, her
expression thoughtful. Her eyes, rather heavily
lidded, were a deep shade of violet. Her mouth was
unexpectedly soft and red.

" Ah, my friend, no wonder you ask ! " Karschoff
declared with enthusiasm. " That is a woman whom
you must know."

" Tell me her name," Nigel persisted with grow
ing impatience.

" Her name," Karschoff replied, " is Naida
Karetsky. She is the daughter of the man who will
probably be the next President of the Russian Re
public. You see, I can speak those words without a
tremor. Her father at present represents the ship
ping interests of Russia and England. He is one of
the authorised consuls."

"Is he of. the party?"

Karschoff scrutinised the approaching figures
through his eyeglass and nodded.

" Her father is the dark, broad-shouldered man
with the square beard," he indicated. " Immelan, as
you can see, is the third. They are coming this
way. We will speak of them afterwards."

Naida, with her father and Oscar Immelan, left
some acquaintances with whom they had been talk
ing and, preceded by a maitre d'hotd, moved in the
direction of the two men. The girl recognised the
Prince with a charming little bow and was on the

36 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

point of passing on when she appeared to notice his
companion. For a moment she hesitated. The
Prince, anticipating her desire to speak, rose at once
to his feet.

" Mademoiselle," he said, bending over her hand,
" welcome back to England ! You bring with you
the first sunshine we have seen for many days."

" Are you being meteorological or complimen
tary? " she asked, smiling. " Will you present your
companion? I have heard of Mr. Kingley."

" With the utmost pleasure," the Prince replied.
" Mr. Kingley, through the unfortunate death of a
relative, is now the Earl of Dorminster — Mademoi
selle Karetsky."

Nigel, as he made his bow, was conscious of an ex
pression of something more than ordinary curiosity
in the face of the girl who had herself aroused his
interest.

" You are' the son, then," she enquired, " of Lord
Dorminster who died about a month ago ? "

" His nephew," Nigel explained. " My uncle was
unfortunately childless."

" I met your uncle once in Paris," she said. " It
will give me great pleasure to make your better
acquaintance. Will you and my dear friend here."
she added, turning to the Prince, " take coffee with
us afterwards? I shall then introduce you to my
father. Oscar Immelan you both know, of course."

They murmured their delighted assent, and she

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 37

passed on. Nigel watched her until she took her
place at the table.

" Surely that girl is well-born ? " he observed. ** I
have never seen a more delightful carriage."

" You are right," Karschoff told him. " Karetsky
is a well-to-do man of commerce, but her mother was
a Baroness Kolchekoff, a distant relative of my own.
The Kolchekoffs lived on their estates, and as a
matter of fact we never met. Naida has gone over
to the people, though, body and soul."

" She is extraordinarily beautiful," Nigel re
marked.

His companion was swinging his eyeglass back
and forth by its cord.

" Many men have thought so," he replied. " For
myself, there is antagonism in my blood against her.
I wonder whether I have done well or ill in making
you two acquainted."

Nigel felt a sudden desire to break through a cer
tain seriousness which had come over his own
thoughts and which was reflected in the other's tone.
He shrugged his shoulders slightly and filled his
glass with wine.

" Every man in the world is the better," he pro
pounded, " for adding to the circle of his acquaint
ances a beautiful woman."

" Sententious and a trifle inaccurate," the Prince
objected, with a sudden flash of his white teeth.
" The beauty which is not for him has been many a

38 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

man's undoing. But seriously, my quarrel with
Naida is one of prejudice only. She is the confidante
and the inspiration of Matinsky, and though one
realises, of course, that so long as there is a Russian
Republic there must be a Russian President, I sup
pose I should scarcely be human if I did not hate
him."

" Surely," Nigel queried, " she must be very much
his junior? "

" Matinsky is forty-four," Karschoff said.
" Naida is twenty-six or twenty-seven. The dis
parity of years, you see, is not so great. Matinsky,
however, is married to an invalid wife, and concern
ing Naida I have never heard one word of scandal.
But this much is certain. Matinsky has the blandest
confidence in her judgment and discretion. She has
already been his unofficial ambassador in several
capitals of Europe. I am convinced that she is
here with a purpose. But enough of my country-
people. We came here to be gay. Let us drink
another bottle of wine."

The joy of living seemed for a moment to reas
sert itself in KarschofPs face. His momentary fierce
ness, reminiscent of his Tartar ancestry, had passed,
but it had left a shadow behind.

" At least one should be grateful," he conceded a
moment later, " for the distinction such a woman as
Naida Karetsky brings into a room like this. Our
Bond Street lament finds its proof here. Except for

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 39

their clothes — so ill-worn, too, most of them — the
women here remind one of Blackpool, and their men
of Huddersfield. I am inclined to wish that I had
taken you to Soho."

Nigel shook his head. His eyes had strayed to
a distant corner of the room, where Naida and her
two companions were seated.

" We cannot escape anywhere," he declared,
" from this overmastering wave of mediocrity. A
couple of generations and a little intermarriage may
put things right. A Chancellor of the Exchequer
with genius, fifteen years ago, might even have pre
vented it."

" You can claim, at any rate, a bloodless and un-
apparent revolution," the Prince observed. " You
chivied your aristocracy of birth out of existence
with yellow papers, your aristocracy of mind with
a devastating income tax. This is the class whom
you left to gorge, — the war profiteers. I hope that
whoever writes the history of these times will see
that it is properly illustrated."

In the lounge, they had barely se,ated themselves
before Naida, with her father and Immelan, ap
peared. The little party at once joined up, and
Naida seated herself next to Nigel. She talked very
slowly, but her accent amounted to little more than
a prolongation of certain syllables, which had the
effect of a rather musical drawl. Her father, after
the few words of introduction had been spoken,

40 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

strolled away to speak to some acquaintances, and
Immelan and the Prince discussed with measured
politeness one of the commonplace subjects of the
moment. Naida and her companion became almost
isolated.

" I met your uncle once," Naida said, " at a din
ner party in Paris. I remember that he attracted
me. He represented a class of Englishman of whom
I had met very few, the thinking aristocrat with
a sense for foreign affairs. It was some years ago,
that. He remained outside politics, did he not, until
his death?"

" Outside all practical politics," Nigel assented.
" He had his interests, though."

She looked at him thoughtfully.

" Have you inherited them ? " she asked.

He declined the challenge of her eyes. After all,
she belonged to the Russia whose growing strength
was the greatest menace to European peace, and
whose attitude towards England was entirely uncer
tain.

" My uncle and I were scarcely intimate," he
said. " I was never really in his confidence."

" Not so much so as Lady Maggie Trent? She
would be your cousin? "

" It is not a relationship of blood," Nigel replied.
" Lady Maggie was the daughter of my uncle's
second wife."

" She is very charming," Naida murmured.

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 41

" I find her delightful," Nigel agreed.

" She is not only charming, but she has intelli
gence," Naida continued. " I think that Lord Dor-
minster was very fond of her, that he trusted her
with many of his secrets."

" Had he secrets? " Nigel asked.

She remained for a moment very thoughtful,
smoking a thin cigarette through a long holder and
watching the little rings of smoke.

" You are right," she said at last. " I find your
attitude the only correct one. Did you know that
Maggie was a friend of mine, Lord Dorminster? "

" I can very well believe it," he answered, "but I
have never heard her speak of you."

" Ah ! But she has been away for some months.
You have not seen much of her, perhaps, since her
return? "

" Very little," he acquiesced. " She only arrived
in London just before my uncle's death, and since
then I have had to spend some time at Dorminster."

" As a matter of curiosity," Naida enquired,
" when do you expect to see her again? "

" This afternoon, I hope," he replied, — " directly
I leave here, in fact."

" Then you will give her a little message for me,
please? "

" With great pleasure ! "

" Tell her from me — mind she understands this,

42 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

if you please — that she is not to leave England
again until we have met."

" Is this a warning? " he asked.

She looked at him searchingly.

" I wonder," she reflected, " how much of you is
Lord Dorminster's nephew."

"And I, in my turn," he rejoined, with sudden
boldness, " wonder how much of you is Matinsky's
envoy."

She began to laugh softly.

" We shall perhaps be friends, Lord Dorminster,"
she said. " I should like to see more of you."

" You will permit me to call upon you," he begged
eagerly.

" Will you come? We are at the Milan Court for
a little time. My father is trying to get a house.
My sister is coming over to look after him. I
am unfortunately only a bird of passage."

" Then I shall not run the risk of missing you,"
he declared. " I shall call very soon."

Immelan intervened, — grim, suspicious, a little
disturbed. For some reason or other, the meeting
between these two young people seemed to have made
him uneasy.

" Your father has desired me to present his ex
cuses to Lord Dorminster," he announced, " and to
escort you back to the Milan. He has been tele
phoned for from the Consulate."

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 43

Naida rose to her feet with some apparent reluc
tance.

" You will not delay your call too long, Lord
Dorminster ? " she enjoined, as she gave him her
hand. " I shall expect you the first afternoon you
are free;"

" I shall not delay giving myself the pleasure,"
he assured her.

She nodded and made her adieux to the Prince.
The two men stood together and watched her depart
with her companion.

" Really, one gains much through being an on
looker," the Prince reflected. " There go the spirit
of Russia and the spirit of Germany. You dabble
in these things, my friend Dorminster. Can you
guess what they are met for — for whom they wait ? "

" I might guess," Nigel replied, " but I would
rather be told."

" They wait for the master spirit,'* Karschoff
declared, taking his arm. " They wait for the
great Prince Shan."

CHAPTER V

Nigel and Maggie had tea together in the little
room which the latter had used as a boudoir. They
were discussing the question of her future residence
there.

" I am afraid," he declared, " that you will have
to marry me."

" It would have its advantages," she admitted
thoughtfully. " I am really so fond of you, Nigel.
I should be married at St. Mary Abbot's, Kensing
ton, and have the Annersley children for brides
maids. Don't you think I should look sweet in old
gold and orange blossoms? "

" Don't tantalise me," he begged.

" We really must decide upon something," she
insisted. " I hate giving up my rooms here, I should
hate having my worthy aunt as resident duenna,
and I suppose it would be gloriously improper for
us two to go on living here if I didn't. Are you
quite sure that you love me, Nigel ? "

" I am not quite so sure as I was this morning,'*
he confessed, holding out his cup for some more tea.
" I met a perfectly adorable girl to-day at luncheon
at the Ritz. Such eyes, Maggie, and the slimmest,
most wonderful figure you ever saw! "

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 45

"Who was the cat?" Maggie enquired with as
perity.

" She is Russian. Her name is Naida Karctsky.
Karschoff introduced me."

Maggie was suddenly serious. There was just a
trace of the one expression he had never before seen
in her face — fear — lurking in her eyes, even as
serting itself in /her tone.

" Naida Karetsky ? " she repeated. " Tell me
exactly how you met her? "

" She was lunching with her father and Oscar
Immelan. She stopped to speak to KarschofF and
asked him to present me. Afterwards, she invited
us to take coffee in the lounge."

" She went out of her way to make your acquaint
ance, then? "

" Yes, I suppose she did."

" You know who she is ? "

" The daughter of one of the Russian Consuls over
here, I understood."

" She is more than that," Maggie declared ner
vously. " She is the inspiration of the President
himself. She is the most vital force in Russian
politics. She is the woman whom I wanted you to
know, to whom I told you that I wished you to pay
attentions. And now that you know her, I am
afraid."

" Where did you meet her? " he asked curiously.

" We were at school together in Paris. She was

46 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

two years older than I, but she stayed there until she
was twenty. Afterwards we met in Florence."

Nigel was greatly interested.

" Somehow or other, nothing that you can tell
me about her surprises me," he admitted. " She has
the air of counting for great things in the world.
She is very beautiful, too.'*

" She is beautiful enough," Maggie replied, " to
have turned the head of the great Paul Matinsky
himself. They say that he would give his soul to
be free to marry her. As it is, she is the uncrowned
Tsarina of Russia."

Nigel frowned slightly.

" Isn't that going rather a long way ? " lie ob
jected.

" Not when one remembers what manner of a man
Matinsky is," Maggie replied. " He may have his
faults, but he is an absolute idealist so far as regards
his private life. There has never been a word of
scandal concerning him and Naida, nor will there
ever be. But in his eyes, Naida has that most
wonderful gift of all, — she has vision. He once told
a man with whom I spoke in Berlin that Naida was
the one person in the world to whom a mistake was
impossible. Nigel, did she give you any idea at all
what she was over here for? "

" Not as yet," he replied, " but she has asked me
to go and see her."

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 47

" Did she seem interested in you personally, or
was it because your name is Dorminster ? "

Nigel sighed.

" I hoped it was a personal interest, but I cannot
tell. She asked me whether I had inherited my
uncle's hobby."

" What did you tell her? " she asked eagerly.

" Very little. She seemed sympathetic, but after
all she is in the enemy camp. She and Immelan
seemed on particularly good terms."

" Yet I don't believe that she is committed as yet,"
Maggie declared. " She always used to speak so
affectionately of England. Nigel, do you think that
I have vision? "

" I am sure that you have," he answered.

" Very well, then, I will tell you what I see," she
continued. " I see Naida Karetsky for Russia,
Oscar Immelan for Germany, Austria and Sweden,
and Prince Shan for Asia — here — meeting in Lon
don — within the next week or ten days, to take
counsel together to decide whether the things which
are being plotted against us to-day shall be or shall
not be. Of Immelan we have no hope. He conceals
it cleverly enough, but he hates England with all
the fervour of a zealot. Naida is unconvinced. She
is to be won. And Prince Shan "

" Well, what about him? " Nigel demanded, a little
carried away by Maggie's earnestness.

She shook her head.

48 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

" I don't know,'* she confessed. " If the stories
one hears about him are true, no man nor any
woman could ever influence him. At least, though,
one could watch and hope."

" Prince Shan is supposed to be coming to Paris,
not to London," Nigel remarked.

" If he goes to Paris," Maggie said, " Naida and
Immelan will go. So shall we. If he comes here, it
will be easier. Tell me, Nigel, did you see the Prime
Minister? "

" I saw him," Nigel replied, " but without the
slightest result. He is clearly of the opinion that
the open verdict was a merciful one. In other words,
he believes that it was a case of suicide."

" How wicked ! " Maggie exclaimed.

" I suppose it is trying the ordinary Britisher a
little high," Nigel remarked, " to ask him to believe
that he was murdered in cold blood, here in the
heart of London, by the secret service agent of a
foreign Power. The strangest part of it all is that
it is true. To think that those few pages of manu
script would have told us exactly what we have to
fear! Why, I actually had them in my hand."

" And I in my corsets ! " Maggie groaned.

They were both silent for a moment. Then Nigel
moved towards the door and opened it.

" Come downstairs into the library, will you,
Maggie ? " he begged. " Let us go in for a little re
construction."

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 49

They found Brookes in the hall and took him with
them. The blinds in the room had never been raised,
and there was still that nameless atmosphere which
lingers for long in an apartment which has become
associated with tragedy. Instinctively they all
moved quietly and spoke in hushed voices. Nigel sat
in the chair where his uncle had been found dead
and made a mental effort to reconstruct the events
which must have immediately preceded the tragedy.

" I know that this was all thrashed out at the
inquest, Brookes," he said, " but I want you to tell
me once more. You see how far it is from this
table to the door. My uncle must have had abundant
warning of any one approaching. Was there no
other way by which any one could have entered the
room? "

" There was, your lordship," the man replied,
" and I have regretted several times since that I did
not mention it at the inquest. The cleaners were
here on the morning of that day, and the window
at the farther end of the room was unfastened — I
even believe that it was open."

Nigel rose and examined the window in question.
It was almost flush with the ground, and although
there were iron railings separating it from the street,
a little gate opening from the area entrance made
ingress not only possible but easy. Nigel returned
to his chair.

50 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

" I can't understand this not having been men
tioned at the inquest, Brookes,'* he said.

" I was waiting for the question to be asked, your
lordship. It was perfectly clear to every one there,
if your lordship will excuse my saying so, that both
the coroner and the police seemed to have made up
their minds that it was a case of suicide."-

Nigel nodded.

" I had the same idea with reference to the cor
oner, at any rate, Brookes," he said. " So long as
the verdict was returned in the form it was, I am
not sure that it was not better so."

He dismissed the man with a little nod and sat
turning over the code books which still stood upon
the table.

" You and I, at any rate, Maggie, know the truth,"
he said, " and so long as we can get no help from
the jproper quarters, I think that we should do better
to let the matter remain as it is. We don't want to
direct people's attention to us. We want to lull
suspicion so far as we can, to be free to watch the
three."

The telephone bell rang, and as Nigel moved his
arm to take off the receiver, he knocked over one of
the black, morocco-bound code books. A sheet of
paper with a few words upon it came fluttering to
the ground. Maggie picked it up, glanced at it
carelessly at first and then with interest.

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 51

" Nigel," sne exclaimed, " you see whose hand
writing this is ? Could it be part of the decoded dis
patch? "

The telephone enquiry had been unimportant.
Nigel pushed the instrument away. They both
looked eagerly at the page of manuscript paper. It
was numbered " 8 " at the top, and the few words
written upon it in Lord Dorminster's writing were
obviously the continuation of a paragraph:

The name of the middle one, then, of the three
secret cities, into which at all costs some one must
find his way, is Kroten, and the telephone number
which is all the clue I have been able to get, up to
the present, to the London end of the affair, is
May fair 146.

" This is just where he got to in the decoding! "
Nigel declared. " I wonder whether it's any use
looking for the rest."

They searched through every page of the heavy
code books in vain. Then they returned to their
study of the single page. Nigel dragged down an
atlas and studied it.

" Kroten," he muttered. " Here it is, — a small
place about six hundred miles from Petrograd, ap
parently the centre of a barren, swampy district,
population thirty thousand, birth rate declining,
industries nil. Cheerful sort of spot it seems ! "

" I have more luck than you ! " Maggie cried, her

52 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

finger tracing out a line in the open telephone book.
"Look!"

Nigel glanced over her shoulder and read the
entry to which she was pointing :

"Immelan Oscar, IS Clarges Street, W. Mayfair 146"

CHAPTER VI

Nigel played golf at Ranelagh, on the following
Sunday morning, with Jere Chalmers, a young
American in the Diplomatic Service, who had just
arrived in London and brought a letter of introduc
tion to him. They had a pleasant game and strolled
off from the eighteenth green to the dressing rooms
on the best of terms with each other.

" Say, Dorminster," his young companion en
joined, " let's get through this fixing-up business
quickly. I've had a kind of feeling for a cocktail,
these last four holes, which I can't exactly put into
words. Besides, I want to have a word or two with
you before the others come down."

" I shan't be a minute," Nigel promised. " I'm
going to change into flannels after lunch — that is,
if you don't mind playing a set or two at tennis.
My cousin-in-law Maggie Trent, whom you'll meet
at luncheon, is rather keen, and she doesn't care
about golf."

" I'm game for anything," the other agreed, lift
ing his head spluttering from the basin. " Gee, that's
good ! Get a move on, there's a good fellow. I have
a fancy for just five minutes with you out on the
lawn, with the ice chinking in our glasses."

54 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

Nigel finished smoothing his hair, and the two
men strolled through the hall, gave an order to
a red-coated attendant, and found a secluded table
under a marvellous tree in the gardens on the other
side. Chalmers had become a little thoughtful.

" Dorminster," he declared, " yours is a wonderful
country."

" Just how is it appealing to you at the moment? "
Nigel enquired.

" I'll try and tell you," was the meditative reply.
" It's your extraordinary insouciance. It seems to
me, as a budding diplomat, that you are running the
most ghastly risks on earth."

" In what direction ? "

The young American shrugged his shoulders.

" Well, you've got a thoroughly democratic Gov
ernment — not such a bad Government, I should say,
as things go. They've bled your bourgeoisie a bit,
and serve *em right, but with an empire to keep up
you're losing1 all touch upon international politics.
Your ambassadors have been exchanged for trade
consuls, the whole of your secret service staff has
been disbanded, you place your entire faith on this
sacred League of Nations. Say, Dorminster, you're
taking risks ! "

" You mustn't forget," Dorminster replied, " that
it was your country who started the League of
Nations."

" President Wilson did," Chalmers grunted.

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 55

61 You can't say that the country ever backed him
up. That's the worst of us on the other side — we
so seldom really get a common voice."

" The League of Nations was a thundering good
idea," Nigel declared, " but it belongs to Utopia
and not to this vulgar planet."

" Just so," Chalmers rejoined, " and yet you are
about the only nation who ever took it into her
bosom and suckled it. To be perfectly frank with
you, now, what other nation in the world is there,
except yours, which is obeying the conventions
strictly? I tell you frankly, we keep our eye on
Japan, and we build a good many commercial ships
which would astonish you if you examined them
thoroughly. Our National Guard, too, know a bit
more about soldiering than their grandfathers.
You people, on the other hand, seem to have become
infatuated pacifists. I can't tell tales out of school,
but I don't like the way things are going on east
wards. Asia means something different now that
that amazing fellow, Prince Shan, has made a great
nation of China."

" I am entirely in accord with you," Nigel agreed,
" but what is one to do about it ? Our present Gov
ernment has a big majority, trade at home and
abroad is prosperous, the income tax is down to a
shilling in the pound and looks like being wiped out
altogether. Everybody is fat and happy."

56 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

I*

" Just as they were in 1914," Chalmers remarked
significantly.

" More so," Dorminster asserted. " In those days
we had our alarmists. Nowadays, they too seem
to have gone to sleep. My uncle "

" Your uncle was an uncommonly shrewd man,"
Chalmers interrupted. " I was going to talk about
him."

" After lunch," Nigel suggested, rising to his feet.
" Here come my cousin and some of her tennis friends.
Karschoff is lunching with us, too. You know him,
don't you? Come along and I'll introduce you to
the others."

It was a very cheerful party who, after a few
minutes under the trees, strolled into luncheon and
took their places at the round table reserved for
them at the end of the room. Maggie at once took
possession of Chalmers.

"I have been so anxious to meet you, Mr.
Chalmers," she said. " They tell me that you rep
resent the modern methods in American diplomacy,
and that therefore you have been made first secretary
over the heads of half a dozen of your seniors. How
they must dislike you, and how clever you must
bef"

" I don't know that I'm so much disliked," the
young man answered, with a twinkle in his eyes,
"but I flatter myself that I have brought a new
note into diplomacy. I was always taught that there

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 57

were thirty-seven different ways of telling a lie,
which is to state a diplomatic fact. I have swept
them all away. I tell the truth."

" How daring," Maggie murmured, " and how
wonderfully original! What should you say, now,
if I asked you if my nose wanted powdering? "

" I should start by saying that the question was
outside the sphere of my activities,'* he decided. " I
should then proceed to add, as a private person,
that a little dab on the left side would do it no harm."

" I begin to believe," she confessed, " that all I
have heard of you is true."

" Tell me exactly what you have heard," he
begged. "Leave out everything that isn't nice. I
thrive on praise and good reports."

" To begin with, then, that you are an extraor
dinarily shrewd young man," she replied, " that you
speak seven languages perfectly and know your way
about every capital of Europe, and that you have
ideas of your own as to what is going to happen
during the next six or seven years."

" You've been moving in well-informed circles,"
he admitted. " Now shall I proceed to turn the
tables upon you? "

" You can't possibly know anything about me,"
she declared confidently.

" I could tell you what I've discovered from per
sonal observation," he replied.

58 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

" That sounds like compliments or candour," she
murmured. " I'm terrified of both."

" Well, I guess I'm not out to frighten you," he
assured her. " I'll keep the secrets of my heart hid
den — until after luncheon, at any rate — and just
ask you — how you enjoyed your stay in Berlin? "

Maggie's manner changed. She lowered her voice.

" In Berlin? " she repeated.

" In the household of the erstwhile leather
manufacturer, the present President, Herr Essen-
dorf. I hope you liked those fat children. They
always seemed to me loathsome little brats."

" What do you know about my stay in Berlin? "
she demanded.

" Everything there is to be known," he answered.
" To tell you the truth, our people there were a trifle
anxious about you. I was the little angel watch
ing from above."

" You are, without a doubt," Maggie pronounced,
" a most interesting young man. We will talk to
gether presently."

" A hint which sends me back to my mutton," the
young man observed. " Dorminster," he added, turn
ing to his host, " I heard the other day, on very
good authority, that you were) thinking of writing
a novel. If you are, study the lady who has just
entered. There is a type for you, an intelligence
which might baffle even your attempts at analysis."

Naida, escorted by her father and Immelan, took

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 59

her place at an adjacent table. She bowed to Nigel
and Karschoff before sitting down, and her eyes
travelled over the rest of the party with interest.
Then she recognised Maggie and waved her hand.

" Immelan is a very constant admirer," Prince
Karschoff remarked, a little uneasily.

" Is that her father? n Maggie asked.

The Prince nodded.

" He is one of the ambassadors of commerce from
my country," he said. " In place of diplomacy, he
superintends the exchange of shipping cargoes and
talks freights. I suppose Immelan and he are all
the time comparing notes, but I scarcely see where
my dear friend Naida comes in."

" There is still the oldest interest in the world
for her to fall back upon," Chalmers murmured.
" One hears that Immelan is devoted."

" Scandalmonger!" the Prince declared severely.
" Young man from the New World," he proceeded,
" get on with your lunch and drink your iced water.
Let the vision of Chose two remind you that it was
your people who foisted the League of Nations upon
us, and be humble, even sorrowful, when you view
one of the sad results."

" I can't be responsible, directly or indirectly, for
a political flirtation," Chalmers grumbled. " Be
sides, why should there be any politics about it at
all? Mademoiselle Karetsky is quite attractive

60 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

enough to turn the head even of a seasoned old
boulevardier like you, Prince."

" That young man,*' Karschoff said deliberately,
" will find himself before long face to face with a
blighted career. He has no respect for age, and he
is shockingly lacking in finesse. All the same, on
one point I am agreed. I don't think there is a man
breathing who could resist Naida if she wished to
call him to her."

The little party broke up presently and wan
dered out into the gardens. They sat for a while
upon the lawn, drinking their coffee and exchanging
greetings with acquaintances. In the distance, the
orchestra was playing soft music, with a fine regard
for the atmosphere of the pleasant, almost languor
ous spring afternoon. Everywhere were signs of
contentment, even gaiety, and here the alien streak
of unfamiliar newcomers was far less pronounced.
When the time came for tennis, Chalmers led the
way with Maggie. As soon as they were out of hear
ing of the others, she turned towards him a little
abruptly.

" Tell me exactly what you know about my stay
in Berlin," she demanded.

" Everything," he answered gravely.

"You mean?"

" I mean that the New World to-day has pro
gressed where the Old World seems to have been
stricken with a terrible blindness. Our secret-service

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 61

system has never been better, and frankly I hear
many things which I don't like. I am going to talk
to Lord Dorminster this afternoon very seriously, but
in the meantime I wanted to speak to you. I heard a
rumour that you thought of going back to Berlin."

" I don't know how you heard it, but the rumour
is not altogether untrue," she admitted. "I have
not yet made up my mind."

" Don't go," he begged.

" You think they really do know all about me? "

" I know that they do. I don't mind telling you
that you had the shave of your life on the Dutch
frontier last time, and I don't mind telling you, also,
that we had two of our men shadowing you. One
of them acted on his own initiative, or you would
never have crossed the frontier."

" I rather wondered why they let me out," she
observed. " Perhaps you can explain why Frau
Essendorf keeps on writing to me under my pseudo
nym of * Miss Brown ' and to my reputed address in
Lincolnshire, begging me to return."

" I could tell you that, too," he replied. " They
want you back in Berlin."

" They really do know, then, that I brought over
the dispatch from Atcheson? " she asked.

" They know it," he assured her. " They know,
too, that it was chiefly a wasted labour. Their Lon
don agents saw to that."

62 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN •

" Perhaps," she suggested, " you know who their
London agents are? "

" Sooner or later in our conversation/' he re
marked, " we were bound to arrive at a point

" Come along and let us make up a set then," she
intervened.

CHAPTER VII

Naida, deserted by her father, who had found a
taxicab to take him back to the purlieus of Picca
dilly and auction bridge, sauntered along at the back
of the tennis nets until she arrived at the court
where Nigel and his party were playing.

" I should like to watch this game for a few min
utes," she told her companion. " The men are such
opposite types and yet both so good-looking. And
Lady Maggie fascinates me."

Immelan fetched two chairs, and they settled down
to watch the set. Nigel, with his clean, well-knit
figure, looked his best in spotless white flannels.
Chalmers, a more powerful and muscular type, also
presented a fine appearance. The play was fast
and sometimes brilliant. Nigel had Maggie for a
partner, and Chalmers one of her friends, and the
set was as nearly equal as possible. Naida leaned
forward in her chair, following every stroke with
interest.

" I find this most fascinating," she murmured.
" I hope that Lord Dorminster and his cousin will
win. Your sympathies, of course, are on the other
side."

64 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

" You are right," Immelan assented. " My sym
pathies are on the other side."

There was a lull in the game for a moment or two.
The sun was troublesome, and the players were
changing courts. Naida turned towards her com
panion thoughtfully.

" My friend," she said, glancing around as though
to be sure that they were not overheard, " there are
times when you move me to wonder. In the small
things as well as the large, you are so unchanging.
I think that you would see an Englishman die,
whether he were your friend or your enemy, very
much as you kick a poisonous snake out of your
path."

" It is quite true," was the calm reply.

" But America was once your enemy," she con-
.tinued, watching Chalmers* powerful service.

" With America we made peace," he explained.
" With England, never. If you would really appre
ciate and understand the reason for that undying
hatred which I and millions of my fellow country
men feel, it will cost you exactly one shilling. Go
to any stationer's and buy a copy of the Treaty of
Versailles. Read it word by word and line by line.
It is the most brutal document that was ever
printed. It will help you to understand."

She nodded slowly.

" Paul always declared," she said, " that in those
days England had no statesmen — no one who could

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 65

feel what lay beyond the day-by-day horizon. When
I tliink of that Treaty, my friend, I sympathise with
you. It is not a great thing to forge chains of
hate for a beaten enemy."

" If you realise this, are you not then our
friend? " Immelan asked.

She appeared for a few moments to be engrossed
in the tennis. Her companion, however, waited for
her answer.

" In a way," she acknowledged, " I find something
magnificent in your wonderfully conceived plans for
vengeance, and in the spirit which has evolved and
kept them alive through all these years. Then, on
the other hand, I look at home, and I ask myself
whether you do not make what they would call over
here a cat's-paw of my country."

" Ours is the most natural and most beneficial of
all possible alliances," Immelan insisted. " Germany
and Russia, hand in hand, can dominate the world."

" I am not sure that it is an equal bargain, though,
which you seek to drive with us," she said. " Ger
many aims, of course, at world power, but you are
still fettered by the terms of that Treaty. You can
not build a great fleet of warships or aeroplanes ; you
cannot train great armies ; you cannot lay up for
yourselves all the store that is necessary for a suc
cessful war. So you bring your brains to Russia,
and you ask us to do these things ; but Russia does
not aim at world power. Russia seeks only for

66 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

a great era of self-development. She, too, has a
mighty neighbour at her gates. I am not sure that
your barg-ain is & fair one."

" It is the first time that I have heard you talk
like this," Immelan declared, with a little tremor in
his tone.

" I have been in England twice during the last
few months," Naida said. " You know very well at
whose wish I came. I have been studying the con
ditions here, studying the people so far as I can. I
find them such a kindly race. I find their present
Government so unsuspicious, so genuinely altruistic.
After all, that Treaty belongs to an England that
has passed. The England of to-day would never
go to war at all. They believe here that they have
solved the problem of perpetual peace."

Immelan smiled a little bitterly.

" Dear lady," he said, " if I lose your help, if you
go back to Petrograd and talk to Paul Matinsky as
you are talking to me, do you know that you will
break the heart of a nation? "

She shook her head.

" Paul does not look upon me as infallible," she
protested. " Besides, there are other considerations.
And now, please, we will talk of the tennis. I do
not know whether it is my fancy, but that man
Ikhere to your left, in grey, seems to me to be taking
an interest in our conversation. He cannot pos-

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 67

sibly overhear, and he has not glanced once in our
direction, yet I have an instinct for these things."

Immelan glanced in the direction of the stranger,
— a quiet-looking, spare man dressed in a grey
tweed suit, clean-shaven and of early middle-age.
There was nothing about his appearance to distin
guish him from a score or more of other loiterers.

" You are quite right," her companion admitted.
" One should not talk of these things even where the
birds may listen, but it is so difficult. As for that
man, he could not possibly hear, but there might
be others. One passes behind on the grass so noise
lessly."

They relapsed into silence. Naida, leaning a little
forward, became once more engrossed in the play.
Her eyes were fixed upon Nigel. It was his move
ments which she followed, his strokes which she
usually applauded. Immelan sat by her side and
watched.

" They are well matched," he remarked presently.

" Mr. Chalmers has a wonderful service," she de
clared, " but Lord Dorminster has more skill. Oh,
bravo ! "

The set at that moment was finished by a back
handed return from Nigel, which skimmed over the
net at a great pace, completely out of reach of the
opposing couple. The players strolled across to
the seats under the trees. Naida smiled at Nigel,
and he came over to her side. Once again he was

68 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

conscious of that peculiar sense of pleasure and well-
being which he felt in her company.

" You play tennis very well, Lord Dorminster,"
she said.

" I found inspiration," he answered.

" In your partner? "

" Maggie is always charming to play with. I was
thinking of the onlookers."

" Mr. Immelan is very interested in tennis," she
remarked, with a smile which challenged him.

"And you?"

" Even more so."

" Tell me about games in Russia," he begged, seat
ing himself on the grass by her side.

" We have none," she replied. " I learnt my
tennis at Cannes, where, curiously enough, I saw
you play three years ago."

" You were there then? " he asked with interest.

" For a few days only. We were motoring from
Spain to Monte Carlo. Cannes was very crowded,
but you see I remembered."

Her voice seemed to have some lingering charm
in it, some curiously potent suggestion of personal
interest which stirred his pulses. He looked up and
met her eyes. For a moment the world of tennis
fields, of pleasant chatter and of holiday-makings,
passed away. He rose abruptly to his feet. This
time he avoided looking at her.

" You must come over and speak to Maggie," he

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 69

begged. " Perhaps Mr. Immelan will spare you for
a few moments."

Immelan bowed, sphinxlike but coldly furious.
The two strolled away together.

When the next set was over, Naida, who had re
joined her companion, had disappeared. On one of
their vacated chairs was seated the quiet-looking
stranger in grey. Chalmers passed his arm through
Nigel's and led him in that direction.

" I want you two to know each other," he said.
" Jesson, this is Lord Dorminster — Mr. Gilbert
Jesson — Lord Dorminster."

The two men shook hands, Nigel a little vaguely.
He was at first unable to place this newcomer.

" Mr. Jesson," Chalmers explained, dropping his
voice a little, " was a highly privileged and very
much valued member of our Intelligence Department,
until he resigned a few months ago. I think that if
you could spare an hour or two any time this eve
ning, Dorminster, it would interest you very much
to know exactly the reason for Mr. Jesson's resig
nation."

" I should be very pleased indeed," Nigel replied.
" Won't you both come and dine in Belgrave Square
to-night? I was going to ask you, anyhow, Chal
mers. Naida Karetsky has promised to come, and
my cousin will be hostess."

" It will give me very great pleasure,** Jesson
acquiesced. " You will understand," he added, " that

70 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

the information which Mr. Chalmers has just given
you concerning myself is entirely confidential."

Nigel nodded.

" We three will have a little talk to ourselves
afterwards," he suggested. " At eight o'clock —
Number 17, Belgrave Square."

Jesson strolled away after a little desultory con
versation. Chalmers looked after him thoughtfully.

" Harmless-looking chap, isn't he? " he observed.
" Yet I'll let you in on this, Dorminster: there isn't
another living person who knows so much of what
is going on behind the scenes in Europe as that man."

"Why has he chucked his job, then? " Nigel en
quired.

" He will tell you that to-night," was Chalmers'
quiet reply.

CHAPTER

" I don't think I shall marry you, after all,"
Maggie announced that evening, as she stood looking
at herself in one of the gilded mirrors with which
the drawing-room at Belgrave Square was adorned.

" Why not? " Nigel asked, with polite anxiety.

" You are exhibiting symptoms of infidelity," she
declared. " Your flirtation with Naida this after
noon was most pronounced, and you went out of your
way to ask her to dine to-night."

" I like that ! " Nigel complained. " Supposing it
were true, I should simply be obeying orders. It
was you who incited me to devote myself to her."

" The sacrifices we women make for the good of
our countr}T," Maggie sighed. " However, you
needn't have taken me quite so literally. Do you ad
mire her very much, Nigel ? "

He smiled. His manner, however, was not alto
gether free from self-consciousness.

" Of course I do," he admitted. " She's a per
fectly wonderful person, isn't she? Let's get out of
this Yictorian environment," he added, looking
around the huge apartment with its formal arrange
ment of furniture and its atmosphere of prim but

72 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

faded elegance. " We'll go into the smaller room
and tell Brookes to bring us some cocktails and
cigarettes. Chalmers won't expect to be received
formally, and Mademoiselle Karetsky will appreci
ate the cosmopolitan note of our welcome."

"We do look a little too domestic, don't we?"
Maggie replied, as she passed through the portiere
which Nigel was holding up. " I'm not at all sure
that I ought to come and play hostess like this, with
out an aunt or anything. I must think of my repu
tation. I may decide to marry Mr. Chalmers, and
Americans are very particular about that sort of
thing."

" From what I have seen of him, I should think
that Chalmers would make you an excellent hus
band," Nigel declared, as he rang the bell. " You
need a firm hand, and I should think he would be
quite capable of using it."

" You take the matter far too calmly," she ob
jected. " I can assure you that I am getting
peevish. I hate all Russian women with creamy
complexions and violet-coloured eyes."

" They are wonderful eyes," Nigel declared, after
he had given Brookes an order.

Maggie looked at him curiously.

" Naida is for your betters, sir," she reminded
him. " You must not forget that she is to rule over
Russia some day."

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 73

" Just at present," Nigel observed, " Paul Matin-
sky has a perfectly good wife of his own."

" An invalid."

" Invalids always live long."

" Presidents and emperors can always get di
vorces," Maggie insisted, " especially in this irre
ligious age."

" Matinsky isn't that sort," Nigel said cheerfully.
" Even an old gossip like Karschoff calls him a
purist, and you yourself have spoken of his prin
ciples."

Maggie shrugged her shoulders.

" All right," she remarked. " If you are deter
mined to rush into danger, I suppose you must.
There is just one more point to be considered,
though. I suppose you know that if you succeed
any farther with Naida, you will introduce a per
sonal note into our coming struggle."

" What do you mean? " Nigel demanded.

" Why, Immelan, of course," she replied. " He's
head over ears in love with Naida. Any one can
see that."

Nigel laughed scornfully.

" My dear child," he protested, " can you imagine
a woman like Naida thinking seriously of a fellow
like Immelan? — a scheming, Teutonic adventurer,
without even the breeding of his class ! "

Maggie laughed softly for several moments.

" My dear Nigel," she exclaimed, " what a luxury

74 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

to get at the man of you ! I haven't seen your eyes
flash like that for ages. The cocktails, thank good
ness ! Shake one for me till it froths all the way
up the glass, please, and then give me a cigarette.'*

Nigel obeyed orders, helped himself, and glar.ced
at the clock as Brookes left the room.

" How nice of you to come half an hour early,
Maggie ! " he remarked.

She made a little grimace.

" The first time you have noticed it," she said
dolefully. " Do you realise, Nigel, that it is nearly
a week since you proposed to me ? Apart from your
penchant for Naida, don't you really want to marry
me any more? "

He came across the room and stood looking down
at her thoughtfully. She was wearing a somewhat
daringly fashioned black lace gown, which showed
a good deal of her white shoulders and neck. Her
brown hair was simply but artistically arranged.
She was piquante, alluring, with a provocative smile
at the corners of her lips and a challenging gleam
in her eyes. The daintiness and femininity of her
were enthralling.

" You would make an adorable wife," he reflected.

" For some one else? "

" An unspeakable proposition," he assured her.

" You're very nice-looking, Nigel," she murmured.

** You're terribly attractive, Maggie ! "

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 75

" Then why is it," she sighed, " that we neither of
us want to marry the other? "

" If a serious proposition would really be of in
terest to you," he began,

She made a little grimace.

" You heard them coming," she interrupted.

The three expected guests arrived almost together,
bringing with them, at any rate so far as Chalmers
and Naida were concerned, an atmosphere of light-
heartedness which was later on to make the little
dinner party a complete success. Naida, too, was
in black, a gown simpler than Maggie's but full of
distinction. She wore no jewellery except a won
derful string of pearls. Her black hair was brushed
straight back from her forehead but drooped a little
over her ears. She seemed to bring with her a larger
share of girlishness than any of them had previously
observed in her, as though she had made up her mind
for this one evening to cast herself adrift from the
graver cares of life and to indulge in the frivolities
which after all were the heritage of her youth. She
sat at Nigel's right hand and plied him with questions
as to the lighter side of his life, — his favourite
sport, books, and general occupation. She gave evi
dences of humour which delighted everybody, and
Nigel, though he would at times have welcomed, and
did his best to initiate, an incursion into more
serious subjects, found himself compelled to admire
the tact with which she continually foiled him.

76 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

" It is a mistake," she declared once, " to believe
that a woman is ever serious unless she is forced to
be. All our natural proclivities are towards gaiety.
We are really butterflies by instinct, and we are at
our best when we are natural. Don't you agree with
me, Maggie ? "

" From the bottom of my heart," Maggie assented.
" Nothing but conscience ever induces me to pull a
long face and turn my thoughts to serious things.
And I haven't a great deal of conscience."

" So you see," Naida continued, smiling up at her
host, " when you try to get a woman to talk politics
or sociology with you, you are brushing a little of
the down off her wings. We really want to be told
— other things."

" I should imagine," he replied, " that my sex fre
quently indulged you."

" Not so much as I should desire," she assured
him. " I have somehow or other acquired an unde
served reputation for brains. In Russia especially,
when I meet a stranger, they don't even look at my
frock or the way my hair is done. They plunge in
stead into a subject of which I know nothing —
philosophy or history, or international politics."

" Do you know nothing of international politics? "
Nigel asked.

" A home thrust," she declared, laughing. " I
suppose that is a subject upon which I have some
glimmerings of knowledge. Really not very much,

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 77

though, but then I have a theory about that. I
think sometimes that the clearest judgments are
formed by some one who comes a little fresh to a
subject, some one who hasn't been dabbling in it half
their lifetime and acquired prejudices. Do you
always provide strawberries for your guests, Lord
Dorminster? If so, I should like to come and live
here."

" If you will promise to come and live here," he
replied, " I will provide strawberries if I have to
start a nursery garden in Jersey."

" Maggie," Naida announced across the table,
" Lord Dorminster has proposed to me. The matter
of strawberries has brought us together. I don't
think I shall accept him. There are no means of
making him keep his bargain."

" He'd make an awfully good husband," Maggie
declared. " If no one else wants me, I shall probably
marry him myself some day."

Naida shook her head.

" Lord Dorminster is more my type," she de
clared. " Besides, you have had your chance if you
really wanted him. I have a great friend in Russia
who prophesies that I shall never marry. That does
not please me. I think not to be married is the
worst fate that can happen to any woman."

" The remedy," Nigel told her, " is in your own
hands."

Jesson, quieter than the others, was still an inter-

78 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

esting personality, often intervening with a shrewd
remark and listening to the sallies of the others with
a humorous gleam in his spectacle-shielded eyes.
When at last the girls left them for a time, Nigel
led the way at once into the library, where coffee
and liqueurs were served.

" I expect the others will find their way here in a
few minutes," he said, as the door closed behind
Brookes and his satellite. " You had something to
say to me, Chalmers, about Mr. Jesson here."

" All that I have to say is in the nature of a testi
monial," the young American replied. " Jesson was
easily one of our best men in Europe. He resigned
a few months ago simply because he wants a job
with you fellows."

" I don't quite understand," Nigel began.

" Let me explain," Jesson begged. " I spent the
last three years poking about Europe, and so far
as the United States is concerned, there's nothing
doing. My reports aren't worth much more than
the paper they are written on, and while I'm drawing
my money from Washington, it's not my business
to collect information that affects other countries.
That's why I've sent in my resignation. There are
great events brewing eastwards, Lord Dorminster,
and I want to take a hand in the game."

" Do you want to work for us ? " Nigel asked.

" You're right," was the quiet reply. " I guess
that's how I've figured it out. You see, I'm one of

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 79

those Americans who still consider themselves half
English. Next to the United States, Great Britain
is the country for me. I know what I'm talking
about, Lord Dorminster, and I've come to the con
clusion that there's a lot of trouble in store for you
people."

" I'm pretty well convinced of that myself," Nigel
agreed, " but you know how things are with us. We
have a democratic Government who have placed their
whole faith in the League of Nations, and who are
absolutely and entirely .anti-militarist. On paper,
the governments of Russia, Germany, and most of
the other countries of Europe, are of the same ilk.
Some of us — my uncle was one — who have studied
history and who know something of the science of
international politics, realise perfectly well that no
Empire can be considered secure under such condi
tions. This country swarms with foreign secret-
service men. What they are planning against us,
Heaven knows ! "

" Heaven and Naida Karetsky," Chalmers inter
vened softly.

" You believe that she is our enemy? " Nigel asked,
with a look of trouble in his eyes.

" She is Immelan's friend," Chalmers reminded
him.

" There was a man named Atcheson," Jesson be
gan quietly

Nigel nodded.

8o THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

" He was one of the men my uncle sent out. The
first one was stabbed in Petrograd. Jim Atcheson
was poisoned and died in Berlin."

" There was rather a scare in a certain quarter
about Atcheson," Jesson observed. " He was sup
posed to have got a report through to the late Lord
Dorminster."

" He got it through all right," Nigel replied.
" My uncle was busy decoding it, seated in this
room, at that table, when he died."

" His death was very sudden," Jesson ventured.

" I have not the faintest doubt but that he was
murdered," Nigel declared. " The document upon
which he was working disappeared entirely except for
one sheet."

" You have that one sheet ? " Jesson asked eagerly.

Nigel produced it from his pocketbook, smoothed
it out, and laid it upon the table.

" There are two things worth noticing here," he
pointed out. " The first is that the actual name of
a town in Russia is given, and a telephone number
in London. Kroten I have looked up on the map.
It seems to be an unimportant place in a very
desolate region. The telephone number is Oscar
Imm elan's."

" That is interesting, though not surprising,"
Jesson declared. " Immelan, as you of course know,
is one of your enemies, one of those who are working
in this country for purposes of his own. But as

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 81

regards Kroten, may I ask where you obtained your
information about the place? "

Nigel dragged down the atlas and showed them
the paragraph. Jesson read it with a faint smile
upon his lips.

" I fancy," he remarked, " that this is a little out
of date. I should like, if you have no objection, to
start for Kroten this week."

" Good heavens ! Why ? " Nigel exclaimed.

" I can scarcely answer that question," Jesson
said. " I am like a man with a puzzle board and a
heap of loose pieces. Kroten is one of those pieces,
but I haven't commenced the fitting-in process yet.
Here," he said, " is as much as I can tell you
about it. There are three cities, situated in differ
ent countries in the world, which are each in
their way connected with the danger which is brew
ing for this country. I have heard them described
as the three secret cities. One is in Germany. I
have been there at the risk of my life, and I came
away simply puzzled. Kroten is the next, and of
the third I have still to discover the whereabouts.
Are you willing, Lord Dorminster, to let me act
for you abroad? I require no salary or remunera
tion of any sort. I am a wealthy man, and investiga
tions of this kind are my one hobby. I shall not
move without your permission, although I recognise,
of course, that your own position is entirely an
unofficial one. If you will trust me, however, I

82 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

promise that all my energies shall be devoted to the
interests of this country."

Nigel held out his hand.

" It is a pact," he decided. " Before you leave,
I will give you the whole of my uncle's brief corre
spondence with Sidwell. You may be able to gather
from it what he was after. Sidwell, you remember,
was stabbed in a cafe in the slums of Petrograd."

" I remember quite well," Jesson admitted quietly.
" I knew Sidwell. He was a clever person in his
way, but he relied too much upon disguises. I fancy
that I hear the voices of the ladies coming. I shall
just have time to tell you rather a curious coinci
dence."

The two men waited eagerly. Jesson touched with
his forefinger the sheet of paper which he had been
studying.

" Sidwell," he concluded, " could not have been so
far off the mark. The man with whom he was
spending the evening in that cafe was a mechanic
from Kroten."

CHAPTER IX

Naida, early one afternoon, a few days after the
dinner at Belgrave Square, raised herself on one
elbow from the sofa on which she was resting, glanced
at the roses and the card which the maid had pre
sented for her inspection, and waved them impa
tiently away.

" The gentleman waits," the woman reminded her.

Naida glanced out of the window across a dull
and apparently uninviting prospect of roofs and
chimneys, to where in the background a faint line of
silver and a wheeling flock of sea gulls became dimly
visible through the branches of the distant trees.
The window itself was flung wide open, but the slowly
moving air had little of freshness in it. Sparrows
twittered around the window-sill, and a little patch
of green shone out from the Embankment Gardens.
The radiance of spring here found few opportunities.

" The gentleman waits," the serving woman re
peated stolidly, speaking in her native Russian.

" You can show him up," her mistress replied a
little wearily.

Immelan entered, a few moments later, spruce and
neat in a well-fitting grey suit, and carrying a grey

84 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

Homburg hat. He was redolent of soaps and per
fumes. His step was buoyant, almost jaunty, yet
in his blue eyes, as he bent over the hand of the
woman upon whom he had come to call, lurked some
thing of the disquietude which, notwithstanding his
most strenuous efforts, was beginning to assert it
self.

" You make me very happy, my dear Naida," he
began, " that you receive me thus so informally.
Your good father is smoking in the lounge. He bade
me come up."

She beckoned him to a seat.

" A thousand thanks for your flowers, my friend,"
she said. " Now tell me why you are possessed to see
me at this untimely hour. I always rest for a time
after luncheon, and I am only here because the
sunshine filled my room and made me restless."

" There is a little matter of news," he announced
slowly. " I thought it might interest you. I hoped
it would."

She turned her head and looked at him.

" News ? " she repeated. " News from you means
only one thing. Is it good or bad? "

" It is good," he replied, " because it saves me a
long and tedious journey, because it saves me also
from a separation which I should have found de
testable."

"Your journey to China, then, is abandoned?"

" It is rendered unnecessary. Prince Shan has

85

decided after all. to adhere to his original plan and
come to Europe."

" You are sure? "

" I have an official intimation," he replied, " I
may probably have to go to Paris, but no farther.
It is even possible that I might leave to-night."

She was genuinely interested.

" There is no one in the whole world," she declared,
" whom I have wanted to meet so much as Prince
Shan."

" You will not be disappointed," he promised her.
" There is no one like him. When he enters the
room, you know that you are in the presence of a
great man. The three of us together! Naida, we
will remake the map of the world."

She frowned a little uneasily.

" Do not take too much for granted, Oscar," she
enjoined. " Remember that I am here to watch and
to report. It is not for me to make decisions."

" Then for whom else ? " he demanded. " Paul
Matinsky himself wrote me that you had his entire
confidence — that you possessed full powers for ac
tion. You will not be faint-hearted, Naida? "

" I shall never be false to my convictions,'* she
replied.

There was a brief silence. He was not altogether
satisfied, but he judged the moment unpropitious for
any further reference to the coming of Prince Shan.

" My plans, as you see, are changed," he said at

86 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

last, " and for that reason a promise which I made
to myself will not now be kept."

She rose to her feet a little uneasily, shook out
her fluffy morning gown, and retreated towards the
door leading to the apartments beyond. He watched
her without movement. She picked up a pile of let
ters from a table in the middle of the room, glanced
at them, and threw them down.

" It is as well," she warned him, " to keep all
promises."

" As for this one," he replied, " I have no respon
sibility save to myself. I absolve myself. I give
myself permission to speak. Your father is even
wishful that I should do so. I crave from you,
Naida, the happiness which only you can bring
into my life. I ask you to become my wife."

She looked at him without visible change of ex
pression. Her lips, however, were a little parted.
The air of aloofness with which she moved through
the world seemed suddenly more marked. He would
have been a brave man, or one entirely without per
ceptions, who would have advanced towards her at
that moment.

" That is quite impossible," she pronounced.

" I do not admit it," he contended. " No, I will
never admit that. The fates brought us together.
It will take something stronger than fate to drive
us apart. I had not meant to speak yet. I had
meant to wait until the great pact was sealed and

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 87

the glory to come assured, but during these last
few days I have suffered. A strange fancy has come
to me. I seem to feel something between us, so I
speak before it can grow. I speak because without
you life for me would be a thing not worth having.
You are my life and my soul. You will not send
me away? "

Naida was troubled but unhesitating. It was per
haps at that moment that a hidden characteristic
of her features showed itself. Her mouth, some
times almost too voluptuous in its softness, had
straightened into a firm line of scarlet. The deeper
violet of her eyes had gone. So a woman might
have looked who watched suffering unmoved, the
woman of the bull or prize fight.

" I am glad that you have spoken, Oscar," she
said. " I know a thing now which has been a source
of doubt and anxiety to me. What you ask is im
possible. I do not love you. I shall never love you.
A few days ago, I asked myself the very question
you have just asked me, and I could not answer it.
Now I know."

Pain and anger struggled in his face. He was
suffering, without a doubt, but for a moment it
seemed as though the anger would predominate. His
great shoulders heaved, his hands were clenched until
the signet ring on his left finger cut into the flesh,
his eyes were like glittering points of fire.

88 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

"It is the old dream concerning Paul?" he de
manded.

" It has nothing to do with Paul," she assured
him. " Concerning him I will admit that I have had
my weak moments. I think that those have passed.
It was such a wonderful dream," she went on reflec
tively, " the dream of ruling the mightiest nation in
the world, a nation that even now, after many years
of travail, is only just finding its way through to
the light. It seemed such a small thing that stood
in the way. Since then I have met Paul's wife. She
does not understand, but at least she loves."

" She is a poor fool, no helpmate for any man,"
Immelan declared. " Yet it is not his cause I plead,
but mine. I, too, can minister to your ambitions.
Be my wife, and I swear to you that before five years
have passed I will be President of the German Re
public. Germany is no strange country to you," he
went on passionately. " It is you who have helped
in the great rapprochement. At times when Paul
has been difficult, you have smoothed the way. I
would not speak against your country, I would not
speak against anything which lies close to your
heart, but let me tell you that when the day of
purification comes, the day when God gives us leave
to pour out the vials of vengeance, there will be no
prouder, no more glorious people than ours. Our
triumph will be yours, Naida. You yourself will
help to cement the great alliance of these years."

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 89

She shook her head.

" I am a woman," she said simply. " Incidentally,
I am a politician and something of an altruist, but
when it comes to marriage, I am a woman. I do
not love you, Oscar, and I will not marry you."

There Avas a darker shade upon his face now.
Unconsciously he had drawn a little nearer to her.

" Listen," he begged ; " it is perhaps possible that
I have not been mistaken — that a certain change
has crept up in you even within the last few days?
Tell me, is there any one else who has found his way
into your heart? No, I will not say heart ! It could
not be your heart in so short a time. Into your
fancy? Is there any one else, Naida, of whom you
are thinking? "

" That is my concern, Oscar, and mine only," she
answered haughtily.

A weaker woman he would have bullied. His veins
were filled with anger. His tongue ached to spend
itself. Naida's bearing cowed him. She remained
a dominating figure. The unnatural restraint im
posed upon himself, however, made his voice sound
hard and unfamiliar. There were little patches of
white around his mouth; his teeth showed, when he
spoke, more than usual.

" If there were any one else," he declared, " and
that some one else should chance to be an English
man, I would find a new hell for him."

" There is no one else," she answered calmly, " but

go THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

if there ever should be, Oscar Immelan, and if you
ever interfered with him, either in this country or
any other, my arm would follow you around the
world. Remember that."

She turned away for a moment, eager to gain a
brief respite from his darkening face. When she
looked around, he was gone. She heard his footsteps
passing down the corridor, the bell ringing for the
lift, the .dank of the gates as he stepped in. Once
more shfe gazed out over the uninspiring prospect.
There was a, little more sunshine upon the river;
more of the dusty chimney-pots seemed bathed in
its silvery radiUnce. As she stood there, she felt her
self growing calmer. The tension passed from her
nerves. Her eyes grew soft again. Then an impulse
came to her. She stretched out her hand for the
telephone book, turned over the pages restlessly,
looked through the " D's " until she found the name
for which she was searching. For a long time she
hesitated. When at last she took up the receiver
and asked for a number, she was conscious of a slight
thrill, a sense of excitement which in moments of
more complete self-control would at least have served
as a warning to her.

CHAPTER X

The curtain fell upon the first act of " Louise."
The lights were turned up, the tenseness relaxed, men
made dives for their hats, and the unmusical mur
mured the usual platitudes. Naida leaned forward
from the corner of her box to the man who was her
sole companion.

" Father," she said, " I am expecting a caller
with whom I wish to speak — Lord Dorminster. If
he comes, will you leave us alone? And if any one
else should be here, please take them away."

" More mysteries," her father muttered, not un
kindly. " Who is this man Dorminster? "

Naida leaned back in her chair and fanned herself
slowly.

" No one I know very much about," she acknowl
edged. " I have selected him in my mind, however,
as being a typical Englishman of his class. I wish
to talk to him, to appreciate his point of view. You
know what Paul said when he gave you the appoint
ment and sent us over here : ' Find out for me what
sort of men these Englishmen are.' "

" Matinsky should know," her father observed.
" He was here twelve years ago. He came over with

92 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

the first commission which established regular rela
tions with the British Government."

" No doubt," she said equably, " he was able to
gauge the official outlook, but this country, during
the last ten years, has gone through great vicissi
tudes. Besides, it is not only the official outlook
in which Paul is interested. He doesn't understand,
and frankly I don't, the position of what they call
over here ' the man in the street.' You see, he must
be either a fool, or he must be grossly deceived."

" So far as my dealings with him go, I should never

"'•f i .

call the Englishman a fool," Karetsky confessed.

" There are degrees and conditions of fools," his
daughter declared calmly. " A man with a perfectly
acute brain may have simply idiotic impulses towards
credulity, and a credulous man is always a fool.
Anyhow, I know what Paul wants."

There was a knock at the door. Karetsky opened
it and stood aside to let Nigel pass in. Naida held
out her hand to the latter with a smile.

" I am so glad that you have come," she said, rais
ing her eyes for a minute to his. " Father, you
remember Lord Dorminster? "

The1 two men exchanged a few commonplace re
marks. Then Karetsky reached for his hat.

" Your arrival, Lord Dorminster," he observed,
" leaves me free to make a few calls myself. We shall,
I trust, meet again."

THE GREAT PRINCE SHA

Nigel murmured a few courteous words and
watched the retreating figure with some curiosity:

" Your father is very typical," he declared. " He
reminds me of your country itself. He is massive,
has suggestions of undeveloped strength."

" Add that he is a little ponderous," Naida said
lightly, " slow to make up his mind, but as obstinate
as the Urals themselves, and you have described
him. Now tell me what you think of a young woman
who rings you up without the slightest encourage
ment and invites you to come to the Opera purposely
to visit her box."

" I deny the absence of encouragement, and I am
very grateful for the opportunity of coming," Nigel
answered. " And if I were to tell you all that I
think of you," he added, after a moment's pause,
"it would take me a great deal longer than this
quarter of an hour's interval."

These were their first few moments absolutely
alone. Neither of them was unduly emotional,
neither wholly free from experience, yet they looked
and spoke and felt as though the coming of new
things was at hand. The atmosphere of music, still
present, was a wonderful background to the intensi
fied sensations of which both were conscious. Naida
had the utmost difficulty in steadying her voice.

" I wanted to talk to you seriously because you
can help me very much if you will," she began. " In
a sense, I am over here upon a mission. Some of us

94 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

in Russia feel that your nation is imperfectly under
stood there. We are bearing grudges against you
which may not be wholly justified. You see, to speak
very plainly, we are under the constant influence of
a people which cherishes no feelings of friendship
towards you."

For a moment the personal element had disap
peared. Nigel remembered who his companion was
and all that she stood for. He drew his chair a
little nearer to hers.

" If you are looking for a typical Englishman,"
he said, " I fear that I shall be a disappointment to
you. The typical Englishman of to-day is hiding his
head in the sand. I am not disposed to do anything
of the sort. I recognise a great coming danger,
and I am afraid of your country."

" The attitude of the official Englishman I know,"
she declared, a little eagerly. " What I want to find
out is whether there are many like yourself, who
are awake."

" I am afraid that I am in the minority," he con
fessed. " I am trying to carry on the work which
my uncle commenced. I am trying to secure firm
and definite evidence of a certain plot which I be
lieve to be brewing in your country and in Ger
many."

" Tell me exactly what you know," she begged.

Nigel looked at her for several moments in silence.
She was wearing a Russian headdress, a low tiara of

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 95

bound coils of pearls. A rope of pearls hung from
her neck. Her white net. gown was trimmed with
ermine. At her first appearance in 'the front of the
box she had created almost a sensation among those
to whom she was visible. In these darker shadows
the sensuous disturbance of which he had been con
scious since his entrance swept over him once more
with overmastering power.

" You are very beautiful," he said, a little
abruptly.

" I am glad you think so," she murmured, with a
very sweet answering light in her eyes, " but I am
hoping that you have other things to tell me."

" You are the friend of Immelan," he reminded
her.

" To some extent, yes," she assented, " but I admit
of no prejudices. The greatest friend I have in the
world is Paul Matinsky, and it is at his wish that I
am here. He is anxious above all things not to make
a mistake."

" Your country is very much under the dominance
of Germany," he ventured.

" Very much, I admit, but not utterly so. You
must remember that after the cataclysm of 1917,
Russia has been born again in travail and agony.
No hand was outstretched to help her, save that of
Germany alone, for her own sake ultimately, perhaps,
but nevertheless with invaluable results to Russia.
We had vast resources which Germany exploited,

g6 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

magnificent human material which Germany has
educated and disciplined. The two nations have
grown together for their common interest. At the
same time, Paul Matinsky and very many others
have always felt that there is one of Germany's great
ambitions in which Russia ought not necessarily to
become involved. I think — I hope that you under
stand me."

" In plain words," Nigel said, " you refer to this
projected plan of isolating England."

" In plain words, I do," she admitted. " Russia's
intentions concerning that are trembling in the bal
ance. Germany is pressing her hard. Nothing will
be finally decided until I return to Petrograd. You
see, I speak to you quite openly, for I myself have
had some experience of your present statesmen. I
believe if you were to repeat this conversation to
any one of them, if, even, you could open their eyes
to what is happening, they would only shrug their
shoulders and say that they relied for their protec
tion on the League of Nations."

" You are unhappily right," Nigel groaned, " yet
one perseveres, and after all there is an element of
mystery about the whole affair. The French, as you
know, have not imitated our blind credulity. Their
frontier would seem to be impregnable, and the diffi
culties of invading England, even from the air, are
very much as they were during the last war. It
was these considerations which made my uncle per-

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 97

severe in his attempt at secret-service work on the
Continent. Everything depends upon our knowing
exactly what is in store for us."

" And have you discovered that? " she enquired.

He shook his head.

" Everything that we have learnt so far has been
of negative value," he replied. " The German citizen
army is large, but not threateningly so. So far as
we have been able to discover, they do not seem to
have any secret store of guns or ammunition. Their
docks hold no secrets. Yet we know that there is
something brewing. Both the men upon whom my
uncle relied have been murdered."

" But one of them succeeded in getting a dispatch
through, did he not? " she asked quietly.

" Yes, he succeeded," Nigel acknowledged. " My
uncle was murdered, however, in the act of decoding
it, and the dispatch itself was stolen."

" You are very frank," she said. " I suppose I
ought to feel flattered that you treat me with so little
reserve."

" If you are a friend to Germany," he replied,
" you probably know all that I can tell you. If you
are inclined towards friendship with us, then it is
as well that you should know everything."

" That is reasonable," she admitted. " Now listen.
This conversation can only last a few minutes longer.
It is true that Oscar Immelan is my father's old
friend and also mine, but my judgment in all mat-

g8 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

ters which relate to the welfare of my country is
not influenced by that fact."

" There was a report once," Nigel said, taking his
courage into both hands, " that you were engaged to
be married to him."

She looked him in the eyes. Against the whiteness
of his skin, the colour of her own seemed more won
derful than ever.

" That is not true," she replied. " It will never
be true."

" I am glad," he declared fervently.

There was a brief pause. Both seemed conscious
of a renewal of that air of disturbance which had
reigned between them during their first few mo
ments alone. It was Naida who made an effort to
restore their conversation to its former tone.

" If Germany has any scheme against this coun
try," she said, " believe me, it will not be so obvious
as you seem to think. It will be a scheme which can
only be carried out with the assistance of other coun
tries, and that assistance is not yet wholly promised.
I cannot betray to you my knowledge of certain
things," she went on, after a moment's hesitation,
" but I can at least give you this warning. It is
not for his health alone that Prince Shan is flying
from China to Paris. If there is a single member
of your Government who has the least apprehension
of world politics, now is the time for action."

" There is no one," Nigel answered gloomily.

THE GREAT PRINCE S::AN 99

The box was suddenly invaded. Karetsky reap
peared with several other men. In the rear of the
little procession came Immelan. His face darkened
as he recognised Nigel. Naida looked across at him
with a slight frown upon her forehead.

" You have changed your mind ? " she remarked.
" I thought you were for Paris to-night ? "

" A fortunate chance intervened," Immelan re
plied.

"Fortunate?"

Immelan watched Nigel's retreating figure with a
menacing frown.

" I find it so," he replied. " Our wonderful prima
donna is in great voice to-night — and I like to be
prepared for all possible combinations."

CHAPTER XI

Maggie came suddenly into the library at Belgrave
Square, where Jesson, Chalmers and Nigel were talk
ing together. She carried in her hand a note, which
she handed to the latter.

" Naida is a dear, after all," she declared.
" There is one person at least who does not wish to
have me pass away in a German nursing home or
fall a victim to Frau Essendorf's cooking."

Nigel read the note aloud. It consisted of only
a sentence or two and was dated from the Milan
Court that morning:

Maggie dear, this is just a line of advice from
your friend. You must not go back to Germany.

Naida.

" I fear," Maggie sighed, " that my little expedi
tion is scotched, even if I had been able to persuade
you others to let me go. Every one seems to have
made up their mind that I shall not go to Germany.
It will be such a disappointment to those flaxen-
haired atrocities, Gertrud and Bertha. Their so-
much-loved Miss Brown can never return to them
again."

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 101

" In any case, the game was scarcely worth the
candle," Nigel observed. " We have already all the
evidence we require that some scheme inimical to this
country is being proposed and fostered by Immelan.
Our next move must be to find out the nature of
this scheme — whether it be naval, military, or
political. I don't think Essendorf would be at all
likely to give away any more interesting informa
tion in the domestic circle."

" What are we all going to do, then? " Maggie
asked.

" We are met here to discuss it," Nigel replied.
" Jesson is off to Russia this afternoon. I asked
him to come round and have a few last words with
us, in case there was anything to suggest for us
stay-at-homes."

" We shall have to rely very largely upon luck,"
Jesson declared. " There are three places, in any
of which we might discover what we want to know.
One is Kroten, another is Paris, provided that Prince
Shan really goes there, and the third London."

" London? " Maggie repeated.

" There are two people in London," Jesson de
clared, " who know everything we are seeking to dis
cover. One is Immelan and the other Naida
Karetsky."

" It seems to me," Maggie said, " that if that is
so, the place for us is where those two people are.
What is the importance of Kroten, Mr. Jesson? "

102 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

" Kroten," Jesson replied, " is the second of what
I have seen referred to in a private diplomatic re
port, written in an enemy country, as the three mys
tery cities of the world. The first one is in Germany,
and I have already explored it. I have information,
but information which without its sequel is value
less. Kroten is the second. Ten years ago it was
a town of eighteen thousand inhabitants. To-day
there are at least two hundred thousand people there,
and it is growing all the time."

" Say, how can a town of that size," Chalmers
enquired, " be termed a mystery city in any sense
of the word? Travelling's free in Russia. I guess
any one that wanted could take a ticket to Kroten."

*' A good many do," Jesson assented calmly, " and
some never come back. America and Russia are on
friendly terms, yet two men in my branch of the
service — good fellows they were, too — started out
from Washington for Kroten six months ago.
Neither of them has been heard of since ; neither ever
will be."

" How's it done? " Chalmers asked curiously.

" In the first place," Jesson explained, " the city
itself stands at the arm of the river, in a sort of
cul-de-sac, with absolutely untraversable mountains
on three sides of it. All the roads have to come
around the plain and enter from eastwards. There
is only one line of railway, so that all the approaches
into the city are easily guarded."

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 103

" That's all right geographically, of course,"
Nigel admitted, " but what earthly excuse can any
one make for keeping tourists or travellers out of the
place if they want to go there? "

" That is perhaps the most ingenious thing of
all," Jesson replied. " You know that Russia is
now practically a tranquil country, but there are
certain bands of the extreme Bolshevistic faction
who never gave in to authority and who practically
exist in the little-known places by means of ma
rauding expeditions. The mountains about Kroten
are supposed to have been infested by these
nomadic companies. Whether the outrages set down
to them are really committed or not, I don't sup
pose any one knows, but my point of view is that
the presence of these people is absolutely encouraged
by the Government, to give them an excuse for the
most extraordinary precautions in issuing passports
or allowing any one from the outside world to pass
into the city. If you get in, I understand you are
waited upon by the police within half an hour and
have to tell them the story of your past life and
your future intentions. After that you are allowed
to go about on parole. If you get too inquisitive,
you are discovered to be in touch with the robber
bands, and — well — that's an end of you."

" A nice, salubrious spot," Nigel murmured.

" It sounds most interesting," Maggie declared.

104 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

" I think a woman would be less likely to cause sus
picion,'* she added hopefully.

" Utterly out of the question," Jesson pronounced.
" Kroten is the one place that must be left in my
hands. I know more about the getting there than
any of you, and I know the tricks of changing my
identity."

" I should rather like to go with you," Nigel con
fessed.

" Impossible ! " was the brief reply.

"Why?"

Jesson smiled.

" To be perfectly frank," he said, " because you
are developing an interest in the one person in the
world who might give success over into our hands.
It is necessary for you to remain where you can
encourage that interest."

Nigel was a little staggered.

" My friendship with Mademoiselle Karetsky," he
protested, " is scarcely likely to influence her politi
cal views."

" I am a somewhat close observer," Jesson con
tinued. " You will not ask me to believe that your
conversation with mademoiselle in her box at the
Opera last night related all the time to — well, shall
we say music ? "

" Nigel, you never told me you were at the Opera,"
Maggie intervened. " What made you go? "

J

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 105

" I think that it was a message from Mademoiselle
Karetsky," Jesson suggested quietly.

Nigel smiled.

" Upon my word, I think you're going to be a
success, Jesson," he declared. " Perhaps you can tell
me what we did talk about? "

" I believe I almost could," was the calm reply.
" In any case, I think I see the situation as it exists.
Mademoiselle Karetsky is a wonderful woman. She
has a great, open mind. To a certain extent, of
course, she has seen things from the point of view of
Paul Matinsky, Immelan, and that little coterie of
Russo-Germans who see a future for both countries
only in an alliance of the old-fashioned order.
Matinsky, however, has always had his doubts.
That is why he sent over here the one person whom
he trusted. Presently she will make a report, and
the whole issue will remain with her. Immelan knows
this and pays her ceaseless court. My impression,
however, is that his influence is waning. I believe
that to-day he is terrified at the bare reflection of
how much Naida Karetsky knows."

" You believe that she does know exactly what is
intended? " Nigel asked.

" I am perfectly certain of it," Jesson replied.
" If she could be induced to tell us everything, my
journey to Kroten might just as well be abandoned.
Yet somehow I do not think she will go so far as
that. The most that we can hope for is that she will

v

io6 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

advise Matinsky to reject Immelan's proposals, and
that she will perhaps bring some influence to bear
in the same direction upon Prince Shan."

" I am inclined to agree with Jesson," Nigel pro
nounced, " inasmuch as I believe that Mademoiselle
Karetsky is disposed to change or modify her views
concerning us. You see, after all, this threatened
blow against England is purely a private affair of
Germany's. There is really no reason why Russia
or any other country should be dragged into it. She
is the monkey pulling the chestnuts out of the fire for
her most dangerous rival."

" Matinsky might be brought to think that way,"
Chalmers observed, " but they say half the members
of his Cabinet are under German influence."

" If Matinsky believed that," Nigel declared, " he
is quite strong enough to clear them all out and
make a fresh start."

" In the meantime," Maggie interposed, " I should
like to know in what way you propose to use poor
little me? I am not to go to Germany, the man
whom I at one time seriously thought of marrying
is told off to engage the attentions of another woman,
Mr. Jesson here is going to Kroten, and he doesn't
show the slightest inclination to take me with him.
Am I to sit here and do nothing? "

" There remains for you the third enterprise,"
Jesson replied, " one in which, so far as I can see,"

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 107

he continued, with a smile, " you have not the faintest
chance of success."

" Tell me what it is, at least? " she begged.

" The conversion of Prince Shan."

Maggie made a little grimace.

"Aren't you trying me a little high? " she mur
mured.

" Very high indeed," Jesson acknowledged.
" Prince Shan, for all his wonderful statesmanship
and his grip upon world affairs, is reputed to be
almost an anchorite in his daily life. No woman has
ever yet been able to boast of having exercised the
slightest influence over him. At the same time, he
is an extraordinarily human person, and success
with him would mean the end of your enemies."

" It sounds a bit of a forlorn hope," Maggie re
marked cheerfully, " but I'll do my little best."

" Prince Shan has abandoned his idea of landing
at Paris," Jesson continued. " He is coming direct
to London. I have to thank Chalmers for that infor
mation. Immelan will meet him directly he arrives,
and their first conversations will make history.
Afterwards, if things go well, Mademoiselle Karet-
sky will join the conference."

" I fear," Maggie sighed, " that there will be
difficulties in the way of my establishing confidential
relations with Prince Shan."

" There will be difficulties," Jesson assented, " but
the thing is not so impossible as it would be in Paris.

io8 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

Prince Shan has a very fine house in Curzon Street,
which is kept in continual readiness for him. He
will probably entertain to some extent. You will
without doubt have opportunities of meeting him
socially."

Maggie glanced at herself in the glass.

" A Chinaman ! " she murmured.

" I guess that doesn't mean what it did," Chalmers
pointed out. " Prince Shan is an aristocrat and a
born ruler. He has every scrap of culture that we
know anything about and something from his thou
sand-year-old family that we don't quite know how
to put into words. Don't you worry about Prince
Shan, Lady Maggie. Ask Dorminster here what
they called him at Oxford."

" The first gentleman of Asia," Nigel replied. " I
think he deserves the title."

CHAPTER XH

On the morning following the conclave in Belgrave
Square, the Right Honourable Mervin Brown re
ceived two extremely distinguished visitors in Down
ing Street. It was doubtful whether the Prime
Minister was altogether at his best. There was a
certain amount of irritability rankling beneath his
customary air of bonhommie. He motioned his callers
to take chairs, however, and listened attentively to
the few words of introduction which his secretary
thought necessary.

" This is General Dumesnil, sir, of the French
Staff, and Monsieur Pouilly of the French Cabinet.
They have called according to appointment, on Gov
ernment business."

" Very glad to see you, gentlemen," was the Prime
Minister's brisk welcome. " Sorry I can't talk
French to you. Politics, these last ten years, haven't
left us much time for the outside graces."

Monsieur Pouilly at once took the floor. He was
a thin, dark man with a beautifully trimmed black
beard, flashing black eyes, and thoughtful, delicate
features. He was attired in the frock coat and dark
trousers of diplomatic usage, and he appeared to

no THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

somewhat resent the brown tweed suit and soft collar
of the man who was receiving him.

" Mr. Mervin Brown," he began, " you will kindly
look upon our visit as official. We are envoys from
Monsieur le President and the French Government.
General Dumesnil has accompanied me, in case our
conversation should turn upon military matters here
or at the War Office."

The General saluted. The Prime Minister bowed
a little awkwardly.

" So far as I am concerned," the latter declared,
" I will be perfectly frank with you from the start.
I know nothing whatever about military affairs. My
job is to govern this country, to make the most of
its resources, and to bring prosperity to its citizens
from the English Channel to the North Sea. We
don't need soldiers and never shall, that I can see.
I am firmly convinced that the days of wars are
over. The government of every country in the world
is getting into the hands of the democracy, and the
democracy don't want war and never did. If any of
the more quarrelsome folk on the continent get scrap
ping, well, my conception of my duty is to keep out
of it."

Monsieur Pouilly restrained himself. To judge
from his appearance, however, it was not altogether
an easy matter.

" You belong, sir," he said, " to a type of states
man whose rise to power in this country some of us

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN in

have watched with a certain amount of concern, for
although it is not my mission here to-day to talk
politics, I am yet bound to remind you that you do
not stand alone. The very League of Nations upon
which you rely imposes certain obligations upon
you. some actual, some understood. It is to dis
cuss the situation arising from your neglect to make
the provisions called for in that agreement that I am
here to-day."

Mr. Mervin Brown glanced at some figures which
his secretary had laid before him.

" You complain, I presume, of the reduction of
our standing army ? " he observed.

" We complain of that," Monsieur Pouilly replied,
" and we complain also of the gradually decreasing
interest shown by your Government in matters of
asronautics, artillery, and naval construction. We
learnt our lesson in 1914. If trouble should come
again, our country would once more be the sufferer.
You would no doubt do everything that was expected
of you, in time. Before you were ready, however,
France would be ruined. You entered into certain
obligations under the League of Nations. My Gov
ernment begs to call your attention to the fact that
you are not fulfilling them."

" It is my intention within the course of the next
few months," Mervin Brown declared, " to lay before
the League of Nations a scheme for total disarma
ment."

ii2 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

Monsieur Pouilly was staggered. A little excla
mation escaped the General.

" What about those nations," the latter enquired,
"who were left outside the League? What of
Russia, for instance? "

" Russia is a great and peaceful, republic," Mervin
Brown replied. " All her efforts are devoted towards
industrial development. No nation would have less
to gain by a return to militarism."

" Pardon, monsieur, but how do you know any
thing about Russia? " Monsieur Pouilly asked.
" You have not a single secret service agent there,
and your ambassadors are ambassadors of com
merce."

" I know what every one else knows," Mervin
Brown declared. " Our commercial travellers are
our secret service agents. They travel where they
please in Russia."

" And Germany ? " the General queried.

" I defy you to say that there is the slightest indi
cation of any militarism in Germany," the Prime
Minister insisted. " I was there myself only a few
months ago. The country is quiet and moving on
now to a new prosperity. I am absolutely and
entirely convinced that the world has nothing to
fear from either Russia or Germany."

" Have you any theory, sir," General Dumesnil
enquired, " as to why Russia refused to join the
League of Nations ? "

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 113

" None whatever," was the genial acknowledg
ment. " Russia was left out at the start through
jealous statesmanship, and afterwards she preferred
her independence. I have every sympathy with her
attitude."

" One more question," the soldier begged. " Are
you aware, sir, that since Japan left the League of
Nations on the excuse of her isolation, she has been
building aeroplanes and battleships on a new theory,
instigated, if you please, by China? "

" And look at her last balance sheet as a result
of it," was the prompt retort. " If a nation chooses
to make herself a bankrupt by building war toys, no
one in the world can help her. Legislation of that
sort is foolish and simply an incitement to revolu
tion. Look at the difference in our country. Our
income tax is practically abolished, our industrial
troubles are over. Our credit never stood so high,
the wealth of the country was never so great. We
are satisfied. A peaceful nation makes for peace.
The rattling of the sabre incites military disturb
ance. Do not ask us, gentlemen, to train armies or
build ships."

" We ask you only to keep your covenant,'* Mon
sieur Pouilly pronounced stiffly.

" Who does keep it ? " the Prime Minister de
manded. " The world is governed now by common
sense and humanity. I look upon a war of aggression
on the part of any country as a sheer impossibility."

u4 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

" What about a war of revenge? " the General
enquired quietly.

" You can search Germany from end to end," Mer-
vin Brown declared, " and find no trace of any spirit
of the sort. I am sorry if I am a disappointment to
you, gentlemen, but the present Government views
your attitude without sympathy. General Richard
son is expecting a visit from you this morning at the
War Office, and he will give you any information you
desire. An appointment has also been made for you
this afternoon at the Admiralty. You are doing
me the honour of dining with me here to-morrow
night to meet certain members of my Cabinet, and
we will, if you choose, discuss the matter further
then. I have thought it best to place my views
clearly before you, however, at the outset of your
visit here."

The Frenchmen rose a few minutes later and took
their leave, ceremoniously but with obvious discon
tent. The Prime Minister leaned back in his chair
and awaited his secretary's return with a well-
satisfied smile. In a few minutes the latter presented
himself.

" Well, Franklin," the great man said, " I've let
them hear the truth for once. Plain speaking, eh? "

The young man bowed.

" They certainly know your views, sir."

The Minister glanced at his subordinate sharply.

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 115

" What's the matter with you this morning,
Franklin? " he demanded.

" There is nothing the matter with me, thank you,
sir," was the quiet reply.

" You're not going to tell me that you disapprove
of my attitude? "

" By no means, sir," the young man assured his
Chief hastily, — " not altogether, that is to say.
At the same time, one wonders how far those two
men represent the feeling of France.'*

His Chief shrugged his shoulders.

" The military spirit is hard to kill," he said. " It
is in the blood of most Frenchmen. They are not
big enough to understand that the world is moving
on to greater things. What did they say to you
before they left?"

" Nothing much, sir. The General just asked me
whether I thought you would soon be content to leave
London unpoliced."

" What rubbish ! Any one else for me to see this
morning? "

" You promised to give Lord Dorminster ten
minutes," the young man reminded him. " He is in
the anteroom now."

The Prime Minister frowned.

** Dorminster," he repeated. " He is a nephew of
the man who was always worrying the Government
to reestablish the secret service. I remember he came
to see me the other day, declared that his uncle had

n6 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

been murdered, and a secret dispatch from Germany
stolen. I wonder he didn't wind up with a report
that the Chinese were on their way to seize Ireland ! "

" It is the same man, sir."

" Well, I suppose I'd better see him and get it
over," his Chief declared irritably. " If only one
could make these people realize how far behind the
times they are ! "

Nigel was shown in, a few minutes later. Mr.
Mervin Brown was gracious but terse.

" I haven't had the opportunity of congratulating
you upon becoming one of our hereditary legislators,
Lord Dorminster, since you took your seat in the
House of Lords," he said. " Pray let me do so
now. I hope that we may count upon your support."

" My support, sir," Nigel replied, " will be given
to any Party which will take the urgent necessary
steps to protect this country against a great
danger."

" God bless my soul ! " the Prime Minister ex
claimed. " Another of you ! "

" I can only guess who my predecessors were,"
Nigel continued, smiling, " but I will frankly confess
that the object of my visit is to beg you to reestab
lish our secret service in Germany, Russia and
China."

" Nothing," the other declared, " would induce me
to do anything of the sort."

*' Are you aware," Nigel enquired, " that there is

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 117

a considerable foreign secret service at work in this
country at the present moment ? "

" I am not aware of it, and I don't believe it," was
the blunt retort.

" I have absolute proof," Nigel insisted. " Not
only that, but two ex-secret service men whom my
uncle sent out to Gennany and Russia on his own
account were murdered there as soon as they began
to get on the track of certain things which had been
kept secret. A report from one of these men got
through and was stolen from my uncle's library in
Belgrave Square on the day he was murdered. You
will remember that I placed all these facts before
you on the occasion of a previous visit.'*

Mervin Brown nodded.

" Anything else? " he asked patiently.

" You know that a special envoy from China is
on his way here at the present moment to meet
Imrnelan? "

" Oscar Immelan, the German Commissioner? **

" The same," Nigel assented.

" A most delightful fellow," the Prime Minister
declared warmly, " and a great friend to this coun
try."

*' I must take the liberty of disagreeing with you,"
Nigel rejoined, " because I know very well that he
is our bitter enemy. Prince Shan, who is on his way
from China to meet him, is the envoy of the one
country outside Europe whom we might fear. We

n8 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

sit still and do nothing. We have no means of know
ing what may be plotted against us here in London.
At least a polite request might be sent to Prince
Shan to ask him to pay you a visit and disclose the
nature of his conference with Immelan."

" If he cares to come, we shall be glad to see him,"
Mervin Brown replied, " but I for one shall not go
out of my way to talk politics."

" Do you know what politics are, sir? " Nigel
asked, in a sudden fury.

The Prime Minister's eyes flashed for a moment.
He controlled himself, however, and rang the bell.

" I have an idea that I do," he answered. " A few
millions of my fellow countrymen believe the same
thing, or I should not be here. I think that you
know what my principles are, Lord Dorminster. I
am here to govern this country for the benefit of the
people. We don't want to govern any one else's
country, we don't want to meddle in any one else's
affairs. Least of all do we want to revert to the
times when your uncle was a young man, and every
country in Europe was sitting with drawn sword,
trusting nobody, fearing everybody, living in a state
of nerves, with the roll of the drum always in their
ears. The best preventative of war, in my opinion,
is not to believe in it. Good morning, Lord Dor-
minster."

It was a dismissal against which there was no
appeal. Nigel followed the secretary from the room.

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 119

" You found the Chief a little bit ratty this morn
ing, I expect, Lord Dorminster," the latter re
marked. " We've had the French Mission here."

" Mr. Mervin Brown has at least the virtue of
knowing his own mind,*' Nigel replied dryly.

CHAPTER XIII

The automobile turned in through the great en
trance gates of the South London Aeronautic
Terminus and commenced a slow ascent along the
broad asphalted road to what, a few years ago, had
been esteemed a new wonder of the world. Maggie
rose to her feet with a little exclamation of wonder.

" Do you know I have never been here at night
before?" she exclaimed. " Isn't it wonderful!"

" Marvellous ! " Nigel replied. " It's the largest
aeronautic station in the world — bigger, they say,
than all our railway termini put together. Look at
the flares, Maggie! No wonder the sky from the
housetop at Belgrave Square seems always to be on
fire at night !"

They were approaching now the first of the huge
sheds which were arranged in circular fashion around
an immense stretch of perfectly level asphalted
ground. Every shed was as big as an ordinary rail
way station, its arched opening framed with electric
illuminations. Inside could be seen the crowds of
people waiting on the platforms; in many of them,
the engine of a great airship was already throbbing,
waiting to start. In the background was a huge

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 121

wireless installation, and around, at regular inter
vals, enormous pillars, on the top of which flares
of different-coloured fire were burning. The auto
mobile came to a standstill before a large electrically
illuminated time chart. Nigel alighted for a moment
and spoke to one of the inspectors.

" Which station for the Black Dragon^ private
ship from China ? " he enquired.

The man glanced at the chart.

" Number seven, on the other side," he replied.
" You can drive around."

" How is she for time? "

" She crossed the North Sea punctually," he re
plied. " We should see her violet lights in ten
minutes. Mind the traffic as you pass number three.
The North ship from Norway is just in."

Nigel addressed a word of caution to the chauffeur,
and they drove on. From the first shed they passed
a stream of vehicles was pouring out, — porters
with luggage, jostling throngs of newly arrived pas
sengers on their way to the Electric Underground.
They drove into number seven shed, left the car,
and walked to the end of the long platform. The
great arc of glass-covered roof above them was bril
liantly illuminated, throwing a queer downward light
upon the long line of waiting porters, the refresh
ment rooms, the kiosks and newspaper stalls. In the
far end, a huge airship, bound for the East, was
already filling up. Maggie and her companion stood

122 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

for a few minutes gazing into the huge void of space.

" Tell me about Naida," the former begged, a
little abruptly.

" Naida is a wonderful woman," Nigel declared
enthusiastically. " We lunched at Giro's. She wore
a black and white muslin gown which arrived this
morning from Paris. Afterwards we went down
to Ranelagh and sat under the trees."

" Throwing yourself thoroughly into your little
job, aren't you!" Maggie sniffed.

" You'll have a chance to catch me up before
long," he replied. " Naida has promised that she will
arrange a meeting with the Prince."

" I wonder what Oscar Immelan will have to say
about it," Maggie reflected.

" To tell you the truth," Nigel said hopefully,
" I believe that Immelan is losing ground. His whole
scheme is too selfish. Of course, Naida won't dis
cuss these things with me in plain words, but she
gives me a hint now and then. Amongst her gifts,
she has a marvellous sense of justice and a hatred
of any form of bribery. That is where I feel con
vinced that she and Immelan will never come to
gether. Immelan could never see more than the selfish
side, even of a world upheaval. Naida searches
everywhere for motive. She has the altruistic in
stinct. I wonder no longer at Matinsky. She is a
born ruler herself."

" I'm glad you are getting along with her,"

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 123

Maggie remarked. "Look !" she broke off , catching
at his arm. " The violet lights ! "

High up in the sky outside, two violet specks of
light suddenly rose and fell like airballs. A crowd
of mechanics appeared through subterranean doors
and stood about in the vast arena. Very soon the
airship came into sight, her cars brilliantly illum
inated. She circled slowly round and came noise
lessly to the ground, and with the mechanics running
by her side, and her engines now scarcely audible,
came slowly into the shed and to a standstill by the
side of the platform. Maggie and her companion
stood well in the background.

" There he is," the latter whispered.

Immelan, suddenly appeared as though from the
bowels of the earth, was shaking hands warmly with
a tall, slender man who was one of the first to
descend from the airship. They talked rapidly to
gether for a few minutes. Then they disappeared,
walking down towards the luggage-clearing station.
Maggie watched the retreating figures earnestly.

" He doesn't look in The least Chinese," she de
clared.

" I told you he didn't," Nigel replied. " He was
considered the best-looking man of his year up at
Oxford."

Maggie was unusually silent on their way back.

" It was perhaps scarcely worth our while, this
little expedition of ours," Maggie said thoughtfully.

124 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

" You're not sorry that we came? " he asked.

She shook her head. " I think not," she replied.

" Why only * think' ? "

She roused herself with an effort.

" I don't know, Nigel," she confessed. " I can't
imagine what is wrong with me. I feel shivery —
nervous — as though something were going to
happen."

He looked at her curiously. This was a Maggie
whom he scarcely recognised.

" Presentiments ? " he asked.

" Absurd, isn't it ! " she replied, Aith a weak smile.
" I'll get over it directly. I don't think I am going
to like Prince Shan, Nigel."

" Well, you haven't been long making up your
mind," he observed. " I shouldn't have thought you
had been able even to see his face."

" I had a queer, lightning-like glimpse of it," she
reflected. " To me it seemed as though it were carved
out of granite, and as though all that was human
about him were the mouth and the eyes. I wish he
hadn't been looking."

" Are you flattering yourself that he will recog
nise you? " Nigel asked.

" I know that he will," she answered simply.

In a corner of the white-and-gold restaurant at
the Ritz on the following evening, Prince Shan and
Immelan dined tete-a-tete, Immelan in the best of

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 125

spirits, talking of the pleasant trifles of the world,
drinking champagne and pointing out notabilities;
Prince Shan, his features and expression unchang
ing, and his face as white as the perfectly fitting shirt
he wore. His clothes were fashionable and distinc
tive, his black pearls unobtrusive but wonderful, his
smoothly brushed dark hair, his immaculate finger
nails, his skilfully tied tie all indicative of his close
touch with western civilization. There was nothing,
in fact, except his sphinx-like expression, the slightly
unusual shape of his brilliant eyes, and his queer air
of personal detachment, to denote the Oriental. He
drank water, he ate sparingly, he preserved an al
most unbroken silence, yet he had the air of one
giving courteous attention to everything which his
companion said and finding interest in it. Only once
he asked a question.

" You are well acquainted here, my host,"1 he
said. " You know the trio at the table just behind
the entrance — the attractive young lady with her
chaperon, and a gentleman who I rather fancy must
be an old college acquaintance whose name I have
forgotten. Tell me some more about them in their
private capacity, and not as saviours of their coun
try."

Immelan frowned slightly as he glanced across
the room.

" There is not much to tell," he answered, with
out enthusiasm. " The young lady is, as you know,

126 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

Lady Maggie Trent. The older lady, with the white
hair, is, I believe, her aunt. The name of their
escort is Lord Dorminster. You would probably
know him by the name of Kingley — he has only
just succeeded to the title."

Prince Shan was looking straight across the room,
his eyes travelling over the heads of the many bril
liant little groups of diners to rest apparently upon
an empty space in the white-and-gold walls. He
had been a great traveller, but always his first eve
ning, when he came once more into touch with a
civilisation more meretricious but more poignant
than his own, resulted in this disturbing cloud of
sensations. His companion's voice sounded emptily
in his ears.

" They say that the young lady is engaged to
Lord Dorminster. That is only gossip, however."

For the second time Prince Shan looked directly
at the little group. His eyes rested upon Maggie,
simply dressed but wonderfully soignee, very allur
ing, laughing up into the face of her escort. Their
eyes did not actually meet, but each was conscious
of the other's regard. Once more he felt the dis
turbance of the West.

" If we should chance to come together naturally,"
he said, " it would gratify me to make the acquaint
ance of Lady Maggie Trent."

CHAPTER XIV

The introduction which Prince Shan had re
quested came about very naturally. The lounge of
the hotel was more than usually crowded that eve
ning, and the table towards which an attentive
maitre d'hotel conducted Imraelan and his companion
was next to the one reserved by Nigel. The trans
ference of a chair opened up conversation. Immelan
was bland and ingenuous as usual, introducing every
one, glad, apparently, to make one common party.
Prince Shan remained by Maggie's side after the
introduction had been effected. A chair which Imme
lan schemed to offer him elsewhere he calmly refused.

" This is my first evening in London, Lady
Maggie," he said. " I am fortunate."

"Why?" she asked.

He looked at her meditatively. Then he accepted
her unspoken invitation and seated himself on the
lounge by her side.

" We who come from the self-contained countries
of the world," he explained, " and China is one of
them, come always with the desire and longing for
new experiences, new sensations. My own appetite
for these is insatiable."

128 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

" And am I a new sensation ? " Maggie asked,
glancing up at him innocently enough, but with a
faint gleam of mockery in her eyes.

" You are," he answered placidly. " You reveal
— or rather you suggest — the things of which in
my country we know nothing."

" But I thought you were all so hyper-civilised
over there," Maggie observed. " Please tell me at
once what it is that I possess which your womenkind
do not."

" If I answered all that your question implies,"
he said, " I should make use of speech too direct for
the conventions of the world in which you live. I
would simply remind you that whereas we men in
China may claim, I think, to have reached the same
standard of culture and civilisation as Europeans,
we have left our womenkind far behind in that re
spect. The Chinese woman, even the noble lady, does
not care for serious affairs. The God of the Moun
tains, as they call him, made her a flower to pluck,
a beautiful plaything for her chosen mate. She re
mains primitive. That is why, in time, man wearies
of her, why the person of imagination looks some
times westward, finds a new joy and a strange new
fascination in a wholly different type of femininity."

" But you have many European women now living
in China," Maggie reminded him, — " American
women, too, and they are so much admired every
where."

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 129

" The Chinese, especially we of the nobility,*'
Prince Shan replied, " are born with racial preju
dices. An individual may forgive an affront, a na
tion never. The days of retaliation by force of arms
may indeed have passed, but the gentleman of China,
even of these days, is not likely to take to his heart
the woman of America."

" Dear me," Maggie murmured, " isn't it rather
out of date to persevere in these ancient feuds ? "

" Feeling of all sorts is out of date," he admitted
patiently, " yet there are some things which endure.
I should be honoured by your friendship, Lady
Maggie."

u This is very sudden," she laughed. " I am very
flattered — but what does it mean? "

" Permission to call upon you — and your aunt,"
he added, glancing around the little circle.

" We shall be delighted," Maggie replied, " but
you won't like my aunt. She is a little deaf, and she
has no sense of humour. She has come to live with
us because Lord Dorminster and I are not really re
lated, although we call ourselves cousins, and I
should hate to leave Belgrave Square. You shall
take me out to tea to-morrow afternoon instead, if
you like."

A smouldering fire burned for a moment in his eyes.

" That will make me very happy," he said. " I
shall attend you at four o'clock."

Thenceforward, conversation became general.

130 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

Prince Shan, with the air of one who has achieved his
immediate object, left his place by Maggie's side and
talked with grave courtesy to her aunt. Presently
the little party broke up, bound, it seemed, for the
same theatre. Nigel had become a little serious.

" Well, you've made a good start, Maggie,'* he
remarked, leaning forward in his place in the limou
sine.

" Have I ? " Maggie answered thoughtfully. " I
wonder! "

" I wish we could get at him in some different
fashion," her companion observed uneasily.

" My dear man, I'm hardened to these enter
prises," Maggie assured him. " I even let the Presi
dent of the German Republic hold my hand once when
his wife wasn't looking. Nothing came of it," she
added, with a little sigh. ** These Germans are ter
ribly sentimental when it doesn't cost them anything.
They've no idea of a fair exchange."

" By a * fair exchange ' you mean," her aunt sug
gested, a little censoriously, " that you expected him
to barter his country's secrets for a touch of your
fingers ? "

" Or my lips, perhaps," Maggie added, with a lit
tle grimace. " Please don't look so serious, Aunt.
I'm not really in love with Prince Shan, you know,
and to-night I rather feel like marrying Nigel, if I '
can get him back again. I like his waistcoat buttons,
and the way he has tied his tie."

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 131

Too late, my dear," Nigel warned her. " I give
you formal notice. I have transferred my affec
tions."

" That decides me," Maggie declared firmly. " I
shall collect you back again. I hate to lose an ad
mirer."

" The nonsense you young people talk ! " Mrs.
Boiling-ton Smith observed, as they reached the thea
tre.

Chalmers joined them soon after they had reached
their box. He sank into the empty place by Mag
gie's side which Nigel had just vacated and leaned
forward confidentially.

" So you've started the campaign," he whispered.

" How do you know? " she enquired.

" I was at the Ritz to-night," he told her, " at the
far end of the room with my Chief and two other
men. We were behind you in the lounge afterwards."

" I was so engrossed," Maggie murmured.

Chalmers paused for a moment to watch the per
formance. When he spoke again, his voice, was, for
him, unusually serious.

" Young lady," he said, " I told you on our first
meeting my idea of diplomacy. Truth ! No beating
about the bush — just the plain, unvarnished truth!
I have conceived an affection for you."

" Goodness gracious ! " Maggie exclaimed softly.
" Are you going to propose ? "

" Nothing," he assured her, " is farther from my

132 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

thoughts. Lest I should be misunderstood, let me
substitute the term * affectionate interest ' for ' affec
tion.' I have felt uneasy ever since I saw Prince
Shan watching you across the restaurant to-night."

" Did he really watch me? " Maggie asked com
placently.

" He not only watched you," Chalmers assured
her, " but he thought about you — and very little
else."

" Congratulate me, then," she replied. " I am on
the way to success."

Chalmers frowned.

" I'm not quite so sure," he said. " You'll think
I'm an illogical sort of person, but I've changed my
mind about your role in this little affair."

"Why?"

" Because I am afraid of Prince Shan," he an
swered deliberately.

She looked at him from behind her fan. Her eyes
sparkled with interest. If there were any other feel
ing underneath, she showed no trace of it.

" What a queer word for you to use ! "

He nodded.

" I know it. I would back you, Lady Maggie, to
hold your own against any male creature breathing,
of your own order and your own race, but Prince
Shan plays the game differently. He possesses every
gift which women and men both admire, but he hasn't

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 133

our standards. Life for him means power. A wish
for him entails its fulfilment."

" You are afraid," Maggie suggested, still with
the laughter in her eyes, " that he will trifle with my
affections ? "

" Something like that," he admitted bluntly.
"Prince Shan will be here for a week — perhaps a
fortnight. When he goes, he goes a very long dis
tance away."

" I may decide to marry him," Maggie said.
" One gets rather tired here of the regular St.
George's, Hanover Square, business, and all that
comes afterwards."

" Dear Lady Maggie," Chalmers replied, " that
is the trouble. Prince Shan would never marry you."

" Why not? " she asked simply.

" First of all," Chalmers went on, after a mo
ment's hesitation, " because Prince Shan, broad-
minded though he seems to be and is on all the great
questions of the world, still preserves something of
what we should call the superstition of his country
and order. I believe, in his own mind, he looks upon
himself as being one of the few elect of the earth.
He travels, he is gracious everywhere, but though
his manner is the perfection of form, in his heart he
is still aloof. He rides through the clouds from
Asia, and he leaves always something of himself over
there on the other side. Let me tell you this, Lady
Maggie. I have never forgotten it. He was at Har-

134 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

vard in my year, and so far as he unbent to any one,
he sometimes unbent to me. I asked him once whether
he were ever going to marry. He shook his head
and sighed. ' I can never marry,' he replied. ' Why
not ? ' I asked him. * Because there are no women of
the Shan line alive,' he answered. Later, he took
pity on my bewilderment. He let me understand.
For two thousand years, no Shan has married, save
one of his own line. To ally himself with a princess
of the royal house of England would be a mesalliance
which would disturb his ancestors in their graves.
Of course, this sounds to us very ridiculous, but to
him it isn't. It is part of the religion of his life."

" You are not very encouraging, are you? " Mag
gie remarked. " Perhaps he has changed since those
days."

Her companion shook his head.

" I should say not," he replied, " the Prince is
not of the order of those who change."

" Is it matrimony alone," she asked, " which he
denies himself ? "

Chalmers glanced towards Mrs. Bollington Smith,
whose eyes were closed. Then he nodded towards the
stage.

" You see the woman who has just come upon the
stage?"

Maggie glanced downwards. A very wonderful
little figure in white satin, lithe and sinuous as a cat,
Chinese in the subtlety of her looks, European in

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 135

her almost sinister over-civilisation, stood smiling
blandly at the applauding audience.

" La Belle Nita," Maggie murmured. " I thought
she was in Paris. Well, what of her? "

" She is reputed to be a protegee of Prince Shan.
You see how she looks up at his box."

Maggie was conscious of a queer and almost in
comprehensible stab at the heart. She answered
without hesitation or change of expression, however.

" The Prince must be kind to a fellow country
woman," she declared indulgently. " You are talk
ing terrible scandal."

La Belle Nita danced wonderfully, sang like a lin
net, danced again and disappeared, notwithstanding
the almost wild calls for an encore. With the end
of her turn came a selection from the orchestra and
a general emptying of the boxes. Presently Chalmers
went in search of Nigel. A few moments later there
was a knock at the door. Maggie gripped the sides
of her chair tightly. She was moved almost to fury
by the turmoil in which she found herself. Her in
vitation to enter was almost inaudible.

" I am deserted," Prince Shan explained, as he
made his bow and took the chair to which Maggie
pointed. " My friend Immelan has left me to visit
acquaintances, and I chance to be unattended this
evening. I trust that I do not intrude."

" You are very welcome here," Maggie replied.
" Will you listen to the orchestra, or talk to me? "

136 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

" I will talk, if I may," he answered. " Lord Dor-
minster is not with you? "

" Nigel went to look up a friend whom he wants
to bring to supper. He is one of those people who
seem to discover friends and acquaintances in every
quarter of the globe."

" And to that fortunate chance," her visitor con
tinued, dropping his voice a little, " I owe the hap
piness of finding you alone."

Maggie glanced towards her aunt, who was lean
ing back in her seat.

" Aunt seems to be asleep, but she isn't," she de
clared. " She is really a very efficient chaperon.
Talk to me about China, please, and tell me about
your Dragon airship. Is it true that you have
silver baths, and that Gauteron painted the walls of
your dining salon? "

" One is in the air five days on the way over," he
answered indifferently. " It is necessary that one's
surroundings should be agreeable. Perhaps some day
I may have the honour of showing it to you. In the
darkness, and when she is docked, there is little to
be seen."

She looked at him curiously.

" You knew that I was there, then ? "

" Yours was the first face I saw when I descended
from the car," he told her. " You stood apart,
watching, and I wondered why. I knew, too, that

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 137

you would be at the Ritz to-night. That is why I
came there. As a rule, I do not dine in public."

" How could you possibly know that I was going
to be there? " Maggie asked curiously.

" I sent a gentleman of my suite to look through
the names of those who had booked tables," he an
swered. " It was very simple."

" It was only a chance that the table was reserved
in my name," she reminded him.

" It was chance which brought us together," he
rejoined. " It is chance under another name to
which I trust in life."

For the first time in her life, in her relations with
the other sex, Maggie felt a queer sensation which
was almost fear. She felt herself losing poise, her
will governed, her whole self dominated. Uncon
sciously she drew herself a little away. Her eyes
travelled around the crowded house and suddenly
rested on the box which her visitor had just vacated.
Seated behind the curtains, but leaning slightly for
ward, her eyes fixed intently upon Prince Shan, was
La Belle Nita, a green opera cloak thrown around
her dancing costume, a curious, striking little figure
in the semi-obscurity.

" You have some one waiting for you in your
box," Maggie told him.

He glanced across the auditorium and rose to his
feet. She gave him credit for the adroitness of mind

138 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

which rejected the obvious explanation of her pres
ence there.

" I must go," he said simply, " but I have many
things which I desire to say to you. You will not
forget to-morrow afternoon ? "

" I shall not forget," she answered, in a low tone.

CHAPTER XV

There was a half reluctant admiration in Prince
Shan's eyes as he sat back in the dim recesses of his
box and scrutinised his visitor. La Belle Nita had
learnt all that Paris and London could teach her.

" You are very beautiful, Nita," he said.

" Many men tell me so," she answered.

" Life has gone well with you since we met last ? "
he asked reflectively.

" The months have passed," she replied.

" You have been faithful? "

" Fidelity is of the soul."

He paused, as though pondering over her answer.
A famous French comedian was holding the stage,
and the house rocked with laughter.

" You have the same apartment? "

She pressed the clasp of a black velvet bag which
rested on the edge of the box, opened it, and passed
him a key.

" It is the same."

He held the key in his fingers for a moment, but he
had the air of a man to whom the action had no
significance.

" You have enough money? " he asked.

140 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

" I have saved a million francs," she told him. " I
am waiting for my lord to speak of things that mat
ter. The woman in the box over there — who is
she?"

" An English spy," he answered calmly.

She lowered her eyes for a moment, as though to
conceal the sudden soft flash.

" An English spy," she repeated. " My rival in
espionage."

" You have no rival, Nita," he replied, " and she
is in the opposite camp."

Her two red lips were distorted into a pout.

" Is it over, my task? " she asked. " I am weary
of Paris. I love it over here better. I am weary
of French officers, of these solemn officials who come
to my room like guilty schoolboys, and who speak of
themselves and their importance with bated breath,
as though their whisper would rock the world. My
master has enough information? "

" More than enough," he assured her. " You have
done your work wonderfully."

" Shall I now deal with her ? " she continued, with
a slight, eager movement of her head towards the
opposite box.

He smiled.

" She is harmless, she and her entourage," he re
plied. " Some stroke of good fortune brought them
word of the meeting between myself and Immelan, and
beyond that they guessed at its significance. They

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 141

were at the shed to watch my arrival. Now, with
their mouths open, they sit and wait for the infor
mation which they hope will drop in. They are very
ingenuous, these Anglo-Saxons, but they are not dip
lomats."

She turned her head and looked across the audi
torium. Maggie was talking to a man whom Nigel
had just brought in, and who was bending over her
in obvious admiration. Nita, with her wealth of
cosmetics, her over-red lips, stared curiously at this
possible rival, with her clear skin, her beautiful neck
and shoulders, her hair dressed close to her head, her
air of quiet, almost singular distinction.

" The young lady," she confessed, " wears her
clothes well for an English woman. She is bien
soignee, but she looks a little difficult."

His eyes followed the direction of hers, and her
object was achieved. She read correctly the light
that gleamed in them.

" I may come to-night ? " she asked quietly.

He shook his head.

" Not again," he replied.

A violinist now held the stage, a Pole newly come
to London. La Belle Nita closed her eyes. For a
few minutes her sorrow seemed to throb to the minor
music to which she was listening.

" For all my work, then," she said presently, " for
the suffering and the risk, there is to be nothing? "

142 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

" Is it nothing for you to be invited to live in
whatsoever manner you choose? " he remonstrated.

" It is little," she replied steadily. " There are a
dozen who would do this for me, who pray every day
that they may do so. What are all these things be
side the love of my master? "

He looked at her a little sadly, yet without any
sign of real feeling. To him she represented nothing
more than a doll with brains, from whose intelligence
he had profited, but of whose beauty he was weary.

" You know what our poet says, Nita," he remind
ed her. " * Love is like the rustling of the wind in
the almond trees before dawn.' We cannot command
it. It comes to us or leaves us without reason."

She looked across the auditorium once more and
spoke with her head turned away from her com
panion.

" There is no one in the East," she said, " because
those who write me weekly send news of my lord's
doings. There is no one in the East, because there
they give the body who know nothing of the soul.
And so my Prince is safe amongst them. But here —
these western women have other gifts. Is that she,
master of my life and soul? "

*' I met her this evening for the first time," he
replied.

She laughed drearily.

" Eyes may meet in the street without speech, a
glance may burn its way into the soul. Once I

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 143

thought that I might love again, because a stranger
smiled at me in the Bois, and he had grey eyes, and
that look about his mouth which a woman craves for.
He passed on, and I forgot. You see, my lord was
still there. — So this is the woman."

" Who knows ? " he answered.

Immelan came into the box a little abruptly.
There was a cloud upon his face which he did his best
to conceal. Almost simultaneously, a messenger
from behind the scenes arrived for Nita. She rose
to her feet and wrapped her green cloak closely
around her lissom figure.

" In a quarter of an hour," she said, " I have to
appear again. It is to be good-night, then? "

She raised her eyes to his, and for a moment the
appeal which knows no nationality shone out of their
velvety depths. She stood before him simply, like a
slave who pleads. Not a muscle of Prince Shan'a
face moved.

" It is to be good-night, Nita," he answered calmly.

Her head drooped, and she passed out. She had
the air of a flower whose petals have been bruised.
Immelan looked after her curiously, almost compas
sionately.

" It is finished, then, with the little one, Prince? "
he enquired.

" It is finished," was the calm reply.

Immelan stroked his short moustache thoughtfully.

144 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

" Is it wise? " he ventured. " She has been faith
ful and assiduous. She knows many things."

Prince Shan's eyes were filled with mild wonder.

" She has had some years of my occasional com
panionship," he said. " It is surely as much as she
could hope for or expect. We are not like you
Westerners, Immelan," he went on. " Our women are
the creatures of our will. We call them, or we send
them away. They know that, and they are pre
pared."

" It seems a little brutal," Immelan muttered.

" You prefer your method? " his companion asked.
" Yet you practise deceit. Your fancy wanders, and
you lie about it. You lose your dignity, my friend.
No woman is worth a man's lie."

Immelan was leaning back in his chair, gazing
steadfastly across the crowded theatre.

" Your principles," he said, " are suited to your
own womenkind. La Belle Nita has become western
ised. Are you sure that she accepts the situation
as she would if she dwelt with you in Pekin ? "

" I am her master," Prince Shan declared calmly.
" I have made no promises that I have not fulfilled."

" The promise between a man and a woman is an
unspoken one," Immelan persisted. " You have not
been in Europe for five months. All that time she
has awaited you."

" Something else has happened," Prince Shan said
deliberately.

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 145

" Since your arrival in London ? "

" Since my arrival in London, since I stepped out
of my ship last night."

Immelan was frankly incredulous.

" You mean Lady Maggie Trent ? "

" Certainly ! I have always felt that some day or
other my thoughts would turn towards one of these
strange, western women. That time has come. Lady
Maggie possesses those charms which come from
the brain, yet which appeal more deeply than any
other to the subtle desires of the poet, the man of
letters and the philosopher. She is very wonderful,
Immelan. I thank you for your introduction."

Immelan ceased to caress his moustache. He
leaned back in his chair and gazed at his companion.
For many years he and the Prince had been associ
ates, yet at that moment he felt that he had not even
begun to understand him.

" But you forget, Prince," he said, " that Lady
Maggie and her friends are in the opposite camp.
When our agreement is concluded and known to the
world, she will look upon you as an enemy."

" As yet," Prince Shan answered calmly, " our
agreement is not concluded."

Immelan's face darkened. Nothing but his awe
of the man with whom he sat prevented an expression
of anger.

" But, Prince," he expostulated, " apart from po
litical considerations, you cannot really imagine that

146 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

anything would be possible between you and Lady
Maggie? "

" Why not? " was the cool reply.

" Lady Maggie is of the English nobility," Imme-
lan pointed out. " Neither she nor her friends would
be in the least likely to consider anything in the
nature of a morganatic alliance."

*' It would not be necessary," Prince Shan de
clared. " It is in my mind to offer her marriage."

Immelan dropped the cigarette case which he had
just drawn from his pocket. He gazed at his com
panion in blank and unaffected astonishment.

"Marriage?" he muttered. "You are not seri
ous ! "

" I am entirely serious," the Prince insisted. " I
can understand your amazement, Immelan. When
the idea first came into my mind, I tore at it as I
would at a weed. But we who have studied in the
West have learnt certain great truths which our own
philosophers have sometimes missed. All that is best
of life and of death our own prophets have taught
us. From them we have learnt fortitude and chas
tity: devotion to our country and singleness of pur
pose. Over here, though, one has also learnt some
thing. Nobility is of the soul. A Prince of the
Shans must seek not for the body but for the spirit
of the woman who shall be his mate. If their spirits
meet on equal terms, then she may even share the
throne of his life."

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 147

Immelan was speechless. There was something
final and convincing in his companion's measured
words. His own protest, when at last he spoke,
sounded paltry.

" But supposing it is true that she is already en
gaged to Lord Dorminster? "

Prince Shan smiled very quietly.

" That," he said, " can easily be disposed of."

" But do you seriously believe that you would be
able to induce her to return with you to Pekin ? "
Immelan persisted.

At that moment it chanced that Maggie turned
her head and looked across at the two men. Prince
Shan leaned a little forward to meet her gaze. His
face was expressionless. The lines of his mouth
were calm and restful, yet in his eyes there glowed
for a single moment the fire of a man who looks upon
the thing he covets.

" I seriously believe it," he answered under his
breath.

CHAPTER XVI

Maggie leaned back in her chair with a little sigh
of content. The scarlet-coated waiter had just re
moved their tea tray, a pleasant breeze was rustling
through the leaves of the trees under which she and
Prince Shan were seated. From the distance came
the low strains of a military band. Everywhere on
the lawns and along the paths men and women were
promenading.

" Confess that this is better than Rumpelmayer's
or the Ritz," she murmured lazily.

" It is better," he admitted. " It is a very won
derful place."

" You have nothing like it in China ? " she asked
him.

" It would not be possible," he answered. " Democ
racy there is confined to politics. In other respects,
our class prejudices are far more rigid than yours.
But then I see a great change in this country since
I was here as a student."

" You have lost your affection for it, perhaps? "
she ventured, looking at him through half-closed eyes.

" On the contrary," he assured her, " my gratitude
towards her was never so great as at this moment.

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 149

Your country has given me nothing I prize so much,
Lady Maggie, as my knowledge of you."

She looked away from his very earnest eyes, and
the light retort died away upon her lips. The men
and women whom she watched so steadfastly seemed
like puppets, the flowers artificial, the music unreal.
Already she was beginning to resent the influence
which he was establishing over her. The art of
badinage in which she was so proficient stood her in
no stead. Words, even the power of light speech, had
deserted her.

" Tell me about the changes that you see," she
asked.

" Perhaps," he replied, after a moment's hesita
tion, " it is because I am an occasional visitor that
differences seem so marked to me, but look at the
tables there. That is the Duke of Illinton, is it not?
At the next table, the man in the strange clothes
and uncomfortable hat — it seems to me that I have
seen him somewhere under different circumstances."

Maggie nodded.

" Life is a terrible hotchpotch nowadays," she
admitted. " After the war, our gentry and aristoc
racy who were not wealthy were taxed out of exist
ence. The profiteers, and the men who had made
fortunes during the war, took their place. It has
made the country prosperous but less picturesque."

" You put things very clearly," he said. " To-day
in England is certainly the day of the shopkeeper's

150 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

triumph. Wealth is a great thing, but it is great
only for what it leads to. I think your philosopher
of the streets, your new school of politicians, have
alike forgotten that."

" You have lost sympathy with England, have you
not, Prince Shan ? " Maggie asked him.

He turned towards her, a faint but kindly smile
upon his lips, a light in his eyes which she did not
altogether understand.

" Lady Maggie," he said quietly, " they tell me
that you are interested in the political side of my
visit to this country."

"Who tells you that?" she demanded. "What
have I to do with politics? "

" You have been gifted with great intelligence,"
he continued, " and you are the confidante of your
connection, Lord Dorminster. Lord Dorminster is
one of those few Englishmen who realise the ill direc
tion of the destinies of this country. You would
like to help him in his present very strenuous efforts

to ascertain the truth as to certain movements di-

•

rected against the British Empire. That is so, is it
not?"

" In plain words, you are accusing me of being a

" Ah, no ! " he protested gently. " No one can
be a spy in one's own country. You are within your
rights as a patriot in seeking to discover whatever
may be useful knowledge to the English Government.

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 151

That, I fear, is one reason for your kindness to me,
Lady Maggie. I trust that it is not the only rea
son."

She knew better than to make the mistake of de
nial. After all, it was an absurdly unequal contest.

" It is not the only reason," she assured him, a
little tremulously.

" I am glad. One word more upon this subject,
and we speak of other things. Please, Lady Maggie,
do not stoop to be hopelessly obvious in these efforts
of yours. If I drop a pocketbook, believe me there
will be nothing in it to interest you. If I speak with
Immelan or any other, save in the secrecy of my
chamber, there will be nothing which it will be worth
your while to overhear. If Lord Dorminster should
decide to adopt buccaneering expedients and kidnap
me, the attempt would probably fail; and if it suc
ceeded, it would in the end profit you nothing. As
you say over here, for your sake, Lady Maggie, I
will lay the cards upon the table. I am discussing
with Oscar Immelan, and indirectly with an emissary
from Russia, a certain scheme which, if carried out,
would certainly be harmful to this country. I shall
decide for or against that scheme entirely as it seems
to me that it will be for the good or evil of my own
country. Nothing will change my purpose in that.
In your heart you know that nothing should change
it. But I bring to the deliberations upon which we
are engaged a new sentiment towards your country,

152 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

since I have known you. Other things being equal,
I shall decline the scheme for your sake, Lady
Maggie."

There was a curious quivering at the corners of
her mouth and a lump in her throat. She was abso
lutely incapable of speech. His grave and reason
able words seemed to fill her with a sense of import
ance. Her little efforts and schemes seemed puny,
almost laughable.

" So you see," he continued, after a moment's
pause, " that you have done your work. You have
done it very effectually. You have created a strong
sentiment in my mind in favour of this country, a
sentiment which I did not previously possess. There
is no other way in which you could have influenced
the decision soon to be arrived at. In return for
what I have told you, Lady Maggie, I ask for no
promise, but I beg you to forget the role you played
in Germany ; not to attempt — you will not be of
fended? — to influence events so far as I am con
cerned by any attempt at spying upon my actions,
or by treating me any other way than with your
whole confidence. I do not ask for any promise.
I have said something to you which has been cm my
mind. Now I shall ask you a favour," he declared,
rising to his feet. " You will walk with me through
the flower gardens yonder. If there is one thing I
miss in this country so much that the want of it
makes me sometimes a little homesick," he went on,

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 153

as they moved away together, " it is the perfume
of the flowers in the morning and at night from the
gardens of my summer palace. Next time you hon
our me with an hour or so of your time, I shall ask
you to let me bring some pictures of my favourite
home in China."

Maggie walked dutifully by his side, answering
his frequent questions about flowers and shrubs, lis
tening while he told her about his white peacocks and
the tame birds which were his own pets. Suddenly
she broke into a fit of laughter. She looked up
into his grave face, her eyes imploring him for sym
pathy.

" I feel so like a precocious child," she exclaimed,
" who has been put in her place ! No one has ever
turned me inside out so skilfully, has made me feel
buch an ignorant little donkey. Do you know, I half
like you for it, Prince Shan, and half detest you."

He seemed suddenly to become younger, to meet
her upon her own ground.

" Please do not be angry," he begged. " Please
do not think that I look upon you at all as a little
child. You have brought something1 into my life for
which I have searched and hoped, and I am deeply
grateful to you. Shall I — go on ? "

She caught at his wrist.

" Please not," she begged breathlessly. " Be con
tent with this moment."

They had paused by the side of an arbour. She

154 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

suddenly felt the pressure of his fingers upon her
hand.

" I shall be content," he said, in a low tone, the
passion of which seemed to throw her senses into
complete turmoil, " only when I have what my heart
desires. But I will wait."

They walked almost into the midst of a little
crowd of acquaintances. Maggie was herself again
immediately. She chattered away with Chalmers,
and led him off to see a wonderful yellow rose. He
watched her curiously. When they found themselves
isolated at the end of the garden path, he ignored
for a moment their mission.

" Any luck, Lady Maggie? " he asked.

She looked up at him, and to his amazement her
eyes were swimming.

" I think that Prince Shan will be on our side,"
she replied.

CHAPTER XVII

Monsieur Felix Senn, the distinguished Frenchman
who had just acquitted himself of the special mis
sion which had brought him to London, was a little
loath to depart from the historical chamber in Down
ing Street. Diplomatically, the interview was over.
The Prime Minister, however, on this occasion, was
courteous, even affable. There seemed no reason for
his visitor to hurry away.

" You will accept, I trust, sir," the latter begged,
" this assurance of my extreme regret at the present
unfortunate condition of affairs. I am one of those
who threw his hat into the air on the boulevards in
August, 1914, when the news came that your great
country had decided to fulfil her unwritten promises
and in the cause of honour had declared war against
Germany. I have never forgotten that moment, sir,
even in those months and years of misunderstandings
which followed the signing of the Treaty of Peace.
I was one of those who pointed always to the sacri
fices which Great Britain had made on our behalf,
to her glorious deeds on land and sea. I have always
been a friend of your country, Mr. Mervin Brown.
That is why I think I was chosen to bring this dis
patch."

156 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

" You are very welcome," the Prime Minister as
sured him. " As for' the purpose of your mission, I
assure you that I view it less seriously than you do.
Glance with me at the position for a moment. Not
withstanding the era of peace which has sprung up
all over the world, owing to the happy influence of
the League of Nations, France alone has decided to
follow still the path of militarism. Your last year's
arm}7 estimates were staggering. The number of
men whom you keep out of your factories in order
that they may learn a useless drill and wear an un
necessary uniform is, to the economist, simply scan
dalous. Look at the result. Compare our imports
and exports with yours. See the leaps and strides
with which we have improved our financial position
during the last ten years. We have not only recov
ered from the after effects of the war, but we have
reached a state of prosperity which we never previ
ously attained. You, on the other hand, are still
groaning with enormous taxes. You carry a burden
which is self-imposed and unnecessary. You, of all
the nations, refuse to recognise the fact that the gov
ernment of the great countries of the world has
passed into the hands of the democracy, and that
democracies will not tolerate war."

" There I join issue with you, sir," the Frenchman
replied. " These are the obvious and expressed views
of other European countries, yet month by month
came rumours of the training of gre^t masses of

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 157

troops, far in excess of the numbers permitted by
the League of Nations. There is all the time a haze
of secrecy over what is going on in certain parts of
Germany. And as for Russia, ostensibly the freest
country in the world, Tsarism in its worst days
never imposed such despotic restrictions concerning
the coming and going1 of foreigners, in one particu
lar district, at any rate."

" The Russian Government have certainly given
us cause for complaint in that direction," Mr. Mer-
vin Brown admitted. " Strong representations are
being made to them at the present moment. On the
the other hand, the reason for their attitude is easily
enough understood. In the days when Russia lay
exhausted, foreigners took too much advantage of
her, attained far too close a grip upon her great
natural resources. Russia has determined that what
she has left she will keep to herself. The attitude is
reasonable, although I am free to admit that she is
carrying her legislation against foreigners too far."

" What about the number of men she has under
arms every year? " Monsieur Senn enquired.

" Russia has always a possible danger to fear
from China, the new Colossus of Asia," the Prime
Minister pointed out. " Even Russia herself has
not made such strides within the last fifteen years as
China. The secession of the Asiatic countries from
the League of Nations demanded certain precautions
which Russia is justified in taking."

158 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

The Frenchman had risen to his feet, but he still
lingered. A tall man, of commanding presence, with
olive complexion, deep brown eyes, and black hair
lightly streaked with grey, Monsieur Felix Senn had
been a great figure in the war of 1914 - 1918 and had
retained since a commanding position in French poli
tics. It had often been said that nothing but his
great friendship for England had prevented his gain
ing the highest honours. His present mission, there
fore, which was practically to end the alliance be
tween the two countries, was a peculiarly painful one
to him.

" I must tell you before we part, Mr. Mervin
Brown," he said gravely, " that neither I nor many
3 of my fellow countrymen share your optimism. You
seem to have inherited the timeworn theory that the
War of 1914 was entirely provoked by the junker
class of Germans. That is not true. It was a
people's war, and the people have never forgotten
what they were pleased to consider the harsh terms
of the Treaty of Peace. Then as regards Russia,
have you ever considered that Russia financially and
politically is more than half German? When Ger
many lost the war, she had one great consolation —
she acquired Russia. You have compared the eco
nomic condition of France to-day with that of your
country, sir. I admit your commercial supremacy,
but let me tell you this. I would not, for the great-

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 159

est boon the gods could offer me, see France in the
same helpless state as England is in to-day."

The Prime Minister rose also to his feet. He wore
an air of offended dignity.

" Monsieur Senn," he declared, " the spirit of
militarism is in the blood of your country. You
cannot rid yourself of it in one generation or two.
But, believe me, no people's government at any time
in the future, whether it be English, Russian, Ger
man, or American, will ever dare to suggest or even
to dream of a war of aggression or revenge. If we
are comparatively unprotected, it is because we need
no protection. We hear the footfall of your march
ing millions, and we thank God that that sound is
represented in our country by the roar of machinery
and the blaze of furnaces."

The Frenchman bowed and accepted the hand
which the Prime Minister offered him.

" I present to you once more, sir," he said, " the
compliments and infinite regrets of Monsieur le
President."

A chapter of English history ended with the quiet
passing of Monsieur Senn into the sunlit street. The
latter entered his waiting automobile and drove at
once to the French Embassy. The Ambassador lis
tened in silence to his report.

" What about the Press ? " was his only question.

" Monsieur le President insists upon the truth,
being known," the emissary announced. " France

160 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

has pledged her word against secret treaties. Be
sides, the honour of France must never afterwards be
called in question."

The Ambassador sighed. He was new to his pres
ent post, but he had grown grey in the service of
his country.

" It is the end of a one-sided arrangement," he
declared. " It is incredible that these people do not
realise that it is against their own country — against
themselves — • that this slowly fermenting hatred is
being brewed. The racial enmity between Germany
and France is nothing compared with the hate of
antagonistic kinship between Germany and England.
However, France is the gainer by to-day's event. We
have only our own frontiers to watch."

Monsieur Felix Senn wandered on to the St. Phil
ip's Club, where he found his old friend Prince Kar-
schoff talking in a corner of the smoking room with
Nigel. They were both of them prepared for the
news which he presently communicated to them.
Karschoff was bitter, Nigel silent.

" Well said Carlyle that * History is philosophy
teaching by examples '," the former expounded.
" How the historian of the future will revel in this
epoch ! What treatises he will write, what parallels
he will draw! See him point to the days when the
aristocracy ruled England, and England fought
and flourished; then to the epoch when the bour
geoisie took their place, and with a mighty effort,

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 161

met a great emergency and flourished. And finally,
in sympathy with the great European upheaval, in
sympathy with the great natural law of change,
Labour ousts both, single-eyed Labour, and down
goes England, crumbling into the dust ! — Let us
lunch, my friends. The cuisine is still good here."

Nigel excused himself.

" I am engaged," he said. " We may meet after
wards."

" Something tells me, my dear Nigel," Karschoff
declared, " that you are bent on frivolity."

" If to lunch with a woman is frivolous, I plead
guilty," Nigel replied.

Karschoff's face was suddenly grave. He seemed
on the point of saying something but checked him
self and turned away with a little shrug of the
shoulders.

" Each one to his taste," he murmured. " For
my aperitif, a dash of absinthe in my cocktail; for
Dorminster here, the lure of a woman's smile. Per
haps he gains. Who knows?"

CHAPTER XVIII

Nigel waited for his luncheon companion in the
crowded vestibule of London's most famous club
restaurant. He was to a certain extent out of the
picture among the crowd of this new generation of
pleasure seekers, on the faces of whom opulence and
acquisitiveness had already laid its branding hand.
The Mecca alike of musical comedy and the Stock
Exchange, the place, however, still preserved a curi
ous attraction for the foreign element in London,
so that when at last Naida appeared, she was ex
changing courtesies with an Italian Duchess on one
side and a celebrated Russian dancer on the other.
Nigel led her at once to the table which he had se
lected in the balcony.

" I have obeyed your wishes to the letter," he
said, " and I think that you are right. Up here we
are entirely alone, and, as you see, they have had the
sense to place the tables a long way apart. Am I
to blame, I wonder, for asking you to do so uncon
ventional a thing as to lunch here again alone with
me? "

She drew off her gloves and smiled across the table
at him. Her plain, tailor-made gown, with its high

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 163

collar, was the last word in elegance. The simplicity
of her French hat was to prove the despair of a well-
known modiste seated downstairs, who made a sketch
of it on the menu and tried in vain to copy it. Even
to Nigel's exacting taste she was flawless.

" Is it unconventional? " she asked carelessly. " I
do not study those things. I lunch or dine with a
party, generally, because it happens so. I lunch
alone with you because it pleases me."

" And for this material side of our entertain
ment? " he enquired, smiling, as he handed her the
menu card.

" A grapefruit, a quail with white grapes, and
some asparagus," she replied promptly. " You see,
in one respect I am an easy companion. I know
exactly what I want. A mixed vermouth, if you
like, yes. And now, tell me your news? "

" There is news," he announced, " which the whole
world will know of before many hours are past.
France has broken her pact with England."

" It is my opinion," she said deliberately, " that
France has been very patient with you."

" And mine," he acknowledged. " We have now
to see what will become of a fat and prosperous coun
try with a semi-obsolete fleet and a comic opera
army."

" Must we talk of serious things? " she asked soft
ly. " I am weary of the clanking wheels of life."

He sighed.

164 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

** And yet for you," he said, " they are not grind
ing out the fate of your country."

" Nevertheless, I too hear them all the time," she
rejoined. " And I hate them. They make one lose
one's sense of proportion. After all, it is our own
individual and internal life which counts. I can un
derstand Nero fiddling while Rome burned, if he
really had no power to call up fire engines."

"Are you an individualist? " he asked.

" Not fundamentally," she replied, " but I am
caught up in the throes of a great reaction. I have
been studying events, which it is quite true may
change the destinies of the world, so intently that I
have almost forgotten that, after all, the greatest
thing in the world, my world, is the happiness or ill-
content of Naida Karetsky. It is really of more
importance to me to-day that my quail should be
cooked as I like it than that England has let go
her last rope."

" You are not an Englishwoman," he reminded her.

" That is of minor importance. We are all so
much immersed in great affairs just now that we
forget it is the small ones that count. I want my
luncheon to be perfect, I want you to seem as nice
to me as I have fancied you, and I want you to chase
completely away the idea that you are cultivating
my acquaintance for interested motives."

" That I can assure you from the bottom of my
heart is not the case," he replied. " Whatever other

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 165

interests I may feel in you," he added, after a mo
ment's hesitation, " my first and foremost is a per
sonal one."

She looked at him with gratitude in her eyes for
his understanding.

" A woman in my position," she complained, " is
out of place. A man ought to come over and study
your deservings or your undeservings and pore over
the problem of the future of Europe. I am a woman,
and I am not big enough. I am too physical. I
have forgotten how to enjoy myself, and I love plea
sure. Now am I a revelation to you? "

" You have always been that," he told her. " You
are so truthful yourself," he went on boldly, " that
I shall run the risk of saying the most banal thing
in the world, just because it happens to be the truth.
I have felt for you since our first meeting what I
have felt for no other woman in the world."

" I like that, and I am glad you said it," she
declared lightly enough, although her lips quivered
for a moment. " And they have put exactly the
right quantity of Maraschino in my grapefruit. I
feel that I am on the way to happiness. I am going
to enjoy my luncheon. — Tell me about Maggie."

" I saw her yesterday," he answered. " We have
arranged for her to come and live at Belgrave
Square, after all."

" My terrible altruism once more," she sighed. " I
had meant not to speak another serious word, and

166 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

yet I must. Maggie is very clever, amazingly clever,
I sometimes think, but if she had the brains of all
of her sex rolled into one, she would still be facing
now an impossible situation."

" Just what do you mean? " he asked cautiously.

" Maggie seems determined to measure her wits
with those of Prince Shan,'* she said. " Believe me,
that is hopeless."

She looked up at him and laughed softly.

" Oh, my dear friend," she went on, " that wooden
expression is wonderful. You do not quite know
where I stand, except — may I flatter myself? — as
regards your personal feelings for me. Am I for
Immelan and his schemes, or for your own foolish
country? You do not know, so you make for your
self a face of wood."

" Where do you stand ? " he asked bluntly.

" Sufficiently devoted to your interests to beg you
thi&," she replied. " Do not let your little cousin
think that she can deal with a man like Prince Shan.
There can be only one end to that."

Nigel moved a little uneasily in his place.

" Prince Shan is only an ordinary human being,
after all," he protested.

" That is just where you are mistaken," she de
clared. " Prince Shan is one of the most extraor
dinary human beings who ever lived. He is one of
the most farseeing men in the world, and he is abso
lutely the most powerful."

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 167

" But China," Nigel began

" His power extends far beyond China," she in
terrupted, " and there is no brain in the world to
match his to-day."

" If he were a god wielding thunderbolts," Nigel
observed, " he could scarcely do much harm to Mag
gie here in London."

" There was an artist once," she said reflectively,
" who drew a caricature of Prince Shan and sent it
to the principal comic paper in America. It was
such a success that a little time later on he followed
it up with another, which included a line of Prince
Shan's ancestors. Within a month's time the artist
was found murdered. Prince Shan was in China at
the time."

" Are you suggesting that the artist was murdered
through Prince Shan's contrivance? "

"Am I a fool?" she answered. "Do you not
know that to speak disrespectfully of the ancestors
of a Chinaman is unforgivable? To all appearances
Prince Shan never moved from his wonderful palace
in Pekin, many thousands of miles away. Yet he
lifted his little finger and the man died."

" Isn't this a little melodramatic? " Nigel mur
mured.

" Melodrama is often nearer the truth than peo-
pls think," she said. " Shall I give you another
instance? I know of several."

" One more, then."

i68 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

" Prince Shan was in Paris two years ago, incog
nito," she continued. " There was at the time a
small but very fashionable restaurant in the Bois,
close to the Pre Catelan. He presented himself one
night there for dinner, accompanied, I believe, by
La Belle Nita, the Chinese dancer who is in London
to-day. As you know, there is little in Prince Shan's
appearance to denote the Oriental, but for some rea
son or other the proprietor refused him a table.
Prince Shan made no scene. He left and went else
where. Three nights later, the cafe was burnt to
the ground, and the proprietor was ruined. "

" Anything else? " Nigel asked.

" Only one thing more," she replied. " I have
known him slightly for years. In Asia he ranks to
all men as little less than a god. His palaces are
filled with priceless treasures. He has the finest
collection of jewels in the world. His wealth is sim
ply inexhaustible. His appearance you appreciate.
Yet I have never seen him look at a woman as he
looked at your cousin the first time he met her. I
was at the Ritz with my father, and I watched. I
know you think that I am being foolish. I am not.
I am a person with a very great deal of common
sense, and I tell you that Prince Shan has never
desired a thing in life to which he has not helped
himself. Maggie is a clever child, but she cannot
toss knives with a conjuror."

Nigel was impressed and a little worried.

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 169

" It seems absurd to think that anything could
happen to Maggie here in London," he said,
" after "

He paused abruptly. Naida smiled at him.

" After her escape from Germany, I suppose you
were going to say? You see, I know all about it.
There was no Prince Shan in Berlin.'*

He shrugged his shoulders slightly.

" Well," he admitted, " I don't quite bring my
self to believe in your terrible ogre, so I shall not
worry. Tell me what news you have from Russia? "

"Political?"

" Any news."

She smiled.

" I notice," she said, " that English people are
changing their attitude towards my country. A few
years ago she seemed negligible to them. Now they
are beginning to have — shall I call them fears ?
Even my kind host, I think, would like to know what
is in Paul Matinsky's heart as he hears the friends
of Oscar Immelan plead their cause."

" I admit it," he told her frankly. " I will go
farther. I would give a great deal to know what
is in your own mind to-day concerning us and our
destiny. But these things are not for the moment.
It was not to discuss or even to think of them that
I asked you here to-day."

" Why did you invite me, then ? " she asked, smiling.

" Because I wanted the pleasure of having you

170 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

opposite me," he replied, — " because I wanted to
know you better."

" And are you progressing? "

" Indifferently well," he acknowledged. " I seem
to gain a little and slide back again. You are not
an easy person to know well."

" Nothing that is worth having is easy," she an
swered, " and I can assure you, when my friendship
is once gained, it is a rare and steadfast thing."

" And your affection? " he ventured.

Her eyes rested upon his for a moment and then
suddenly drooped. A little tinge of colour stole into
her cheeks. For a moment she seemed to have lost
her admirable poise.

" That is not easily disturbed," she told him
quietly. " I think that I must have an unfortunate
temperament, there are so few people for whom I
really care."

He took his courage into both hands.

" I have heard it rumoured," he said, " that Matin-
sky is the only man who has ever touched your
heart."

She shook her head.

" That is not the truth. Paul Matinsky cares
for me in his strange way, and he has a curiously
exaggerated appreciation of my brain. There have
been times," she went on, after a' moment's hesita
tion, " when I myself have been disturbed by fancies
concerning him, but those times have passed."

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 171

" I am glad," he said quietly.

His fingers, straying across the tablecloth, met
hers. She did not withdraw them. He clasped her
hand, and it remained for a moment passive in his.
Then she withdrew it and leaned back in her chair.

c; Is that meant to introduce a more intimate note
into our conversation? " she asked, with a slight
wrinkling of the forehead and the beginnings of a
smile upon her lips.

" If I dared, I would answer ' yes '," he assured
her.

" They tell me," she continued pensively, " that
Englishmen more than any other men in the world
have the flair for saying convincingly the things
which they do not mean."

" In my case, that would not be true," he answered.
" My trouble is that I dare not say one half of what
I feel." **"

She looked across the table at him, and Nigel
suddenly felt a great weight of depression lifted
from his heart. He forgot all about his country's
peril. Life and its possibilities seemed somehow all
different. He was carried away by a rare wave of
emotion.

" Naida ! " he whispered.

"Yes?"

Her eyes were soft and expectant. Something of
the gravity had gone from her face. She was like a
girl, suddenly young with new thoughts.

172 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

" You know what I am going to say to you? "

" Do not say it yet, please," she begged. " Some
how it seems to me that the time has not come, though
the thought of what may be in your heart is won
derful. I want to dream about it first," she went
on. " I want to think."

He laughed, a strange sound almost to his own
ears, for Nigel, since his uncle's death, had tasted
the very depths of depression.

" I obey," he agreed. " It is well to dally with the
great things. Meanwhile, they grow."

She smiled across at him.

" I hope that they may,*' she answered. " And
you will ask me to lunch again? "

" Lunch or dine or walk or motor — whatever you
will," he promised.

She reflected for a moment and then laughed.
She was drawing on her gloves now, and Nigel was
paying the bill.

" There are some people who will not like this,"
she said.

" And one," he declared, " for whom it is going
to make life a Paradise."

They passed out into the street and strolled lei
surely westwards. As they crossed Trafalgar
Square, a stream of newsboys from the Strand were
spreading in all directions. Nigel and his companion
seemed suddenly surrounded by placards, all with
the same headlines. They paused to read:

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 173

TRIUMPH OF THE CHANCELLOR

HUGE REDUCTION OF THE NATIONAL DEBT

TOTAL ABOLITION OF THE INCOME TAX

They walked on. Naida said nothing, although
she shook her head a little sorrowfully. Nigel
glanced across the Square and down towards West
minster.

" They will shout themselves hoarse there this
afternoon," he groaned.

For the first time she betrayed her knowledge of
coming events.

" It is amazing," she whispered, " for the writing
on the wall is already there."

CHAPTER XIX

Seated in one of the first tier boxes at the Albert
Hall, in the gorgeous but obsolete uniform of a staff
officer in the Russian Imperial Forces, Prince Kar-
schoff, with Nigel on one side and Maggie on the
other, gazed with keen interest at the brilliant scene
below and around. The greatest city the world has
ever known seemed in those days to have entered
upon an orgy of extravagance unprecedented in his
tory. Every box and every yard of dancing space
on the floor beneath was crowded with men and women
in wonderful fancy costumes, the women bedecked
with jewels which eager merchants had brought to
gether from every market of the world ; even the men,
in their silks and velvets and ruffles, carrying out
the dominant note of wealth. It was a ball given for
charity and under royal patronage.

" All our friends seem to be here to-night," the
Prince remarked, glancing around. " I saw Naida
with her father and the eternal Oscar Immelan.
Chalmers is here with an exceedingly gay party, and
yonder sits his Imperial Highness, looking very much
the barbaric prince. — By the by," he added, glanc
ing towards Maggie, " I thought that he was not
coming? "

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 175,

Maggie, who seemed a little tired, nodded quietly.
It was a week or ten days later, and an early sea
son was now in full swing.

" He told me that he was not coming," she said.
" I suppose the temptation to wear that gorgeous
raiment was too much for him."

" Apropos of that, there is one curious thing to
be noted here with regard to clothes," the Prince
continued. " Amongst the men, you find Venetian
Doges, Chancellors, gallants of every age, but scarce
ly a single uniform. In a way, this seems typical of
the passing of the militarism of your country. You
are beginning to remind me of Venice in the Middle
Ages. There is a new type of brain dominant here,
fat instead of muscle, a citizen aristocracy instead
of the lean, clear-eyed, athletic type."

Maggie moved in her place a little irritably.

*' I am tired of warnings," she declared. " I wish
some one could do something."

" It is impossible," the Prince pronounced sol
emnly. " Napoleon earned for himself a greater
claim to immortality when he christened the English
a nation of shopkeepers than when he won the Bat
tle of Austerlitz. If the Englishman of to-day saw
his material prosperity slipping away from him, then
indeed he would be nervous and restless, ready to
lean towards every wind that blew, to listen to every
disquieting rumour. To-day his bank balance is
prodigious, and all's well with the world. — How

176 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

wonderfully Prince Shan lives up to his part to
night!"

They looked across towards the opposite box,
whose single occupant, in the bright green robes of
a mandarin, sat looking down upon the gay throng
with an absolutely immovable expression. There
was something almost regal about his air of detach
ment, his solitude amidst such a gay scene.

" There is one of the strangest and most consist
ent figures in history," Karschoff, who was in a
talkative frame of mind, went on reflectively. " I
honestly believe that Prince Shan considers himself
to be of celestial descent, to carry in his person the
honour of countless generations of Manchus. He
has no intimates. Even Immelan usually has to seek
an audience. What his pleasures may be, who knows ?
— because everything that happens with him hap
pens behind closed walls. To-night, the door of his
box is guarded as though he were more than royalty.
No one is allowed to enter unless he has special per
mission."

" There is some one entering now," Maggie point
ed out, " for the first time. Watch ! "

La Belle Nita stood for a moment in the front of
the box. She was dressed in the gala costume of a
Chinese lady, in a cherry-coloured robe with wide
sleeves, her hair, with its many jewelled ornaments,
like a black pool of night, her face ghastly white
•with a superabundance of powder. Prince Shan

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 177

turned his head slightly towards her, and though no
muscle of his face moved, it was obvious that her
coming was unwelcome. She began to talk. He lis
tened with the face of a sphinx. Presently she drew
back into the shadows of the box. She had thrown
herself into a chair, and her face was hidden.

"La Belle Nita has made a mistake," Maggie
observed. " His Serene Highness evidently had no
wish to be disturbed."

Karschoff's eyes rested upon the figure in green
silk, and they were filled with an unwilling admira
tion.

" That man is magnificent," he declared. " Watch
his face now that he is speaking. Not a muscle
moves, not a flash in his eyes, yet one has the fancy
that he is saying terrible things."

It was obvious, a moment later, that La Belle Nita
had left the box. Maggie sprang up. Her colour
was a little heightened. There was a rare nervous
ness in her tone.

" Let us walk around and find some of the others,"
she suggested, turning to Nigel. " I want to dance."

They all three passed out and mingled with the
dancers. Maggie put on her mask and deliberately
glided into the crowd as though with the intention of
losing herself. It was not until she was underneath
Prince Shan's box and out of sight of its occupant
that she paused. Her thoughts were in a turmoil.
His presence there, after his deliberate assurance to

178 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

her that he had no intention of coming, his calm
and unnoticing regard of her and every one else,
seemed to confirm in every way the wave of pessi
mism which she as well as Nigel was experiencing.
She had passed Immelan in the entrance, and there
was something ominously disturbing in his cool, tri
umphant smile. She pictured to herself the agree
ment signed, some nameless terror already launched.
She remembered that Nigel had complained of
Naida's inaccessibility during the last few days. She
herself had been surprised at Prince Shan's appar
ent withdrawal, temporary though it might be, from
the peculiar but impressive position which he had
taken up with regard to her.

She stood back against the wall, in a dark corner,
striving to collect her thoughts, thankful for the
brief respite from conversation. A man in the cos
tume of a monk, who had followed her across the
room, touched her on the shoulder. He spoke in a
quiet, unfamiliar voice with a foreign accent.

" You are Lady Maggie Trent ? "

" Yes ! "

" Will you please go to box number fourteen, on
the second tier? There is some one there who waits
for you."

" Who is it? " she asked.

The monk had glided away. Maggie, after a few
minutes* reflection, slipped out into the corridor,
mounted one flight of stairs, and passed along the

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 179

semicircular balcony. The door of box number four
teen was ajar. She pushed it gently open and
glanced in. Seated so as to be out of sight of the
whole house was La Belle Nita. For a moment the
two looked at each other. Then the Chinese girl
sprang to her feet, made a quaint little bow, and,
gliding around, closed the door behind her visitor.

" Sit down, please," she invited. " I will tell you
things you may like to hear."

A sudden thought flashed into Maggie's mind.
She began to see light. She obeyed at once. The
two women sat well back and out of sight of the
house. La Belle Nita held the handle of the door in
her hand while she spoke, as though to prevent any
one entering.

" I have an enemy who was once a friend," she
said, " and I wish to do him evil. He is not only my
enemy, but he is yours. He is the enemy of all you
English people, because it is a great disaster which
he plans to bring upon you."

" You speak of Prince Shan? " Maggie exclaimed.

Even at the mention of his name, the girl shook.
She looked around as though fearing the shadows.
She rattled the door to make sure that it was closed.

" For him whom you call Prince Shan I have
worked many years, first of all in Paris, now here. I
was content with small reward. That reward he
now takes from me. It is my wish to betray him."1

" Why do you send for me ? " Maggie asked.

i8o THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

a Because you have been, an English spy,** was the
quiet reply. " It may surprise you that I know
that, but I do know. I have been a spy for Prince
Shan in Paris. You were a spy for England in Ber
lin. You were a spy for your country's sake; I
was a spy for love. Now I betray for hate."

" Please go on."

"" Prince Shan came this time to Europe with two
schemes in his mind,*' the girl continued. " One con
cerned France. That one he has discarded.
Through me he learned of the military strength of
France, her secret resources, of her tireless watch
upon the Rhine. So he listens to Immelan, and Im-
melan and he together, oh, English lady, they have
made a wonderful plan ! "

" Are you going to tell me what it is ? " Maggie
asked, her eyes bright with excitement.

tt I cannot tell you because I do not know," was
the unwilling admission, " but I will make it so that
you can discover for yourself. A few hours ago, the
plan was submitted to Prince Shan. It lies in the
third drawer of an ebony cabinet, in the room on the
left-hand side of the hall after you have entered his
house in Curzon Street."

" But no one can enter it ! " Maggie exclaimed.
** The place is like a fort. No stranger may pass
the threshold even. The Prince has told me himself
that he receives no visitors."

La BeHe Nita smiled- From a pocket somewhere

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN : = :

within the folds of her flowing gown,
two small keys.

"Listen," she said. ** The boose in Canon Street
has been called the House of Silence. There are
many sextants there, bat they cone only from be
neath and when they ave soannoned. There is what
no other person has erer possessed — the key of the
front door. There is also the key of the *••*•••*-
Prince Shan has ordered IBS autos9obde for two
o'clock. It is now barely Midnight."

The keys lay in the pahn of Maggie's hand. Her
heart had began to beat quickly,
she was comciooi of a thrill of exc

back in her corner of the railway carriage,
for the frontier, knowing that the wires were busy
with her name, and that men who knew no mercy
were on her track.

tt If the servants should hear me? "she faltered.

" You say only « I await the Prince'," La Belle
Nit a murmured. That key iicifu. leaves his own
person save for one in great favour. They wnl be
lieve that he gave it to you. You wffl be •

A queer sensation suddenly afflaitnl Maggie.

She looked at the girl opposite to her, the girl whose
body was draped in perfumed silks, •host, face was
'Hiiflc willi rice powder, whose eyes were and* She

182 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

felt no pity. What feeling she had, she did not
caie to analyse.

" Is this your key ? " she asked.

" It was mine once, but its use has been forbidden
to me," the girl replied. " Prince Shan is a changed
man. Something has come into his life of which I
know nothing, but as it has come, so must I go. I
give you your chance, lady, but already I weaken.
Go quickly, if you go at all. Please leave me, for I
am very unhappy."

Maggie stole quietly out and made her way
through the jostling throng back to her own box,
which for the moment was empty. She slipped on her
cloak, and from the hidden spaces where she stood
she looked across the auditorium. The silent figure
in green silk robes was still seated in his place, his
eyes following the movements of the dancers, his
head a little thrown back, a slight weariness in his
face. He was still alone. He still had the air of
being alone because it was his desire. Once he looked
up towards the box in which she was, and Maggie,
although she knew she was invisible, shrank back
against the wall. She set her teeth hard and looked
back through the slightly misty space. An unfamil
iar feeling for a moment almost choked her. She
waited until she had vanquished it, then adjusted
her mask and left the box.

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 193

Presently the door was stealthily opened. A face
as pale as deatn, with black eyes like pieces of coal,
was framed for a moment in the shadowed slit. A
little waft of familiar perfume stole in. La Belle
Nita, her flaming lips widely parted, as soon as she
recognised the sole occupant of the box, crept
through the opening and closed the door again.

"You are here?" she exclaimed incredulously.
"Your courage failed you? You did not go?"

" I have been and returned," Maggie answered.
" Now tell me what I have done that you should
have plotted this thing against me ? "

The girl sat on the edge of a chair and for a
moment hummed the refrain of a sad chant, as she
rocked slowly backwards and forwards.

" ' What have you done ? ' the rose asked the but
terfly. * What have you done? * the mimosa blos
som asked the little blue bird, whose wings fluttered
amongst her leaves. * You have taken love from me,
love which is the blossom of life.* "

" It sounds very picturesque," Maggie said cold
ly, " but I do not follow your allegory. What I
want to know is why you lied to me, why you sent
me to that house to meet Prince Shan? "

" How did I lie to you? " Nita demanded. " The
papers you sought were there. Were they not yours
for the asking, or was the price too great? "

" The papers were there, certainly," Maggie ac
quiesced, " but you knew very well — '*

194 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

She stopped short. Slowly the Oriental idea of it
all was beginning to frame itself in her mind. She
dimly understood the bewilderment in the other's
face.

" The papers were there, and he, the most wonder
ful of all men, was there," Nita murmured, " yet
you leave him while the night is yet young, you re
turn here without them ! "

Maggie rose from her chair, moved to the side
table and poured herself out a glass of wine, which
she drank hastily. Anything to escape from the
scornful wonder of those questioning eyes !

" I did not go there," she said, " to make bar
gains with Prince Shan. I believed as you wished
me to believe, that he was here in that box. I be
lieved that I should have found the house empty,
should have found what I wanted and have escaped
with it. Why did you do this thing? Why did you
send me on that errand when you knew that Prince
Shan was there? "

" It was my desire that he should know that you
are no different from other women," was the calm
reply. " I was a spy for him. You are a spy —
against him."

" It was a deliberate plot, then ! " Maggie ex
claimed, trying to feel the anger which she imparted
to her tone.

La Belle Nita suddenly laughed, softly and like a
bird.

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 195

" You very, very foolish Englishwoman," she said.
" A hand leaned down from Heaven, and you liked
better to stay where you were, but I am glad."

"And why?"

" Because I have been his slave," the girl con
tinued. " At odd, strange moments he has shown me
a little love, he has let me creep into a small corner
of his heart. Now I am cast out, and there is no
more life for me because there is no more love, and
there is no more love because, having felt his, no
other can come after. Here have I sat with all
the tortures of Hell burning in my blood because I
knew that you and he were there alone, because I was
never sure that, after all, I was not doing my lord's
will. And now I know that I suffered in vain. You
did not understand."

Maggie looked across at her visitor reflectively.
She was beginning to regain her poise.

" Listen," she said, " did you seriously expect me
to accept Prince Shan as a lover? "

The girl's eyes were round with wonder.

" It would be your great good fortune," she mur
mured, " if he should offer you so wonderful a thing."

Maggie laughed, — persisted in her laugh, al
though it sounded a little hard and the mirth a little
forced.

" I cannot reason with you," she declared, " be
cause you would not understand. If you love him
so much, why not go back to him? You will find

1 96 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

him quite alone. I dare say you know the secrets
of his lockless doors and hordes of unseen servants."

La Belle Nita rose to her feet. About her lips
there flickered the faintest smile.

" Young English lady," she said, " I shall not go,
because I am shut for ever out of his heart. But
listen; would you have me go? "

For a moment Maggie's poise was gone again. A
strange uncertainty was once more upon her. She
was terrified at her own feelings. The smile on the
other's lips deepened and then passed away.

" Ah," she murmured, as with a little bow she
turned towards the door, " you are not all snow and
ice, then ! There is something of the woman in you.
He must have known that. I am better content."

Alone in the box, Maggie was confronted once
more with spectres. She felt all the fear and the
sweetness of this new awakening. The old dangers
and problems, the danger of life and death, the
problem of her well-ordered days, fell away from
her as trifles. There was wilder music in the world
than any to which she had yet listened, — music
which seemed to be awakening vibrant melodies in her
terrified heart. The curtain which hung about the
forbidden world had been suddenly lifted. Little
shivers of fear convulsed her. Her standards were
confused, her whole sense of values disturbed. Her
primal virginity, left to itself because it had never
needed a guard, Had suddenly become a questioning

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 197

thing. She sat there face to face with this new
phase in her life. She was not even conscious of the
abrupt pause in the music, the agitated murmur of
voices, the sudden cessation of that rhythmical sweep
of footsteps on the floor below.

The door of the box was once more opened. Naida,
attired as a lady of the Russian Court, entered, fol
lowed by Nigel. Both were obviously disturbed.
Nigel, who was in ordinary evening dress, carrying
his discarded mask in his hand, was paler than usual
and exceedingly grave. Naida's dark eyes, too,
seemed filled with a sense of awesome things. Al
most at the same moment, Maggie realised for the
first time that the music had ceased, that there was
a hush outside, curiously perceptible, almost audible.

" What has happened ? " she asked breathlessly.

Nigel had poured out a glass of wine and was
holding it to Naida's lips.

4i Something very terrible," he said quietly.
" Prince Shan was murdered in his box there a few
minutes ago."

Maggie half rose to her feet. The walls seemed
spinning round. Then she looked across the great
empty space. The still figure in the apple-green coat
had disappeared.

" Prince Shan was murdered in that box," she re
peated, " a few minutes ago ? "

" Yes ! " Nigel assented gravely. " He seems to
have feared something of the sort, for he had two

i98 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

servants on guard outside and announced that he was
not receiving visitors to-night. No one knows any
particulars, but a number of people in the audi
torium saw him fall sideways from his chair. When
he was picked up, there was a small dagger through
his heart."

"Through Prince Shan's heart?" Maggie per
sisted wildly.

" Yes ! "

Suddenly she began to laugh. It was a strange,
hysterical ebullition of feeling, frankly horrifying.
Naida gazed at her with distended eyes.

" Prince Shan has never been here ! " Maggie ex
plained brokenly. " He has never left his house in
Curzon Street ! He is there now ! "

Nigel shook his head.

" What is the matter with you, Maggie? " he de
manded. " Every one has seen Prince Shan here.
You spoke of him yourself. He was in the box ex
actly opposite."

She shook her head.

" That was one of his suite," she cried. " I know !
I tell you I know ! " she went on, her voice rising a
little. " Prince Shan is safe in his house in Curzon
Street."

" How can you possibly know this, Maggie? "
Naida intervened eagerly.

" Because I left him there half an hour ago," was
the tremulous reply.

CHAPTER XXII

There is in the Anglo-Saxon temperament an
almost feverish desire to break away from any con
dition of strain, a sort of shamefaced impulse to
discard emotionalism. The strange hush which had
lent a queer sensation of unreality to all that was
passing in the great building was without any warn
ing brought to an end. Whispers swelled into
speech, and speech into almost a roar of voices.
Then the music struck up, although at first there
were few who cared to dance. There were many
who, like Maggie and her companions, silently left
their places and hurried homewards.

In the limousine scarcely a word was spoken.
Maggie leaned back in her seat, her face dazed and
expressionless. Opposite to her, Nigel sat with set,
grim face, looking with fixed stare out of the window
at the deserted streets. Of the three, Naida seemed
more on the point of giving way to emotion. They
had. passed Hyde Park Corner, however, before a
word was spoken. Then it was she who broke the
silence.

" Where do we go to first ? " she demanded.

" To the Milan Court," Nigel replied.

200 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

" You are taking me home first, then? "

« Yes ! "

She was silent for a moment. Then she leaned
forward and touched the window.

" Pull that down, please," she directed. " I am
stifling."

He obeyed, and the rush of cold, wet air had a
curiously quietening effect upon the nerves of all of
them. Raindrops hung from the leaves of the lime
trees and still glittered upon the windowpane. On
the way towards the river, the masses of cloud were
tinged with purple, and faintly burning stars shone
out of unexpectedly clear patches of sky. The
night of storm was over, but the wind, dying away
before the dawn, seemed to bring with it all the sweet
ness of the cleansed places, to be redolent even of
the budding trees and shrubs, — the lilac bushes,
drooping with their weight of moisture, and the pink
and white chestnut blossoms, dashed to pieces by
the rain but yielding up their lives with sweetness.
The streets, in that single hour between the hurrying
homewards of the belated reveller and the stolid
tramp of the early worker, were curiously empty and
seemed to gain in their loneliness a new dignity.
Trafalgar Square, with the National Gallery in the
background, became almost classical; Whitehall the
passageway for heroes.

"What does it all mean?" Naida asked, almost
pathetically.

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 201

It was Maggie who answered. Her tone was life
less, but her manner almost composed.

" It means that the attempt to assassinate Prince
Shan has failed," she said. " Prince Shan told me
himself that he had no intention of going to the ball.
He kept his word. The man who was murdered was
one of his suite."

" But how do you know this ? " Naida persisted.

" You heard what I told you in the box," was the
quiet reply. " I shall explain — as much as I can
explain — to Nigel when we get home. He can tell
you everything later on to-day at lunch-time, if you
like."

" It has been one of the strangest nights I ever
remember," Naida declared, after a brief pause.
" Oscar Immelan, who was dining with us, arrived
half an hour late. I have never seen him in svfch a
condition before. He had the air of a broken man."

" Have you any idea of what had happened? "
Nigel asked.

" Only this," Naida replied. " We saw Prince
Shan last night. He spent several hours with us.
I may be wrong, but I came to the conclusion then
that he had at any rate modified his views about
the whole situation since his arrival in England."

Again there was a brief silence. The minds of all
three of them were busy with the same thought.
Prince Shan's word had been spoken and Immelan's
hopes dashed to the ground, — and within a few

202 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

hours, this murder! They nursed the thought, but
no one put it into words.

A sleepy-eyed porter opened the door of the car
outside the Milan Court. Naida gathered herself
together with a little shiver.

" I think that after to-night," she said quietly,
" there need be no secrets between any of us.'*

Nigel held her hand in his. Their eyes met, and
both of them were conscious, in that moment, of
closer personal relations, of the passing of a certain
sense of strain. She even smiled as she turned
away.

" To-morrow," she concluded, " there must be a
great exchange of confidences. I am lunching at
Belgrave Square, if Maggie has not forgotten, and
I shall tell you then what I have written to Paul
Matinsky. I showed it to Prince Shan yesterday.
Good night ! "

She patted Maggie's hand affectionately and
flitted away. The revolving doors closed behind her,
and the car swung out once more into the Strand,
glided down the Mall, past Buckingham Palace, and
stopped at last before the great, lifeless house in
Belgrave Square. Nigel opened the front door with
a latchkey and turned on the light.

" You won't mind sparing me a few minutes ? *'
he begged.

" I suppose not," she answered, shivering.

He led the way to the study. She threw off her

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 203

cloak and sank into the depths of one of the big
easy-chairs. She looked very frail and rather
pathetic as she leaned her head against the chair
back. Now that the excitement was over, the strain
of the emotion she had experienced showed in the
violet shadows under her eyes and in the droop of
her shoulders.

" I am tired," she said plaintively.

Nigel came over and sat on the arm of her chair.

" Tell me what happened to-night, Maggie."

" The little Chinese girl sent for me to go to her
box," she explained. " She told me where in Prince
Shan's house were hidden the papers which revealed
the understanding between Immelan and himself.
She gave me a key of the house and a key of the
cabinet. We could both see the man whom I believed
to be Prince Shan seated in his box. She assured
me that he would be there for the next two hours. I
went to the house in Curzon Street."

"Well?"

His monosyllable was sharp and incisive. His face
was grey and anxious. She herself remained lifeless.
All that there was of emotion between them seemed
to have become vested in his searching eyes.

" I found what I believe to have been the papers.
They were in the cabinet, just where she had told
me. Then I turned around and found Prince Shan
watching me. He had been there all the time."

" Go on, please."

204 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

" At first he said little, but I knew that he was
very angry. I have never felt so ashamed in my
life."

" You must tell me the rest, please.'*

She stirred uneasily in her chair.

" It is very difficult," she confessed frankly.

" Remember," he persisted, " that in a way,
Mnggie, I am your guardian. I am responsible, too,
for anything which may happen to you whilst you
are engaged in work for the good of our cause. You
seem to have walked into a trap. Did he threaten
you, or what? "

" There was nothing definite," she answered,
" and yet — he made me understand."

" Made you understand what ? "

" His wishes," she replied, looking up coolly.
" He offered me the papers."

" That damned Chinaman ! "

There was a cold light in her eyes which Nigel
had met with before and dreaded.

" You forget yourself, Nigel," she said. " Prince
Shan is a great nobleman."

" The rest ? Tell me the rest," he demanded.

" I am here," she reminded him.

" And the papers ? "

" I came away without them."

He turned, and, walking to the window, threw
it open. The dawn had become almost silvery, and
the leaves of the overhanging trees were rustling

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 205

in the faintest of breezes. Presently he came back.

'* What exactly are your feelings for this man,
Maggie? " he asked.

For the first time he was struck with a certain
pathos in her immobile face. She looked up at him,
and there was a gleam almost of fear in her eyes.

" I don't know, Nigel," she confessed.

He moved restlessly about the room, seemed to
notice for the first time the whisky and soda set out
upon the sideboard and the open box of cigarettes.
He helped himself and came back.

" Did you read the papers ? " he asked.

She shook her head.

" I had no chance."

" You don't know for certain what they were
about?"

" I think I do," she replied. " I believe they con
tained the text of the agreement between Immelan
and Prince Shan. I believe they would have shown
us exactly what we have to fear."

He stood there for a moment thoughtfully.

" To-night," he said, " I find it difficult to concen
trate upon these things. Naida was extraordinarily
hopeful. She has seen Prince Shan, and between them
I believe that they have decided to let Oscar Imme-
lan's scheme alone. Karschoff, too, has heard
rumours. He is of the same opinion. Somehow or
other, though, I seem to have lost my sense of per-

206 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

spective. A greater fear has come into my heart,
Maggie."

She rose to her feet and laid her hands upon his
.shoulders.

" Nigel," she whispered, " I cannot answer you. I
cannot say what you would like me to say, although,
on the other hand, there is no surety of what you
seem to fear. I am going to bed. I am very tired."

A feeble shaft of sunlight stole into the room,
flickered and passed away, then suddenly reap
peared. Nigel turned and opened the door, and she
passed out, curiously silent and absorbed. He looked
after her, perplexed and worried. Suddenly a
.strangely commonplace, yet — in the silence of the
house and the great hall — an almost dramatic sound
startled him. The front doorbell rang sharply.
After a moment's hesitation, he hurried to it himself.
Itarschoff stood upon the steps, still in his evening
clothes, his face a little drawn and haggard in the
bright light.

" I could not resist coming in, Nigel," he said.
" I saw the light in the study from outside. Is there
any definite news? "

Nigel drew him inside.

" There are indications," he replied cautiously,
" that the present danger is passing."

KarschofF nodded.

" I gathered so from Naida," he admitted.
"" Prince Shan, though, is the pivot upon which the

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 207

whole thing turns. You have heard nothing final
from him? "

" Nothing! Tell me, was any one arrested at the
Albert Hall?"

" No one. The murdered man, as I suppose you
have heard, was Sen Lu, one of the Prince's secre
taries." \

" The whole thing seems strange," Nigel remarked.
" Do you suppose Prince Shan knew that an attempt
upon his life was likely to-night? "

Karschoff shook his head doubtfully.

'* It is difficult to say. These Orientals contrive
to surround themselves with such an atmosphere of
mystery. But from what I know of Prince Shan,"
he went on, "I do not think that he is one to shirk
danger — even from the assassin's dagger."

A milk cart drew up with a clatter outside. There
was the sound of the area gate being opened. Kar
schoff put on his hat. He looked Nigel in the face.

" Maggie," he began

Nigel nodded understandingly as he threw open
the front door.

" I'll tell you about it to-morrow," he promised,
" or rather later on to-day. She's a little over
wrought. Otherwise — there's nothing."

Karschoff turned away with a sigh of relief.

" I am glad," he said. " Prince Shan is the soul
of honour according to his own standard, but these
Orientals — one never knows. I am glad, Nigel."

CHAPTER XXIH

In his spacious reception room, with its blue walls,
the high vases of flowers, the faint odour of incense,
its indefinable ascetic charm, Prince Shan sat in his
high-backed chair whilst Li Wen, his trusted secre
tary, talked. Li Wen was very eloquent. His tone
was never raised, he never forgot that he was speak
ing to a being of a superior world. He had a great
deal to say, however, and he was eager to say it.
Prince Shan, as he listened, smoked a long cigarette
in a yellow tube. He wore a ring in which was set
an uncut green stone on the fourth finger of his left
hand. Although the hour was barely nine o'clock,
he was shaved and dressed as though for a visit of
ceremony. He listened to Li Wen gravely and
critically.

" I am sorry about the little one," he said, look
ing through the cloud of tobacco smoke up towards
the ceiling. " Nita has been very useful. She has
been as faithful, too, as is possible for a woman."

Li Wen bowed and waited. He knew better than
to interrupt.

" It was through the information which Nita
brought me," his master went on, " that I have been

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 209

able to check the truth of Immelan's statement as
to the French dispositions and the rapprochement
with Italy. Nita has served me very well indeed.
What she has done in this matter, she has done in
a moment of caprice."

" My lord," Li Wen ventured, " a woman is of no
account in the plans of the greatest. She is like a
leaf blown hither or thither on the winds of love
or jealousy. She may be used, but she must be
discarded."

" It is a strange world, this western world," Prince
Shan mused. " In our own country, Li Wen, we plot
or we fight, we build the great places, climb to the
lofty heights, and when we rest we pluck flowers,
and women are our flowers. But here, while one
builds, the women are there; while one climbs, the
women are in the way. They jostle the thoughts,
they disturb the emotions, not only of the poet and
the pleasure seeker, but of the man who hews his
way upwards to the goal he seeks. And it is very
deliberate, Li Wen. An Englishman eats and drinks
in public and places opposite him a flower he has
plucked or hopes to pluck. He drugs himself delib
erately. Half the time when he should be soaring
in his thoughts, he descends of deliberate intent.
Instead of his flower, he makes his woman the part
ner of his grossness."

" The master speaks," Li Wen murmured. " But
what of the woman? She awaits your pleasure."

aio THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

" I shall hear what she has to say," Prince Shan
decided.

Walking backwards as nimbly as a cat, his head
drooped, his hands in front of him, Li Wen left
his master's presence. A moment later he reap
peared, ushering in La Belle Nita. Prince Shan
waved him away. The girl came slowly forward,
pale and trembling, smouldering fires in her narrow
eyes. Not a muscle of Prince Shan's face moved.
He watched her approach in silence. She sank on
to the floor by the side of his chair.

" What is my master's will? " she asked.

Prince Shan looked downwards at her, and she be
gan to tremble again. There was nothing threaten
ing in his eyes, nothing menacing in his expression.
Nevertheless, she felt the chill of death.

" You have done me many good and faithful ser
vices, Nita," he said. " What evil spirit has put it
into your brain that it would be a good thing to
deceive me? "

Her scarlet lips opened and closed again.

" How have I deceived?" she faltered. "I gave
the keys to the woman with the blue eyes, and I sent
her to my lord. It was a hard thing to do that, but
I did it. Was there any risk of evil? My lord was
here to deal with her."

" Why did you do this thing, Nita ? " he asked.

" My lord knows," she answered simply. " I did
it to bring evil upon this English woman whom he

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN air

has preferred. I did it that he might understand.
It was my lord himself who told me that she was a
spy. Now it is proved.'*

Prince Shan's fingers stole into the pocket of his
coat. He held out a crumpled sheet of paper, on.
which was written a single sentence. The girl began
to shiver.

" You have been very anxious indeed, Nita," he
said, " to bring evil upon this woman. This is the
message you sent to Immelan. Do you recognise
your words ? Listen, these are your words :

" ' The greatest of all will desert you, if the
Englishwoman whom he loves is not speedily removed-
Even to-night he may give papers into her hand, and
your secret will be known.' '

The girl sat transfixed. She seemed to have lost
all power of speech.

" That is a copy of the message which you sent
to Immelan," he told her sternly.

" It is the terrible Li Wen," she faltered. " He
has the second sight. The devil walks with him."

" The devil is sometimes a useful confederate,"
her companion continued equably. " You warned
Immelan that it was in my mind to refuse his terms
and to open my heart to the Englishwoman, and you
seduced Sen Lu to carry your message. Yet your
judgment was at fault. The hand of Immelan was
stretched out against me, and me alone. But for my
knowledge of these things, I might have sat in the

212 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

place of Sen Lu, who rightly died in my stead. What
have you to say ? "

She rose to her feet. He made no movement, but
his eyes watched her, and the muscles of his body
stiffened. He watched the white hand which stole
irresolutely towards the loose folds of her coat.

" You ask me why I have done this," she cried,
" but you already know. It is because you have
taken this woman with the blue eyes into your heart."

" If that were true," he answered, " of what con
cern is it to others? I am Prince Shan."

" You sent me here to breathe this cursed
western atmosphere," she moaned, " to drink in their
thoughts and see with their eyes. I see and know
the folly of it all, but who can escape? Jealousy
with us is a disease. Over there one creeps away
like a hurt animal because there is nothing else.
Here it is different. The Frenchwoman, the English
woman, who loses her lover — she does not fold her
hands. She strikes, she is a wronged creature. I
too have felt that."

Her master sat for long in silence.

" You are right," he pronounced. " I shall try
to be just. You are a person of small understanding.
You have never made any effort to live with your
head in the clouds. Let that be so. The fault was
mine."

"I do not wish to live," she cried.

He shrugged his shoulders.

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 213

" Live or die — what does it matter ? " he an
swered indifferently. " With life there is pain, and
with death there is none, but if you choose life, re
member this. The woman with the blue eyes, as
you call her, has become the star of my life. If
harm should come to her, not only you, but every
one of your family and race, in whatsoever part
of the world they may be, will leave this life in
agony."

The girl stood and wondered.

" My lord thinks so much of a plaything? " she
murmured.

Prince Shan frowned. His finely shaped, silky
eyebrows almost met. She covered her eyes and
drooped her head.

" We of the East," he said, " although we are
the mightier race, progress slowly, because the
love of new things is not with us. Something of
western ways I have learned, and the love of woman.
It is not for a plaything I desire her whom we will
not name. She shall sit by my side and rule. I
shall wed her with my brain as with my body. Our
minds will move together. We shall feel the same
shivering pleasure when we rule the world with great
thoughts as when our bodies touch. I shall teach
her to know her soul, even as my own has been
revealed to me."

" No woman is worthy of this, my lord," the girl
faltered.

214 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

He waved his hand and she stole away. At the
door he stopped her.

" Do you go to life or death, Nita? " he asked.

She looked at him with a great sorrow.

" I am a worthless thing," she replied. " I go
where my lord's words have sent me."

Li Wen reappeared presently for an appointed
audience. He brought messages.

" Highness," he announced, " there is a code dis
patch here from Ki-Chou. An American gained
entrance to the City last week. Yesterday he left
by aeroplane for India. He was overtaken and cap
tured. It is feared, however, that he has agents over
the frontier, for no papers were found upon him."

" It was a great achievement," Prince Shan said
thoughtfully. " No other foreigner has ever passed
into our secret city. Is there word as to how he
got there? "

" He came as a Russian artificer from that city
in Russia of which we do not speak," Li Wen replied.
" He brought letters, and his knowledge was great."

" His name? " the Prince asked.

" Gilbert Jesson, Highness. His passport and
papers refer to Washington, but his message, if he
sent one, is believed to have come to London."

" The man must die," the Prince said calmly.
" That, without doubt, he expects. Yet the news is
not serious. My heart has spoken for peace, Li
Wen."

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 215

Li Wen bowed low. His master watched him
curiously.

" If I had asked it, Li Wen, where would your
counsel have led ? "

" Towards peace, Highness. I do not trust Imme-
lan. It is not in such a manner that China's Empire
shall spread. There are ancestors of mine ' who
would turn in their graves to find China in league
with a western Power."

" You are a wise man, Li Wen," his master de
clared. " We hold the mastery of the world. What
shall we do with it? "

" The mightiest sword is that which enforces
peace," was the calm reply. " Highness, the lady
whom you were expecting waits in the anteroom."

Prince Shan nodded. He welcomed Naida, who
was ushered in a moment or two later, with rather
more than his usual grave and pleasant courtesy,
leading her himself to a chair.

" I wondered," she confessed, " if I were ever to be
allowed to see inside your wonderful house."

" It is my misfortune to be compelled to pay so
brief a visit to this country," he replied. " As a
rule, it gives me great pleasure to open my rooms
three evenings and entertain those who care to come
and see me."

" I have heard of your entertainments," she said,
smiling. " Prima donnas sing. You rob the capitals
of Europe to find your music. Then the great Mon-

2i6 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

sieur Auguste is lured from Paris to prepare your
supper, and not a lady leaves without some priceless
jewel."

" I entertain so seldom," he reminded her. " I
fear that the fame of my feasts has been exag
gerated."

" When do you leave, Prince? " she asked him.

" Within a few days," he replied.

" I come for your last word," she announced.
" All that I have written to Paul Matinsky you
know."

" The last word is not yet to be spoken,'* he said.
" This, however, you may tell Matinsky. The scheme
of Oscar Immelan has been laid before me. I have
rejected it."

" In what other way, then, would you use your
power? " she asked.

He made no answer. She watched him with a great
and growing curiosity.

" Prince," she said, " they tell me that you are
a great student of history."

" I have read what is known of the history of most
of the countries of the world," he admitted.

" There have been men," she persisted, " who have
dealt in empires for the price of a woman's smile."

" Such men have loved," he said, " as I love."

" Yet for you life has always been a great and
lofty thing," she reminded him. " You could not
stand where you do if you had not realised the beauty

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 217

and wonder of sacrifice. Fate has given the peace
of the world into your keeping. You will not juggle
with the trust?"

He rose to his feet. A servant stood almost im
mediately at the open door.

" Fate and an American engineer," he remarked
with a smile. " I thank you, dear lady, for your
visil . You will hear my news before I leave."

She looked into his eyes for a moment.

" It is a great decision," she said, " which rests
with you ! "

CHAPTER XXIV

An hour or so later, Prince Shan left his house
in Curzon Street and, followed at a discreet distance
by two members of his household, strolled into the
Park. It had pleased him that morning to conform
rigorously to the mode of dress adopted by the
fashionable citizens of the country which he was
visiting. Few people, without the closest observa
tion, would have taken him for anything but a well-
turned-out, exceedingly handsome and distinguished-
looking Englishman. He carried himself with a faint
air of aloofness, as though he moved amongst scenes
in which he had no actual concern, as though he
were living, in thought at any rate, in some other
world. The morning was brilliantly sunny, and both
the promenade and the Row were crowded. Slightly
hidden behind a tree, he stood and watched. A gay
crowd of promenaders passed along the broad path,
and the air was filled with the echo of laughter, the
jargon of the day, intimate references to a common
world, invitations lightly given and lightly accepted.
It was Sunday morning, in a season when colour was
the craze of the moment, and the women who swept
by seemed to his rather mystical fancy like the

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 219

flowers in some of the great open spaces he knew so
well, stirred into movement by a soft wind. They
were very beautiful, these western women ; handsome,
too, the men with whom they talked and flirted.
Always they had that air, however, of absolute com
placency, as though they felt nothing of the quest
which lay like a thread of torture amongst the
nerves of Prince Shan's being. There was no more
distinguished figure among the men there than he
himself, and yet the sense of alienation grew in his
heart as he watched. There were many familiar
faces, many to whom he could have spoken, no one
who would not have greeted him with interest, even
with gratification. And yet he had never been so
deeply conscious of the gulf which lay between the
oriental fatalism of his life and ways and the placid
self-assurance of these westerners, so well-content
with the earth upon which their feet fell. He had
judged with perfect accuracy the place which he held
in their thoughts and estimation. He was something
of a curiosity, his title half a joke, the splendour of
his long race a thing unrealisable by these scions of
a more recent aristocracy. Yet supposing that this
new wonder had not come into his life, that Immelan
had been a shade more eloquent, had pleaded his
cause upon a higher level, that Naida Karetsky also
had formed a different impression of the world which
he was studying so earnestly, — what a transforma
tion he could have brought upon this light-hearted

220 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

and joyous scene! The scales had so nearly bal
anced; at the bottom of his heart he was conscious
of a certain faint contempt for the almost bovine
self-satisfaction of a nation without eyes. Litera
ture and painting, art in all its far-flung branches,
even science, were suffering in these days from a gen
eral and paralysing inertia. Life which demanded
no sacrifice of anybody was destructive of everything
in the nature of aspiration. Sport seemed to be the
only incentive to sobriety, the desire to live long
in this fat land the only brake upon an era of self-
indulgence. He looked eastwards to where his own
millions were toiling, with his day-by-day maxims in
their ears, and it seemed to his elastic fancy that he
was inhaling a long breath of cooler and more
vigorous life.

The current of his reflections was broken. He
had moved a little towards the rails, and he was
instantly aware of the girl cantering towards him,
— a slight, frail figure, she seemed, upon a great bay
horse. She wore a simple brown habit and bowler
hat, and she sat her horse with that complete lack of
self-consciousness which is the heritage of a born
horsewoman. She was looking up at the sky as she
cantered towards him, with no thought of the crowds
passing along the promenade. Yet, as she drew
nearer, she suddenly glanced down, and their eyes
met. As though obeying his unspoken wish, she
reined in her horse and came close to the rails behind

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 221

which he stood for a moment bareheaded. There
was the faintest smile upon her lips. She was amaz
ingly composed. She had asked herself repeatedly,
almost in terror, how they should meet when the
time came. Now that it had happened, it seemed
the most natural thing in the world. She was
scarcely conscious even of embarrassment.

" You are demonstrating to the world," she re
marked, " that the reports of your death this morn
ing were exaggerated? "

" I had forgotten the incident," he assured her
calmly.

His callousness was so unaffected that she shivered
a little.

" Yet this Sen Lu, this man for whom you were
mistaken, was an intimate member of your house
hold, was he not? "

" Sen Lu was a very good friend," Prince Shan
answered. " He did his duty for many years. If
he knows now that his life was taken for mine, he
is happy to have made such atonement."

She manoeuvred her horse a little to be nearer to
him.

" Why was Sen Lu murdered? " she asked.

" There are those," he replied, " of whom I myself
shall ask that question before the day is over."

" You have an idea, then? " she persisted.

" If," he said, " you desire my whole confidence, it
is yours."

1222 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

She sat looking between her horse's ears.

" To tell you the truth," she confessed, " I do
not know what I desire. Your philosophy, I suppose,
does not tolerate moods. I shall escape from them
some time, I expect, but just now I seem to have
found my way into a maze. The faces of these peo
ple don't even seem real to me, and as for you, I am
perfectly certain that you have never been in China
in your life."

" Tell me the stimulant that is needed to raise you
from your apathy," he asked. "Will you find it in
the rapid motion of your horse — a very noble
animal — in the joy of this morning's sunshine and
breeze, or in the toyland where these puppets move
and walk? " he added, glancing down the promenade.
*( Dear Lady Maggie, I beg permission to pay you a
visit of ceremony. Will you receive me this after
noon ? "

She knew then what it was that she had been hop
ing for. She looked down at him and smiled.

" At four o'clock," she invited.

She nodded, touched her horse lightly with the
whip, and cantered off. Prince Shan found himself
suddenly accosted by a dozen acquaintances, all
plying him with questions. He listened to them with
an amused smile.

" The whole affair is a very simple one," he said.
" A member of my household was assassinated last
night. It was probably a plot against my own life.

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 223

Those things are more common with us, perhaps,
than over here."

" Jolly country, China, I should think," one of
the younger members of the group remarked. " You
can buy a man's conscience there for ninepence."

Prince Shan looked across at the speaker gravely.

" The market value here," he observed, " seems a
little higher, but the supply greater."

" ToucJie! " Karschoff laughed. " There is
another point of view, too. The further east you
go, the less value life has. Westwards, it becomes
an absolute craze to preserve and coddle it, to drag
it out to its furthermost span. The American mil
lionaire, for example, has a resident physician
attached to his household and is likely to spend the
aftermath of his life in a semi-drugged and comatose
condition. And in the East, who cares? If not to
day — to-morrow ! Inevitability, which is the night
mare of the West, is the philosophy of the East. By
the by, Prince," he added, " have you any theory as
to last night's attempt? "

" That is just the question," Prince Shan replied,
" which two very intelligent gentlemen from Scotland
Yard asked me this morning. Theory? Why should
I have a theory? "

" The attempt was without a doubt directed
against you," Karschoff observed. " Do you imagine
that it was personal or political? "

" How can I tell? " the Prince rejoined carelessly,

224 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

" Why should any one desire my death? These
things are riddles. Ah! Here comes my friend
Immelan ! " he went on. " Immelan, help us in this
discussion. You are not one of those who place the
gift of life above all other things in the world ! "

" My own or another's ? " Immelan asked, with
blunt cynicism.

" I trust," was the bland reply, " that you are, as
I have always esteemed you, an altruist."

"And why?"

Prince Shan shrugged his shoulders. He was a
very agreeable figure in the centre of the little group
of men, the hands which held his malacca cane
behind his back, the smile which parted his lips
benign yet cryptic.

" Because," he explained, " it is a great thing to
have more regard for the lives of others than for
one's own, and there are times," he added, " when it
is certainly one's own life which is in the more pre
carious state."

There was a little dispersal of the crowd, a chorus
of congratulations and farewells. Immelan and
Prince Shan were left alone. The former seemed
to have turned paler. The sun was warm, and yet
he shivered.

" Just what do you mean by that, Prince? " he
asked.

" You shall walk with me to my house, and I will
tell you," was the quiet reply.

CHAPTER XXV

" I suppose," Immelan suggested, as the two men
reached the house in Curzon Street, " it would be
useless to ask you to break your custom and lunch
with me at the Ritz or at the club? "

His companion smiled deprecatingly.

" I have adopted so many of your western cus
toms," he said apologetically. " To this lunching or
dining in public, however, I shall never accustom
myself."

Immelan laughed good-naturedly. The conversa
tion of the two men on their way from the Park had
been without significance, and some part of his earlier
nervousness seemed to be leaving him.

" We all have our foibles," he admitted. " One
of mine is to have a pretty woman opposite me wfaen
I lunch or dine, music somewhere in the distance, a
little sentiment, a little promise, perhaps.'*

" It is not artistic," Prince Shan pronounced
calmly. " It is not when the wine mounts to the
head, and the sense of feeding fills the body, that
men speak best of the things that iie near their
hearts. Still, we will let that pass. Each of us is
made differently. There is another thing, Immelan,
which I have to say to you."

226 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

They passed into the reception room, with its
shining floor, its marvellous rugs, its silken hang
ings, and its great vases of flowers. Prince Shan
led his companion into a recess, where the light
failed to penetrate so completely as into the rest
of the apartment. A wide settee, piled with cushions,
protruded from the wall in semicircular shape. In
front of it was a round ebony table, upon which stood
a great yellow bowl filled with lilies. Prince Shan
gave an order to one of the servants who had fol
lowed them into the room and threw himself at full
length among the cushions, his head resting upon
his hand, his face turned towards his guest.

" They will bring you the aperitif of which you
are so fond," he said, " also cigarettes. Mine, I
know, are too strong for you."

" They taste too much of opium," Immelan re
marked.

Prince Shan's eyes grew dreamy as he gazed
through a little cloud of odorous smoke.

" There is opium in them," he admitted. " Be
lieve me, they are very wonderful, but I agree with
you that they are not for the ordinary person."

The soft-footed butler presented a silver tray,
upon which reposed a glassful of amber liquid.
Immelan took it, sipped it appreciatively, and lit a
cigarette.

" Your man, Prince," he acknowledged, " mixes his
vermouths wonderfully."

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 227

" I am glad that what he does meets with your
approval," was the courteous reply. " He came to
me from one of your royal palaces. I simply told
him that I wished my guests to have of the best."

" Yet you never touch this sort of drink your
self," Immelan observed curiously.

The Prince shook his head.

" Sometimes I take wine," he said. " That is gen
erally at night. A few evenings ago, for instance,"
he went on, with a reminiscent smile, " I drank
Chateau Yquem, smoked Egyptian cigarettes, ate
some muscatel grapes, and read ' Pippa Passes.*
That was one of my banquets."

" As a matter of fact," Immelan remarked
thoughtfully, " you are far more western in thought
than in habit. The temperance of the East is in
your blood."

" I find that my manner of life keeps the brain
clear," Prince Shan said slowly. " I can see the
truth sometimes when it is not very apparent. I
saw the truth last night, Immelan, when I sent Sen
Lu to die."

Immelan's expression was indescribable. He sat
with his mouth wide open. The hand which held his
glass shook. He stared across the bowl of lilies to
where his host was looking up through the smoke
towards the ceiling.

" Sen Lu was a traitor," the latter went on, " a
ver}' foolish man who with one act of treachery wiped

228 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

out the memory of a lifetime of devotion. In the
end he told the truth, and now he has paid his debt."

"What do you mean? n Immelan demanded, in a
voice which he attempted in vain to control. " How
was Sen Lu a traitor? "

" Sen Lu,'* the Prince explained, " was in the pay
of those who sought to know more of my business
than I chose to tell — who sought, indeed, to antici
pate my own judgment. When they gathered from
him, and, alas ! from my sweet but frail little friend
Nita, that the chances were against my signing a
certain covenant, they came to what, even now, seems
to me a strange decision. They decided that I must
die. There I fail wholly to follow the workings of
your mind, Immelan. How was my death likely to
serve your purpose ? "

Immelan was absolutely speechless. Three times
he opened his lips, only to close them again. Some
instinct seemed to tell him that his companion had
more to say. He sat there as though mesmerised.
Meanwhile, the Prince lit another cigarette.

" A blunder, believe me, Immelan," he continued
thoughtfully. " Death will not lower over my path
till my task is accomplished. I am young — many
years younger than you, Immelan — and the greatest
physicians marvel at my strength. Against the
assassin's knife or bullet I am secure. You have been
brought up and lived, my terrified friend, in a coun
try where religion remains a shell and a husk, with-

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 229

out comfort to any man. It is not so with me. I
live in the spirit as in the body, and my days will
last until the sun leans down and lights me to the
world where those dwell who have fulfilled their
destiny."

Immelan drained the contents of the glass which
his unsteady hand was holding. Then he rose to
his feet. The veins on his forehead were standing
out, his blue eyes were filled with rage.

" Blast Sen Lu ! " he muttered. " The man was a
double traitor ! "

" He has atoned," his companion said calmly.
" He made his peace and he went to his death. It
seems very fitting that he should have received the
dagger which was meant for my heart. Now what
about you, Oscar Immelan? "

Immelan laughed harshly.

<; If Sen Lu told you that I was in this plot
against your life, he lied ! "

The Prince inclined his head urbanely.

" Such a man as Sen Lu goes seldom to his death
with a lie upon his lips," he said. " Yet I confess
that I am puzzled. Why should you plan this thing,
Immelan ? You cannot know what is in my mind con
cerning your covenant. I have not yet refused to
sign it."

" You have not refused to sign it," Immelan re
plied, " but you will refuse."

" Indeed? " the Prince murmured.

230 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

" You are even now trifling with the secrets con
fided to you," Immelan went on. " You know very
well that the woman who came to you last night is
a spy whose whole time is spent in seeking to worm
our secret from you."

" Your agents keep themselves well informed," was
the calm comment.

" Yours still have the advantage of us," Immelan
answered bitterly. " Now listen to me. I have heard
it said of you — I have heard that you claim your
self — that you have never told a falsehood. We
have been allies. Answer me this question. Have
you parted with any of our secrets? "

" Not one," the Prince assured him. " A certain
lady visited this house last night, not, as you seem
to think, at my invitation, but on her own initiative.
She was not successful in her quest."

" She would not pay the price, eh? " Immelan
sneered. " By the gods of your ancestors, Prince
Shan, are there not women enough in the world for
you without bartering your honour, and the great
future of your country, for a blue-eyed jade of an
Englishwoman ? "

The Prince sat slowly up. His appearance was
ominous. His face had become set as marble; there
was a look in his eyes like the flashing of a light upon
black metal. He contemplated his visitor across the
lilies.

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 231

" A man so near to death, Immelan," he enjoined,
" might choose his words more carefully."

Immelan laughed scornfully.

" I am not to be bullied," he declared. " Your
doors with their patent locks have no fears for me.
When you walk abroad, you are followed by mem
bers of your household. When you come to my
rooms, they attend you. I am not a prince, but I,
too, have a care for my skin. Three of my secret
service men never let me out of their sight. They
are within call at this moment."

His host smiled.

" This is very interesting," he said, " but you
should know me better, Immelan, than to imagine
that mine are the clumsy methods of the dagger or
the bullet. The man whom I will to die — drinks
with me."

He pointed a long forefinger at the empty glass.
Immelan gazed at it, and the sweat stood out upon
his forehead.

" My God ! " he muttered. " There was a queer
taste ! I thought that it was aniseed ! "

" There was nothing in that glass," the Prince de
clared, " which the greatest chemist who ever
breathed could detect as poison, yet you will die, my
friend Immelan, without any doubt. Shall I tell you
how? Would you know in what manner the pains
will come? No? But, my friend, you disappoint
me! You showed so much courage an hour ago.

232 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

Listen. Feel for a swelling just behind Ah! "

Immelan was already across the room. The Prince
touched a bell, the doors were opened. Ghastly pale,
his head swimming, the tortured man dashed out into
the street. The Prince leaned back amongst his
cushions, untied a straw-fastened packet of his long
cigarettes, lit one, and closed his eyes.

CHAPTER XXVI

Nigel was just arriving at Dorminster House
when Maggie returned from her ride. He assisted
her to dismount and entered the house with her.

" There is something here I should like to show
you, Maggie," he said, as he drew a dispatch from
his pocket. " It was sent round to me half an hour
ago by Chalmers, from the American Embassy."

" It's about Gilbert Jesson ! " Maggie exclaimed,
holding out her hand for it.

Nigel nodded.

" There's a note inside, and an enclosure," he said.
" You had better read both."

Maggie opened out the former:

MY DEAR DORMINSTER,

I am afraid there is rather bad news about
Jesson. One of our regular line of airships, run
ning from San Francisco to Vladivostok, has
picked up a wireless which must have come from
somewhere in the South of China. They kept it
for a few days, worse luck, thinking it was only
nonsense, as it was in code. Washington got hold
of it, however, and cabled it to us last night. I
enclose a copy, decoded.

Sincerely yours,

JERE CHALMERS.

234 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

The copy was brief enough. Maggie felt her
heart sink as she glanced through the few lines :

Report dispatched London. Fear escape im
possible. Good-by. JESSON.

" Horrible ! " Maggie exclaimed, with a shiver.
" I thought he was in Russia."

" So did we all," Nigel replied. " He must have
come to the conclusion that the key to the riddle
he was trying to solve was in China, and gone on
there. Look here, Maggie," he continued, after a
moment's hesitation, " do you think anything could
be done for Jesson with Prince Shan? "

Maggie was silent. They were standing in a
shaded corner of the hall, but a fleck of sunshine
shone in her hair. She was still a little out of breath
with the exercise, her cheeks full of healthy colour,
her eyes bright. She tapped her skirt with her rid
ing whip. Nigel watched her a little uneasily.

" Prince Shan is calling here this afternoon,"
Maggie announced. " I hope you don't mind."

"What are you going to say to him?" Nigel
asked bluntly.

There was a short, tense silence. Even at the
thought of the crisis which she knew to be so close
at hand, Maggie felt herself unnerved and in dubious
straits.

" I do not know," she said at last. " For one
thing, I do not know what he wants."

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 235

" What he wants seems perfectly plain to me,"
Nigel replied gravely. " He wants you."

Maggie made a desperate effort to regain the
lightheartedness of a few weeks ago.

" If you believe that," she said, " your composure
is most unflattering."

There was a ring at the front doorbell, and a
familiar voice was heard outside. Maggie turned
away to the staircase with a little sigh of relief.

" Naida ! " she exclaimed. " I remember now I
asked her for a quarter past one instead of half-past.
You must entertain her, Nigel. I'll change into
something quickly. And of course I'll speak to
Prince Shan. We mustn't lose a minute about that.
I'll telephone from my room in a few minutes,
Naida. Nigel will look after you."

Naida" came down the hall, cool and exquisitely
gowned in a creation of shimmering white. Nigel
led her into the rarely used drawing-room and found
a chair for her between the open window and the
conservatory. At first they exchanged but few
words. The sense of her near presence affected Nigel
as nothing of the sort had ever done before. She for
her part seemed quite content with a silence which
had in it many of the essentials of eloquence.

" If the history of these days is ever written by
an irascible German historian," Naida remarked at
length, " he will probably declare that the destinies
of the world have been affected during this last

236 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

month by an outburst of primitivism. Do you know
that I have written quite nice things to Paul about
you English people? Honest things, of course, but
still things which you helped me to discover. And
Prince Shan, too. I think that when he rode here
through the clouds, he believed in his heart that he
was coming as a harbinger of woe."

" You really think, then, that the crisis is past ? "
Nigel asked.

She nodded.

" I am almost sure of it. Prince Shan returns to
China within the course of the next few days."

" We have lived so long," Nigel observed, " in
dread of the unknown. I wonder whether we shall
ever understand the exact nature of the danger with
which we were faced."

" It depends upon Prince Shan," she replied.
" The terms were Immelan's, but the method was
his."

" Do you believe," he asked a little abruptly,
" that the attempt on Prince Shan's life last night
was made by Immelan ? "

There was a touch, perhaps, of her Muscovite an
cestry in the cool indifference with which she con
sidered the matter.

" I should think it most likely," she decided.
" Prince Shan never changes his mind, and I believe
that he has decided against Immelan's scheme.

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 237

Immelan's only chance would be in Prince Shan's
successor."

" Why is China so necessary? " Nigel asked.

She turned and smiled at her companion.

" Alas ! " she sighed, " we have reached an impasse.
The great English diplomat asks too many questions
of the simple Russian girl."

" It is unfortunate," he replied, in the same vein,
" because I feel like asking more."

" As, for example? "

" Whether you would be content to live for the
rest of your life in any other country except Russia."

" A woman is content to live anywhere, under
certain circumstances," she murmured.

Karschoff, discreetly announced, entered the room
with flamboyant ease.

" It is well to be young ! " he exclaimed, as he
bent over Naida's fingers. " You look, my far-away
but much beloved cousin, as though you had slept
peacefully through the night and spent the morning
in this soft, sunlit air, with perhaps, if one might
suggest such a thing, an hour at a Bond Street
beauty parlour. Here am I with crow's-feet under
my eyes and ghosts walking by my side. Yet none
the less," he added, as the door opened and Maggie
appeared, " looking forward to my luncheon and to
hear all the news."

" There is no news," Naida declared, as the butler
announced the service of the meal. " We have

238 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

reached the far end of the ways. The next dis
closures, if ever they are made, will come from others.
At luncheon we are going to talk of the English
country, the seaside, the meadows, and the quiet
places. The time arrives when I weary, weary, of
the brazen ticking of the clock of fate."

" I shall tell you," Nigel declared, " of a small
country house I have in Devonshire. There are
rough grounds stretching down to the sea and
crawling up to the moors behind. My grandfather
built it when he was Chancellor of England, or rather
he added to an old farmhouse. He called it the House
of Peace.'*

" My father built a house very much in the same
spirit," Naida told them. " He called it after an
old Turkish inscription, engraven on the front of a
villa in Stamboul — ' The House of Thought and
Flowers/ "

Maggie smiled across the table approvingly.

" I like the conversation," she said. " Naida and
I are, after all, women and sentimentalists. We
claim a respite, an armistice — call it what you will.
Prince Karschoff, won't you tell me of the most
beautiful house you ever dwelt in? "

" Always the house I am hoping to end my days
in," he answered. " But let me tell you about a
villa I had in Cannes, fifteen years ago. People used
to speak of it as one of the world's treasures."

When the two men were seated alone over their

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 239

coffee, Nigel passed Chalmers' note and the enclosure
across to his companion.

" You remember I told you about Chalmers* friend,
Jesson, the secret service man who came over to us? "
he said. " Chalmers has just sent me round this."

Karschoff nodded and studied the message through
his great horn-rimmed eyeglass.

" I thought that he was going to Russia for you,"
he said.

" So he did. He must have gone on from there."

" And the message comes from Southern China,"
Prince Karschoff reflected.

Nigel was deep in thought. China, Russia, Ger
many! Prince Shan in England, negotiating with
Immelan ! And behind, sinister, menacing, mysteri
ous — Japan !

" Supposing," he propounded at last, " there
really does exist a secret treaty between China and
Japan? "

" If there is," Prince Karschoff observed, " one
can easily understand what Immelan has been at.
Prince Shan can command the whole of Asia. I
know they are afraid of something of the sort in
the States. An American who was in the club yester
day told us they had spent over a hundred millions
on their west coast fortifications in the last two
years."

" One can understand, too, in that case," Nigel
continued, " why Japan left the League of Nations.

240 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

That stunt of hers about being outside the sphere
of possible misunderstandings never sounded honest."

" It was unfortunate," Prince Karschoff said,
4t that America was dominated for those few months
by an honest but impractical idealist. He had the
germ of an idea, but he thrust it on the world before
even his own country was ready for it. In time the
nations would certainly have elaborated something
more workable."

" You cannot keep a full-blooded man from clench
ing his fist if he's insulted," Nigel pointed out, " and
nations march along the same lines as individuals.
Its existence has never for a single moment weakened
Germany's hatred of England, and the stronger she
grows, the more she flaunts its conditions. France
guards her frontiers, night and day, with an army
ten times larger than she is allowed. Russia has
become the country of mysteries, with something up
her sleeve, beyond a doubt, and there are cities in
modern China into which no European dare pene
trate. Japan quite frankly maintains an immense
army, the United States is silently following suit
— and God help us all if a war does come ! "

" You are right," Karschoff assented gloomily.
" The last glamour of romance has gone from fight
ing. There were remnants of it in the last war,
especially in Palestine and Egypt and when we first
overran Austria. To-day, science would settle the
whole affair. The war would be won in the labora-

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 241

tory, the engine room and the workshop. I doubt
whether any battleship could keep afloat for a week,
and as to the fighting in the air, if a hundred airships
were in action, I do not suppose that one of them
would escape. Then they say that France has a gun
which could carry a shell from Amiens to London,
and more mysterious than all, China has something
up her sleeve which no one has even a glimmering of."

" Except Jesson," Nigel muttered.

" And Jesson's gleam of knowledge, or suspicion,"
Prince Karschoff remarked, " seems to have brought
him to the end of his days. Can anything be done
with Prince Shan about him, do you think? "

" Only indirectly, I am afraid/' Nigel replied.
" Maggie is seeing him this afternoon. As a matter
of fact, I believe she telephoned to him before
luncheon, but I haven't heard anything yet. When
a man goes out on that sort of a job, he burns his
boats. And Jesson isn't the first who has turned
eastwards, during the last few months. I heard
only yesterday that France has lost three of her
best men in China — one who went as a missionary
and two as merchants. They've just disappeared
without a word of explanation."

The telephone extension bell rang. Nigel walked
over to the sideboard and took down the receiver.

" Is that Lord Dorminster? " a man's voice asked.

" Speaking," Nigel replied.

" I am David Franklin, private secretary to Mr.

242 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

Mervin Brown," the voice continued. " Mr. Mervin
Brown would be exceedingly obliged if you would
come round to Downing Street to see him at once."

" I will be there in ten minutes," Nigel promised.

He laid down the receiver and turned to Karschoff.

" The Prime Minister," he explained.

" What does he want you for? "

" I think," Nigel replied, " that the trouble cloud
is about to burst."

CHAPTER XXVII

Mr. Mervin Brown on this occasion did not beat
about the bush. His old air of confident, almost
smug self-satisfaction, had vanished. He received
Nigel with a new deference in his manner, without
any further sign of that good-natured tolerance ac
corded by a busy man to a kindly crank.

" Lord Dorminster," he began, " I have sent for
you to renew a conversation we had some little time
since. I will be quite frank with you. Certain
circumstances have come to my notice which lead me
to believe that there may be more truth in some of
the arguments you brought forward than I was will
ing at the time to believe."

" I must confess that I am relieved to hear you
say so," Nigel replied. " All the information which
I have points to a crisis very near at hand."

The Prime Minister leaned a little across the table.

" The immediate reason for my sending for you,"
he explained, " is this. My friend the American
Ambassador has just sent me a copy of a wireless
dispatch which he has received from China from one
of their former agents. The report seems to have
been sent to him for safety, but the sender of it, of

244 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

whose probity, by the by, the American Ambassador
pledges himself, appears to have been sent to China
by you."

" Jesson ! " Nigel exclaimed. " I have heard of
this already, sir, from a friend in the American
Embassy."

" The dispatch," Mr. Mervin Brown went on, " is
in some respects a little vague, but it is, on the other
hand, I frankly admit, disturbing. It gives specific
details as to definite military preparations on the
part of China and Russia, associated, presumably,
with a third Power whose name you will forgive my
not mentioning. These preparations appear to have
been brought almost to completion in the strictest
secrecy, but the headquarters of the whole thing, very
much to my surprise, I must confess, seems to be in
southern China."

" In that case," Nigel pointed out, " if you will
permit me to make a suggestion, sir, you have a very
simple course open to you."

"Well?"

" Send for Prince Shan."

" Prince Shan," the Prime Minister replied, with
knitted brows, " is not over in this country officially.
He has begged to be excused from accepting or re
turning any diplomatic courtesies."

" Nevertheless," Nigel persisted, " I should send
for Prince Shan. If it had not been," he went on
slowly, " for the complete abolition of our secret

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 245

service system, you would probably have been
informed before now that Prince Shan has been hav
ing continual conferences in this country with one
of the most dangerous men who ever set foot on these
shores — Oscar Immelan."

" Immelan has no official position in this country,"
the Prime Minister objected.

" A fact which makes him none the less danger
ous," Nigel insisted. " He is one of those free lances
of diplomacy who have sprung up during the last
ten or fifteen years, the product of that spurious
wave of altruism which is responsible for the League
of Nations. Immelan was one of the first to see how
his country might benefit by the new regime. It is
he who has been pulling the strings in Russia and
China, and, I fear, another country."

" What I want to arrive at," Mr. Mervin Brown
said, a little impatiently, " is something definite."

" Let me put it my own way," Nigel begged. " A
very large section of our present-day politicians —
you, if I may say so, amongst them, Mr. Mervin
Brown — have believed this country safe against any
military dangers, because of the connections exist
ing between your unions of working men and similar
bodies in Germany. This is a great fallacy for two
reasons : first because Germany has always intended
to have some one else pull the chestnuts out of the
fire for her, and second because we cannot inter
nationalise labour. English and German workmen

246 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

may come together on matters affecting their craft
and the conditions of their labour, but at heart one
remains a German and one an Englishman, with sep
arate interests and a separate outlook."

" Well, at the end of it all," Mr. Mervin Brown
said, " the bogey is war. What sort of a war? An
invasion of England is just as impossible to-day as it
was twenty years ago."

Nigel nodded.

" I cannot answer your question," he admitted.
" I was looking to Jesson's report to give us an idea
as to that."

" You shall see it to-morrow," Mr. Mervin Brown
promised. " It is round at the War Office at the
present moment."

" Without seeing it," Nigel went on, " I expect I
can tell you one startling feature of its contents.
It suggested, did it not, that the principal movers
against us would be Russian and China and — a
country which you prefer just now not to mention?"

" But that country is our ally ! " Mr. Mervin
Brown exclaimed.

Nigel smiled a little sadly.

" She has been," he admitted. " Still, if you had
been au fait with diplomatic history thirty years ago,
Mr. Mervin Brown, you would know that she was on
the point of ending her alliance with us and establish
ing one with Germany. It was only owing to the
genius of one English statesman that at the last

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 247

moment she almost reluctantly renewed her alliance
with us. She is in the same state of doubt concerning
our destiny to-day. She has seen our last two Gov
ernments forget that we are an Imperial Power and
endeavour to apply the principles of sheer com
mercialism to the conduct of a great nation. She
may have opened her eyes a thousand years later
than we did, but she is awake enough now to know
that this will not do. There is little enough of
generosity amongst the nations ; none amongst the
Orientals. I have a conviction myself that there is
a secret alliance between China and this other Power,
a secret and quite possibly an aggressive alliance."

Mr. Mervin Brown sat for a few moments deep in
thought. Somehow or other his face had gained in
dignity since the beginning of the conversation. The
nervous fear in his eyes had been replaced by a look
of deep and solemn anxiety.

" If you are right, Lord Dorminster," he pro
nounced presently, " the world has rolled backwards
these last ten years, and we who have failed to mark
its retrogression may have a terrible responsibility
thrust upon us.'*

" Politically, I am afraid I agree with you," Nigel
replied. " Only the idealist, and the prejudiced
idealist, can ignore the primal elements in human
nature and believe that a few lofty sentiments can
keep the nations behind their frontiers. War is a
terrible thing, but human life itself is a terrible thing.

248 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

Its principles are the same, and force will never be
restrained except by force. If the League of Nations
had been established upon a firmer and less selfish
basis, it certainly might have kept the peace for
another thirty or forty years. As it is, I believe that
we are on the verge of a serious crisis."

" War for us is an impossibility,'* Mr. Mervin
Brown declared frankly, " simply because we cannot
fight. Our army consists of policemen; science has
defeated the battleship ; and practically the same
conditions exist in the air."

*' You sent for me, I presume, to ask for my ad
vice," Nigel said. " At any rate, let me offer it. I
have reason to believe that the negotiations between
Prince Shan and Oscar Immelan have not been en
tirely successful. Send for Prince Shan and question
him in a friendly fashion."

" Will you be my ambassador? " the Prime Min
ister asked.

Nigel hesitated for a moment.

" If you wish it," he promised. " Prince Shan is
in some respects a strangely inaccessible person, but
just at present he seems well disposed towards my
household."

" Arrange, if you can," Mr. Mervin Brown begged,
" to bring him here to-morrow morning. I will try
to have available a copy of the dispatch from Jesson.
It refers to matters which I trust Prince Shan will
be able to explain."

CHAPTER XXIX

The great house in Curzon Street awoke, the fol
lowing morning, to a state of intense activity. Taxi-
cabs and motor-cars were lined along the street; a
stream of callers came and went. That part of the
establishment of which little was seen by the casual
caller, the rooms where half a dozen secretaries con
ducted an immense correspondence, presided over by
Li Wen, was working overtime at full pressure. In
his reception room, Prince Shan saw a selected few
of the callers, mostly journalists and politicians, to
whom Li Wen gave the entree. One visitor even this
most astute of secretaries found it hard to place.
He took the card in to his master, who glanced at
it thoughtfully.

" The Earl of Dorminster," he repeated. " I will
see him."

Nigel found himself received with courtesy, yet
with a certain aloofness. Prince Shan rose from his
favourite chair of plain black oak heaped with green
silk cushions and held out his hand a little tenta
tively.

" You are very kind to visit me, Lord Dorminster,"
he said. " I trust that you come to wish me for
tune."

262 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

" That," Nigel replied, " depends upon how you
choose to seek it."

" I am answered," was the prompt acknowledg
ment. " One thing in your country I have at least
learnt to appreciate, and that is your love of can
dour. What is your errand with me to-day? Have
you come to speak to me as an ambassador from
your cousin, or in any way on her behalf ? "

tl My business has nothing to do with Lady Mag
gie," Nigel assured him gravely.

Prince Shan held out his hand.

" Stop," he begged. " Do not explain your busi
ness. If it is a personal request, it is granted. If,
on the other hand, you seek my advice on matters of
grave importance, it is yours. Before other words
are spoken, however, I myself desire to address you
on the subject of Lady Maggie Trent."

" As you please," Nigel answered.

" It is not the custom of my country, or of my
life," Prince Shan continued, " to covet or steal the
things which belong to another. If fate has made me
a thief, I am very sorry. I have proposed to Lady
Maggie that she accompany me back to China. It
is my great desire that she should become my wife."

Nigel felt himself curiously tongue-tied. There
was something in the other's measured speech, so
fateful, so assured, that it seemed almost as though
he were speaking of pre-ordained things. Much that

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 263

had seemed to him impossible and unnatural in such
an idea disappeared from that moment.

" You tell me this," Nigel began

" I announce it to you as the head of the family,"
Prince Shan interrupted.

" You tell it to me also," Nigel persisted, " be
cause you have heard the rumours which were at one
time very prevalent — that Lady Maggie and I were
or were about to become engaged to be married."

" I have heard such a rumour only very indirect
ly," Prince Shan confessed, " and I cannot admit
that it has made any difference in my attitude. I
think, in my land and yours, we have at least one com
mon convention. The woman who touches our heart
is ours if we may win her. Love is unalterably self
ish. One must fight for one's own hand. And for
those who may suffer by our victory, we may have
pity but no consideration."

"Am I to understand," Nigel asked bluntly,
" that Lady Maggie has consented to be your wife? "

" Lady Maggie has given me no reply. I left her
alone with her thoughts. Every hour it is my hope
to hear from her. She knows that I leave for China
early to-morrow."

" So at the present moment you are in suspense."

" I am in suspense," Prince Shan admitted, " and
perhaps," he went on, with one of his rare smiles,
" it occurred to me that it would be in one sense a
relief to speak to a fellow man of the hopes and fears

264 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

that are in my heart. You are the one person to
whom I could speak, Lord Dorminster. You have
not wished my suit well, but at least you have been
clear-sighted. I think it has never occurred to you
that a prince of China might venture to compete with
a peer of England."

" On the contrary," Nigel assented, " I have the
greatest admiration for the few living descendants
of the world's oldest aristocracy. You have a right
to enter the lists, a right to win if you can."

" And what do you think of my prospects, if I
may ask such a delicate question? " Prince Shan
enquired.

" I cannot estimate them," Nigel replied. " I
only know that Maggie is deeply interested."

" I think," his companion continued softly, " that
she will become my Princess. You have never visited
China, Lord Dorminster," he went on, " so you have
little idea, perhaps, as to the manner of our lives.
Some day I will hope to be your host, so until then,
as I may not speak of my own possessions, may I go
just so far as this? Your cousin will be very happy
in China. This is a great country, but the very air
you breathe is cloyed with your national utilitarian
ism. Mine is a country of beautiful thoughts, of
beautiful places, of quiet-living and sedate people.
I can give your cousin every luxury of which the
world has ever dreamed, wrapped and enshrined in

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 265

beauty. No person with a soul could be unhappy in
the places where she will dwell."

" You are at least confident," Nigel remarked.

" It is because I am convinced," was the calm re
joinder. " I shall take your cousin's happiness into
my keeping without one shadow of misgiving. The
last word, however, is with her. It remains to be
seen whether her courage is great enough to induce
her to face such a complete change in the manner of
her life."

" It will not be her lack of courage which will keep
her in England," Nigel declared.

Prince Shan bowed, with a graceful little gesture
of the hands. The subject was finished.

" I shall now, Lord Dorminster," he said, " take
advantage of your kindly presence here to speak to
you on a very personal matter, only this time it is
you who are the central figure, and I who am the
dummy."

" I do not follow you," Nigel confessed, with a
slight frown.

" I speak in tones of apology," Prince Shan went
on, " but you must remember that I am one of re
flective disposition. Nature has endowed me with
some of the gifts of my great ancestors, philosophers
famed the world over. It seems very clear to me that,
if I had not come, from sheer force of affectionate
propinquity you would have married Lady Maggie.'*

Nigel's frown deepened.

266 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

" Prince Shan ! " he began.

Again the outstretched hand seemed as though the
fingers were pressed against his mouth. He broke off
abruptly in his protest.

" You would have lived a contented life, because
that is your province," his companion continued.
" You would have felt yourself happy because you
would have been a faithful husband. But the time
would have come when you would both have realised
that you had missed the great things."

" This is idle prophecy," Nigel observed, a little
impatiently. " I came to see you upon another mat
ter."

" Humour me," the Prince begged. " I am going
to speak to you even more intimately. I shall ven
ture to do so because, after all, she is better known
to me than to you. I am going to tell you that of
all the women in the world, Naida Karetsky is the
most likely to make you happy."

Nigel drew himself up a little stiffly.

" One does not discuss these things," he muttered.

" May I call that a touch of insularity?" Prince
Shan pleaded, " because there is nothing else in the
world so wonderful to discuss, in all respect and rev
erence, as the women who have made us feel. One
last word, Lord Dorminster. The days of matri
monial alliances between the reigning families of
Europe have come to an end under the influence of
a different form of government, but there is a certain

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 267

type of alliance, the utility of which remains unim
paired. I venture to say that you could not do your
country a greater service, apart from any personal
feelings you might have, than by marrying Made
moiselle Karetsky. There, you see, now I have fin
ished. This is for your reflection, Lord Dorminster
— just the measured statement of one who wears at
least the cloak of philosophy by inheritance. Time
passes. Your own reason for coming to see me has
not yet been expounded.'*

" I have come to ask you to visit the Prime Min
ister before you leave England," Nigel announced.

Prince Shan changed his position slightly. His
forehead was a little wrinkled. He was silent for a
moment.

" If I pay more than a farewell visit of ceremony,"
he said, " that is to say, if I speak with Mr. Mervin
Brown on things that count, I must anticipate a cer
tain decision at which I have not yet wholly arrived."

Nigel had a sudden inspiration.

" You are seeking to bribe Maggie ! " he exclaimed.

" That is not true," was the dignified reply.

" Then please explain," Nigel persisted.

Prince Shan rose to his feet. He walked to the
heavy silk curtains which led into his own bedcham
ber, pushed them apart, and looked for a moment
at the familiar objects in the room. Then he came
back, glancing on his way at the ebony cabinet.

" One does not repeat one's mistakes," he said

268 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

slowly, " and although you and I, Lord Dorminster,
breathe the common air of the greater world, my
instinct tells me that of certain things which have
passed between your cousin and myself it is better
that no mention ever be made. I wish to tell you
this, however. There is in existence a document, my
signature to which would, without a doubt, have a
serious influence upon the destinies of this country.
That document, unsigned, would be one of my mar
riage gifts to Lady Maggie — and as you know I
have not yet had her answer. However, if you wish
it, I will go to the Prime Minister."

Li Wen came silently in. He spoke to his master
for a few minutes in Chinese. A faint smile parted
the latter's lips.

" You can tell the person at the telephone that I
will call within the next few minutes," he directed.
" You will not object," he added, turning courteous
ly to Nigel, " if I stop for a moment, on the way
to Downing Street, at a small private hospital? An
acquaintance of mine lies sick there and desires urg
ently to see me."

" I am entirely at your service," Nigel assured him.

Prince Shan, with many apologies, left Nigel alone
in the car outside a tall, grey house in John Street,
and, preceded by the white-capped nurse who had
opened the door, climbed the stairs to the first floor
of the celebrated nursing home, where, after a mo
ment's delay, he was shown into a large and airy

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 269

apartment. Immelan was in bed, looking very ill
indeed. He was pale, and his china-blue eyes, curi
ously protruding, were filled with an expression of
haunting fear. A puzzled doctor was standing by
the bedside. A nurse, who was smoothing the bed
clothes, glanced around at Prince Shan's entrance.
The invalid started convulsively, and, clutching the
pillows with his right hand, turned towards his visi
tor.

" So you've come ! " he exclaimed. " Stay where
you are ! Don't go ! Doctor — nurse — leave us
alone for a moment."

The nurse went at once. The doctor hesitated.

" My patient is a good deal exhausted," he said.
" There are no dangerous symptoms at present,
but "

" I will promise not to distress him," Prince Shan
interrupted. " I am myself somewhat pressed for
time, and it is probable that your patient will in
sist upon speaking to me in private."

The doctor followed the nurse from the room.
Prince Shan stood looking down upon the figure of
his quondam associate. There was a leaven of mild
wonder in his clear eyes, a faintly contemptuous
smile about the corners of his lips.

" So you are afraid of death, my friend," he ob
served, " afraid of the death you planned so skil
fully for me."

" It is a lie ! " Immelan declared excitedly. " Sen

270 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

Lu was never killed by my orders. Listen! You
have nothing against me. My death can do you no
good. It is you who have been at fault. You —
Prince Shan — the great diplomatist of the world —
are gambling away your future and the future of a
mighty empire for a woman's sake. You have treat
ed me badly enough. Spare my life. Call in the
doctor here and tell him what to do. He can find
nothing in my system. He is helpless."

The smile upon the Prince's lips became vaguer, his
expression more bland and indeterminate.

" My dear Immelan," he murmured, " you are
without doubt delirious. Compose yourself, I beg.'*

A light that was almost tragic shone in the man's
face. He sat up with a sudden access of strength.

" For the love of God, don't torture me ! " he
groaned. " The pains grow worse, hour by hour.
If I die, the whole world shall know by whose hand."

The expression on Prince Shan's face remained
unchanged. In his eyes, however, there was a little
glint of something which seemed almost like fore
knowledge.

" When you die," he pronounced calmly, " it will
be by your own hand — not mine."

For some reason or other, Immelan accepted these
measured words of prophecy as a total reprieve.
The relief in his face was almost piteous. He seized
his visitor's hand and would have fawned upon it.

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 271

Prince Shan withdrew himself a little farther from
the bed.

" Immelan," he said, " during my stay in England
I have studied you and your methods, I have listened
to all you have had to say and to propose, I have
weighed the advantages and the disadvantages of
the scheme you have outlined to me, and I only ar
rived at my decision after the most serious and un
biassed reflection. Your scheme itself was bold and
almost splendid, but, as you yourself well know at
the back of your mind, it would lay the seeds of a
world tumult. I have studied history, Immelan, per
haps a little more deeply than you, and I do not
believe in conquests. For the restoration to China
of such lands as belong geographically and rightly to
the Chinese Empire, I have my own plans. You, it
seems to me, would make a cat's-paw of all Asia to
gratify your hatred of England.'*

" A cat's-paw ! " Immelan gasped. " Australia,
New Zealand and India for Japan, new lands for her
teeming population ; Thibet for you, all Manchuria,
and the control of the Siberian Railway ! "

" These are dazzling propositions," Prince Shan
admitted, " and yet — what about the other side of
the Pacific?"

" America would be powerless," Immelan insisted.

" So you said before, in 1917," was the dry re
minder. " I did not come here, however, to talk
world politics with you. Those things for the mo-

272 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

ment are finished. I came in answer to your sum
mons."

Immelan raised himself a little in the bed.

" You meant what you said ? " he demanded, with
hoarse anxiety. " There was no poison ? Swear
that? "

Prince Shan moved towards the door. His back
ward glance was coldly contemptuous.

" WKat I said, I meant," he replied. " Extract
such comfort from it as you may."

He left the room, closing the door softly behind
him. Immelan stared after him, hollow-eyed and
anxious. Already the cold fears were seizing upon
him once more.

Prince Shan rejoined Nigel, and the two men drove
off to Downing Street. The former was silent for
the first few minutes. Then he turned slightly
towards his companion.

" The man Immelan is a coward," he declared.
" It is he whom I have just visited."

Nigel shrugged his shoulders.

" So many men are brave enough in a fight," he
remarked, " who lose their nerve on a sick bed."

" Braver}^ in battle," Prince Shan pronounced, " is
the lowest form of courage. The blood is stirred by
the excitement of slaughter as by alcohol. With
Immelan I shall have no more dealings."

"Speaking politically as well as personally?"
Nigel enquired.

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 273

The other smiled.

" I think I might go so far as to agree," he ac
quiesced, " but in a sense, there are conditions. You
shall hear what they are. I will speak before you
to the Prime Minister. See, up above is the sign
of my departure."

Out of a little bank of white, fleecy clouds which
hung down, here and there, from the blue sky, came
the Black Dragon, her engines purring softly,
her movements slow and graceful. Both men watched
her for a moment in silence.

" At six o'clock to-morrow morning I start,"
Prince Shan announced. " My pilot tells me that
the weather conditions are wonderful, all the way
from here to Pekin. We shall be there on Wednes-
day."

" You travel alone ? " Nigel enquired.

" I have passengers," was the quiet reply. " I
am taking the English chaplain to your Church in
Pekin."

The eyes of the two men met.

" It is an ingenious idea," Nigel admitted dryly.

" I wish to be prepared," his companion answered.
" It may be that he is my only companion. In that
case, I go back to a life lonelier than I have ever
dreamed of. It is on the knees of the gods. So far
there has come no word, but although I am not by
nature an optimist, my superstitions are on my side.
All the way over on my last voyage, when I lay in

274 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

my berth awake and we sailed over and through the
clouds, my star, my own particular star, seemed
leaning always down towards me, and for that reason
I have faith."

Nigel glanced at his companion curiously but with
out speech. The car pulled up in Downing Street.
The two men descended and found everything made
easy for them. In two minutes they were in the
presence of the Prime Minister.

CHAPTER XXX

Mr. Mervin Brown was at his best in the interview
to which he had, as a matter of fact, been looking
forward with much trepidation. He received Prince
Shan courteouslj and reproached him for not having
paid him an earlier visit. To the latter's request
that Nigel might be permitted to be present at the
discussion, he promptly acquiesced.

" Lord Dorminster and I have already had some
conversation," he said, " bearing upon the matter
about which I desire to talk to you."

" I have found his lordship," Prince Shan de
clared, " one of the few Englishmen who has any
real apprehension of the trend of events outside his
own country."

The Prime Minister plunged at once into the mid
dle of things.

" Our national faults are without doubt known to
you, Prince Shan," he said. " They include, amongst
other things, an over-confidence in the promises of
others ; too great belief, I fear, in the probity of our
friends. We paid a staggering price in 1914 for
those qualities. Lord Dorminster would have me
believe that there is a still more terrible price for
us to pay in the future, unless we change our whole

276 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

outlook, abandon our belief in the League of Nations,
and once more acknowledge the supremacy of force."

" Lord Dorminster is right," Prince Shan pro
nounced. " I have come here to tell you so, Mr.
Mervin Brown."

" You come here as a friend of England ? " the
latter asked.

" I come here as one who hesitates to become her
enemy," was the measured reply. " I will be per
fectly frank with you, sir. I came to this country
to discuss a project which, with the acquiescence of
China and Japan, would have resulted in the humilia
tion of your country and the gratification of Ger
many's eagerly desired revenge."

" You believe in the existence of that sentiment,
then? " the Prime Minister enquired.

" Any one short of a very insular Englishman,"
the Prince replied, " would have realised it long ago.
There is a great society in Germany, scarcely even a
secret society, pledged to wipe out the humiliations
of the last great war. Lord Dorminster tells me
that you are to-day without a secret service. For
that reason you have remained in ignorance of the
mines beneath your feet. Germany has laid her plans
well and carefully. Her first and greatest weapon
has been your sense of security. She has seen you
contemplate with an ill-advised smile of spurious sat
isfaction, invincible France, regaining her wealth
more slowly than you for the simple reason that half

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 277

the man power of the country is absorbed by her
military preparations. France is impregnable. A
direct invasion of your country is in all probability
impossible. Those two facts have seemed to you all-
sufficient. That is where you have been, if I may
say so, sir, very short-sighted."

" Germany has no power to transport troops in
other directions," Mr. Mervin Brown observed.

Prince Shan smiled.

" You have another enemy besides Germany," he
pointed out, " a great democracy who has never for
given your lack of sympathy at her birth, your at
tempts to repress by force a great upheaval, borne
in agony and shame, yet containing the germs of
worthy things which your statesmen in those days
failed to discern. Russia has never forgiven. Rus
sia stands hand in hand with Germany."

" But surely," the Prime Minister protested, " you
speak in the language of the past? The League of
Nations still exists. Any directly predatory expedi
tion would bring the rest of the world to arms."

Prince Shan shook his head.

" One of the first necessities of a tribunal," he
expounded, " is that that tribunal should have the
power to punish. You yourself are one of the
judges. You might find your culprit guilty. With
what weapon will you chastise him ? The culprit has
grown mightier than the judge."

" America "

278 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

" America," Prince Shan interrupted, " can, when
she chooses, strike a weightier blow than any other
nation on earth, but she will never again proceed
outside her own sphere of influence."

" But she must protect her trade," the Prime
Minister insisted.

" She has no need to do so by force of arms. Take
my own country, for instance. We need American
machinery, American goods, locomotives and mining
plants. America has no need to force these things
upon us. We are as anxious to buy as she is to sell."

" I am to figure to myself, then," Mr. Mervin
Brown reflected, " a combination of Germany and
Russia engaged in some scheme inimical to Great
Britain?"

" There was such a scheme definitely arranged and
planned," Prince Shan assured him gravely. " If I
had seen well to sign a certain paper, you would
have lost, before the end of this month, India, your
great treasure house, Australia and New Zealand,
and eventually Egypt. You would have been as
powerless to prevent it as either of us three would
be if called upon unarmed to face the champion
heavyweight boxer."

" It is hard for me to credit the fact that offi
cially Germany has any knowledge of this scheme,"
the Prime Minister confessed.

" Official Germany would probably deny it,"

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 279

Prince Shan answered dryly. " Official Russia might
do the same. Official China would follow suit, but
the real China, in my person, assures you of the
truth of what I have told you. You have never
heard, I suppose, of the three secret cities ? "

" I have heard stories about them which sounded
like fairy tales," Mr. Mervin Brown admitted grudg
ingly.

" Nevertheless, they exist," Prince Shan continued,
" and they exist for the purpose of supplying means
of offence for the expedition of which I have spoken.
There is one in Germany, one in Russia, and one in
China. The three between them have produced
enough armoured airships of a new design to con
quer any country in the world."

" Armoured airships ? " Mr. Mervin Brown re
peated.

" Airships from which one fights on land as well
as in the air," Prince Shan explained. " On land
they become moving fortresses. No shell has ever
been made which can destroy them. I should be re
vealing no secret to you, because I believe I am right
in saying, sir, that a model of these amazing en
gines of destruction was first submitted to your Gov
ernment."

" I remember something of the sort," the Prime
Minister assented. " The inventor himself was an
American, I believe,"

280 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

" Precisely ! I believe he told you in plain words
that whoever possessed his model might, if they
chose, dominate the world."

" But who wants to dominate the world by force? "
Mr. Mervin Brown demanded passionately. " We
have passed into a new era, an era of peace and the
higher fellowship. It is waste of time, labour and
money to create these horrible instruments of de
struction. The League of Nations has decreed that
they shall not be built."

" Nevertheless," Prince Shan declared, with por
tentous gravity, " a thousand of these engines of
destruction are now ready in a certain city of China.
Each one of the three secret cities has done its quota
of work in the shape of providing parts. China
alone has put them together. I bought the secret,
and I alone possess it. It rests with me whether the
world remains at peace or moves on to war."

" You cannot hesitate, then? " Mr. Mervin Brown
exclaimed anxiously. " You yourself are an apostle
of civilisation."

Prince Shan smiled.

" It is because we are strong," he said, " that we
love peace. It is because you are weak that you
fear war. I am not here to teach you statesmanship.
It is not for me to point out to you the means by
which you can make your country safe and keep her
people free. Call a meeting of what remains of the

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 281

League of Nations and compare your strength with
that of the nations who have crept outside and lie
waiting. Then take the advice of experts and set
your house in order. You sacrifice everything to-day
to the god of commerce. Take a few men like Dor-
minster here into your councils. You are not a
nation of fools. Speak the truth at the next meet
ing of the League of Nations and see that it is prop
erly reported. Help yourselves, and I will help you."

" Will you come into my Cabinet, Lord Dormin-
ster? " the Prime Minister invited, turning to Nigel.

" If you will recreate the post of Minister for
War, I will do so with pleasure," was the prompt
reply.

Prince Shan held out his hand.

" There is great responsibility upon your shoul
ders, Mr. Mervin Brown," he said. " You will never
know how near you have been to disaster. Try and
wake up your nation gradually, if you can. Call
together your writers, your thinking men, your his
torians. Encourage the flagging spirit of patriot
ism in your public schools and universities. Is this
presumption on my part that I give so much advice?
If so, forgive me. Truth that sits in the heart will
sometimes demand to be heard."

At the Prime Minister's request, Nigel remained
behind. They both looked at the door through which
Prince Shan had passed. Mr. Mervin Brown meta-

282 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

phorically pinched himself. He was still feeling a
little dazed.

" Is that man real flesh and blood ? " he demanded.

" He is as real and as near the truth," Nigel re
plied solemnly, " as the things of which he has told
us."

CHAPTER XXXI

That night, Nigel gave a dinner party on Maggie's
account at the fashionable London hotel of the mo
ment. Invitations had been sent out by telephone,
by hurried notes, in one or two cases were delivered
by word of mouth. On the whole, the acceptances,
considering the season was in full swing, were a little
remarkable. Every one was anxious to come, be
cause, as one of her girl friends put it, no one ever
knew what Maggie was going to be up to next. One
of the few refusals came from Prince Shan, and even
he made use of compromise :

My dear Lord Dorminster, will you forgive me
if in this instance I do not break a custom to which
I have perhaps a little too rigidly adhered. The
Prime Minister telephoned, a few minutes after we
left him, asking me to meet two of his colleagues
from the Foreign Office to-night, and I doubt
whether our conference will have concluded at the
hour you name.

However, if you will permit me, I will give
myself the pleasure of joining you later in the
evening, to make my adieux to those of my friends
whom I am quite sure I shall find amongst your
company.

Sincerely yours,

SHAN.

284 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

Maggie passed the note back with a little smile.
She made no comment whatever. Nigel watched her
thoughtfully.

" I have carried out your orders," he observed.
" Everything has been attended to, even to the colour
of your table decorations. Now tell me what it all
means? "

She looked him in the face quite frankly.

" How can I ? " she answered. " I do not know
myself."

" Is this by way of being a farewell party? " he
persisted.

" I do not know that," she assured him. " The
only thing is that if I do decide — to go — well, I
shall have had a last glimpse of most of my friends."

"As your nearest male relative, in fact your
guardian," Nigel went on, with a touch of his old
manner, " I feel myself deeply interested in your
present situation. If a little advice from one who is
considerably your senior would be acceptable "

" It wouldn't," Maggie interrupted quietly.
" There are just two things in life no girl accepts
advice upon — the way she does her hair and the
man she means to marry. You see, both are decided
by instinct. I shall know before dawn to-morrow
what I mean to do, but until then nothing that any
body could say would make any difference. Besides,
your mind ought to be full of your own matrimonial

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 285

affairs. I hear that Naida is talking of going back
to Russia next week."

" My own affairs are less complex," Nigel replied.
" I am going to ask Naida to marry me — to-night
if I have the opportunity."

Maggie made a little grimace.

" There goes my second string ! " she exclaimed.
" Nigel, you are horribly callous. I have never been
in the least sure that I haven't wanted to marry you
myself."

Nigel lit a cigarette and pushed the box across to
his companion.

" I've frequently felt the same way," he confessed.
" The trouble of it is that when the really right per
son comes along, one hasn't any doubt about it
whatever. I should have made you a stodgy hus
band, Maggie."

She sniffed.

" I think that considering the way you've flirted
with me," she declared, " you ought at least to have
given me the opportunity of refusing you."

" If Naida refuses me," he began

" And I decide that Asia is too far away," she
interrupted

" We may come together, after all," he said, with
a resigned little sigh.

" Glib tongue and empty heart," she quoted.
" Nigel, I would never trust you. I believe you're
in love with Naida."

286 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

" And I'm not quite so sure about you," he ob
served, watching the colour rise quickly in her cheeks.
" Off with you to dress, young woman. It's past
seven, and we must be there early. I still have the
wine to order."

The dinner party was in its way a complete suc
cess. Prince Karschoff was there, benign and dis
tinguished; Chalmers and one or two other young
men from the American Embassy. There was a
sprinkling of Maggie's girl friends, a leaven of the
older world in Nigel's few intimates, — and Naida,
very pale but more beautiful than ever in a white
velvet gown, her hair brushed straight back, and
with no jewellery save one long rope of pearls. Nigel
who in his capacity as host had found little time for
personal conversation during the service of dinner,
deliberately led her a little apart when they passed
out into the lounge for coffee and to watch the
dancing.

" My duties are over for a time," he said. " Do
you realise that I have not had a word with you alone
since our luncheon at Giro's ? "

" We have all been a little engrossed, have we
not? " she murmured. " I hope that you are satis
fied with the way things have turned out."

" Nothing shall induce me to talk politics or em
pire-saving to-night," he declared, with a smile. " I
have other things to say."

" Tell me why you asked us all to dine so sud-

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 287

denly," she enquired. " I do not know whether it
is my fancy, but there seems to be an air of cele
bration about. Is there any announcement to be
made? "

He shook his head.

" None. The party was just a whim of Maggie's."

They both looked across towards the ballroom,
where she was dancing with Chalmers.

" Maggie is very beautiful to-night," Naida said.
" I could scarcely listen to my neighbour's conver
sation at dinner time for looking at her. Yet she
has the air all the time of living in a dream, as though
something had happened which had lifted her right
away from us all. I began to wonder," she added,
" whether, after all, Oscar Immelan had not told me
the truth, and whether we should not be drinking her
health and yours before the evening was over."

" You could scarcely believe that," he whispered,
" if you have any memory at all."

There was a faint touch of pink in her cheeks, a
tinge of colour as delicate as the passing of a gleam
of sunshine over a sea-glistening shell.

" But Englishmen are so unfaithful," she sighed.

" Then I at least am an exception," Nigel an
swered swiftly. " The words which you checked upon
my lips the last time we were alone together still
live in my heart. I think, Naida, the time has come
to say them."

288 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

Their immediate neighbours had deserted them.
He leaned a little towards her.

" You know so well that I love you, Naida," he
said. " Will you be my wife? "

She looked up at him, half laughing, yet with
tears in her eyes. With an impulsive little gesture,
she caught his hand in hers for a moment.

" How horribly sure you must have felt of me,"
she complained, " to have spoken here, with all these
people around ! Supposing I had told you that my
life's work lay amongst my own people, or that I had
made up my mind to marry Oscar Immelan, to con
sole him for his great disappointment."

" I shouldn't have believed you," he answered,
smiling.

" Conceit ! " she exclaimed.

He shook his head.

" In a sense, of course, I am conceited," he replied.
" I am the happiest and proudest man here. I real
ly think that after all we ought to turn it into a
celebration."

The band was playing a waltz. Naida's head
moved to the music, and presently Nigel rose to his
feet with a smile, and they passed into the ballroom.
Karschoff and Mrs. Bollington Smith watched them
with interest.

" Naida is looking very wonderful to-night," the
latter remarked. " And Nigel, too ; I wonder if
there is anything between them."

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 289

" The days of foreign alliances are past," Kar-
schoff replied, " but a few intermarriages might be
very good for this country."

"Are you serious? " she asked.

" Absolutely ! I would not suggest anything of
the sort with Germany, but with this new Russia,
the Russia of which Naida Karetsky is a daughter,
why not ? Although they will not have me back there,
Russia is some day going to lay down the law to
Europe."

" I wonder whether Maggie has any ideas of the
sort in her mind," Mrs. Bollington Smith observed.
" She seems curiously abstracted to-night."

Chalmers came grumblingly up to Mrs. Bollington
Smith, with whom he was an established favourite.

" Lady Maggie is treating me disgracefully," he
complained. " She will scarcely dance at all. She
goes around talking to every one as though it were
a sort of farewell party."

" Perhaps it may be," Karschoff remarked quietly.

" She isn't going away, is she? " Chalmers de
manded.

" Who knows ? " the Prince replied. " Lady Mag
gie is one of those strange people to whom one may
look with every confidence for the unexpected."

She herself came across to them, a few moments
later.

" Something tells me," she declared, " that you are
talking about me."

ago THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

" You are always a very much discussed young
lady,** Karschoff rejoined, with a little bow.

She made a grimace and sank into a chair by her
aunt. She talked on lightly enough, but all the time
with that slight suggestion of superficiality which
is a sign of strain. She glanced often towards the
entrance of the lounge, yet no one seemed less dis
turbed when at a few minutes before eleven Prince
Shan came quietly in. He made his way at once to
Mrs. Bollington Smith and bent over her fingers.

" It is so kind of you and Lord Dorminster," he
said, " to give me this opportunity of saying good-
by to a few friends."

"You are leaving us so soon, Prince? "

" To-morrow, soon after dawn," he replied, his
eyes wandering around the little circle. " I wish to
be in Pekin, if possible, by Wednesday, so my Dragon
must spread his wings indeed."

He said a few words to almost everybody. Last
of all he came to Maggie, and no one heard what
he said to her. There was no change in his face as
he bent low over her fingers, no sign of anything
which might have passed between them, as a few min
utes later he turned to one side with Nigel. Maggie
held out her hand to Chalmers. The strain seemed
to have passed. Her lips were parted in a wonder
ful smile, her feet moved to the music.

" Come and dance," she invited.

They moved a few steps away together, when

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 291

Maggie came to an abrupt standstill. The two
stood for a moment as though transfixed, their eyes
upon the arched entrance which led from the rest
aurant into the lounge. A man was standing there,
looking around, a strange, menacing figure, a man
dressed in the garb of fashion but with the face of a
savage, with eyes which burned in his head like twin
dots of fire, with drawn, hollow cheeks and mouth a
little open like a mad dog's. As his eyes fell upon
the group and he recognised them, a look of hor
rible satisfaction came into his face. He began to
approach quite deliberately. He seemed to take in
by slow degrees every one who stood there, — Mag
gie herself and Chalmers, Naida, Nigel and Prince
Shan. He moved forward. All the time his right
hand was behind him, concealed underneath the tails
of his dress coat.

" Be careful ! " Maggie cried out. " It is Oscar
Immelan ! He is mad ! "

Some of the party and many of the bystanders
had shrunk away from the menacing figure. Naida
stepped out from among the little group of those
who were left.

" Oscar," she said firmly, " what is the matter with
you? You are not well enough to be here."

He came to a standstill. At close quarters his
appearance was even more terrible. Although by
some means he had gotten into his evening clothes,
he was only partly shaven, and there were gashes

292 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

in his face where the hand which had held his razor
had slipped. The pupils of his eyes were distended,
and the eyes themselves seemed to have shrunk back
into their sockets. His whole frame seemed to have
suddenly lost vigour, even substance. He had the air
of a man in clothes too large for him. Even his
voice was shriller, — shriller and horrible with the
slow and bestial satisfaction of his words.

" So here you are, the whole nest of you together,
eh ? " he exclaimed. " Good ! Very good indeed !
Prince Shan, the poisoner! Dorminster, enjoying
your brief triumph, eh? And you. Naida Karetsky,
traitress to your country — deceiver "

" That will do, Immelan," Nigel interrupted sharp
ly. " We are all here. What do you want with us ? "

" That comes," Immelan replied. " Soon you shall
all know why I have come! Let me speak to my
friend Shan for a moment. I carry your poison in
my veins, but there is a chance — just a chance,"
he added slowly, with a horrible smile upon his lips,
" that you may go first, after all."

Nigel made a stealthy but rapid movement for
ward, drawing Naida gently out of the way. Im
melan was too quick, however. He swung around,
showing the revolver which he had been concealing
behind him, and moved to one side until his back was
against one of the pillars. By this time, most of
the other occupants of the ballroom had either rushed
screaming away altogether, or were hiding, peering

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 293-

out in fascinated horror from the different recesses.
The chief maitre d'hotel bravely held his ground and
came to within a few paces of Immelan.

" We can't have any brawling here," he said.
" Put that revolver away."

Immelan took no notice of the intervener, except
that for a single moment the muzzle yawned in the
latter's face. The maitre d'hotel was a brave man,
but he had a wife and family, and after all, it was
not his affair. There were other men there to look
after the ladies. He hurried off to call for the
police. Almost as he went, Prince Shan stepped into
the foreground. His voice was calm and expression
less. His eyes, in which there shone no shadow of
fear, were steadily fixed upon Immelan. He spoke
without flurry.

" So you carry your own weapons to-night, Im
melan," he said. " That at least is more like a man.
You seem to have a grievance against every one.
Start with me. What is it? "

There were some of them who wondered why, at
this juncture when he so clearly dominated his as
sailant, Prince Shan, whose courage was superb and
whose sang froid absolutely unshaken did not throw
himself upon this intruder and take his chance of
bringing the matter to an end at the moment when
the man's nerve was undoubtedly shaken. Then they
looked towards the entrance, and they understood.
Creeping towards the little gathering came Li Wen

294 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

anH another of the Prince's suite, a younger and
even more active man. The two came on tiptoe,
crouching and moving warily, with the gleam of the
tiger in their anxious eyes. Maggie caught a warn
ing glance from Nigel and looked away.

" You are my murderer ! " Immelan cried hoarsely.
" It is through you I suffer these pains ! I am dying
of your accursed poison ! "

" If that were true," Prince Shan replied, with
the air of one willing to discuss the subject impar
tially, " might I remind you of Sen Lu, who died in
my box at the Albert Hall? For whom was that
dagger thrust meant, Immelan? Not for the man
whom you had bought to betray me, the only one
of my suite who has ever been tempted with gold.
That dagger thrust was meant for me, and the as
sassin was one of your creatures. So even if your
words were true, Immelan, and the poison which you
imagine to be in your body were planted there by me,
are we less than quits? "

Immelan's lie was unconvincing.

" I know nothing of Sen Lu's death," he declared.
" I employ no assassins. When there is killing to be
done, I can do it myself. I am here to-night for that
purpose. You have deserted me at the last moment,
Prince Shan — played me and my country false for
the sake of the English woman whom you think to
carry back with you to China. And you," he added,
turning with a sudden furious glance at Naida, " you

THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN 295

have deceived the man who trusted you, the man who
sent you here for one purpose, and one purpose only.
You have done your best to ruin my scheme. Not
only that, but you have given the love which was
mine — mine, I say — to another — an Englishman !
I hate you all ! That is why I, a dying man, have
crawled here to reap my little harvest of vengeance.
— You, Naida — you shall be first "

Naida was suddenly swung on one side, and the
shot which rang out passed through Nigel's coat
sleeve, grazing his wrist, — the only shot that was
fired. Prince Shan, watching for his moment, as his
two attendants threw themselves upon the madman
from behind, himself sprang forward, knocked Imme-
lan's right hand up with a terrible blow, and sent
the revolver crashing to the ground. It was a mat
ter of a few seconds. Immelan, when he felt himself
seized, scarcely struggled. The courage of his mad
ness seemed to pass, the venom died out of his face,
he shook like a man in an ague. Prince Shan kicked
the revolver on one side and looked scornfully down
upon him, now a nerveless wreck.

" Immelan," he said, " it is a pity that you did not
wait until to-morrow morning. You would then have
known the truth. You are no more poisoned than I
am. If you had been in China — well, who knows?
In England there is so much prejudice against the
taking of a worthless life that as a guest I subscribed

296 THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN

to it and mixed a little orris-root tooth powder with
your vermouth."

The man's eyes suddenly opened. He was feverish
ly, frantically anxious.

" Tell me that again," he shrieked. " You mean
it? Swear that you mean it."

Prince Shan's gesture as he turned away was one
of supreme contempt.

" A Shan," he said, " never needs to repeat."

There was the bustle of arriving police, the story
of a revolver which had gone off by accident, a very
puzzling contretemps expounded for their benefit.
The situation, and the participants in it, seemed to
dissolve with such facility that it was hard for any
one to understand what had actually happened.
Prince Shan, with Maggie on his arm, was talking
to the leader of the orchestra, who had suddenly re
appeared. The former turned to his companion.

" It is not my custom to dance," he said, " but the
waltz that they were beginning to play seemed to me
to have a little of the lure of our own music. Will
you do me the honour? "

They moved away to the music. Chalmers stood
and watched them, with one hand in his pocket and
the other on Nigel's shoulder. He turned to Naida,
who was on the other side.

" Nothing like a touch of melodrama for the emo
tions," he grumbled. " Look at Lady Maggie ! Her

NOVELS by E. PHILLIPS OPPENHEIM

"He is past master of the art of telling a story.
He has humor, a keen sense of the dramatic, and a
knack of turning out a happy ending just when the
complications of the plot threaten worse disasters."
— New York Times.

"Mr. Oppenheim has few equals among modern
novelists. He is prolific, he is untiring in the inven
tion of mysterious plots, he is a clever weaver of the
plausible with the sensational, and he has the neces
sary gift of facile narrative." — Boston Transcript.

A Prince of Sinners

Mysterious Mr. Sabin

A Maker of History

The Malefactor

A Millionaire of Yesterday

The Man and His Kingdom

The Yellow Crayon

A Sleeping Memory

A Lost Leader

The Great Secret

The Avenger

The Long Arm of Mannister

The Governors

Jeanne of the Marshes

The Lost Ambassador

A Daughter of the Marionis

Berenice

Havoc

The Lighted Way

The Survivor

A People's Man

The Vanished Messenger

Mr. Grex of Monte Carlo

The Way of These Women

Mr. Marx's Secret

The Kingdom of the Blind

The Hillman

The Pawns Count

The Zeppelin's Passenger

The Curious Quest

The Wicked Marquis

The Box with Broken Seals

The Great Impersonation

The Devil's Paw

Jacob's Ladder

The Profiteers

Nobody's Man

The Great Prince Shan

LITTLE, BROWN & CO., Publishers, BOSTON

University of California

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