Free Wallace of the Secret Service by Alexander Wilson

held blameworthy. At any rate, sir, you may be sure I’ll do my best to clear up the mystery, and find out where the Prince is. Now, can you tell me anything which I do not already know?’
    ‘What do you know?’
    Wallace told him, and the Governor shook his head.
    ‘You know as much as I do,’ he observed. ‘All I can do is to show you where the Prince and his escort were walking.’
    ‘Would you mind sending someone with me to show me theplace and describe to me exactly what they were doing?’
    ‘I’ll come with you myself. But, in my anxiety, I am afraid I am forgetting the duties of a host. You must need a rest and refreshment after your rapid journey?’
    ‘No, thanks,’ was Wallace’s quick reply. ‘I slept wonderfully well and had an excellent breakfast. The sooner I can get my teeth into this business the better I shall be pleased.’
    ‘Come along then.’
    They went into the grounds, and the Governor pointed out to his companion where the Prince and the two men with him were last seen. From the ballroom a flight of wide marble steps led down to a spacious lawn dotted with flower-beds, and lined on two sides by thick shrubs and trees. The lawn, his Excellency explained, had been lit by fairy lamps, and had contained an open-air buffet. It was beyond the buffet close to the trees where the Prince had chosen to walk.
    ‘Do you mean to say,’ asked Wallace, ‘that he and his companions were merely pacing backwards and forwards?’
    ‘They were when I saw them,’ returned the Governor. ‘From the steps, where I was standing at the time, I could only see them dimly, for they were beyond the lights, but they were certainly walking up and down.’
    ‘Were they in your view all the time you were standing there?’
    ‘No. As you will notice, at the end of the lawn is a dense mass of tall shrubs.’ He pointed. ‘They disappeared behind there every now and then, but always emerged while I was watching them.’
    ‘Were they all walking together?’
    ‘No; the Prince and his equerry were together. Your man, Cousins, was a yard or two behind.’
    Wallace nodded thoughtfully.
    ‘I won’t bother your Excellency further,’ he remarked. ‘I want to have a look at those bushes over there.’
    The Governor, sensing that he wished to be alone, left him. Wallace strolled across to the place that had been indicated, and began to look about him. He discovered at once that when the Prince and his companions had reached that end of the lawn they must have been completely out of sight of all the other guests.
    ‘It must have been here that the dirty work took place, whatever it was,’ he muttered. ‘Of course, the Prince may have suddenly decided to take a stroll round the grounds, but I don’t think so. Cousins was a yard or two behind. Now, I wonder—’
    His gaze suddenly became riveted on the ground at his feet. The grass all round him looked as though something heavy had been trampling determinedly on it, in places it was even uprooted. Obviously there had been a struggle, unless the police, when searching, had trodden the ground into that condition, and that was hardly likely. He went on his knees and made a careful examination over a wide area, rising to his feet at last and wiping the perspiration from his brow, for it was broiling hot.
    ‘No blood,’ he murmured. ‘That’s one relief.’
    ‘Is it?’ demanded a harsh voice behind him. ‘And who the devil may you be?’
    Sir Leonard turned casually and eyed the speaker. He was a tall, thin man with a prominent jaw and fierce eyes overshadowed by beetling brows. Behind him was a sergeant of police.
    ‘Are you the Superintendent of Police?’ inquired Wallace.
    ‘I am,’ was the reply, ‘but you haven’t answered my question.’
    His manner had become less aggressive, and he was now regarding his vis-à-vis with a mixture of interest and resentment.
    ‘My name is Wallace,’ Sir Leonard informed him quietly. ‘I havecome from England to –