CHAPTER XXXIV. THE PIRATE'S DEN
Miss Braithwaite was asleep on the couch in her sitting-room, deeplyasleep, so that when Prince Ferdinand William Otto changed the coldcloth on her head, she did not even move. The Countess Loschek hadbrought her some medicine.
"It cured her very quickly," said the Crown Prince, shuffling the cardswith clumsy fingers. He and Nikky were playing a game in which matchesrepresented money. The Crown Prince had won nearly all of them and wasquite pink with excitement. "It's my deal, it? When she goes to sleeplike that, she nearly always wakens up much better. She's very soundasleep."
Nikky played absently, and lost the game. The Crown Prince triumphantlyscooped up the rest of the matches. "We've had rather a nice day," heobserved, "even if we didn't go out. Shall we divide them again, andstart all over?"
Nikky, however, proclaimed himself hopelessly beaten and a bad loser. Sothe Crown Prince put away the cards, which belonged to Miss Braithwaite,and with which she played solitaire in the evenings. Then he lounged tothe window, his hands in his pockets. There was something on his mindwhich the Chancellor's reference to Hedwig's picture had recalled.Something he wished to say to Nikky, without looking at him.
So he clearer throat, and looked out the window, and said, verycasually:
"Hilda says that Hedwig is going to get married."
"So I hear, Highness."
"She doesn't seem to be very happy about it. She's crying, most of thetime."
It was Nikky's turn to clear his throat. "Marriage is a serious matter,"he said. "It is not to be gone into lightly."
"Once, when I asked you about marriage, you said marriage was when twopeople loved each other, and wanted to be together the rest of theirlives."
"Well," hedged Nikky, "that is the idea, rather."
"I should think," said Prince Ferdinand William Otto, slightly red,"that you would marry her yourself."
Nikky, being beyond speech for an instant and looking, had His RoyalHighness but seen him, very tragic and somewhat rigid, the Crown Princewent on:
"She's a very nice girl," he said; "I think she would make a good wife."
There was something of reproach in his tone. He had confidently plannedthat Nikky would marry Hedwig, and that they could all live on foreverin the Palace. But, the way things were going, Nikky might marryanybody, and go away to live, and he would lose him.
"Yes," said Nikky, in a strange voice, "she--I am sure she would make agood wife."
At which Prince Ferdinand William Otto turned and looked at him. "Iwish you would marry her yourself," he said with his nearest approach toimpatience. "I think she'd be willing. I'll ask her, if you want me to."
Half-past three, then, and Nikky trying to explain, within the limitsof the boy's understanding of life, his position. Members of royalfamilies, he said, looking far away, over the child's head, had to domany things for the good of the country. And marrying was one of them.Something of old Mettlich's creed of prosperity for the land he gave,something of his own hopelessness, too, without knowing it. He sat, bentforward, his hands swung between his knees, and tried to visualize,for Otto's understanding and his own heartache, the results of such amarriage.
Some of it the boy grasped. A navy, ships, a railroad to the sea--thosehe could understand. Treaties were beyond his comprehension. And, with achild's singleness of idea, he returned to the marriage.
"I'm sure she doesn't care about it," he said at last. "If I were KingI would not let her do it. And"--he sat very erect and swung his shortlegs--"when I grow up, I shall fight for a navy, if I want one, and Ishall marry whoever I like."
At a quarter to four Olga Loschek was announced. She made the curtsyinside the door that Palace ceremonial demanded and inquired for thegoverness. Prince Ferdinand William Otto, who had risen at her entrance,offered to see if she still slept.
"I think you are a very good doctor," he said, smiling, and went out toMiss Braithwaite's sitting room.
It was then that Olga Loschek played the last card, and won. She movedquickly to Nikky's side.
"I have a message for you," she said.
A light leaped into Nikky's eyes. "For me?"
"Do you know where my boudoir is?"
"I--yes, Countess."
"If you will go there at once and wait, some one will see you there assoon as possible." She put her hand on his arm. "Don't be foolishand proud," she said. "She is sorry about last night, and she is veryunhappy."
The light faded out of Nikky's eyes. She was unhappy and he could donothing. They had a way, in the Palace, of binding one's hands andleaving one helpless. He could not even go to her.
"I cannot go, Countess," he said. "She must understand. To-day, of alldays--"
"You mean that you cannot leave the Crown Prince?" She shrugged hershoulders. "You, too! Never have I seen so many faint hearts, suchrolling eyes, such shaking knees! And for what! Because a few timidsouls see a danger that does not exist."
"I think it does exist," said Nikky obstinately.
"I am to take the word to her, then, that you will not come?"
"That I cannot."
"You are a very foolish boy," said the Countess, watching him. "Andsince you are so fearful, I myself will remain here. There are sentriesat the doors, and a double guard everywhere. What, in the name of allthat is absurd, can possibly happen?"
That was when she won. For Nikky, who has never been, in all thishistory, anything of a hero, and all of the romantic and lovingboy,--Nikky wavered and fell.
When Prince Ferdinand William Otto returned, it was with the word thatMiss Braithwaite still slept, and that she looked very comfortable,Nikky was gone, and the Countess stood by a window, holding to the sillto support her shaking body.
It was done. The boy was in her hands. There was left only to deliverhim to those who, even now, were on the way. Nikky was safe. He wouldwait in her boudoir, and Hedwig would not come. She had sent no message.She was, indeed, at that moment a part of one of those melancholy familygroups which, the world over, in palace or peasant's hut, await thecoming of death.
Prince Ferdinand William Otto chatted. He got out the picture-framefor Hedwig, which was finished now, with the exception of burning hisinitials in the lower left-hand corner. After inquiring politely ifthe smell of burning would annoy her, the Crown Prince drew a ratherbroken-backed "F," a weak-kneed "W," and an irregular "O" in the cornerand proceeded to burn them in. He sat bent over the desk, the very tipof his tongue protruding, and worked conscientiously and carefully.Between each letter he burned a dot.
Suddenly, Olga Loschek became panic-stricken. She could not stay, andsee this thing out. Let them follow her and punish her. She could not.She had done her part. The governess lay in, a drugged sleep. A turn ofthe key, and the door to the passage beyond which Oskar waited would beclosed off. Let follow what must, she would not see it.
The boy still bent over his work. She wandered about the room, casually,as if examining the pictures on the wall. She stopped, for a bittermoment, before Hedwig's photograph, and, for a shaken one, before thoseof Prince Hubert and his wife. Then she turned the key, and shut Oskarsafely away.
"Highness," she said, "Lieutenant Larisch will be here in a moment. Willyou permit me to go?"
Otto was off his chair in an instant. "Certainly," he said, his mindstill on the "O" which he was shading.
Old habit was strong in the Countess. Although the boy's rank wasnumbered by moments, although his life was possibly to be counted byhours, she turned at the doorway and swept him a curtsy. Then she wentout, and closed the door behind her.
The two sentries stood outside. They were of the Terrorists. She knew,and they knew she knew. But neither one made a sign. They stared ahead,and Olga Loschek went out between them.
Now the psychology of the small boy is a curious thing. It is, for onething, retentive. Ideas become, given time, obsessions. And obsessionsare likely to lead to action.
The Crown Prince Ferdinand William Otto was only a
small boy, for allhis title and dignity. And suddenly he felt lonely. Left alone, hereturned to his expectations for the day, and compared them with thefacts. He remembered other carnivals, with his carriage moving throughthe streets, and people showering him with fresh flowers. He ratherglowed at the memory. Then he recalled that the Chancellor had said heneeded fresh air.
Something occurred to him, something which combined fresh airwith action, yet kept to the letter of his promise--or was there apromise?--not to leave the Palace.
The idea pleased him. It set him to smiling, and his bright hair toquivering with excitement. It was nothing less than to go up on the roofand find the ball. Nikky would be surprised, having failed himself. Hewould have to be very careful, having in mind the fate of that unluckychild at the Crystal Palace. And he would have to hurry. Nikky would besure to return soon.
He opened the door on to the great corridor, and stepped out, salutingthe sentries, as he always did.
"I'll be back in a moment," he informed them. He was always on terms ofgreat friendliness with the guard, and he knew these men by sight. "Areyou going to be stationed here now?" he inquired pleasantly.
The two guards were at a loss. But one of them, who had a son of hisown, and hated the whole business, saluted and replied that he knew not.
"I hope you are," said Ferdinand William Otto, and went on.
The sentries regarded one another. "Let him go!" said the one who was afather.
The other one moved uneasily. "Our orders cover no such contingency,"he muttered. "And, besides, he will come back." He bore a strongresemblance to the boy, who, in the riding-school, had dusted the royalhearse. "I hope to God he does not come back," he said stonily.
Five minutes to four.
The Crown Prince hurried. The corridors were almost empty. Here andthere he met servants, who stood stiff against the wall until he hadpassed. On the marble staircase, leading up, he met no one, nor onthe upper floor. He was quite warm with running and he paused in hisfather's suite to mop his face. Then he opened a window and went outon the roof. It seemed very large and empty now, and the afternoon sun,sinking low, threw shadows across it.
Also, from the balustrade, it looked extremely far to the ground.
Nevertheless, although his heart beat a trifle fast, he was stilldetermined. A climb which Nikky with his long legs had achieved in aleap, took him up to a chimney. Below--it seemed a long way below wasthe gutter. There was a very considerable slant. If one sat down, likeNikky, and slid, and did not slide over the edge, one should fetch up inthe gutter.
He felt a trifle dizzy. But Nikky's theory was, that if one is afraid todo a thing, better to do it and get over being afraid.
"I was terribly afraid of a bayonet attack," Nikky had observed, "untilI was in one. The next one I rather enjoyed!"
So the Crown Prince sat down on the sloping roof behind the chimney, andgathered his legs under him for a slide.
Then he heard a door open, and footsteps. Very careful footsteps. He wasquite certain Nikky had followed him. But there were cautious voices,too, and neither was Nikky's. It occurred to Prince Ferdinand WilliamOtto that a good many people, certainly including Miss Braithwaite,would not approve of either his situation or his position. MissBraithwaite was particularly particular about positions.
So he sat still beside the chimney, well shielded by the evergreens intubs, until the voices and the footsteps were gone. Then he took all hiscourage in his hands, and slid. Well for him that the ancient buildersof the Palace had been reckless with lead, that the gutter was bothwide and deep. Well for Nikky, too, waiting in the boudoir below andhard-driven between love and anxiety.
The Crown Prince, unaccustomed to tiles, turned over halfway down,and rolled. He brought up with a jerk in the gutter, quite safe, butextremely frightened. And the horrid memory of the Crystal Palace childfilled his mind, to the exclusion of everything else. He sat there forquite a few minutes. There was no ball in sight, and the roof lookedeven steeper from this point.
Being completely self-engrossed, therefore, he did not see that the roofhad another visitor. Had two visitors, as a matter of fact. One of themwore a blanket with a white "O" over a white "X" on it, and the otherwore a mask, and considerable kitchen cutlery fastened to his belt. Theyhad come out of a small door in the turret and were very much at ease.They leaned over the parapet and admired the view. They strutted aboutthe flat roof, and sang, at least one of them sang a very strangerefrain, which was something about
"Fifteen men on a dead man's chest; Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum."
And then they climbed on one of the garden chairs and looked over theexpanse of the roof, which was when they saw Prince Ferdinand WilliamOtto, and gazed at him.
"Gee whiz!" said the larger pirate, through his mask. "What are youdoing there?"
The Crown Prince started, and stared. "I am sitting here," explained theCrown Prince, trying to look as though he usually sat in lead gutters."I am looking for a ball."
"You're looking for a fall, I guess," observed the pirate. "You don'tremember me, kid, do you?"
"I can't see your face, but I know your voice." His voice trembled withexcitement.
"Lemme give you a hand," said the pirate, whipping off his mask. "Youmake me nervous, sitting there. You've got a nerve, you have."
The Crown Prince looked gratified. "I don't need any assistance, thankyou," he said. "Perhaps, now I'm here, I'd better look for the ball."
"I wouldn't bother about the old ball," said the pirate, rathernervously for an old sea-dog. "You better get back to a safe place. Say,what made you pretend that our Railway made you nervous?"
Prince Ferdinand William Otto climbed up the tiles, trying to look asthough tiles were his native habitat. The pirates both regarded him withadmiration, as he dropped beside them.
"How did you happen to come here?" asked the Crown Prince. "Did you loseyour aeroplane up here?"
"We came on business," said the pirate importantly. "Two of the enemyentered our cave. We were guarding it from the underbrush, and saw themgo in. We trailed them. They must die!"
"Really--die?"
"Of course. Death to those who defy us."
"Death to those who defy us!" repeated the Crown Prince, enjoyinghimself hugely, and quite ready for bloodshed.
"Look here, Dick Deadeye," said the larger pirate to the smaller, whostood gravely at attention, "I think he belongs to our crew. What say,old pal?"
Dick Deadeye wagged his tail.
Some two minutes later, the Crown Prince of Livonia, having sworn thepirate oath of no quarter, except to women and children, was on his wayto the pirate cave.
He was not running away. He was not disobedient. He was breaking nopromises. Because, from the moment he saw the two confederates, andparticularly from the moment he swore the delightful oath, his past waswiped away. There was, in his consciousness, no Palace, no grandfather,no Miss Braithwaite, even no Nikky. There was only a boy and a dog, anda pirate den awaiting him.