A Queen's Error - free ebook by Henry Curties

A QUEEN'S ERROR

by Author of "The Blood Bond" "The Idol of the King" "Tears of Angels" "The Queen's Gate Mystery" "Out of the Shadows" Etc. Etc. London F. V. White &amp; Co. Ltd. 17 Buckingham Street, Strand, W.C. 1911...

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CHAPTER I

I turned the corner abruptly and found myself in a long, dreary street; looking in the semi-fog and drizzle more desolate than those dismal old-world streets of Bath I had passed through already in my aimless wandering; I turned sharply and came almost face to face with her. She was standing on the upper step, and the door stood open; the house itself looked neglected and with the general appearance of having been shut up for years. The windows were grimed with dirt, and there was that little ac

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CHAPTER II

I took a note of the number of the house—it was 190 Monmouth Street—and gazed a little while at its neglected exterior before I walked away into the mist towards my hotel. Over the whole of the front windows faded Venetian blinds were drawn down; it was one of those houses, sometimes met with, shut up for no apparent reason, and without any intention on the part of the owner, apparently, to dispose of it, for there was no board up. It was not until later that I learned that the house belonged to

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CHAPTER III

The first thing which caught my attention was the wax candle with its glass shade standing on the raised flap which did duty for a hall table. I at once lit the candle from the box of matches by it, and then, when it had burned up a little, proceeded at once to the kitchen staircase. The old lady had given me the latch-key with such a free hand that I felt myself fully justified in walking in; in fact, I rather wanted to take her by surprise if possible. Nevertheless I made a little noise going

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CHAPTER IV

I was the "'im" referred to evidently. Our inspector buttoned up his blue overcoat. "Perhaps you'll be kind enough to walk down with us to the station, Mr. . . . er—Anstruther," he said; "we can have a little talk down there and straighten things out a bit." His subterfuge did not in the least deceive me. "Do I understand," I asked, "that you propose to detain me?" The inspector raised his shoulders perplexedly, and his brother smiled a fat smile over his shoulder. "That'll depend how you explai

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CHAPTER V

Being left to myself after thoroughly thrashing out the whole case with Dr. Mainwaring and the chief constable, who both agreed with me that the circumstances were the most extraordinary they had ever heard of, I sat down to consider matters by myself. Here was I, a country gentleman of moderate estate, trying to eke out a smallish income by literature, plumped down into the centre of as fine a tangle of mystery as ever came out of the Arabian Nights Entertainments . I got up and looked at mysel

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CHAPTER VI

I awoke with a feeling of intense cold, the fire was out, and I was lying outside the bed without covering. The day had fully broken, and there was even an attempt on the part of the sun to pierce the heavy mists of a November morning. I looked around out of the windows, and saw the hills topped with cloud in every direction. Drawing the rough blankets over me, I lay and thought. My first yearning was for something to eat; I had tasted nothing since lunch the previous day; I was fearfully hungry

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CHAPTER VII

Looking over my cousin's shoulders were two other faces, one covered with rough hair, and evidently belonging to a game-keeper, the other the beautiful face of my cousin, Lady Ethel Vanborough, St. Nivel's sister. "Poor fellow!" she remarked sympathetically. "What have they been doing to you?" I could hardly believe my eyes, and passed my hand wearily across my forehead. St. Nivel turned to the keeper. "Give me the brandy flask," he said. The man produced it, and my cousin poured some out in the

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CHAPTER VIII

When I got back to the comfort of the Magnifique, though my "cure" was but half completed, yet I determined to bring my visit to Bath to a close; it had been too exciting. I would come back and finish the course of water drinking and baths some other time. At any rate the little twinge of rheumatism in my shoulder which had brought me there was all gone. I think possibly the shocks of electricity combined with my agitation of mind had cured it. St. Nivel and Lady Ethel, being tired of the "rough

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CHAPTER IX

That little rencontre took my nerve away, and I shot very badly at the next plantation, so badly—I missed two birds—that I was almost inclined to give up and go home; but then lunch came—in a marquee—and its luxury and the delightful wine restored me. I shot well again all the afternoon. Yes, it was a glorious day, and I enjoyed it immensely when I got Saumarez—or His Serene Highness—out of my mind. He was a superb shot, I will say that of him; he fired from the left shoulder as many men do, but

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CHAPTER X

Settling on the Hotel Victoria as our headquarters, we prepared to make the two days before our sailing as amusing as possible, but I always had before me the nightmare of the little carved casket which I was to carry with me. I decided I would take no risks with it. I would go and fetch it from my solicitors on the afternoon of our departure, on the way to the station. It was very evident to me that this casket contained something of the greatest possible interest to several people, including i

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CHAPTER XI

Very thankful were my two cousins and I when we got clear of the fogs of the Mersey and were fairly out at sea. Not that we were bad sailors. We did not proclaim that we were, at any rate, though I will admit that for the first two days I found my comfortable brass bedstead a resting-place much more to my liking than a seat at the dinner-table, although I duly turned up there for the sake of appearances. During this period of seclusion I thought deeply of the latest attempt of my enemies to secu

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CHAPTER XII

Rio with its heat, its tramways, and its great sea wall; its Botanical Gardens in which once more I had the delight of losing myself with Dolores, to the evident anxiety of her aunt and duenna, Mrs. Darbyshire; it seemed so strange to find such a foreign little person with such a distinctly English name. She, however, refused to be beguiled away by St. Nivel to look at the giraffes. I think she began to smell more than a rat when we reached the monkey house, and to doubt whether his attentions t

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CHAPTER XIII

No sooner had we passed through the cyclists than they formed across the road and, dismounting, took up positions behind any cover which they discovered in the rough ground. To my astonishment they unstrapped rifles from their machines, and as soon as the robbers appeared in pursuit greeted them with a rapid fire evidently from magazines. I saw several saddles emptied as they turned and rode off. A few minutes after St. Nivel and his friends rejoined us. "That was a lucky thought of mine," he sa

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CHAPTER XIV

"Now there are two favours I wish to ask you, Don Juan," I said, as he stood with the precious casket in his hands, "the first is to put that casket in a place of safety; the second to release this poor wretch from the snake." He awoke from a fit of deep meditation with a start. "I will grant your two favours immediately," he answered quickly as he put the casket in his breast pocket and buttoned his frock-coat over it; "see one is already done, now I will accomplish the other." He went to the e

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CHAPTER XV

The two weeks which followed constituted, I have no hesitation in saying, the gala fortnight of my existence. I never could have imagined it possible that so much pleasure could have been crowded into such a short time. But can it not be easily believed that everything then was to me gilded with that supreme fine gold, the glamour of a young love? Yes, I think even the old Don himself saw it, and at any rate did not forbid it. I went about with Dolores everywhere, even to church, at which she wa

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CHAPTER XVI

We left Valoro a few days after the great festival of the New Year, which came as a fitting finale to all our gaiety. Christmas had been a quiet, sedate feast in the nature of a Sunday. We left just as the premonitory signs of the rainy season were making themselves apparent. St. Nivel's friends, the American attachés, told him that we were well out of it, as the rains were torrential. Dolores and I commenced the journey with much satisfaction; up to the last we had feared that Don Juan might ha

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CHAPTER XVII

Don Juan's conduct upon our arrival in London was both a revelation and a surprise to me. First, following a custom, now long established for diplomatists, he put up at Claridge's. From that famous hotel I had the pleasure of accompanying him at his request on a series of visits. The first was an appointment at the Foreign Office, and there he was closeted with the Secretary of State for a solid two hours, while I was kicking my heels in a waiting-room. His last words to me had been exceedingly

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CHAPTER XVIII

"What do you mean?" asked Don Juan. The old man glanced at me quickly, an anxious look in his eyes. I looked him straight in the face in return. "Don Juan," I replied, "Dolores and I love one another." The anxious look faded into one of softness, and he commenced walking backwards and forwards in the room, without answering me. Presently he stopped and faced me again, and in his old eyes, which were blue like his daughter's, there were tears. "I will not conceal from you, Anstruther," he began,

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CHAPTER XIX

I was delayed two days in Bath by the inquest on the body of the German, the discovery of which in the old graveyard formed a nine days' wonder in the old western city and then died out altogether. It was a very barren inquiry, for it discovered nothing. The man was a stranger, no evidence was produced to show who he was, and as an unknown stranger he was buried again, not in the old graveyard, but in the new cemetery away among the hills. There was only one piece of evidence which carried any i

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CHAPTER XX

As Dolores and I had both anticipated, the result of her interview with her father on the subject of her affections was entirely satisfactory to us both. The Don expressed himself satisfied, too, with the consultation, and gave us his blessing in the good old-fashioned way still in vogue in Aquazilia, or at any rate among the adherents of the old monarchy. We knelt at his feet to receive it. The result was a paragraph in the Morning Post , as follows:— "A marriage has been arranged, and will sho

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CHAPTER XXI

It was five years after my marriage, or to be correct, in May of the year nineteen hundred and seven, that Dolores and I, leaving our three dear little children in the manor house on the shores of the Solent whilst we took a flying trip to Switzerland, found ourselves one heavenly spring morning standing on the balcony of the great hotel at Lucerne which is built on the very edge of the blue lake. "Well, where shall we go to-day, darling?" I asked my little wife as I slipped one hand round her w

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CHAPTER XXII

The Reverend Mother looked from Madame la Comtesse to me, and from me back again to the Comtesse. "Madame," she said, addressing her, "without doubt you are old friends; here is a re-union of the most pleasant!" We heard her words, both of us, I have no doubt, but we did not answer her; my thoughts were back again in that basement room at Monmouth Street. I saw "Madame la Comtesse," this healthy, bright looking old lady, lying on the disordered bed, her clothes soaked in blood, a great wound in

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CHAPTER XXIII

"Yes, but for the intervention of Don Juan d'Alta, my Chancellor at that time," continued the old lady, "my life might have ended in despair. "From the very first, although he did not tell me so then, he saw that I had been simply exploited by this heartless and unprincipled scoundrel, Prince Adalbert of Rittersheim. But your father," she proceeded, turning to Dolores and placing her hand on hers, "your father, my dear, by his self-sacrifice and the pure affection which he bore me, saved me. "He

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