“Where is it? What has she done with it?” I demanded anxiously.
“I can’t tell you that. She had it in her hand when she dismissed me for the night. It looked to me as though she meant to break the seal and read it.”
Full of the gravest forebodings, I hurried to the rear of the train, got out my inspector’s uniform, though without effecting any change in my facial appearance, and made my way to the smoking-car.
Colonel Menken, who had just finished breakfast, was settling himself down to a cigar and an illustrated magazine.
He gazed up at me in astonishment, as he perceived the change in my costume.
“So the Princess was right!” he exclaimed angrily. “You are another policeman.”
I bowed.
“And charged, like the last, to protect me from my cousin and future wife!”
“From the person who has robbed you of the Czar’s autograph letter to the Emperor of Japan, yes!”