“I am afraid you will not consider my errand here a particularly pleasant one, Herr Captain. I have a warrant here for the arrest of one of your passengers, whom I have to ask you to hand over to me.”
“A what!” Captain Ackinson exclaimed, with a spot of deep colour stealing through the tan of his cheeks.
“A warrant,” Dronestein continued, drawing an imposing looking document from his breast pocket. “If you will examine it you will perceive that it is in perfect order. It bears, in fact,” he continued, pointing with reverential forefinger to a signature near the bottom of the document, “the seal of his most august Majesty, the Emperor of Germany.”
Captain Ackinson glanced at the document with imperturbable face.
“What is the name of the gentleman to whom all this refers?” he inquired.
“The Duc de Souspennier!”
“The name,” Captain Ackinson remarked, “is not upon my passengers’ list.”
“He is travelling under the alias of ‘Mr. Sabin,’” Baron Von Graisheim interjected.
“And do you expect me,” Captain Ackinson remarked, “to hand over the person in question to you on the authority of that document?”
“Certainly!” the two men exclaimed with one voice.