“I am very much obliged to you, Prince, for the offer,” he said. “I am afraid, however, that I should not be competent.”
“That,” the Prince reminded him, “is a risk which we are willing to take.”
“I do not think, either,” the detective continued, “that at my time of life I should care to go so far from home to settle down in an altogether strange country.”
“It must be as you will, of course,” the Prince declared. “Only remember, Mr. Jacks, that a great nation like mine which wants a particular man for a particular purpose is not afraid to pay for him. Your work out there would certainly take you no more than three years. For that three years’ work you would receive the sum of thirty thousand pounds.”
The detective gasped.
“It is a great sum,” he said.
The Prince shrugged his shoulders.
“You could hardly call it that,” he said. “Still, it would enable you to live in comfort for the rest of your life.”
“And when should I be required to start, sir?” the Inspector asked.
“That, perhaps,” the Prince replied, “would seem the hardest part of all. You would be required to start tomorrow afternoon from Southampton at four o’clock.”