"No," he said, in answer to our inquiries, "I have not seen him since this morning. Unless he has business to transact with me, he seldom calls here until it is time for us to return to Paquetá. I trust nothing serious is the matter?"
As he asked the question he looked at me with searching eyes.
"This gentleman is Señor Mortimer's brother," Montezma observed with great importance. "He has arrived from England this afternoon."
"His brother?" cried Brockford, with what was plainly an expression of alarm upon his face. "You don't mean to say that you are Prince Paul?"
"I am Prince Paul," I answered. "How do you come to be aware that my brother is the Crown Prince?"
"It is sufficient that I am aware of it," he replied gravely, "I have known it for some time."
"Gentlemen, gentlemen," cried Montezma in alarm, "what does this mean? What is this I hear about Crown Princes?"
"It means, Señor Montezma," I answered earnestly, "that your clerk is no less a person than the missing Crown Prince of Pannonia, whose absence has caused such unending sorrow to his family. It is to persuade him to return to his friends that I am now in Rio."
The news seemed to stagger the old man. He could not take it in.
"A Crown Prince! a Crown Prince," he repeated, as if he were trying to convince himself of the truth of my announcement.