“Oh, dear!” cried Jennie, as she handed the message to her friend. “What a bothersome world this is; there is no finality about anything. One piece of work simply leads to another. Here I thought I had earned at least a good month’s rest, but, instead of that, a further demand is made upon me. I am like the genii in fairy tales: no sooner is one apparently impossible task accomplished than another is set.”
“But what a magnificent thing it would be if you could discover the robber or robbers.”
“Magnificent enough, yes; but that isn’t to be done by inviting a lot of old women to tea, is it?”
“True, so we shall have to set our wits together in another direction. I tell you, Jennie, I know I have influence enough to have you made a member of the special police. Shall I introduce you as from America, and say that you have made a speciality of solving mysteries? An appointment to the special police would allow you to have unrestricted entrance to the secret portion of the Treasury building. You would see the rooms damaged by the explosion, and you would learn what the police have discovered. With that knowledge to begin with, we might then do something towards solving the problem.”
“Madame la Princesse,” cried Jennie enthusiastically, “you are inspired! The very thing. Let us get back to Vienna.” And accordingly the two conspirators left Italy by the night train for Austria.
CHAPTER XIV. JENNIE BECOMES A SPECIAL POLICE OFFICER.
When Jennie returned to Vienna, and was once more installed in her luxurious rooms at the Palace Steinheimer, she received in due time a copy of the Daily Bugle, sent to her under cover as a registered letter. The girl could not complain that the editor had failed to make the most of the news she had sent him. As she opened out the paper she saw the great black headlines that extended across two columns, and the news itself dated not from Venice, but from Vienna, was in type much larger than that ordinarily used in the paper, and was double-leaded. The headings were startling enough:—
PHANTOM GOLD.
THE MOST GIGANTIC ROBBERY OF MODERN TIMES.
THE AUSTRIAN WAR CHEST DYNAMITED.
TWENTY MILLION POUNDS IN COIN LOOTED.
APPALLING DISASTER AT THE TREASURY IN VIENNA.
FOUR MEN KILLED, AND SIXTEEN OTHERS MORE OR LESS SERIOUSLY
INJURED.
“Dear me!” the Princess cried, peering over Jennie’s shoulder at these amazing headings, “how like home that looks. The Bugle doesn’t at all resemble a London journal; it reminds me of a Chicago paper’s account of a baseball match; a baseball match when Chicago was winning, of course, and when Anson had lined out the ball from the plate to the lake front, and brought three men in on a home run at a critical point in the game.”