"We'll have neither good luck nor bad in future," responded the master curtly. "After this we keep our hands off and the detectives manage the affair. There have been blunders enough."
With this ungracious comment the great man hung up the receiver and stumbling through the darkness His Highness felt his way upstairs and dropped into bed.
Like a house of cards his roseate dreams for the future had suddenly collapsed. There would be now no wonderful career for Bob, no bag of gold, no fairy fortune! Instead of being a hero he had again become a mere duffer, a blunderer, had played the fool.
Since failure had come in place of the coveted success Mr. Crowninshield would most likely blame it all to him.
Fleeting, indeed, was the favor and gratitude of princes!
CHAPTER X
BOB
By late afternoon of the following day the New York detectives arrived and Wheeler drove their dusty and travel-stained car around to the garage.