“You, Excellency? It is impossible,” Minna affected to protest. “It is frightfully dusty, no one but a mechanic can go inside.”
But he waved her aside with a smile at her objection.
Then the Princess gave a forced laugh.
“Really, Baron, apart from the dust it is hardly dignified for our Chancellor to creep into the inside of the organ. You really will consult your dignity by delegating that inspection to the mechanic.”
He turned and eyed her uncompromisingly. “If I have served your father well, Princess, it is because I have made a rule to look with my own eyes into everything that concerned his welfare and that of the State.”
“But, surely the organ, Baron——?”
“May include a question of greater importance and delicacy than one would suppose,” he rejoined significantly. “Therefore, in pursuance of my rule I am going to look inside.”
There was clearly no more protest to be made in view of that stern resolve. Minna stood aside with anxiety on her face. The Baron turned the latch and pulled open the narrow door. The sharp eyes instantly detected a pair of legs in military boots, the upper part of the owner’s body being hidden behind the heavy framework.
The Chancellor turned round to the Princess with a triumphant glitter in his eyes. “What did I tell you, Princess? You see the wisdom of my rule. And how unwise it would have been to have delegated this examination. The organ does contain superfluous matter which I am better fitted than a mechanic to remove. No wonder, Princess, the instrument is liable to be out of order. I think we must have one built for you in your private apartments where your playing will be less open to be interfered with. Now, sir,” he changed to a loud peremptory tone—“have the goodness to come out at once!”
He stepped back from the door. The man inside, thus summoned, was heard moving. The Baron put a silver whistle to his lips, and, as it sounded, Captain von Ompertz, alert and business-like, entered the chapel by the outer door. As he did so the hider in the organ appeared and sprang down to the floor. At sight of him the expression on the Baron’s face changed from malicious anticipation to chagrined astonishment, as on those of the Princess and Minna pretended anxiety gave way to amused triumph. For the man who stood before him, whom he was there to arrest and send off to secret execution, was his own son, Udo Rollmar.