The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1912-02-01

the car, to appear in council on
Tuesday morning and send the dis
patch to Servia in his name"
Who is there?" cried the king
wincing, l thought. But I / had gone too
far to hesitate.
"ais royal highness, the Prince of
Wales" 1 answered.
The king clapped his hand to his
forehead. Sir Edward Grey seemed
lost in establishment. Yet, who else?
The resemblance between Prince
George and his cousin the car is no.
torious. Even members of their own
families find difficulty in telling one
from the other. Besides, who but the
prince could gain admission to the
Russian court? Yet, once there, the
substitution could be made easily. 1t
was a daring scheme, but fraught with
little risk. The conspirators would
never dare lay violent hands upon the
prince. And after much thought the
king fell in with my scheme. A tele-
phonic message was sent to the
princes house at Richmond, requesting
his immediate presence at the palace,
with the expectation of leaving for st.
Petersburg.
In little more than an hour he came
hurrying in. Prince George was
trained to be a sailor. When told of it
he laughed, swore, refused and acQui-
esced. We were to take the noon train
for Harwich, reaching Hamburg that
evening late, in time to catch the
transcontinental mail, which would
land us in st. Petersburg on Monday
about midday. Hastily we debated the
scheme. The prince suggested that he
should allow himself to be kidnapped
in place of the car, thus leaving the
czar free to follow his W counsel
on the morrow. "And," he added, "once
l get those rascals out in the forest
I'll jolly we'll skin the hide off them"
But eventually it was decided that
this plan left the czar too much initi-
alive. The conspirators might dis
cover the substitution in time and hit
upon some other scheme in order to
Illustrate our plans. 1t would be better
actually to allow Nicholas to be kid
mapped and then for Prince George to
substitute himself at the last moment,
When Philippe, Kaulbars and the grand
dukes were confident that the car was
miles away.
1t was essential that the princes de-
parture should not be known. Accord
ingly he disguised himself in blue spec
tacles and a tourists costume, and we
set off together for st. Petersburg i'm
mediately, catching the train for Har-
witch. Our plans were, to a certain
extent, dependent upon circumstances;
u general scheme, however, was that
the prince should gain access to the
car and should remain in the palace
until the need arose for him to take
the place of the czar himself.
Your royal highness will have
shrewd minds at work against you,"
h%azarded, as we sped into Berlin and
changed cars for the frontier.
THE vultures will be gathering for
the feast" he answered. But we'll
best 'em, Adams; we'll best 'em."
When we got into the train, how
ever. and / leaned out from the win
dow, taking a farewell view of the
scene, I suddenly perceived some
thing which most unpleasanlty affected
me. Strolling leisurely along the
coaches, away from ours, was Stapf-
haus, the German agent, with whom
had more than once crossed swords
before, especially in the case of the
North sea incident, already recounted.
He had passed us; had he detected
the prince and myself? From his nom
chalant air, his absence of all dis
gutse, it was evident that he deemed
himself ecure from all danger. l saw
him swing round on his heel and come
back slowly. I had just time to mo-
tiop to the prince to draw himself up
into a corner behind his newspaper
when Stapfhaus approached and recog-
nized me. He clasped my hand cor
daily, then shook his finger in mock
warning.
"on to st. Petersburg to urge the
czar to fght?" he observed mockingly.
"Oh, my dear Adams. Your notions are
SO childish and elemental! Now T."
You're going as the German agent
I replied.
THAT goes without SAYING ne said
lightly. However, Adams, no blood is
likely to be shed on this journey, so
why should we not be frank and cry,
let the best man win?'"
At that moment the train began to
move and Stapfhaus ran to his own
coach, which he entered, leaving me
somewhat disconnected and considera-
bly, chagrined, and only hoping that he
had not recognized Prince George.
Suddenly the prince propounded a
question which, absurd as it may seem,
had not occurred to me.
How am I going to get into the pal
ace unless I announce MYSELF" he de-
manded.
He had been so used to having the
unrestricted entree Of any court that
he had still thought of himself in
terms of his rank. After some mo-
ments I thought of the obvious solu-
ton.
la s