Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1913-02-12

tongue to it, At last I said:
eff we could substitute double for
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, thought But had gone too
far to hesitate.
His royal highness, the Prince of
Wales" I 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
| car free to follow his own counsel
on the morrow. And he added, "once
I get those rascals out in the forest
I'll jolly well skin the hide Off them"
But eventually it was decided that
| this plan left the car too much initi-
| ative. 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.
It 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;
our 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 car himself
| Your royal highness will have
shrewd minds at work against you"
l hazarded, 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 EN-
When we got into the train, how
ever, and I 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
l 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 non.
chalant air, his absence of all dis.
himself secure from all danger. I saw
him swing round on his heel and come
back slowly. I had just time to mo-
ton to the prince to draw himself up
into corner behind his newspaper
when Stapfhaus approached and recog
nized me. He clasped my hand cor
daily, then shook his finger in mock
warning.
"Off to st. Petersburg to urge the
car to f1ght?" he observed mockingly
ooh, my dear Adams Your notions art
SO childish and elemental! Now T.
r you're going as the German agent
replied.
'That goes without saying" he sait
lightly. However, Adams, no blood i.
| likely to be shed on this journey, 81
why should we not be frank and cry
: let the best man VIM"
? At that moment the train began t,
l move, and Stapfhaus ran to his owl
) coach, which he entered, leaving M
somewhat disconnected and considera
: bly, chagrined, and only hoping that h
had not recognized Prince George.
2 Suddenly the prince propounded
D question which, absurd as it may seem
. had not occurred to me.
5 "How am I going to get into the pa
3 ace unless I announce myself?" he dc
Q manded.
He had been SO used to having tn