Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1918-05-24
In two weeks he was to return to

Braithwaite. 1t was the custom of the
palace to send the flowers from its
spectacular functions to the hospitals,
and the crown prince delighted in
these errands.
So they went, escorted by the func-
tionaries of the hospital, past the MILL
tary wards, where soldiers In shabby
uniforms sat on benches In the spring
sunshine, to the general wards beyond.
The crown prince was almost hidden
behind the armful he carried. Miss
Braithwaite had all she could hold.
A convalescent patient, in slippers
many sizes too large for him, wheeled
the remainder In a barrow, and almost
upset the barrow in his excitement.
Through long corridors into wards
fresh scrubbed against his arrival,
with white counterpanes exactly
square, and patients forbidden to move
and disturb the geometrical ~exactness
of the beds, went Prince Ferdinand
William Otto. At each bed he stopped,
selected a flower, and held 1t out.
Some there were who reached out, and
took 1t with a smile. Others lay still,
and saw neither boy nor blossom.
"They sleep, highness," the nurse
would say.
"But their eyes are open."
"They are very weary, and resting"
In such cases he placed the flower
on the pillow, and went II.
One such, however, lying with va
can't eyes fixed on the ceiling, turned
and glanced at the boy, and into his
empty gaze crept a faint intelligence.
1t was not much. He seemed to Ques-
ton with his eyes. That was all. AS
the little procession moved on, how
ever, he raised himself on his elbow.
"Who was thatT'
The ward, which might have been
interested, was busy keeping it's COW
ers straight and in following the pro-
gress Of the party. For the man had
not spoken before.
1.-THE crown prince"
The sick man lay back and closed
his eyes. Soon he slept. His comrade
In the next bed beckoned to a sister.
"He has spoken" he said. EITHER
he RECEIVERS, or-he dies"
But Haeckel did not die. He lived
to do his part In the coming crisis,
to prove that even the great hands of
Black Humbert on his throat were
not so strong as his own young spirit /;
lived, indeed, to confront the terrorist
as one risen from the dead. But that
day he lay and slept, by curious irony
the flower from Karl's banquet In a
cup of water beside him.
On the day before the carnival, He'd
wig had a visitor, none other than the
Countess Loschek. Hedwig, all her
color gone now, her high spirit crushed,
her heart torn into fragments and
neatly distributed between Milky, who
I'D most of 1T. the crown prince, and
the old king. Hedwig, haTing given
her permission to come, greeted her
politely but without enthusiasm.
brightness |" said the countess sur.
veying her. "may I speak to you frank
Tyr
"Please do" Hedwig replied.
Everybody does, anyhow. Especially
when it is something d~isagreeable."
Olga Loschek watched her warily.
She knew the family as only the out
slider could know 1t; knew that He'd
wig, who would have disclaimed the
fact, was like her mother In some
things, notably in a disposition to be
mild until a certain moment, submits
sive, even acquiescept, and then sud
denly to become, as It were, q royalty
and grow cold, naughty. But # He'd
wig was driven In those days, SO was
the countess, desperate and driven to
desperate methods.
II am presuming, highness, on your
mothers kindness. to me, and your
own"
swell, go on" said Hedwig resign
edly. But the next words brought her
up in her chair.
"Are you going to allow your life
to be ruined?" was what the countess
said.
Careful Hedwig had thrown up her
head and looked at her with hostile
eyes. But the next moment she had
forgotten she was a princess, and the
granddaughter to the king, and remem-
bered only that she was a woman, and
terror-stricken. She flung out her
arms, and then buried her face in
them.
"How can 1 help it?" she said.
"How can you do it?" Olga Loschek
countered. "After all, it is you who
must do this thing. No one else. 1t
is you they are offering on the altar
of their ambition"
"Ambition?"
"Ambition. What else is 1t? Surely
you do not believe these tales they
ten-old wives tales Of plot and
counterpart !"
"But the chancellor"
Certainly the chancellor" Knocked
Olga Loschek. "Highness, for years he