Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 105, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 May 1912 — The Grand Babylon Hotel [ARTICLE]

The Grand Babylon Hotel

(Copyright The Frank A. Munsey Co.) CHAPTER TIL Nella and the Prince. It appeared impossible to Theodore Racksole that so cumbrous hn article as a corpse could be removed out of his hotel, with no trace, no hint, no clue as to the time or the manner of the performance offihe deed. After the first feeling of surprise, Racksole grew coldly and severely angry. He had a mind to dismiss the entire staff of his hotel. He personally examined the night watchman, the chambermaids, and all other persons who by chance might ot ought to know something of the affair; but without avail. The corpse of Reginald Dimmock had vanished utterly, disappeared like a fleshless spirit. Of course, there were the police. But Theodore Racksole held the police in sorry esteem. He acquainted them with the .facts, answered their queries with a patient weariness and expected nothing whatever from that quarter. - He also had several interviews with Prince Arlbert of Posen, but though the Prince was suavity itself, and beyond doubt genuinely concerned about the fate of his dead attendant, it seemed to Racksole that he was keeping something back, that he hesitated to say all he knew. Racksole, with characteristic insight, decided that the death of Reginald Dimmock was only a minor event, which had occurred, as it were, on the fringe of some far more profound mystery. And therefore he decided'to wait, with his eyes open, until something else happened that would throw light on the business. At the moment he took only one measure, he arranged that the theft of Dimmock’s body should not appear in the newspapers. It 1b astonishing how-well can be kept when the possessors of the secret are handled with the proper mixture of firmness and persuasion. Racksole managed this very neatly; it was a complicated job, and his success in it rather pleased him. At the same time he was conscious of being temporarily worsted by an unknown group of schemers, in which he felt convinced that Jules was an important item. He could scarcely look Nella in the eyes. The girl had evidently expected him to unmask this conspiracy at once with a single stroke of the mllionaire’s magic wand. She was thoroughly accustomed, in the land of her birth, to seeing him achieve impossible feats. Over there he was a boss; men trembled before his name; when he wished a thing to happen it happened.

But here, in London, Theodore Racksole was not quite the same Theodore Racksole. He dominated New York; but London tor the most part seemed not to take much interest in him, and there were certainly various persons in London who were capable of snapping their fingers at him—at Theodore Racksole! Neither he nor his daughter could get used to that fact As for Nella, she concerned herself a little with the ordinary business of the bureau, and watched the incomings and outgoings of Prince Arihert with a kindly interest . She perceived, what her father had failed to perceive, highness had assumed an attitude of reserve merely to hide the secret distraction and dismay which consumed him. She saw that the poor fellow had no settled plan In his head, and that he was troubled with, something which so far he bad confided to nobody. It came to her knowledge that .each morning he walked to and fro on the Victoria Embankment, alone, and apparently without object ' On the third morning she decided that driving on the Embankment would be good for her health, and thereupon ordered a carriage and issued forth, arrayed In a miraculous putty colored

gowp. Near Blackfriars Bridge she met the prince, and the carriage was drawn up by the pavement “Good morning, ‘ Prince,” was hpr greeting to him. “Are you mistaking this for Hyde Park?” " He bowed and smiled. “I usually walk here in the morning,” he said. *' “You surprise me,” she returned. “I thought I was the only person in London who preferred .the Embankment with this view of the river to the dustiness of Hyde Park. I can’t imagine how it is that London will never take exercise anywhere except In that ridiculous park. Now if they had Central Park”— “I think the Embankment is the finest spot in all London,” he said. She leaned a little out of the laudau, bringing her face nearer to his. “I do believe we are kindred spirits, you and I,” she murmered, and then, “Au revoir, Prince.” “One moment, Miss Racksole.” His quick tones had a note of entreaty. “I am in a hurry” she fibbed. “I am not merely taking exercise this morning. You have no idea how busy we are.”

“Ah! Then I will not trouble you. But I leave the Grand Babylon tonight.” “Do you?” she said. “Then will your highness do me the honor of lunching with me today in my father’s room? Father will be out—he is having a day —I would”-- — in the city with some stockbroking persons.” “I shall be charmed,” said the Prince, and his face showed that he meant it. Nella drove-off. — If the lunch was a success, that result was partly due to Rocco and partly to Nella. * The prince said little beyond what the ordinary rules of the conversation game demanded. His hostess talked much and talked well, but she failed to rouse her guest \ When they had had coffee he took a rather formal leave of her. “Goodbye, Prince," she said, “but I thought—that is, no, I didn’t. Goodbye.” “You thought I wished to discuss something with you. I did, but I have decided that I have no right to burden your miqd with my affairs.” “But, suppose L wish to fie burdened.” “That is your good nature.” “Sit down,” she s%id abruptly, “and tell me everything. I adore secrets.” Almost before he knew it he was talking to her, rapidly, eagerly. “Why should I weary you with my confidences?” he said. “I don’t know. I cannot tell; but I feel that I must. I feel that you will understand me better than anyone else in the world. “And yet why should you understasd me Again, I don’t know. Miss Racksole, I will disclose to you the whole trouble in a word. “Prince Eugen, the hereditary Grand

Duke of Posen, has disappeared. Four days ago I was to have met him In London. He wished me to come with '-bite- "

“I sent Dimmock pn in front, and waited for Eugen. He did not arrive. I telegraphed back to Cologne, his last stopping place, and?l learned that he had left there in accordance with his program; I learned also that he had passed through Brussels. It must have been between Brussels and the railway station at Ostend Quay that he disappeared. “He was traveling with a single equerry, and the equerry, too, has vanished. I need not explain to you, Miss Racksole, that when a person of the importance of my nephew contrives to get lost, one must act cautiously. “One cannot advertise for him In the London Times. Such a disappearance must be kept a secret. The people at Posen Berlin believe that Eugen is in London, here at this hotel; or, rather, they did so believe. “But this morning I received a cypher telegram from his majesty the Emperor, a very peculiar telegram, asking when Eugen might be expected to return to Posen, and requesting that he should go first to Berlin. That telegram was addressed to myself. “Now, if the emperor thought Eugen was here, why should he have caused the telegram to he addressed to me? I have hesitated for three days, but I can hesitate no longer; I must myself go to the emperor and acquaint him with the facts.”

“1 suppose you’ve just got to keep straight with him,” Nella was on the point of saying, but she checked herself, and substituted, “the emperor is your chief, is he not? ‘First among equals,’ you call him.” —. <“His majesty is our overlord,” said Aribert quietly. “Why do you not take immediate steps to inquire as to the whereabouts of your royal nephew?” she asked simply. The attain seemed to her just then so plain and straightforward. , “Because one of two things may have happened. Either Eugen may have been, in plain laguage, abducted, of he may have had his own reasons for rhangtng his program and keeping In the background—out of reach of tele-

graph and post and railways.” “What sort of reasons?” “DO not ask me. In the history of every family there are passages”—*— he stopped. “And what was Prince Bugsn’s object in London?” Aribert hesitated. • “Money,” he said at length. “As a family we are very poor—poorer than anyone in Paris dreams.” “Prince Aribert,”- Nella said, “shall I tell you -what I think?” She' leaned back in her chair, and looked at him out of half-closed eyes. His pale, thin, distinguished face held her gaze as if by same fascination. There could be no mistaking this man for anything but a prince. “If you will,” he said. “Prince Eugen is the victim of a plot.” “You think so?” “I am perfectly convinced of it.” “But why? What can be the object of a plot against him?” “That is a point of which you should know more than I.” “Ah! Perhaps—perhaps," he said. “But, dear Miss Racksole, why are you so sure?” “There are several reasons, and they are connected with Mr. Dimmock. • Did you ever suspect, your highness, that that poor young man was not entirely loyal to you?” “He was absolutely loyel," said the Prince, with an earnestness of conviction. • “A thousand pardons, but he waq not.” “Miss Racksole, if any other than yourself made that assertion, I would “Consign them to the deepest dungeon in Posen?” she laughed lightly. “Listen, Prince.” And she told him of the incidents which had occurred In the night preceding his arrival in the hotel.

“Do you mean, Miss Racksole, that there was an understanding between poor Dimmock and this fellow Jules?” “There was an understanding.” “Impossible!” “Your highness, the man who wishes to probe a mystery to its roots neveruses the word ‘impossible.’ But I will say this for Mr. Dimmock. I think he f repented, and I think that it was because he repented that he—er—died so suddenly and that his body was spirited away.” “Why has no one told me these things before?” Aribert exclaimed. “Princes seldom hear the truth,” she said.

He was astonished at her coolness, her firmness, of assertion, her air of complete acquaintance with the world. “Miss Racksole,” he said, “if you will permit me to say it, I have never in my life met a woman like you. May I rely on your sympathy, your support ”

“My support, Prince? But how.?’’ “1 do not know,” he replied; “but you could help me if ‘you would. A woman, when she has brains, always has more brains than a man.”

“Ah!” she said ruefully, “I have no brains, "but I believe I can help you.” What prompted her to make that assertion she could not have explained even to herself. But she made it, and she had a suspicion, a prescience, that it would be justified, though by what means* through what good fortune, was still a mystery to her.

“Go to Berlin,” she said; “I see teat you must do that. You have no alternative. As for the rest, we will see. Something will occur. I shall be here. My father will be here. You mast count us as your friends.” He kissed her hand when he left, and afterward, when she was alone, she kissed the spot his lips had touched again and again. Now, thinking the matter over In the calmness of solitude, all seemed strange, unreal, uncertain to her.

Were conspiracies actually possible nowadays? Did queer things actually happen in Europe? And did they actually happen in London hotels? She dined with her father that night. “I hear Prince AMbert haa left," said Theodore Racksole. “Yes,” she assented. She said not a word about thalr interview. (To be Continued.)