'
'She is,' said Racksole drily. 'I wish sometimes she had less.'
'I have the highest admiration for Miss Racksole,' said the Prince,
and he looked Miss Racksole's father full in the face.
'You honour us, Prince,' Racksole observed. 'Let us come to
business. Am I right in assuming that you have a reason for
keeping the police out of this business, if it can possibly be done?'
'Yes,' said the Prince, and his brow clouded. 'I am very much afraid
that my poor nephew has involved himself in some scrape that he
would wish not to be divulged.'
'Then you do not believe that he is the victim of foul play?'
'I do not.'
'And the reason, if I may ask it?'
'Mr Racksole, we speak in confidence - is it not so? Some years
ago my foolish nephew had an affair - an affair with a feminine
star of the Berlin stage. For anything I know, the lady may have
been the very pattern of her sex, but where a reigning Prince is
concerned scandal cannot be avoided in such a matter. I had
thought that the affair was quite at an end, since my nephew's
betrothal to Princess Anna of Eckstein-Schwartzburg is shortly to
be announced. But yesterday I saw the lady to whom I have
referred driving on the Digue. The coincidence of her presence
here with my nephew's disappearance is too extraordinary to be
disregarded.'
'But how does this theory square with the murder of Reginald
Dimmock?'
'It does not square with it.
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