When I told him what I had discovered in Berlin the light died instantly out of his face.
"Is the fellow really here, Heltzendorff?" he gasped. "I had a letter from him a week ago declaring his intention to come here."
"No. The letter I found upon my dressing-table, but I have not discovered who placed it there," he said. "The fellow evidently intends to carry out his threat and expose me to the Emperor."
But "Willie" was not to be caught like that. He merely replied:
"Well--something which must at all hazards be concealed. How this Spaniard can know I cannot in the least imagine--unless that woman gave me away!"
For the next two days I was mostly out with his Highness in the car, and in addition the Kaiser reviewed the Prussian Guard, a ceremony which always gave me much extra work.
On the third day I had in the morning been out to the Wildpark Station, and, passing the sentries, had re-entered the Palace, when one of the footmen approached me, saying:
"Pardon, Count, but there is a gentleman to see his Imperial Highness. He will give no name, and refuses to leave. I called the captain of the guard, who has interrogated him, and he has been put into the blue ante-room until your return."
At that moment I saw the captain of the guard striding down the corridor towards me.
"A bald-headed man is here to see His Highness, and will give no name," he told me. "He is waiting now. Will you see him?"
"No," I said, my suspicions aroused. "I will first see the Crown-Prince."
After some search I found the latter lolling at his ease in his own smoking-room in the private apartments, reading a French novel and consuming cigarettes.
"Hulloa, Heltzendorff! Well, what's the trouble?" he asked. "I see something is wrong from your face."
"Here!" he gasped, starting up and flinging the book aside. "Who let him in?"
"I don't know, but he is below demanding to see you."
"Has he made any statement? Has he told anybody what he knows?" demanded the Crown-Prince, who at that moment presented what might be termed a white-livered appearance, cowed, and even trembling. In his slant eyes showed a look of undisguised terror, and I realized that the truth, whatever it might be, was a damning and most disgraceful one.