"How did you come by that Bavarian passport?" asked Carmichael abruptly.
"It is a forgery, my friend, but his excellency will never find that
out."
"You have me all at sea. Why did he bring in the head gardener and leave
him standing there all that while?"
"He had a sound purpose, but it fell. The head gardener did not
recognize me."
"Do you know him?"
"Yes. He is my elder brother."
CHAPTER VIII
THE KING'S LETTER
The ambassador from Jugendheit, Baron von Steinbock, was not popular in
Dreiberg, at least not among the people, who still held to the grand
duke's idea that the kingdom had been behind the abduction of the
Princess Hildegarde. The citizens scowled at his carriage, they scowled
at the mention of his name, they scowled whenever they passed the
embassy, which stood in the heart of the fashionable residences in the
Koenig Strasse. Never a hot-headed Dreiberger passed the house without a
desire to loot it, to scale the piked fence and batter in the doors and
windows. Steinbock himself was a polished, amiable gentleman, in no wise
meriting this ill-feeling. The embassy was in all manner the most
important in Dreiberg, though Prussia and Austria overshadowed it in
wealth and prestige.
At this moment the people gazed at the house less in rancor than in
astonishment.
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