"And that," said Tony, leaning back in his chair, "is absolutely every damned thing that I could get out of him."
His three companions, Molly, Guy, and Jimmy, who were seated in various attitudes round the cabin table, surveyed him for a moment in deep and reflective silence.
Then Guy cleared his throat. "On the whole," he said, "I think you have managed remarkably well."
"I did my best," replied Tony modestly, "but he's a reticent blighter for a Colonel. I didn't dare pump him any further for fear that he might get suspicious. As it is I think he was half sorry he had told me as much as he had before I got him over the side."
"Well, we've collected quite a lot of interesting stuff to go on with," said Jimmy contentedly. "The great question is how are we going to use it?"
"Do you know where these two places are?" asked Tony. "The Château of Saint Anna—and the bridge at Valona?"
Jimmy nodded. "Both of 'em. There isn't a yard of this country I haven't tootled over at some time or other." He looked hopefully at Tony. "Have you got any bright notion at the back of your mind?"
"Not yet," said Tony. "I haven't had the chance of working things out. That's what I've called this Cabinet Council for." He turned to his cousin.
"What do you think about it, Guy?" he asked. "You're the eldest, so you shall speak first."
"It seems to me," said Guy deliberately, "that there is not the faintest chance of rescuing Isabel, except by the employment of violence."
There was a soft and delighted chuckle from Jimmy to which he paid no attention.
"That being so," he continued calmly, "the question resolves itself into where and how we should make the attempt. As far as I can see there is only one answer. If we can reach Valona, it's just possible that in the confusion of this attack one or other of us might manage to get away with Isabel. Of course it's much more likely that we shall all be killed, but if one chooses to mix oneself up in this sort of insane business that is an objection which one must be prepared to face."
He closed his lips tight in their customary precise line, and looked round at the assembled company.
"Thank you, Guy," said Tony. "That's just the sort of spirited speech I should have expected from one of your aggressive character." He paused. "Now, Jimmy, what have you got to say?"
Jimmy rose solemnly to his feet. "I have much pleasure," he observed, "in seconding the proposal of our honourable friend. I'm for a forward policy every time." He looked across the table. "How about the Reverend Mr. Monk?" he added. "It seems to me we ought to have asked his opinion first."
"I think," said Molly sweetly and clearly, "that it's just about the silliest suggestion I ever heard."
Guy sat up suddenly in his chair, and Jimmy, who was still standing on his feet, broke into another long chuckle of laughter.
Tony rapped the table gravely with a teaspoon.
"Order, please," he said, "order! This is no time for misplaced merriment." He turned to Molly. "Don't worry about Guy's feelings," he added kindly. "Say exactly what you think."
"I'm going to," replied Molly with brisk determination. "I'm awfully sorry if I was rude to you, Mr. Oliver; but really you know your plan's a rotter. Do you suppose that even if we got to Valona, these people would allow us to hang about there waiting for something to happen? Why, they would guess what we were up to the very moment they spotted us."
"But we know the time, roughly," protested Jimmy. "We could arrange to reach the place just when the fighting started."
"And what then?" demanded Molly scornfully. "Here you've got a large party of armed men, who are cheerfully ready to murder a whole escort in order to get hold of this girl. Do you really imagine they are going to let us waltz in and pick her up under their noses? Not likely!"
She stopped to take breath.
"I thought I had made it clear," remarked Guy a little chillingly, "that I didn't regard the suggestion as a very safe or hopeful one."
"You did," said Molly, "but you didn't go half far enough. It's a dead certain frost from the very start. We should just be committing suicide without doing any good to anybody."
Guy shrugged his shoulders. "I daresay you're right. The unfortunate point is that there's no alternative."
Molly leaned forward, her blue eyes shining with excitement.
"Yes, there is," she said quietly.
For an instant nobody spoke.
"Go on, Molly," said Tony. "We are all listening to you."
"If we can get to Valona," said Molly, speaking in a rapid and eager voice, "what is there to stop us getting to the other place—the Château of Saint Anna?"
There was another and longer pause.
"Good Lord!" remarked Jimmy, and with this non-committal observation he reseated himself at the table.
"Well?" continued Molly defiantly. "We can't do anything without running a big risk, so while we're about it we may just as well shove all our money on the best chance."
"But surely," protested Guy, "if there is an utterly hopeless——"
"Let Molly explain," said Tony. "We can criticize her afterwards."
Once again there was a brief silence.
"It's like this," said Molly. "At the present moment, so far as we know, there isn't a soul on Peter's side who has the remotest notion that we're in Livadia. That's our strongest card, and if we don't play it for all it's worth we shall be simply chucking the game away." She wheeled round on Jimmy. "Where is this Château, exactly?" she asked. "Can you get to it from here in your car without going through Portriga or the other place—Valona?"
Jimmy nodded. "We should turn off the main road up into the hills about five miles from here. The car would manage it all right, but as for getting there—" he grinned cheerfully—"well, from what the Colonel told Tony, I should think we had about as much chance as a snowflake in hell."
"You needn't worry about that part of it," returned Molly coolly. "So long as you know the road you can leave the rest to me." She put her hand into her breast pocket, and produced the thick and impressive looking half sheet of note-paper, which she had shown Tony in the flat. "If that won't get us past a few soldiers," she added, throwing it on the table, "we may as well turn the boat round now and go straight home."
"By Jove!" exclaimed Tony. "I believe you've got hold of the right idea, Molly!"
Guy looked from one to the other of them in a sort of baffled bewilderment.
"I may be very stupid," he said, "but I can't see in the least what you hope to do even if we reach the Château."
Molly drew in a long breath. "There's only one thing to do," she said slowly. "Somehow or other this Princess girl and I have got to change places. There's absolutely no other way in which we can possibly work it."
If she had suddenly placed a live bomb upon the table, Guy's face could hardly have assumed a more startled expression. Even Jimmy, who did not seem to be easily perturbed, remained staring at her for a moment with his mouth open.
"Change places!" repeated Guy at last. "Are you speaking seriously?"
"Of course I am," said Molly a little impatiently. "Don't you see how easily it could be done? According to what you all tell me, this girl and I are as like each other as two peas: but no one would guess that if they'd only seen me in this rig-out. Well, if I could get a quarter of an hour alone with her, all we should have to do would be to swap clothes, and then she could just walk out of the place instead of me." She swept a triumphant glance at the others. "It's a hundred to one nobody would notice the difference: not if she's got the pluck and sense to carry it off properly."
"I can guarantee the pluck and the sense," said Tony. "They are two things in which Isabel happens to specialize rather deeply."
"But do you mean you are ready to stop behind in her place?"
It was Jimmy who put the question.
"Certainly I am," replied Molly. "That's what I have come out here for."
He gazed at her for a moment in voiceless admiration.
"My Lord, you've got some nerve," he said. "What do you think will happen to you?"
Molly smiled pleasantly. "I think," she answered, "that I shall be respectably and properly married to Peter in the Portriga Cathedral. I don't see what the devil else they can afford to do. They have got to have a wedding, and as I'm quite ready to pretend that I'm the Princess, and nobody's ever likely to contradict it, it seems to me they'll jolly well have to make the best of it."
Tony laid down his cigarette and leaned back in his chair.
"Molly," he said, "you are as brilliant as you are beautiful. I don't believe there is any one else alive who could have thought of a notion like that when they were full of eggs and bacon."
"It's a terrific idea," admitted Jimmy, still gazing respectfully at the author. "The one great difficulty will be to fix up this interview between you and the Princess."
Molly nodded. "I know," she said. "I haven't got that part of it clear yet. You see the whole thing only came into my head quite suddenly."
"That part of it," remarked Tony in his tranquil voice, "seems to me delightfully simple and easy."
They all three turned towards him.
"We are personal friends of Peter's," he went on; "at least I am. I think I shall call myself Lord Haverstock. It's a very nice title and no one's taken it yet. Do you think it suits me, Guy?"
"Oh, go on," exclaimed Guy impatiently.
"At Peter's suggestion," continued Tony, "I have accompanied him from England in my own yacht, in order to be in at the death, so to speak. Molly here is my chaplain. All really respectable English peers travel with a private chaplain."
He paused as if for confirmation.
"I've no doubt you're right," said Jimmy gravely, "but how does that interesting fact help us?"
"Why, don't you see? Isabel has been brought up with English ideas about these sort of things, and it's surely only natural that she should feel a little upset at the thought of being married so suddenly, and without any of her old friends to help her. She has told Peter that if it was possible she would like to have a talk with an English clergyman, and knowing that I have got the Reverend Mr. Monk on board, Peter has suggested that I should take him along to the Château. Of course, for various reasons, he didn't want a fuss made about it, so he has just given me his own private pass, and told me to explain the rest to the Count of Saint Anna. What could be more beautifully simple and probable?"
Molly clapped her hands softly. "Splendid, Tony!" she said. "Absolutely splendid!"
"And suppose," remarked Guy in his depressingly matter-of-fact voice, "that the first person we run into at the Château is Isabel's uncle or the Marquis da Freitas or the King himself. What's going to happen then?"
"I don't know exactly," said Tony, "but I should say that in all probability there will be the hell of a row."
"It's no good worrying about that," said Molly decisively. "We've got to chance something, and the odds are that all three of them will be down in Portriga. I imagine that that's why they've sent the girl to this place—in order to have their hands free."
Tony nodded his agreement. "There's a lot of hard work about running a revolution," he observed. "I shouldn't think they would be able to spare anybody this morning."
Molly looked round at the other two. "Well," she said, "Tony and I have made up our minds at all events. Are you ready to back us up?"
There was a pause.
"I will do anything I can," remarked Guy simply.
Jimmy leaned back and thrust his hands into his trouser pocket's.
"So will I, of course," he said. "The only thing I don't like about it is leaving you behind. Suppose they turn nasty when they find out?"
Molly smiled at him comfortingly. "That's all right," she said. "Peter has got his weak points, but if any one was to hurt the tip of my little finger he would have the last drop of blood they've got. Da Freitas knows that as well as I do."
"I'm glad to hear he appreciates you," said Jimmy with feeling. "You are much too good for him." He hesitated. "Look here," he added suddenly, "suppose he's killed, suppose somebody shoots him—it's quite possible you know—will you come back to England and marry me?"
Molly broke into a little ripple of silvery laughter.
"I daresay I might," she said. "Anyhow, it's nice to have something to fall back on in case one wants it."
"I hate to interrupt a really passionate love affair," observed Tony apologetically, "but don't you think we ought to discuss our arrangements—such as they are? We haven't too much time to spare."
"Well, they're pretty straight sailing, aren't they?" replied Jimmy. "There's plenty of petrol in the car, so all we've got to do is to go ashore and start off."
"Who's we?" demanded Molly. "You and I and Tony?"
"Can't I come too?" inquired Guy in a rather disappointed voice. "I'm quite ready to do my share—whatever it is?"
Tony got up from where he was sitting and laid a sympathetic hand on his cousin's shoulder..
"I know that, Guy," he aid. "I know that you would cut the throats of half Livadia if it would help Isabel in any way. The point is that we can't afford to do any fighting this trip. We have got to bring it off peacefully, if we bring it off at all, and it's quite possible that the real danger will be at this end, and not at the Château. I told you what Saltero said about the police here. Well, don't you see, if they chose to interfere they might put the hat on everything. I want you to take charge while we're away, and whatever happens—even if you have to murder every policeman in the town—there must be a nice comfy boat awaiting us when we get back."
Guy nodded grimly. "Very well," he said; "you can count on that, if there're any of us left alive!"