He was to spend the night at his sister's apartment. When he issued
forth from his "diggings" at half-past seven, he was attired in
evening clothes, and there was not a woman in all New York, young or
old, who would have denied him a second glance.
Later on in the evening three of the Countess's friends arrived at the
Courtney home to pay their respects to their fair compatriot, and to
discuss the crown jewels. They came and brought with them the
consoling information that arrangements were practically completed for
the delivery of the jewels into the custody of the French Embassy at
Washington, through whose intervention they were to be allowed to
leave the United States without the formalities usually observed in
cases of suspected smuggling. Upon the arrival in America of trusted
messengers from Paris, headed by no less a personage than the
ambassador himself, the imperial treasure was to pass into hands that
would carry it safely to France. Prince Sebastian, still in Halifax,
had been apprised by telegraph of the recovery of the jewels, and was
expected to sail for England by the earliest steamer.
And while the visitors at the Courtney house were lifting their
glasses to toast the prince they loved, and, in turn, the beautiful
cousin who had braved so much and fared so luckily, and the tall
wayfarer who had come into her life, a small man was stooping over a
rifled knapsack in a room far down-town, glumly regarding the result
of an unusually hazardous undertaking, even for one who could perform,
such miracles as he.
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