ocket containing her miniature. Without
letting my brother know of the secret, for fear that he would foolishly
tell it, I engaged a secret-service man from Paris to look the matter
up. When my grandparents died, much of the estate was sold--for the
Spanish-American War had wrought havoc with the family income. That
locket had been sold to an American collector, and I came to America
just in time to save it from being sold to some museum. I pawned my
mother's jewels to buy it. That was the locket which dropped from the
trunk, in my bedroom last night."

"And you have the locket?"

"Yes--but not my brother!"

"Ah, then, my particular chore as vassal to this haunted family is to
find your brother and solve the mystery? In other words, you want me to
put this infernal, tin-plated, panhandling ghost out of his misery?"

"Yes ... Mr. Jarvis!" and the Princess was more humble than he had
noticed her during the hours of their acquaintance. "Are you frightened
by the ghost?"

"You asked that question before. Where I came from only negroes and
poor whites fear the departed spirits. Perhaps this spirit is not as
departed as circumstances would indicate. But, how about the Duke? What
is his interest in the ghost?"

"He fears it, too. He has begged me to stay away from the wretched
castle altogether. If it were not for my brother's future, and the
fortune of the family--his family, and perhaps ... my family ... some
day ... I would shun the place. We are not completely destitute, you
know!"

Jarvis studied the luxurious furnishings of the cabin, the jewels and
aristocratic modishness of the girl's attire, and nodded.

"I imagine you're not! But this high, exalted, and altogether superior
cousin of yours is far from being a fool. He will want to know how,
where, why you met me. And what he doesn't know, contrary to the usual
theory, is apt to interfere with his sleep. Beware, your Highness, of
men who cannot sleep o'night--they think altogether too shrewdly!"

The girl was worried.

"He will ask dreadful questions. I know him, Mr. Jarvis!"

"So do I. Will you tell him you have made of me a ... perfectly good
vassal?"

"I think not--just yet," and there was a shyness in her manner.

Jarvis looked adown his nose, and there was a smile on the firm lips
below it!

"By the way, Mrs. Princess--as Rusty so beautifully phrases it--just
how should a vassal, a fine A-number-One vassal, address his liege-lady
and the owner o