she continually met the Prince.

* * * * *

While Juve had experienced no difficulty in being present at the Queen's
audience, he found that even Mme. Heberlauf's influence was not
sufficient to procure him an invitation to the ball. As a matter of
fact, he had no particular wish to appear in the quality of a guest that
evening. He had other plans.

* * * * *

At ten o'clock a long line of carriages and automobiles began to arrive
in the gardens of the Palace. Innumerable electric lights shone out
along the drive-way and from the windows. A few persons had managed to
slip past the guards and had stationed themselves near the awning at the
main entrance to watch the arrival of the guests. Beneath their fur
cloaks, the women wore their very finest gowns and their richest
jewelry.

The hall of the chancellory had been transformed into a cloakroom and
there the crowd was thickest. In contrast to the brilliantly illuminated
left wing of the chateau, the octagonal tower showed dark and silent.
Hiding behind pillars, keeping close to the walls, a man was making his
way slowly toward that tower.

The man was Juve.

From behind a big tree he stood and watched the sky, rubbing his hands
with satisfaction.

"This is a night after my own heart," he murmured, "overcast and dark. I
should have been very embarrassed had the moon come out."

He felt his pockets.

"Everything I need. My electric lamp and a good, strong, silk ladder."

Then, surveying the tower, he soliloquized:

"A fine monument! Solid and strong. They don't build them like that
nowadays."

Juve took a few steps, bent his knees and stretched his arms, tested the
suppleness of his body.

"Ah, in spite of my forty-odd years, I'm still pretty fit for ... the
work I have to do."

* * * * *

By the aid of the lightning rod, the gutters and the inequalities in the
stones, the detective was enabled to climb without much difficulty to
the first floor.

There he paused to take breath and to examine the shutters of a window.

"Can't get in that way," he muttered, "they're bolted inside. I'll have
to climb higher."

The same condition met him on the second floor, but when he had finally
reached the roof, he espied a large chimney which promised a method of
ingress to the apartment below. The descent was anything but easy, and
Juve, in spite of his great strength