It was Mr. Grimm!
XVIII
NOTICE TO LEAVE
At fifteen minutes of midnight when Miss Thorne, followed by Signor
Petrozinni, entered the sitting-room of her apartments in the hotel and
turned up the light they found Mr. Grimm already there. He rose
courteously. At sight of him Miss Thorne's face went deathly white, and
the escaped prisoner turned toward the door again.
"I would advise that you stay, your Highness," said Mr. Grimm coldly.
Signor Petrozinni paused, amazed. "You will merely subject yourself to
the humiliation of arrest if you attempt to leave. The house is guarded
by a dozen men."
"Your Highness?" Miss Thorne repeated blankly. "You are assuming a
great deal, aren't you, Mr. Grimm?"
"I don't believe," and Mr. Grimm's listless eyes were fixed on those of
the escaped prisoner, "I don't believe that Prince Benedetto d'Abruzzi
will deny his identity?"
There was one of those long tense silences when eye challenges eye, when
wit is pitted against wit, and mind is hauled around to a new, and
sometimes unattractive, view of a situation. Miss Thorne stood silent
with rigid features, colorless as marble; but slowly a sneer settled
about the lips of Signor Petrozinni that was, and he sat down.
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