Page:Bailey - Call Mr Fortune (Dutton, 1921).djvu/187

176 "Some rather odd things happened at school, you know."

"Did they?" said Miss Crowland, in delighted amazement. "What things?"

"I wonder if you know who little Alice Warenne really is? She is an actress from the Theatre des Variétés in Paris." Miss Crowland laughed. "She was employed to get a photograph of you, to find out all about you, to arrange for you to be kidnapped like this, and to persuade you to come aboard."

"Monsieur is a detective!" Alice slid up between them. "Oh, but a very great detective."

"I knew all that. Except that she is an actress." Miss Crowland turned to her. "Are you an actress?"

"Darling!" Alice laughed all over her baby face. "That is the prettiest compliment, is it not, M. the detective?"

"If you think she has cheated me, she has not. She told me that the Prince of Ragusa said he was my father, and that he wanted me to come on his yacht. My mother never would tell me anything about my father. I didn't think that was fair. So I came. And now, Mr.—Mr. Fortune, what will my mother do?"

"What shall we all do?" Reggie laughed. "You're in a hole and your mother's in a hole, and the Prince of Ragusa is in the deepest hole of the three."