• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

Near evening, following more hot and cold fomentations, the prince’s breathing eased. Could I hope that he would shortly rouse enough to be able, even briefly, to assist Holmes? Dare I try to force my patient to that point? I decided the risk was not worth it: the prince was too ill, my faith in my friend too great. Instead I administered another dose of morphine.

As the second dawn brought a trace of blue to the sky’s blackness, Hans woke me, tears of joy streaking his old face, and led me to the prince’s bedside. The drugged coma had faded into genuine slumber, the chest rose and fell naturally, the cracked lips were tinged with a normal pink. The Chancellor would recover.

I hastened to tell Holmes the good news, and found the office and the adjacent rooms all deserted. The guard in the antechamber told me that “the other English Herr” had gone out hours ago.

Did that auger well or not? Who could say?

In a couple of hours the prince awoke with that weak and unquestioning acceptance of everything that marks the early recovery from serious illness. I wanted to order a bowl of gruel for him, but Hans would have none of it: his master hated gruel and should have hot bread and milk, made as only Hans could make it, with honey.

“And coffee, please,” the prince murmured, a clasp of the hand showing his gratitude for his old servant’s devotion.

I willingly agreed, and was myself devouring sandwiches when Holmes walked in unannounced.

“I am pleased to see you better, Your Highness,” he said to Prince Max with his customary calm. “May I put on the wireless? An announcement from the palace is expected momentarily.”

We waited motionless, all four, as the moments that seemed like hours passed. Then the music – one of the more sombre selections of Bach, as I recall – was abruptly cut off, and in hushed tones a man’s voice stated that the Chancellor, Prince Max of Baden, had just issued a statement: His Most Gracious Majesty Kaiser Wilhelm II had abdicated, and all the royal princes agreed to renounce the throne in the cause of peace.

Prince Max and Holmes exchanged a long and ultimately understanding gaze. At last with a little sigh the prince said, “So His Majesty wouldn’t see you, either. Even at the last.”

“What can you expect”, I said, with the bitterness of four years, “from a man who has never been in battle and who yet would sport a huge golden helmet?”

The prince gave a small smile. “Spoken like a true Englishman, Dr Watson. I am greatly relieved at what you have done, Mr Holmes, for I fear that I could not have. Necessary though I can see that it was.”

“I think you would have done so, Your Highness, if you had seen the growing turmoil in the streets and also read the message from President Wilson.”

Slow and painful memory grew in the prince’s tired eyes. “I had asked what the terms would be for the end of the war and had just had his reply – I remember that, though I had had no time to decipher the message when the count arrived. You found the key to the code, then, Mr Holmes? Where was it?”

“I fear in Count Hoffenstein’s pocket, Your Highness.”

The prince passed a weak hand across his face. “Somehow I am not surprised. We have never been intimate, yet he shook my hand so heartily before leaving! No doubt in order to remove the key that I had pushed under the blotter on my desk. However did you manage to read the message, Mr Holmes?”

“With more effort than it should have taken, Your Highness. The trick in making out such a code, you understand, is to run through all possible combinations of the letters, adding vowels as required, until words are formed.

“All I could see at first was score, shortly extended to fourscore. I couldn’t imagine President Wilson using such arcane language, yet I could make nothing else out from the first letters. Then I realized that the squares unneeded for the message had not been filled at random, as is usual, but with words that, while not part of the communication to Your Highness, yet meant much to the President of the United States. What would such a man at such a time quote