Sergeant Verity and the Blood Royal by Francis Selwyn Page A

smiling at the performance on the rope. Verity twisted his head and shouted.
'Sir! Get down, sir! Get down!'
    An air of puzzlement clouded the Prince's expression. Only the mirth of the well-fed staff-officer acknowledged the cry.
    'Hero, eh? Find this a bit stiff though! Can't take it without blubbering a bit, eh, what? Told you, by Jove!'
    There might even be an assassin in the trees, with a marksman's rifle, for whom the tall young man merely acted as range-finder. By now, Blondin had almost reached the far bank with his passenger. Verity set his eyes grimly on Miss Jolly's accomplice.
    'Right, Captain Smiles!' he said aloud. 'So he don't exist, don't he? We'll soon have a see about that, sir!'
    His jaw was set with intimidating ferocity as the barrow jolted on to the turf and the spectators applauded Blondin's arrival on the safety and solidity of the cliff-top. Verity pushed himself out of the barrow and parted the grinning crowd.
    'One side! Mind yer backs! Quick-sharp!' he barked sullenly.
    Miss Jolly's tall young escort wore a hat of grey felt, moccasins and deer-skin trousers. A bullet-pouch and a knife, as well as the revolver holster, were shaped by the fall of his jacket over his belt. He was lowering the field-glasses and turning away as Verity bounded towards him.
    'No you don't, my fine fellow!' Verity's words, like thunder, drew the attention of the entire crowd on the American side. The tall young man paused for what was, in his circumstances, an injudiciously long moment. Verity ran forward and leapt, throwing all his weight on to the man's back and knocking him sprawling. The stranger was stunned by the unexpected impact. Verity had had no time to discard his equipment before surrendering to Blondin's orders. He snatched the handcuffs which still hung at his belt, snapped the first one on the man's right wrist, wrenched the arm behind his back, and clicked the other steel cuff onto the left wrist.
    Gathering his breath for a moment, he then jerked the prisoner to his feet and propelled him with blows of his knee toward the party on the little suspension-bridge. Captain Smiles, smooth and expressionless, awaited him.
    'Sir!' said Verity smartly. ' 'ave the honour to report that there was going to be shooting at 'is Highness from the cliff, while I was taken across. This person 'ere was using field-glasses as if to give out the aim, sir. And another thing, sir. He's also the fancy chap that was going the rounds of the New York jewellers as Miss Jolly's accomplice. He's the one that you and the others said you'd never heard of, sir! With respect, sir. There might be a marksman in them bushes on the bank, sir. If this one in custody can be made to talk quick, sir, we could have the name of the marksman out of him before that party does a bunk. Sir!'
'Take those handcuffs off him, sergeant!'
'Sir?'
    'Get the bloody things off! Or did you leave the keys in England ?'
    'No, sir.' Unhappily, Verity took the little key from his belt.
'You fat, officious fool!' said Captain Smiles bitterly.
    'Sir ? 'e was spying on His Royal Highness most suspicious, sir. And he'd got a hand on his gun.'
    'There was no spying! No marksmen, no assassins! Damn you, you idiot!'
'Then what about 'im, sir? With respect, sir.'
    'Him? Oh, yes,' said Captain Smiles miserably. 'You have just arrested Captain Thomas Crowe of the United States Marine Corps., assigned by his own government as a bodyguard to His Royal Highness during the American stages of the tour. In short, he is to be your partner!'
'But 'e can't be, sir! It don't make sense!'
'He not only can be, sergeant, he is! '
Verity, his face downcast and lowered, swallowed hard.
    'Dunno what to say, sir,' he mumbled wretchedly. ‘I couldn't a-made a worse mess of all this if I'd tried deliberate!'
    The hurricane lamp hung from the central pole of the little tent, casting a white glare on the table where the two sergeants sat. Verity assembled the dark brown flagons of Buttery's