The Listerdale Mystery Read online

  "I believe I've got as good an all-around chance as anyone," she murmured to herself. "I wonder what it's all about? A beauty chorus, I hope."

  The queue was moving slowly but steadily forward. Presently a second stream of girls began, issuing from inside the house. Some of them tossed their heads, some of them smirked.

  "Rejected," said Jane with glee. "I hope to goodness they won't be full up before I get in." And still the queue of girls moved forward. There were anxious glances in tiny mirrors, and a frenzied powdering of noses. Lipsticks were brandished freely.

  "I wish I had a smarter hat," said Jane to herself sadly.

  At last it was her turn. Inside the door of the house was a glass door at one side, with the legend Messrs. Cuthbertsons inscribed on it. It was through this glass door that the applicants were passing one by one. Jane's turn came. She drew a deep breath and entered.

  Inside was an outer office, obviously intended for clerks. At the end was another glass door. Jane was directed to pass through this, and did so. She found herself in a smaller room. There was a big desk in it, and behind the desk was a keen-eyed man of middle age with a thick, rather foreign-looking moustache. His glance swept over Jane, then he pointed to a door on the left.

  "Wait in there, please," he said crisply.

  Jane obeyed. The apartment she entered was already occupied. Five girls sat there, all very upright and all glaring at each other. It was clear to Jane that she had been included among the likely candidates, and her spirits rose. Nevertheless, she was forced to admit that these five girls were equally eligible with herself as far as the terms of the advertisement went.

  The time passed. Streams of girls were evidently passing through the inner office. Most of them were dismissed through another door giving on the corridor, but every now and then a recruit arrived to swell the select assembly. At half-past six there were fourteen girls assembled there. Jane heard a murmur of voices from the inner office, and then the foreign-looking gentleman, whom she had nicknamed in her mind "the Colonel" owing to the military character of his moustaches, appeared in the doorway.

  "I will see you ladies one at a time, if you please," he announced. "In the order in which you arrived, please."

  Jane was, of course, the sixth on the list. Twenty minutes elapsed before she was called in. "The Colonel" was standing with his hands behind his back. He put her through a rapid catechism, tested her knowledge of French, and measured her height.

  "It is possible, mademoiselle," he Said in French, "that you may suit. I do not know. But it is possible."

  "What is this post, may I ask?" said Jane bluntly.

  He shrugged his shoulders.

  "That I cannot tell you as yet. If you are chosen - then you shall know."

  "This seems very mysterious," objected Jane. "I couldn't possibly take up anything without knowing all about it. Is it connected with the stage, may I ask?"

  "The stage? Indeed, no."

  "Oh!" said Jane, rather taken aback.

  He was looking at her keenly.

  "You have intelligence, yes? Any discretion?"

  "I've quantities of intelligence and discretion," said Jane calmly. "What about the pay?"

  "The pay will amount to two thousand pounds - for a fortnight's work."

  "Oh!" said Jane faintly.

  She was too taken aback by the munificence of the sum named to recover all at once. The Colonel resumed speaking.

  "One other young lady I have already selected. You and she are equally suitable. There may be others I have not yet seen. I will give you instructions as to your further proceedings. You know Harridge's Hotel?" Jane gasped. Who in England did not know Harridge's Hotel, that famous hostelry situated modestly in a bystreet of Mayfair, where notabilities and royalties arrived and departed as a matter of course? Only this morning Jane had read of the arrival of the Grand Duchess Pauline of Ostrova. She had come over to open a big bazaar in aid of Russian refugees, and was, of course, staying at Harridge's.

  "Yes," said Jane, in answer to the Colonel's question.

  "Very good. Go there. Ask for Count Streptitch. Send up your card - you have a card?" Jane produced one. The Colonel took it from her and inscribed in the corner a minute P. He handed the card back to her.

  "That ensures that the count will see you. He will understand that you come from me. The final decision lies with him - and another. If he considers you suitable, he will explain matters to you, and you can accept or decline his proposal. Is that satisfactory?"

  "Perfectly satisfactory," said Jane.

  "So far," she murmured to herself as she emerged into the street, "I can't see the catch. And yet, there must be one. There's no such thing as money for nothing. It must be crime! There's nothing else left." Her spirits rose. In moderation Jane did not object to crime. The papers had been full lately of the exploits of various girl bandits. Jane had seriously thought of becoming one if all else failed. She entered the exclusive portals of Harridge's with slight trepidation. More than ever, she wished that she had a new hat.

  But she walked bravely up to the bureau and produced her card and asked for Count Streptitch without a shade of hesitation in her manner. She fancied that the clerk looked at her rather curiously. He took the card, however, and gave it to a small page boy with some low-voiced instructions which Jane did not catch. Presently the page returned, and Jane was invited to accompany him. They went up in the lift and along a corridor to some big double doors where the page knocked. A moment later Jane found herself in a big room, facing a tall thin man with a fair beard, who was holding her card in a languid white hand.

  "Miss Jane Cleveland," he read slowly. "I am Count Streptitch." His lips parted suddenly in what was presumably intended to be a smile, disclosing two rows of white even teeth. But no effect of merriment was obtained.

  "I understand that you applied in answer to our advertisement,'' continued the count. "The good Colonel Kranin sent you on here."

  "He was a colonel," thought Jane, pleased with her perspicacity, but she merely bowed her head.

  "You will pardon me if I ask you a few questions?"

  He did not wait for a reply, but proceeded to put Jan through a catechism very similar to that of Colonel Kranin. Her replies seemed to satisfy him. He nodded his head one or twice.

  "I will ask you now, mademoiselle, to walk to the door and back again slowly."

  "Perhaps they want me to be a mannequin," thought Jane as she complied. "But they wouldn't pay two thousand pounds to a mannequin. Still, I suppose I'd better not as questions yet awhile." Count Streptitch was frowning. He tapped on the table with his white fingers. Suddenly he rose, and opening the door of an adjoining room, he spoke to someone inside.

  He returned to his seat, and a short middle-aged lad came through the door, closing it behind her. She was plump and extremely ugly, but had nevertheless the air of being a person of importance.

  "Well, Anna Michaelovna," said the count. "What do you think of her?" The lady looked Jane up and down much as though, the girl had been a waxwork at a show. She made no pretence of any greeting.

  "She might do," she said at length. "Of actual likeness in the real sense of the word, there is very little. But the figure and the colouring are very good, better than any the others. What do you think of it, Feodor Alexandrovitch?"

  "I agree with you, Anna Michaelovna."

  "Does she speak French?"

  "Her French is excellent."

  Jane felt more and more of a dummy. Neither of these strange people appeared to remember that she was a human being.

  "But will she be discreet?" asked the lady, frowning heavily at the girl.

  "This is the Princess Poporensky," said Count Streptitch to Jane in French. "She asks whether you can be discreet?"

  Jane addressed her reply to the princess.

  "Until I have had the position explained to me, I can hardly make promises."

  "It is just what she says there, the little one," remarked the lad
y. "I think she is intelligent, Feodor Alexandrovitch - more intelligent than the others. Tell me, little one, have you also courage?"

  "I don't know," said Jane, puzzled. "I don't particularly like being hurt, but I can bear it."

  "Ah! That is not what I mean. You do not mind danger, no?"

  "Oh I" said Jane. "Danger! That's all right. I like danger."

  "And you are poor? You would like to earn much money?"

  "Try me," said Jane with something approaching enthusiasm.

  Count Streptitch and Princess Poporensky exchanged glances. Then, simultaneously, they nodded.

  "Shall I explain matters, Anna Michaelovna?" the former asked. The princess shook her head.

  "Her Highness wishes to do that herself."

  "It is unnecessary - and unwise."

  "Nevertheless those are her commands. I was to bring the girl in as soon as you had done with her." Streptitch shrugged his shoulders. Clearly he was not pleased. Equally clearly he had no intention of disobeying the edict. He turned to Jane.

  "The Princess Poporensky will present you to Her Highness the Grand Duchess Pauline. Do not be alarmed."

  Jane was not in the least alarmed. She was delighted at the idea of being presented to a real live grand duchess.

  There was nothing of the Socialist about Jane. For the moment she had even ceased to worry about her hat. The Princess Poporensky led the way, waddling along with a gait that she managed to invest with a certain dignity in spite of adverse circumstances. They passed through the adjoining room, which was a kind of antechamber, and the princess knocked upon a door in the farther wall. A voice from inside replied and the princess opened the door and passed in, Jane close upon her heels.

  "Let me present to you, madame," said the princess in a solemn voice, "Miss Jane Cleveland." A young woman who had been sitting in a big armchair at the other end of the room jumped up and ran forward. She stared fixedly at Jane for a minute or two, and then laughed merrily.

  "But this is splendid, Anna," she cried. "I never imagined we should succeed so well. Come, let us see ourselves side by side."

  Taking Jane's arm, she drew the girl across the room, pausing before a full-length mirror which hung on the wall.

  "You see?" she cried delightedly. "It is a perfect match!" Already, with her first glance at the Grand Duchess Pauline, Jane had begun to understand. The Grand Duchess was a young woman perhaps a year or two older than Jane. She had the same shade of fair hair, and the same slim figure. She was, perhaps, a shade taller. Now that they stood side by side, the likeness was very apparent. Detail for detail, the colouring was almost exactly the same. The Grand Duchess clapped her hands. She seemed an extremely cheerful young woman.

  "Nothing could be better," she declared. "You must congratulate Feodor Alexandrovitch for me, Anna. He has indeed done well."

  "As yet, madame," murmured the princess in a low voice, "this young woman does not know what is required of her."

  "True," said the Grand Duchess, becoming somewhat calmer in manner. "I forgot. Well, I will enlighten her. Leave us together, Anna Michaelovna."

  "But, madame - "

  "Leave us alone, I say."

  She stamped her foot angrily. With considerable reluctance Anna Michaelovna left the room. The Grand Duchess sat down and motioned to Jane to do the same.

  "They are tiresome, these old women," remarked Pauline. "But one has to have them. Anna Michaelovna is better than most. No, then, Miss - ah, yes, Miss Jane Cleveland. I like the name. I like you too. You are sympathetic. I can tell at once if people are sympathetic."

  "That's very clever of you, ma'am," said Jane, speaking for the first time.

  "I am clever," said Pauline calmly. "Come now, I will explain things to you. Not that there is much to explain. You know the history of Ostrova. Practically all of my family are dead - massacred by the Communists. I am, perhaps, the last of my line. I am a woman, I cannot sit upon the throne. You think they would let me be. But no, wherever I go, attempts are made to assassinate me. Absurd, is it not? These vodka-soaked brutes never have any sense of proportion."

  "I see," said Jane, feeling that something was required of her.

  "For the most part I live in retirement - where I can take precautions, but now and then I have to take part in public ceremonies. While I am here, for instance, I have to attend several semi-public functions. Also in Paris on my way back. I have an estate in Hungary, you know. The sport there is magnificent."

  "Is it really?" said Jane.

  "Superb. I adore sport. Also - I ought not to tell you this, but I shall because your face is so sympathetic - there are plans being made there - very quietly, you understand. Altogether it is very important that I should not be assassinated during the next two weeks."

  "But surely the police - " began Jane.

  "The police? Oh, yes, they are very good, I believe. And we too - we have our spies. It is possible that I shall be forewarned when the attempt is to take place. But then, again, I might not." She' shrugged her shoulders.

  "I begin to understand," said Jane slowly. "You want me to take your place?"

  "Only on certain occasions," said the Grand Duchess eagerly. "You must be somewhere at hand, you understand? I may require you twice, three times, four times in the next fortnight. Each time it will be upon the occasion of some public function. Naturally in intimacy of any kind, you could not represent me."

  "Of course not," agreed Jane.

  "You will do very well indeed. It was clever of Feodor Alexandrovitch to think of an advertisement, was it not?"

  "Supposing," said Jane, "that I get assassinated?" The Grand Duchess shrugged her shoulders.

  "There is the risk, of course, but according to our own secret information, they want to kidnap me, not kill me outright. But I will be quite honest - it is always possible that they might throw a bomb."

  "I see," said Jane.

  She tried to imitate the light-hearted manner of Pauline. She wanted very much to come to the question of money, but did not quite see how best to introduce the subject. But Pauline saved her the trouble.

  "We will pay you well, of course," she said carelessly. "I cannot remember now exactly how much Feodor Alexandrovitch suggested. We were speaking in francs or kronen."

  "Colonel Kranin," said Jane, "said something about two thousand pounds."

  "That was it," said Pauline, brightening. "I remember now. It is enough, I hope? Or would you rather have three thousand?"

  "Well," said Jane, "if it's all the same to you, I'd rather have three thousand."

  "You are business-like, I see," said the Grand Duchess kindly. "I wish I was. But I have no idea of money at all. What I want I have to have, that is all."-It seemed to Jane a simple but admirable attitude of mind.

  "And of course, as you say, there is danger," Pauline continued thoughtfully. "Although you do not look to me as though you minded danger. I do not myself. I hope you do not think that it is because I am a coward that I want you to take my place? You see, it is most important for Ostrova that I should marry and have at least two sons. After that, it does not matter what happens to me."

  "I see," said Jane.

  "And you accept?

  "Yes," said Jane resolutely. "I accept."

  Pauline clapped her hands vehemently several times.

  Princess Poporensky appeared immediately.

  "I have told her all, Anna," announced the Grand Duchess. "She will do what we want, and she is to have three thousand pounds. Tell Feodor to make a note of it. She is really very like me, is she not? I think she is better-looking, though."

  The princess waddled out of the room, and returned with Count Streptitch.

  "We have arranged everything, Feodor Alexandrovitch," the Grand Duchess said. He bowed.

  "Can she play her part, I wonder?" he queried, eyeing Jane doubtfully.

  "I'll show you," said the girl suddenly. "You permit, ma'am?" she said to the Grand Duchess. The latter nodded delightedly.
r />   Jane stood up.

  "But this is splendid, Anna," she said. "I never imagined we should succeed so well. Come, let us see ourselves side by side."

  And, as Pauline had done, she drew the other girl to the glass.

  "You see? A perfect match!"

  Words, manner and gesture, it was an excellent imitation of Pauline's greeting. The princess nodded her head and uttered a grunt of approbation.

  "It is good, that," she declared. "It would deceive most people."

  "You are very clever," said Pauline appreciatively. "I could not imitate anyone else to save my life." Jane believed her. It had already struck her that Pauline was a young woman who was very much herself.

  "Anna will arrange details with you," said the Grand Duchess. "Take her into my bedroom, Anna, and try some of my clothes on her."

  She nodded a gracious farewell, and Jane was convoyed away by the Princess Poporensky.

  "This is what Her Highness will wear to open the bazaar," explained the old lady, holding up a daring creation of white and black. "That is in three days' time. It may be necessary for you to take her place there. We do not know. We have not yet received information."

  At Anna's bidding, Jane slipped off her own shabby garments and tried on the frock. It fitted her perfectly. The other nodded approvingly.

  "It is almost perfect - just a shade long on you, because you are an inch or so shorter than Her Highness."

  "That is easily remedied," said Jane quickly. The Grand Duchess wears low-heeled shoes, I noticed. If I wear the same kind of shoes, but with high heels, it will adjust things nicely." Anna Michaelovna showed her the shoes that the Grand Duchess usually wore with the dress - lizard skin with a strap across. Jane memorized them, and arranged to get a pair just like them, but with different heels.

  "I would be well," said Anna Michaelovna, "for you to have a dress of distinctive colour and material quite unlike Her Highness's. Then in case it becomes necessary for you to change places at a moment's notice, the substitution is less likely to be noticed."

  Jane thought a minute.