CHAPTER III

DISGRACED


At eight o'clock that evening the Crown Prince Ferdinand William
Otto approached the Palace through the public square. He
approached it slowly, for two reasons. First, he did not want to
go back. Second, he was rather frightened. He had an idea that
they would be disagreeable.

There seemed to be a great deal going on at the palace.
Carriages were rolling in under the stone archway and, having
discharged their contents, mostly gentlemen in uniform, were
moving off with a thundering of hoofs that reechoed from the
vaulted roof of the entrance. All the lights were on in the wing
where his grandfather, the King, lived alone. As his grandfather
hated lights, and went to bed early, Prince Ferdinand William
Otto was slightly puzzled.

He stood in the square and waited for a chance to slip in
unobserved.

He was very dirty. His august face was streaked with soot, and
his august hands likewise. His small derby hat was carefully
placed on the very back of his head at the angle of the American
boy's cap. As his collar had scratched his neck, he had, at