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The Car of Destiny

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Title: The Car of Destiny

Author: C. N. Williamson
 A. M. Williamson

Illustrator: Armand Both

 
Release date: November 15, 2007 [eBook #23500]
 Most recently updated: June 20, 2020

Language: English

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23500

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CAR OF DESTINY ***

 THE
 CAR OF DESTINY
 BY
 C. N. AND A. M. WILLIAMSON
 [Logo]

Illustrations by Armand Both

NEW YORK
THE McCLURE COMPANY
MCMVII

*OTHER BOOKS BY THE SAME AUTHORS*

 Lady Betty Across the Water,
 My Friend the Chauffeur,
 The Princess Virginia,
 etc.

 _Copyright, 1907, by The McClure Company_
 Copyright, 1906, by McClure, Phillips & Co.

 [Lady Monica]

 LADY MONICA

 _To_
 _Doña María del Pilar Harvey,_
 _We Dedicate This Spanish Story_

 _C.N. and A.M. Williamson_

CONTENTS

The King's Car
The Girl
The Guest Who Was Not Asked
"I Don't Threaten-I Warn"
A Mystery Concerning a Chauffeur
Puzzle: Find the Car
The Impudence of Showing a Handkerchief
Over the Border
A Stern Chase
The Unexpectedness of Miss O'Donnel
María del Pilar to the Rescue
Under a Balcony
What Happened in the Cathedral
Some Little Ideas of Dick's
How the Duke Changed
A Secret of the King's
Like a Thief in the Night
The Man Who Loved Pilar
A Parcel for Lieutenant O'Donnel
The Magic Word
The Duchess's Hand
The Luck of the Dream-Book
The Glorification of Monica
The Goodwill of Mariquita
What Cordoba Lacked
In the Palace of the Kings
Moonlight in the Garden
Let Your Heart Speak
The Garden of Flaming Lilies
The Hand Under the Curtains
Behind an Iron Grating
On the Road to Cadiz
The Seven Men of Ecija
The Race
The Moon in the Wilderness
Wiles and Enchantments
Dreams and an Awakening
The Fountain
Day After To-morrow
Through the Night
The Fifth Bull; and After

 I

THE KING'S CAR

"Motor to Biarritz? You must be mad," said Dick Waring.

"Why?" I asked; though I knew why as well as he. "A nice way to receive an
invitation."

"If you must know, it's because the King of Spain will be there, visiting
his English fiancée," Dick answered.

"I wish him happiness," said I. "I hear he's a fine young fellow. Why
isn't there room in Biarritz for the King and for me?"

"The detectives won't think there is, nor will they give you credit for
your generous sentiments," said Dick.

"They won't know I'm there."

"They knew when you went to Barcelona, from Marseilles."

This was a sore subject. It is not my fault that my father was as
recklessly brave a general, and as obstinately determined a partisan as
Don Carlos ever had. If I had been born in those days, it is possible that
I should have done as my father did; but I was not born, and therefore not
responsible. Nor was it the King's fault that we lost our estates which my
ancestors owned in the days of Charles V; nor that we lost our fortune, we
Casa Trianas; nor that my father was banished from Spain. For the King was
not born, therefore he was not responsible; so why should I blame him for
anything that has happened to me?

It was perhaps ill-judged to visit my father's land, since to him it had
been a land forbidden. But a few months after his death, when I was
twenty-one, the longing to see Spain had become an obsession. And it must
have been my evil star which influenced an anarchist to throw a bomb at a
royal personage on the very day I arrived at Barcelona, thinly "disguised"
under an English name.

My identity was discovered at once, as the son of the great dead Carlist.
I was suspected and clapped into a cell, to wait until my innocence could
be proved. This was not easy; but, on the other hand, there was no proof
against me; and after an experience which scourged my pride and emptied my
purse, I was released, only to be politely but firmly advised never again
to show the undesirable face of a Casa Triana in Spain.

It was after this that I flung myself off to Russia, and through friendly
influence got a commission in the army. I had some adventures in the Boxer
rising; and though Heaven knows I have no grudge against the Japanese, the
fight I made later on the Russian side gave me something to do for two
years. After the Peace with Idleness, came the motor mania, and I thought
of nothing else for a time. But when you have run your car for months,
motoring for its own sake ceases to be all in all. You ask yourself what
country you would like best to visit with the machine you love.

Pride kept me from answering that question with the name of "Spain"; but
it was because Biarritz is at the door of Spain that I had just invited
Dick Waring-the best of friends, the most delightful of Americans, who
fought side by side with me, for fun, in China-to drive there in my Gloria
car.

"Yes, they knew when I went to Barcelona," I admitted; for Dick was
familiar with the story. "But that was different. Anyhow, I'm going to
Biarritz, whatever happens. You can do as you like."

"If you _will_ go, I'll go too," said Dick; "and if anything happens I'll
be in it with you. But you may regret your rashness."

"I've never yet regretted rashness," I said. "Things done on impulse
always turn out for the best."

So we started from Paris the next day, and had a splendid run, through
scenery to set the spirit singing in tune with the thrumming of the motor.

Whatever was to happen in Biarritz, and I was far enough from guessing
then, nothing happened by the way; and we arrived on a morning of blue and
gold.

We put up at a private hotel out of the way from fashionable
thoroughfares; and, as my childhood and early youth were passed in
England, I could use an English name without making myself ridiculous by a
foreign accent. As for my brown face and black eyes, many a Cornishman has
a face as brown and eyes as black; therefore, I edited the name of Triana
into Cornish Trevenna, and changed Cristóbal, my middle name, into
Christopher.

We took our first meal in the restaurant, and everyone at the little
tables near by, was talking of the King and "Princess Ena"; how pretty she
was, how much in love he; how charming their romance. My heart quite
warmed to my youthful sovereign, who has had seven fewer years on earth
than I. I felt that, if I had had a fair chance, I should have been his
loyal subject.

"I'd like to have a look at him," said I to Waring after lunch. "The lady
with the nose who sat on our left said to her husband with the chin, that
the King and the two Princesses motor every afternoon. We'll motor too;
and where they go, there we'll go also."

"Take care," said

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