“Why, Grumbach, what are you doing here?” cried Carmichael.

“Waiting for his excellency.  We have been here something past an hour.”

“What’s the trouble?” Carmichael inquired.

“Your excellency knows as much as I do,” said the officer, who was in fact no less than the sub-chief of the bureau.

“And I am in the dark, also,” said Grumbach, twirling his hat.

Carmichael walked about, studying the many curios.  Occasionally Grumbach wiped his forehead, and, absently, the inner rim of his hat.  Perhaps the three of them waited twenty minutes; then the chancellor came in.  He bowed cordially and drew chairs about his desk.  He placed Grumbach in the full glare of the lamp.  Carmichael and the sub-chief were in the half-light.  The chancellor was last to seat himself.

“Herr Grumbach,” said the chancellor in a mild tone, “I should like to see your papers.”

“My passports, your Excellency?”

“Yes.”

Grumbach laid them on the desk imperturbably.  The chancellor struck the bell.  His valet answered immediately.

“Send Breunner, the head gardener, at once.”

“He is in the anteroom, Excellency.”

“Tell him to come in.”

The chancellor shot a piercing glance at Grumbach, but the latter was studying the mural decorations.

Carmichael sat tight in his chair, curious to learn what it was all about.  Breunner entered.  He was thin and partly bald and quite fifty.

“Breunner, her highness will need many flowers to-morrow.  See to it that they are cut in the morning.”

“It shall be done, Excellency.”

The chancellor turned to the passports.

“There is only one question, Herr Grumbach.  It says here that you were a native of Bavaria before going to America.  How long ago did you leave Bavaria?”

“A good many years, your Excellency.”  Grumbach inspected the label in his hat.

“You have, of course, retained your Bavarian passport?”

Carmichael was now leaning forward in his chair, deeply interested.  He saw that the chancellor was watching Grumbach as a cat watches a mouse-hole.

Grumbach brought forth a bulky wallet.  The edges of Bank of England notes could be seen, of fat denominations.

“Here it is, your Excellency; a little ragged, but readable still.”

The chancellor went over it carefully.

“Herr Captain, do you know this compatriot?”

“We fought side by side in the American war.  I saw no irregularity in his papers.  I am rather astonished to see him here and not at the police bureau, if any question has arisen over his passports.”

“Fought side by side,” the chancellor repeated thoughtfully.  “Then he is no stranger to you?”

“I do not say that.  We were, however, in the same cavalry, only in different troops.  Grumbach, you have your honorable discharge with you?”