The Car of Destiny

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The Car of Destiny by C. N. Williamson and

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Title: The Car of Destiny
Author: C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson
Release Date: November 15, 2007 [Ebook #23500]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO 8859-1
***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 Do?a 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