Chapter XXIX explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Identity and Impersonation

  Dominey's true identity is revealed, and the imposture of Von Ragastein is exposed, culminating in the arrest of those who sought to exploit the deception.

• Espionage and National Loyalty

  Dominey's successful counter-espionage operation secures key documents for Britain, while Seaman and Schmidt are arrested for their German loyalties.

• Love and Sacrifice

  Rosamund's recovery and loving acceptance of Dominey represent the personal triumph of love amidst the chaos of war and espionage.

Characters to notice

• Sir Everard Dominey

  Waits for Rosamund's recovery, then confronts Seaman and Schmidt, revealing his successful espionage.

• Rosamund Dominey

  Emerges from the panel fully conscious and loving, accepting Dominey as her husband.

• Mr. Seaman

  Confronts Dominey about Von Ragastein's death, is handcuffed and arrested by Eddy Pelham.

• Princess Eiderstrom

  Passionately urges Seaman and Schmidt to act against Dominey, but is thwarted by Pelham's intervention.

• Doctor Schmidt

  Accuses Dominey of murder and imposture, is disarmed and arrested for his role in the plot.

• Eddy Pelham

  Intervenes to arrest Seaman and Schmidt, revealing Dominey's successful counter-espionage.

Key passages

• “She came to him with her arms outstretched and all the wonderful things of life and love in her shining eyes. That faint touch of the somnambulist had passed. She came to him as she had never come before. She was a very real and a very live woman.”

  Rosamund approached Dominey with open arms, her eyes full of love and vitality, no longer appearing sleepwalking but fully awake and alive.

  Rosamund's full recovery and acceptance of Dominey as her husband.

• “On the contrary,” Dominey replied, “both are deposited at the Foreign Office. We hope to find them very useful a little later on.””

  Dominey reveals that the Prince's memoirs and the Kaiser's map are safely stored at the Foreign Office, where they will be used to Britain's advantage.

  Dominey's strategic move to secure the documents for British intelligence.

• “I say, you two don't mean to be funny but you are,” he declared. “First of all, there's Doctor Schmidt accuses Sir Everard here of being an impostor because he assumed his own name; accuses him of murdering a man who had planned in cold blood—you were in that, by the by, Schmidt—to kill him; and then there's our friend here, the secretary of the society for propagating better relations between the business men of England and Germany, complaining because Sir Everard carried through in Germany, for England, exactly what he believed the Baron Von Ragastein was carrying out here—for Germany.””

  Eddy Pelham points out the irony: Schmidt accuses Dominey of imposture for taking his own name, and Seaman complains that Dominey did for England what Von Ragastein planned for Germany.

  Pelham's witty summary of the hypocrisy in the accusations against Dominey.