King Victor’s impersonation of Prince Nicholas in the United States turns a presumed death into a financial confidence trick: exploiting the uncertainty surrounding the prince’s fate, he secures a substantial haul of American money by invoking oil concessions. The fraud is exposed by chance, forcing him to leave the country and bringing his past deception into the dangerous present at Chimneys.

The Impersonation and Its Prize

After escaping French surveillance, King Victor did not go straight to England, as the French detective had expected. He went instead to the United States and assumed the identity of Prince Nicholas, who had long been reported dead in the Congo. Because a death in such a remote place was difficult to establish conclusively, the supposed prince’s reappearance could pass as plausible.

The false identity served a precise financial purpose. King Victor presented himself as the claimant associated with oil concessions in Herzoslovakia, and American investors supplied him with a tremendous amount of money. His success depended on the gap between what could be proved about Prince Nicholas’s fate and what investors were willing to believe about the value of the concessions. A royal name became both cover and collateral.

Exposure and Flight

The scheme did not unravel through a sustained investigation: King Victor was unmasked by a mere accident. Once exposed, he had to leave the United States hurriedly. The French detective’s account gives the episode its abrupt reversal: a man able to turn an uncertain death into a convincing public identity could still be brought down by chance.

This escape redirected the deception toward England. The detective explained that King Victor had now come there, and expected him sooner or later to appear at Chimneys—if he was not already present. He suspected King Victor had been at the house on the night Prince Michael died and had returned the previous night. The American fraud therefore becomes more than a completed financial swindle: it gives the search at Chimneys a new suspect and connects the prince’s murder mystery to a fugitive’s trail.

Political and Narrative Consequences

King Victor’s impersonation also echoes the instability of Herzoslovakia’s royal succession. Prince Nicholas was presumed dead, while competing political and financial interests surrounded the country’s future; King Victor turned that uncertainty into a usable performance. The episode makes mistaken identity materially consequential: the borrowed royal name raises money, but it also draws attention back to the unresolved question of who is present at Chimneys and why.

The revelation lands through dialogue among Anthony Cade, Superintendent Battle, and the French detective. Anthony’s matchbox falls from his hand at the news, while Battle is equally astonished. Their reaction marks the disclosure as a reversal of the case’s assumptions: the fugitive has not simply returned to England, but has already demonstrated how effectively he can conceal himself behind a dead prince’s name.