Kongola

The Congo is central to the concealed identity of Anthony Cade: he tells Herman Isaacstein that Prince Nicholas did not die there, but that Cade himself spread the report of his death before emerging from the Congo under an assumed name.

The Report of Prince Nicholas’s Death

The Congo enters the story through a belief that Prince Nicholas died there. When Anthony asks Superintendent Battle whether he is certain of the prince’s death, Battle answers that he would not swear to it, though it is generally believed. The uncertainty leaves room for the truth Anthony later discloses.

The Assumed Identity

In a conversation with Herman Isaacstein about a loan previously offered to Prince Michael, Anthony asks whether Isaacstein would make the same offer to Michael’s cousin Nicholas. Challenged to produce the prince, Anthony explains that he had caused the report of Nicholas’s death to circulate. He identifies himself as Nicholas Sergius Alexander Ferdinand Obolovitch, and says that the long royal name did not suit the life he intended to lead; he therefore left the Congo as Anthony Cade.

Narrative Significance

The Congo is not described as a setting for the events themselves; its importance lies in the account attached to it. The supposed death gives Anthony’s assumed identity its cover, while his later admission reverses the accepted story and reveals that he is the missing prince. The gap between what is generally believed and what Anthony says he arranged makes the Congo a hinge between a fabricated death and his life as Cade.