"OUT! OOOOUUUUTTT!" a voice bellowed through the halls.

Mrs. Beakley opened the door just in time for the latest Prince Louie candidate to come rushing out. She glanced into the room to see the former king red-faced and seething, and then followed the impostor to the door to make sure he didn't swipe anything on the way out. Once she'd shown him out, she returned to the King, who was still seething.

"That-that no-good, freeloading swindler!" he said. "What does he take me for? I'm not some daft old man; I can sniff out counterfeits a mile away, and that one was as bad as the cheque Rockerduck tried to give me last month!"

"Yes, well, I do apologize. He was rather...persistent over the phone." Mrs. Beakley gently led the king to a chair . "I had my doubts, but when he mentioned…" Beakley trailed off. She took the tea tray from the cart by the door and brought it over. "I figured he might be worth an interview."

Scrooge sank into the chair, suddenly looking exhausted down to his very bones.

"No more," he whispered.

"Sir?" Mrs. Beakley asked. She set the tray down rather abruptly.

"No more." He looked around the room, as if remembering the dozens of interviews and fake Louies that had crossed that threshold, and shook his head. "No more Prince Louies."

If Mrs. Beakley didn't know any better, she might have said there were tears in his eyes. "But—"

"I've already lost the rest of my family, Beakley. I've held onto this one, thin hope, but…" He sighed heavily. "My heart can't take it anymore. I will see no more boys claiming to be Louie." He turned his gaze out the window, now in another time and place.

Mrs. Beakley bowed her head and quietly left the room.

King Scrooge whispered one last time, "No more Prince Louies."

Lucas marveled at the sights and sounds of Duckburg. The neon signs! The clanging bells of the streetcars! The smell of food wafting from open restaurant doors!

The smell of hot dogs wafting from stands on the sidewalk...

Lena yanked Lucas forward by the arm.

"Gotta keep up, Luke. If you get lost here, we'll never find you again!" Gladstone said.

Lena didn't take her hand off of Lucas' arm, and it was probably a good thing she didn't, because he couldn't keep himself from taking everything in.

"There's a hotel around here somewhere. I won free stays there for life back before the Revolution. With my luck, that offer should still be good!"

That got Lucas' attention.

"You what?"

Gladstone noticed that Lucas had stopped and turned questioningly.

"You won free stays? At a hotel?" Lucas said.

"Sure, happens all the time. Or, well, it did, back when I went to places that were inclined to give out free things."

"You're royalty! You can afford to pay!"

"Not anymore!" Gladstone said cheerfully.

"But you could! And that's when you won this stuff!"

"Eh," Gladstone said. He waggled his hand back and forth. "It's a bit more complicated than that."

Lucas scoffed. "Come on. You can't tell me that there was a time when you were at any risk of being destitute."

"You're probably right."

"Then why were you the one winning things?"

"My luck."

"Of course. Your luck again."

"The same luck that got us safe passage to Duckburg," Gladstone said. "Hey, I don't pretend to understand it. I just roll with it."

"I'm just saying, there are plenty of people who could have used a free place to stay a lot more than you could have."

"Ah, but now we could use a place to stay, don't you think?" Gladstone asked.

Lucas sputtered. "But—that's not—"

Gladstone turned to Lena. "Have you found it yet?"

"How am I supposed to know where it is?" Lena asked. "Just pick a hotel and walk in. With your luck, it'll be the right one."

Lucas could not help but groan.

Gladstone looked around until his eyes fell on a particularly swanky hotel. Lucas could feel his face grow hot just thinking about Gladstone trying to get them a room there. There was no place such a rich place would give out free rooms to begin with, let alone to them.

He hung back with Lena as Gladstone sauntered over to the desk. Lucas watched as he spoke to the clerk, carrying himself like he owned the place. For the first time since he had seen the portrait back at the old Money Bin, Lucas could see how Gladstone used to be royalty.

Soon, Gladstone returned with a room key dangling from his finger. "We've got a suite for as long as we want it!"

"I'm going to take a bath!" Lena whooped.

Lucas just gawked.

A suite? With the three of them dressed like this?

As if he'd read his mind, Gladstone said, "We've got no time to rest. As soon as we drop our stuff up in our rooms, we're getting the three of us new sets of clothes!"

Lucas fingered the front lapel of his jacket self-consciously. He'd tried so hard, he really had, to keep it nice and clean and mended. He'd had no choice, really—there was no way he could ever afford a new one, and clothing was so hard to steal. Back in Scotland, he'd have decked anyone who'd said anything about his clothes. But Gladstone was right. The King was so rich, he'd probably never had even a glance to spare for someone dressed as Lucas was.

Gladstone walked through the city like he belonged to it. Lucas quickly lost his bearings in the criss-crossing streets, which was a bizarre feeling after years of learning the streets of Edinburgh to make sure he could never get lost within the city.

"This place hasn't changed much in the last six years," Gladstone commented. "But not the way Scotland hasn't changed in the last six years."

"Wow," Lena said in awe, her eyes nearly as big as saucers as she took in the sights around them now that she wasn't in charge of the map.

Gladstone grabbed her by the back of the collar as she started drifting towards some sort of restaurant.

"Don't go wandering off, now," Gladstone said. "We've got to stay focused."

They went into a tailor shop, the bell on the door dinging to signal their entrance. Lucas had to suppress the sudden urge to run away before the police arrived to arrest him for shoplifting.

"My stars!" The shopkeeper came out from a back room. "I don't believe my eyes! Gladstone Gander, is that you?"

"In the flesh!" Gladstone said. "Uncle Ludwig! It's good to see you again!"

"Nobody knew if you'd survived!" 'Uncle Ludwig' said, coming around to clap Gladstone on the back. "With your luck, surely, but when nobody heard from you…"

"You know how Scotland's postal system is. It's only gotten worse since the Revolution," Gladstone said.

"Have you seen the King yet? Does he know you're here?"

"That's precisely why we've come to see you today, Uncle Ludwig. We can't expect an audience with King Scrooge looking like this."

"No, no, you certainly cannot," Ludwig said, circling Gladstone with a critical eye. "Of course, I trust he'd be much more forgiving, being that you've been as good as missing these past six years. But I'd be dead and buried before I let you see him looking like that!"

"I had a feeling you'd say that," Gladstone said. "Of course, the last few years haven't exactly been kind to me, er, financially speaking…"

"Oh, pish. Consider it a gift," Ludwig said. "Seeing you here, alive and well, is payment enough!"

Gladstone glanced at the two ducklings watching the exchange and gestured broadly to them. "Allow me to introduce my associates. Baron Von Drake—"

Ludwig—er, the Baron—chuckled. "Not much of a baron anymore!"

"…This is Lena," Gladstone paused as if he were trying to remember her surname, "LeStrange. You may remember her; she used to work in the kitchens."

Huh. Lucas…hadn't known that.

"Hmm…" Ludwig looked at her thoughtfully. "I can't say that I do…"

"And this is…" Gladstone hesitated again, just for a moment, "…Lucas!"

"It's a pleasure to meet you, my boy!" Ludwig shook Lucas' hand, leaving Lucas feeling like a piston. He still felt like he was being shaken up and down even after Ludwig let go.

"Now, where should we get started…"

The whole process—the measuring, the pinning, the pulling, the mirrors, the trying-on—felt...not nearly as foreign as Lucas had expected it to.

Gladstone had insisted Lucas go first. After all, he said, Lucas was the one who had something to prove; the King would still see Gladstone no matter what he was wearing, and Lena…well, it didn't matter that much whether Lena saw the King or not.

"Then why are you bothering to get new clothes?" Lucas asked.

"Don't want you to outshine us, pipsqueak," Gladstone said with a wink. "I've also got an image to uphold."

"Yeah, well I still don't want to become you-know-who by way of a con."

"It's not a con! We're just…helping Uncle Scrooge jog his memory."

"There!" Ludwig said, sticking in one last pin. "You can take it off now."

Lucas began to take off the jacket. "Ow!" he said as a pin pricked his skin. "Ow! Ow!"

"Hold still," Gladstone said. He came up behind Lucas and lifted the jacket from his shoulders, allowing him to slide out without any more pinpricks. Gladstone did the same with the shirt, which thankfully had fewer pins.

Ludwig took the garments and set them aside. "Now, who's next?"

Gladstone pushed Lena to the front. "Your turn, Hair Swoop."

"Me?" Lena said. She suddenly looked very unsure.

"Of course! We can't have you meeting the King in anything but the best!"

Lena nervously stepped onto the platform, and Ludwig brought out a pink and purple dress.

"Uh…is there any way it could be something other than a dress?" Lena asked.

"I'll see what I can do…" Ludwig disappeared into the back and came out with a crisp white shirt and a deep purple suit jacket. "How's this?"

"Much better," Lena said. She tried it on and Ludwig made his adjustments.

Now it was Gladstone's turn. He stepped up onto the platform and put on the shirt and jacket that Ludwig handed him.

"Nearly a perfect fit!" Ludwig said, folding up his tape measure. "I just need to make a few teensy tiny adjustments." He scribbled down some notes as Gladstone changed back into his clothes.

Ludwig pinned his notes to the pile of clothes. "I should have these ready by tomorrow noon."

"Perfect! Just in time for an audience with the King," Gladstone said. "I'd promise to ask Uncle Scrooge to pay you later, but you know how he is…"

"I told you already—it's a gift. Don't spend another minute worrying about it."

"I cannot thank you enough." Gladstone shook Ludwig's hand and they left the shop.

"'Uncle' Ludwig? Is this guy related to me, too?" Lucas asked.

Gladstone made a wiggly hand motion. "Somehow, yeah."

"Somehow? I've spent the last [NUMBER] days memorizing my entire family tree and you don't even know how we're related to the one guy we actually meet?"

"You see, Luke, nobody's really quite sure where Uncle Ludwig fits in."

"Aren't there supposed to be people who keep track of all of that for you…?"

"Eh…they could never figure it out, either."

Lena nodded. "It's true."

"Then…are you sure he's actually part of the family?"

"He's got a title, hasn't he?" Gladstone asked. "Or, well, he did. Either way, he's a nice guy to have around. Crazy smart, too, which comes in handy."

"What if King Scrooge asks me about him?"

"Then you can just shrug. Honestly, it'd be a lot more suspicious if you somehow knew where he goes on the family tree."

"What are we going to do now?" Lena asked.

"I thought we'd go back to the hotel and maybe take a little nap."

"Take a nap?" Lucas said. "We're going to meet Scrooge McDuck tomorrow afternoon, and you want to take a nap?"

Lena grinned wickedly, which was just a little unnerving. "Gladstone will take a nap. You and me? We're going to keep studying."

Lucas groaned.