The Vagrant Duke

ulties the refugee made his way aboard her and announced his identity to the captain. If he had expected to be received with the honor due to one of his rank and station he was quickly undeceived,

or one more-and t

oney--" bega

eighteen generals and enough counts and countesses to set up a new nation somewhere. Your 'Ighness is the only Duke that has r

sher made this announcement restored the lost sense of hu

of riches," remark

s, rubies and emeralds aboard. All they're got left most of 'em, but complaints and narvousness. Give me a cargo of wheat and I'm your man," grow

r'rad will be goo

an' princesses cryin' all over my clean white decks an' all, what's a self-respectin' skipper to do? But I 'ave my orders to

ing a deal of quiet thinking in those starry nights up

"if you don't mind, I think I'd

ll, suit yourself. And what wi

Grand Duke with a smile, "

Lay for'rad and tell the bos'

found himself accosted by no less a person than Prince Galitzin who had strolled out to get the morning

he said with an accen

garded him in a m

ince Galitzin, that I have som

ecessary. Are we not all dedicated to th

u less miserable to discov

our liberal views cannot escape the holocaust that has

rtly. "There is no hope, none

are you

Amer

ve asylum in England until conditions change. You should

N

hy

e is outcast. For, not content with betr

are you go

and the fussy, fat, bejeweled sycophant

ush of shame to your brow or the sneer of pity to your lips. I am going to fulfill the destiny

pace, his watery eyes sn

great heritage as a Prince of

orn again. Russia is worse than traitor, worse than

ht in time. We go

other

rincess Anastasie, my daughte

e made up my mind. Le

known from one end of the Phrygia to the other that the fellow who called himself Peter Nichols was none other than the Grand Duke Peter Nicholaevitch,

you left, that's why. Better stay 'ere in my cabin until we reach Constantin

e very

ep the chill out. Here's a light. You've been worryin' me some, 'Ighness. Fact is I didn't know ju

," corrected t

r r'yalty when we know it's the real thing. I don't take much stock in most of my cargo aft. And beggin' yer 'Ig

the Grand Duke quietly. "Y

d I want to do all that I can to

ank

n't want anybody ashor

re going to England. I have reason

do you pro

ates," said the G

out m

f the family is not rich. The war has made us poorer. Such securities as I have are in a vault in Ki

ossi

ghed at the Englis

hy

nds, 'I

ke shrugged

resources. Will you help me t

s-b

passage over-if

ir. I'll do what I can. If the Bermudian hasn't sail

he rest of your passeng

nd mum's the word." And Captain Blashford went out on deck

against the Russian system. It was perhaps his musical education rather than his University training or his travels in England and France that had turned him to the Intelligentsia. In the vast republic of art and letters he had imbibed the philosophy that was to threaten the v

to wish to kiss the finger that has pulled the trigger of a revolver, the bullet from which has gone through one's hat. From disappointment and dismay Peter Nicholaevitch had turned to anger. They hadn't played the ga

mself. By teaching himself, he could perhaps fit himself to teach them. In England it would perhaps be difficult to remain incognito, and he had a pride in wishing to succeed alone and unaided.

bitions upon him now. To marry the Princess Anastasie and settle in London, living upon the proceeds of her wealthy father's American and British securities, was of course the easiest solution of his difficulties. A life of ease, music, good sportsmanship, the comfort that only England kno

nion as he had had in those long nights of his escape along the Dnieper. He had chosen. Peter Nichols! The name amused him. If Captain Blashford was a man of h

retty figure set ashore among the miscellany of martyred "r'yalty." He turned away from his port-hole with a catch of his bre

. He had been obliged to relate the facts but Captain Armitage could keep a secret and promised the refugee a job under his steward who was short-handed. And so

ed flavor and substance by the reflection of his deference. There were English officers bound for Malta, Frenchmen for Marseilles and Americans of the Red Cross without number bound for New York. Girls, too, clear-eyed, bronzed and hearty, who talked war and politics beneath his very nose, challenging his own theories. They noticed him too and whispered among themselves, but true to his ambition to do every

edico of the outfit. "Did you ever see such a nose and brows in your life? And his hands--! You ca

re was an amatory stewardess, fat and forty, upon whom the factitious technique of the saloon fell with singular insipidity.

e, no better school of philosophy than that of men upon their "beam ends." There were many such-Poles, Slovaks, Roumanians, an Armenian or tw

y bogs, farmed in Pennsylvania, "punched" cattle in Wyoming, "prospected" in the Southwest, looted ranches in Mexico, fought against Diaz and again with the insurgents in Venezuela, worked on cattle-ships and so, by easy stages, had drifted across the breadth of Europe living by his wits at the expense of the credulous and the unwary. And now, for the first time in many years, he was going home-though just what that

Jim Coast's multifarious attractions. He seemed to have no doubts as to the possibility of making a living in America and referred darkly to possible "coups" that would net a fortune. He was an agreeable villain, not above mischief to gain his ends

entedly in his pockets and rubbing the bills luxuriously one against the other. But his plans required more than this, for he had read enough to know that in the United States one is often taken at one's own estimate, and that if he wasn't to find a job as a ditch-digger, he must make a good appearance. And so it was now time to make use of the one Grand Ducal possession remaining to him

and was bidden to the officer's cabin, where he explained the ob

bit wider as he gazed into the

ink, "I might think you'd been looting the strong box of the Sultan of

ed ca

you wan

nglish money. Perhaps more, I don'

raid to negotiate

I'd be a

H-m-leave it with me over night.

ank

acket the hospitality of his cabin, but Peter

owners. The Purser bought it for two thousand in cash. He knew