The daily Alaskan., 1905-05-13
Sbe DUCHESS
 PACHELLI

tlolr reading the morning paper. St was winter. but the duchess was spending the season at her villa at Nice, and from her window, Into which the warm sun shone, she could look down the quay lined with tropical plants.
 Twenty years" she unused, since l came here, and what a change In my condition! What dangers have passed to gain my present position. One by one have got rid of all who could pos sibly drag me down. There was Nicho- las VasSaliovitch, who knew more than he should know of my antecedents, but he haS gone to Siberia. That was a neat job of mine, proving an innocent mans guilt. Then there was Constan- tin. whom also led by the nose Ike my poodle till it suited me to try my ring on him, after which he died so suddenly that the police half suspect ed. Had he turned against me 1t would be under the sod, not he A troubled look fitted across her face. "Andreas may yet live, though it is ten years since have heard from him. It was a bad failure. my putting the police on his track to arrest him, and the worst of it was that he knew I was the inSti- gator. But I was Inexperienced then. and. after all, we soldiers of fortune must make some mistakes, and I am conscious of having made but one, l hope Andreas has either died naturally or been executed under an assumed name. He was vindictiye man and'-
 Good morning, your grace"
 A man with shocky red hair and freckles, dressed in the garb of a peas ant, had stepped into her boudoir. The countess looked at him with all the hauteur she could summon.
 Your grace does not remember me" he said.
 q do not I beg you will leave by the door you entered"
 Not till l have refreshed your mem ory. Twenty years ago Q little peasant girl was a scullion in the villa of family in this place. She was endowed with great beauty and, though she was but fourteen years old, had her lovers. Her brain was very quick, and she had a keen sense of the importance Of get ting on in the world. A young carpen- ter-Andreas, we will call him for the want of better namc-fell in love with her, and she, wishing to get out of the kitchen. married him. It was he who gave the little Scullion her start She studied hard and iu two years knew enough to pass for a lady,
 This Andreas, her husband, adored his young wife, not yet eighteen, and as she wished to dress in keeping with her knowledge and her beauty he spent all he could make at his trade upon her. Then when he could not make enough to satisfy her demands she persuaded him to turn counterfeiter. She was shrewd enough not to be mixed up In his ruin when it came. Indeed, it was she who informed on him. But he was too quick for her and the police and fed to America.
 But Andreas' love turned 10 hate, grew through the years, and as each year he sank lower he wished to return and take his revenge. But he never dared remain anywhere long enough Co accumulate SufiicieRt funds Co make journey which, after all, might lead Co his arrest and imprisonment At last he went 10 a new town in the far west and worked at his trade tn he saved enough to go in search of his beautiful wife. He found that after he had let her she had ensnared a duke, that he had died and left her his fortune, tbat society had opened its exclusive doors to her, but love for adventure and VII lainy had led her to take service as a spy for crowned heads-a Delilah to en- tran the rulers enemies-and that many secret murder was laid up against her.
 And where, my good man" asked the duchess, deadly white, did you learn all thiS?"
 "I met in New York Russian who, under the charge of being a NihiliSt had been sent to Siberia, from whence, after twelve terrible years of exile, he escaped and fled to America"
 The duchess started. "Ris nameY she asked under her breath.
 Nicholas Nassaliovitch."
 The duchess staggered as though struck by blow and caught at the back of a chair
 Tt was fortunate," the man contin- ued, "the meeting of these men, An dreas and Nicholas, for they both wished for revenge. But neither would be safe in this old country, and so 1t looked as if the scullion duchess would end her days in peace, pet Of socie- ty, a favorite of the czar of Russia, rich and stin beautiful But both had been kind to the little sculhon, and their love had turned 10 wrath. One possessed written proofs of one of the duchess crimes. That proof is now in the hands of the czar of Russia and a reQuisition has been lodged with the government at Paris"
 Suddenly the duchess stepped to a cabinet opened a drawer, turned with