The San Francisco call., 1906-06-03

and he frankly confessed the fact to
his American employer, who took him
with the understanding that Alphonse
was TO serve two masters, but that
of these Greyille was to be the great
est and the one most loved This man
is very clever and resourceful. and
the effect OF his being employed as a
spy by the French Government instead
Of being a detriment TO his American
employer is a benefit because he was
sure to be watched anyway, but to
be watched by the friendly espionage
of Alphonse holds off the eyes of spies
who would be keener to serve France
at the expense of America
The character who causes the dip
lomatic adventure to be most interest
ing TO the men in the plot and 10 the
reader is Nine. Bellegarde, a beauti-
ful American widow It is the mys-
terry of her connection with the web
of strange events into which the men
find themselves drawn by advancing
circumstances that gives zest to the
readers progress through the book.
Greville gets innocently entangled
with this woman and fairly plunged into
the diplomatic adventure by courteous
" asking her to take shelter in his
carriage during a drenching shower of
rain that mad suddenly come up and
caught her unprotected. He offers to
dress she pIeases. but the woman is
so vague about where she wishes to go
and is so nervous that Greyille soon
guesses correctly that she has come
into the carriage in the desperate hope
of concealment and escape. She re-
Teals to him that she is a country
woman of his and this, coupled with
person Notwithstanding her equivocal
predicament of being unable TO ex
plain her desire to escape, leads him
into the risky adventure Of having his
horses whipped up to out-travel car
riage which he soon observes is pur-
suing his. Later. for the same gallant
reason, he boldly and repeatedly lies
about there having been any woman in
the carriage with him. and in the al
tercation about it with his pursuer,
who is the Count lie Moyne, he gets
challenged for duel.
This row occurs in the night and
Greville hands the Count a card from
his card case and tells him he will be
at his apartments to arrange details
with the Counts seconds at II the next
morning. II so happened that Greville
had in the hurry Of the days work
placed the card of his friend Captain
Merton in his card case. In the con-
fusion and dark of the night he hand
ed Merton's card to Count LIE Moyne
instead of his own.
Owing to this mistake the Count
sends his fire-eating seconds to the
bold Captain Merton. The captain
eourteously tries TO explain that there
must be some mistake as he has never
seen the Count and has no cause of
quarrel with him. The seconds insult
ingly take this TO mean that Merton
is a coward and trying to escape from
the wrath Of his challenger. At this
the captain loses his good nature. hot
words come and at the end of the in
terview he finds that in addition to
accepting the Counts challenge he has
engaged to fight both the seconds
serially if he escapes in the earlier
encounters. GreVille discovers his mis-.
take next morning, but by the time
he catches up with the rapid trend of
events he finds he is responsible for
three prospective duels, and all about
a woman, his relations with whom he
cannot even explain to himself salts
factorily, let alone to any one else.
Here begins quite a complication which
is so told as to be both exciting and
amusing.
The essential tnat makes the thing
diplomatic adventure is that some lost
papers concerning the French Govern
ment's plans of recognizing the Con-
federate States have got a group of
people in Paris stirred UP to the point
OF risking both their lives and their
regulations. DR.. Mitchell adds some in
terest to his little story by constantly
comparing four of his characters to
D'Artagnan, Porthos, Athos and Ara
mis-
(The Century Company, New York;