Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1912-02-26


none other than Peter. alive and well.
NO. We must bury ourselves in
country where you will not be known
You must retain your dusky color
There is no reason why we may not
live together as man and wife, for such
connections are common in India. But
until we are in Bombay we must not
be seen together. 1 don't think we
are or will be watched, for Kardoi
was convinced that the body shown
him was yours. Our danger will be
meeting those who have known you.
Once in the interior of India think
there will be little danger Of even
this"
The ruse that had been practiced was
a very simple one and easily carried
out Anna had q brother who was
medical student. From the dissecting
room of the medical college he attend
ed he stole a corpse about the size and
with the same colored hair as Peter and
conveyed it under cover of the night
to the Arkadyvitch house. There 1t
was dressed in a suit belonging to Pc
ter and propped over a bomb which
was exploded In its face. Peter, dis
guised, had left the house before the
explosion took place and, having been
provided with a passport to be used
in case of fight after assassinating the
minister and what means he would
need, had no difficulty in reaching Gen
GA, where it had been planned that he
should meet his wife. He procured
on the way stain for his complexion
and when he entered Genoa put his
name on the register Of the hotel where
he stopped as a citizen OF Bombay.
Peter and Anna lived together -four
years in a small town in India and
might have lived there till they died
had Peter not got restless and desired
to see something Of life. So, contrary
to Annals wishes, the two went to Cal.
cutta for a visit with the intention OF
remaining indefinitely IL the danger Of
being recognized seemed slight
BY a strange fatality Ivan vasalief,
the man who had been chosen to take
Peters place in the matter Of the as
sassination, had been arrested with
documents on him to incriminate him
and been sent to Siberia. He had es-
capped from Kara, reached Lapland by
sea and thence down through Sweden
to the Mediterranean. From there he
had sailed to India. One day he met
| Anna and her Indian husband IN the
principal street of Calcutta. In the
man Vasalief at once recognized Peter,
whom he supposed was dead. He pass.
ed the couple without speaking to
them, but Anna recognized him and
saw him look in establishment on her
husband. She did not appear to notice
him, passing him with assumed indif-
ference.
The couple made up their minds to
leave Calcutta at once, and, after some
thought Anna, who foresaw that she
must invent a new scheme for her hus
bands second demise, decided that
there might be some advantage in 60
ing to the place where they had beer
living. They managed to get away Sc
cretly, but Anna, believing that Ivan
Vasalief would leave no stone unturned
to find them, as soon as she arrived al
her former home gave out that Peter
had caught plague which shows itself
in blue spots on the body Of the person
attacked, and Peter was seen, spots
and all (Anna had painted them) by
several persons. Anna was deserted in
her trouble, for no one would risk
catching the dreaded disease by help
ing her, and poor Peter, who had once
been blown up by a bomb, now died of
the plague.
Anna concluded to make a funeral
pyre of the house she lived in and sue
ceeded by large payments Of money
in getting two or three persons to help
her pile the furniture around the bed
on which the corpse lay. Fortunately
for her, the Indian custom OF the
burning of widow with a husbands
body had by this time been suppressed
by the British government So Peter
was burned alone-or figure repre-
senting him-and after all was over
the widow returned to Calcutta.
One day on the street she met Vasa-
lief. She saw by his expression that
he was well pleased with the meeting.
but she pretended still not to know
him. She knew he was following her,
and she returned to the home she had
left Vasalief, who wished to be re-
venged on Arkadyvitch for having rele-
gated to him the assassination he
should have done himself, followed
her. This was what she had gone to
Calcutta for-that he might be con-
WINGED that her husband was this time
really dead. He found witnesses to
convince him of this fact and gave up
the chase.
Anna met her husband in Australia.
and the couple sailed from there to.
!. gether to America. A new danger
must have confronted them, for Peter
fell overheard. to turn up at San Fran
cisco. During the next few years he
committed suicide in Canada and hara-
kiri in Japan. But in time he and
his wife settled down to quiet Life
In Brazil. though this was not till the
reyolutionists had succeeded so far as
to gain constitution for Russia and
the circle TO which Peter belonged was
disbanded-