The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-05-08


 1 settle in London, living upon the pro ceeds of her wealthy fathers Amer l jean and British securities, was of | course the easiest solution of his diff | faculties. A life of ease, music, good | sportsmanship, the comfort that only l England knows She was | comely, too-bIond, petite, and smok- | ed her cigarette very prettily. Their | marriage had once been discussed. 1 She wanted it still. perhaps. Some- | thing of all this may have been some | where in the back of Prince Galit- 1 zin's ambitious mind. The one course 1 would be so easy, the other | Peter Nicholaevitch rose and care | fully f1icked his cigarette through 1 pass twice through such moments | of struggle.
 and self-communion as he had had 1 in those long nights of his escape | along the Dnieper. He had choser- Peter NicholsI The name amused 1 him. If Captain B1ashford was r man of his word. tonight would be the end of the Grand Duke Peter Nicholaevitch, and the Princess An | astasie might find some more ardent | suitor to her grace and beauty. | She did not seek him out Perhaps | the hint to Ga1izin had been suf1- l cfent, and the Grand Duke from his 1 hiding place saw her pretty figure set | ashore among the miscellany of mar | tyred "r'yalty." He turned away | from his porthole with catch of his breath as the last vestige of his old life passed from sight. And then | quietly took up fresh cigarette and | awaited the Captain.
 The details were easily arranged. | Blashford was a man of resource and at night returned from visit to the l Captain of the Bermudian, with word l that all was well. He had been oblig- | ed to relate the facts, but Captain 1 Armitage could keep a secret and promised that refugee a job under | his steward. who was short-handed. | And so the neXtm orntng, after shaw | ing and dressing himself in borrow l ed clothes. Peter Nichols shook Cap
 tain Blashord warmly by the hand and went aboard his new ship. l Peter Nichols new job was that 1 of a waiter at the tables in the dining saloon. There were English officers bound for Malta, Frenchmen for Mar 1 seilles and Americans of the Red | Cross without number. bound for l New York. Girls, too. cIear-eyed l bronzed and hearty, who talked war and politics beneath his very nose. challenging his own theories. l They noticed him, too. and whis- ! l to his ambition to do every task at 1 the best of his bent, he preserved an 1 tmmobi1e countenance and pocketed his fees, which would be useful ere | long, with the grateful appreciation 1 of one to whom shi1lings and franc pieces come as the gifts of God. | Many were the attempts to draw him l from conversation, but where the queries could not be answered by a | laconic "Yes, sir," or NO, sir" this paragon of walters maintained a smil- | ing silence.
 | Pm sure he's a Prince or some thing" he heard one young girl of a | hospital unit say to a young medico ] of the outfit. Did you ever see such
 a nose and brows in your life? And | his hands! You can never
 hands had never done menial work for a thousand years"
 l He slept forward, messed abaft the galley, enriched his vocabulary and l broadened his point of view. There
 is no leveler like a ships fo'csle, no | better school of philosophy than that of men upon their ''beam ends" | There were many such-Poles, Slo-
 walks, Rumanians, an Armenian or two, refugees, adventures from Amer ica, old. young, dissolute, making necessity of virtue under that suc- | cessful oligarchy, the ships bridge. the Americans Peter was inter
 ested with an Englishman's point of | view. He had much to learn, and
 he invented a tale of his fortunes | which let him into theft condolences,
 especially into that Of Jim Coast,
 waiter like himself, whose bunk ad- joined his own. Jim Coast was a
 citizen of the world, inured to rriva- ton under many flags He had been
 born in New Jersey, U. s. A, of de-
 cent people, had worked in the cram 1 berry 'bogs, farmed in Pennsylvania | punched" cattle in Wyoming "pros- l pected" in the Southwest footed
 ranches in Mexico. fought against
 Diaz and again with the insurgents
 in Venezuela, worked on cattleships,
 and so, by easy stages. had drifted | across the breadth of Europe living
 by his wits al 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 meant he did not know. He
 had missed great fortune twice-"by
 the skin of his teeth.'' as he pictures
 quely described it. once in a mine in
 Arizona and again in a land deal in
 the / -Sentine. There were reasons
 why he hadn't dared to return to
 the United States before. He was a
 man with grievance, but, however l free in his condolences in other re- | spects' gave the interested Peter no
 inkling as to what that grievance | was.
 No more curious acquaintanceship could possibly be imagined, but priv
 ation, like politics, makes strange , bedfellows, Pete, as the other called him, found himself yielding. without l stint. to the fantastic spell of Jim | l seemed to have no doubts as to the
 possibility of making living ir
 America and referred darkly to pos
 sible .coups" that would net for 1 tune. He was an agreeable villain,
 not above mischief to gain his ends,
 and Peter, who cherished an ideal
 made sure that. once safe ashore. il