Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1933-04-19
INSTALLMENT XIV.


IL price of German Shipping, Ltd,
II and Exl's order, made Traugott
i / suspect something extraordl-
nary was going on. He was
an old stock exchange man and had q
sixth sense for things like that.
When Judge Pyrker passed by cast
ing his customary eye on the quota
tons, Traugott spoke to him. Have
you heard about German Shipping,
Ltd.?"
Whats the matter with it?"
Traugott, with an extremely reserved
expression. replied: Something Is 60
ing on there"
Pyrker was keen to know what. but
Traugott uttered only single word;
"Stephanson."
During the course Of the next hour
he had many more oracular converse
tons like this. Perhaps Exl was talk
ing. One thing was certain, that in
the period between and IL every one
was talking shipping shares-in the
first-class lounges. on the sun deck, IN
the swimming pool, at the BARRIERS. In
the dining room. StephanSons name
ton with the matter. Every one tried to
pick the brains of every one else. Every
one acted as if he we're in the secret,
and. finally, every one believed that he
knew all about it
Toward II the first buyers turned up
in the arcade-2,000 shares, 500 shares,
5000 shares There was Mrs. Gellert.
the beautiful wife of the Cologne
banker, and Judge Pyrker of Berlin.
Then came Mrs Morris, the American,
who bought $4,000 worth"
One boy after another ran with
sealed envelopes to the radio room.
10
room. Meanwhile, the little telephone
rang necessarily A. Mr.. Mayer of the
second class bought 500 shares. Send
me the confirmation, the money is
ready"
Traugott took all the orders and
secretly was calculating his commits
sion, but he. himself, remained firm.
He did not buy a single share on his
own account.
But Traugott was not the only one
who had a big day There was great
activity at the BARRIERS on c deck,
for this was the night when the
masquerade ball was to be held in the
great ball room. In preparation for
every crossing. the barber had on
hand a number of different costumes
which he hired out at considerable
profit. His closets were nearly all
empty; all his pierrots and harlequins
and fantastic costumes had been dis
posed of and he had only few shabby
old costumes left when Stephenson
suddenly appeared.
Stephenson wanted the most beau
tiful costume for Baroness Mergen-
theim. He insisted upon seeing it.
The barber-a daring old sea dog
took down a dusty, torn, conventional
~ nd fn O..
gest that it would show off the
baroness to great advantage.
Stephenson threw terrifying look
upon him. You will make up some
thing really distinguished" he said.
II hope you have some artistic mag
nation. The price doesn't matter. OF
course, shall buy the costume"
The BARRIERS face became set and
intense. then suddenly a convulsive
twitching passed over it. He had it.
1.-The baroness shall appear as the
Queen of the Night. The antique dealer
in the arcade has wonderful old In
crusted with silver. We will drape 1t
around the body and dress the hair
with suitable emblems-the sickle OF
the moon and stars"
Il shall look at the shawl" said
Stephenson and left.
While the whole ship was preoccu-
pied with him, he himself was ex-
clusively preoccupied with the prepa-
ton for the evening festival. He
visited the antique dealer. He found
the Indian shawl suitable and had it
sent to Friederike's cabin.
Then he entered Mr.. Exl's shop and
bought the 30-carat pure-water gem
which in the great book of diamonds
a
While most of the passengers Of
the Columbia were preoccupied with
Stephenson and Stephenson was pre-
occupied with Friederike. she, herself,
had a little, quite unobtrusive adven-
ture in the music room.
She had gone there to play q couple
Of sonatas She was no great pianist,