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<SlruQ:xx?Q_'»y cJeteOsc.
SYNOPSIS.
Revolution sweep* Grodnla. The king ie killed by
i mob. and hi* daughter. Prince** Sabina, escapes in
he garb of a peasant. An aged priest. Father
fokoff, accompanies her in flight. The two meet an
American newspaper correspondent, Bob Hallam.
tho bribes guards to permit them to cross the bor-
Ur. Naroush Dupchinaky, a bolshevist. is assigned
io seek and kill the princess. He takes passage for
America on the same boat with the Princess Sabina,
who is passing as a peasant girl, Sophia Gorov.
Struck by the girl’s beauty, Dupchinsky makes love
to her, much to her distress. Chaos reigns in Grodnia.
and Count Jan is sent by leaders of the old regime
to find the princes* that a marriage between the
two may be arranged and the Queen put upon her
throne. He meets Hallam, en route home, confides
his mission, and asks his aid. The princess reaches
New York and goes into hiding. Dupchinsky annoys
her. He boasts to her his mission, and she finally
promise# to marry him " when he has killed the
princess." Nastia, the bolshevlst's forsaken sweet
heart, trails him to New York. Jan and Nastia both
discover the princess, causing her great alarm.
VINTB INSTALLMENT.
A COUNT REJECTED.
FOR. days Bob Hallam had known the
whereabouts of Princess Sabina. Tha
significance of Dupchlnsky's activities,
percolating through the sparkling brain of
the keen reporter, had generated a conviction
that the anarchist's business could not be dis
sociated from the princess' affairs. Hallam
had not forgotten, either, the cry of the revo
lutionist pack in Grodnla, baying for Sabina’s
blood. He knew that were she In her home
land her life would scarcely run an hour.
He was not entirely ready to hold the soviet
guilty of so atrocious a felony as deliberately
sending across an ocean to have her mur
dered, but such a possibility was not beyond
plausible conjecture. The royalists had dis
patched their man to seek her in furtherance
of their purposes; why not the bolshevlkl?
He knew, long before he had narrowed tha
big circle of the city down to the house In
which sho dwelt, that she was in New York.
The article he bad written, at his editor’s re
quest, about Sabina cs Grodnla had reached
her eye. In the mall on the following day
he had received a copy of It In an envelope
posted on Manhattan Island, at a downtown
receiving station. The closing paragraph, In
which he had imparted to the world his will
ingness at all times to serve the royal exile,
had been ringed in Ink, and beside it had been
written In a hand unmistakably feminine, cul
tured. but foreign, these words: %
“Thank you. There Is no nobleman no
gallant as an American gentleman.'*
The sentiment was a trifle extravagant, ho
modestly reasoned, to be the expression of
Sabina; but the thanks could have come from
none other, because his public declaration
made her its only beneficiary.
But the pretty notation estopped him from
searching for her. She knew where he was,
had written him, had not Invited him to dis
cover her, had not told him where to find
her. It would have been rude, Indeed, for
him to disregard the expressed wish in her
unexpressed communication. Yet he felt 111
at ease foi her comfort, even for her safety.
In the circumstances, and counseled with his
mother, to whom he confideu ail his thoughts,
that he ought to “locate” her and keep an
eye toward her protection, even if he could
not in propriety come to her when he had
found her and presume on their brief rela
tions during her flight to reestablish social
terms. t
Satisfied that Sabina would be somewhere
among the Grodnians in the city, he had
thrown out his preliminary feelers In the
district where they abounded, and had early
run aeross Dupchlnsky’s flaming trail. He
was Immediately alarmed. After his cross
quizzing of the bolahevlst he had set himself
to unmask Dupchinsky’* American under
takings. The uncouth foreigner discounted
any need for subtlety in the chase by his hob
nalleC maneuvering. Hallam’s trained and
perceptive senses could have heard him In a
crowd.
For a day or two Bob gleaned little of value
along the path of Dupchlnsky’s shadow. He
learned that several webfooted detectives,
apparently part of Count Jan’s crew, were
glued to Dupchlnsky’s wake, day and night,
but all that the fellow had been seen to do
was within the conventional routine of his
seemingly pointless dally existence —alter-
nate periods spent In his lodgings and at the
coffee house largely. No one ever called on
him at home. In the basement den he sat,
for the most, openly with the other unde
sirables.
Not until It became time for Naroush to
pay one of his periodical visits to Sabina, the
girl whom he knew as Sophia, did Hallam
get a thrill. On this occasion he was a few
paces behind Grogan, the detective, who was
a scant dozen feet behind Dupchinsky, and
the single file trio, guided by the air treading
Dupchinsky hurrying on his soft mission,
pulled up near the house which Hallam was
to learn was the sanctuary of the fugitive
royal heiress. He did not Identify her that
•venlng. did not see her. But next day, when
he again saw Dupchinsky lazily gurgling
bad coffee for hours In his rstreat, It pos
sessed him that the man must have a pro
nounced object In making the evening call,
since be had departed from his regular pro
gram to do It In any event, Hallam wanted
to know who Inhabited that house, who re
ceived thie mysterious agent of the red-hand
ad revolutionists. v
So he left the object of hi* scrutiny guzzling
coffee while he strolled to the little residence
among the tenements, looked It over In day
light, ventured a few discreet Inquiries In tho
vicinity, learned that a Grodnlan woman had
the place and kept two roomers, a girl and a
priest, lately landed from “ the old country-"
Almost before h* saw her, an hour or so
later, through A window from the walk, Hal
lam knew that Princess Sabina was In that
house and that Father Pokoff was with her.
But her* h* was truly and sorely perplexed.
What could Sabina want with Dupchinsky?
Had he scoured the world he could not have
named a man whom she should logically have
been more eager to avoid. He strained for
every reconcilable theory.
Was it bl- kmail? Could Dupchinsky have
ferreted out her presence and demanded
money to buy his silence on a secret that Ills
brethren would doubtless have seized avidly?
Had he learned who she was and notified
his principals at home to send another of the
faithful to kill her? Was this, perhaps, tho
secret of his remaining on in New York
without seemingly having anything to do?
Could It be that Sabina was using him to
betray his associates In some manner to
further a far fetched plot aiming at the
overthrow of the bolsheviki and her own
capture of the throne?
\
‘ - baJI 5
. jW ** WftPf
lr|
Might It be that these two had gotten to
gether without either suspecting the identity
of the other, both being incognito?
If Dupchinsky was blackmailing Sabina,
would she not escape from him at the first
chance? And she surely had had many
'chances. If Dupchinsky had cornered her,
why should he wait for some one else to do
the deed of assassination? He had not hesi ;
tated to participate openly in the killing of
her royal father. If she was conspiring with
him to outwit the revolutionists, why did ho
linger here, where he could be of little use?
If neither knew the other, what crazy coinci
dence could have brought them together, and
what could Induce a girl of such extraordi
nary refinement, with overy potent and co
gent reason for avoiding strangers, to have
any dealings with this transparently coarse
fellow?
None of his tentative theories held water.
His brief rub with Dupchinsky had ap
prised him that the Orodnlan was no simple
ton, even though at times his methods were
wanting In finesse. He had scarcely had a
chance to estimate the capacity of tho prin
cess’ brain. A fear settled In his heart that
In this elusive situation, whatever Its basis,
there was ground for apprehension on behalf
of Sabina.
For days he breathed upon the back of
Dupchlnsky’s neck without expanding the
circle of his knowledge. In such actions of
Sabina and the father as he was able to
glimpse meanwhile he found no further
clews, either.
When Nastla crossed the horizon of events
Into the focus of the mystery Hallam got no
enlightenment, for he did not know the girl.
Seeing her in a heated scene with Dupchln
sky, then following him to Sabina's house,
then coming there alone the next morning,
he had food for countless new complica
tions, since the relations among the three—
Sabina, Dupchinsky, and this stranger—were
Inexplicable from any conclusion of deduction
or even guessing.
As Hallam stood across the street, observed
by Sabina and Jan, racking his reason for
an explanation, certain only that the girl
whom he so strangely loved was Imperiled
by the circumstances, whatever they might
be, he did not surmise that in truth she was
the only prominent player in the puzzle play
who really knew what it was all about. To
her alone the motives of all the others were
clear.
Dupchinsky did not know who she was.
Nastla knew who she was, but did not know
that she was the one whom Dupchinsky
loved, nor that Dupchinsky had come there
to kill the one who Nastla knew Sabina was.
Jan knew who all the Individuals were, but
knew none of Dupchlnsky’s personal or offi
cial motives, nor did he fathom the attitude
of Hallam, nor did he realize Nostia's dan
gerous, double elded position.
Sabina knsw what was In the heart of each
of them, all. She understood even Hallam—
his boyish candor during the hour of her
flight, tho generously straightforward mes
sage In Ills Bigned Sunday story, had told her
of his sentiments toward her. And she more
than believed—she divined—that his espion
age upon her, now proven, was in the Inter
est of her safety and well being, not ropor
torial work or Idle interference.
As she fastened her glance upon his cleun
cut Yankee profile, a light seemed to break
through the indigo of her woes. Beside her
stood the young outtander, who, while Ills
spirit was undoubtedly loyal to her, was not
only constitutionally Inefficient, tied to an
unpromising cause and pitifully unpractical,
but crystallized an added peril of notnegllglble
proportions at the very moment. Father
Fokoff, her guardian and adviser, was an old
man, unsharpened to tho ways of tho world
by grinding against Its emery abutments, pal-
pably not equlppod for long victorious
battles against odds In trained ad
versaries who were young, armed
with mighty weapons and weighty
ambitions.
In tho athletic young American, who
could send homo a punch with one
hand while he pointed out the way to
tho only gap Into Bafety with tho
other; who could arrnngo for her un
hampered passage into a guarded
'
OaflWr ' “fewil.
Ipl \ ' ■
country and out of a madhouse, who guessed
her Identity when those who Bhould have
known her let her push past them unknown,
who wasn’t afraid or ashamed or lacking In
astuteness when he chose to pen a private
message In a public document, who had the
tenacity and Ingenuity to find her and the
delicacy not to confront hor—ln him Princess
Sabina saw the ally who seemed able, who
she felt was willing, to battle her battles and
to down her enemies.
That was why she had cried “Thank Oodl ’*
when Count Jah, with troubled visage, had
pointed out the man whom he took for an
Intruder, a hostile vulture hovering over tho
little princess’ tribulations to peck her to
death when she was already Horely beset.
Jan swung his look to her, first amazed,
then quizzical, then querulous.
"Your highness Is—pleased?” ho asked.
" Distinctly—delighted.”
"And may I ask why? **
" You may not.”
Jan bowed.
" What Is your highness’ pleasure? ’’ he In
quired.
“That you go—forthwith.”
" And when may I return? "
" Never.”
" But—your highness—tha council of no
bility—your throne—”
" I have no throne. The council of nobility
may do as It chooses—without any sanction,
authority, or even knowledge, of mine. Their
cause, grateful as I am for their centering it
about me. Is hopeless, sir. Take that back to
the council with the compliments of Bablna,
former princess of Grodnla's royal line.”
” O, your highness, surely you do not real
ize what you are saying. If I may be so
bold, a throne Is not a trifle to be so lightly
filliped aside. You are the sole survivor of
tho direct descent.”
“Direct descent to what? To something
which has ceased to be, which Is extinct. It
Is a hard thought for you, who still cling stub
bornly to empty titles, to swallow; but I, who
was a princess of the blood, bred to be a
queen and the mother of a king, have read
the handwriting Indelibly Inscribed In blood
upon the wall of eternity. Royalty la dead.
With royalty perishes the minor nobility.
Kings and queens lived only by the Indul
gence of the people. Now the people have
ceased to be Indulgent. The people have, far
more, become tyrannical persecutors of those
Whom they had so long—perhaps too long
pampered and elevated above their own heads
With their own upraised, wearying arms.
“Throne* are becoming obsolete. That
one which was to have been mine has been
expunged. And If my royal father could not
hold It when he had It, when he held It with
the sway of power and the unfluttering sta
bility of centuries of custom akin to religion
keystoning it, little chance Is there that hla
lowly daughter, a fugitive and a vagrant, will
recover it and rebuild It from tho shattered,
crumbled rubbish of Its debris.
“ I, whose baby plaything was a scepter,
whose Infant headdress was a coronet, whose
childish feet romped over tho anointed steps
of an omnipotent throne, have abandoned the
ermines which -my shoulders were to boor,
tho crown which was to glisten on my brow.
My God! This consequence was inevitable.
Can you not understand?”
Jan stood trembling.
“ But —your highness—wo are exercising
powerful propaganda in Grodnla. Tho peo
ple nro already violently dissatisfied with the
upstart regime. We ”
" You—hah! You can do nothin??. Yes. the
people are dissatisfied. The too radical and
roughshod rule of tho bolshevlkl will not long
be suffered, either. As royalism was un
natural, strained beyond human endurance,
so is this false phantasmagoria of hoodlum
freedom untenable and doomed.
“ I have learned the lesson of the future
and interpreted the will of destiny here, In
this blessed republic, which Is as nearly the
consumnmtlo;- of communal Ideas as human-
” You have given your loot to Some
vilo nonentity ? *
lty, in It* refining process through the cen
turies. has yet been able to evolve. In it la
the sane and happy mean between the equally
deadly extremes of less freedom than man
must have and more freedom than man may
exercise.
" (Irodnla will never again be ruled bv a
monarch, though you muster the armies of
the world about any who might bo bold
enough, presumptuous enough now to aspire
to epitomize In one body the reigning force
over a nation.
"Grodnla will not long continue under the
lnsh and heel of tho rabid nihilists, though
they carry their monstrous movement to a
pitch where It shall embrace and embroil the
whole world.
"Wrong lias lived and thrived many gener
ations too long. Fools' airy visions, while
they had power to destroy the established
systems of wrong, will hurst by the pressure
* of their own air.
"The era of readjustment, so long promul
gated by prophets, so long fought and with
stood by the Intrenched profiteers of tho old
systems, so far overshot by the bloody disci
ples of the new consciousness, has begun—
has come.
“The civilized universe today Is Immersed
In meditation and consultation toward tho
working out of the new relations with rea
sonable Justice toward all- all nations, all
classes, all colors, all conditions. The large
countries now know that the defenseless
smaller ones cannot be denied their rights
even though they cunnot defend those rights.
Cupltal no longer locks horns with labor,
which demands added privileges; labor no
longer butchers and devastates the proper
ties of capital; compromise—a meeting of op
posite minds and an averaging of opposite
Interests—that Is the spirit of 1910.
" The whole world stands back of this reso
lution.
" Germany wo* powerful, powerful enough
to destroy any other nation. It refused to be
lieve that a whole world would rise and com
bine against It. Hut nation* not Menaced
threw their billions and their blood Into the
hosts of humanity, standing solidly against
tyranny, which hod pushed too far.
" You and your royalist brethren, my good
Jan, dream of fighting the victorious bolshe
vik! of Grodnla, who already outnumber you
many to one—a* the frantic gambler, having
lost, all but one gold coin of hi* fortune at the
roulette table, etakes the last on the double O,
hoping to recoup In one rnlruculoua etroke all
that has been whittled from him, piece by
piece. Hut you have not even the gambler’s
remote chunce. It Is not enom/h »ha* *on
rout the usurpers of our country’s power
to achieve what you crave. You must fight
the whole world, which Is arrayed against tho
theory of royalty, which will not long toler
ate it where it still hangs precariously on,
which will surely not countenance restoring
It by cannon and diplomatic mind poisoning
where It has already been eradicated.
“You may take my words back to my be
loved, misguided kinsmen. They are final.”
Count Jan stood limply attempting to col
lect his thoughts. Ho had anticipated many
difficulties In his undertaking. But tills had
never prompted itself to rise in the moment
of his most pessimistic dejection: that tho
royal girl, sired by a king!! mob-robbed of
earth's superlative distinction and life's mor
tal apotheosis, should renounce all cluims or
desires for restitution of her rights which
millions, through reons, had called divine;
this abdication, this abnegation, self-imposed.
In capitulation to dubious theorios.
” Tills—this is unheard of,” he said faintly.
“ 1 should never have believed It.”
“ No? A few weeks afro you would not have
believed that his majesty, my father, could
be torn to death by his vassals, his palace
razed, his domain In the grip of those whom
he regnrded so Impersonally as soulless In
sects. Tills Is an age, my conservative young
counttet, when one learns much which one
could but lately not have understood or Imag
ined.
“ Whenever a great, historical leaf Is
turned, revealing verities which had lain
there written and recorded, to be road when
human eyes should grow to assimilate tho
sight of strong, white truths, those who can
not yet see and those who will not look, ox
clalm, * I should never have believed It.’ In
the retrospect of after years those novel de
velopments In tho progress of mankind seem
logical, orderly, self-evidently proper. Twenty
years from now, should history count so
pusillanimous a thing us my decision as of
sufficient Importance to observe ‘and Prin
cess Sabina declined to mako a contest for
the throne, none, I make bold to suy, will
shake their heuds and, muse, • I should
never have believed It.' Princesses by that
time will have taken on tho mythical hazi
ness of Grecian gods and those other super
stitions of a past difficult to vlzualize In the
newer light of advanced condition.
“ Greed was the first motive Impulso of
man after self-preaervatlori. Greed fattened
on larceny. Through the ages the pluck* - !
have surreptitiously, sullenly, but stav-tly
strengthened their resistance against uiced
with Its myriad weupuim of custe, wealth, or
ganization, bribes, and threatH. From father
to son tho mulcted have handed down tho
bitter trust, with poverty and Injustice to
keep tho bearers of tho heritage mindful of
It. It was tho vastest secret order ever
formed, this union of tho poor of nil lands,
tho downtrodden of all races. Justice was
11s watchword. Revenge was Its buttle cry,
for only through revenge could It destroy
In Its powerful hands tho vested barons of
Injustice, and only through their destruction
could come (lie nucleus of Justice. Only by
assusslnatlng my poor father—God receive
und rest his soul! cool-1 the people of Grod
nla have carved a way to their present oppor
tunity for working out their human salva
tion. Tie - would never have surrendered,
never have admitted that the times had
passed his convictions.
“ I have the tragic example of his fate und
the udvuntuge of having come unon this
sphere one space of existence ufter him to
guldo mo toward clearer vision. I have more
past to gazo Into for knowledge than he had;
I can see further Into the future than he
could —now. My determination was made to
day, here, while with you. An hour ago I
was pallid and distraught, tugging to dis
cover a solution for my many angled difficul
ties.
“The sight of Mr. Hallam brought it to
me with a rush of simultaneous, synchroniz
ing elements.
“ There he stands, a citizen of a republic.
Ho has liberty, opportunity, the wide world
under hi* feet, the broad sens to sail If he
will, the good will of men. peace, hspplnesn,
plenty for the physical needs of terrestrial
tenancy, spiritual solnee In the consciousness
that he deprives no one as he earns what
ho takes. What more than that Is then* to
live for? What grander e.atate could a queen
enjoy?
“ No one molest* him, no one despises him,
no one thirsts for hi* blood. Ills birth added
to the riches of the world, his death could
benefit no one. All this Is no because he
stands upon the little space he occupies,
wherever he may choose that to be, by right;
ho need not guard It or fortify It—no one
grudges It to him.
“ There ore things about my circumstances
which you do not know, which you need not
know. It Is sufficient for mo to say that 1 urn
at the moment hemmed In urnong combined
though disordered forces, which, should they
close In but a little more tightly, will crush
rno to death.
"My plan for dispersing these concen
trating colls la now defined, absolute und Ir
revocable.
"I propose, as soon a* you ink# your de
parture to summon Mr. Hallam. Through
him I Intend to make a public pronuncia
tion fco to the world of my unqualified resigns- 1
tlon from any prelSnslons toward the Grod
nlan throne!
“ This will automatically eradicate the ne
cessity which certain lntereets have decided
can be served only by my death. It will at
tho same time leave me free for the first time
to deal with other lesß imposing hut none
the less Important Impedimenta which stand
between me and that which I feel Is mine by
right of birth—-the only right of birth which
I feci Justified In maintaining and defending
—the right of an individual to Individual Hap
piness commensurate with individual worth,
capacity, and caliber.” y
“ I—am dumfounded, your highness. I
beseech you, since you confess that this Is
but the temptation of a sudden moment, that
you give it grave consideration."
” Right needs no consideration. Only
wrong requires mental gripping; because
wrong requires so many artificial twists,
swings open to so many selective methods of
accomplishment. Right has only one way,
and It Is a simple one to find.”
“ But this Involves others ”
•
“ The others, like myself, must take their
places without further clinging to their pop
pycock titles and absurd superiorities. If the
royal heir can proclaim herself a commoner,
I take it those who have not so far to step
down to the flat of the earth may negotiate
the descent without the breaking of bones.”
” But there Is more than even the restora
tion of the rights of nobility, your highness.
I hud not meant at this Interview to speak
of this, near as It Is to my heart, but you
have made me desperate, compelled me to
clutch at the last feeble straw of wellwtlgh
hopeless hope.
” When I accepted this mission which I
now see I have so pitifully misdirected, It was
not alone my loyalty to tho royal line which
prompted me, not alone my committed faith
in the eternal sacredness of kings which gave
me courage and will to strive,
” There was another emotlen, a sweeter
and yet deeper vibration, which led me over
seas, drew me to you. Need I name It more
bluntly, your highness? ”
A flash of petulance which she could not
repress was dismissed with an effort, and a
portrult of sympathetic sincerity framed her
finely chiseled features.
“ I am sorry. Jan, that you still carry in
your heurt that which you laid before me at
home.
” I am flattered that so proud And patrician
a gentleman as you should still harbor such
sentiments for me, now that I am, by my
own estimate of my own status, a wearer in
my own right of the red shawl of the
masses.
“ I made it cruelly clear on the occasion
of your other demand for my hand that while
I admired your excellent qualities and hon
ored you for your many splendid eligibilities,
I hud never felt toward you that romantlo
leaning which, I learn from books and th#
grand moth eta' tales, Is called love. I deem
It now more than ever an essential to my
choice of a husband. Princesses, by custom,
are expected to make matches of brilliant tac
tical and diplomatic vantage. But a poor
gill should, I feel, give herself in murriage
to one whom sho truly loves, one beside
whom she can work and fight and suffer, if
she needs to, yet thrill with Joy In the wonder
throbs of that Ineffable, heart purifying, mind
compelling, body deifying Inspiration, love.
" Beyond such love I now have nothing to
offer ns a dowry to him who Is to be my
husband.” v
“To whom?” shrieked Jan. “You have
found aomo one? You have given your lov*
to Homo vile nonentity?”
■' Culm yourself, my good Jan—l have sur
rendered to no one. It Is highly problemat
ical whether I ever shall. I spoke merely In
the potential inode. But this I already know;
the in»n whose wife Hahlna of Grodnla shall
he, whoever he shall be, will have a hand of
Just the right size to hold her heart In its
hollow, will have eyes that will read Into her
Inner soul without searching, will speak to
her In the words of a man which shall ring
In her ears as the music of an angel. That
man to me will be of all men the most won
derful, the bravest, the gentlest, the Tightest.
Can you be that man, Jan? Do you think that
you can fill Ideals so chimerlc&lly expan
sive?”
” I —I—can make you a fitting and suitable
husband. This wild talk of your marrying
some low horn yokel, mingling the bluest
blood of Europe with the coarse sewerage In
tho veins of a casteless beast from the gut
ters, Is preposterous—sacrilegious.”
“ Red blood wid blue,” she answered, half
exalted, ”Is n perfect blend. The same blood
flows In us all. But If mine be blue, as you
would have It, and the blue bespeaks nobility,
what more magnificent than the mingling In
the future's children of the nobility of the
blue with the courage, the honest simplicity
of the red? ” ,
“ Then you mean to have me Understands
have me accept—that ths royal princess of
Grodnla Intends to shuffle herself Into the
obscurity of the herd, marry a man of ple
beian breed, forget who she Is, dishonor the
memory of her murdered father ”
“ All but the last, Jan. In my resolves I
shall consecrate the name of my dead father.
It shall be sold of him that he died for what
he thought was fight, and that his daughter
lived for what she thought was right. As
sincere as he was In giving his Ilf* for roy
alty, and for royal tie’s traditions, so sincere
’ shall I be In giving my life to democracy
and to democracy’s tenets, equality, charity,
tolerance, and ths greatest of these, lov*”
(To be continued.)
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