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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.) ICoprrtrbt: tsisi *» J»<* taM. , ,