ough the trip
would last only five days as the boat was very slow. We stopped on
our way at Biserta on the African coast and had a day ashore. The day
after we left Biserta at lunch time, I smelled smoke, so I told Nelka
I would go and investigate. The moment I came out on deck the alarm
bells started off and I saw the middle of the ship aflame.

While I went on deck, Nelka had gone to our cabin, and when she
entered she also heard the alarm. So picking up the two cats and a
life belt, she hurried on deck. I likewise picked up the two dogs and
a life belt.

The captain was hollering from the bridge to lower the boats as the
ship would blow up because of the oil. In a few minutes one of the
boats was already bobbing on the water and the cook in his white cap
was in it. However, all who were available were fighting the fire,
mostly with sand and finally we got it under control. All was fine,
only the fire did some damage in the engine room and for more than a
day we drifted while they were making repairs.

Then we resumed our way to Barcelona where we were to unload some of
the wheat we were carrying. When we got there the Spanish authorities
would not allow us to go ashore for, as we were Russians, they
decided that we may be communists. So they even posted a policeman to
see that we would not sneak off. This might not have been so bad, but
in the unloading a mistake was made. The forward hull was emptied and
as a result the ship sank by the stern and got stuck in the mud
bottom. It took us a whole week to extricate ourselves and all that
time we had to just sit on that boat.

By the time we finally got to Marseille we had been traveling for
three weeks.

We settled in Menton where we remained for several years. I worked in
a French Real Estate office. We also played at Monte Carlo and were
quite proficient. Nelka used to say that this was the only honest and
"above board" business.

In the summer of 1927 we received the news that Nelka's Uncle Herbert
Wadsworth had died suddenly from a heart attack. Once again Nelka had
a severe blow and sorrow and once more she had lost a close person
without having seen him. That fall we finally sailed for America with
our friends Count and Countess Pushkin. We all settled in Cazenovia
where Count Pushkin and I started a furniture carving business which
we kept up for about three years, until the start of the depression.

While living on the Riviera our animal family had grow