" in the Southwest, looted ranches in Mexico, fought against
Diaz and again with the insurgents in Venezuela, worked on cattle-ships
and so, by easy stages, had drifted across the breadth of Europe living
by his wits at 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 picturesquely described it, once in a mine in
Arizona and again in a land-deal in the Argentine. There were reasons
why he hadn't dared to return to the United States before. He was a man
with a grievance, but, however free in his confidences in other
respects, gave the interested Peter no inkling as to what that grievance
was.

No more curious acquaintanceship could possibly be imagined, but
privation, like politics, makes strange bedfellows, and, from tolerance
and amusement, Pete, as the other called him, found himself yielding,
without stint, to the fantastic spell of Jim Coast's multifarious
attractions. He seemed to have no doubts as to the possibility of making
a living in America and referred darkly to possible "coups" that would
net a fortune. He was an agreeable villain, not above mischief to gain
his ends, and Peter, who cherished an ideal, made sure that, once safe
ashore, it would be best if they parted company. But he didn't tell Jim
Coast so, for the conversational benefits he derived from that
gentleman's acquaintance were a liberal education.

We are admonished that they are blessed who just stand and wait, and
Peter Nichols, three days out of New York harbor, found himself the
possessor of forty dollars in tips from the voyage with sixty dollars
coming to him as wages--not so bad for a first venture upon the high
seas of industry. It was the first real money he had ever made in his
life and he was proud of it, jingling it contentedly in his pockets and
rubbing the bills luxuriously one against the other. But his plans
required more than this, for he had read enough to know that in the
United States one is often taken at one's own estimate, and that if he
wasn't to find a job as a ditch-digger, he must make a good appearance.
And so it was now time to make use of the one Grand Ducal possession
remaining to him, a gold ring set with a gorgeous ruby that had once
belonged to his father. This ring he had always worn and had removed
from his finger at Ushan, in the fear tha