t the Jardin Russe that Captain
Sengoun positively but affectionately refused to relinquish possession
of Neeland's arm.

"Dear friend," he explained, "I am just waking up and I do not wish to
go to bed for days and days."

"But I do," returned Neeland, laughing. "Where do you want to go now,
Prince Erlik?"

The champagne was singing loudly in the Cossack's handsome head; the
distant brilliancy beyond the Place de la Concorde riveted his roving
eyes.

"Over there," he said joyously. "Listen, old fellow, I'll teach you
the skating step as we cross the Place! Then, in the first _Bal_, you
shall try it on the fairest form since Helen fell and Troy burned--or
Troy fell and Helen burned--it's all the same, old fellow--what you
call fifty-fifty, eh?"

Neeland tried to free his arm--to excuse himself; two policemen
laughed; but Sengoun, linking his arm more firmly in Neeland's,
crossed the Place in a series of Dutch rolls and outer edges, in which
Neeland was compelled to join. The Russian was as light and graceful
on his feet as one of the dancers of his own country; Neeland's
knowledge of skating aided his own less agile steps. There was
sympathetic applause from passing taxis and _fiacres_; and they might,
apparently, have had any number of fair partners for the asking, along
the way, except for Sengoun's headlong dive toward the brightest of
the boulevard lights beyond.

In the rue Royal, however, Sengoun desisted with sudden access of
dignity, remarking that such gambols were not worthy of the best
traditions of his Embassy; and he attempted to bribe the drivers of a
couple of hansom cabs to permit him and his comrade to take the reins
and race to the Arc de Triomphe.

Failing in this, he became profusely autobiographical, informing
Neeland of his birth, education, aims, aspirations.

"When I was twelve," he said, "I had known already the happiness of
the battle-shock against Kurd, Mongol, and Tartar. At eighteen my
ambition was to slap the faces of three human monsters. I told
everybody that I was making arrangements to do this, and I started for
Brusa after my first monster--Fehim Effendi--but the Vali telegraphed
to the Grand Vizier, and the Grand Vizier ran to Abdul the Damned, and
Abdul yelled for Sir Nicholas O'Connor; and they caught me in the Pera
Palace and handed me over to my Embassy."

Neeland shouted with laughter:

"Who were the other monsters?" he asked.

"The other two whose countenances I