nly listened to reason!... I think that Mackinzen will
be able to help me out,--I might as well ask Envir Pasha as these
dervishes of Sofia to lend a hand in this affair!... Yet I _must_,
simply _MUST_ be in Odessa in time to meet Vladimir K before the order
of execution!... Either that--or jump into the Danube!"

9. The following entry is significant: "I have been deaf, dumb and
blind for the last 24 hours! The veiled lady was responsible.... She
had me kidnapped and carried out into these infernal hills, wherever
they are.... Never saw them before.... Looks as if a cyclone hit
them.... One can pick up enough shells and scrap iron to stock
a foundry.... The trees are all shot off--nothing but stumps and
slivered trees and broken wheels and boxes littered around.... Looks
like SOME FIGHT had taken place in this _strong-smelling_ hopyard
among these hummocks.... Apparently the hogs have been rooting up the
ground all around here.... There isn't a sign of a living thing
in sight ... and not a drop of water to be had!... WHO was that
woman?... The Baroness, who?... Must find out more about Syvorotka."

10. "... Been tramping all day in the direction of the rising sun....
Mud, mud, mud everywhere.... It may have been a good thing that I
wrote my brother Fox at Mendocino about this trip before I set out....
If I am lost and this comes into a white man's hands who understands
America he will know what to do with it.... Hunger and thirst are
delirious bed-fellows.... Seems like a hundred years since I heard
that Metropole woman's voice when they were choking me in the
carriage.... She was saying, 'Search him, search him; I know he
ran away with it; it belonged to the Princess!' Then that deep heavy
voice: 'What did it look like?' Every word he uttered seemed to add
pneumatic pressure to his grip on my neck.... 'It was almost a light
purple, the size of a hickory nut, shaped like a pyramid and gives
out the reflection of a cluster of stars,' she cried like a wench....
'Worth a great deal of money,' the deep voice grunted as his hand
pressed harder against my windpipe.... 'Priceless!' she shrieked. 'It
couldn't be duplicated for 100,000 rubles; the most gorgeous sapphire
in the world!'... 'Are you sure this man has it?'... 'Certainly!'
she insisted; 'didn't I see that little wasp Kerensky give it to
his cousin, and didn't I see that cousin give it to this man in
America?'... 'Who is this man?' he asked, tightening his grip unti