was too much
for my sense of humor and from my corner there came a suppressed
snort.

"Instantly his Royal Highness grasped the situation and I thought
that he was going to grasp me at the same time. I never saw such rage
and I immediately became very sober and entirely innocent. He stormed,
he raved, I am afraid he swore, though I could not understand all he
said. It was a roar of sound and a frazzle of language. He tore at his
hair and raged like a caged lion.

"I saw visions of the knout and exile in Siberia. I protested my
innocence, and my profound sorrow at the sad state of his larder. I
used both language and pantomime. 'I am an American, Monsieur,' I
cried, 'I cannot eat anything cooked in Russia, it does not agree with
me.' I protested with such vehemence and with such utter innocence
that his Highness finally quieted down, partly from sheer exhaustion,
possibly from lack of food." There was a twinkle in the speaker's eye,
and the boys roared. "When he had become quiet, I, with a low bow,
went to the hamper and produced the piece of chicken that was left and
presented it to him with much humility.

"His amazement knew no bounds at this performance of mine, and his
face showed it. Then his mood suddenly changed, and he burst into
homeric laughter. It was so extraordinary, that it struck him as
humorous. Part of the joke being that I was a foreigner, especially
an American, of whom anything might be expected. On the basis of
this incident he immediately accepted me into a jovial comradeship.
Whenever it struck him he would burst into a roar of laughter. So,
behold me, when the train finally did stop at a brilliantly lighted
station, wherein was a really palatial dining-room, walking arm in arm
with his Royal Highness, Archduke Michael, and receiving the salutes
of the soldiery and the plaudits of admiring citizens."

CHAPTER XI

A CONSPIRACY

There was a moment's silence when the engineer had finished his
unusual and most entertaining narrative. It seemed to them so vivid
had been his story, that instead of being on a ship in the mid-Pacific
in the midst of a blustery rainstorm that they were in far-off Russia,
and as the tale ended they could see a picture before their eyes.

There was the long train, covered and crusted with snow, standing
alongside the station. In the light of large lamps shining brilliantly
upon the snow, was the gigantic Russian in his fur coat, arm-in-arm
with the slight,