dark American. Their steps were directed towards the
long dining-room that shone in singular attraction out of the storm
and cold. The many round tables set with glowing whiteness and with
gleam of silver. The high-backed chairs of some black wood. At one end
of the long dining-room a tea urn of huge proportions shining like
silver. So the boys sat for some minutes in complete silence, under
the spell of the story; then Tom spoke up:

"I should have thought, Mr. Berwick, that you would have been fired
out of the carriage at St. Petersburg when his Nibs arrived."

"It was curious," admitted the engineer. "I have never quite
understood it."

"I reckon it was your audacity that helped you out," said Juarez.

"Or, rather helped you in," remarked the incorrigible Jo.

"I have thought of that, as an explanation," said Berwick.

"Or, you may have resembled some High Duke or other," suggested Jim,
"and that let you through."

"I'm greatly flattered," said Berwick with a slight smile. "That may
have been the solution, but I have partially figured that my success
was due to the odd character of my Russian friend. I discovered
later that he was a Grand Duke, well known in a social rather than
a political way and famous for his eccentricities. He spent much
of his time in Paris and favored foreigners rather than his own
countrymen, so I was probably taken for one of his French cronies.
I saw him some years later in Paris, but I did not try to revive the
acquaintanceship, but then I was not hungry." Jo was about to open
his mouth to make a pun when Jim interfered.

"Don't you dare to say anything about being hampered or unhampered,"
he warned. The engineer laughed heartily. He liked the boys for their
boyish qualities, which were very refreshing to him.

"How did you ever get down to this work?" asked Tom bluntly, "after
you had been hobnobbing with Dukes and living in Paris?"

"I do not believe you boys will understand me," he replied musingly,
"it would not be in the nature of things that you should. I did not
come down to this work, but up to it. After traveling for a great many
years over the world, I got to living a very idle and useless life
on the continent. But it palled on me after a while. I was in good
health, and had money, but I was tired of myself, thoroughly and
entirely bored. By the way, I might illustrate this unpleasant
condition of things by a high and mighty example. Did you ever hear of
Charles IX.