_The_
VAGRANT DUKE
BY GEORGE GIBBS
The Vagrant Duke The Splendid Outcast The Black Stone The Golden Bough The Secret Witness Paradise Garden The Yellow Dove The Flaming Sword Madcap The Silent Battle The Maker of Opportunities The Forbidden Way The Bolted Door Tony's Wife The Medusa Emerald
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY Publishers New York
[Illustration: PETER STRUCK HIM FULL ON THE HEAD]
_The_ VAGRANT DUKE
BY
GEORGE GIBBS
AUTHOR OF "THE SPLENDID OUTCAST," "THE YELLOW DOVE," "THE SECRET WITNESS," ETC.
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY NEW YORK LONDON 1921
COPYRIGHT, 1921, BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
Copyright, 1920, by The Story Press Corporation PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
PROLOGUE 1
I INTRODUCING PETER NICHOLS 15
II NEW YORK 27
III THE OVERALL GIRL 42
IV THE JOB 56
V NEW ELEMENTS 71
VI THE HOUSE OF TERROR 88
VII MUSIC 105
VIII THE PLACARD 121
IX SHAD IS UNPLEASANT 137
X "HAWK" 153
XI ANCIENT HISTORY 170
XII CONFESSION 186
XIII THE CHASE 207
XIV TWO LETTERS 226
XV SUPERMAN 236
XVI IDENTIFICATION 253
XVII PETER BECOMES A CONSPIRATOR 266
XVIII FACE TO FACE 276
XIX YAKIMOV REVEALS HIMSELF 291
XX THE RUSSIAN PAYS 308
XXI THE INFERNO 326
XXII RETRIBUTION 343
XXIII A VISITOR 357
_The_ VAGRANT DUKE
THE VAGRANT DUKE
Table of contents (by pages)
- 1: The Vagrant Duke by George Gibbs
- 2: Has Sacha been fighting with you again
- 3: You will not go to Zukovo to night
- 4: The Red Terror had come to Zukovo
- 5: Michael Kuprin and Conrad Grabar Conrad
- 6: Vengeance will never bring peace to Zukovo
- 7: Where Leo Garshin awaited them
- 8: I have no money began the refugee
- 9: But Peter Nicholaevitch shook his head
- 10: The Grand Duke shrugged and grinned
- 11: And passion a new Peter Nicholaevitch was born
- 12: But it made the waiter Peter uncomfortably careful
- 13: But Peter Nichols was satisfied
- 14: In the morning Peter Nichols came to a decision
- 15: It'll be Mister Coast for you then
- 16: But I've never yet met an Englishman like you
- 17: McGuire came into this office hurriedly
- 18: And thanked him with a sense of real gratitude and Sheldon
- 19: Which lingered while Peter glanced away and went on
- 20: But Peter Nichols did not see him
- 21: From beneath which the birdlike notes were still emitted
- 22: The girl had been examining Peter furtively
- 23: Peter Nichols took up his bag and started
- 24: There was one of you in the glass factory
- 25: It was Beth who broke the silence
- 26: They say he sees ghosts and things
- 27: Shad will eat you at one gobble
- 28: Peter didn't think he was very polite
- 29: McGuire was quite able to look out for himself
- 30: Went on McGuire indicating a chair
- 31: Nichols he said with a shrug
- 32: Whatever it was that McGuire feared
- 33: And as Stryker went out and his footsteps were heard no more
- 34: The countersign is the word 'Purple
- 35: You cover from the road to the big cedar tree
- 36: The whispering of leaf to leaf
- 37: Went on McGuire in some hesitation
- 38: What on earth began McGuire
- 39: McGuire and difficulty for himself
- 40: Railroads sometimes at the upper end
- 41: To do the very thing he had been warning Shad Wells against
- 42: Shad wagged his head indeterminately
- 43: And poor Shad Wells who was to have taken Peter at a gobble
- 44: Sat at the piano and played quietly at first
- 45: If the dishonest purpose were murder or injury
- 46: Bidding him sit next Miss Delaplane at table
- 47: Said Peggy when Peter had finished
- 48: I came to help Aunt Tillie dish up
- 49: As he entered with Beth at his heels
- 50: Could have frightened McGuire and Aunt Tillie too
- 51: Bergen had been doggedly silent
- 52: When the door closed behind Beth and the chauffeur
- 53: For Beth's What has Beth to do with it
- 54: McGuire was pacing the floor furiously
- 55: McGuire had settled down into a chair near the table
- 56: And Stryker unemotionally opened the door for him
- 57: Interested in watching McGuire
- 58: Elf fairy and devil too but mostly elf
- 59: You're very exclusive in Black Rock
- 60: For she turned away from the piano
- 61: Even Shad says you're a wonder
- 62: Aunt Tillie and I haven't lived here always
- 63: Aunt Tillie tried to keep me out of the kitchen
- 64: McGuire saw the same person your Aunt Tillie did
- 65: Aunt Tillie doesn't know anything about McGuire
- 66: He had no illusions as to Zukovo now
- 67: Was the man McGuire had seen last night through the window
- 68: McGuire stared at the headline
- 69: His fingers trembling along the placard
- 70: Peter waited while McGuire paused
- 71: And Stryker well I'd have to tell Stryker
- 72: A few for the piano but most of them for Beth
- 73: Where they looked about for Shad
- 74: Gasped McGuire with a touch of his old alarm
- 75: Shad's he's what they call a Hellion around here
- 76: Beth But Beth remained as she was
- 77: Peter walked to the door and faced Shad outside
- 78: Shad blinked his uninjured eye and rose
- 79: Peter was still sorry for Shad
- 80: Grand Duke Peter Nicholaevitch
- 81: McGuire nodded or assented in monosyllables
- 82: McGuire fell back against the table
- 83: Peter went down the lawn thoughtfully
- 84: Made his way to the maple tree
- 85: What if Hawk Kennedy failed to appear
- 86: Striking Kennedy with his torch
- 87: Hawk Kennedy chuckled and scrambled to his feet
- 88: McGuire will wish that Hell would open for him
- 89: Passin' the buck for Mike McGuire
- 90: What's a waiter's tip but blackmail for good service
- 91: Hello Mike McGuire hello He's gone
- 92: It was at Pueblo I met up with Mike McGuire
- 93: The place was lousy fairly lousy
- 94: And McGuire told him what to write
- 95: What is McGuire frightened about
- 96: Do you deny that you're Ben Cameron
- 97: His pity for McGuire was no more
- 98: Beth don't take up with every Tom
- 99: Bergen paused in a renewed difficulty of breathing
- 100: 'Tell McGuire Ben Ben Cameron's come back
- 101: Mike McGuire and Hawk Kennedy
- 102: To McGuire it seemed far from that
- 103: But McGuire had already ceased to resist him
- 104: McGuire was silent for a moment and Peter
- 105: 'The Gila Desert ain't all yours
- 106: McGuire broke off suddenly and got up
- 107: Peter's pity for McGuire had come back
- 108: Peter for reasons of his own retained Shad
- 109: Shad Wells suddenly appeared in the doorway
- 110: Peter was no longer sorry for Shad Wells
- 111: At the Cabin Beth was waiting for him
- 112: Peter Nicholaevitch feared nothing
- 113: Just growin' close to the ground like a pumpkin or a squash
- 114: Beth perked up her head like a startled fawn
- 115: Maybe I hadn't better come any more
- 116: Let me loose or I I'll despise you Beth
- 117: The Grand Duke Peter Nicholaevitch
- 118: It was from the Princess Galitzin
- 119: The odor of her sachet annoyed him
- 120: But if he expected to succeed in protecting McGuire
- 121: While she winked back her tears
- 122: You punished me Forgive me
- 123: She had heard Peter play the piano
- 124: McGuire took it and he is going to pay you what he owes
- 125: To Beth the most important of the entire conversation
- 126: The princes in Europe are a pretty bad lot
- 127: McGuire unhappy or Miss McGuire You needn't worry
- 128: And there stood Beth adorable in her perplexity
- 129: Miss Peggy McGuire glared at him
- 130: Beth had stopped smiling now and leaned against the wall
- 131: For nothing could hurt Beth now
- 132: McGuire nodded his head and listened soberly
- 133: McGuire frowned and then growled
- 134: McGuire fell back in his chair
- 135: At last McGuire threw up his hands
- 136: And above it all presided Beth
- 137: But I always did want a cerise veil
- 138: Seated complacently in Peter's easy chair
- 139: Peter had been studying the situation critically
- 140: Save the melodrama for McGuire
- 141: Dragging McGuire down among the ruins of both their lives
- 142: 'n' write lettersh nice lettersh
- 143: Peter remembered the ragged wallet of the Bermudian
- 144: And then Beth opened Peter's heliotrope note and read it
- 145: You'd better go back to Anastasie
- 146: But Beth approached the familiar doorway
- 147: There's nothin' between Peter Nichols and me
- 148: And Beth seemed frozen into her chair
- 149: Hawk Kennedy was reading the heliotrope letter
- 150: Hawk Kennedy went to the window and peered out up the path
- 151: It was what McGuire was now that mattered
- 152: Smoking and talking with Shad Wells
- 153: A defeat for Flynn meant loss of prestige
- 154: You knew Flynn and Jacobi were back in camp yesterday
- 155: I met Flynn a while ago over in the office
- 156: Flynn and others were trying to prevent it
- 157: This tyrant and son of tyrants
- 158: Yakimov stood at the edge of the crowd
- 159: It was Yakimov that shot at you
- 160: The eager Brierly at his heels
- 161: Brierly nodded and finished the message
- 162: You'd better go back to Anastasie
- 163: He couldn't have killed Beth out of hand
- 164: Not to die as Yakimov had done
- 165: Muttered Shad with a hang dog air
- 166: Maybe he took her to Hammonton or Egg Harbor
- 167: Shad nodded and then raised his head
- 168: Beth had never been in this part of the woods
- 169: Hawk Kennedy unfastened the hasp which held the door
- 170: Her cry was muffled in the bandage
- 171: Could she reach it with her wrists
- 172: And stagger to the opening in the wall
- 173: And leaving Brierly to turn the car
- 174: But it was not Shad for Shad had been in his shirt sleeves
- 175: One hand clutching at his breast
- 176: Shad thanks she muttered
- 177: And Stryker and Brierly washed the wound
- 178: The pink room of Miss Peggy McGuire
- 179: McGuire halted and stood for a long moment
- 180: The effects of her potion wearing away
- 181: Brushed out the hair that was frizzled
- 182: Nichols has told you everything
- 183: But Beth had seen no one but Mr
- 184: It was his last chuckle as Peter Nichols
- 185: I wish they hadn't burned that house
- 186: Beth pressed his fingers confidently
- 187: Was helping McGuire to restore order
- 188: But Beth had decided the day before to return to the cottage
- 189: Anastasie Galitzin made no reply
- 190: She saw Anastasie Galitzin to the door