7.  Then the following entry:  “K——­ is absolutely opposed to taking any part in this business....  Will not raise a hand without the sanction of CHARLES....  Looks as though I’ll have to bring pressure on these despairing creatures....  They wanted the Balkans,—­that was the deal in the Black Forest,—­and because some one doesn’t hand it to them on a silver platter they complain of der Grosse General Stab’s neglect!...  At two I get my answer....  If O.K.  I’ll be in Odessa in 48 hours unless that veiled minx of the Metropole sticks a knife under my fifth rib....  Her conduct is becoming mighty suspicious!...  Watch me give her a run for her money!”

8.  Then there was this entry:  “Charles refuses to see me but tells K——­not to put any obstacles in my way.... this is a pretty mess!...  How in the devil am I to slip through the lines with those devilish English and French officers scattered around everywhere?...  If Roumania had only 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