Rensselaer Journal, Volume 12, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 March 1903 — THE MYSTERY OF COUNT LANDRINOF. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE MYSTERY OF COUNT LANDRINOF.

Secretary Root says colored suffrage has proven a failure That is just what Mr. Bryan thinks about white suffrage and what he intimates weekly in the Commoner.

The business interests of the country have nothing to fear from antitrust legislation enacted by theiepubiican party and the people are satisfied their interests will be protected. Could as much have been said had the «ongressional majority been dernoeratic?

While there is no time to take the Matter up at this session, the dual tariff system brought to the attention of Congress by Senator Lodge is of the utmost importance and may solve the difficulty of adjusting the schedules without injuring the business interests.

There is no real ground for the eriticism of the renovation of the White House and the erection of the President office building which people who have never seen them, are so fond of indulging in. Except, possibly, to the art connoiseuer, the decorations of the White House are handsome and attractive and the present arrangement for receiving great crowds an improvement over those formerly existing The office building is of great convenience both to the President and to those having business with him.

President Roosevelt is sometimes criticised for his extravagance. That alleged extravagance takes the form of treating his friends with open handed hospitality and spending a considerable portion of his not large income in excess of his salary. But, if he is willing to do this, nature and, after all, the United States, the wealthiest nation in the world, pays its President but $50,000 a year whereas frugal France pays her President $120,000 and furnishes a palace at that. Mr. Roosevelt has to defray out of his own pocket many similar expenses and yet this county is much richer and more prosperous than France.

The statement that Judge Parker is to be Democratic presidential cand date with the backing of the trusts and unlimited money for the campaign is hardly ingenious enough to he eredited. Certain professional politicians are antagonistic to the president as are also many of the Cruet interores ts which have not been pleased With the President’s aggressive demands for anti-trust legislation. But Mr. Roosevelt himself could want nothing better than an opj osing candidate backed by Wall street, and whatever punishment, the trusts contemplate meting nut to the president for his temerity in interfering with their operations, it is evident that they will be carefol not to publish their program broadcast, to the country.

BY FRED WHISMAW

COPYRtGHt ST THE AMERICAN PRESS ASSOCIATION,

CHAPTER XXII. I THE STUDENT'S STORY. “This man Andre,’’ continued the ( I student, “is, as you have rightly concluded, your father’s brother. His real address is Siberia. Ask your friends, the police, and they will tell you that this is so. Indeed they will assure you that onr good friend is still enjoying a dog’s life in the mines, somewhere near . Sakhalin. “Very well. But, as yon are aware, he is nothing of the sort He is here and engaged in certain very important and very secret arrangements, as to which I may have more to say at a later period, supposing that it should be worth your while to come to terms with me. “Well, then, in order to be here your • respected uncle must have first left Siberia. He did so. He left the mines without permission of the authorities. In a word, he escaped and came to St. Petersburg. Capital—a very well conceived and cleverly executed escape, as to which I may some day, ever another bottle of wine, amuse yon with the details, but at present I desire to come quickly to the main interest of the story. “Cleverly as friend Andre escaped, however, the police—for once in their lives —showed some little sagacity in following up the matter. They could not catch him on the spot, neither could they find him through all the thousands of miles that lie between Sakhalin and St Petersburg, but by some chance they found him in St. Petersburg itself shortly after his arrival here. Very unlucky this, as yon will admit. “Well, they shadowed him, having • once got upon bis scent, and, though ■ Andre was clever enough to keep out of their clutches, the position became strained, and a meeting of certain people was held in order to devise some means of relieving the strain. “One of the bloodhounds died about this time. By bloodhounds I mean those who did the shadowing and hunting for the authorities. He died of loss of blood caused by a rent in his carcass made by some sharp steel substance, such as the blade of a knife.”

“He was murdered, you mean,” I interrupted in disgust. “God forgive us for harboring in the house such rascals as Andre and yourself and for dealing with you instead of handing you over to justice, as we ought to do. ’’ “You are positively rude, my friend, ” continued the student, “and extremely unjust besides, to one of us, at any rate. Andre may be all you imply, but then he is a near relative of yours and entitled to indulgence from the respectable members of his family, but I what ill do you know of met lam an innocent lamb, incapable of hurt or harm. lam telling you a picturesque ! story of the adventures of this near rel- i ative of your own. What have Itodo I withit? lam narrator only. ” “Stop,” I said. “What has all this to do with my father? You are not to suppose that I shall submit to be put off with your conceitedly told yarns about others unless they carry substan- ; tial information as to my father and his I whereabouts. The check can be stopped ! and you arrested!” * ‘And you can do just what the bloodhound aforesaid did,” my companion laughed, “and that is, lie down in some dark poijch qr gateway, with a big hole in you, and take your last look up at the stars while your blood runs over the pavement. But surely we need not quarrel over a grievance which does not exist. I am coming to your precious father in a minute or two.” “Gc on, then,” I said. I was beginning to loathe the sight of this little toad of a man. “Well, the bloodhound died, as I say, but another was put upon the scent, and, when be a third, and still they would not let Andre alone, though they could not catch him. “Then, at last, one of us—l mean, one of the body of men and patriots who were privileged to call themselves the friends of Andre—hatched a very brilliant plot for the relief of Andre and for the getting of him safely over the frontier, which—ardently as our friend desired to go abroad for the good of his health and for. the advantage of certain projects in which he was interested—had been hitherto qpite impossible, owing to the care with which the authorities had laid their plans to prevent it.

“The railway stations bristled with gendarmes and ununiformed policespies, in fact—and the frontier was guarded as though it were a powder magazine and some .one had threatened to put a match to it. “Now, this was the plan, and you must listen very carefully to it, for I am pledged to interest you, and the 5,000 rubles in my pocket have been paid me for what I am going to tell you next. “But as this part of the tale is so very interesting we will drink a glass of wine to steady our nerves.” “Drink the whole bottle and be hanged, only go on!” I raved. “Good wines should never be taken too fast,” said the little rascal, deliberately sipping from his glass. “And this is good wine—claret, do you call it, or burgundy? I don't often have the opportunity of sampling these expensive vintages, and therefore I do not claim to be mnch of a indsre. Taka a

glass. You won’t? Well, I see you are excited to hear what I have to tell you, so here goes. “One of us—one of them, I should say—conceived this idea. Andre, he knew, they all knew, was well connected. He owned to a brother who ranked as a patrician among the patricians. Moreover, Andre made it a boast that he bore more than a strong family likeness to his brother, the great Count Landrinof. “This ingenious person, the hatcher of the plot, took the trouble to visit Count Landrinof at this very aristocratic and palatial establishment in which I am at this moment an honored guest. He came ostensibly to ask for a contribution for some benevolent enterprise which he mentally evolved for the occasion, but in reality to judge whether the brothers were really so much alike that there was reasonable expectation that they might be mistaken one for the other. “Well, he met with extraordinary success; double—nay, treble—success. Your father, he found, was a generous man, and, pardon me, more than a little foolish. He subscribed 5 rubles toward Ivanof’s fund (we will call him Ivanof for convenience), which 5 rubles Ivanof found very useful. “Secondly, Ivanof saw at a glance that Andre and brother were quite exceptionally and marvelously alike and might easily be mistaken the one for the other. That this is so none knows better than yourself, for to this fact you are indebted for the pleasure of Andre’s presence under your roof.” “Go on!” I said. Even now I could not for the life of me foresee what was coming. “Thirdly, Ivanof, while waiting in the great hall down stairs—a splendid hall, by the way; but is it not cold in winter? A space of that size would, I should say”—

“Go on!” I cried, stamping my foot. I could have twisted the little rascal’s head off but for the frenzied desire I now felt to bear the end of his tale. “Well, thirdly, then, Ivanof had the pleasure of seeing another gentleman besides the count, an Englishman named Herbert, or Hulbert, and of hearing the end of your father’s conversation with "him, which fell in marvelously well with Ivanof’s plans. The two gentlemen were, in fact, arranging for a shooting party at a place called Erinofka, and fixed upon the days and hours for their sport in Ivanof’s presence. Then our friend laid his plans, which were made very easy for him by his visit to the count and what he had learned there. “Do you follow me now? Have you mastered the plot of my tale? Need I i go on?” I [to be continued.)