It required
but the slightest diplomacy, Signore. Thank you, Signore!
[Exit into the hotel.]
PIKE [puzzled]. He must have mesmerized the militia.
VASILI [glancing off]. It is quite safe for the time.
PIKE [going to the car]. It's all right, old man!
[Extends his hand to IVANOFF and helps him up from beneath the machine.]
IVANOFF. I will pray God for you all my life.
PIKE. Wait till we get you plumb out of the woods.
IVANOFF [to VASILI]. And you, sir, if I could speak my gratitude--
VASILI [crisply]. My American friend yonder has placed himself--and
myself--in danger of the penal code of Italy for protecting you. Perhaps
you will be so good as to let us know for what we have incriminated
ourselves.
IVANOFF [looking at him keenly]. You are a Russian?
PIKE. Don't be afraid--he's only a German.
IVANOFF [bitterly]. The Italian journals call me a brigand, inspired by
the Russian legation in Rome. My name is Ivanoff Ivanovitch.
PIKE [reassuringly]. All right, old man!
IVANOFF. I was condemned in Petersburg ten years ago. I was a professor
of the languages, a translator in the bureau of the Minister of Finance.
I was a member of the Society of the Blue Fifty, a constitutionalist.
PIKE. Good for you.
IVANOFF. I was able to do little for the cause, though I tried.
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