Roumanian, but not without talk of one tribe in Bessarabia. I do not him quite understand.”
“Would you call him a Dago or a Polocker, or what?” asked Mike, frowning at the polyglot description.
“He is a ”—answered Sloviski—“he is a—I dink he come from—I dink he is a fool,” he concluded, impatient at his linguistic failure, “and if you pleases I will go back at mine delicatessen.”
“Whatever he is, he’s a bird,” said Mike Dowling; “and you want to watch him fly.”
Taking by the wing the alien fowl that had fluttered into the nest of Liberty, Mike led him to the door of the engine-house and bestowed upon him a kick hearty enough to convey the entire animus of Company 99. Demetre Svangvsk hustled away down the sidewalk, turning once to show his ineradicable grin to the aggrieved firemen.
In three weeks John Byrnes was back at his post from the hospital. With great gusto he proceeded to bring his war map up to date. “My money on the Japs every time,” he declared: “Why, look at them Russians—they’re nothing but wolves. Wipe ’em out, I say—and the little old jiu jitsu gang are just the cherry blossoms to do the trick, and don’t you forget it!”
The second day after Byrne’s reappearance came Demetre Svangvsk, the unidentified, to the engine-
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