"Peter Bond"

A man who signed himself "Peter Bond" on English and French hotel registers last month, experienced last week some of the sensations of a fugitive from justice. "Peter Bond" (that was not his real name, of course) had done no wrong. In the course of his duty he had simply found it necessary to let two of his fellowmen die whom he could have saved. The nervous strain of seeing this duty and doing it as he saw it had made "Peter Bond" want a vacation. Vacationing, he called himself "Peter Bond" to escape the notice of persons who had been interested in the two dead men, friends & enemies alike. "Peter Bond" was tired of those two dead men.

All went well with "Peter Bond" until last fortnight, when sensation- mongers in Boston announced that Governor Alvan Tufts Fuller of Massachusetts had been "missing" since early November. The report was soon corrected by Governor Fuller's secretary, who said he knew perfectly well where Governor Fuller was and when he was coming back from a vacation. Governor Fuller's secretary was reported to have denied that his employer was in Europe.

Nevertheless, "Peter Bond's" secret was threatened when a Paris news- gatherer learned from a quick-eyed Paris porter that "Peter Bond's" luggage was marked A. T. F. The same sharp-eyes had also noticed that a telegram from "Peter Bond" to the Mayor of St. Mihiel was signed by the Governor of Massachusetts. "Peter Bond's" secret vanished when, just before the S. S. Olympic cleared from Cherbourg for the U. S. last week, a newsgatherer accosted him on deck and asked the Governor of Massachusetts for a statement. Having escaped as "Peter Bond" from possible jeering, or worse, from Red friends of the late Anarchists Sacco & Vanzetti, Governor Alvan Tufts Fuller of Massachusetts said: "I have nothing to say." To many a dull-witted fellow-passenger on the Olympic, "Peter Bond" remained mere Peter Bond.