The friends he had, most of them in
exile or chased out of the country, thought he was dead, and some
of these friends were caring for Celie. Just after Rasputin was
killed, and before the Revolution broke out, they learned Armin
was alive and dying by inches somewhere up on the Siberian coast.
Celie's mother was Danish--died almost before Celie could
remember; but some of her relatives and a bunch of Russian exiles
in London framed up a scheme to get Armin back, chartered a ship,
sailed with Celie on board, and--"
Olaf paused to light his pipe.
"And they found the Duke," he added. "They escaped with him before
they learned of the Revolution, or Armin could have gone home with
the rest of the Siberian exiles and claimed his rights. For a lot
of reasons they put him aboard an American whaler, and the whaler
missed its plans by getting stuck in the ice for the winter up in
Coronation Gulf. After that they started out with dogs and sledge
and guides. There's a lot more, but that's the meat of it, Phil.
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