SCISSORS _A NOVEL OF YOUTH_ BY CECIL ROBERTS NEW YORK FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY MCMXXIII Copyright, 1923, by FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY All Rights Reserved Published, March 29, 1923 Second Printing, April 14, 1923 Third Printing, June 29, 1923 Printed in the United States of America VAIL-BALLOU COMPANY BINGHAMTON AND NEW YORK TO H. C. BRODIE CONTENTS BOOK I EAST BOOK II WEST BOOK III GROWTH BOOK IV LIFE BOOK V THE NEW WORLD BOOK VI EAST AGAIN BOOK I EAST SCISSORS CHAPTER I A cold spray blew over the deck of the steamer as it left the calm waters of the Bosphorus, making for the open and wind-swept expanse of the Black Sea. Although it was springtime, and the promise of summer had made Constantinople a city of warmth and cheerfulness, the wind cut through the shivering crowd on the deck of the Austrian-Lloyd boat. A north-easterly gale was blowing from the Russian Steppes, and at intervals, through mists and clouds closing and parting, the passengers caught glimpses of the Anatolian coast with its long mountainous barricade rising from the surf-beaten strip of shore. In lee of the deck-houses there was also a nurse, a fresh-complexioned English girl, in charge of a boy of seven, evidently the son of the Englishman and his wife. The Captain of the steamer, an Austrian, regarded the strange party from time to time, for it was rarely that Englishmen came to this part of the world, and seldom were they accompanied by their women folk. Impelled by his curiosity, he approached the tall stranger who had now risen and was surveying his fellow passengers with amused interest. "You make to Trebizond, sir?" he asked, in broken English. "No, for Samsoon." "Ah--then you are of those who make the harbour there. It is a good scheme. The English have much wisdom, but it is a terrible land," he continued, and swept his hand expressively toward the grey coastland. "Barbarians there--Turks, Armenians, Greeks, Syrians, Circassians, Kurds, and some Americans, they go everywhere, like the English. Ah, a terrible land." He shuddered and drew his fingers across his throat, and then rolled his eyes as if the country transcended all words at his command. "Do you know Asia Minor?" asked the stranger. "I am going to Amasia." "That is inland--a place of the wolves, the bandits--no, I would never tread that soil. It is enough to sail the sea. The Black Sea--ough!" And once more he shuddered. "The lady--is it that she goes there, and the child?" "Yes, I have business in Amasia." "That is the illness of the English,--business, for this they come to these lands. They are great fools, and brave fools, sir! The sea is more safe. I hope soon never more to see this coast. I will live in Vienna. Ah! one can live in Vienna, but there!--" He gave a short laugh and then went about his work.