After three years as U.S. naval attache in Rumania, genial Captain Eugene-("Fish") Karpe, 45, was on his way home for reassignment. At Vienna, the burly former destroyer commander visited the wife and sister-in-law of his old friend and fellow Annapolisman, Robert Vogeler, the American businessman jailed as a spy by Communist Hungary (TIME, Feb. 27). Mrs. Vogeler gave him her husband's silver lighter—"to keep until you can give it back to Bob." Then Captain Karpe boarded the blue-and-gold Arlberg-Orient Express for Paris.
A touch of gout caused him to limp a bit as he climbed aboard the train, but otherwise,...