Arthur W. Marchmont

“ I shall be powerless to help you. I can’t tell you official secrets, but I may warn you that we are face to face with events the results of which no man can foresee. It may spell revolution and bloodshed; and to be even a suspect then will be full of hazard and peril.”
“The more reason for me to stop.”
“Bremenhof has already great power, and if a crisis comes, he will have a free hand. He hates you,—not only for what you have done to him, but for another reason. Volna Drakona is betrothed to him.” ”

“ Meanwhile Ladislas had viewed the scene with fast mounting distress and agitation. The deliberateness of these last preparations for the fight seemed to appal him. The sight of this harvest of violence sprung from the seeds of his own revolutionary theorizing wrung his heart. Dreaming of victory by peaceful means, the horror of this bloodshed and carnage goaded him to despair. His suffering was acute.
Heedless of his own safety he rushed hither and thither among those who were leading the mob, dissuading [303] them from violence and urging them to abandon their resistance. ”

“ People came running to the scene from all directions. Many of them were armed with clubs, hatchets, crowbars, and such weapons as could be snatched up in a hurry. Some carried revolvers; and, as we stood awhile, unable for the press of the people to get forward, a fierce hand-to-hand fight was waged. Hard blows were given on either side, shots were exchanged, and blood flowed freely, until the police were beaten back in their turn and had to fly.
The mob whooped and yelled and halloed savagely over their victory, and pressed forward hot and eager to wreak their anger upon the flying men. ”

“ This act proved the turning point in the fight.
Fierce shouts of exultation went up as Bremenhof was recognized. The strikers halted, rallied and reformed, and they renewed the attack upon the troops with irresistible vigour and drove them back helter-skelter in all directions.
The mob had won; but at a cost which had yet to be counted. Nor did they stay to count it. The street resounded with whoops and yells of victory. Flushed and sweated with their exertions, the men were like children in their delight. ”

“ How Volna had returned to Warsaw? What was behind her visit to the prison? What the connection was between her and Colonel Bremenhof? What his motive could be in bringing her to the prison? Whether she had fallen under suspicion? How was I to set about ascertaining the truth? How to find means of seeing her again? With no facts to guide me, I could not answer the puzzling questions which suggested themselves thus readily. ”

“ But the leader was a persistent fellow in his way. “How many are in the house?” he asked Burski.
The latter shrugged his shoulders. “There were plenty just now; enough to treat me pretty roughly; and I’m no bantling.”
“There are no police in the house except that man and one other. He knows that,” I declared.
The leader turned to the crowd and tried to reason with them; but it was useless. Not a man would leave the house. Some began to murmur and growl at him for his interference; and the yells and cries against me redoubled in violence. ”

“ A CHANCE MEETING “DO you mean to take me for a spy?”
I had hard work to prevent myself laughing at the man to his face; and it is no light matter to laugh at these self-satisfied, bullying officials in Russian Poland. Some of them have too much power.
“Do I understand that you refuse to answer my questions and shew me your papers?”
“And what if I do?” He had burst into my room in the little inn at Bratinsk as I sat reading my paper over a cigar, and without any preface had fired his questions at me with the peremptory incivility of the average police agent. ”

“ We are on the eve of the greatest revolution the world has ever seen: greatest in purpose, widest in area, most beneficial in results—and what is greatest of all—to be achieved without the shedding of a drop of blood.”
[196] “A bloodless revolution will be a new thing in history, Ladislas, especially under Russian methods.”
“You do not understand and so you doubt. But we know. The army is with us almost to a man. They are of the people, blood of blood and bone of bone in close-knit kinship; and when the hour strikes, the people will rise in every city, town, and hamlet, rise as one man ”

“ I sprang back and Burski tried to block my retreat; but I thrust him away and reached the stairs.
“Stop. This is a trick,” I shouted. “That is the police agent. I am an Englishman. It was I who fired the shots just now and called for help.”
A babel of oaths and confused cries greeted this; and the men in front halted a moment in hesitation.
Burski saw the hesitation. “He lies, like the police dog he is, to save his skin,” he called. “Look at the weapon in his hand. Some of you will know the police pattern.”
A yell of execration followed this cunning stroke, as the crowd threatened me. ”

“ The mob hanging on their skirts were of a very different class, however; ill-clad, dirty, unkempt tatter-de-malions, the dregs of the alleys and by-ways of the city, ripe for any mischief or devilment. Evil men and worse women, they shuffled and scrambled and hustled along, with occasional cheers for the strikers, hoarse cries and oaths to one another, and execrations for the government: a towsled, disorderly rabble, unquestionably dangerous, and high-charged with thoughts and hopes of violence. ”

“ I remembered her statement to me at Bratinsk; that she had meant to escape and return to Warsaw. But I kept this to myself.
“And now?”
“She is changed. It is you who have changed her. She can scarcely be kept from breaking with Bremenhof. I don’t know what to do. My God, I don’t know what to do.”
“It’s plain enough. Take her and her mother away from Warsaw.”
“How can I go, man? In Heaven’s name, how can I go? We are on the eve of the most glorious crisis in our country’s history; and we leaders dare not leave our posts.” ”

“ It will be death if we don’t do it and get away.”
The remnants of his courage awoke when he felt the weapon in his hand; and I heard Volna catch her breath at the look which gradually stole into his beady, cruel eyes, as he looked at me.
Goaded by the woman’s taunts and the fear-thoughts which her words had started, he took a couple of stealthy steps toward me while the woman went round the table to reach Volna.
Just as he was raising his weapon to rush at me, I whipped my revolver out and covered him.
“Drop that; you murderous devil,” I cried, in a ringing tone. ”

“ In those hours a deal of happiness is just so much foolishness.
In one thing Volna was wrong. It was no ordeal that awaited her on the journey with the General to Cracow.
At her first glance he fell before her; and by the time we reached Cracow he was almost as much in love with her as I was.
During the journey he shewed such tact, too. He devoted most of his time to Volna’s mother; and having told her he had learnt that Katinka and Paul had left Warsaw and gone to Vienna, he kept her talking most of the time in one corner of the saloon, while Volna and I were alone in another. ”

“ We passed many evidences of the popular unrest. But Ladislas had apparently given the driver very shrewd instructions as to his route, for not once did we drive through a street where any actual disturbance was in progress.
More than once we saw conflicts going on between the troops or police and the mob. But always from a safe distance. More than once, too, we passed where trouble had broken out. Wrecked houses and workshops told of the anger of the people, and grim patches of bloodstained snow testified that the troops were not in the city for nothing. ”

“ You have slandered me to her, and your official position cannot and shall not—understand, shall not—prevent your giving an explanation.”
“I’ll soon see about that.”
“Don’t call your men. I warn you;” and I put my hand to my pocket as though I had a weapon concealed. I had none; but he was not a difficult person to bluff; and my look was steady enough to frighten him.
“Mr. Anstruther!” exclaimed Volna, in alarm.
“This matter must be set straight, Miss Drakona.” My tone was as firm to her as it had been to him; and this served to complete his discomfiture.
“Now, Colonel Bremenhof, I am waiting.” ”

“ SPY WORK IT is never pleasant to have to admit even in the secrecy of one’s own private thoughts that one has been fooled; nor does the cleverness of the fooler afford any but the coldest consolation.
Yet when I sat down to think things over calmly, I could come to only one conclusion—that in my trial of wits against Bremenhof and his agents I had been wofully worsted. ”

“ Anstruther, upon the disastrous result of your interference.”
“You must not say that, Katinka. This is not Mr. Anstruther’s doing; it is my own act, and mine only. But by all means save yourself.”
“The police may be here at any moment to arrest us all.”
“Then why waste time in staying to reproach me?”
Katinka’s great eyes flashed angrily. “Have you taken leave of your senses?” she cried. “You have never been like this before. It is sheer folly and madness.”
“I told him no more than the truth,” replied Volna; adding after a slight pause: “One of the really delicious moments of my life.” ”

“ I am a friend of Count Ladislas Tuleski, and I met you once or twice in his rooms in London a year ago. You are Count Peter Valdemar. This morning a police agent from Warsaw visited me, and regarded me as a suspect because of my friendship with the Count, and because I admitted that I had known you. Take the warning from me as a friend; and be on your guard. ”

“ Would to Heaven I had known before this had happened at Bratinsk! So little did I suspect, I came to-day to ask you the meaning of her betrothal to Colonel Bremenhof.”
“It is an awful mess!” he exclaimed, and began pacing the room again. “Count Peter arranged that. It was a blind to keep the Drakonas from being suspected. Volna consented for her mother’s sake; but she was candid, telling the man she did not care for him. She is as true as a crystal. Her sister and brother—do you know them? No?—they fed him with lies and blinded him; all at the Count’s instigation.” ”

“ I was dead set against the plan: every impulse and instinct protesting, except the desire to help Volna. But that she would be in grievous danger, should there be a rising in the city, was a fact nothing could explain away; and that Ladislas was about the last man in the world to be able to save her in such a crisis appeared no less certain. If anything was to be done, some one capable of taking a practical view of things must do it ”

“ Pulta by the road was some ten miles, and a rough hilly road it was. Too far and too rough for Volna to attempt to walk. To hire any kind of conveyance was of course out of the question; as it would lay a trail which even a blind policeman could follow. I had a spare horse at the inn; but for the same reason I dared not attempt to take it out of the stable.
In that part of Poland, however, one deal can always be made without exciting any comment or surprise. Any one will trade a horse with you, and at any time of the day or night. ”

“ The two warders threw themselves on me and shouted lustily for help. Others rushed to the cell in a ferment of excitement and clustered between me and the bully, much as though I were a wild beast. He was carried off, and Volna, in a maze of distress and consternation, was taken away at the same time. ”

“ It was a queer turn of the wheel that Volna and I should have to make common cause with the wretches who had attempted our lives. I did not wish them to escape; but our own escape was much more to us than their capture at that moment; and like the chief I was thinking intently what to do.
Glancing round the room his eye fell on the two ropes.
“Hand me those cords,” he said to me, curtly.
“I am no police agent,” I shot back.
“I call on you to help me.”
“You forget; you have arrested me. You must do your own work.”
The old hag’s eyes were on us as she drank in every word ”

“ Every eye in Russia to-day is waiting on events in Petersburg. The strikers are going to the Winter Palace to petition the Czar, and if bloodshed follows, as seems inevitable, it may spread over the whole Empire.”
“What has that to do with my seeing my friend?”
“You are playing with words, boy,” he answered sternly. “He is a leader of this movement; you are half suspect now; and if the trouble we fear comes, you will give Bremenhof the chance he seeks against you.”
“I am not afraid of Colonel Bremenhof. I have some questions to ask Ladislas that cannot wait.” ”

“ He was everywhere, directing his men and exposing himself fearlessly where the fighting was hottest; and always seeking to press forward as though in pursuit of us.
Fresh tactics were next adopted by the crowd. Men who had fled from the street appeared at the open windows of the houses and fired on the police and troops from this vantage. Many shots told; and to save themselves from this form of attack, the troops began to enter the houses in their turn and search for the armed men.
And all this time the press and throng of police and strikers made escape for us impossible. ”

“ Bremenhof began to gain fast upon us, and at length came within pistol range.
He called to us to surrender, and when we paid no heed, his men fired at us. Volna winced and shrank at the shots; but we were not hit and held on grimly.
It could not last much longer, however; and just when things were looking bad enough from behind, a big dray heavily laden came lumbering toward us, blocking the whole street.
“We must give it up,” said Ladislas.
But Sergius saw a desperate chance and took it. The heavy vehicle was making for a narrow side street. ”

“ Katinka took this to herself. “You hear your orders, Paul,” she snapped. Even in that moment her spite predominated.
“I do not need your advice, sir,” he said; and this perfectly obvious step was not taken, for no reason apparently except that I had suggested it.
“Can I wait for my daughter to return, sir?” asked Madame Drakona.
“Volna can do nothing,” declared Katinka.
[207] “I regret, madame, that I have no power to permit that.”
“Can you tell us nothing about the reasons for this?” asked Paul.
“Nothing whatever. I know no more than yourself. ”

“ His manner became suddenly as stern as with me it had been kind.
“There has been a very serious miscarriage of justice here, Major Pruladoff. This is Mr. Robert Anstruther, the son of a man who was the intimate friend of half the Berlin Court and trusted by the Emperor. His imprisonment is nothing short of an outrage, and what makes it really serious is that his demand, made as his right, to see the British Consul and to communicate with me, was refused.”
“I know nothing of that, of course, General. He was brought here on the order of Colonel Bremenhof.” ”