Dred Scott

“ He went down in a heap, and Drexel sprang by him and out into the court.
Ahead of him lay danger from arrest by the police. But he knew that if once he could get back to the Hotel Europe he would be safe, for no police official would dream of identifying the hunted American with the cousin-to-be of Prince Berloff. Though but little after three, night had already fallen. The darkness was an aid, and with the shawl collar of his shuba turned up so that only nose and eyes were visible, he slipped across and out of the court, and hailed the first swift-looking sleigh he met. ”

“ Weary as he was, he dared not ride the long four miles; no peasant such as he looked would spend forty kopeks for a sleigh.
The city was only beginning to rub sleep from its eyes when he slipped unnoticed across the court to the house he so well remembered, and rapped at the door. Presently it opened a few inches and he saw the boarding-house keeper.
“Good-morning,” said Drexel. “I want to see Ivan and Nicolai.”
“They’ve got nothing for beggars. If you want bread, here’s five kopeks. Now get away with you!” He tried to close the door in Drexel’s face. ”

“ We will seat you in his place, and confound Lotzen and his satellites.”
He took her hand and gravely raised it to his lips.
“You are a rare woman, Dehra,” he said, “a rare woman. No man can reach your level, nor understand the beauty of your faith, the meaning of your love. Yet, at least, will I try to do you honor and to give you truth.”
She drew him down and kissed him lightly on the cheek.
“You do not know the Dalberg women, dear,” she said—“to them the King is next to God—and the line that separates is very narrow.” ”

“ The White One slowly nodded, “Yes, I know we can trust you, and I know you are too useful a person to be refused. You have shown both.”
She looked at the three men. “I say yes. What do you say?”
“Yes,” they responded.
She again gave Drexel her withered hand. “Then you shall help us,” said she.
Whereupon Sonya and the three men clasped hands with him. He now learned the two men he had before seen were Dr. Razoff, a distinguished physician, and Pestel, a leader of the working-people. ”

“ She shook her head. “It was a false passport.”
“What can we do now?”
“I must leave, somehow.”
“Then I leave, too!” cried Drexel.
“I cannot let you risk yourself further.”
“You cannot prevent me!”
“But you must have guessed that that gendarme captain is not the only man searching for me.”
“I don’t care if there are a hundred!” he cried recklessly.
She looked at him queerly a moment.
“By this time,” she remarked quietly, “I dare say there are fifty thousand.”
“Fifty thousand!” he slowly ejaculated, and stared at her. “Then,” cried he, “all the greater is your need for passing as an American! ”

“ Drexel,” said Sonya. She took his arm and led him forward. “And this is The White One.”
It was to the wheeled chair that she led him. Drexel looked at the chair and stood amazed. For The White One, the leader feared and hated by the Government, the master mind, the very heart of the revolution, was a woman!
Aye, and an invalid at that! Her hands were twisted, her body bent, and he had no guess of what infirmities lay hid beneath the rug that warmed her lower body. But disease had stayed its withering hands at her shoulders. ”

“ Darsie, at least, was in such a predicament, for, not receiving adroit assistance from the attendant of Mr. Redgauntlet, he stumbled as he dismounted from the horse, and might have had a bad fall, had it not been broken by the gallant interposition of a gentleman, who probably was, on his part, a little surprised at the solid weight of the distressed fair one whom he had the honour to receive in his embrace. But what was his surprise to that of Darsie, when the hurry of the moment and of the accident, permitted him to see that it was his friend Alan Fairford in whose arms he found himself! ”

“ He rubbed his forehead. “Well, of all situations a sane man ever got into!” he muttered. When he next spoke there was again a touch of irony in his voice. “At least,” he drawled, “would it be considered an intrusion into matters which are none of my concern, if I asked what is going to happen to me?”
“You will merely be detained till we feel it is safe to release you. Ivan and Nicolai are treating you all right? We had to act instantly, and they were [56] the only persons we could upon the instant command.”
“Oh, they’re nice enough boys, I guess,” said Drexel. ”

“ Thine own fate—that of thy house—that of thousands—that of Britain herself, are at this moment in the scales; and you are only occupied about the safety of a poor insignificant pettifogger!’
‘He has sustained injury at your hands, then?’ said Darsie, fiercely. ‘I know he has; but if so, not even our relationship shall protect you.’
‘Peace, ungrateful and obstinate fool!’ said Redgauntlet. Yet stay—will you be satisfied if you see this Alan Fairford, the bundle of bombazine—this precious friend of yours—well and sound? ”

“ Perhaps some great professor, whose ethics or mathematics were only a mask for this his real activity. Perhaps some noted general from the Czar’s army. Perhaps even some mighty nobleman, hiding his identity beneath this vague and fearsome name.
[179] He climbed the stairs and knocked. Sonya admitted him and led him through a short hallway into a plainly furnished room. Here were three men, and a figure in a wheeled chair. Drexel swept the three men with swift, tense wonder. Two were the men he had seen with Sonya in the house in Three Saints’ Court, the third he saw for the first time. ”

“ I fell over them at the foot of the stairs, buried under a huge chest.”
“Flung upon them, doubtless, as they were ascending,” said Lotzen.
Bigler nodded. “That was the crash I heard.” He took another cigarette, and lighted it carefully. “And that, madame, is the story,” he ended, looking at Mrs. Spencer.
She flashed him a bright smile.
“The nicest thing about it, my dear Count,” she said, “is that you are here to tell it.”
“Even if he doesn’t in the least deserve to be here,” the Duke interjected. “Such a—my dear Edmund, don’t do it again. You’re too young and innocent to die. ”

“ All the raillery had gone from her voice, which had grown so sorrowful that he looked at her wonderingly.
"He was not alive when he was found," he said quietly, still watching her.
Her hands convulsively clutched the bridle, and her mouth twitched.
"Oh, Mr. Durham, how awful! What a terrible thing! Oh, poor Mrs. Eustace! Sure I'm glad I'm going into the town, for I'll be able to see the poor thing. Is she much upset? But she is sure to be."
"It is a great trial for her. She will be very glad to see you, I should think," he answered.
"Oh, well, well; what a funny thing life is, Mr. Durham. ”

“ But that’s no fault of yours, captain!” He proffered his cigarette case. “Will you join me?”
“If you please. Thank you. And now I suppose the prisoners are ready?”
“They have merely to be brought from their cells. Will you let me have the order?”
[291] Drexel handed it forth, and life stood suspended in him while it underwent the scrutiny of the governor’s sharp eyes. If Sabatoff had made an error in the form!
But the governor thrust it into a drawer of his desk. “So you only want four of them?”
“Four, yes. The prisoners known as Borodin, Sonya Varanova, Razoff and The White One.” ”

“ And as for you, Captain Laroque”—he almost frothed in his revengeful rage—“you’ll never leave here to trick another man!”
[305] He tore Drexel’s revolver from its holster, and with a quick stride toward his desk raised a hand above a bronze bell to sound the guard-summoning alarm. But though Drexel had thought all hope was gone, there was an instinct in him, deeper than consciousness, not to give up. He sprang desperately forward and caught the descending arm. At the same moment, as though this had been a signal, Razoff and Borodin seized Berloff in their manacled hands. ”

“ I like you just as if you were my own boy. And I’m proud of you. Ten years from now, you’ll be the biggest young business man in America!”
Drexel gave a dry laugh. “I don’t look much like that picture at present. What have I got? Only the little my mother left me!”
And then his uncle had said the great words. [6] “Eh, but, boy, you’re only twenty-six; and so far you’ve just been in training! In training to take my place when I step out. Your training is over; when you come back from Russia, your real career begins—and a big one, too! ”

“ But Drexel was seeing her as she appeared upon the train. “That may be so; but you are not of that kind,” he said confidently. “That kind does not look as you did last night.”
“But how do you know,” she cried, stretching wide her arms the better to display her clumsy garments, “that last night’s clothes are any truer index of my station than to-night’s?”
She saw the question struck home. “We revolutionists work in hourly danger from the police. Safety compels us to assume disguises, and we fit our disguises to our missions. ”

“ Putting on his big overcoat and fur cap, and assuming his best air of composure, he sallied forth into the hall and descended the minor stairway that led to the side entrance. That he knows he is on a wild-goose chase, is no check to the search of a frantic man. Every bit of sense told Drexel he would not find her he sought, yet he cautiously glanced into such side-street shops as were still [33] open; he scrutinised each woman who hurried through the bitter cold on foot and the robe-buried occupants of the tiny whizzing sleighs ”

“ But even twelve men hesitate to close with five, whose swords are ready; and in the instant’s pause, Dehra, flinging off her hat, sprang between Bigler and the Archduke, and covered the former with her pistol.
“God in Heaven! the Princess!” he cried, and stared at her.
“Will you play with treason, my lord Count?” she asked. “Drop that revolver!—drop it, I say!—and you men, stand aside!—into line, so!—return swords!—now, by the left flank, march!—fall in behind, Count, if you please—march!”
With a laugh and a shrug he obeyed.
“The Regent commands,” he said.—“Attention! salute!” ”

“ Drexel shrugged his shoulders and continued gazing out into the court. It was a dreary enough area, with a few snow-capped houses huddling frozenly about it, its monotony relieved only by a little stuccoed church adjoining, with five dingy blue domes spangled with stars of weather-worn gilt—five tarnished counterfeits of heaven. Ivan, who had come to his side, volunteered that it was [47] called The Church of the Three Saints, and that this court, by virtue of its adjacency, was known as Three Saints’ Court.
Drexel resumed his pacing of the room. ”

“ Drexel, not without some shrinking of the flesh, changed into the old shirt of homespun linen, the tattered trousers, and the greasy coat with the fleece turned inward. Instead of boots or shoes there were slippers of woven grass, and these the son tied on with cords, having first swathed Drexel’s feet and calves in rags. Drexel roughened his moustache, touselled his hair and put on a fur cap which settled upon his ears. He still did not look a typical village peasant, but he counted on passing for a peasant workingman who fluctuated between country and city. ”

“ This bit of play-acting was an inspired device for clearing herself with Prince Berloff. “And if you get away, don’t go near a railway station; the prince will have men waiting for you at them all. Now!”
She seized him and turned backward toward the pursuers. “Hurry!—Hurry!” she cried to them. “I have him!” And to Drexel she whispered: “Now struggle to break away from me. Be rough—it will be better for me if I have some marks to show.”
They struggled—squirmed and swayed about in the rocking little vehicle—the countess encouraged by the pursuers ”

“ She had, in the pursuit of her profession, lured many a man to acts or confidences that had sent him to prison, to frozen exile on far Siberian plains, even to death by bullet or hangman’s noose. For more than one of these victims she had felt a liking—which, however, had never stayed her purpose; and when the man was gone, and his price was in her hand, she had never wished her act undone. Her original liking for Drexel she had lightly classified as one with these others—and only this climacteric moment revealed the truth. ”

“ But the next instant he was talking again to Drexel. “We’re always together, we two, both lace-makers—The Inséparables they call us. Oh, and what a lot he knows! Me, I only know this!”
Instantly he had whipped out a big pistol and was flourishing it in the air. “That’s the only argument that will ever win us liberty”—lovingly patting the black chamber of the weapon. “The Duma—bah! We’ve got to fight—to die!”
The pocked-marked little fellow began excitedly to pace the low room, a chunk of sausage in one hand, the pistol in the other. Nicolai quietly filled himself another glass of tea. ”

“ Drexel replied in the same masked language. “You must have been surprised.”
The prince nodded. “I have no idea who this Captain Laroque is,” he went on, with a calm look into Drexel’s face; “and I have no wish to know, for it would be my official duty to hang him. But if by any strange twist of circumstances you should ever meet him, please inform him that he is the boldest man I ever heard of.”
“Should there be such a strange twist, I will,” said Drexel.
“Doubtless he is already on his way out of Russia,” the prince went on. ”

“ She rose in her superb beauty and flashed a look at the captain that made Drexel’s heart leap, so much of fire and spirit did it reveal.
“Duty or no duty, I shall accept no indignity at your hands!” she cried.
The officer hesitated. “My orders are my orders, as madame must know. What I do here I must do through all the train; no woman can leave till she has been examined. But I shall go no farther [14] than necessary. Perhaps madame’s passport will be sufficient. That, madame knows, she must always show upon request.” ”