1 files changed, 7702 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/4982.txt b/4982.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4931171
--- /dev/null
+++ b/4982.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,7702 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Rock in the Baltic, by Robert Barr
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A Rock in the Baltic
+
+Author: Robert Barr
+
+Release Date: January, 2004  [EBook #4982]
+Last Updated: August 22, 2012
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A ROCK IN THE BALTIC ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jim Weiler
+
+
+
+
+
+
+A ROCK IN THE BALTIC
+
+By Robert Barr,
+
+1906
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I --THE INCIDENT AT THE BANK
+
+IN the public room of the Sixth National Bank at Bar Harbor in Maine,
+Lieutenant Alan Drummond, H.M.S. "Consternation," stood aside to give
+precedence to a lady. The Lieutenant had visited the bank for the
+purpose of changing several crisp white Bank of England notes into the
+currency of the country he was then visiting. The lady did not appear
+to notice either his courtesy or his presence, and this was the more
+remarkable since Drummond was a young man sufficiently conspicuous even
+in a crowd, and he and she were, at that moment, the only customers in
+the bank. He was tall, well-knit and stalwart, blond as a Scandinavian,
+with dark blue eyes which he sometimes said jocularly were the colors of
+his university. He had been slowly approaching the cashier's window with
+the easy movement of a man never in a hurry, when the girl appeared at
+the door, and advanced rapidly to the bank counter with its brass wire
+screen surrounding the arched aperture behind which stood the cashier.
+Although very plainly attired, her gown nevertheless possessed a charm
+of simplicity that almost suggested complex Paris, and she wore it
+with that air of distinction the secret of which is supposed to be the
+exclusive property of French and American women.
+
+The young man saw nothing of this, and although he appreciated the
+beauty of the girl, what struck him at that instant was the expression
+of anxiety on her face, whose apparently temporary pallor was
+accentuated by an abundance of dark hair. It seemed to him that she had
+resolutely set herself a task which she was most reluctant to perform.
+From the moment she entered the door her large, dark eyes were fixed
+almost appealingly on the cashier, and they beheld nothing else.
+Drummond, mentally slow as he usually was, came to the quick conclusion
+that this was a supreme moment in her life, on which perhaps great
+issues depended. He saw her left hand grasp the corner of the ledge in
+front of the cashier with a grip of nervous tension, as if the support
+thus attained was necessary to her. Her right hand trembled slightly as
+she passed an oblong slip of paper through the aperture to the calm and
+indifferent official.
+
+"Will you give me the money for this check?" she asked in a low voice.
+
+The cashier scrutinized the document for some time in silence. The
+signature appeared unfamiliar to him.
+
+"One moment, madam," he said quietly, and retired to a desk in the back
+part of the bank, where he opened a huge book, turned over some leaves
+rapidly, and ran his finger down a page. His dilatory action seemed to
+increase the young woman's panic. Her pallor increased, and she swayed
+slightly, as if in danger of falling, but brought her right hand to the
+assistance of the left, and so steadied herself against the ledge of the
+cashier's counter.
+
+"By Jove!" said the Lieutenant to himself, "there's something wrong
+here. I wonder what it is. Such a pretty girl, too!"
+
+The cashier behind his screen saw nothing of this play of the emotions.
+He returned nonchalantly to his station, and asked, in commonplace
+tones:
+
+"How will you have the money, madam?"
+
+"Gold, if you please," she replied almost in a whisper, a rosy flush
+chasing the whiteness from her face, while a deep sigh marked the
+passing of a crisis.
+
+At this juncture an extraordinary thing happened. The cashier counted
+out some golden coins, and passed them through the aperture toward their
+new owner.
+
+"Thank you," said the girl. Then, without touching the money, she turned
+like one hypnotized, her unseeing eyes still taking no heed of the big
+Lieutenant, and passed rapidly out of the bank, The cashier paid
+no regard to this abandonment of treasure. He was writing some
+hieroglyphics on the cashed check.
+
+"By Jove!" gasped the Lieutenant aloud, springing forward as he spoke,
+sweeping the coins into his hand, and bolting for the door. This was an
+action which would have awakened the most negligent cashier had he been
+in a trance. Automatically he whisked out a revolver which lay in an
+open drawer under his hand.
+
+"Stop, you scoundrel, or I fire!" he shouted, but the Lieutenant had
+already disappeared. Quick as thought the cashier darted into the
+passage, and without waiting to unfasten the low door which separated
+the public and private rooms of the bank, leaped over it, and,
+bareheaded, gave chase. A British naval officer in uniform, rapidly
+overtaking a young woman, quite unconscious of his approach, followed
+by an excited, bareheaded man with a revolver in his grasp, was a sight
+which would quickly have collected a crowd almost anywhere, but it
+happened to be the lunch hour, and the inhabitants of that famous summer
+resort were in-doors; thus, fortunately, the street was deserted. The
+naval officer was there because the hour of the midday meal on board the
+cruiser did not coincide with lunch time on shore. The girl was there
+because it happened to be the only portion of the day when she could
+withdraw unobserved from the house in which she lived, during banking
+hours, to try her little agitating financial experiment. The cashier
+was there because the bank had no lunch hour, and because he had just
+witnessed the most suspicious circumstance that his constantly alert eye
+had ever beheld. Calm and imperturbable as a bank cashier may appear to
+the outside public, he is a man under constant strain during business
+hours. Each person with whom he is unacquainted that confronts him at
+his post is a possible robber who at any moment may attempt, either by
+violence or chicanery, to filch the treasure he guards. The happening
+of any event outside the usual routine at once arouses a cashier's
+distrust, and this sudden flight of a stranger with money which did not
+belong to him quite justified the perturbation of the cashier. From
+that point onward, innocence of conduct or explanation so explicit as to
+satisfy any ordinary man, becomes evidence of more subtle guilt to the
+mind of a bank official. The ordinary citizen, seeing the Lieutenant
+finally overtake and accost the hurrying girl, raise his cap, then pour
+into her outstretched hand the gold he had taken, would have known at
+once that here was an every-day exercise of natural politeness. Not so
+the cashier. The farther he got from the bank, the more poignantly did
+he realize that these two in front, both strangers to him, had, by their
+combined action, lured him, pistol and all, away from his post during
+the dullest hour of the day. It was not the decamping with those few
+pieces of gold which now troubled him: it was fear of what might
+be going on behind him. He was positive that these two had acted in
+conjunction. The uniform worn by the man did not impose upon him. Any
+thief could easily come by a uniform, and, as his mind glanced rapidly
+backwards over the various points of the scheme, he saw how effectual
+the plan was: first, the incredible remissness of the woman in leaving
+her gold on the counter; second, the impetuous disappearance of the
+man with the money; and, third, his own heedless plunge into the street
+after them. He saw the whole plot in a flash: he had literally leaped
+into the trap, and during his five or ten minutes' absence, the
+accomplices of the pair might have overawed the unarmed clerks, and
+walked off with the treasure. His cash drawer was unlocked, and even the
+big safe stood wide open. Surprise had as effectually lured him away as
+if he had been a country bumpkin. Bitterly and breathlessly did he curse
+his own precipitancy. His duty was to guard the bank, yet it had not
+been the bank that was robbed, but, at best a careless woman who had
+failed to pick up her money. He held the check for it, and the loss, if
+any, was hers, not the bank's, yet here he was, running bareheaded down
+the street like a fool, and now those two stood quite calmly together,
+he handing her the money, and thus spreading a mantle of innocence over
+the vile trick. But whatever was happening in the bank, he would secure
+two of the culprits at least. The two, quite oblivious of the danger
+that threatened them, were somewhat startled by a panting man, trembling
+with rage, bareheaded, and flourishing a deadly weapon, sweeping down
+upon them.
+
+"Come back to the bank instantly, you two!" he shouted.
+
+"Why?" asked the Lieutenant in a quiet voice.
+
+"Because I say so, for one thing."
+
+"That reason is unanswerable," replied the Lieutenant with a slight
+laugh, which further exasperated his opponent. "I think you are exciting
+yourself unnecessarily. May I beg you to put that pistol in your pocket?
+On the cruiser we always cover up the guns when ladies honor us with
+their presence. You wish me to return because I had no authority for
+taking the money? Right: come along."
+
+The cashier regarded this as bluff, and an attempt to give the woman
+opportunity to escape.
+
+"You must come back also," he said to the girl.
+
+"I'd rather not," she pleaded in a low voice, and it was hardly possible
+to have made a more injudicious remark if she had taken the whole
+afternoon to prepare.
+
+Renewed determination shone from the face of the cashier.
+
+"You must come back to the bank," he reiterated.
+
+"Oh, I say," protested the Lieutenant, "you are now exceeding your
+authority. I alone am the culprit. The young lady is quite blameless,
+and you have no right to detain her for a moment."
+
+The girl, who had been edging away and showing signs of flight, which
+the bareheaded man, visibly on the alert, leaned forward ready to
+intercept, seemed to make up her mind to bow to the inevitable. Ignoring
+the cashier, she looked up at the blond Lieutenant with a slight smile
+on her pretty lips.
+
+"It was really all my fault at the beginning," she said, "and very
+stupid of me. I am slightly acquainted with the bank manager, and I am
+sure he will vouch for me, if he is there."
+
+With that she turned and walked briskly toward the bank, at so rapid
+a pace as to indicate that she did not wish an escort. The bareheaded
+official found his anger unaccountably deserting him, while a great fear
+that he had put his foot in it took its place.
+
+"Really," said the Lieutenant gently, as they strode along together, "an
+official in your position should be a good judge of human nature. How
+any sane person, especially a young man, can look at that beautiful girl
+and suspect her of evil, passes my comprehension. Do you know her?"
+
+"No," said the cashier shortly. "Do you?"
+
+The Lieutenant laughed genially.
+
+"Still suspicious, eh?" he asked. "No, I don't know her, but to use a
+banking term, you may bet your bottom dollar I'm going to. Indeed, I am
+rather grateful to you for your stubbornness in forcing us to return.
+It's a quality I like, and you possess it in marvelous development, so
+I intend to stand by you when the managerial censure is due. I'm very
+certain I met your manager at the dinner they gave us last night. Mr.
+Morton, isn't he?"
+
+"Yes," growled the cashier, in gruff despondency.
+
+"Ah, that's awfully jolly. One of the finest fellows I've met in ten
+years. Now, the lady said she was acquainted with him, so if I don't
+wheedle an introduction out of him, it will show that a man at a dinner
+and a man in a bank are two different individuals. You were looking
+for plots; so there is mine laid bare to you. It's an introduction, not
+gold, I'm conspiring for."
+
+The cashier had nothing further to say. When they entered the bank
+together he saw the clerks all busily at work, and knew that no
+startling event had happened during his absence. The girl had gone
+direct to the manager's room, and thither the young men followed her.
+The bank manager was standing at his desk, trying to preserve a severe
+financial cast of countenance, which the twinkle in his eyes belied.
+The girl, also standing, had evidently been giving him a rapid sketch of
+what had occurred, but now fell into silence when accuser and accomplice
+appeared.
+
+The advent of the Englishman was a godsend to the manager. He was too
+courteous a gentleman to laugh in the face of a lady who very seriously
+was relating a set of incidents which appealed to his sense of humor,
+so the coming of the Lieutenant enabled him to switch off his mirth on
+another subject, and in reply to the officer's cordial "Good-morning,
+Mr. Morton," he replied:
+
+"Why, Lieutenant, I'm delighted to see you. That was a very jolly song
+you sang for us last night: I'll never forget it. What do you call it?
+Whittington Fair?" And he laughed outright, as at a genial recollection.
+
+The Lieutenant blushed red as a girl, and stammered:
+
+"Really, Mr. Morton, you know, that's not according to the rules of
+evidence. When a fellow comes up for trial, previous convictions are
+never allowed to be mentioned till after the sentence. Whiddicomb Fair
+should not be held against me in the present crisis."
+
+The manager chuckled gleefully. The cashier, when he saw how the land
+lay, had quietly withdrawn, closing the door behind him.
+
+"Well, Lieutenant, I think I must have this incident cabled to Europe,"
+said Morton, "so the effete nations of your continent may know that a
+plain bank cashier isn't afraid to tackle the British navy. Indeed, Mr.
+Drummond, if you read history, you will learn that this is a dangerous
+coast for your warships. It seems rather inhospitable that a guest of
+our town cannot pick all the gold he wants out of a bank, but a cashier
+has necessarily somewhat narrow views on the subject. I was just about
+to apologize to Miss Amhurst, who is a valued client of ours, when you
+came in, and I hope, Miss Amhurst"--he continued gravely, turning to the
+girl--"that you will excuse us for the inconvenience to which you have
+been put."
+
+"Oh, it does not matter in the least," replied the young woman, with
+nevertheless a sigh of relief. "It was all my own fault in so carelessly
+leaving the money. Some time, when less in a hurry than I am at the
+present moment, I will tell you how I came to make the blunder."
+
+Meanwhile the manager caught and interpreted correctly an imploring look
+from the Lieutenant.
+
+"Before you go, Miss Amhurst, will you permit me to introduce to you my
+friend, Lieutenant Drummond, of H.M.S. 'Consternation.'"
+
+This ritual to convention being performed, the expression on the girl's
+face showed the renewal of her anxiety to be gone, and as she turned
+to the door, the officer sprang forward and opened it for her. If the
+manager expected the young man to return, he was disappointed, for
+Drummond threw over his shoulder the hasty remark:
+
+"I will see you at the Club this evening," whereupon the genial Morton,
+finding himself deserted, sat down in his swivel chair and laughed
+quietly to himself.
+
+There was the slightest possible shade of annoyance on the girl's face
+as the sailor walked beside her from the door of the manager's room,
+through the public portion of the bank to the exit, and the young
+man noticing this, became momentarily tongue-tied, but nevertheless
+persisted, with a certain awkward doggedness which was not going to
+allow so slight a hint that his further attendance was unnecessary, to
+baffle him. He did not speak until they had passed down the stone steps
+to the pavement, and then his utterance began with a half-embarrassed
+stammer, as if the shadow of displeasure demanded justification on his
+part.
+
+"You--you see, Miss Amhurst, we have been properly introduced."
+
+For the first time he heard the girl laugh, just a little, and the sound
+was very musical to him.
+
+"The introduction was of the slightest," she said. "I cannot claim even
+an acquaintance with Mr. Morton, although I did so in the presence of
+his persistent subordinate. I have met the manager of the bank but once
+before, and that for a few moments only, when he showed me where to sign
+my name in a big book."
+
+"Nevertheless," urged Drummond, "I shall defend the validity of that
+introduction against all comers. The head of a bank is a most important
+man in every country, and his commendation is really very much sought
+after."
+
+"You appear to possess it. He complimented your singing, you know," and
+there was a roguish twinkle in the girl's eye as she glanced up sideways
+at him, while a smile came to her lips as she saw the color again mount
+to his cheeks. She had never before met a man who blushed, and she could
+not help regarding him rather as a big boy than a person to be taken
+seriously. His stammer became more pronounced.
+
+"I--I think you are laughing at me, Miss Amhurst, and indeed I don't
+wonder at it, and I--I am afraid you consider me even more persistent
+than the cashier. But I did want to tell you how sorry I am to have
+caused you annoyance."
+
+"Oh, you have not done so," replied the girl quickly. "As I said before,
+it was all my own fault in the beginning."
+
+"No, I shouldn't have taken the gold. I should have come up with you,
+and told you that it still awaited you in the bank, and now I beg your
+permission to walk down the street with you, because if any one were
+looking at us from these windows, and saw us pursued by a bareheaded man
+with a revolver, they will now, on looking out again, learn that it is
+all right, and may even come to regard the revolver and the hatless one
+as an optical delusion."
+
+Again the girl laughed.
+
+"I am quite unknown in Bar Harbor, having fewer acquaintances than even
+a stranger like yourself, therefore so far as I am concerned it does
+not in the least matter whether any one saw us or not. We shall walk
+together, then, as far as the spot where the cashier overtook us, and
+this will give me an opportunity of explaining, if not of excusing,
+my leaving the money on the counter. I am sure my conduct must have
+appeared inexplicable both to you and the cashier, although, of course,
+you would be too polite to say so."
+
+"I assure you, Miss Amhurst--"
+
+"I know what you would say," she interrupted, with a vivacity which had
+not heretofore characterized her, "but, you see, the distance to the
+corner is short, and, as I am in a hurry, if you don't wish my story to
+be continued in our next--"
+
+"Ah, if there is to be a next--" murmured the young man so fervently
+that it was now the turn of color to redden her cheeks.
+
+"I am talking heedlessly," she said quickly. "What I want to say is
+this: I have never had much money. Quite recently I inherited what
+had been accumulated by a relative whom I never knew. It seemed so
+incredible, so strange--well, it seems incredible and strange yet--and
+I have been expecting to wake and find it all a dream. Indeed, when you
+overtook me at this spot where we now stand, I feared you had come to
+tell me it was a mistake; to hurl me from the clouds to the hard earth
+again."
+
+"But it was just the reverse of that," he cried eagerly. "Just the
+reverse, remember. I came to confirm your dream, and you received from
+my hand the first of your fortune."
+
+"Yes," she admitted, her eyes fixed on the sidewalk.
+
+"I see how it was," he continued enthusiastically. "I suppose you had
+never drawn a check before."
+
+"Never," she conceded.
+
+"And this was merely a test. You set up your dream against the hard
+common sense of a bank, which has no dreams. You were to transform your
+vision into the actual, or find it vanish. When the commonplace cashier
+passed forth the coin, their jingle said to you, 'The supposed phantasy
+is real,' but the gold pieces themselves at that supreme moment meant
+no more to you than so many worthless counters, so you turned your back
+upon them."
+
+She looked up at him, her eyes, though moist, illumined with pleasure
+inspired by the sympathy in his tones rather than the import of his
+words. The girl's life heretofore had been as scant of kindness as
+of cash, and there was a deep sincerity in his voice which was as
+refreshing to her lonesome heart as it was new to her experience. This
+man was not so stupid as he had pretended to be. He had accurately
+divined the inner meaning of what had happened. She had forgotten the
+necessity for haste which had been so importunate a few minutes before.
+
+"You must be a mind-reader," she said.
+
+"No, I am not at all a clever person," he laughed. "Indeed, as I
+told you, I am always blundering into trouble, and making things
+uncomfortable for my friends. I regret to say I am rather under a cloud
+just now in the service, and I have been called upon to endure the frown
+of my superiors."
+
+"Why, what has happened?" she asked. After their temporary halt at the
+corner where they had been overtaken, they now strolled along together
+like old friends, her prohibition out of mind.
+
+"Well, you see, I was temporarily in command of the cruiser coming down
+the Baltic, and passing an island rock a few miles away, I thought it
+would be a good opportunity to test a new gun that had been put
+aboard when we left England. The sea was very calm, and the rock most
+temptsome. Of course I knew it was Russian territory, but who could have
+imagined that such a point in space was inhabited by anything else than
+sea-gulls."
+
+"What!" cried the girl, looking up at him with new interest. "You don't
+mean to say you are the officer that Russia demanded from England, and
+England refused to give up?"
+
+"Oh, England could not give me up, of course, but she apologized, and
+assured Russia she had no evil intent. Still, anything that sets the
+diplomatists at work is frowned upon, and the man who does an act
+which his government is forced to disclaim becomes unpopular with his
+superiors."
+
+"I read about it in the papers at the time. Didn't the rock fire back at
+you?"
+
+"Yes, it did, and no one could have been more surprised than I when I
+saw the answering puff of smoke."
+
+"How came a cannon to be there?"
+
+"Nobody knows. I suppose that rock in the Baltic is a concealed fort,
+with galleries and gun-rooms cut in the stone after the fashion of
+our defences at Gibraltar. I told the court-martial that I had added a
+valuable bit of information to our naval knowledge, but I don't suppose
+this contention exercised any influence on the minds of my judges. I
+also called their attention to the fact that my shell had hit, while
+the Russian shot fell half a mile short. That remark nearly cost me my
+commission. A court-martial has no sense of humor."
+
+"I suppose everything is satisfactorily settled now?"
+
+"Well, hardly that. You see, Continental nations are extremely
+suspicious of Britain's good intentions, as indeed they are of the good
+intentions of each other. No government likes to have--well, what we
+might call a 'frontier incident' happen, and even if a country is quite
+in the right, it nevertheless looks askance at any official of its own
+who, through his stupidity, brings about an international complication.
+As concerns myself, I am rather under a cloud, as I told you. The
+court-martial acquitted me, but it did so with reluctance and a warning.
+I shall have to walk very straight for the next year or two, and be
+careful not to stub my toe, for the eyes of the Admiralty are upon me.
+However, I think I can straighten this matter out. I have six months'
+leave coming on shortly, which I intend to spend in St. Petersburg. I
+shall make it my business to see privately some of the officials in the
+Admiralty there, and when they realize by personal inspection what a
+well-intentioned idiot I am, all distrust will vanish."
+
+"I should do nothing of the kind," rejoined the girl earnestly, quite
+forgetting the shortness of their acquaintance, as she had forgotten the
+flight of time, while on his part he did not notice any incongruity in
+the situation. "I'd leave well enough alone," she added.
+
+"Why do you think that?" he asked.
+
+"Your own country has investigated the matter, and has deliberately run
+the risk of unpleasantness by refusing to give you up. How, then, can
+you go there voluntarily? You would be acting in your private capacity
+directly in opposition to the decision arrived at by your government."
+
+"Technically, that is so; still, England would not hold the position
+she does in the world to-day if her men had not often taken a course in
+their private capacity which the government would never have sanctioned.
+As things stand now, Russia has not insisted on her demand, but has
+sullenly accepted England's decision, still quite convinced that my act
+was not only an invasion of Russia's domain, but a deliberate insult;
+therefore the worst results of an inconsiderate action on my part
+remain. If I could see the Minister for Foreign Affairs, or the head
+of the Admiralty in St. Petersburg face to face for ten minutes, I'd
+undertake to remove that impression."
+
+"You have great faith in your persuasive powers," she said demurely.
+
+The Lieutenant began to stammer again.
+
+"No, no, it isn't so much that, but I have great faith in the Russian
+as a judge of character. I suppose I am imagined to be a venomous,
+brow-beating, truculent Russophobe, who has maliciously violated their
+territory, flinging a shell into their ground and an insult into their
+face. They are quite sincere in this belief. I want to remove that
+impression, and there's nothing like an ocular demonstration. I like the
+Russians. One of my best friends is a Russian."
+
+The girl shook her head.
+
+"I shouldn't attempt it," she persisted. "Suppose Russia arrested you,
+and said to England, 'We've got this man in spite of you'?"
+
+The Lieutenant laughed heartily.
+
+"That is unthinkable: Russia wouldn't do such a thing. In spite of all
+that is said about the Russian Government, its members are gentlemen.
+Of course, if such a thing happened, there would be trouble. That is a
+point where we're touchy. A very cheap Englishman, wrongfully detained,
+may cause a most expensive campaign. Our diplomatists may act correctly
+enough, and yet leave a feeling of resentment behind. Take this very
+case. Britain says coldly to Russia:
+
+"'We disclaim the act, and apologize.'
+
+"Now, it would be much more to the purpose if she said genially:
+
+"'We have in our employment an impetuous young fool with a thirst for
+information. He wished to learn how a new piece of ordnance would
+act, so fired it off with no more intention of striking Russia than of
+hitting the moon. He knows much more about dancing than about foreign
+affairs. We've given him a month's leave, and he will slip across
+privately to St. Petersburg to apologize and explain. The moment you
+see him you will recognize he is no menace to the peace of nations.
+Meanwhile, if you can inculcate in him some cold, calm common-sense
+before he returns, we'll be ever so much obliged.'"
+
+"So you are determined to do what you think the government should have
+done."
+
+"Oh, quite. There will be nothing frigidly official about my
+unauthorized mission. I have a cousin in the embassy at St. Petersburg,
+but I shan't go near him; neither shall I go to an hotel, but will get
+quiet rooms somewhere that I may not run the risk of meeting any chance
+acquaintances."
+
+"It seems to me you are about to afford the Russian Government an
+excellent opportunity of spiriting you off to Siberia, and nobody would
+be the wiser."
+
+Drummond indulged in the free-hearted laugh of a youth to whom life is
+still rather a good joke.
+
+"I shouldn't mind studying the Siberian system from the inside if they
+allowed me to return before my leave was up. I believe that sort
+of thing has been exaggerated by sensational writers. The Russian
+Government would not countenance anything of the kind, and if the
+minor officials tried to play tricks, there's always my cousin in the
+background, and it would be hard luck if I couldn't get a line to him.
+Oh, there's no danger in my project!"
+
+Suddenly the girl came to a standstill, and gave expression to a little
+cry of dismay.
+
+"What's wrong?" asked the Lieutenant.
+
+"Why, we've walked clear out into the country!"
+
+"Oh, is that all? I hadn't noticed."
+
+"And there are people waiting for me. I must run."
+
+"Nonsense, let them wait."
+
+"I should have been back long since."
+
+They had turned, and she was hurrying.
+
+"Think of your new fortune, Miss Amhurst, safely lodged in our friend
+Morton's bank, and don't hurry for any one."
+
+"I didn't say it was a fortune: there's only ten thousand dollars
+there."
+
+"That sounds formidable, but unless the people who are waiting for you
+muster more than ten thousand apiece, I don't think you should make
+haste on their account."
+
+"It's the other way about, Mr. Drummond. Individually they are poorer
+than I, therefore I should have returned long ago. Now, I fear, they
+will be in a temper."
+
+"Well, if anybody left me two thousand pounds, I'd take an afternoon off
+to celebrate. Here we are in the suburbs again. Won't you change your
+mind and your direction; let us get back into the country, sit down on
+the hillside, look at the Bay, and gloat over your wealth?"
+
+Dorothy Amhurst shook her head and held out her hand.
+
+"I must bid you good-by here, Lieutenant Drummond. This is my shortest
+way home."
+
+"May I not accompany you just a little farther?"
+
+"Please, no, I wish to go the rest of the way alone."
+
+He held her hand, which she tried to withdraw, and spoke with animation.
+
+"There's so much I wanted to say, but perhaps the most important is
+this: I shall see you the night of the 14th, at the ball we are giving
+on the 'Consternation'?"
+
+"It is very likely," laughed the girl, "unless you overlook me in
+the throng. There will be a great mob. I hear you have issued many
+invitations."
+
+"We hope all our friends will come. It's going to be a great function.
+Your Secretary of the Navy has promised to look in on us, and our
+Ambassador from Washington will be there. I assure you we are doing our
+best, with festooned electric lights, hanging draperies, and all
+that, for we want to make the occasion at least remotely worthy of the
+hospitality we have received. Of course you have your card, but I wish
+you hadn't, so that I might have the privilege of sending you one or
+more invitations."
+
+"That would be quite unnecessary," said the girl, again with a slight
+laugh and heightened color.
+
+"If any of your friends need cards of invitation, won't you let me know,
+so that I may send them to you?"
+
+"I'm sure I shan't need any, but if I do, I promise to remember your
+kindness, and apply."
+
+"It will be a pleasure for me to serve you. With whom shall you come? I
+should like to know the name, in case I should miss you in the crowd."
+
+"I expect to be with Captain Kempt, of the United States Navy."
+
+"Ah," said the Lieutenant, with a note of disappointment in his voice
+which he had not the diplomacy to conceal. His hold of her hand relaxed,
+and she took the opportunity to withdraw it.
+
+"What sort of a man is Captain Kempt? I shall be on the lookout for him,
+you know."
+
+"I think he is the handsomest man I have ever seen, and I know he is the
+kindest and most courteous."
+
+"Really? A young man, I take it?"
+
+"There speaks the conceit of youth," said Dorothy, smiling. "Captain
+Kempt, U.S.N., retired. His youngest daughter is just two years older
+than myself."
+
+"Oh, yes, Captain Kempt. I--I remember him now. He was at the dinner
+last night, and sat beside our captain. What a splendid story-teller he
+is!" cried the Lieutenant with honest enthusiasm.
+
+"I shall tell him that, and ask him how he liked your song. Good-by,"
+and before the young man could collect his thoughts to make any reply,
+she was gone.
+
+Skimming lightly over the ground at first, she gradually slackened
+her pace, and slowed down to a very sober walk until she came to a
+three-storied so-called "cottage" overlooking the Bay, then with a sigh
+she opened the gate, and went into the house by the servant's entrance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II --IN THE SEWING-ROOM
+
+
+THREE women occupied the sewing-room with the splendid outlook: a mother
+and her two daughters. The mother sat in a low rocking-chair, a picture
+of mournful helplessness, her hands listlessly resting on her lap, while
+tears had left their traces on her time-worn face. The elder daughter
+paced up and down the room as striking an example of energy and
+impatience as was the mother of despondency. Her comely brow was marred
+by an angry frown. The younger daughter stood by the long window, her
+forehead resting against the pane, while her fingers drummed idly on the
+window sill. Her gaze was fixed on the blue Bay, where rested the huge
+British warship "Consternation," surrounded by a section of the United
+States squadron seated like white swans in the water. Sails of snow
+glistened here and there on the bosom of the Bay, while motor-boats and
+what-not darted this way and that impudently among the stately ships of
+the fleet.
+
+In one corner of the room stood a sewing-machine, and on the long
+table were piles of mimsy stuff out of which feminine creations are
+constructed. There was no carpet on the floor, and no ceiling overhead;
+merely the bare rafters and the boards that bore the pine shingles of
+the outer roof; yet this attic was notable for the glorious view to be
+seen from its window. It was an ideal workshop.
+
+The elder girl, as she walked to and fro, spoke with nervous irritation
+in her voice.
+
+"There is absolutely no excuse, mamma, and it's weakness in you to
+pretend that there may be. The woman has been gone for hours. There's
+her lunch on the table which has never been tasted, and the servant
+brought it up at twelve."
+
+She pointed to a tray on which were dishes whose cold contents bore out
+the truth of her remark.
+
+"Perhaps she's gone on strike," said the younger daughter, without
+removing her eyes from H.M.S. "Consternation." "I shouldn't wonder if
+we went downstairs again we'd find the house picketed to keep away
+blacklegs."
+
+"Oh, you can always be depended on to talk frivolous nonsense," said her
+elder sister scornfully. "It's the silly sentimental fashion in which
+both you and father treat work-people that makes them so difficult to
+deal with. If the working classes were taught their place--"
+
+"Working classes! How you talk! Dorothy is as much a lady as we are, and
+sometimes I think rather more of a lady than either of us. She is the
+daughter of a clergyman."
+
+"So she says," sniffed the elder girl.
+
+"Well, she ought to know," replied the younger indifferently.
+
+"It's people like you who spoil dependents in her position, with your
+Dorothy this and Dorothy that. Her name is Amhurst."
+
+"Christened Dorothy, as witness godfather and godmother," murmured the
+younger without turning her head.
+
+"I think," protested their mother meekly, as if to suggest a compromise,
+and throw oil on the troubled waters, "that she is entitled to be called
+Miss Amhurst, and treated with kindness but with reserve."
+
+"Tush!" exclaimed the elder indignantly, indicating her rejection of the
+compromise.
+
+"I don't see," murmured the younger, "why you should storm, Sabina. You
+nagged and nagged at her until she'd finished your ball-dress. It
+is mamma and I that have a right to complain. Our dresses are
+almost untouched, while you can sail grandly along the decks of the
+'Consternation' like a fully rigged yacht. There, I'm mixing my similes
+again, as papa always says. A yacht doesn't sail along the deck of a
+battleship, does it?"
+
+"It's a cruiser," weakly corrected the mother, who knew something of
+naval affairs.
+
+"Well, cruiser, then. Sabina is afraid that papa won't go unless we all
+have grand new dresses, but mother can put on her old black silk, and I
+am going if I have to wear a cotton gown."
+
+"To think of that person accepting our money, and absenting herself in
+this disgraceful way!"
+
+"Accepting our money! That shows what it is to have an imagination. Why,
+I don't suppose Dorothy has had a penny for three months, and you know
+the dress material was bought on credit."
+
+"You must remember," chided the mother mildly, "that your father is not
+rich."
+
+"Oh, I am only pleading for a little humanity. The girl for some reason
+has gone out. She hasn't had a bite to eat since breakfast time, and
+I know there's not a silver piece in her pocket to buy a bun in a
+milk-shop."
+
+"She has no business to be absent without leave," said Sabina.
+
+"How you talk! As if she were a sailor on a battleship--I mean a
+cruiser."
+
+"Where can the girl have gone?" wailed the mother, almost wringing her
+hands, partially overcome by the crisis. "Did she say anything about
+going out to you, Katherine? She sometimes makes a confidant of you,
+doesn't she?"
+
+"Confidant!" exclaimed Sabina wrathfully.
+
+"I know where she has gone," said Katherine with an innocent sigh.
+
+"Then why didn't you tell us before?" exclaimed mother and daughter in
+almost identical terms.
+
+"She has eloped with the captain of the 'Consternation,'" explained
+Katherine calmly, little guessing that her words contained a color of
+truth. "Papa sat next him at the dinner last night, and says he is a
+jolly old salt and a bachelor. Papa was tremendously taken with him,
+and they discussed tactics together. Indeed, papa has quite a distinct
+English accent this morning, and I suspect a little bit of a headache
+which he tries to conceal with a wavering smile."
+
+"You can't conceal a headache, because it's invisible," said the mother
+seriously. "I wish you wouldn't talk so carelessly, Katherine, and you
+mustn't speak like that of your father."
+
+"Oh, papa and I understand one another," affirmed Katherine with great
+confidence, and now for the first time during this conversation the
+young girl turned her face away from the window, for the door had opened
+to let in the culprit.
+
+"Now, Amhurst, what is the meaning of this?" cried Sabina before her
+foot was fairly across the threshold.
+
+All three women looked at the newcomer. Her beautiful face was aglow,
+probably through the exertion of coming up the stairs, and her eyes
+shone like those of the Goddess of Freedom as she returned steadfastly
+the supercilious stare with which the tall Sabina regarded her.
+
+"I was detained," she said quietly.
+
+"Why did you go away without permission?"
+
+"Because I had business to do which could not be transacted in this
+room."
+
+"That doesn't answer my question. Why did you not ask permission?"
+
+The girl slowly raised her two hands, and showed her shapely wrists
+close together, and a bit of the forearm not covered by the sleeve of
+her black dress.
+
+"Because," she said slowly, "the shackles have fallen from these
+wrists."
+
+"I'm sure I don't know what you mean," said Sabina, apparently impressed
+in spite of herself, but the younger daughter clapped her hands
+rapturously.
+
+"Splendid, splendid, Dorothy," she cried. "I don't know what you mean
+either, but you look like Maxine Elliott in that play where she--"
+
+"Will you keep quiet!" interrupted the elder sister over her shoulder.
+
+"I mean that I intend to sew here no longer," proclaimed Dorothy.
+
+"Oh, Miss Amhurst, Miss Amhurst," bemoaned the matron. "You will
+heartlessly leave us in this crisis when we are helpless; when there is
+not a sewing woman to be had in the place for love or money. Every one
+is working night and day to be ready for the ball on the fourteenth, and
+you--you whom we have nurtured--"
+
+"I suppose she gets more money," sneered the elder daughter bitterly.
+
+"Oh, Dorothy," said Katherine, coming a step forward and clasping her
+hands, "do you mean to say I must attend the ball in a calico dress
+after all? But I'm going, nevertheless, if I dance in a morning
+wrapper."
+
+"Katherine," chided her mother, "don't talk like that."
+
+"Of course, where more money is in the question, kindness does not
+count," snapped the elder daughter.
+
+Dorothy Amhurst smiled when Sabina mentioned the word kindness.
+
+"With me, of course, it's entirely a question of money," she admitted.
+
+"Dorothy, I never thought it of you," said Katherine, with an
+exaggerated sigh. "I wish it were a fancy dress ball, then I'd borrow my
+brother Jack's uniform, and go in that."
+
+"Katherine, I'm shocked at you," complained the mother.
+
+"I don't care: I'd make a stunning little naval cadet. But, Dorothy, you
+must be starved to death; you've never touched your lunch."
+
+"You seem to have forgotten everything to-day," said Sabina severely.
+"Duty and everything else."
+
+"You are quite right," murmured Dorothy.
+
+"And did you elope with the captain of the 'Consternation,' and were you
+married secretly, and was it before a justice of the peace? Do tell us
+all about it."
+
+"What are you saying?" asked Dorothy, with a momentary alarm coming into
+her eyes.
+
+"Oh, I was just telling mother and Sab that you had skipped by the light
+of the noon, with the captain of the 'Consternation,' who was a
+jolly old bachelor last night, but may be a married man to-day if my
+suspicions are correct. Oh, Dorothy, must I go to the ball in a dress of
+print?"
+
+The sewing girl bent an affectionate look on the impulsive Katherine.
+
+"Kate, dear," she said, "you shall wear the grandest ball dress that
+ever was seen in Bar Harbor."
+
+"How dare you call my sister Kate, and talk such nonsense?" demanded
+Sabina.
+
+"I shall always call you Miss Kempt, and now, if I have your permission,
+I will sit down. I am tired."
+
+"Yes, and hungry, too," cried Katherine. "What shall I get you, Dorothy?
+This is all cold."
+
+"Thank you, I am not in the least hungry."
+
+"Wouldn't you like a cup of tea?"
+
+Dorothy laughed a little wearily.
+
+"Yes, I would," she said, "and some bread and butter."
+
+"And cake, too," suggested Katherine.
+
+"And cake, too, if you please."
+
+Katherine skipped off downstairs.
+
+"Well, I declare!" ejaculated Sabina with a gasp, drawing herself
+together, as if the bottom had fallen out of the social fabric.
+
+Mrs. Captain Kempt folded her hands one over the other and put on a look
+of patient resignation, as one who finds all the old landmarks swept
+away from before her.
+
+"Is there anything else we can get for you?" asked Sabina icily.
+
+"Yes," replied Dorothy, with serene confidence, "I should be very much
+obliged if Captain Kempt would obtain for me a card of invitation to the
+ball on the 'Consternation.'"
+
+"Really!" gasped Sabina, "and may not my mother supplement my father's
+efforts by providing you with a ball dress for the occasion?"
+
+"I could not think of troubling her, Miss Kempt. Some of my customers
+have flattered me by saying that my taste in dress is artistic, and that
+my designs, if better known, might almost set a fashion in a small way,
+so I shall look after my costume myself; but if Mrs. Captain Kempt were
+kind enough to allow me to attend the ball under her care, I should be
+very grateful for it."
+
+"How admirable! And is there nothing that I can do to forward your
+ambitions, Miss Amhurst?"
+
+"I am going to the ball merely as a looker-on, and perhaps you might
+smile at me as you pass by with your different partners, so that people
+would say I was an acquaintance of yours."
+
+After this there was silence in the sewing room until Katherine,
+followed by a maid, entered with tea and cakes. Some dress materials
+that rested on a gypsy table were swept aside by the impulsive
+Katherine, and the table, with the tray upon it, was placed at the
+right hand of Dorothy Amhurst. When the servant left the room, Katherine
+sidled to the long sewing table, sprang up lightly upon it, and sat
+there swinging a dainty little foot. Sabina had seated herself in the
+third chair of the room, the frown still adding severity to an otherwise
+beautiful countenance. It was the younger daughter who spoke.
+
+"Now, Dorothy, tell us all about the elopement."
+
+"What elopement?"
+
+"I soothed my mother's fears by telling her that you had eloped with the
+captain of the 'Consternation.' I must have been wrong in that guess,
+because if the secret marriage I hoped had taken place, you would have
+said to Sabina that the shackles were on your wrists instead of off. But
+something important has happened, and I want to know all about it."
+
+Dorothy made no response to this appeal, and after a minute's silence
+Sabina said practically:
+
+"All that has happened is that Miss Amhurst wishes father to present her
+with a ticket to the ball on the 'Consternation,' and taking that for
+granted, she requests mother to chaperon her, and further expresses a
+desire that I shall be exceedingly polite to her while we are on board
+the cruiser."
+
+"Oh," cried Katherine jauntily, "the last proviso is past praying for,
+but the other two are quite feasible. I'd be delighted to chaperon
+Dorothy myself, and as for politeness, good gracious, I'll be polite
+enough to make up for all the courteous deficiency of the rest of the
+family.
+
+  'For I hold that on the seas,
+   The expression if you please
+   A particularly gentlemanly tone implants,
+   And so do his sisters and his cousins and his aunts.'
+
+Now, Dorothy, don't be bashful. Here's your sister and your cousin and
+your aunt waiting for the horrifying revelation. What has happened?"
+
+"I'll tell you what is going to happen, Kate," said the girl, smiling
+at the way the other ran on. "Mrs. Captain Kempt will perhaps consent to
+take you and me to New York or Boston, where we will put up at the best
+hotel, and trick ourselves out in ball costumes that will be the envy of
+Bar Harbor. I shall pay the expense of this trip as partial return for
+your father's kindness in getting me an invitation and your mother's
+kindness in allowing me to be one of your party."
+
+"Oh, then it isn't an elopement, but a legacy. Has the wicked but
+wealthy relative died?"
+
+"Yes," said Dorothy solemnly, her eyes on the floor.
+
+"Oh, I am so sorry for what I have just said!"
+
+"You always speak without thinking," chided her mother.
+
+"Yes, don't I? But, you see, I thought somehow that Dorothy had no
+relatives; but if she had one who was wealthy, and who allowed her to
+slave at sewing, then I say he was wicked, dead or alive, so there!"
+
+"When work is paid for it is not slavery," commented Sabina with
+severity and justice.
+
+The sewing girl looked up at her.
+
+"My grandfather, in Virginia, owned slaves before the war, and I have
+often thought that any curse which may have been attached to slavery has
+at least partly been expiated by me, as foreshadowed in the Bible, where
+it says that the sins of the fathers shall affect the third or fourth
+generations. I was thinking of that when I spoke of the shackles falling
+from my wrists, for sometimes, Miss Kempt, you have made me doubt
+whether wages and slavery are as incompatible as you appear to imagine.
+My father, who was a clergyman, often spoke to me of his father's
+slaves, and while he never defended the institution, I think the past in
+his mind was softened by a glamor that possibly obscured the defects of
+life on the plantation. But often in depression and loneliness I have
+thought I would rather have been one of my grandfather's slaves than
+endure the life I have been called upon to lead."
+
+"Oh, Dorothy, don't talk like that, or you'll make me cry," pleaded
+Kate. "Let us be cheerful whatever happens. Tell us about the money.
+Begin 'Once upon a time,' and then everything will be all right. No
+matter how harrowing such a story begins, it always ends with lashin's
+and lashin's of money, or else with a prince in a gorgeous uniform and
+gold lace, and you get the half of his kingdom. Do go on."
+
+Dorothy looked up at her impatient friend, and a radiant cheerfulness
+chased away the gathering shadows from her face.
+
+"Well, once upon a time I lived very happily with my father in a little
+rectory in a little town near the Hudson River. His family had been
+ruined by the war, and when the plantation was sold, or allowed to
+go derelict, whatever money came from it went to his elder and only
+brother. My father was a dreamy scholar and not a business man as his
+brother seems to have been. My mother had died when I was a child; I do
+not remember her. My father was the kindest and most patient of men, and
+all I know he taught me. We were very poor, and I undertook the duties
+of housekeeper, which I performed as well as I was able, constantly
+learning by my failures. But my father was so indifferent to material
+comforts that there were never any reproaches. He taught me all that I
+know in the way of what you might call accomplishments, and they were of
+a strangely varied order--a smattering of Latin and Greek, a good deal
+of French, history, literature, and even dancing, as well as music, for
+he was an excellent musician. Our meager income ceased with my father's
+life, and I had to choose what I should do to earn my board and keep,
+like Orphant Annie, in Whitcomb Riley's poem. There appeared to be
+three avenues open to me. I could be a governess, domestic servant, or
+dressmaker. I had already earned something at the latter occupation, and
+I thought if I could set up in business for myself, there was a greater
+chance of gaining an independence along that line than either as a
+governess or servant. But to do this I needed at least a little capital.
+
+"Although there had been no communication between the two brothers for
+many years, I had my uncle's address, and I wrote acquainting him with
+the fact of my father's death, and asking for some assistance to set
+up in business for myself, promising to repay the amount advanced with
+interest as soon as I was able, for although my father had never said
+anything against his elder brother, I somehow had divined, rather than
+knew, that he was a hard man, and his answering letter gave proof of
+that, for it contained no expression of regret for his brother's death.
+My uncle declined to make the advance I asked for, saying that many
+years before he had given my father two hundred dollars which had never
+been repaid. I was thus compelled, for the time at least, to give up
+my plan for opening a dressmaking establishment, even on the smallest
+scale, and was obliged to take a situation similar to that which I hold
+here. In three years I was able to save the two hundred dollars, which I
+sent to my uncle, and promised to remit the interest if he would tell me
+the age of the debt. He replied giving the information, and enclosing a
+receipt for the principal, with a very correct mathematical statement of
+the amount of interest if compounded annually, as was his legal right,
+but expressing his readiness to accept simple interest, and give me a
+receipt in full."
+
+"The brute!" ejaculated Katherine, which remark brought upon her a mild
+rebuke from her mother on intemperance of language.
+
+"Well, go on," said Katherine, unabashed.
+
+"I merely mention this detail," continued Dorothy, "as an object lesson
+in honesty. Never before since the world began was there such a case of
+casting bread upon the waters as was my sending the two hundred dollars.
+My uncle appears to have been a most methodical man. He filed away my
+letter which contained the money, also a typewritten copy of his reply,
+and when he died, it was these documents which turned the attention
+of the legal arm who acted for him to myself, for my uncle had left no
+will. The Californian firm communicated with lawyers in New York, and
+they began a series of very cautious inquiries, which at last resulted,
+after I had furnished certain proofs asked for, in my being declared
+heiress to my uncle's estate."
+
+"And how much did you get? How much did you get?" demanded Katherine.
+
+"I asked the lawyers from New York to deposit ten thousand dollars for
+me in the Sixth National Bank of this town, and they did so. It was to
+draw a little check against that deposit, and thus learn if it was real,
+that I went out to-day."
+
+"Ten thousand dollars," murmured Katherine, in accents of deep
+disappointment. "Is that all?"
+
+"Isn't that enough?" asked Dorothy, with a twinkle in her eyes.
+
+"No, you deserve ten times as much, and I'm not going to New York or
+Boston at your expense to buy new dresses. Not likely! I will attend the
+ball in my calico."
+
+Dorothy laughed quietly, and drew from the little satchel she wore at
+her side a letter, which she handed to Katherine.
+
+"It's private and confidential," she warned her friend.
+
+"Oh, I won't tell any one," said Katherine, unfolding it. She read
+eagerly half-way down the page, then sprang to her feet on the top of
+the table, screaming:
+
+"Fifteen million dollars! Fifteen million dollars!" and, swinging her
+arms back and forth like an athlete about to leap, sprang to the floor,
+nearly upsetting the little table, tray and all, as she embraced Dorothy
+Amhurst.
+
+"Fifteen millions! That's something like! Why, mother, do you realize
+that we have under our roof one of the richest young women in the world?
+Don't you see that the rest of this conference must take place in our
+drawing-room under the most solemn auspices? The idea of our keeping
+such an heiress in the attic!"
+
+"I believe," said Sabina, slowly and coldly, "that Mr. Rockefeller's
+income is--"
+
+"Oh, blow Mr. Rockefeller and his income!" cried the indignant younger
+sister.
+
+"Katherine!" pleaded the mother tearfully.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III --ON DECK
+
+
+THROUGHOUT the long summer day a gentle excitement had fluttered
+the hearts of those ladies, young, or not so young, who had received
+invitations to the ball on board the "Consternation" that night. The
+last touches were given to creations on which had been spent skill,
+taste, and money. Our three young women, being most tastefully and
+fashionably attired, were in high spirits, which state of feeling was
+exhibited according to the nature of each; Sabina rather stately in
+her exaltation; Dorothy quiet and demure; while Katherine, despite her
+mother's supplications, would not be kept quiet, but swung her graceful
+gown this way and that, practising the slide of a waltz, and quoting W.
+R. Gilbert, as was her custom. She glided over the floor in rhythm with
+her chant.
+
+  "When I first put this uniform on
+   I said, as I looked in the glass,
+   'It's one to a million
+    That any civilian
+    My figure and form will surpass.'"
+
+Meanwhile, in a room downstairs that good-natured veteran Captain Kempt
+was telling the latest stories to his future son-in-law, a young officer
+of the American Navy, who awaited, with dutiful impatience, the advent
+of the serene Sabina. When at last the ladies came down the party set
+out through the gathering darkness of this heavenly summer night for the
+private pier from which they were privileged, because of Captain Kempt's
+official standing, to voyage to the cruiser on the little revenue cutter
+"Whip-poor-will," which was later on to convey the Secretary of the Navy
+and his entourage across the same intervening waters. Just before they
+reached the pier their steps were arrested by the boom of a cannon,
+followed instantly by the sudden apparition of the "Consternation"
+picked out in electric light; masts, funnel and hull all outlined by
+incandescent stars.
+
+"How beautiful!" cried Sabina, whose young man stood beside her. "It is
+as if a gigantic racket, all of one color, had burst, and hung suspended
+there like the planets of heaven."
+
+"It reminds me," whispered Katherine to Dorothy, "of an overgrown
+pop-corn ball," at which remark the two girls were frivolous enough to
+laugh.
+
+"Crash!" sounded a cannon from an American ship, and then the white
+squadron became visible in a blaze of lightning. And now all the yachts
+and other craft on the waters flaunted their lines of fire, and the
+whole Bay was illuminated like a lake in Fairyland.
+
+"Now," said Captain Kempt with a chuckle, "watch the Britisher. I think
+she's going to show us some color," and as he spoke there appeared,
+spreading from nest to mast, a huge sheet of blue, with four great stars
+which pointed the corners of a parallelogram, and between the stars
+shone a huge white anchor. Cheers rang out from the crew of the
+"Consternation," and the band on board played "The Star-Spangled
+Banner."
+
+"That," said Captain Kempt in explanation, "is the flag of the United
+States Secretary of the Navy, who will be with us to-night. The visitors
+have kept very quiet about this bit of illumination, but our lads got
+on to the secret about a week ago, and I'll be very much disappointed if
+they don't give 'em tit for tat."
+
+When the band on the "Consternation" ceased playing, all lights went out
+on the American squadron, and then on the flagship appeared from mast
+to mast a device with the Union Jack in the corner, a great red cross
+dividing the flag into three white squares. As this illumination flashed
+out the American band struck up the British national anthem, and the
+outline lights appeared again.
+
+"That," said the captain, "is the British man-o'-war's flag."
+
+The "Whip-poor-will" speedily whisked the party and others across
+the sparkling waters to the foot of the grand stairway which had been
+specially constructed to conduct the elect from the tide to the deck. It
+was more than double as broad as the ordinary gangway, was carpeted from
+top to bottom, and on every step stood a blue-jacket, each as steady as
+if cast in bronze, the line forming, as one might say, a living handrail
+rising toward the dark sky.
+
+Captain Kempt and his wife went first, followed by Sabina and her young
+man with the two girls in their wake.
+
+"Aren't those men splendid?" whispered Katherine to her friend. "I wish
+each held an old-fashioned torch. I do love a sailor."
+
+"So do I," said Dorothy, then checked herself, and laughed a little.
+
+"I guess we all do," sighed Katherine.
+
+On deck the bluff captain of the "Consternation," in resplendent
+uniform, stood beside Lady Angela Burford of the British Embassy at
+Washington, to receive the guests of the cruiser. Behind these two were
+grouped an assemblage of officers and very fashionably dressed
+women, chatting vivaciously with each other. As Dorothy looked at the
+princess-like Lady Angela it seemed as if she knew her; as if here were
+one who had stepped out of an English romance. Her tall, proudly held
+figure made the stoutish captain seem shorter than he actually was. The
+natural haughtiness of those classic features was somewhat modified by a
+pro tem smile. Captain Kempt looked back over his shoulder and said in a
+low voice:
+
+"Now, young ladies, best foot forward. The Du Maurier woman is to
+receive the Gibson girls."
+
+"I know I shall laugh, and I fear I shall giggle," said Katherine, but
+she encountered a glance from her elder sister quite as haughty as any
+Lady Angela might have bestowed, and all thought of merriment fled for
+the moment; thus the ordeal passed conventionally without Katherine
+either laughing or giggling.
+
+Sabina and her young man faded away into the crowd. Captain Kempt
+was nodding to this one and that of his numerous acquaintances, and
+Katherine felt Dorothy shrink a little closer to her as a tall, unknown
+young man deftly threaded his way among the people, making directly for
+the Captain, whom he seized by the hand in a grasp of the most cordial
+friendship.
+
+"Captain Kempt, I am delighted to meet you again. My name is
+Drummond--Lieutenant Drummond, and I had the pleasure of being
+introduced to you at that dinner a week or two ago."
+
+"The pleasure was mine, sir, the pleasure was mine," exclaimed the
+Captain with a cordiality equal to that with which he had been greeted.
+He had not at first the least recollection of the young man, but the
+Captain was something of an amateur politician, and possessed all a
+politician's expertness in facing the unknown, and making the most of
+any situation in which he found himself.
+
+"Oh, yes, Lieutenant, I remember very well that excellent song you--"
+
+"Isn't it a perfect night?" gasped the Lieutenant. "I think we are to be
+congratulated on our weather."
+
+He still clung to the Captain's hand, and shook it again so warmly that
+the Captain said to himself:
+
+"I must have made an impression on this young fellow," then aloud he
+replied jauntily:
+
+"Oh, we always have good weather this time of year. You see, the United
+States Government runs the weather. Didn't you know that? Yes, our
+Weather Bureau is considered the best in the world."
+
+The Lieutenant laughed heartily, although a hollow note intervened, for
+the young man had got to the end of his conversation, realized he could
+not shake hands for a third time, yet did not know what more to say.
+The suavity of the politician came to his rescue in just the form the
+Lieutenant had hoped.
+
+"Lieutenant Drummond, allow me to introduce my wife to you."
+
+The lady bowed.
+
+"And my daughter, Katherine, and Miss Amhurst, a friend of
+ours--Lieutenant Drummond, of the 'Consternation.'"
+
+"I wonder," said the Lieutenant, as if the thought had just occurred
+to him, "if the young ladies would like to go to a point where they can
+have a comprehensive view of the decorations. I--I may not be the best
+guide, but I am rather well acquainted with the ship, you know."
+
+"Don't ask me," said Captain Kempt. "Ask the girls. Everything I've had
+in life has come to me because I asked, and if I didn't get it the first
+time, I asked again."
+
+"Of course we want to see the decorations," cried Katherine with
+enthusiasm, and so bowing to the Captain and Mrs. Kempt, the Lieutenant
+led the young women down the deck, until he came to an elevated spot out
+of the way of all possible promenaders, on which had been placed in
+a somewhat secluded position, yet commanding a splendid view of the
+throng, a settee with just room for two, that had been taken from some
+one's cabin. A blue-jacket stood guard over it, but at a nod from the
+Lieutenant he disappeared.
+
+"Hello!" cried Katherine, "reserved seats, eh? How different from a
+theatre chair, where you are entitled to your place by holding a colored
+bit of cardboard. Here a man with a cutlass stands guard. It gives one a
+notion of the horrors of war, doesn't it, Dorothy?"
+
+The Lieutenant laughed quite as heartily as if he had not himself hoped
+to occupy the position now held by the sprightly Katherine. He was
+cudgelling his brain to solve the problem represented by the adage "Two
+is company, three is none." The girls sat together on the settee and
+gazed out over the brilliantly lighted, animated throng. People were
+still pouring up the gangways, and the decks were rapidly becoming
+crowded with a many-colored, ever-shifting galaxy of humanity. The hum
+of conversation almost drowned the popular selections being played by
+the cruiser's excellent band. Suddenly one popular selection was cut in
+two. The sound of the instruments ceased for a moment, then they struck
+up "The Stars and Stripes for Ever."
+
+"Hello," cried Katherine, "can your band play Sousa?"
+
+"I should say we could," boasted the Lieutenant, "and we can play his
+music, in a way to give some hints to Mr. Sousa's own musicians."
+
+"To beat the band, eh?--Sousa's band?" rejoined Katherine, dropping into
+slang.
+
+"Exactly," smiled the Lieutenant, "and now, young ladies, will you
+excuse me for a few moments? This musical selection means that your
+Secretary of the Navy is on the waters, and I must be in my place with
+the rest of the officers to receive him and his staff with all ceremony.
+Please promise you will not leave this spot till I return: I implore
+you."
+
+"Better put the blue-jacket on guard over us," laughed Katherine.
+
+"By Jove! a very good idea."
+
+Dorothy saw all levity depart from his face, giving way to a look
+of sternness and command. Although he was engaged in a joke, the
+subordinate must see no sign of fooling in his countenance. He said a
+sharp word to a blue-jacket, who nimbly sprang to the end of the settee,
+raised his hand in salute, and stiffened himself to an automaton. Then
+the girls saw the tall figure of the Lieutenant wending its way to the
+spot where the commander stood.
+
+"I say, Dorothy, we're prisoners. I wonder what this Johnny would do if
+we attempted to fly. Isn't the Lieutenant sumptuous?"
+
+"He seems a very agreeable person," murmured Dorothy.
+
+"Agreeable! Why, he's splendid. I tell you, Dorothy, I'm going to have
+the first dance with him. I'm the eldest. He's big enough to divide
+between two small girls like us, you know."
+
+"I don't intend to dance," said Dorothy.
+
+"Nonsense, you're not going to sit here all night with nobody to speak
+to. I'll ask the Lieutenant to bring you a man. He'll take two or three
+blue-jackets and capture anybody you want."
+
+"Katherine," said Dorothy, almost as severely as if it were the elder
+sister who spoke, "if you say anything like that, I'll go back to the
+house."
+
+"You can't get back. I'll appeal to the guard. I'll have you locked up
+if you don't behave yourself."
+
+"You should behave yourself. Really, Katherine, you must be careful what
+you say, or you'll make me feel very unhappy."
+
+Katherine caught her by the elbow, and gave it an affectionate little
+squeeze.
+
+"Don't be frightened, Miss Propriety, I wouldn't make you unhappy for
+the world. But surely you're going to dance?"
+
+Dorothy shook her head.
+
+"Some other time. Not to-night. There are too many people here. I
+shouldn't enjoy it, and--there are other reasons. This is all so new and
+strange to me: these brilliant men and beautiful women--the lights,
+the music, everything--it is as if I had stepped into another world;
+something I had read about, or perhaps dreamed about, and never expected
+to see."
+
+"Why, you dear girl, I'm not going to dance either, then."
+
+"Oh, yes, you will, Katherine; you must."
+
+"I couldn't be so selfish as to leave you here all alone."
+
+"It isn't selfish at all, Katherine. I shall enjoy myself completely
+here. I don't really wish to talk to any one, but simply to enjoy my
+dream, with just a little fear at the bottom of my heart that I shall
+suddenly wake up, rubbing my eyes, in the sewing room."
+
+Katherine pinched her.
+
+"Now are you awake?"
+
+Dorothy smiled, still dreaming.
+
+"Hello!" cried Katherine, with renewed animation, "they've got the
+Secretary safe aboard the lugger, and they seem to be clearing the decks
+for action. Here is my dear Lieutenant returning; tall even among tall
+men. Look at him. He's in a great hurry, yet so polite, and doesn't want
+to bump against anybody. And now, Dorothy, don't you be afraid. I shall
+prove a perfect model of diffidence. You will be proud of me when you
+learn with what timidity I pronounce prunes and prism. I think I must
+languish a little at him. I don't know quite how it's done, but in old
+English novels the girls always languished, and perhaps an Englishman
+expects a little languishment in his. I wonder if he comes of a noble
+family. If he doesn't, I don't think I'll languish very much. Still,
+what matters the pomp of pageantry and pride of race--isn't that the way
+the poem runs? I love our dear little Lieutenant for himself alone, and
+I think I will have just one dance with him, at least."
+
+Drummond had captured a camp-stool somewhere, and this he placed at
+right angles to the settee, so that he might face the two girls, and yet
+not interrupt their view. The sailor on guard once more faded away, and
+the band now struck up the music of the dance.
+
+"Well," cried Drummond cheerfully, "I've got everything settled. I've
+received the Secretary of the Navy: our captain is to dance with his
+wife, and the Secretary is Lady Angela's partner. There they go!"
+
+For a few minutes the young people watched the dance, then the
+Lieutenant said:
+
+"Ladies, I am disappointed that you have not complimented our electrical
+display."
+
+"I am sure it's very nice, indeed, and most ingenious," declared
+Dorothy, speaking for the first time that evening to the officer, but
+Katherine, whose little foot was tapping the deck to the dance music,
+tossed her head, and declared nonchalantly that it was all very well
+as a British effort at illumination, but she begged the young man to
+remember that America was the home of electricity.
+
+"Where would you have been if it were not for Edison?"
+
+"I suppose," said the Lieutenant cheerfully, "that we should have been
+where Moses was when the candle went out--in the dark."
+
+"You might have had torches," said Dorothy. "My friend forgets she
+was wishing the sailors held torches on that suspended stairway up the
+ship's side."
+
+"I meant electric torches--Edison torches, of course."
+
+Katherine was displeased at the outlook. She was extremely fond of
+dancing, and here this complacent young man had planted himself down on
+a camp stool to talk of electricity.
+
+"Miss Kempt, I am sorry that you are disappointed at our display. Your
+slight upon British electrical engineering leaves us unscathed, because
+this has been done by a foreign mechanic, whom I wish to present to
+you."
+
+"Oh, indeed," said Katherine, rather in the usual tone of her elder
+sister. "I don't dance with mechanics, thank you."
+
+She emphasized the light fantastic word, but the Lieutenant did not take
+the hint; he merely laughed again in an exasperatingly good-natured way,
+and said:
+
+"Lady Angela is going to be Jack Lamont's partner for the next waltz."
+
+"Oh," said Katherine loftily, "Lady Angela may dance with any blacksmith
+that pleases her, but I don't. I'm taking it for granted that Jack
+Lamont is your electrical tinsmith."
+
+"Yes, he is, and I think him by all odds the finest fellow aboard this
+ship. It's quite likely you have read about his sister. She is a year
+older than Jack, very beautiful, cultured, everything that a grande dame
+should be, yet she has given away her huge estate to the peasantry, and
+works with them in the fields, living as they do, and faring as they
+do. There was an article about her in one of the French reviews not long
+ago. She is called the Princess Natalia."
+
+"The Princess Natalia!" echoed Katherine, turning her face toward the
+young man. "How can Princess Natalia be a sister of Jack Lamont? Did she
+marry some old prince, and take to the fields in disgust?"
+
+"Oh, no; Jack Lamont is a Russian. He is called Prince Ivan Lermontoff
+when he's at home, but we call him Jack Lamont for short. He's going to
+help me on the Russian business I told you of."
+
+"What Russian business?" asked Katherine. "I don't remember your
+speaking of it."
+
+Dorothy went white, edged a little way from her friend, while her
+widening eyes flashed a warning at the Lieutenant, who, too late,
+remembered that this conversation on Russia had taken place during the
+walk from the bank. The young man coughed slightly behind his open hand,
+reddened, and stammered:
+
+"Oh, I thought I had told you. Didn't I mention the prince to you as we
+were coming here?"
+
+"Not that I recollect," said Katherine. "Is he a real, genuine prince? A
+right down regular, regular, regular royal prince?"
+
+"I don't know about the royalty, but he's a prince in good standing in
+his own land, and he is also an excellent blacksmith." The Lieutenant
+chuckled a little. "He and his sister have both been touched a good deal
+by Tolstoian doctrine. Jack is the most wonderful inventor, I think,
+that is at present on the earth, Edison notwithstanding. Why, he is just
+now engaged on a scheme by which he can float houses from the mountains
+here down to New York. Float them--pipe-line them would perhaps be a
+better term. You know they have pipe-lines to carry petroleum. Very
+well; Jack has a solution that dissolves stone as white sugar dissolves
+in tea, and he believes he can run the fluid from the quarries to where
+building is going on. It seems that he then puts this liquid into molds,
+and there you have the stone again. I don't understand the process
+myself, but Jack tells me it's marvelously cheap, and marvelously
+effective. He picked up the idea from nature one time when he and I were
+on our vacation at Detroit."
+
+"Detroit, Michigan?"
+
+"The Detroit River."
+
+"Well, that runs between Michigan and Canada."
+
+"No, no, this is in France. I believe the real name of the river is the
+Tarn. There's a gorge called Detroit--the strait, you know. Wonderful
+place--tremendous chasm. You go down in a boat, and all the tributary
+rivers pour into the main stream like jets from the nozzle of a hose.
+They tell me this is caused by the rain percolating through the dead
+leaves on the surface of the ground far above, and thus the water
+becomes saturated with carbonic acid gas, and so dissolves the limestone
+until the granite is reached, and the granite forms the bed of these
+underground rivers. It all seemed to me very wonderful, but it struck
+Jack on his scientific side, and he has been experimenting ever since.
+He says he'll be able to build a city with a hose next year."
+
+"Where does he live?"
+
+"On the cruiser just at present. I was instrumental in getting him
+signed on as John Lamont, and he passed without question. No wonder, for
+he has scientific degrees from all sorts of German universities, from
+Oxford, and one or two institutions in the States. When at home he lives
+in St. Petersburg."
+
+"Has he a palace there?"
+
+Drummond laughed.
+
+"He's got a blacksmith shop, with two rooms above, and I'm going to stop
+with him for a few months as soon as I get my leave. When the cruiser
+reaches England we pay off, and I expect to have nothing to do for six
+months, so Jack and I will make for St. Petersburg."
+
+"Why do you call him Lamont? Is it taken from his real name of
+what-d'ye-call-it-off?"
+
+"Lermontoff? Yes. The Czar Demetrius, some time about the beginning of
+the seventeenth century, established a Scottish Guard, just as Louis
+XI did in France two hundred years before, and there came over from
+Scotland Lamonts, Carmichaels, Buchanans and others, on whom were
+bestowed titles and estates. Prince Ivan Lermontoff is a descendant of
+the original Lamont, who was an officer in the Scottish Guard of Russia.
+
+"So he is really a Scotchman?"
+
+"That's what I tell him when he annoys me, as I am by way of being a
+Scotchman myself. Ah, the waltz is ended. Will you excuse me a moment
+while I fetch his Highness?"
+
+Dorothy inclined her head, and Katherine fairly beamed permission.
+
+"Oh, Dorothy," she exclaimed, when the Lieutenant was out of hearing,
+"think of it! A real prince, and my ambition has never risen higher than
+a paltry count, or some plebeian of that sort. He's mine, Dorothy; I
+found him first."
+
+"I thought you had appropriated the Lieutenant?"
+
+"What are lieutenants to me? The proud daughter of a captain (retired)
+cannot stoop to a mere lieutenant."
+
+"You wouldn't have to stoop far, Kate, with so tall a man as Mr.
+Drummond."
+
+"You are beginning to take notice, aren't you, Dot? But I bestow the
+Lieutenant freely upon you, because I'm going to dance with the Prince,
+even if I have to ask him myself.
+
+  She'll toddle away, as all aver,
+  With the Lord High Executioner.
+
+Ah, here they come. Isn't he perfectly splendid? Look at his beard! Just
+the color of a brand-new twenty-dollar gold piece. See that broad
+ribbon diagonally across him. I wonder what it means. And gaze at
+those scintillating orders on his breast. Good gracious me, isn't he
+splendid?"
+
+"Yes, for a blacksmith. I wonder if he beat those stars out on his
+anvil. He isn't nearly so tall as Lieutenant Drummond."
+
+"Dorothy, I'll not allow you to disparage my Prince. How can you be so
+disagreeable? I thought from the very first that the Lieutenant was too
+tall. If the Prince expects me to call him 'your Highness,' he'll be
+disappointed."
+
+"You are quite right, Kate. The term would suit the Lieutenant better."
+
+"Dorothy, I believe you're jealous."
+
+"Oh, no, I'm not," said Dorothy, shaking her head and laughing, and then
+"Hush!" she added, as Katherine was about to speak again.
+
+The next moment the young men stood before them, and, introductions
+being soberly performed, the Prince lost no time in begging Katherine to
+favor him with a dance, to which request the young woman was graciously
+pleased to accede, without, however, exhibiting too much haste about her
+acceptance, and so they walked off together.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV --"AT LAST ALONE"
+
+
+"SOME one has taken the camp stool," said Lieutenant Drummond. "May
+I sit here?" and the young woman was good enough to give the desired
+permission.
+
+When he had seated himself he glanced around, then impulsively held out
+his hand.
+
+"Miss Amhurst," he said, "how are you?"
+
+"Very well, thank you," replied the girl with a smile, and after half a
+moment's hesitation she placed her hand in his.
+
+"Of course you dance, Miss Amhurst?"
+
+"Yes, but not to-night. I am here merely as a looker-on in Vienna. You
+must not allow politeness to keep you away from the floor, or, perhaps,
+I should say the deck. I don't mind being alone in the least."
+
+"Now, Miss Amhurst, that is not a hint, is it? Tell me that I have not
+already tired you of my company."
+
+"Oh, no, but I do not wish you to feel that simply because we met
+casually the other day you are compelled to waste your evening sitting
+out."
+
+"Indeed, Miss Amhurst, although I should very much like to have the
+pleasure of dancing with you, there is no one else here that I should
+care to ask. I have quailed under the eagle eye of my Captain once or
+twice this evening, and I have been rather endeavoring to keep out
+of his sight. I fear he has found something new about me of which to
+disapprove, so I have quite determined not to dance, unless you would
+consent to dance with me, in which case I am quite ready to brave his
+reproachful glances."
+
+"Have you done anything wrong lately?"
+
+"Heaven only knows! I try not to be purposely wicked, and indeed have
+put forth extra efforts to be extra good, but it seems all of no avail.
+I endeavor to go about the ship with a subdued, humble, unobtrusive air,
+but this is rather difficult for a person of my size. I don't think a
+man can droop successfully unless he's under six feet in height."
+
+Dorothy laughed with quiet content. She was surprised to find herself
+so much at her ease with him, and so mildly happy. They shared a secret
+together, and that of itself was an intangible bond linking him with her
+who had no ties with any one else. She liked him; had liked him from the
+first; and his unconcealed delight in her company was gratifying to a
+girl who heretofore had found none to offer her the gentle courtesies of
+life.
+
+"Is it the Russian business again? You do not look very much troubled
+about it."
+
+"Ah, that is--that is--" he stammered in apparent confusion, then
+blurted out, "because you--because I am sitting here. Although I have
+met you but once before, it seems somehow as if I had known you always,
+and my slight anxiety that I told you of fades away in your presence. I
+hope you don't think I am forward in saying this, but really to-night,
+when I saw you at the head of the gangway, I could scarcely refrain from
+going directly to you and greeting you. I am afraid I made rather a hash
+of it with Captain Kempt. He is too much of a gentleman to have shown
+any surprise at my somewhat boisterous accosting of him, and you know I
+didn't remember him at all, but I saw that you were under his care, and
+chanced it. Luckily it seems to have been Captain Kempt after all, but I
+fear I surprised him, taking him by storm, as it were."
+
+"I thought you did it very nicely," said Dorothy, "and, indeed, until
+this moment I hadn't the least suspicion that you didn't recognize him.
+He is a dear old gentleman, and I'm very fond of him."
+
+"I say," said the Lieutenant, lowering his voice, "I nearly came a
+cropper when I spoke of that Russian affair before your friend. I was
+thinking of--of--well, I wasn't thinking of Miss Kempt--"
+
+"Oh, she never noticed anything," said Dorothy hurriedly. "You got out
+of that, too, very well. I thought of telling her I had met you before
+while she and I were in New York together, but the opportunity never
+seemed--well, I couldn't quite explain, and, indeed, didn't wish to
+explain my own inexplicable conduct at the bank, and so trusted to
+chance. If you had greeted me first tonight, I suppose"--she smiled and
+looked up at him--"I suppose I should have brazened it out somehow."
+
+"Have you been in New York?"
+
+"Yes, we were there nearly a week."
+
+"Ah, that accounts for it."
+
+"Accounts for what?"
+
+"I have walked up and down every street, lane and alley in Bar Harbor,
+hoping to catch a glimpse of you. I have haunted the town, and all the
+time you were away."
+
+"No wonder the Captain frowns at you! Have you been neglecting your
+duty?"
+
+"Well, I have been stretching my shore leave just a little bit. I wanted
+to apologize for talking so much about myself as we walked from the
+bank."
+
+"It was very interesting, and, if you remember, we walked farther than I
+had intended."
+
+"Were your friends waiting for you, or had they gone?"
+
+"They were waiting for me."
+
+"I hope they weren't cross?"
+
+"Oh, no. I told them I had been detained. It happened not to be
+necessary to enter into details, so I was saved the task of explanation,
+and, besides, we had other interesting things to discuss. This function
+on the cruiser has loomed so large as a topic of conversation that there
+has been little need of any other subject to talk about for several days
+past."
+
+"I suppose you must have attended many grander occasions than this.
+Although we have endeavored to make a display, and although we possess a
+reasonably efficient band, still, a cruiser is not exactly designed for
+the use to which it is being put to-night. We have many disadvantages to
+overcome which are not met with in the sumptuous dwellings of New York
+and Bar Harbor."
+
+The girl's eyes were on the deck for some moments before she replied,
+then she looked across at the dancers, and finally said:
+
+"I think the ball on the 'Consternation' quite equals anything I have
+ever attended."
+
+"It is nice of you to say that. Praise from--I won't name Sir Hubert
+Stanley--but rather Lady Hubert Stanley--is praise, indeed. And now,
+Miss Amhurst, since I have confessed my fruitless wanderings through
+Bar Harbor, may I not have the pleasure of calling upon you to-morrow or
+next day?"
+
+Her eyes were dreamily watching the dancers.
+
+"I suppose," she said slowly, with the flicker of a smile curving those
+enticing lips, "that since you were so very friendly with Captain
+Kempt to-night he may expect you to smoke a cigar with him, and it will
+possibly happen that Katherine and I, who are very fond of the Captain,
+may chance to come in while you are there."
+
+"Katherine? Ah, Katherine is the name of the young lady who was with you
+here--Miss Kempt?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"You are stopping with the Kempts, then?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I wonder if they'd think I was taking a liberty if I brought Jack
+Lamont with me?"
+
+"The Prince?" laughed Dorothy. "Is he a real prince?"
+
+"Oh, yes, there's no doubt about that. I shouldn't have taken the
+liberty of introducing him to you as Prince Lermontoff if he were not,
+as we say in Scotland, a real Mackay--the genuine article. Well, then,
+the Prince and I will pay our respects to Captain Kempt to-morrow
+afternoon."
+
+"Did you say the Prince is going with you to Russia?"
+
+"Oh, yes. As I told you, I intend to live very quietly in St.
+Petersburg, and the Prince has his shop and a pair of rooms above it in
+a working quarter of the city. I shall occupy one of the rooms and he
+the other. The Prince is an excellent cook, so we shan't starve, even if
+we engage no servant."
+
+"Has the Prince given his estates away also?"
+
+"He hasn't given them away exactly, but he is a very indulgent landlord,
+and he spends so much money on his experiments and travel that, although
+he has a formidable income, he is very frequently quite short of money.
+Did you like him?"
+
+"Yes. Of course I saw him for a moment only. I wonder why they haven't
+returned. There's been several dances since they left."
+
+"Perhaps," said the Lieutenant, with a slight return of his stammering,
+"your friend may be as fond of dancing as Jack is."
+
+"You are still determined to go to Russia?"
+
+"Quite. There is absolutely no danger. I may not accomplish anything,
+but I'll have a try at it. The Prince has a good deal of influence in
+St. Petersburg, which he will use quietly on my behalf, so that I
+may see the important people. I shall be glad when the Captain ceases
+frowning--"
+
+Drummond was interrupted by a fellow-officer, who raised his cap, and
+begged a word with him.
+
+"I think, Drummond, the Captain wanted to see you."
+
+"Oh, did he say that?"
+
+"No, but I know he has left a note for you in your cabin. Shall I go and
+fetch it?"
+
+"I wish you would, Chesham, if you don't mind, and it isn't too much
+trouble."
+
+"No trouble at all. Delighted, I'm sure," said Chesham, again raising
+his cap and going off.
+
+"Now, I wonder what I have forgotten to do."
+
+Drummond heaved a sigh proportionate to himself.
+
+"Under the present condition of things a bit of neglect that would go
+unnoticed with another man is a sign of unrepentant villainy in me. Any
+other Lieutenant may steal a horse while I may not look over a hedge.
+You see how necessary it is for me to go to Russia, and get this thing
+smoothed over."
+
+"I think, perhaps, you are too sensitive, and notice slights where
+nothing of the kind is meant," said the girl.
+
+Chesham returned and handed Drummond a letter.
+
+"Will you excuse me a moment?" he said, and as she looked at him he
+flattered himself that he noticed a trace of anxiety in her eyes. He
+tore open the missive.
+
+"By Jove!" he cried.
+
+"What is it?" she could not prevent herself from saying, leaning
+forward.
+
+"I am ordered home. The Admiralty commands me to take the first steamer
+for England."
+
+"Is that serious?"
+
+He laughed with well-feigned hilarity.
+
+"Oh, no, not serious; it's just their way of doing things. They might
+easily have allowed me to come home in my own ship. My only fear is I
+shall have to take the train for New York early to-morrow morning. But,"
+he said, holding out his hands, "it is not serious if you allow me to
+write to you, and if you will permit me to hope that I may receive an
+answer."
+
+She placed her hand in his, this time without hesitation.
+
+"You may write," she said, "and I will reply. I trust it is not
+serious."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V --AFTER THE OPERA IS OVER
+
+
+IN mid-afternoon of the day following the entertainment on board the
+"Consternation" our two girls were seated opposite one another under the
+rafters of the sewing room, in the listless, desultory manner of those
+who have not gone home till morning, till daylight did appear. The
+dominant note of a summer cottage is the rocking-chair, and there were
+two in the sewing room, where Katherine and Dorothy swayed gently back
+and forth as they talked. They sat close to the low, broad window which
+presented so beautiful a picture of the blue Bay and the white shipping.
+The huge "Consternation" lay moored with her broadside toward the town,
+all sign of festivity already removed from hull and rigging, and, to the
+scarcely slumber-satisfied eyes of the girls, something of the sadness
+of departure seemed to hang as a haze around the great ship. The girls
+were not discussing the past, but rather anticipating the future;
+forecasting it, with long, silent pauses intervening.
+
+"So you will not stay with us? You are determined to turn your wealthy
+back on the poor Kempt family?" Katherine was saying.
+
+"But I shall return to the Kempt family now and then, if they will let
+me. I must get away for a time and think. My life has suddenly become
+all topsy-turvy, and I need to get my bearings, as does a ship that has
+been through a storm and lost her reckoning."
+
+"'She dunno where she are,' as the song says."
+
+"Exactly: that is the state of things."
+
+"I think it's too bad, Dorothy, that you did not allow us to make public
+announcement of your good fortune. Just imagine what an ovation you
+would have had on board the cruiser last night if it had been known that
+the richest woman in that assemblage was a pretty, shy little creature
+sitting all by herself, and never indulging in even one dance."
+
+"I shouldn't in the least care for that sort of ovation, Kate, and if
+every one present were as well pleased with the festivities as I, they
+must all have enjoyed themselves immensely. I believe my friend Kate did
+my share of the dancing as well as her own."
+
+"'She danced, and she danced, and she danced them a' din.' I think those
+are the words of the Scottish song that the Prince quoted. He seems up
+in Scottish poetry, and does not even resent being called a Scotchman.
+This energetic person of the song seems to have danced them all to a
+standstill, as I understood him, for he informs me 'a' means 'all' and
+'din' means 'done,' but I told him I'd rather learn Russian than Scotch;
+it was so much easier, and his Highness was good enough to laugh at
+that. Didn't the Lieutenant ask you to dance at all?"
+
+"Oh, yes, he did."
+
+"And you refused?"
+
+"I refused."
+
+"I didn't think he had sense enough to ask a girl to dance."
+
+"You are ungrateful, Katherine. Remember he introduced you to the
+Prince."
+
+"Yes, that's so. I had forgotten. I shall never say anything against him
+again."
+
+"You like the Prince, then?"
+
+"Of all the crowned heads, emperors, kings, sultans, monarchs of every
+description, dukes, counts, earls, marquises, whom I have met, and who
+have pestered my life asking me to share their royal perquisites, I
+think I may say quite truthfully that I like this Jack Lamont better
+than any one of them."
+
+"Surely Prince Jack has not offered you his principality already?"
+
+"No, not yet, but with an eye to the future I have persuaded him to give
+up Tolstoi and read Mark Twain, who is not only equally humorous, but
+much more sensible than the Russian writer. Jack must not be allowed to
+give away his estates to the peasants as his silly sister has done. I
+may need them later on."
+
+"Oh, you've got that far, have you?"
+
+"I have got that far: he hasn't. He doesn't know anything about it, but
+I'll wake him up when the right time comes. There are many elements of
+sanity about him. He told me that he intended to give up his estates,
+but in the first place he had been too busy, and in the second he needed
+the money. His good sense, however, requires refining, so that he may
+get rid of the dross. I don't blame him; I blame Tolstoi. For instance,
+when I asked him if he had patented his liquid city invention, he said
+he did not wish to make a profit from his discovery, but intended it for
+the good of humanity at large. Imagine such an idiotic idea as that!"
+
+"I think such views are entirely to his credit," alarmed Dorothy.
+
+"Oh, of course, but the plan is not practicable. If he allows such an
+invention to slip through his fingers, the Standard Oil people will
+likely get hold of it, form a monopoly, and then where would humanity at
+large be? I tell him the right way is to patent it, make all the money
+he can, and use the cash for benefiting humanity under the direction of
+some charitable person like myself."
+
+"Did you suggest that to him?"
+
+"I did not intimate who the sensible person was, but I elucidated the
+principle of the thing."
+
+"Yes, and what did he say?"
+
+"Many things, Dorothy, many things. At one time he became confidential
+about his possessions in foreign lands. It seems he owns several
+castles, and when he visits any of them he cannot prevent the
+moujiks, if that is the proper term for the peasantry over there, from
+prostrating themselves on the ground as he passes by, beating their
+foreheads against the earth, and chanting, in choice Russian, the
+phrase: 'Defer, defer, here comes the Lord High Executioner,' or words
+to that effect. I told him I didn't see why he should interfere with so
+picturesque a custom, and he said if I visited one of his castles that
+these estimable people, at a word from him, would form a corduroy road
+in the mud with their bodies, so that I might step dry-shod from the
+carriage to the castle doors, and I stipulated that he should at least
+spread a bit of stair carpet over the poor wretches before I made my
+progress across his front yard."
+
+"Well, you did become confidential if you discussed a visit to Russia."
+
+"Yes, didn't we? I suppose you don't approve of my forward conduct?"
+
+"I am sure you acted with the utmost prudence, Kate."
+
+"I didn't lose any time, though, did I?"
+
+"I don't know how much time is required to attain the point of
+friendship you reached. I am inexperienced. It is true I have read of
+love at first sight, and I am merely waiting to be told whether or not
+this is an instance of it."
+
+"Oh, you are very diffident, aren't you, sitting there so bashfully!"
+
+"I may seem timid or bashful, but it's merely sleepiness."
+
+"You're a bit of a humbug, Dorothy."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"I don't know why, but you are. No, it was not a case of love at first
+sight. It was a case of feminine vengeance. Yes, you may look surprised,
+but I'm telling the truth. After I walked so proudly off with his high
+mightiness, we had a most agreeable dance together; then I proposed
+to return to you, but the young man would not have it so, and for the
+moment I felt flattered. By and by I became aware, however, that it
+was not because of my company he avoided your vicinity, but that he was
+sacrificing himself for his friend."
+
+"What friend?"
+
+"Lieutenant Drummond, of course."
+
+"How was he sacrificing himself for Lieutenant Drummond?"
+
+"I surmise that the tall Lieutenant did not fall a victim to my wiles
+as I had at first supposed, but, in some unaccountable manner, one can
+never tell how these things happen; he was most anxious to be left alone
+with the coy Miss Dorothy Amhurst, who does not understand how long a
+time it takes to fall in love at first sight, although she has read of
+these things, dear, innocent girl. The first villain of the piece has
+said to the second villain of the piece: 'There's a superfluous young
+woman over on our bench; I'll introduce you to her. You lure her off to
+the giddy dance, and keep her away as long as you can, and I'll do as
+much for you some day.'
+
+"Whereupon Jack Lamont probably swore--I understand that profanity
+is sometimes distressingly prevalent aboard ship--but nevertheless he
+allowed the Lieutenant to lead him like a lamb to the slaughter. Well,
+not being powerful enough to throw him overboard when I realized the
+state of the case, I did the next best thing. I became cloyingly sweet
+to him. I smiled upon him: I listened to his farrago of nonsense about
+the chemical components of his various notable inventions, as if a girl
+attends a ball to study chemistry! Before half an hour had passed
+the infant had come to the conclusion that here was the first really
+sensible woman he had ever met. He soon got to making love to me, as the
+horrid phrase goes, as if love were a mixture to be compounded of this
+ingredient and that, and then shaken before taken. I am delighted to
+add, as a testimony to my own powers of pleasing, that Jack soon forgot
+he was a sacrifice, and really, with a little instruction, he would
+become a most admirable flirt. He is coming to call upon me this
+afternoon, and then he will get his eyes opened. I shall tread on him as
+if he were one of his own moujiks."
+
+"What a wonderful imagination you have, Kate. All you have said is pure
+fancy. I saw he was taken with you from the very first. He never even
+glanced at me."
+
+"Of course not: he wasn't allowed to."
+
+"Nonsense, Kate. If I thought for a moment you were really in earnest, I
+should say you underestimate your own attractions."
+
+"Oh, that's all very well, Miss Dorothy Dimple; you are trying to draw a
+red herring across the trail, because you know that what I want to hear
+is why Lieutenant Drummond was so anxious to get me somewhere else. What
+use did he make of the opportunity the good-natured Prince and my sweet
+complacency afforded him?"
+
+"He said nothing which might not have been overheard by any one."
+
+"Come down to particulars, Dorothy, and let me judge. You are so
+inexperienced, you know, that it is well to take counsel with a more
+sophisticated friend."
+
+"I don't just remember--"
+
+"No, I thought you wouldn't. Did he talk of himself or of you?"
+
+"Of himself, of course. He told me why he was going to Russia, and spoke
+of some checks he had met in his profession."
+
+"Ah! Did he cash them?"
+
+"Obstacles--difficulties that were in his way, which he hoped to
+overcome."
+
+"Oh, I see. And did you extend that sympathy which--"
+
+There was a knock at the door, and the maid came in, bearing a card.
+
+"Good gracious me!" cried Katherine, jumping to her feet. "The Prince
+has come. What a stupid thing that we have no mirror in this room, and
+it's a sewing and sitting room, too. Do I look all right, Dorothy?"
+
+"To me you seem perfection."
+
+"Ah, well, I can glance at a glass on the next floor. Won't you come
+down and see him trampled on?"
+
+"No, thank you. I shall most likely drop off to sleep, and enjoy forty
+winks in this very comfortable chair. Don't be too harsh with the
+young man, Kate. You are quite wrong in your surmises about him. The
+Lieutenant never made any such arrangement as you suggest, because he
+talked of nothing but the most commonplace subjects all the time I was
+with him, as I was just about to tell you, only you seem in such a hurry
+to get away."
+
+"Oh, that doesn't deceive me in the least. I'll be back shortly, with
+the young man's scalp dangling at my belt. Now we shan't be long," and
+with that Katherine went skipping downstairs.
+
+Dorothy picked up a magazine that lay on the table, and for a few
+moments turned its leaves from one story to another, trying to interest
+herself, but failing. Then she lifted the newspaper that lay at her
+feet, but it also was soon cast aside, and she leaned back in her chair
+with half-closed eyes, looking out at the cruiser in the Bay. A slight
+haze arose between her and the ship, thickening and thickening until at
+last it obscured the vessel.
+
+Dorothy was oppressed by a sense of something forgotten, and she strove
+in vain to remember what it was. It was of the utmost importance, she
+was certain, and this knowledge made her mental anxiety the greater.
+
+At last out of the gloom she saw Sabina approach, clothed in rags, and
+then a flash of intuition enabled her to grasp the difficulty. Through
+her remissness the ball dress was unfinished, and the girl, springing
+to her feet, turned intuitively to the sewing-machine, when the ringing
+laugh of Katherine dissolved the fog.
+
+"Why, you poor girl, what's the matter with you? Are you sitting down to
+drudgery again? You've forgotten the fortune!"
+
+"Are--are you back already?" cried Dorothy, somewhat wildly.
+
+"Already! Why, bless me, I've been away an hour and a quarter. You dear
+girl, you've been asleep and in slavery again!"
+
+"I think I was," admitted Dorothy with a sigh.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI --FROM SEA TO MOUNTAIN
+
+
+THREE days later the North Atlantic squadron of the British Navy sailed
+down the coast from Halifax, did not even pause at Bar Harbor, but sent
+a wireless telegram to the "Consternation," which pulled up anchor and
+joined the fleet outside, and so the war-ships departed for another
+port.
+
+Katherine stood by the broad window in the sewing room in her favorite
+attitude, her head sideways against the pane, her eyes languidly gazing
+upon the Bay, fingers drumming this time a very slow march on the window
+sill. Dorothy sat in a rocking-chair, reading a letter for the second
+time. There had been silence in the room for some minutes, accentuated
+rather than broken by the quiet drumming of the girl's fingers on the
+window sill. Finally Katherine breathed a deep sigh and murmured to
+herself:
+
+  "'Far called our Navy fades away,
+        On dune and headland sinks the fire.
+    Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
+        Is one with Nineveh and Tyre.'
+
+I wonder if I've got the lines right," she whispered to herself. She had
+forgotten there was anyone else in the room, and was quite startled when
+Dorothy spoke.
+
+"Kate, that's a solemn change, from Gilbert to Kipling. I always judge
+your mood by your quotations. Has life suddenly become too serious for
+'Pinafore' or the 'Mikado'?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know," said Katherine, without turning round. "They are
+humorous all, and so each furnishes something suitable for the saddened
+mind. Wisdom comes through understanding your alphabet properly.
+For instance, first there was Gilbert, and that gave us G; then came
+Kipling, and he gave us K; thus we get an algebraic formula, G.K., which
+are the initials of Chesterton, a still later arrival, and as the mind
+increases in despondency it sinks lower and lower down the alphabet
+until it comes to S, and thus we have Barn-yard Shaw, an improvement on
+the Kail-yard school, who takes the O pshaw view of life. And relaxing
+hold of him I sink deeper until I come to W--W. W. Jacobs--how I wish he
+wrote poetry! He should be the humorist of all sailors, and perhaps some
+time he will desert barges for battleships. Then I shall read him with
+increased enjoyment."
+
+"I wouldn't give Mark Twain for the lot," commented Dorothy with
+decision.
+
+"Mark Twain isn't yours to give, my dear. He belongs to me also. You've
+forgotten that comparisons are odious. Our metier is not to compare, but
+to take what pleases us from each.
+
+  'How doth the little busy bee
+        Improve each shining hour,
+   And gather honey all the day
+        From every opening flower.
+
+Watts. You see, I'm still down among the W's. Oh, Dorothy, how can
+you sit there so placidly when the 'Consternation' has just faded from
+sight? Selfish creature!
+
+  'Oh, give me tears for others' woes
+   And patience for mine own.'
+
+I don't know who wrote that, but you have no tears for others' woes,
+merely greeting them with ribald laughter," for Dorothy, with the
+well-read letter in her hand, was making the rafters ring with her
+merriment, something that had never before happened during her long
+tenancy of that room. Kate turned her head slowly round, and the
+expression on her face was half-indignant, half-humorous, while her eyes
+were uncertain weather prophets, and gave equal indication of sunshine
+or rain."
+
+"Why, Katherine, you look like a tragedy queen, rather than the spirit
+of comedy! Is it really a case of 'Tit-willow, tit-willow, tit-willow'?
+You see, I'm a-rescuing you from the bottom of the alphabet, and
+bringing you up to the Gilbert plane, where I am more accustomed to you,
+and understand you better. Is this despondency due to the departure of
+the 'Consternation,' and the fact that she carries away with her Jack
+Lamont, blacksmith?"
+
+The long sigh terminated in a woeful "yes."
+
+"The ship that has gone out with him we call she. If he had eloped with
+a real she, then wearing the willow, or singing it, however futile,
+might be understandable. As it is I see nothing in the situation to call
+for a sigh."
+
+"That is because you are a hardened sinner, Dorothy. You have no heart,
+or at least if you have, it is untouched, and therefore you cannot
+understand. If that note in your hand were a love missive, instead of a
+letter from your lawyers, you would be more human, Dorothy."
+
+The hand which held the paper crumpled it up slightly as Katherine
+spoke.
+
+"Business letters are quite necessary, and belong to the world we
+live in," said Dorothy, a glow of brighter color suffusing her cheeks.
+"Surely your acquaintance with Mr. Lamont is of the shortest."
+
+"He has called upon me every day since the night of the ball,"
+maintained Katherine stoutly.
+
+"Well, that's only three times."
+
+"Only three! How you talk! One would think you had never been schooled
+in mathematics. Why, three is a magic figure. You can do plenty of
+amazing things with it. Don't you know that three is a numeral of love?"
+
+"I thought two was the number," chimed Dorothy, with heartless mirth.
+
+"Three," said Katherine taking one last look at the empty horizon, then
+seating herself in front of her friend, "three is a recurring decimal.
+It goes on and on and on forever, and if you write it for a thousand
+years you are still as far from the end as when you began. It will
+carry you round the world and back again, and never diminish. It is the
+mathematical emblem of the nature of true love."
+
+"Is it so serious as all that, Kate, or are you just fooling again?"
+asked Dorothy, more soberly than heretofore. "Has he spoken to you?"
+
+"Spoken? He has done nothing but speak, and I have listened--oh, so
+intently, and with such deep understanding. He has never before met such
+a woman as I, and has frankly told me so."
+
+"I am very glad he appreciates you, dear."
+
+"Yes, you see, Dorothy, I am really much deeper than the ordinary woman.
+Who, for instance, could find such a beautiful love simile from a
+book of arithmetic costing twenty-five cents, as I have unearthed from
+decimal fractions? With that example in mind how can you doubt that
+other volumes of college learning reveal to me their inner meaning? John
+presented to me, as he said good-by, a beautifully bound copy of
+that celebrated text-book, 'Saunders' Analytical Chemistry,' with
+particularly tender passages marked in pencil, by his own dear hand."
+
+Rather bewildered, for Kate's expression was one of pathos, unrelieved
+by any gleam of humor, Dorothy nevertheless laughed, although the laugh
+brought no echo from Katherine.
+
+"And did you give him a volume of Browning in return?"
+
+"No, I didn't. How can you be so unsympathetic? Is it impossible for
+you to comprehend the unseen link that binds John and me? I rummaged
+the book store until I found a charming little edition of 'Marshall's
+Geologist's Pocket Companion,' covered with beautiful brown limp Russia
+leather--I thought the Russia binding was so inspirational--with a sweet
+little clasp that keeps it closed--typical of our hands at parting.
+On the fly-leaf I wrote: 'To J. L., in remembrance of many interesting
+conversations with his friend, K. K.' It only needed another K to be
+emblematic and political, a reminiscence of the olden times, when you
+people of the South, Dorothy, were making it hot for us deserving folks
+in the North. I hadn't time to go through the book very thoroughly,
+but I found many references to limestone, which I marked, and one
+particularly choice bit of English relating to the dissolution and
+re-consolidation of various minerals I drew a parallelogram around in
+red ink. A friend of mine in a motor launch was good enough to take the
+little parcel direct to the 'Consternation,' and I have no doubt that
+at this moment Jack is perusing it, and perhaps thinking of the giver. I
+hope it's up-to-date, and that he had not previously bought a copy."
+
+"You don't mean to say, Kate, that your conversation was entirely about
+geology?"
+
+"Certainly not. How could you have become imbued with an idea so absurd?
+We had many delightful dalliances down the romantic groves of chemistry,
+heart-to-heart talks on metallurgy, and once--ah, shall I ever forget
+it--while the dusk gently enfolded us, and I gazed into those bright,
+speaking, intelligent eyes of his as he bent nearer and nearer; while
+his low, sonorous voice in well-chosen words pictured to me the promise
+which fortified cement holds out to the world; that is, ignorant person,
+Portland cement strengthened by ribs of steel; and I sat listening
+breathless as his glowing phrases prophesied the future of this
+combination."
+
+Katherine closed her eyes, rocked gently back and forth, and crooned,
+almost inaudibly:
+
+  "'When you gang awa, Jimmie,
+          Faur across the sea, laddie,
+    When ye gang to Russian lands
+          What will ye send to me, laddie?'
+
+I know what I shall get. It will probably be a newly discovered recipe
+for the compounding of cement which will do away with the necessity of
+steel strengthening."
+
+"Kate, dear, you are overdoing it. It is quite right that woman should
+be a mystery to man, but she should not aspire to become a mystery to
+her sister woman. Are you just making fun, or is there something in all
+this more serious than your words imply?"
+
+"Like the steel strengthening in the cement, it may be there, but
+you can't see it, and you can't touch it, but it makes--oh, such
+a difference to the slab. Heigho, Dorothy, let us forsake these
+hard-headed subjects, and turn to something human. What have your
+lawyers been bothering you about? No trouble over the money, is there?"
+
+Dorothy shook her head.
+
+"No. Of course, there are various matters they have to consult me about,
+and get my consent to this project or the other."
+
+"Read the letter. Perhaps my mathematical mind can be of assistance to
+you."
+
+Dorothy had concealed the letter, and did not now produce it.
+
+"It is with reference to your assistance, and your continued assistance,
+that I wish to speak to you. Let us follow the example of the cement and
+the steel, and form a compact. In one respect I am going to imitate the
+'Consternation.' I leave Bar Harbor next week."
+
+Katherine sat up in her chair, and her eyes opened wide.
+
+"What's the matter with Bar Harbor?" she asked.
+
+"You can answer that question better than I, Kate. The Kempt family are
+not visitors, but live here all the year round. What do you think is the
+matter with Bar Harbor?"
+
+"I confess it's a little dull in the winter time, and in all seasons it
+is situated a considerable distance from New York. Where do you intend
+to go, Dorothy?"
+
+"That will depend largely on where my friend Kate advises me to go,
+because I shall take her with me if she will come."
+
+"Companion, lady's-maid, parlor maid, maid-of-all-work, cook, governess,
+typewriter-girl--which have I to be? Shall I get one afternoon a week
+off, and may my young man come and see me, if I happen to secure one,
+and, extremely important, what are the wages?"
+
+"You shall fix your own salary, Kate, and my lawyer men will arrange
+that the chosen sum is settled upon you so that if we fall out we can
+quarrel on equal terms."
+
+"Oh, I see, it's an adopted daughter I am to be, then?"
+
+"An adopted sister, rather."
+
+"Do you think I am going to take advantage of my friendship with an
+heiress, and so pension myself off?"
+
+"It is I who am taking the advantage," said Dorothy, "and I beg you to
+take compassion, rather than advantage, upon a lone creature who has no
+kith or kin in the world."
+
+"Do you really mean it, Dot?"
+
+"Of course I do. Should I propose it if I didn't?"
+
+"Well, this is the first proposal I've ever had, and I believe it
+is customary to say on those occasions that it is so sudden, or so
+unexpected, and time is required for consideration."
+
+"How soon can you make up your mind, Kate?"
+
+"Oh, my mind's already made up. I'm going to jump at your offer, but I
+think it more ladylike to pretend a mild reluctance. What are you going
+to do, Dorothy?"
+
+"I don't know. I've settled on only one thing. I intend to build a
+little stone and tile church, very quaint and old-fashioned, if I get
+the right kind of architect to draw a plan for it, and this church is to
+be situated in Haverstock."
+
+"Where's Haverstock?"
+
+"It is a village near the Hudson River, on the plain that stretches
+toward the Catskills."
+
+"It was there you lived with your father, was it not?"
+
+"Yes, and my church is to be called the Dr. Amhurst Memorial Church."
+
+"And do you propose to live at Haverstock?"
+
+"I was thinking of that."
+
+"Wouldn't it be just a little dull?"
+
+"Yes, I suppose it is, but it seems to me a suitable place where two
+young women may meditate on what they are going to do with their lives."
+
+"Yes, that's an important question for the two. I say, Dorothy, let's
+take the other side of the river, and enter Vassar College. Then we
+should at least have some fun, and there would be some reasonably
+well-educated people to speak to."
+
+"Oh, you wish to use your lately acquired scientific knowledge in order
+to pass the examinations; but, you see, I have had no tutor to school me
+in the mysteries of lime-burning and the mixing of cement. Now, you have
+scorned my side of the river, and I have objected to your side of the
+river. That is the bad beginning which, let us hope, makes the good
+ending. Who is to arbitrate on our dispute?"
+
+"Why, we'll split the difference, of course."
+
+"How can we do that? Live in a house-boat on the river like Frank
+Stockton's 'Budder Grange'?"
+
+"No, settle in the city of New York, which is practically an island in
+the Hudson."
+
+"Would you like to live in New York?"
+
+"Wouldn't I! Imagine any one, having the chance, living anywhere else!"
+
+"In a hotel, I suppose--the Holldorf for choice."
+
+"Yes, we could live in a hotel until we found the ideal flat, high up
+in a nice apartment house, with a view like that from the top of Mount
+Washington, or from the top of the Washington Monument."
+
+"But you forget I made one proviso in the beginning, and that is that I
+am going to build a church, and the church is to be situated, not in the
+city of New York, but in the village of Haverstock."
+
+"New York is just the place from which to construct such an edifice.
+Haverstock will be somewhere near the West Shore Railway. Very well. We
+can take a trip up there once a week or oftener, if you like, and see
+how the work is progressing, then the people of Haverstock will respect
+us. As we drive from the station they'll say:
+
+"'There's the two young ladies from New York who are building the
+church.' But if we settle down amongst them they'll think we're only
+ordinary villagers instead of the distinguished persons we are. Or,
+while our flat is being made ready we could live at one of the big
+hotels in the Catskills, and come down as often as we like on the
+inclined railway. Indeed, until the weather gets colder, the Catskills
+is the place.
+
+  'And lo, the Catskills print the distant sky,
+       And o'er their airy tops the faint clouds driven,
+   So softly blending that the cheated eye
+       Forgets or which is earth, or which is heaven.'"
+
+"That ought to carry the day for the Catskills, Kate. What sort of
+habitation shall we choose? A big hotel, or a select private boarding
+house?"
+
+"Oh, a big hotel, of course--the biggest there is, whatever its name
+may be. One of those whose rates are so high that the proprietor daren't
+advertise them, but says in his announcement, 'for terms apply to the
+manager.' It must have ample grounds, support an excellent band, and
+advertise a renowned cuisine. Your room, at least, should have a private
+balcony on which you can place a telescope and watch the building
+of your church down below. I, being a humble person in a subordinate
+position, should have a balcony also to make up for those deficiencies."
+
+"Very well, Kate, that's settled. But although two lone women may set
+up housekeeping in a New York flat, they cannot very well go alone to a
+fashionable hotel."
+
+"Oh, yes, we can. Best of references given and required."
+
+"I was going to suggest," pursued Dorothy, not noticing the
+interruption, "that we invite your father and mother to accompany us.
+They might enjoy a change from sea air to mountain air."
+
+Katherine frowned a little, and demurred.
+
+"Are you going to be fearfully conventional, Dorothy?"
+
+"We must pay some attention to the conventions, don't you think?"
+
+"I had hoped not. I yearn to be a bachelor girl, and own a latch-key."
+
+"We shall each possess a latch-key when we settle down in New York. Our
+flat will be our castle, and, although our latch-key will let us in, our
+Yale lock will keep other people out. A noted summer resort calls for
+different treatment, because there we lead a semi-public life. Besides,
+I am selfish enough to wish my coming-out to be under the auspices of so
+well-known a man as Captain Kempt."
+
+"All right, I'll see what they say about it. You don't want Sabina, I
+take it?"
+
+"Yes, if she will consent to come."
+
+"I doubt if she will, but I'll see. Besides, now that I come to think
+about it, it's only fair I should allow my doting parents to know that I
+am about to desert them."
+
+With that Katherine quitted the room, and went down the stairs
+hippety-hop.
+
+Dorothy drew the letter from its place of concealment, and read it for
+the third time, although one not interested might have termed it a most
+commonplace document. It began:
+
+"Dear Miss Amhurst," and ended "Yours most sincerely, Alan Drummond." It
+gave some account of his doings since he bade good-bye to her. A sailor,
+he informed her, needs little time for packing his belongings, and on
+the occasion in question the Prince had been of great assistance. They
+set out together for the early morning train, and said "au revoir" at
+the station. Drummond had intended to sail from New York, but a friendly
+person whom he met on the train informed him that the Liverpool liner
+"Enthusiana" set out from Boston next day, so he had abandoned the New
+York idea, and had taken passage on the liner named, on whose note-paper
+he wrote the letter, which epistle was once more concealed as Dorothy
+heard Katherine's light step on the stair.
+
+That impulsive young woman burst into the sewing room.
+
+"We're all going," she cried. "Father, mother and Sabina. It seems
+father has had an excellent offer to let the house furnished till the
+end of September, and he says that, as he likes high life, he will put
+in the time on the top of the Catskills. He abandons me, and says that
+if he can borrow a shilling he is going to cut me off with it in his
+will. He regrets the departure of the British Fleet, because he thinks
+he might have been able to raise a real English shilling aboard. Dad
+only insists on one condition, namely, that he is to pay for himself,
+mother and Sabina, so he does not want a room with a balcony. I said
+that in spite of his disinheritance I'd help the family out of my
+salary, and so he is going to reconsider the changing of his will."
+
+"We will settle the conditions when we reach the Catskills," said
+Dorothy, smiling.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII --"A WAY THEY HAVE IN THE NAVY"
+
+
+CAPTAIN and Mrs. Kempt with Sabina had resided a week in the Matterhorn
+Hotel before the two girls arrived there. They had gone direct to New
+York, and it required the seven days to find a flat that suited them, of
+which they were to take possession on the first of October. Then there
+were the lawyers to see; a great many business details to settle, and
+an architect to consult. After leaving New York the girls spent a day at
+Haverstock, where Dorothy Amhurst bought a piece of land as shrewdly
+as if she had been in the real estate business all her life. After this
+transaction the girls drove to the station on the line connecting with
+the inclined railway, and so, as Katherine remarked, were "wafted to
+the skies on flowery beds of ease," which she explained to her shocked
+companion was all right, because it was a quotation from a hymn. When at
+last they reached their hotel, Katherine was in ecstasies.
+
+"Isn't this heavenly?" she cried, "and, indeed, it ought to be, for I
+understand we are three thousand feet higher than we were in New York,
+and even the sky-scrapers can't compete with such an altitude."
+
+The broad valley of the Hudson lay spread beneath them, stretching
+as far as the eye could see, shimmering in the thin, bluish veil of a
+summer evening, and miles away the river itself could be traced like a
+silver ribbon.
+
+The gallant Captain, who had been energetically browbeaten by his
+younger daughter, and threatened with divers pains and penalties should
+he fail to pay attention and take heed to instructions, had acquitted
+himself with eclat in the selection of rooms for Dorothy and his
+daughter. The suite was situated in one corner of the huge caravansary,
+a large parlor occupying the angle, with windows on one side looking
+into the forest, and on the other giving an extended view across the
+valley. The front room adjoining the parlor was to be Dorothy's very
+own, and the end room belonged to Katherine, he said, as long as she
+behaved herself. If Dorothy ever wished to evict her strenuous neighbor,
+all she had to do was to call upon the Captain, and he would lend his
+aid, at which proffer of assistance Katherine tossed her head, and
+said she would try the room for a week, and, if she didn't like it, out
+Dorothy would have to go.
+
+
+
+There followed days and nights of revelry. Hops, concerts,
+entertainments of all sorts, with a more pretentious ball on Saturday
+night, when the week-tired man from New York arrived in the afternoon to
+find temperature twenty degrees lower, and the altitude very much higher
+than was the case in his busy office in the city. Katherine revelled in
+this round of excitement, and indeed, so, in a milder way, did Dorothy.
+After the functions were over the girls enjoyed a comforting chat
+with one another in their drawing room; all windows open, and the moon
+a-shining down over the luminous valley, which it seemed to fill with
+mother-o'-pearl dust.
+
+Young Mr. J. K. Henderson of New York, having danced repeatedly with
+Katherine on Saturday night, unexpectedly turned up for the hop on
+the following Wednesday, when he again danced repeatedly with the same
+joyous girl. It being somewhat unusual for a keen business man to take a
+four hours' journey during an afternoon in the middle of the week, and,
+as a consequence, arrive late at his office next morning, Dorothy began
+to wonder if a concrete formation, associated with the name of Prince
+Ivan Lermontoff of Russia, was strong enough to stand an energetic
+assault of this nature, supposing it were to be constantly repeated. It
+was after midnight on Wednesday when the two reached the corner parlor.
+Dorothy sat in a cane armchair, while Katherine threw herself into a
+rocking-chair, laced her fingers behind her head, and gazed through the
+open window at the misty infinity beyond.
+
+"Well," sighed Katherine, "this has been the most enjoyable evening I
+ever spent!"
+
+"Are you quite sure?" inquired her friend.
+
+"Certainly. Shouldn't I know?"
+
+"He dances well, then?"
+
+"Exquisitely!"
+
+"Better than Jack Lamont?"
+
+"Well, now you mention him I must confess Jack danced very creditably."
+
+"I didn't know but you might have forgotten the Prince."
+
+"No, I haven't exactly forgotten him, but--I do think he might have
+written to me."
+
+"Oh, that's it, is it? Did he ask your permission to write?"
+
+"Good gracious, no. We never talked of writing. Old red sandstone,
+rather, was our topic of conversation. Still, he might have acknowledged
+receipt of the book."
+
+"But the book was given to him in return for the one he presented to
+you."
+
+"Yes, I suppose it was. I hadn't thought of that."
+
+"Then again, Kate, Russian notions regarding writing to young ladies
+may differ from ours, or he may have fallen overboard, or touched a live
+wire."
+
+"Yes, there are many possibilities," murmured Katherine dreamily.
+
+"It seems rather strange that Mr. Henderson should have time to come up
+here in the middle of the week."
+
+"Why is it strange?" asked Katherine. "Mr. Henderson is not a clerk
+bound down to office hours. He's an official high up in one of the big
+insurance companies, and gets a simply tremendous salary."
+
+"Really? Does he talk as well as Jack Lamont did?"
+
+"He talks less like the Troy Technical Institute, and more like the
+'Home Journal' than poor Prince Jack did, and then he has a much greater
+sense of humor. When I told him that the oath of an insurance man should
+be 'bet your life!' he laughed. Now, Jack would never have seen the
+point of that. Anyhow, the hour is too late, and I am too sleepy, to
+worry about young men, or jokes either. Good-night!"
+
+Next morning's mail brought Dorothy a bulky letter decorated with
+English stamps. She locked the door, tore open the envelope, and found
+many sheets of thin paper bearing the heading of the Bluewater Club,
+Pall Mall.
+
+"I am reminded of an old adage," she read, "to the effect that one
+should never cross a bridge before arriving at it. Since I bade good-by
+to you, up to this very evening, I have been plodding over a bridge
+that didn't exist, much to my own discomfort. You were with me when
+I received the message ordering me home to England, and I don't
+know whether or not I succeeded in suppressing all signs of my own
+perturbation, but we have in the Navy now a man who does not hesitate
+to overturn a court martial, and so I feared a re-opening of the Rock in
+the Baltic question, which might have meant the wrecking of my career.
+I had quite made up my mind, if the worst came to the worst, to go out
+West and become a cow-boy, but a passenger with whom I became acquainted
+on the 'Enthusiana' informed me, to my regret, that the cow-boy is
+largely a being of the past, to be met with only in the writings of
+Stewart Edward White, Owen Wister, and several other famous men whom he
+named. So you see, I went across the ocean tolerably depressed, finding
+my present occupation threatened, and my future uncertain.
+
+"When I arrived in London I took a room at this Club, of which I have
+been a member for some years, and reported immediately at the Admiralty.
+But there, in spite of all diligence on my part, I was quite unable to
+learn what was wanted of me. Of course, I could have gone to my Uncle,
+who is in the government, and perhaps he might have enlightened me,
+although he has nothing to do with the Navy, but I rather like to avoid
+Uncle Metgurne. He brought me up since I was a small boy, and seems
+unnecessarily ashamed of the result. It is his son who is the attache'
+in St. Petersburg that I spoke to you about."
+
+Dorothy ceased reading for a moment.
+
+"Metgurne, Metgurne," she said to herself. "Surely I know that name?"
+
+She laid down the letter, pressed the electric button, and unlocked the
+door. When the servant came, she said:
+
+"Will you ask at the office if they have any biographical book of
+reference relating to Great Britain, and if so, please bring it to me."
+
+The servant appeared shortly after with a red book which proved to be an
+English "Who's Who" dated two years back. Turning the pages she came to
+Metgurne.
+
+"Metgurne, twelfth Duke of, created 1681, Herbert George Alan." Here
+followed a number of other titles, the information that the son and heir
+was Marquis of Thaxted, and belonged to the Diplomatic Service, that
+Lord Metgurne was H. M. Secretary of State for Royal Dependencies;
+finally a list of residences and clubs. She put down the book and
+resumed the letter.
+
+"I think I ought to have told you that when I reach St. Petersburg I
+shall be as anxious to avoid my cousin Thaxted as I am to steer clear of
+his father in London. So I sat in my club, and read the papers. Dear me,
+this is evidently going to be a very long letter. I hope you won't mind.
+I think perhaps you may be interested in learning how they do things
+over here.
+
+"After two or three days of anxious waiting there came a crushing
+communication from the Admiralty which confirmed my worst fears and set
+me at crossing the bridge again. I was ordered to report next morning
+at eleven, at Committee Room 5, in the Admiralty, and bring with me
+full particulars pertaining to the firing of gun number so-and-so of the
+'Consternation's' equipment on such a date. I wonder since that I did
+not take to drink. We have every facility for that sort of thing in this
+club. However, at eleven next day, I presented myself at the Committee
+Room and found in session the grimmest looking five men I have ever yet
+been called upon to face. Collectively they were about ten times worse
+in appearance than the court-martial I had previously encountered. Four
+of the men I did not know, but the fifth I recognized at once, having
+often seen his portrait. He is Admiral Sir John Pendergest, popularly
+known in the service as 'Old Grouch,' a blue terror who knows absolutely
+nothing of mercy. The lads in the service say he looks so disagreeable
+because he is sorry he wasn't born a hanging judge. Picture a face as
+cleanly cut as that of some severe old Roman Senator; a face as hard as
+marble, quite as cold, and nearly as white, rescued from the appearance
+of a death mask by a pair of piercing eyes that glitter like steel. When
+looking at him it is quite impossible to believe that such a personage
+has ever been a boy who played pranks on his masters. Indeed,
+Admiral Sir John Pendergest seems to have sprung, fully uniformed and
+forbidding, from the earth, like those soldiers of mythology. I was
+so taken aback at confronting such a man that I never noticed my old
+friend, Billy Richardson, seated at the table as one of the minor
+officials of the Committee. Billy tells me I looked rather white about
+the lips when I realized what was ahead of me, and I daresay he was
+right. My consolation is that I didn't get red, as is my disconcerting
+habit. I was accommodated with a chair, and then a ferrety-faced little
+man began asking me questions, consulting every now and then a foolscap
+sheet of paper which was before him. Others were ready to note down the
+answers.
+
+"'When did you fire the new gun from the "Consternation" in the Baltic?'
+
+"Dear Miss Amhurst, I have confessed to you that I am not brilliant,
+and, indeed, such confession was quite unnecessary, for you must
+speedily have recognized the fact, but here let me boast for a line or
+two of my one accomplishment, which is mathematical accuracy. When I
+make experiments I don't note the result by rule of thumb. My answer to
+the ferret-faced man was prompt and complete.
+
+"'At twenty-three minutes, seventeen seconds past ten, A.M., on May the
+third of this year,' was my reply.
+
+"The five high officials remained perfectly impassive, but the two
+stenographers seemed somewhat taken by surprise, and one of them
+whispered, 'Did you say fifteen seconds, sir?'
+
+"'He said seventeen,' growled Sir John Pendergest, in a voice that
+seemed to come out of a sepulchre.
+
+"'Who sighted the gun?'
+
+"'I did, sir.'
+
+"'Why did not the regular gunner do that?'
+
+"'He did, sir, but I also took observations, and raised the muzzle
+.000327 of an inch.'
+
+"'Was your gunner inaccurate, then, to that extent?'
+
+"'No, sir, but I had weighed the ammunition, and found it short by two
+ounces and thirty-seven grains.'
+
+"I must not bore you with all the questions and answers. I merely give
+these as samples. They questioned me about the recoil, the action of the
+gun, the state of this, that and the other after firing, and luckily I
+was able to answer to a dot every query put to me. At the finish one
+of the judges asked me to give in my own words my opinion of the gun.
+Admiral Sir John glared at him as he put this question, for of course
+to any expert the answers I had furnished, all taken together, gave
+an accurate verdict on the gun, assuming my statements to have been
+correct, which I maintain they were. However, as Sir John made no verbal
+comment, I offered my opinion as tersely as I could.
+
+"'Thank you, Lieutenant Drummond,' rumbled Sir John in his deep voice,
+as if he were pronouncing sentence, and, my testimony completed, the
+Committee rose.
+
+"I was out in the street before Billy Richardson overtook me, and then
+he called himself to my attention by a resounding slap on the shoulder.
+
+"'Alan, my boy,' he cried, 'you have done yourself proud. Your fortune's
+made.'
+
+"'As how?' I asked, shaking him by the hand.
+
+"'Why, we've been for weeks holding an inquiry on this blessed gun, and
+the question is whether or not a lot more of them are to be made. You
+know what an opinionated beast Old Grouch is. Well, my boy, you have
+corroborated his opinion of the gun in every detail. He is such a
+brow-beating, tyrannical brute that the rest of the Committee would
+rather like to go against him if they dared, but you have put a spoke in
+their wheel. Why, Sir John never said "thank you" to a human being since
+he was born until twenty-seven minutes and fifteen seconds after eleven
+this morning, as you would have put it,' and at the time of writing this
+letter this surmise of Billy's appears to be justified, for the tape in
+the club just now announced that the Committee has unanimously decided
+in favor of the gun, and adds that this is regarded as a triumph for the
+chairman, Admiral Sir John Pendergest, with various letters after his
+name.
+
+"Dear Miss Amhurst, this letter, as I feared, has turned out intolerably
+long, and like our first conversation, it is all about myself. But then,
+you see, you are the only one on the other side of the water to whom
+I have confided my selfish worries, and I believe you to be so
+kind-hearted that I am sure you will not censure me for this once
+exceeding the limits of friendly correspondence. Having been deeply
+depressed during all the previous long days, the sudden reaction urges
+me to go out into Pall Mall, fling my cap in the air, and whoop, which
+action is quite evidently a remnant of my former cow-boy aspirations.
+Truth to tell, the Russian business seems already forgotten, except by
+my stout old Captain on the 'Consternation,' or my Uncle. The strenuous
+Sir John has had me haled across the ocean merely to give testimony,
+lasting about thirty-five minutes, when with a little patience he might
+have waited till the 'Consternation' herself arrived, or else have
+cabled for us to try the gun at Bar Harbor. I suppose, however, that
+after my unfortunate contretemps with Russia our government was afraid
+I'd chip a corner off the United States, and that they'd have to pay for
+it. So perhaps after all it was greater economy to bring me across on
+the liner 'Enthusiana.'
+
+"By the way, I learned yesterday that the 'Consternation' has been
+ordered home, and so I expect to see Jack Lamont before many days are
+past. The ship will be paid off at Portsmouth, and then I suppose he and
+I will have our freedom for six months. I am rather looking forward to
+Jack's cooking me some weird but tasteful Russian dishes when we reach
+his blacksmith's shop in St. Petersburg. If I get on in Russia as I hope
+and expect, I shall spend the rest of my leave over in the States. I saw
+very little indeed of that great country, and am extremely anxious to
+see more. When one is on duty aboard ship one can only take very short
+excursions ashore. I should like to visit Niagara. It seems ridiculous
+that one should have been all along the American coast from Canada to
+New York, and never have got far enough inland to view the great Falls.
+
+"Russia is rather dilatory in her methods, but I surely should know
+within two or three weeks whether I am going to succeed or not. If
+not, then there is no use in waiting there. I shall try to persuade the
+Prince to accompany me to America. During the weeks I am waiting in St.
+Petersburg I shall continually impress upon him the utter futility of
+a life which has not investigated the great electrical power plant at
+Niagara Falls. And then he is interested in the educational system of
+the United States. While we were going to the station early that morning
+he told me that the United States educational system must be the
+most wonderful in the world, because he found that your friend, Miss
+Katherine Kempt, knew more about electricity, metallurgy, natural
+philosophy and a great number of other things he is interested in, than
+all the ladies he has met in Europe put together. He thinks that's the
+right sort of education for girls, and all this rather astonished me,
+because, although your friend was most charming, she said nothing during
+my very short acquaintance with her to lead me to suspect that she had
+received a scientific training.
+
+"Dear Miss Amhurst, I am looking every day for a letter from you, but
+none has yet been received by the Admiralty, who, when they get one,
+will forward it to whatever part of the world I happen to be in."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII --"WHEN JOHNNY COMES MARCHING HOME"
+
+A SUMMER hotel that boasts a thousand acres of forest, more or less,
+which serve the purposes of a back-yard, affords its guests, even if all
+its multitude of rooms are occupied, at least one spot for each visitor
+to regard as his or her favorite nook. So large an extent of woodland
+successfully defies landscape gardening. It insists on being left alone,
+and its very immensity raises a financial barrier against trimly-kept
+gravel walks. There were plenty of landscape garden walks in the
+immediate vicinity of the hotel, and some of them ambitiously penetrated
+into the woods, relapsing from the civilization of beaten gravel into a
+primitive thicket trail, which, however, always led to some celebrated
+bit of picturesqueness: a waterfall, or a pulpit rock upstanding like a
+tower, or the fancied resemblance of a human face carved by Nature
+from the cliff, or a view-point jutting out over the deep chasm of the
+valley, which usually supported a rustic summer house or pavilion
+where unknown names were carved on the woodwork--the last resort of the
+undistinguished to achieve immortality by means of a jack-knife.
+
+Dorothy discovered a little Eden of her own, to which no discernible
+covert-way led, for it was not conspicuous enough to obtain mention in
+the little gratis guide which the hotel furnished--a pamphlet on coated
+paper filled with half-tone engravings, and half-extravagant eulogies of
+what it proclaimed to be, an earthly paradise, with the rates by the
+day or week given on the cover page to show on what terms this paradise
+might be enjoyed.
+
+Dorothy's bower was green, and cool, and crystal, the ruggedness of the
+rocks softened by the wealth of foliage. A very limpid spring, high up
+and out of sight among the leaves, sent its waters tinkling down the
+face of the cliff, ever filling a crystal-clear lakelet at the foot,
+which yet was never full. Velvety and beautiful as was the moss
+surrounding this pond, it was nevertheless too damp to form an
+acceptable couch for a human being, unless that human being were brave
+enough to risk the rheumatic inconveniences which followed Rip Van
+Winkle's long sleep in these very regions, so Dorothy always carried
+with her from the hotel a feather-weight, spider's-web hammock, which
+she deftly slung between two saplings, their light suppleness giving an
+almost pneumatic effect to this fairy net spread in a fairy glen; and
+here the young woman swayed luxuriously in the relaxing delights of an
+indolence still too new to have become commonplace or wearisome.
+
+She always expected to read a great deal in the hammock, but often the
+book slipped unnoticed to the moss, and she lay looking upward at the
+little discs of blue sky visible through the checkering maze of green
+leaves. One afternoon, deserted by the latest piece of fictional
+literature, marked in plain figures on the paper cover that protected
+the cloth binding, one dollar and a half, but sold at the department
+stores for one dollar and eight cents, Dorothy lay half-hypnotized by
+the twinkling of the green leaves above her, when she heard a sweet
+voice singing a rollicking song of the Civil War, and so knew that
+Katherine was thus heralding her approach.
+
+  "'When Johnny comes marching home again,
+                   Hurrah! Hurrah!
+    We'll give him a hearty welcome then,
+                   Hurrah! Hurrah!
+    The men will cheer, the boys will shout,
+    The ladies they will all turn out,
+    And we'll all feel gay
+         When Johnny comes marching home.'"
+
+Dorothy went still further back into the history of her country, and
+gave a faint imitation of an Indian war-whoop, to let the oncomer know
+she was welcome, and presently Katherine burst impetuously through the
+dense undergrowth.
+
+"So here you are, Miss Laziness," she cried.
+
+"Here I am, Miss Energy, or shall I call you Miss-applied Energy?
+Katherine, you have walked so fast that you are quite red in the face."
+
+"It isn't exertion, it's vexation. Dorothy, I have had a perfectly
+terrible time. It is the anxiety regarding the proper discipline of
+parents that is spoiling the nervous system of American children. Train
+them up in the way they should go, and when they are old they do depart
+from it. There's nothing more awful than to own parents who think they
+possess a sense of humor. Thank goodness mother has none!"
+
+"Then it is your father who has been misbehaving?"
+
+"Of course it is. He treats the most serious problem of a woman's life
+as if it were the latest thing in 'Life.'"
+
+Dorothy sat up in the hammock.
+
+"The most important problem? That means a proposal. Goodness gracious,
+Kate, is that insurance man back here again?"
+
+"What insurance man?"
+
+"Oh, heartless and heart-breaking Katherine, is there another? Sit here
+in the hammock beside me, and tell me all about it."
+
+"No, thank you," refused Katherine. "I weigh more than you, and I cannot
+risk my neck through the collapse of that bit of gossamer. I must take
+care of myself for his sake."
+
+"Then it is the life insurance man whose interests you are consulting?
+Have you taken out a policy with him?"
+
+"Dear me, you are nearly as bad as father, but not quite so funny. You
+are referring to Mr. Henderson, I presume. A most delightful companion
+for a dance, but, my dear Dorothy, life is not all glided out to the
+measures of a Strauss waltz."
+
+"True; quite undisputable, Kate, and them sentiments do you credit. Who
+is the man?"
+
+"The human soul," continued Katherine seriously, "aspires to higher
+things than the society columns of the New York Sunday papers, and the
+frivolous chatter of an overheated ball-room."
+
+"Again you score, Kate, and are rising higher and higher in my
+estimation. I see it all now. Those solemn utterances of yours point
+directly toward Hugh Miller's 'Old Red Sandstone' and works of that
+sort, and now I remember your singing 'When Johnny comes marching home.'
+I therefore take it that Jack Lamont has arrived."
+
+"He has not."
+
+"Then he has written to you?"
+
+"He has not."
+
+"Oh, well, I give it up. Tell me the tragedy your own way."
+
+For answer Katherine withdrew her hands from behind her, and offered to
+her friend a sheet of paper she had been holding. Dorothy saw blazoned
+on the top of it a coat-of-arms, and underneath it, written in words of
+the most formal nature, was the information that Prince Ivan Lermontoff
+presented his warmest regards to Captain Kempt, U.S.N., retired,
+and begged permission to pay his addresses to the Captain's daughter
+Katherine. Dorothy looked up from the document, and her friend said
+calmly:
+
+"You see, they need another Katherine in Russia."
+
+"I hope she won't be like a former one, if all I've read of her is true.
+This letter was sent to your father, then?"
+
+"It was, and he seems to regard it as a huge joke. Said he was going to
+cable his consent, and as the 'Consternation' has sailed away, he would
+try to pick her up by wireless telegraphy, and secure the young man that
+way: suggests that I shall have a lot of new photographs taken, so that
+he can hand them out to the reporters when they call for particulars.
+Sees in his mind's eye, he says, a huge black-lettered heading in
+the evening papers: 'A Russian Prince captures one of our fairest
+daughters,' and then insultingly hinted that perhaps, after all, it
+was better not to use my picture, as it might not bear out the 'fair
+daughter' fiction of the heading."
+
+"Yes, Kate, I can see that such treatment of a vital subject must have
+been very provoking."
+
+"Provoking? I should say it was! He pretended he was going to tack this
+letter up on the notice-board in the hall of the hotel, so that every
+one might know what guests of distinction the Matterhorn House held. But
+the most exasperating feature of the situation is that this letter has
+been lying for days and days at our cottage in Bar Harbor. I am quite
+certain that I left instructions for letters to be forwarded, but, as
+nothing came, I telegraphed yesterday to the people who have taken our
+house, and now a whole heap of belated correspondence has arrived, with
+a note from our tenant saying he did not know our address. You will see
+at the bottom of the note that the Prince asks my father to communicate
+with him by sending a reply to the 'Consternation' at New York, but
+now the 'Consternation' has sailed for England, and poor John must have
+waited and waited in vain."
+
+"Write care of the 'Consternation' in England."
+
+"But Jack told me that the 'Consternation' paid off as soon as she
+arrived, and probably he will have gone to Russia."
+
+"If you address him at the Admiralty in London, the letter will be
+forwarded wherever he happens to be."
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"I have heard that such is the case."
+
+"But you're not sure, and I want to be certain."
+
+"Are you really in love with him, Kate?"
+
+"Of course I am. You know that very well, and I don't want any stupid
+misapprehension to arise at the beginning, such as allows a silly author
+to carry on his story to the four-hundredth page of such trash as this,"
+and she gently touched with her toe the unoffending volume which lay on
+the ground beneath the hammock.
+
+"Then why not adopt your father's suggestion, and cable? It isn't you
+who are cabling, you know."
+
+"I couldn't consent to that. It would look as if we were in a hurry,
+wouldn't it?"
+
+"Then let me cable."
+
+"You? To whom?"
+
+"Hand me up that despised book, Kate, and I'll write my cablegram on the
+fly-leaf. If you approve of the message, I'll go to the hotel, and send
+it at once."
+
+Katherine gave her the book, and lent the little silver pencil which
+hung jingling, with other trinkets, on the chain at her belt. Dorothy
+scribbled a note, tore out the fly-leaf, and presented it to Katherine,
+who read:
+
+"Alan Drummond, Bluewater Club, Pall Mall, London. Tell Lamont that his
+letter to Captain Kempt was delayed, and did not reach the Captain until
+to-day. Captain Kempt's reply will be sent under cover to you at your
+club. Arrange for forwarding if you leave England.
+
+"Dorothy Amhurst."
+
+When Katherine finished reading she looked up at her friend, and
+exclaimed: "Well!" giving that one word a meaning deep as the clear pool
+on whose borders she stood.
+
+Dorothy's face reddened as if the sinking western sun was shining full
+upon it.
+
+"You write to one another, then?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And is it a case of--"
+
+"No; friendship."
+
+"Sure it is nothing more than that?"
+
+Dorothy shook her head.
+
+"Dorothy, you are a brick; that's what you are. You will do anything to
+help a friend in trouble."
+
+Dorothy smiled.
+
+"I have so few friends that whatever I can do for them will not greatly
+tax any capabilities I may possess."
+
+"Nevertheless, Dorothy, I thoroughly appreciate what you have done. You
+did not wish any one to know you were corresponding with him, and yet
+you never hesitated a moment when you saw I was anxious."
+
+"Indeed, Kate, there was nothing to conceal. Ours is a very ordinary
+exchange of letters. I have only had two: one at Bar Harbor a few
+days after he left, and another longer one since we came to the hotel,
+written from England."
+
+"Did the last one go to Bar Harbor, too? How came you to receive it when
+we did not get ours?"
+
+"It did not go to Bar Harbor. I gave him the address of my lawyers in
+New York, and they forwarded it to me here. Lieutenant Drummond was
+ordered home by some one who had authority to do so, and received the
+message while he was sitting with me on the night of the ball. He had
+got into trouble with Russia. There had been an investigation, and he
+was acquitted. I saw that he was rather worried over the order home and
+I expressed my sympathy as well as I could, hoping everything would
+turn out for the best. He asked if he might write and let me know the
+outcome, and, being interested, I quite willingly gave him permission,
+and my address. The letter I received was all about a committee meeting
+at the Admiralty in which he took part. He wrote to me from the club in
+Pall Mall to which I have addressed this cablegram."
+
+There was a sly dimple in Katherine's cheeks as she listened to this
+straightforward explanation, and the faintest possible suspicion of a
+smile flickered at the corner of her mouth. She murmured, rather than
+sang:
+
+"'A pair of lovesick maidens we.'"
+
+"One, if you please," interrupted Dorothy.
+
+"'Lovesick all against our will--'"
+
+"Only one."
+
+"'Twenty years hence we shan't be A pair of lovesick maidens still.'"
+
+"I am pleased to note," said Dorothy demurely, "that the letter written
+by the Prince to your father has brought you back to the Gilbert and
+Sullivan plane again, although in this fairy glen you should quote from
+Iolanthe rather than from Patience."
+
+"Yes, Dot, this spot might do for a cove in the 'Pirates of Penzance,'
+only we're too far from the sea. But, to return to the matter in hand, I
+don't think there will be any need to send that cablegram. I don't like
+the idea of a cablegram, anyhow. I will return to the hotel, and dictate
+to my frivolous father a serious composition quite as stately and formal
+as that received from the Prince. He will address it and seal it, and
+then if you are kind enough to enclose it in the next letter you send to
+Lieutenant Drummond, it will be sure to reach Jack Lamont ultimately."
+
+Dorothy sprang from the hammock to the ground.
+
+"Oh," she cried eagerly, "I'll go into the hotel with you and write my
+letter at once."
+
+Katherine smiled, took her by the arm, and said:
+
+"You're a dear girl, Dorothy. I'll race you to the hotel, as soon as we
+are through this thicket."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX --IN RUSSIA
+
+
+THE next letter Dorothy received bore Russian stamps, and was dated at
+the black-smith's shop, Bolshoi Prospect, St. Petersburg. After a few
+preliminaries, which need not be set down here, Drummond continued:
+
+"The day after Jack arrived in London, there being nothing whatever to
+detain him in England, we set off together for St. Petersburg, and are
+now domiciled above his blacksmith shop. We are not on the fashionable
+side of the river, but our street is wide, and a very short walk brings
+us to a bridge which, being crossed, allows us to wander among palaces
+if we are so disposed. We have been here only four days, yet a good deal
+has already been accomplished. The influence of the Prince has smoothed
+my path for me. Yesterday I had an audience with a very important
+personage in the Foreign Office, and to-day I have seen an officer of
+high rank in the navy. The Prince warns me to mention no names, because
+letters, even to a young lady, are sometimes opened before they reach
+the person to whom they are addressed. These officials who have been
+kind enough to receive me are gentlemen so polished that I feel quite
+uncouth in their presence. I am a little shaky in my French, and feared
+that my knowledge of that language might not carry me through, but both
+of these officials speak English much better than I do, and they seemed
+rather pleased I had voluntarily visited St. Petersburg to explain that
+no discourtesy was meant in the action I had so unfortunately taken on
+the Baltic, and they gave me their warmest assurances they would do
+what they could to ease the tension between our respective countries.
+It seems that my business here will be finished much sooner than I
+expected, and then I am off on the quickest steamer for New York, in
+the hope of seeing Niagara Falls. I have met with one disappointment,
+however. Jack says he cannot possibly accompany me to the United States.
+I have failed to arouse in him the faintest interest about the electric
+works at Niagara. He insists that he is on the verge of a most important
+discovery, the nature of which he does not confide in me. I think he is
+working too hard, for he is looking quite haggard and overdone, but that
+is always the way with him. He throws himself heart and soul into any
+difficulty that confronts him, and works practically night and day until
+he has solved it.
+
+"Yesterday he gave the whole street a fright. I had just returned
+from the Foreign Office, and had gone upstairs to my room, when there
+occurred an explosion that shook the building from cellar to roof, and
+sent the windows of our blacksmith's shop rattling into the street. Jack
+had a most narrow escape, but is unhurt, although that fine beard of
+his was badly singed. He has had it shaved off, and now sports merely a
+mustache, looking quite like a man from New York. You wouldn't recognize
+him if you met him on Broadway. The carpenters and glaziers are at work
+to-day repairing the damage. I told Jack that if this sort of thing kept
+on I'd be compelled to patronize another hotel, but he says it won't
+happen again. It seems he was trying to combine two substances by adding
+a third, and, as I understood him, the mixing took place with unexpected
+suddenness. He has endeavored to explain to me the reaction, as he
+calls it, which occurred, but I seem to have no head for chemistry, and
+besides, if I am to be blown through the roof some of these days it will
+be no consolation to me when I come down upon the pavement outside
+to know accurately the different elements which contributed to my
+elevation. Jack is very patient in trying to instruct me, but he could
+not resist the temptation of making me ashamed by saying that your
+friend, Miss Katherine Kempt, would have known at once the full
+particulars of the reaction. Indeed, he says, she warned him of the
+disaster, by marking a passage in a book she gave him which foreshadowed
+this very thing. She must be a most remarkable young woman, and it shows
+how stupid I am that I did not in the least appreciate this fact when in
+her company."
+
+The next letter was received a week later. He was getting on swimmingly,
+both at the Foreign Office and at the Russian Admiralty. All the
+officials he had met were most courteous and anxious to advance his
+interests. He wrote about the misapprehensions held in England regarding
+Russia, and expressed his resolve to do what he could when he returned
+to remove these false impressions.
+
+"Of course," he went on, "no American or Englishman can support or
+justify the repressive measures so often carried out ruthlessly by the
+Russian police. Still, even these may be exaggerated, for the police
+have to deal with a people very much different from our own. It is
+rather curious that at this moment I am in vague trouble concerning the
+police. I am sure this place is watched, and I am also almost certain
+that my friend Jack is being shadowed. He dresses like a workman; his
+grimy blouse would delight the heart of his friend Tolstoi, but he is
+known to be a Prince, and I think the authorities imagine he is playing
+up to the laboring class, whom they despise. I lay it all to that
+unfortunate explosion, which gathered the police about us as if they had
+sprung from the ground. There was an official examination, of course,
+and Jack explained, apparently to everybody's satisfaction, exactly how
+he came to make the mistake that resulted in the loss of his beard
+and his windows. I don't know exactly how to describe the feeling of
+uneasiness which has come over me. At first sight this city did not
+strike me as so very much different from New York or London, and
+meeting, as I did, so many refined gentlemen in high places, I had come
+to think St. Petersburg was after all very much like Paris, or Berlin,
+or Rome. But it is different, and the difference makes itself subtly
+felt, just as the air in some coast towns of Britain is relaxing, and in
+others bracing. In these towns a man doesn't notice the effect at first,
+but later on he begins to feel it, and so it is here in St. Petersburg.
+Great numbers of workmen pass down our street. They all seem to know who
+the Prince is, and the first days we were here, they saluted him with a
+deference which I supposed was due to his rank, in spite of the greasy
+clothes he wore. Since the explosion an indefinable change has come over
+these workmen. They salute the Prince still when we meet them on the
+street, but there is in their attitude a certain sly sympathy, if I
+may so term it; a bond of camaraderie which is implied in their manner
+rather than expressed. Jack says this is all fancy on my part, but I
+don't think it is. These men imagine that Prince Ivan Lermontoff, who
+lives among them and dresses like them, is concocting some explosive
+which may yet rid them of the tyrants who make their lives so unsafe.
+All this would not matter, but what does matter is the chemical
+reaction, as I believe Jack would term it, which has taken place among
+the authorities. The authorities undoubtedly have their spies among
+the working-men, and know well what they are thinking about and talking
+about. I do not believe they were satisfied with the explanations Jack
+gave regarding the disaster. I have tried to impress upon Jack that
+he must be more careful in walking about the town, and I have tried
+to persuade him, after work, to dress like the gentleman he is, but he
+laughs at my fears, and assures me that I have gone from one extreme to
+the other in my opinion of St. Petersburg. First I thought it was like
+all other capitals; now I have swung too far in the other direction. He
+says the police of St. Petersburg would not dare arrest him, but I'm
+not so sure of that. A number of things occur to me, as usual, too late.
+Russia, with her perfect secret service system, must know that Prince
+Lermontoff has been serving in the British Navy. They know he returned
+to St. Petersburg, avoids all his old friends, and is brought to their
+notice by an inexplicable explosion, and they must be well aware, also,
+that he is in the company of the man who fired the shell at the rock in
+the Baltic, and that he himself served on the offending cruiser.
+
+"As to my own affairs, I must say they are progressing slowly but
+satisfactorily; nevertheless, if Jack would leave St. Petersburg,
+and come with me to London or New York, where he could carry on his
+experiments quite as well, or even better than here, I should depart at
+once, even if I jeopardized my own prospects."
+
+The next letter, some time later, began:
+
+"Your two charming notes to me arrived here together. It is very kind of
+you to write to a poor exile and cheer him in his banishment. I should
+like to see that dell where you have swung your hammock. Beware of
+Hendrick Hudson's men, so delightfully written of by Washington Irving.
+If they offer you anything to drink, don't you take it. Think how
+disastrous it would be to all your friends if you went to sleep in that
+hammock for twenty years. It's the Catskills I want to see now rather
+than Niagara Falls. Your second letter containing the note from Captain
+Kempt to Jack was at once delivered to him. What on earth has the genial
+Captain written to effect such a transformation in my friend? He came to
+me that evening clothed in his right mind; in evening rig-out, with his
+decorations upon it, commanded me to get into my dinner togs, took me
+in a carriage across the river to the best restaurant St. Petersburg
+affords, and there we had a champagne dinner in which he drank to
+America and all things American. Whether it was the enthusiasm produced
+by Captain Kempt's communication, or the effect of the champagne, I do
+not know, but he has reconsidered his determination not to return to the
+United States, and very soon we set out together for the west.
+
+"I shall be glad to get out of this place. We were followed to the
+restaurant, I am certain, and I am equally certain that at the next
+table two police spies were seated, and these two shadowed us in a cab
+until we reached our blacksmith's shop. It is a humiliating confession
+to make, but somehow the atmosphere of this place has got on my nerves,
+and I shall be glad to turn my back on it. Jack pooh-poohs the idea that
+he is in any danger. Even the Governor of St. Petersburg, he says, dare
+not lay a finger on him, and as for the Chief of Police, he pours scorn
+on that powerful official. He scouts the idea that he is being watched,
+and all-in-all is quite humorous at my expense, saying that my state of
+mind is more fitting for a schoolgirl than for a stalwart man over six
+feet in height. One consolation is that Jack now has become as keen for
+America as I am. I expect that the interview arranged for me to-morrow
+with a great government official will settle my own business finally one
+way or another. A while ago I was confident of success, but the repeated
+delays have made me less optimistic now, although the gentle courtesy of
+those in high places remains undiminished.
+
+"Dear Miss Amhurst, I cannot afford to fall lower in your estimation
+than perhaps I deserve, so I must say that this fear which has overcome
+me is all on account of my friend, and not on my own behalf at all. I
+am perfectly safe in Russia, being a British subject. My cold and formal
+Cousin Thaxted is a member of the British Embassy here, and my cold and
+formal uncle is a Cabinet Minister in England, facts which must be well
+known to these spy-informed people of St. Petersburg; so I am immune.
+The worst they could do would be to order me out of the country, but
+even that is unthinkable. If any one attempted to interfere with me, I
+have only to act the hero of the penny novelette, draw myself up to my
+full height, which, as you know, is not that of a pigmy, fold my
+arms across my manly chest, cry, 'Ha, ha!' and sing 'Rule Britannia,'
+whereupon the villains would wilt and withdraw. But Jack has no
+such security. He is a Russian subject, and, prince or commoner, the
+authorities here could do what they liked with him. I always think of
+things when it is too late to act. I wish I had urged Jack ashore at
+Bar Harbor, and induced him to take the oath of allegiance to the United
+States. I spoke to him about that coming home in the carriage, and to my
+amazement he said he wished he had thought of it himself at the time we
+were over there.
+
+"But enough of this. I daresay he is in no real danger after all.
+Nevertheless, I shall induce him to pack to-morrow, and we will make
+for London together, so my next letter will bear a British stamp, and I
+assure you the air of England will taste good to one benighted Britisher
+whose name is Alan Drummond."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X --CALAMITY UNSEEN
+
+THE habit of industry practised from childhood to maturity is not
+obliterated by an unexpected shower of gold. Dorothy was an early riser,
+and one morning, entering the parlor from her room she saw, lying upon
+the table, a letter with a Russian stamp, but addressed in an unknown
+hand to her friend Katherine Kempt. She surmised that here was the first
+communication from the Prince, and expected to learn all about it during
+the luncheon hour at the latest. But the morning and afternoon passed,
+and Katherine made no sign, which Dorothy thought was most unusual. All
+that day and the next Katherine went about silent, sedate and serious,
+never once quoting the humorous Mr. Gilbert. On the third morning
+Dorothy was surprised, emerging from her room, to see Katherine standing
+by the table, a black book in her hand. On the table lay a large package
+from New York, recently opened, displaying a number of volumes in what
+might be termed serious binding, leather or cloth, but none showing that
+high coloring which distinguishes the output of American fiction.
+
+"Good-morning, Dorothy. The early bird is after the worm of science."
+She held forth the volume in her hand. "Steele's 'Fourteen-Weeks' Course
+in Chemistry,' an old book, but fascinatingly written. Dorothy," she
+continued with a sigh, "I want to talk seriously with you."
+
+"About chemistry?" asked Dorothy.
+
+"About men," said Katherine firmly, "and, incidentally, about women."
+
+"An interesting subject, Kate, but you've got the wrong text-books. You
+should have had a parcel of novels instead."
+
+Dorothy seated herself, and Katherine followed her example, Steele's
+"Fourteen-Weeks' Course" resting in her lap.
+
+"Every man," began Katherine, "should have a guardian to protect him."
+
+"From women?"
+
+"From all things that are deceptive, and not what they seem."
+
+"That sounds very sententious, Kate. What does it mean?"
+
+"It means that man is a simpleton, easily taken in. He is too honest for
+crafty women, who delude him shamelessly."
+
+"Whom have you been deluding, Kate?"
+
+"Dorothy, I am a sneak."
+
+Dorothy laughed.
+
+"Indeed, Katherine, you are anything but that. You couldn't do a mean or
+ungenerous action if you tried your best."
+
+"You think, Dorothy, I could reform?" she asked, breathlessly, leaning
+forward.
+
+"Reform? You don't need to reform. You are perfectly delightful as you
+are, and I know no man who is worthy of you. That's a woman's opinion;
+one who knows you well, and there is nothing dishonest about the
+opinion, either, in spite of your tirade against our sex."
+
+"Dorothy, three days ago, be the same more or less, I received a letter
+from John Lamont."
+
+"Yes, I saw it on the table, and surmised it was from him."
+
+"Did you? You were quite right. The reading of that letter has
+revolutionized my character. I am a changed woman, Dorothy, and
+thoroughly ashamed of myself. When I remember how I have deluded that
+poor, credulous young man, in making him believe I understood even the
+fringe of what he spoke about, it fills me with grief at my perfidy, but
+I am determined to amend my ways if hard study will do it, and when next
+I see him I shall talk to him worthily like a female Thomas A. Edison."
+
+Again Dorothy laughed.
+
+"Now, that's heartless of you, Dorothy. Don't you see I'm in deadly
+earnest? Must my former frivolity dog my steps through life? When I
+call to mind that I made fun to you of his serious purpose in life, the
+thought makes me cringe and despise myself."
+
+"Nonsense, Kate, don't go to the other extreme. I remember nothing you
+have said that needs withdrawal. You have never made a malicious remark
+in your life, Kate. Don't make me defend you against yourself. You have
+determined, I take it, to plunge into the subjects which interest the
+man you are going to marry. That is a perfectly laudable ambition, and I
+am quite sure you will succeed."
+
+"I know I don't deserve all that, Dorothy, but I like it just the
+same. I like people to believe in me, even if I sometimes lose faith in
+myself. May I read you an extract from his letter?"
+
+"Don't if you'd rather not."
+
+"I'd rather, Dorothy, if it doesn't weary you, but you will understand
+when you have heard it, in what a new light I regard myself."
+
+The letter proved to be within the leaves of the late Mr. Steele's book
+on Chemistry, and from this volume she extracted it, pressed it for
+a moment against her breast with her open hand, gazing across at her
+friend.
+
+"Dorothy, my first love-letter!"
+
+She turned the crisp, thin pages, and began:
+
+"'You may recollect that foot-note which you marked with red ink in the
+book you so kindly gave me on the subject of Catalysis, which did
+not pertain to the subject of the volume in question, and yet was so
+illuminative to any student of chemistry. They have done a great deal
+with Catalysis in Germany with amazing commercial results, but the
+subject is one so recent that I had not previously gone thoroughly into
+it.'"
+
+Katherine paused in the reading, and looked across at her auditor, an
+expression almost of despair in her eloquent eyes.
+
+"Dorothy, what under heaven is Catalysis?"
+
+"Don't ask me," replied Dorothy, suppressing a laugh, struck by the
+ludicrousness of any young and beautiful woman pressing any such
+sentiments as these to her bosom.
+
+"Have you ever heard of a Catalytic process, Dorothy?" beseeched
+Katherine. "It is one of the phrases he uses."
+
+"Never; go on with the letter, Kate."
+
+"'I saw at once that if I could use Catalytic process which would be
+instantaneous in its solidifying effect on my liquid limestone, instead
+of waiting upon slow evaporation, I could turn out building stone faster
+than one can make brick. You, I am sure, with your more alert mind, saw
+this when you marked that passage in red.'"
+
+"Oh, Dorothy," almost whimpered Katherine, leaning back, "how can I go
+on? Don't you see what a sneak I am? It was bad enough to cozen with my
+heedless, random markings of the book, but to think that line of red ink
+might have been marked in his blood, for I nearly sent the poor boy to
+his death."
+
+"Go on, Katherine, go on, go on!"
+
+"'In my search for a Catalytic whose substance would remain unchanged
+after the reaction, I quite overlooked the chemical ingredients of one
+of the materials I was dealing with, and the result was an explosion
+which nearly blew the roof off the shop, and quite startled poor
+Drummond out of a year's growth. However, no real harm has been done,
+while I have been taught a valuable lesson; to take into account all
+the elements I am using. I must not become so intent on the subject I am
+pursuing as to ignore everything else.' And now, Dorothy, I want to ask
+you a most intimate question, which I beg of you to answer as frankly as
+I have confided in you."
+
+"I know what your question is, Kate. A girl who is engaged wishes to see
+her friend in the same position. You would ask me if I am in love with
+Alan Drummond, and I answer perfectly frankly that I am not."
+
+"You are quite sure of that, Dorothy?"
+
+"Quite. He is the only man friend I have had, except my own father, and
+I willingly confess to a sisterly interest in him."
+
+"Well, if that is all--"
+
+"It is all, Kate. Why?"
+
+"Because there is something about him in this letter, which I would read
+to you if I thought you didn't care."
+
+"Oh, he is in love with Jack's sister, very likely. I should think that
+would be a most appropriate arrangement. Jack is his best friend, and
+perhaps a lover would weaken the influence which Tolstoi exerts over
+an emotional person's mind. Lieutenant Drummond, with his sanity, would
+probably rescue a remnant of her estates."
+
+"Oh, well, if you can talk as indifferently as that, you are all right,
+Dorothy. No, there is no other woman in the case. Here's what Jack says:
+
+"'It is amazing how little an Englishman understands people of other
+nations. Here is my tall friend Drummond marching nonchalantly among
+dangers of which he has not the least conception. The authorities whom
+he thinks so courteous are fooling him to the top of his bent. There
+is, of course, no danger of his arrest, but nevertheless the eyes of the
+police are upon him, and he will not believe it, any more than he will
+believe he is being hoodwinked by the Foreign Minister. What I fear is
+that he will be bludgeoned on the street some dark night, or involved in
+a one-sided duel. Twice I have rescued him from an imminent danger
+which he has not even seen. Once in a restaurant a group of officers,
+apparently drunk, picked a quarrel and drew swords upon him. I had
+the less difficulty in getting him away because he fears a broil, or
+anything that will call down upon him the attention of his wooden-headed
+cousin in the Embassy. On another occasion as we were coming home toward
+midnight, a perfectly bogus brawl broke out suddenly all around us.
+Drummond was unarmed, but his huge fists sent sprawling two or three
+of his assailants. I had a revolver, and held the rest off, and so we
+escaped. I wish he was safely back in London again.' What do you think
+of that, Dorothy?"
+
+"I think exactly what Mr. Lamont thinks. Lieutenant Drummond's mission
+to Russia seems to me a journey of folly."
+
+"After all, I am glad you don't care, Dorothy. He should pay attention
+to what Jack says, for Jack knows Russia, and he doesn't. Still, let
+us hope he will come safely out of St. Petersburg. And now, Dot, for
+breakfast, because I must get to work."
+
+Next morning Dorothy saw a letter for herself on the table in the now
+familiar hand-writing, and was more relieved than perhaps she would
+have confessed even to her closest friend, when she saw the
+twopence-halfpenny English stamp on the envelope. Yet its contents were
+startling enough, and this letter she did not read to Katherine Kempt,
+but bore its anxiety alone.
+
+DEAR MISS AMHURST:
+
+I write you in great trouble of mind, not trusting this letter to the
+Russian post-office, but sending it by an English captain to be posted
+in London. Two days ago Jack Lamont disappeared; a disappearance as
+complete as if he had never existed. The night before last, about
+ten o'clock, I thought I heard him come into his shop below my room.
+Sometimes he works there till daylight, and as, when absorbed in his
+experiments, he does not relish interruptions, even from me, I go on
+with my reading until he comes upstairs. Toward eleven o'clock I thought
+I heard slight sounds of a scuffle, and a smothered cry. I called out
+to him, but received no answer. Taking a candle, I went downstairs, but
+everything was exactly as usual, the doors locked, and not even a bench
+overturned. I called aloud, but only the echo of this barn of a room
+replied. I lit the gas and made a more intelligent search, but with
+no result. I unlocked the door, and stood out in the street, which was
+quite silent and deserted. I began to doubt that I had heard anything at
+all, for, as I have told you, my nerves lately have been rather prone to
+the jumps. I sat up all night waiting for him, but he did not come. Next
+day I went, as had been previously arranged, to the Foreign Office, but
+was kept waiting in an anteroom for two hours, and then told that the
+Minister could not see me. I met a similar repulse at the Admiralty. I
+dined alone at the restaurant Jack and I frequent, but saw nothing of
+him. This morning he has not returned, and I am at my wit's end, not
+in the least knowing what to do. It is useless for me to appeal to
+the embassy of my country, for, Jack being a Russian, it has no
+jurisdiction. The last letter I received from you was tampered with. The
+newspaper extract you spoke of was not there, and one of the sheets of
+the letter was missing. Piffling business, I call it, this interfering
+with private correspondence.
+
+Such was the last letter that Alan Drummond was ever to send to Dorothy
+Amhurst.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI --THE SNOW
+
+
+SUMMER waned; the evenings became chill, although the sun pretended at
+noon that its power was undiminished. Back to town from mountain and sea
+shore filtered the warm-weather idlers, but no more letters came from
+St. Petersburg to the hill by the Hudson. So far as our girls were
+concerned, a curtain of silence had fallen between Europe and America.
+
+The flat was now furnished, and the beginning of autumn saw it occupied
+by the two friends. Realization in this instance lacked the delight of
+anticipation. At last Katherine was the bachelor girl she had longed to
+be, but the pleasures of freedom were as Dead Sea fruit to the lips. At
+last Dorothy was effectually cut off from all thoughts of slavery, with
+unlimited money to do what she pleased with, yet after all, of what
+advantage was it in solving the problem that haunted her by day and
+filled her dreams by night. She faced the world with seeming unconcern,
+for she had not the right to mourn, even if she knew he were dead. He
+had made no claim; had asked for no affection; had written no word to
+her but what all the world might read. Once a week she made a little
+journey up the Hudson to see how her church was coming on, and at first
+Katherine accompanied her, but now she went alone. Katherine was too
+honest a girl to pretend an interest where she felt none. She could not
+talk of architecture when she was thinking of a man and his fate. At
+first she had been querulously impatient when no second communication
+came. Her own letters, she said, must have reached him, otherwise they
+would have been returned. Later, dumb fear took possession of her, and
+she grew silent, plunged with renewed energy into her books, joined
+a technical school, took lessons, and grew paler and paler until her
+teachers warned her she was overdoing it. Inwardly she resented the
+serene impassiveness of her friend, who consulted calmly with the
+architect upon occasion about the decoration of the church, when men's
+liberty was gone, and perhaps their lives. She built up within her mind
+a romance of devotion, by which her lover, warning in vain the stolid
+Englishman, had at last been involved in the ruin that Drummond's
+stubbornness had brought upon them both, and unjustly implicated the
+quiet woman by her side in the responsibility of this sacrifice. Once or
+twice she spoke with angry impatience of Drummond and his stupidity, but
+Dorothy neither defended nor excused, and so no open rupture occurred
+between the two friends, for a quarrel cannot be one-sided.
+
+But with a woman of Katherine's temperament the final outburst had to
+come, and it came on the day that the first flurry of snow fell through
+the still air, capering in large flakes past the windows of the flat
+down to the muddy street far below. Katherine was standing by the
+window, with her forehead leaning against the plate glass, in exactly
+the attitude that had been her habit in the sewing-room at Bar Harbor,
+but now the staccato of her fingers on the sill seemed to drum a Dead
+March of despair. The falling snow had darkened the room, and one
+electric light was aglow over the dainty Chippendale desk at which
+Dorothy sat writing a letter. The smooth, regular flow of the pen over
+the paper roused Katherine to a frenzy of exasperation. Suddenly she
+brought her clenched fist down on the sill where her fingers had been
+drumming.
+
+"My God," she cried, "how can you sit there like an automaton with the
+snow falling?"
+
+Dorothy put down her pen.
+
+"The snow falling?" she echoed. "I don't understand!"
+
+"Of course you don't. You don't think of the drifts in Siberia, and the
+two men you have known, whose hands you have clasped, manacled, driven
+through it with the lash of a Cossack's whip."
+
+Dorothy rose quietly, and put her hands on the shoulders of the girl,
+feeling her frame tremble underneath her touch.
+
+"Katherine," she said, quietly, but Katherine, with a nervous twitch of
+her shoulders flung off the friendly grasp.
+
+"Don't touch me," she cried. "Go back to your letter-writing. You and
+the Englishman are exactly alike; unfeeling, heartless. He with his
+selfish stubbornness has involved an innocent man in the calamity his
+own stupidity has brought about."
+
+"Katherine, sit down. I want to talk calmly with you."
+
+"Calmly! Calmly! Yes, that is the word. It is easy for you to be calm
+when you don't care. But I care, and I cannot be calm."
+
+"What do you wish to do, Katherine?"
+
+"What can I do? I am a pauper and a dependent, but one thing I am
+determined to do, and that is to go and live in my father's house."
+
+"If you were in my place, what would you do Katherine?"
+
+"I would go to Russia."
+
+"What would you do when you arrived there?"
+
+"If I had wealth I would use it in such a campaign of bribery and
+corruption in that country of tyrants that I should release two innocent
+men. I'd first find out where they were, then I'd use all the influence
+I possessed with the American Ambassador to get them set free."
+
+"The American Ambassador, Kate, cannot move to release either an
+Englishman or a Russian."
+
+"I'd do it somehow. I wouldn't sit here like a stick or a stone, writing
+letters to my architect."
+
+"Would you go to Russia alone?"
+
+"No, I should take my father with me."
+
+"That is an excellent idea, Kate. I advise you to go north by to-night's
+train, if you like, and see him, or telegraph to him to come and see
+us."
+
+Kate sat down, and Dorothy drew the curtains across the window pane and
+snapped on the central cluster of electric lamps.
+
+"Will you come with me if I go north?" asked Kate, in a milder tone than
+she had hitherto used.
+
+"I cannot. I am making an appointment with a man in this room
+to-morrow."
+
+"The architect, I suppose," cried Kate with scorn.
+
+"No, with a man who may or may not give me information of Lamont or
+Drummond."
+
+Katherine stared at her open-eyed.
+
+"Then you have been doing something?"
+
+"I have been trying, but it is difficult to know what to do. I have
+received information that the house in which Mr. Lamont and Mr.
+Drummond lived is now deserted, and no one knows anything of its former
+occupants. That information comes to me semi-officially, but it does not
+lead far. I have started inquiry through more questionable channels; in
+other words, I have invoked the aid of a Nihilist society, and although
+I am quite determined to go to Russia with you, do not be surprised if I
+am arrested the moment I set foot in St. Petersburg."
+
+"Dorothy, why did you not let me know?"
+
+"I was anxious to get some good news to give you, but it has not come
+yet."
+
+"Oh, Dorothy," moaned Katherine, struggling to keep back the tears that
+would flow in spite of her. Dorothy patted her on the shoulder.
+
+"You have been a little unjust," she said, "and I am going to prove that
+to you, so that in trying to make amends you may perhaps stop brooding
+over this crisis that faces two poor lone women. You wrong the
+Englishman, as you call him. Jack was arrested at least two days before
+he was. Nihilist spies say that both of them were arrested, the Prince
+first, and the Englishman several days later. I had a letter from Mr.
+Drummond a short time after you received yours from Mr. Lamont. I never
+showed it to you, but now things are so bad that they cannot be worse,
+and you are at liberty to read the letter if you wish to do so. It
+tells of Jack's disappearance, and of Drummond's agony of mind and
+helplessness in St. Petersburg. Since he has never written again, I am
+sure he was arrested later. I don't know which of the two was most at
+fault for what you call stubbornness, but I believe the explosion had
+more to do with the arrests than any action of theirs."
+
+"And I was the cause of that," wailed Katherine.
+
+"No, no, my dear girl. No one is to blame but the tyrant of Russia. Now
+the Nihilists insist that neither of these men has been sent to Siberia.
+They think they are in the prison of 'St. Peter and St. Paul.' That
+information came to me to-day in the letter I was just now answering.
+So, Katherine, I think you have been unjust to the Englishman. If he had
+been arrested first, there might be some grounds for what you charge,
+but they evidently gave him a chance to escape. He had his warning in
+the disappearance of his friend, and he had several days in which to get
+out of St. Petersburg, but he stood his ground."
+
+"I'm sorry, Dorothy. I'm a silly fool, and to-day, when I saw the
+snow--well, I got all wrought up."
+
+"I think neither of the men are in the snow, and now I am going to say
+something else, and then never speak of the subject again. You say I
+didn't care, and of course you are quite right, for I confessed to you
+that I didn't. But just imagine--imagine--that I cared. The Russian
+Government can let the Prince go at any moment, and there's nothing more
+to be said. He has no redress, and must take the consequences of his
+nationality. But if the Russian Government have arrested the Englishman;
+if they have put him in the prison of 'St. Peter and St. Paul,' they
+dare not release him, unless they are willing to face war. The Russian
+Government can do nothing in his case but deny, demand proof, and
+obliterate all chance of the truth ever being known. Alan Drummond is
+doomed: they dare not release him. Now think for a moment how much worse
+my case would be than yours, if--if--" her voice quivered and broke for
+the moment, then with tightly clenched fists she recovered control of
+herself, and finished: "if I cared."
+
+"Oh, Dorothy, Dorothy, Dorothy!" gasped Katherine, springing to her
+feet.
+
+"No, no, don't jump at any false conclusion. We are both nervous wrecks
+this afternoon. Don't misunderstand me. I don't care--I don't care,
+except that I hate tyranny, and am sorry for the victims of it."
+
+"Dorothy, Dorothy!"
+
+"We need a sane man in the house, Kate. Telegraph for your father to
+come down and talk to us both. I must finish my letter to the Nihilist."
+
+"Dorothy!" said Katherine, kissing her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII --THE DREADED TROGZMONDOFF
+
+
+THE Nihilist was shown into the dainty drawing room of the flat, and
+found Dorothy Amhurst alone, as he had stipulated, waiting for him.
+He was dressed in a sort of naval uniform and held a peaked cap in his
+hand, standing awkwardly there as one unused to luxurious surroundings.
+His face was bronzed with exposure to sun and storm, and although he
+appeared to be little more than thirty years of age his closely cropped
+hair was white. His eyes were light blue, and if ever the expression of
+a man's countenance betokened stalwart honesty, it was the face of this
+sailor. He was not in the least Dorothy's idea of a dangerous plotter.
+
+"Sit down," she said, and he did so like a man ill at ease.
+
+"I suppose Johnson is not your real name," she began.
+
+"It is the name I bear in America, Madam."
+
+"Do you mind my asking you some questions?"
+
+"No, Madam, but if you ask me anything I am not allowed to answer I
+shall not reply."
+
+"How long have you been in the United States?"
+
+"Only a few months, Madam."
+
+"How come you to speak English so well?"
+
+"In my young days I shipped aboard a bark plying between Helsingfors and
+New York."
+
+"You are a Russian?"
+
+"I am a Finlander, Madam."
+
+"Have you been a sailor all your life?"
+
+"Yes, Madam. For a time I was an unimportant officer on board a
+battleship in the Russian Navy, until I was discovered to be a Nihilist,
+when I was cast into prison. I escaped last May, and came to New York."
+
+"What have you been doing since you arrived here?"
+
+"I was so fortunate as to become mate on the turbine yacht 'The Walrus,'
+owned by Mr. Stockwell."
+
+"Oh, that's the multi-millionaire whose bank failed a month ago?"
+
+"Yes, Madam."
+
+"But does he still keep a yacht?"
+
+"No, Madam. I think he has never been aboard this one, although it is
+probably the most expensive boat in these waters. I am told it cost
+anywhere from half a million to a million. She was built by Thornycroft,
+like a cruiser, with Parson's turbine engines in her. After the failure,
+Captain and crew were discharged, and I am on board as a sort of
+watchman until she is sold, but there is not a large market for a boat
+like 'The Walrus,' and I am told they will take the fittings out of her,
+and sell her as a cruiser to one of the South American republics."
+
+"Well, Mr. Johnson, you ought to be a reliable man, if the Court has put
+you in charge of so valuable a property."
+
+"I believe I am considered honest, Madam."
+
+"Then why do you come to me asking ten thousand dollars for a letter
+which you say was written to me, and which naturally belongs to me?"
+
+The man's face deepened into a mahogany brown, and he shifted his cap
+uneasily in his hands.
+
+"Madam, I am not acting for myself. I am Secretary of the Russian
+Liberation Society. They, through their branch at St. Petersburg, have
+conducted some investigations on your behalf."
+
+"Yes, for which I paid them very well."
+
+Johnson bowed.
+
+"Our object, Madam, is the repression of tyranny. For that we are in
+continual need of money. It is the poor, and not the millionaires, who
+subscribe to our fund. It has been discovered that you are a rich woman,
+who will never miss the money asked, and so the demand was made.
+Believe me, Madam, I am acting by the command of my comrades. I tried
+to persuade them to leave compensation to your own generosity, but they
+refused. If you consider their demand unreasonable, you have but to say
+so, and I will return and tell them your decision."
+
+"Have you brought the letter with you?"
+
+"Yes, Madam."
+
+"Must I agree to your terms before seeing it?"
+
+"Yes, Madam."
+
+"Have you read it?"
+
+"Yes, Madam."
+
+"Do you think it worth ten thousand dollars?"
+
+The sailor looked up at the decorated ceiling for several moments before
+he replied.
+
+"That is a question I cannot answer," he said at last. "It all depends
+on what you think of the writer."
+
+"Answer one more question. By whom is the letter signed?"
+
+"There is no signature, Madam. It was found in the house where the
+two young men lived. Our people searched the house from top to bottom
+surreptitiously, and they think the writer was arrested before he had
+finished the letter. There is no address, and nothing to show for whom
+it is intended, except the phrase beginning, 'My dearest Dorothy.'"
+
+The girl leaned back in her chair, and drew a long breath. "It is not
+for me," she said, hastily; then bending forward, she cried suddenly:
+
+"I agree to your terms: give it to me."
+
+The man hesitated, fumbling in his inside pocket.
+
+"I was to get your promise in writing," he demurred.
+
+"Give it to me, give it to me," she demanded. "I do not break my word."
+
+He handed her the letter.
+
+"My dearest Dorothy," she read, in writing well known to her. "You may
+judge my exalted state of mind when you see that I dare venture on such
+a beginning. I have been worrying myself and other people all to
+no purpose. I have received a letter from Jack this morning, and so
+suspicious had I grown that for a few moments I suspected the writing
+was but an imitation of his. He is a very impulsive fellow, and can
+think of only one thing at a time, which accounts for his success in the
+line of invention. He was telegraphed to that his sister was ill, and
+left at once to see her. I had allowed my mind to become so twisted by
+my fears for his safety that, as I tell you, I suspected the letter to
+be counterfeit at first. I telegraphed to his estate, and received a
+prompt reply saying that his sister was much better, and that he was
+already on his way back, and would reach me at eleven to-night. So
+that's what happens when a grown man gets a fit of nerves. I drew the
+most gloomy conclusions from the fact that I had been refused admission
+to the Foreign Office and the Admiralty. Yesterday that was all
+explained away. The business is at last concluded, and I was shown
+copies of the letters which have been forwarded to my own chiefs at
+home. Nothing could be more satisfactory. To-morrow Jack and I will be
+off to England together.
+
+"My dearest Dorothy (second time of asking), I am not a rich man, but
+then, in spite of your little fortune of Bar Harbor, you are not a rich
+woman, so we stand on an equality in that, even though you are so much
+my superior in everything else. I have five hundred pounds a year, which
+is something less than two thousand five hundred dollars, left me by my
+father. This is independent of my profession. I am very certain I will
+succeed in the Navy now that the Russian Government has sent those
+letters, so, the moment I was assured of that, I determined to write and
+ask you to be my wife. Will you forgive my impatience, and pander to it
+by cabling to me at the Bluewater Club, Pall Mall, the word 'Yes' or the
+word 'Undecided'? I shall not allow you the privilege of cabling 'No.'
+And please give me a chance of pleading my case in person, if you use
+the longer word. Ah, I hear Jack's step on the stair. Very stealthily he
+is coming, to surprise me, but I'll surprise--"
+
+Here the writing ended. She folded the letter, and placed it in her
+desk, sitting down before it.
+
+"Shall I make the check payable to you, or to the Society?"
+
+"To the Society, if you please, Madam."
+
+"I shall write it for double the amount asked. I also am a believer in
+liberty."
+
+"Oh, Madam, that is a generosity I feel we do not deserve. I should
+like to have given you the letter after all you have done for us with no
+conditions attached."
+
+"I am quite sure of that," said Dorothy, bending over her writing. She
+handed him the check, and he rose to go.
+
+"Sit down again, if you please. I wish to talk further with you. Your
+people in St. Petersburg think my friends have not been sent to Siberia?
+Are they sure of that?"
+
+"Well, Madam, they have means of knowing those who are transported, and
+they are certain the two young men were not among the recent gangs sent.
+They suppose them to be in the fortress of 'St. Peter and St. Paul', at
+least that's what they say."
+
+"You speak as if you doubted it."
+
+"I do doubt it."
+
+"They have been sent to Siberia after all?"
+
+"Ah, Madam, there are worse places than Siberia. In Siberia there is a
+chance: in the dreadful Trogzmondoff there is none."
+
+"What is the Trogzmondoff?"
+
+"A bleak 'Rock in the Baltic,' Madam, the prison in which death is the
+only goal that releases the victim."
+
+Dorothy rose trembling, staring at him, her lips white.
+
+"'A Rock in the Baltic!' Is that a prison, and not a fortress, then?"
+
+"It is both prison and fortress, Madam. If Russia ever takes the risk of
+arresting a foreigner, it is to the Trogzmondoff he is sent. They drown
+the victims there; drown them in their cells. There is a spring in the
+rock, and through the line of cells it runs like a beautiful rivulet,
+but the pulling of a lever outside stops the exit of the water, and
+drowns every prisoner within. The bodies are placed one by one on a
+smooth, inclined shute of polished sandstone, down which this rivulet
+runs so they glide out into space, and drop two hundred feet into the
+Baltic Sea. No matter in what condition such a body is found, or how
+recent may have been the execution, it is but a drowned man in the
+Baltic. There are no marks of bullet or strangulation, and the currents
+bear them swiftly away from the rock."
+
+"How come you to know all this which seems to have been concealed from
+the rest of the world?"
+
+"I know it, Madam, for the best of reasons. I was sentenced this very
+year to Trogzmondoff. In my youth trading between Helsingfors and New
+York, I took out naturalization papers in New York, because I was one
+of the crew on an American ship. When they illegally impressed me at
+Helsingfors and forced me to join the Russian Navy, I made the best of
+a bad bargain, and being an expert seaman, was reasonably well treated,
+and promoted, but at last they discovered I was in correspondence with
+a Nihilist circle in London, and when I was arrested, I demanded the
+rights of an American citizen. That doomed me. I was sent, without
+trial, to the Trogzmondoff in April of this year. Arriving there I was
+foolish enough to threaten, and say my comrades had means of letting
+the United States Government know, and that a battleship would teach the
+gaolers of the rock better manners.
+
+"The cells hewn in the rock are completely dark, so I lost all count of
+time. You might think we would know night from day by the bringing in of
+our meals, but such was not the case. The gaoler brought in a large loaf
+of black bread, and said it was to serve me for four days. He placed the
+loaf on a ledge of rock about three feet from the floor, which served
+as both table and bed. In excavating the cell this ledge had been left
+intact, with a bench of stone rising from the floor opposite. Indeed, so
+ingenious had been the workmen who hewed out this room that they carved
+a rounded stone pillow at one end of the shelf.
+
+"I do not know how many days I had been in prison when the explosion
+occurred. It made the whole rock quiver, and I wondered what had
+happened. Almost immediately afterward there seemed to be another
+explosion, not nearly so harsh, which I thought was perhaps an echo
+of the first. About an hour later my cell door was unlocked, and the
+gaoler, with another man holding a lantern, came in. My third loaf of
+black bread was partly consumed, so I must have been in prison nine
+or ten days. The gaoler took the loaf outside, and when he returned.
+I asked him what had happened. He answered in a surly fashion that my
+American warship had fired at the rock, and that the rock had struck
+back, whereupon she sailed away, crippled."
+
+Dorothy, who had been listening intently to this discourse, here
+interrupted with:
+
+"It was an English war-ship that fired the shell, and the Russian shot
+did not come within half a mile of her."
+
+The sailor stared at her in wide-eyed surprise.
+
+"You see, I have been making inquiries," she explained. "Please go on."
+
+"I never heard that it was an English ship. The gaoler sneered at me,
+and said he was going to send me after the American vessel, as I suppose
+he thought it was. I feared by his taking away of the bread that it was
+intended to starve me to death, and was sorry I had not eaten more at my
+last meal. I lay down on the shelf of rock, and soon fell asleep. I was
+awakened by the water lapping around me. The cell was intensely still.
+Up to this I had always enjoyed the company of a little brook that ran
+along the side of the cell farthest from the door. Its music had now
+ceased, and when I sprang up I found myself to the waist in very cold
+water. I guessed at once the use of the levers outside the cell in the
+passage which I had noticed in the light of the lantern on the day I
+entered the place, and I knew now why it was that the prison door was
+not pierced by one of those gratings which enable the gaoler in the
+passage to look into the cell any time of night or day. Prisoners have
+told me that the uncertainty of an inmate who never knew when he might
+be spied upon added to the horror of the situation, but the water-tight
+doors of the Trogzmondoff are free from this feature, and for a very
+sinister reason.
+
+"The channel in the floor through which the water runs when the cell is
+empty, and the tunnel at the ceiling through which the water flows when
+the cell is full, give plenty of ventilation, no matter how tightly the
+door may be closed. The water rose very gradually until it reached the
+top outlet, then its level remained stationary. I floated on the top
+quite easily, with as little exertion as was necessary to keep me in
+that position. If I raised my head, my brow struck the ceiling. The next
+cell to mine, lower down, was possibly empty. I heard the water pour
+into it like a little cataract. The next cell above, and indeed all the
+cells in that direction were flooded like my own. Of course it was
+no trouble for me to keep afloat; my only danger was that the intense
+coldness of the water would numb my body beyond recovery. Still, I had
+been accustomed to hardships of that kind before now, in the frozen
+North. At last the gentle roar of the waterfall ceased, and I realized
+my cell was emptying itself. When I reached my shelf again, I stretched
+my limbs back and forth as strenuously as I could, and as silently, for
+I wished no sound to give any hint that I was still alive, if, indeed,
+sound could penetrate to the passage, which is unlikely. Even before
+the last of the water had run away from the cell, I lay stretched out
+at full length on the floor, hoping I might have steadiness enough to
+remain death-quiet when the men came in with the lantern. I need have
+had no fear. The door was opened, one of the men picked me up by the
+heels, and, using my legs as if they were the shafts of a wheelbarrow,
+dragged me down the passage to the place where the stream emerged from
+the last cell, and into this torrent he flung me. There was one swift,
+brief moment of darkness, then I shot, feet first, into space, and
+dropped down, down, down through the air like a plummet, into the arms
+of my mother."
+
+"Into what?" cried Dorothy, white and breathless, thinking the recital
+of these agonies had turned the man's brain.
+
+"The Baltic, Madam, is the Finlander's mother. It feeds him in life,
+carries him whither he wishes to go, and every true Finlander hopes to
+die in her arms. The Baltic seemed almost warm after what I had been
+through, and the taste of the salt on my lips was good. It was a
+beautiful starlight night in May, and I floated around the rock, for I
+knew that in a cove on the eastern side, concealed from all view of the
+sea, lay a Finland fishing-boat, a craft that will weather any storm,
+and here in the water was a man who knew how to handle it. Prisoners are
+landed on the eastern side, and such advantage is taken of the natural
+conformation of this precipitous rock, that a man climbing the steep
+zigzag stairway which leads to the inhabited portion is hidden from
+sight of any craft upon the water even four or five hundred yards
+away. Nothing seen from the outside gives any token of habitation.
+The fishing-boat, I suppose, is kept for cases of emergency, that the
+Governor may communicate with the shore if necessary. I feared it might
+be moored so securely that I could not unfasten it. Security had made
+them careless, and the boat was tied merely by lines to rings in the
+rock, the object being to keep her from bruising her sides against the
+stone, rather than to prevent any one taking her away. I pushed her out
+into the open, got quietly inside, and floated with the swift tide, not
+caring to raise a sail until I was well out of gunshot distance. Once
+clear of the rock I spread canvas, and by daybreak was long out of sight
+of land. I made for Stockholm, and there being no mark or name on the
+boat to denote that it belonged to the Russian Government, I had little
+difficulty in selling it. I told the authorities what was perfectly
+true: that I was a Finland sailor escaping from the tyrant of my
+country, and anxious to get to America. As such events are happening
+practically every week along the Swedish coast I was not interfered
+with, and got enough money from the sale of the boat to enable me
+to dress myself well, and take passage to England, and from there
+first-class to New York on a regular liner.
+
+"Of course I could have shipped as a sailor from Stockholm easy enough,
+but I was tired of being a common sailor, and expected, if I was
+respectably clothed, to get a better position than would otherwise be
+the case. This proved true, for crossing the ocean I became acquainted
+with Mr. Stockwell, and he engaged me as mate of his yacht. That's how I
+escaped from the Trogzmondoff, Madam, and I think no one but a Finlander
+could have done it."
+
+"I quite agree with you," said Dorothy. "You think these two men I have
+been making inquiry about have been sent to the Trogzmondoff?"
+
+"The Russian may not be there, Madam, but the Englishman is sure to be
+there."
+
+"Is the cannon on the western side of the rock?"
+
+"I don't know, Madam. I never saw the western side by daylight. I
+noticed nothing on the eastern side as I was climbing the steps, to show
+that any cannon was on the Trogzmondoff at all."
+
+"I suppose you had no opportunity of finding out how many men garrison
+the rock?"
+
+"No, Madam. I don't think the garrison is large. The place is so secure
+that it doesn't need many men to guard it. Prisoners are never taken out
+for exercise, and, as I told you, they are fed but once in four days."
+
+"How large a crew can 'The Walrus' carry?"
+
+"Oh, as many as you like, Madam. The yacht is practically an ocean
+liner."
+
+"Is there any landing stage on the eastern side of the rock?"
+
+"Practically none, Madam. The steamer stood out, and I was landed in the
+cove I spoke of at the foot of the stairway."
+
+"It wouldn't be possible to bring a steamer like 'The Walrus' alongside
+the rock, then?"
+
+"It would be possible in calm weather, but very dangerous even then."
+
+"Could you find that rock if you were in command of a ship sailing the
+Baltic?"
+
+"Oh, yes, Madam."
+
+"If twenty or thirty determined men were landed on the stairway, do you
+think they could capture the garrison?"
+
+"Yes, if they were landed secretly, but one or two soldiers at the top
+with repeating rifles might hold the stairway against an army, while
+their ammunition lasted."
+
+"But if a shell were fired from the steamer, might not the attacking
+company get inside during the confusion among the defenders?"
+
+"That is possible, Madam, but a private steamer firing shells, or,
+indeed, landing a hostile company, runs danger of meeting the fate of a
+pirate."
+
+"You would not care to try it, then?"
+
+"I? Oh, I should be delighted to try it, if you allow me to select the
+crew. I can easily get aboard the small arms and ammunition necessary,
+but I am not so sure about the cannon."
+
+"Very good. I need not warn you to be extremely cautious regarding those
+you take into your confidence. Meanwhile, I wish you to communicate
+with the official who is authorized to sell the yacht. I am expecting
+a gentleman to-morrow in whose name the vessel will probably be bought,
+and I am hoping he will accept the captaincy of it."
+
+"Is he capable of filling that position, Madam? Is he a sailor?"
+
+"He was for many years captain in the United States Navy. I offer you
+the position of mate, but I will give you captain's pay, and a large
+bonus in addition if you faithfully carry out my plans, whether they
+prove successful or not. I wish you to come here at this hour to-morrow,
+with whoever is authorized to sell or charter the steamer. You may say I
+am undecided whether to buy or charter. I must consult Captain Kempt on
+that point."
+
+"Thank you, Madam, I shall be here this time to-morrow."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII --ENTRAPPED
+
+
+PRINCE IVAN LERMONTOFF came to consider the explosion one of the
+luckiest things that had ever occurred in his workshop. Its happening
+so soon after he reached St. Petersburg he looked upon as particularly
+fortunate, because this gave him time to follow the new trend of
+thought along which his mind had been deflected by such knowledge as the
+unexpected outcome of his experiment had disclosed to him. The material
+he had used as a catalytic agent was a new substance which he had read
+of in a scientific review, and he had purchased a small quantity of it
+in London. If such a minute portion produced results so tremendous,
+he began to see that a man with an apparently innocent material in his
+waistcoat pocket might probably be able to destroy a naval harbor,
+so long as water and stone were in conjunction. There was also a
+possibility that a small quantity of ozak, as the stuff was called,
+mixed with pure water, would form a reducing agent for limestone, and
+perhaps for other minerals, which would work much quicker than if the
+liquid was merely impregnated with carbonic acid gas. He endeavored to
+purchase some ozak from Mr. Kruger, the chemist on the English quay, but
+that good man had never heard of it, and a day's search persuaded him
+that it could not be got in St. Petersburg, so the Prince induced Kruger
+to order half a pound of it from London or Paris, in which latter city
+it had been discovered. For the arrival of this order the Prince waited
+with such patience as he could call to his command, and visited poor Mr.
+Kruger every day in the hope of receiving it.
+
+One afternoon he was delighted to hear that the box had come, although
+it had not yet been unpacked.
+
+"I will send it to your house this evening," said the chemist. "There
+are a number of drugs in the box for your old friend Professor Potkin of
+the University, and he is even more impatient for his consignment than
+you are for yours. Ah, here he is," and as he spoke the venerable Potkin
+himself entered the shop.
+
+He shook hands warmly with Lermontoff, who had always been a favorite
+pupil of his, and learned with interest that he had lately been to
+England and America.
+
+"Cannot you dine with me this evening at half-past five?" asked the old
+man. "There are three or four friends coming, to whom I shall be glad to
+introduce you."
+
+"Truth to tell, Professor," demurred the Prince, "I have a friend
+staying with me, and I don't just like to leave him alone."
+
+"Bring him with you, bring him with you," said the Professor, "but in
+any case be sure you come yourself. I shall be expecting you. Make your
+excuses to your friend if he does not wish to endure what he might
+think dry discussion, because we shall talk nothing but chemistry and
+politics."
+
+The Prince promised to be there whether his friend came or no. The
+chemist here interrupted them, and told the Professor he might expect
+his materials within two hours.
+
+"And your package," he said to the Prince, "I shall send about the same
+time. I have been very busy, and can trust no one to unpack this box but
+myself."
+
+"You need not trouble to send it, and in any case I don't wish to run
+the risk of having it delivered at a wrong address by your messenger.
+I cannot afford to wait so long as would be necessary to duplicate the
+order. I am dining with the Professor to-night, so will drive this way,
+and take the parcel myself."
+
+"Perhaps," said the chemist, "it would be more convenient if I sent your
+parcel to Professor Potkin's house?"
+
+"No," said the Prince decisively, "I shall call for it about five
+o'clock."
+
+The Professor laughed.
+
+"We experimenters," he said, "never trust each other," so they shook
+hands and parted.
+
+On returning to his workshop, Lermontoff bounded up the stairs, and
+hailed his friend the Lieutenant.
+
+"I say, Drummond, I'm going to dine to-night with Professor Potkin of
+the University, my old teacher in chemistry. His hour is half-past five,
+and I've got an invitation for you. There will be several scientists
+present, and no women. Will you come?"
+
+"I'd a good deal rather not," said the Englishman, "I'm wiring into
+these books, and studying strategy; making plans for an attack upon
+Kronstadt."
+
+"Well, you take my advice, Alan, and don't leave any of those plans
+round where the St. Petersburg police will find them. Such a line
+of study is carried on much safer in London than here. You'd be very
+welcome, Drummond, and the old boy would be glad to see you. You don't
+need to bother about evening togs--plain living and high thinking,
+you know. I'm merely going to put on a clean collar and a new tie, as
+sufficient for the occasion."
+
+"I'd rather not go, Jack, if you don't mind. If I'm there you'll all be
+trying to talk English or French, and so I'd feel myself rather a damper
+on the company. Besides, I don't know anything about science, and I'm
+trying to learn something about strategy. What time do you expect to be
+back?"
+
+"Rather early; ten or half-past."
+
+"Good, I'll wait up for you."
+
+At five o'clock Jack was at the chemist's and received his package. On
+opening it he found the ozak in two four-ounce, glass-stoppered bottles,
+and these he put in his pocket.
+
+"Will you give me three spray syringes, as large a size as you have,
+rubber, glass, and metal. I'm not sure but this stuff will attack one
+or other of them, and I don't want to spend the rest of my life running
+down to your shop."
+
+Getting the syringes, he jumped into his cab, and was driven to the
+Professor's.
+
+"You may call for me at ten," he said to the cabman.
+
+There were three others besides the Professor and himself, and they were
+all interested in learning the latest scientific news from New York and
+London.
+
+It was a quarter past ten when the company separated. Lermontoff stepped
+into his cab, and the driver went rattling up the street. In all the
+talk the Prince had said nothing of his own discovery, and now when he
+found himself alone his mind reverted to the material in his pocket,
+and he was glad the cabman was galloping his horse, that he might be the
+sooner in his workshop. Suddenly he noticed that they were dashing down
+a street which ended at the river.
+
+"I say," he cried to the driver, "you've taken the wrong turning. This
+is a blind street. There's neither quay nor bridge down here. Turn
+back."
+
+"I see that now," said the driver over his shoulder. "I'll turn round at
+the end where it is wider."
+
+He did turn, but instead of coming up the street again, dashed through
+an open archway which led into the courtyard of a large building
+fronting the Neva. The moment the carriage was inside, the gates clanged
+shut.
+
+"Now, what in the name of Saint Peter do you mean by this?" demanded the
+Prince angrily.
+
+The cabman made no reply, but from a door to the right stepped a tall,
+uniformed officer, who said:
+
+"Orders, your Highness, orders. The isvoshtchik is not to blame. May I
+beg of your Highness to accompany me inside?"
+
+"Who the devil are you?" demanded the annoyed nobleman.
+
+"I am one who is called upon to perform a disagreeable duty, which your
+Highness will make much easier by paying attention to my requests."
+
+"Am I under arrest?"
+
+"I have not said so, Prince Ivan."
+
+"Then I demand that the gates be opened that I may return home, where
+more important business awaits me than talking to a stranger who refuses
+to reveal his identity."
+
+"I hope you will pardon me, Prince Lermontoff. I act, as the isvoshtchik
+has acted, under compulsion. My identity is not in question. I ask you
+for the second time to accompany me."
+
+"Then, for the second time I inquire, am I under arrest? If so, show
+me your warrant, and then I will go with you, merely protesting that
+whoever issued such a warrant has exceeded his authority."
+
+"I have seen nothing of a warrant, your Highness, and I think you are
+confusing your rights with those pertaining to individuals residing in
+certain countries you have recently visited."
+
+"You have no warrant, then?"
+
+"I have none. I act on my superior's word, and do not presume to
+question it. May I hope that you will follow me without a further
+parley, which is embarrassing to me, and quite unhelpful to yourself. I
+have been instructed to treat you with every courtesy, but nevertheless
+force has been placed at my disposal. I am even to take your word of
+honor that you are unarmed, and your Highness is well aware that such
+leniency is seldom shown in St. Petersburg."
+
+"Well, sir, even if my word of honor failed to disarm me, your
+politeness would. I carry a revolver. Do you wish it?"
+
+"If your Highness will condescend to give it to me."
+
+The Prince held the weapon, butt forward, to the officer, who received
+it with a gracious salutation.
+
+"You know nothing of the reason for this action?"
+
+"Nothing whatever, your Highness."
+
+"Where are you going to take me?"
+
+"A walk of less than three minutes will acquaint your Highness with the
+spot."
+
+The Prince laughed.
+
+"Oh, very well," he said. "May I write a note to a friend who is waiting
+up for me?"
+
+"I regret, Highness, that no communications whatever can be allowed."
+
+The Prince stepped down from the vehicle, walked diagonally across a
+very dimly lighted courtyard with his guide, entered that section of the
+rectangular building which faced the Neva, passed along a hall with one
+gas jet burning, then outside again, and immediately over a gang-plank
+that brought him aboard a steamer. On the lower deck a passage ran
+down the center of the ship, and along this the conductor guided his
+prisoner, opened the door of a stateroom in which candles were burning,
+and a comfortable bed turned down for occupancy.
+
+"I think your Highness will find everything here that you need.
+If anything further is required, the electric bell will summon an
+attendant, who will get it for you."
+
+"Am I not to be confronted with whoever is responsible for my arrest?"
+
+"I know nothing of that, your Highness. My duty ends by escorting you
+here. I must ask if you have any other weapon upon you?"
+
+"No, I have not."
+
+"Will you give me your parole that you will not attempt to escape?"
+
+"I shall escape if I can, of course."
+
+"Thank you, Excellency," replied the officer, as suavely as if
+Lermontoff had given his parole. Out of the darkness he called a tall,
+rough-looking soldier, who carried a musket with a bayonet at the end of
+it. The soldier took his stand beside the door of the cabin.
+
+"Anything else?" asked the Prince.
+
+"Nothing else, your Highness, except good-night."
+
+"Oh, by the way, I forgot to pay my cabman. Of course it isn't his fault
+that he brought me here."
+
+"I shall have pleasure in sending him to you, and again, good-night."
+
+"Good-night," said the Prince.
+
+He closed the door of his cabin, pulled out his note-book, and rapidly
+wrote two letters, one of which he addressed to Drummond and the other
+to the Czar. When the cabman came he took him within the cabin and
+closed the door.
+
+"Here," he said in a loud voice that the sentry could overhear if he
+liked, "how much do I owe you?"
+
+The driver told him.
+
+"That's too much, you scoundrel," he cried aloud, but as he did so he
+placed three gold pieces in the palm of the driver's hand together with
+the two letters, and whispered:
+
+"Get these delivered safely, and I'll give you ten times this money if
+you call on Prince Lermontoff at the address on that note."
+
+The man saluted, thanked him, and retired; a moment later he heard the
+jingle of a bell, and then the steady throb of an engine. There was no
+window to the stateroom, and he could not tell whether the steamer
+was going up or down the river. Up, he surmised, and he suspected his
+destination was Schlusselburg, the fortress-prison on an island at the
+source of the Neva. He determined to go on deck and solve the question
+of direction, but the soldier at the door brought down his gun and
+barred the passage.
+
+"I am surely allowed to go on deck?"
+
+"You cannot pass without an order from the captain."
+
+"Well, send the captain to me, then."
+
+"I dare not leave the door," said the soldier.
+
+Lermontoff pressed the button, and presently an attendant came to learn
+what was wanted.
+
+"Will you ask the captain to come here?"
+
+The steward departed, and shortly after returned with a big, bronzed,
+bearded man, whose bulk made the stateroom seem small.
+
+"You sent for the captain, and I am here."
+
+"So am I," said the Prince jauntily. "My name is Lermontoff. Perhaps you
+have heard of me?"
+
+The captain shook his shaggy head.
+
+"I am a Prince of Russia, and by some mistake find myself your passenger
+instead of spending the night in my own house. Where are you taking me,
+Captain?"
+
+"It is forbidden that I should answer questions."
+
+"Is it also forbidden that I should go on deck?"
+
+"The General said you were not to be allowed to leave this stateroom, as
+you did not give your parole."
+
+"How can I escape from a steamer in motion, Captain?"
+
+"It is easy to jump into the river, and perhaps swim ashore."
+
+"So he is a general, is he? Well, Captain, I'll give you my parole that
+I shall not attempt to swim the Neva on so cold a night as this."
+
+"I cannot allow you on deck now," said the Captain, "but when we are in
+the Gulf of Finland you may walk the deck with the sentry beside you."
+
+"The Gulf of Finland!" cried Lermontoff. "Then you are going down the
+river?"
+
+The big Captain looked at him with deep displeasure clouding his brow,
+feeling that he had been led to give away information which he should
+have kept to himself.
+
+"You are not going up to Schlusselburg, then?"
+
+"I told your Highness that I am not allowed to answer questions. The
+General, however, has given me a letter for you, and perhaps it may
+contain all you may want to know."
+
+"The General has given you a letter, eh? Then why don't you let me have
+it?"
+
+"He told me not to disturb you to-night, but place it before you at
+breakfast to-morrow."
+
+"Oh, we're going to travel all night, are we?"
+
+"Yes, Excellency."
+
+"Did the General say you should not allow me to see the letter
+to-night?"
+
+"No, your Excellency; he just said, 'Do not trouble his Highness
+to-night, but give him this in the morning.'"
+
+"In that case let me have it now."
+
+The Captain pulled a letter from his pocket and presented it to the
+Prince. It contained merely the two notes which Lermontoff had written
+to Drummond and to the Czar.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV --A VOYAGE INTO THE UNKNOWN
+
+
+AFTER the Captain left him, Lermontoff closed and bolted the door, then
+sat down upon the edge of his bed to meditate upon the situation. He
+heard distant bells ringing on shore somewhere, and looking at his watch
+saw it was just eleven o'clock. It seemed incredible that three-quarters
+of an hour previously he had left the hospitable doors of a friend,
+and now was churning his way in an unknown steamer to an unknown
+destination. It appeared impossible that so much could have happened in
+forty-five minutes. He wondered what Drummond was doing, and what action
+he would take when he found his friend missing.
+
+However, pondering over the matter brought no solution of the mystery,
+so, being a practical young man, he cast the subject from his mind,
+picked up his heavy overcoat, which he had flung on the bed, and hung
+it up on the hook attached to the door. As he did this his hand came in
+contact with a tube in one of the pockets, and for a moment he imagined
+it was his revolver, but he found it was the metal syringe he had
+purchased that evening from the chemist. This set his thoughts whirling
+in another direction. He took from an inside pocket one of the bottles
+of ozak, examining it under the candle light, wishing he had a piece
+of rock with which to experiment. Then with a yawn he replaced the
+materials in his overcoat pocket, took off his boots, and threw himself
+on the bed, thankful it was not an ordinary shelf bunk, but a generous
+and comfortable resting-place. Now Katherine appeared before his closed
+eyes, and hand in hand they wandered into dreamland together.
+
+When he awoke it was pitch dark in his cabin. The candles, which he had
+neglected to extinguish, had burned themselves out. The short, jerky
+motion of the steamer indicated that he was aboard a small vessel, and
+that this small vessel was out in the open sea. He believed that a noise
+of some kind had awakened him, and this was confirmed by a knock at his
+door which caused him to spring up and throw back the bolt. The steward
+was there, but in the dim light of the passage he saw nothing of the
+sentinel. He knew it was daylight outside.
+
+"The Captain, Excellency, wishes to know if you will breakfast with him
+or take your meal in your room?"
+
+"Present my compliments to the Captain, and say I shall have great
+pleasure in breakfasting with him."
+
+"It will be ready in a quarter of an hour, Excellency."
+
+"Very good. Come for me at that time, as I don't know my way about the
+boat."
+
+The Prince washed himself, smoothed out his rumpled clothes as well as
+he could, and put on his boots. While engaged in the latter operation
+the door opened, and the big Captain himself entered, inclosed in
+glistening oilskins.
+
+"Hyvaa pyvaa, Highness," said the Captain. "Will you walk the deck
+before breakfast?"
+
+"Good-day to you," returned the Prince, "and by your salutation I take
+you to be a Finn."
+
+"I am a native of Abo," replied the Captain, "and as you say, a Finn,
+but I differ from many of my countrymen, as I am a good Russian also."
+
+"Well, there are not too many good Russians, and here is one who would
+rather have heard that you were a good Finn solely."
+
+"It is to prevent any mistake," replied the Captain, almost roughly,
+"that I mention I am a good Russian."
+
+"Right you are, Captain, and as I am a good Russian also, perhaps good
+Russian Number One can tell me to what part of the world he is conveying
+good Russian Number Two, a man guiltless of any crime, and unwilling, at
+this moment, to take an enforced journey."
+
+"We may both be good, but the day is not, Highness. It has been raining
+during the night, and is still drizzling. I advise you to put on your
+overcoat."
+
+"Thanks, Captain, I will."
+
+The Captain in most friendly manner took the overcoat from its hook,
+shook it out, and held it ready to embrace its owner. Lermontoff shoved
+right arm, then left, into the sleeves, hunched the coat up into place,
+and buttoned it at the throat.
+
+"Again, Captain, my thanks. Lead the way and I will follow."
+
+They emerged on deck into a dismal gray morning. No land or craft of any
+kind was in sight. The horizon formed a small, close circle round
+the ship. Clouds hung low, running before the wind, and bringing
+intermittently little dashes of rain that seemed still further to
+compress the walls of horizon. The sea was not what could be called
+rough, but merely choppy and fretful, with short waves that would
+not have troubled a larger craft. The steamer proved to be a small,
+undistinguished dingy-looking boat, more like a commercial tramp than a
+government vessel. An officer, apparently the mate, stood on the bridge,
+sinewy hands grasping the rail, peering ahead into the white mist
+that was almost a fog. The promenade deck afforded no great scope for
+pedestrianism, but Captain and prisoner walked back and forth over the
+restricted space, talking genially together as if they were old friends.
+Nevertheless there was a certain cautious guardedness in the Captain's
+speech; the wary craft of an unready man who is in the presence of a
+person more subtle than himself. The bluff Captain remembered he had
+been caught napping the night before, when, after refusing to tell
+the Prince the direction of the steamer, he had given himself away by
+mentioning the Gulf of Finland. Lermontoff noticed this reluctance
+to plunge into the abyss of free conversation, and so, instead of
+reassuring him he would ask no more questions, he merely took upon his
+own shoulders the burden of the talk, and related to the Captain certain
+wonders of London and New York.
+
+The steward advanced respectfully to the Captain, and announced
+breakfast ready, whereupon the two men followed him into a saloon not
+much larger than the stateroom Lermontoff had occupied the night before,
+and not nearly so comfortably furnished. A plenteous breakfast was
+supplied, consisting principally of fish, steaming potatoes, black
+bread, and very strong tea. The Captain swallowed cup after cup of this
+scalding beverage, and it seemed to make him more and more genial as
+if it had been wine. Indeed, as time went on he forgot that it was a
+prisoner who sat before him, for quite innocently he said to the steward
+who waited on them:
+
+"Have the poor devils below had anything to eat?"
+
+"No orders, sir," replied the steward.
+
+"Oh, well, give them something--something hot. It may be their last
+meal," then turning, he met the gaze of the Prince, demanded roughly
+another cup of tea, and explained:
+
+"Three of the crew took too much vodka in St. Petersburg yesterday."
+
+The Prince nodded carelessly, as if he believed, and offered his open
+cigarette case to the Captain, who shook his head.
+
+"I smoke a pipe," he growled.
+
+The Captain rose with his lighted pipe, and together they went up on
+deck again. The Prince saw nothing more of the tall sentinel who had
+been his guard the night before, so without asking permission he took
+it for granted that his movements, now they were in the open sea,
+were unrestricted, therefore he walked up and down the deck smoking
+cigarettes. At the stroke of a bell the Captain mounted the bridge and
+the mate came down.
+
+Suddenly out of the thickness ahead loomed up a great black British
+freighter making for St. Petersburg, as the Prince supposed. The two
+steamers, big and little, were so close that each was compelled to sheer
+off a bit; then the Captain turned on the bridge and seemed for a moment
+uncertain what to do with his prisoner. A number of men were leaning
+over the bulwarks of the British ship, and it would have been quite
+possible for the person on one boat to give a message to those on the
+other. The Prince, understanding the Captain's quandary, looked up
+at him and smiled, but made no attempt to take advantage of his
+predicament. Some one on board the English ship shouted and fluttered a
+handkerchief, whereupon the Prince waved his cigarette in the air, and
+the big boat disappeared in the thickness of the east.
+
+Lermontoff walked the deck, thinking very seriously about his situation,
+and wondering where they intended to take him. If he were to be put in
+prison, it must be in some place of detention on the coast of Finland,
+which seemed strange, because he understood that the fortresses there
+were already filled with dissatisfied inhabitants of that disaffected
+land. His first impression had been that banishment was intended, and he
+had expected to be landed at some Swedish or German port, but a chance
+remark made by the Captain at breakfast inclined him to believe that
+there were other prisoners on board not quite so favorably treated as
+himself. But why should he be sent out of Russia proper, or even removed
+from St. Petersburg, which, he was well aware, suffered from no lack
+of gaols. The continued voyage of the steamer through an open sea again
+aroused the hope that Stockholm was the objective point. If they landed
+him there it merely meant a little temporary inconvenience, and, once
+ashore, he hoped to concoct a telegram so apparently innocent that
+it would win through to his friend, and give Drummond at least the
+knowledge of his abiding-place. The thought of Drummond aroused all
+his old fear that the Englishman was to be the real victim, and this
+enforced voyage was merely a convenient method of getting himself out of
+the way.
+
+After lunch a dismal drizzle set in that presently increased to a steady
+downpour, which drove Lermontoff to his cabin, and that room being
+unprovided with either window or electric light, the Prince struck a
+match to one of the candles newly placed on the washstand. He pushed the
+electric button summoning the steward, and, giving him some money,
+asked if there was such a thing as a piece of stone on board, carried as
+ballast, or for any other reason. The steward said he would inquire,
+and finally returned with a sharpening stone used for the knives in the
+galley. Bolting his door, Lermontoff began an experiment, and at once
+forgot he was a prisoner. He filled the wash-basin with water, and
+opening one of the glass-stoppered bottles, took out with the point
+of his knife a most minute portion of the substance within, which he
+dissolved in the water with no apparent effect. Standing the whetstone
+up on end, he filled the glass syringe, and directed a fine, vaporous
+spray against the stone. It dissolved before his eyes as a sand castle
+on the shore dissolves at the touch of an incoming tide.
+
+"By St. Peter of Russia!" he cried, "I've got it at last! I must write
+to Katherine about this."
+
+Summoning the steward again to take away this fluid, and bring him
+another pailful of fresh water, Lermontoff endeavored to extract some
+information from the deferential young man.
+
+"Have you ever been in Stockholm?"
+
+"No, Excellency."
+
+"Or in any of the German ports?"
+
+"No, Excellency."
+
+"Do you know where we are making for now?"
+
+"No, Excellency."
+
+"Nor when we shall reach our destination?"
+
+"No, Excellency."
+
+"You have some prisoners aboard?"
+
+"Three drunken sailors, Excellency."
+
+"Yes, that's what the Captain said. But if it meant death for a sailor
+to be drunk, the commerce of the world would speedily stop."
+
+"This is a government steamer, Excellency, and if a sailor here disobeys
+orders he is guilty of mutiny. On a merchant vessel they would merely
+put him in irons."
+
+"I see. Now do you want to earn a few gold pieces?"
+
+"Excellency has been very generous to me already," was the non-committal
+reply of the steward, whose eyes nevertheless twinkled at the mention of
+gold.
+
+"Well, here's enough to make a jingle in your pocket, and here are two
+letters which you are to try to get delivered when you return to St.
+Petersburg."
+
+"Yes, Excellency."
+
+"You will do your best?"
+
+"Yes, Excellency."
+
+"Well, if you succeed, I'll make your fortune when I'm released."
+
+"Thank you, Excellency."
+
+That night at dinner the Captain opened a bottle of vodka, and conversed
+genially on many topics, without touching upon the particular subject
+of liberty. He partook sparingly of the stimulant, and, to Lermontoff's
+disappointment, it did not in the least loosen his tongue, and thus,
+still ignorant of his fate, the Prince turned in for the second night
+aboard the steamer.
+
+When he awoke next morning he found the engines had stopped, and, as
+the vessel was motionless, surmised it had reached harbor. He heard
+the intermittent chuck-chuck of a pony engine, and the screech of an
+imperfectly-oiled crane, and guessed that cargo was being put ashore.
+
+"Now," he said to himself, "if my former sentinel is at the door they
+are going to take me to prison. If he is absent, I am to be set free."
+
+He jumped up, threw back the bolt, opened the door. There was no one
+there. In a very few minutes he was on deck, and found that the steamer
+was lying in the lee of a huge rock, which reminded him of Mont St.
+Michel in Normandy, except that it was about half again as high, and
+three times as long, and that there were no buildings of any kind upon
+it, nor, indeed, the least sign of human habitation.
+
+The morning was fine; in the east the sun had just risen, and was
+flooding the grim rock with a rosy light. Except this rock, no trace of
+land was visible as far as the eye could see. Alongside the steamer was
+moored a sailing-boat with two masts, but provided also with thole-pins,
+and sweeps for rowing. The sails were furled, and she had evidently been
+brought to the steamer's side by means of the oars. Into this craft the
+crane was lowering boxes, bags, and what-not, which three or four men
+were stowing away. The mate was superintending this transshipment, and
+the Captain, standing with his back against the deck-house, was handing
+one by one certain papers, which Lermontoff took to be bills of lading,
+to a young man who signed in a book for each he received. When this
+transaction was completed, the young man saluted the Captain, and
+descended over the ship's side to the sail-boat.
+
+"Good morning, Captain. At anchor, I see," said Lermontoff.
+
+"No, not at anchor. Merely lying here. The sea is too deep, and affords
+no anchorage at this point."
+
+"Where are all these goods going?"
+
+The Captain nodded his head at the rock, and Lermontoff gazed at it
+again, running his eyes from top to bottom without seeing any vestige of
+civilization.
+
+"Then you lie to the lee of this rock, and the small boat takes the
+supplies ashore?"
+
+"Exactly," said the Captain.
+
+"The settlement, I take it, is on the other side. What is it--a
+lighthouse?"
+
+"There's no lighthouse," said the Captain.
+
+"Sort of coastguard, then?"
+
+"Yes, in a way. They keep a lookout. And now, Highness, I see your
+overcoat is on your back. Have you left anything in your room?"
+
+The Prince laughed.
+
+"No, Captain, I forgot to bring a portmanteau with me."
+
+"Then I must say farewell to you here."
+
+"What, you are not going to maroon me on this pebble in the ocean?"
+
+"You will be well taken care of, Highness."
+
+"What place is this?"
+
+"It is called the Trogzmondoff, Highness, and the water surrounding you
+is the Baltic."
+
+"Is it Russian territory?"
+
+"Very, very Russian," returned the Captain drawing a deep breath.
+"This way, if your Highness pleases. There is a rope ladder, which is
+sometimes a little unsteady for a landsman, so be careful."
+
+"Oh, I'm accustomed to rope ladders. Hyvasti, Captain."
+
+"Hyvasti, your Highness."
+
+And with this mutual good-by in Finnish, the Prince went down the
+swaying ladder.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV --"A HOME ON THE ROLLING DEEP"
+
+
+FOR once the humorous expression had vanished from Captain Kempt's face,
+and that good-natured man sat in the dainty drawing-room of the flat a
+picture of perplexity. Dorothy had told him the story of the Nihilist,
+saying she intended to purchase the yacht, and outlining what she
+proposed to do with it when it was her own. Now she sat silent opposite
+the genial Captain, while Katherine stood by the window, and talked
+enough for two, sometimes waxing indignant, and occasionally giving, in
+terse language, an opinion of her father, as is the blessed privilege
+of every girl born in the land of the free, while the father took the
+censure with the unprotesting mildness of his nature.
+
+"My dear girls, you really must listen to reason. What you propose to
+do is so absurd that it doesn't even admit of argument. Why, it's a
+filibustering expedition, that's what it is. You girls are as crazy as
+Walker of Nicaragua. Do you imagine that a retired Captain of the United
+States Navy is going to take command of a pirate craft of far less legal
+standing than the 'Alabama,' for then we were at war, but now we are
+at peace. Do you actually propose to attack the domain of a friendly
+country! Oh!" cried the Captain, with a mighty explosion of breath, for
+at this point his supply of language entirely gave out.
+
+"No one would know anything about it," persisted Katherine.
+
+"Not know about it? With a crew of men picked up here in New York, and
+coming back to New York? Not know about it? Bless my soul, the papers
+would be full of it before your men were an hour on shore. In the first
+place, you'd never find the rock."
+
+"Then what's the harm of going in search of it?" demanded his daughter.
+"Besides that, Johnson knows exactly where it is."
+
+"Johnson, Johnson! You're surely not silly enough to believe Johnson's
+cock-and-bull story?"
+
+"I believe every syllable he uttered. The man's face showed that he was
+speaking the truth."
+
+"But, my dear Kate, you didn't see him at all, as I understand the yarn.
+He was here alone with you, was he not, Dorothy?"
+
+Dorothy smiled sadly.
+
+"I told Kate all about it, and gave my own impression of the man's
+appearance."
+
+"You are too sensible a girl to place any credit in what he said,
+surely?"
+
+"I did believe him, nevertheless," replied Dorothy.
+
+"Why, look you here. False in one thing, false in all. I'll just take a
+single point. He speaks of a spring sending water through the cells
+up there in the rock. Now, that is an impossibility. Wherever a spring
+exists, it comes from a source higher than itself."
+
+"There are lots of springs up in the mountains," interrupted Katherine.
+"I know one on Mount Washington that is ten times as high as the rock in
+the Baltic."
+
+"Quite so, Katherine, quite so, but nevertheless there is a lake,
+subterraneous or above ground, which feeds your White Mountain spring,
+and such a lake must be situated higher than the spring is. Why, girl,
+you ought to study hydrometeorology as well as chemistry. Here is a rock
+jutting up in midocean--"
+
+"It's in the Baltic, near the Russian coast," snapped Kate, "and I've no
+doubt there are mountains in Finland that contain the lake which feeds
+the spring."
+
+"How far is that rock from the Finnish coast, then?"
+
+"Two miles and a half," said Kate, quick as an arrow speeding from a
+bow.
+
+"Captain, we don't know how far it is from the coast," amended Dorothy.
+
+"I'll never believe the thing exists at all."
+
+"Why, yes it does, father. How can you speak like that? Don't you know
+Lieutenant Drummond fired at it?"
+
+"How do you know it was the same rock?"
+
+"Because the rock fired back at him. There can't be two like that in the
+Baltic."
+
+"No, nor one either," said the Captain, nearing the end of his patience.
+
+"Captain Kempt," said Dorothy very soothingly, as if she desired to
+quell the rising storm, "you take the allegation about the spring of
+water to prove that Johnson was telling untruths. I expect him here
+within an hour, and I will arrange that you have an opportunity,
+privately, of cross-examining him. I think when you see the man, and
+listen to him, you will believe. What makes me so sure that he is
+telling the truth is the fact that he mentioned the foreign vessel
+firing at this rock, which I knew to be true, and which he could not
+possibly have learned anything about."
+
+"He might very well have learned all particulars from the papers,
+Dorothy. They were full enough of the subject at the time, and,
+remembering this, he thought to strengthen his story by--"
+
+Katherine interrupted with great scorn.
+
+"By adding verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing
+narrative."
+
+"Quite so, Kate; exactly what I was going to say myself. But to come
+back to the project itself. Granting the existence of the rock, granting
+the truth of Johnson's story, granting everything, granting even that
+the young men are imprisoned there, of which we have not the slightest
+proof, we could no more succeed in capturing that place from a frail
+pleasure yacht--"
+
+"It's built like a cruiser," said Katherine.
+
+"Even if it were built like a battleship we would have no chance
+whatever. Why, that rock might defy a regular fleet. Our venture would
+simply be a marine Jameson Raid which would set the whole world laughing
+when people came to hear of it."
+
+"Johnson said he could take it with half a dozen men."
+
+"No, Kate," corrected Dorothy, "he said the very reverse; that two or
+three determined men on the rock with repeating rifles could defeat a
+host. It was I who suggested that we should throw a shell, and then rush
+the entrance in the confusion."
+
+Captain Kempt threw up his hands in a gesture of despair.
+
+"Great heavens, Dorothy Amhurst, whom I have always regarded as the
+mildest, sweetest and most charming of girls; to hear you calmly
+propose to throw a shell among a lot of innocent men defending their own
+territory against a perfectly unauthorized invasion! Throw a shell, say
+you, as if you were talking of tossing a copper to a beggar! Oh, Lord,
+I'm growing old. What will become of this younger generation? Well, I
+give it up. Dorothy, my dear, whatever will happen to those unfortunate
+Russians, I shall never recover from the shock of your shell. The thing
+is absolutely impossible. Can't you see that the moment you get down to
+details? How are you going to procure your shells, or your shell-firing
+gun? They are not to be bought at the first hardware store you come to
+on Sixth Avenue."
+
+"Johnson says he can get them," proclaimed Kate with finality.
+
+"Oh, damn Johnson! Dorothy, I beg your pardon, but really, this daughter
+of mine, combined with that Johnson of yours, is just a little more than
+I can bear."
+
+"Then what are we to do?" demanded his daughter. "Sit here with folded
+hands?"
+
+"That would be a great deal better than what you propose. You should do
+something sane. You mustn't involve a pair of friendly countries in
+war. Of course the United States would utterly disclaim your act, and
+discredit me if I were lunatic enough to undertake such a wild goose
+chase, which I'm not; but, on the other hand, if two of our girls
+undertook such an expedition, no man can predict the public clamor that
+might arise. Why, when the newspapers get hold of a question, you never
+know where they will end it. Undoubtedly you two girls should be sent
+to prison, and, with equal undoubtedness, the American people wouldn't
+permit it."
+
+"You bet they wouldn't," said Katherine, dropping into slang.
+
+"Well, then, if they wouldn't, there's war."
+
+"One moment, Captain Kempt," said Dorothy, again in her mildest tones,
+for voices had again begun to run high, "you spoke of doing something
+sane. You understand the situation. What should you counsel us to do?"
+
+The Captain drew a long breath, and leaned back in his chair.
+
+"There, Dad, it's up to you," said Katherine. "Let us hear your
+proposal, and then you'll learn how easy it is to criticise."
+
+"Well," said the Captain hesitatingly, "there's our diplomatic
+service--"
+
+"Utterly useless: one man is a Russian, and the other an Englishman.
+Diplomacy not only can do nothing, but won't even try," cried Kate
+triumphantly.
+
+"Yet," said the Captain, with little confidence, "although the two men
+are foreigners, the two girls are Americans."
+
+"We don't count: we've no votes," said Kate. "Besides, Dorothy tried the
+diplomatic service, and could not even get accurate information from it.
+Now, father, third time and out."
+
+"Four balls are out, Kate, and I've only fanned the air twice. Now,
+girls, I'll tell you what I'd do. You two come with me to Washington.
+We will seek a private interview with the President. He will get into
+communication with the Czar, also privately, and outside of all regular
+channels. The Czar will put machinery in motion that is sure to
+produce those two young men much more effectually and speedily than any
+cutthroat expedition on a yacht."
+
+"I think," said Dorothy, "that is an excellent plan."
+
+"Of course it is," cried the Captain enthusiastically. "Don't you see
+the pull the President will have? Why, they've put an Englishman into
+'the jug,' and when the President communicates this fact to the Czar
+he will be afraid to refuse, knowing that the next appeal may be from
+America to England, and when you add a couple of American girls to that
+political mix-up, why, what chance has the Czar?"
+
+"The point you raise, Captain," said Dorothy, "is one I wish to say a
+few words about. The President cannot get Mr. Drummond released, because
+the Czar and all his government will be compelled to deny that they
+know anything of him. Even the President couldn't guarantee that the
+Englishman would keep silence if he were set at liberty. The Czar
+would know that, but your plan would undoubtedly produce Prince Ivan
+Lermontoff. All the president has to do is to tell the Czar that the
+Prince is engaged to an American girl, and Lermontoff will be allowed to
+go."
+
+"But," objected the Captain, "as the Prince knows the Englishman is in
+prison, how could they be sure of John keeping quiet when Drummond is
+his best friend?"
+
+"He cannot know that, because the Prince was arrested several days
+before Drummond was.
+
+"They have probably chucked them both into the same cell," said the
+Captain, but Dorothy shook her head.
+
+"If they had intended to do that, they would doubtless have arrested
+them together. I am sure that one does not know the fate of the other,
+therefore the Czar can quite readily let Lermontoff go, and he is
+certain to do that at a word from the President. Besides this, I am
+as confident that Jack is not in the Trogzmondoff, as I am sure that
+Drummond is. Johnson said it was a prison for foreigners."
+
+"Oh, Dorothy," cried the Captain, with a deep sigh, "if we've got back
+again to Johnson--" He waved his hand and shook his head.
+
+The maid opened the door and said, looking at Dorothy:
+
+"Mr. Paterson and Mr. Johnson."
+
+"Just show them into the morning room," said Dorothy, rising. "Captain
+Kempt, it is awfully good of you to have listened so patiently to a
+scheme of which you couldn't possibly approve."
+
+"Patiently!" sniffed the daughter.
+
+"Now I want you to do me another kindness."
+
+She went to the desk and picked up a piece of paper.
+
+"Here is a check I have signed--a blank check. I wish you to buy the
+yacht 'Walrus' just as she stands, and make the best bargain you can for
+me. A man is so much better at this kind of negotiation than a woman."
+
+"But surely, my dear Dorothy, you won't persist in buying this yacht?"
+
+"It's her own money, father," put in Katherine.
+
+"Keep quiet," said the Captain, rising, for the first time speaking with
+real severity, whereupon Katherine, in spite of the fact that she was
+older than twenty-one, was wise enough to obey.
+
+"Yes, I am quite determined, Captain," said Dorothy sweetly.
+
+"But, my dear woman, don't you see how you've been hoodwinked by this
+man Johnson? He is shy of a job. He has already swindled you out of
+twenty thousand dollars."
+
+"No, he asked for ten only, Captain Kempt, and I voluntarily doubled the
+amount."
+
+"Nevertheless, he has worked you up to believe that these young men
+are in that rock. He has done this for a very crafty purpose, and his
+purpose seems likely to succeed. He knows he will be well paid, and you
+have promised him a bonus besides. If he, with his Captain Kidd crew,
+gets you on that yacht, you will only step ashore by giving him every
+penny you possess. That's his object. He knows you are starting out to
+commit a crime--that's the word, Dorothy, there's no use in our mincing
+matters--you will be perfectly helpless in his hands. Of course, I could
+not allow my daughter Kate to go on such an expedition."
+
+"I am over twenty-one years old," cried Kate, the light of rebellion in
+her eyes.
+
+"I do not intend that either of you shall go, Katherine."
+
+"Dorothy, I'll not submit to that," cried Katherine, with a rising
+tremor of anger in her voice, "I shall not be set aside like a child.
+Who has more at stake than I? And as for capturing the rock, I'll
+dynamite it myself, and bring home as large a specimen of it as the
+yacht will carry, and set it up on Bedloe's Island beside the Goddess
+and say, 'There's your statue of Liberty, and there's your statue of
+Tyranny!'"
+
+"Katherine," chided her father, "I never before believed that a child of
+mine could talk such driveling nonsense."
+
+"Paternal heredity, father," retorted Kate.
+
+"Your Presidential plan, Captain Kempt," interposed Dorothy, "is
+excellent so far as Prince Lermontoff is concerned, but it cannot rescue
+Lieutenant Drummond. Now, there are two things you can do for me that
+will make me always your debtor, as, indeed, I am already, and the first
+is to purchase for me the yacht. The second is to form your own judgment
+of the man Johnson, and if you distrust him, then engage for me one-half
+the crew, and see that they are picked Americans."
+
+"First sane idea I have heard since I came into this flat," growled the
+Captain.
+
+"The Americans won't let the Finlander hold me for ransom, you may
+depend upon that."
+
+It was a woe-begone look the gallant Captain cast on the demure and
+determined maiden, then, feeling his daughter's eye upon him, he turned
+toward her.
+
+"I'm going, father," she said, with a firmness quite equal to his own,
+and he on his part recognized when his daughter had toed the danger
+line. He indulged in a laugh that had little of mirth in it.
+
+"All I can say is that I am thankful you haven't made up your minds to
+kidnap the Czar. Of course you are going, Kate, So am I."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI --CELL NUMBER NINE
+
+AS the sailing-boat cast off, and was shoved away from the side of the
+steamer, there were eight men aboard. Six grasped the oars, and the
+young clerk who had signed for the documents given to him by the Captain
+took the rudder, motioning Lermontoff to a seat beside him. All the
+forward part of the boat, and, indeed, the space well back toward the
+stern, was piled with boxes and bags.
+
+"What is this place called?" asked the Prince, but the young steersman
+did not reply.
+
+Tying the boat to iron rings at the small landing where the steps began,
+three of the men shipped their oars. Each threw a bag over his shoulder,
+walked up half a dozen steps and waited. The clerk motioned Lermontoff
+to follow, so he stepped on the shelf of rock and looked upward at
+the rugged stairway cut between the main island and an outstanding
+perpendicular ledge of rock. The steps were so narrow that the
+procession had to move up in Indian file; three men with bags, then the
+Prince and the clerk, followed by three more men with boxes. Lermontoff
+counted two hundred and thirty-seven steps, which brought him to an
+elevated platform, projecting from a doorway cut in the living rock, but
+shielded from all sight of the sea. The eastern sun shone through this
+doorway, but did not illumine sufficiently the large room whose walls,
+ceiling and floor were of solid stone. At the farther end a man in
+uniform sat behind a long table on which burned an oil lamp with a green
+shade. At his right hand stood a broad, round brazier containing glowing
+coals, after the Oriental fashion, and the officer was holding his two
+hands over it, and rubbing them together. The room, nevertheless, struck
+chill as a cellar, and Lermontoff heard a constant smothered roar of
+water.
+
+The clerk, stepping forward and saluting, presented to the Governor
+seated there the papers and envelopes given him by the Captain. The
+officer selected a blue sheet of paper, and scrutinized it for a moment
+under the lamp.
+
+"Where are the others?"
+
+"We have landed first the supplies, Governor; then the boat will return
+for the others."
+
+The Governor nodded, and struck a bell with his open palm. There entered
+a big man with a bunch of keys at his belt, followed by another who
+carried a lighted lantern.
+
+"Number Nine," said the Governor to the gaolers.
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir, am I a prisoner?" asked Lermontoff.
+
+The Governor gave utterance to a sound that was more like the grunt of
+a pig than the ejaculation of a man. He did not answer, but looked up at
+the questioner, and the latter saw that his face, gaunt almost as that
+of a living skeleton, was pallid as putty.
+
+"Number Nine," he repeated, whereupon the gaoler and the man with the
+lantern put a hand each on Lermontoff's shoulders, and marched him away.
+They walked together down a long passage, the swaying lantern casting
+its yellow rays on the iron bolts of door after door, until at last the
+gaoler stopped, threw back six bolts, inserted a key, unlocked the door,
+and pushed it ponderously open. The lantern showed it to be built like
+the door of a safe, but unlike that of a safe it opened inwards. As soon
+as the door came ajar Lermontoff heard the sound of flowing water, and
+when the three entered, he noticed a rapid little stream sparkling in
+the rays of the lantern at the further end of the cell. He saw a shelf
+of rock and a stone bench before it. The gaoler placed his hands on a
+black loaf, while the other held up the lantern.
+
+"That will last you four days," said the gaoler.
+
+"Well, my son, judging from the unappetizing look of it, I think it will
+last me much longer."
+
+The gaoler made no reply, but he and the man with the lantern retired,
+drawing the door heavily after them. Lermontoff heard the bolts thrust
+into place, and the turn of the key; then silence fell, all but the
+babbling of the water. He stood still in the center of the cell, his
+hands thrust deep in the pockets of his overcoat, and, in spite of this
+heavy garment, he shivered a little.
+
+"Jack, my boy," he muttered, "this is a new deal, as they say in the
+West. I can imagine a man going crazy here, if it wasn't for that
+stream. I never knew what darkness meant before. Well, let's find out
+the size of our kingdom."
+
+He groped for the wall, and stumbling against the stone bench, whose
+existence he had forgotten, pitched head forward to the table, and sent
+the four-day loaf rolling on the floor. He made an ineffectual grasp
+after the loaf, fearing it might fall into the stream and be lost to
+him, but he could not find it, and now his designs for measuring the
+cell gave place to the desire of finding that loaf. He got down on his
+hands and knees, and felt the stone floor inch by inch for half an hour,
+as he estimated the time, but never once did he touch the bread.
+
+"How helpless a man is in the dark, after all," he muttered to himself.
+"I must do this systematically, beginning at the edge of the stream."
+
+On all fours he reached the margin of the rivulet, and felt his way
+along the brink till his head struck the opposite wall. He turned round,
+took up a position that he guessed was three feet nearer the door, and
+again traversed the room, becoming so eager in the search that he forgot
+for the moment the horror of his situation, just as, when engaged in a
+chemical experiment, everything else vanished from his mind, and thus
+after several journeys back and forth he was again reminded of the
+existence of the stone bench by butting against it when he knew he was
+still several feet from the wall. Rubbing his head, he muttered some
+unfavorable phrases regarding the immovable bench, then crawled round
+it twice, and resumed his transverse excursions. At last he reached the
+wall that held the door, and now with breathless eagerness rubbed his
+shoulder against it till he came to the opposite corner. He knew he had
+touched with knees and hands practically every square inch of space in
+the floor, and yet no bread.
+
+"Now, that's a disaster," cried he, getting up on his feet, and
+stretching himself. "Still, a man doesn't starve in four days. I've
+cast my bread on the waters. It has evidently gone down the stream. Now,
+what's to hinder a man escaping by means of that watercourse? Still, if
+he did, what would be the use? He'd float out into the Baltic Sea, and
+if able to swim round the rock, would merely be compelled to knock at
+the front door and beg admission again. No, by Jove, there's the boat,
+but they probably guard it night and day, and a man in the water would
+have no chance against one in the boat. Perhaps there's gratings between
+the cells. Of course, there's bound to be. No one would leave the bed of
+a stream clear for any one to navigate. Prisoners would visit each other
+in their cells, and that's not allowed in any respectable prison. I
+wonder if there's any one next door on either side of me. An iron grid
+won't keep out the sound. I'll try," and going again to the margin of
+the watercourse, he shouted several times as loudly as he could, but
+only a sepulchral echo, as if from a vault, replied to him.
+
+"I imagine the adjoining cells are empty. No enjoyable companionship to
+be expected here. I wonder if they've got the other poor devils up from
+the steamer yet. I'll sit down on the bench and listen."
+
+He could have found the bench and shelf almost immediately by groping
+round the wall, but he determined to exercise his sense of direction, to
+pit himself against the darkness.
+
+"I need not hurry," he said, "I may be a long time here."
+
+In his mind he had a picture of the cell, but now that he listened to
+the water it seemed to have changed its direction, and he found he
+had to rearrange this mental picture, and make a different set of
+calculations to fit the new position. Then he shuffled slowly forward
+with hands outstretched, but he came to the wall, and not to the bench.
+Again he mapped out his route, again endeavored, and again failed.
+
+"This is bewildering," he muttered. "How the darkness baffles a man. For
+the first time in my life I appreciate to the full the benediction of
+God's command, 'Let there be light.'"
+
+He stood perplexed for a few moments, and, deeply thinking, his hands
+automatically performed an operation as the servants of habit. They took
+from his pocket his cigarette case, selected a tube of tobacco, placed
+it between his lips, searched another pocket, brought out a match-box,
+and struck a light. The striking of the match startled Lermontoff as if
+it had been an explosion; then he laughed, holding the match above his
+head, and there at his feet saw the loaf of black bread. It seemed as if
+somebody had twisted the room end for end. The door was where he thought
+the stream was, and thus he learned that sound gives no indication of
+direction to a man blindfolded. The match began to wane, and feverishly
+he lit his cigarette.
+
+"Why didn't I think of the matches, and oh! what a pity I failed to
+fill my pockets with them that night of the Professor's dinner party! To
+think that matches are selling at this moment in Sweden two hundred and
+fifty for a halfpenny!"
+
+Guided by the spark at the end of his cigarette, he sought the bench and
+sat down upon it. He was surprised to find himself so little depressed
+as was actually the case. He did not feel in the least disheartened.
+Something was going to happen on his behalf; of that he was quite
+certain. It was perfectly ridiculous that even in Russia a loyal
+subject, who had never done any illegal act in his life, a nobleman of
+the empire, and a friend of the Czar, should be incarcerated for long
+without trial, and even without accusation. He had no enemies that he
+knew of, and many friends, and yet he experienced a vague uneasiness
+when he remembered that his own course of life had been such that he
+would not be missed by his friends. For more than a year he had been in
+England, at sea, and in America, so much absorbed in his researches that
+he had written no private letters worth speaking of, and if any friend
+were asked his whereabouts, he was likely to reply:
+
+"Oh, Lermontoff is in some German university town, or in England, or
+traveling elsewhere. I haven't seen him or heard of him for months. Lost
+in a wilderness or in an experiment, perhaps."
+
+These unhappy meditations were interrupted by the clang of bolts. He
+thought at first it was his own door that was being opened, but a moment
+later knew it was the door of the next cell up-stream. The sound, of
+course, could not penetrate the extremely thick wall, but came through
+the aperture whose roof arched the watercourse. From the voices he
+estimated that several prisoners were being put into one cell, and he
+wondered whether or not he cared for a companion. It would all depend.
+If fellow-prisoners hated each other, their enforced proximity might
+prove unpleasant.
+
+"We are hungry," he heard one say. "Bring us food."
+
+The gaoler laughed.
+
+"I will give you something to drink first."
+
+"That's right," three voices shouted. "Vodka, vodka!"
+
+Then the door clanged shut again, and he heard the murmur of voices in
+Russian, but could not make out what was said. One of the new prisoners,
+groping round, appeared to have struck the stone bench, as he himself
+had done. The man in the next cell swore coarsely, and Lermontoff,
+judging from such snatches of their conversation as he could hear that
+they were persons of a low order, felt no desire to make their more
+intimate acquaintance, and so did not shout to them, as he had intended
+to do. And now he missed something that had become familiar; thought it
+was a cigarette he desired, for the one he had lit had been smoked to
+his very lips, then he recognized it was the murmur of the stream that
+had ceased.
+
+"Ah, they can shut it off," he said. "That's interesting. I must
+investigate, and learn whether or no there is communication between the
+cells. Not very likely, though."
+
+He crawled on hands and knees until he came to the bed of the stream,
+which was now damp, but empty. Kneeling down in its course, he worked
+his way toward the lower cell, and, as he expected, came to stout iron
+bars. Crouching thus he sacrificed a second match, and estimated that
+the distance between the two cells was as much as ten feet of solid
+rock, and saw also that behind the perpendicular iron bars were another
+horizontal set, then another perpendicular, then a fourth horizontal.
+
+While in this position he was startled by a piercing scream to the rear.
+He backed out from the tunnel and stood upright once more. He heard the
+sound of people splashing round in water. The screamer began to jabber
+like a maniac, punctuating his ravings with shrieks. Another was cursing
+vehemently, and a third appealing to the saints. Lermontoff quickly
+knelt down in the watercourse, this time facing the upper cell, and
+struck his third match. He saw that a steel shield, reminding him of the
+thin shutter between the lenses of a camera, had been shot across the
+tunnel behind the second group of cross bars, and as an engineer
+be could not but admire the skill of the practical expert who had
+constructed this diabolical device, for in spite of the pressure on the
+other side, hardly a drop of water oozed through. He tried to reach this
+shield, but could not. It was just beyond the touch of his fingers,
+with his arm thrust through the two sets of bars, but if he could have
+stretched that far, with the first bar retarding his shoulder, he knew
+his hand would be helpless even if he had some weapon to puncture
+the steel shield. The men would be drowned before he could accomplish
+anything unless he was at the lever in the passage outside.
+
+Crawling into his cell again he heard no more of the chatter and cries
+of the maniac, and he surmised that the other two were fighting for
+places on bench or shelf, which was amply large enough to have supported
+both, had they not been too demented with fear to recognize that fact.
+The cursing man was victorious, and now he stood alone on the shelf,
+roaring maledictions. Then there was the sound of a plunge, and
+Lermontoff, standing there, helpless and shivering, heard the prisoner
+swim round and round his cell like a furious animal, muttering and
+swearing.
+
+"Don't exhaust yourself like that," shouted Lermontoff. "If you want to
+live, cling to the hole at either of the two upper corners. The water
+can't rise above you then, and you can breathe till it subsides."
+
+The other either did not hear, or did not heed, but tore round and round
+in his confined tank, thrashing the water like a dying whale.
+
+"Poor devil," moaned Jack. "What's the use of telling him what to do. He
+is doomed in any case. The other two are now better off."
+
+A moment later the water began to dribble through the upper aperture
+into Jack's cell, increasing and increasing until there was the roar
+of a waterfall, and he felt the cold splashing drops spurt against him.
+Beyond this there was silence. It was perhaps ten minutes after that the
+lever was pulled, and the water belched forth from the lower tunnel like
+a mill race broken loose, temporarily flooding the floor so that Jack
+was compelled to stand on the bench.
+
+He sunk down shivering on the stone shelf, laid his arms on the stone
+pillow, and buried his face in them.
+
+"My God, my God!" he groaned.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII --A FELLOW SCIENTIST
+
+
+IN this position Jack slept off and on, or rather, dozed into a kind
+of semi-stupor, from which he awoke with a start now and then, as he
+thought he heard again the mingled cries of devotion and malediction.
+At last he slept soundly, and awoke refreshed, but hungry. The loaf
+lay beside him, and with his knife he cut a slice from it, munching the
+coarse bread with more of relish than he had thought possible when he
+first saw it. Then he took out another cigarette, struck a match, looked
+at his watch, and lit the cigarette. It was ten minutes past two. He
+wondered if a night had intervened, but thought it unlikely. He had
+landed very early in the morning, and now it was afternoon. He was
+fearfully thirsty, but could not bring himself to drink from that stream
+of death. Once more he heard the bolts shot back.
+
+"They are going to throw the poor wretches into the sea," he muttered,
+but the yellow gleam of a lantern showed him it was his own door that
+had been unlocked.
+
+"You are to see the Governor," said the gaoler gruffly. "Come with me."
+
+Jack sprang to the floor of his cell, repressing a cry of delight.
+Nothing the grim Governor could do to him would make his situation any
+worse, and perhaps his persuasive powers upon that official might result
+in some amelioration of his position. In any case there was the brief
+respite of the interview, and he would gladly have chummed with the
+devil himself to be free a few moments from this black pit.
+
+Although the outside door of the Governor's room stood open, the room
+was not as well illumined as it had been before, for the sun had now
+gone round to the other side of the island, but to the prisoner's aching
+eyes it seemed a chamber of refulgence. The same lamp was burning on
+the table, giving forth an odor of bad oil, but in addition to this,
+two candles were lighted, which supplemented in some slight measure the
+efforts of the lamp. At the end of the table lay a number of documents
+under a paper-weight, arranged with the neat precision of a methodical
+man. The Governor had been warming his hands over the brazier, but
+ceased when Lermontoff was brought up standing before him. He lifted the
+paper-weight, took from under it the two letters which Lermontoff had
+given to the steward on the steamer, and handed them to the prisoner,
+who thus received them back for the second time.
+
+"I wish to say," remarked the Governor, with an air of bored
+indifference which was evidently quite genuine, "that if you make any
+further attempt to communicate with the authorities, or with friends,
+you will bring on yourself punishment which will be unpleasant."
+
+"As a subject of the Czar, I have the right to appeal to him," said the
+Prince.
+
+"The appeal you have written here," replied the Governor, "would have
+proved useless, even if it had been delivered. The Czar knows nothing
+of the Trogzmondoff, which is a stronghold entirely under the control
+of the Grand Dukes and of the Navy. The Trogzmondoff never gives up a
+prisoner."
+
+"Then I am here for a lifetime?"
+
+"Yes," rejoined the Governor, with frigid calmness, "and if you give me
+no trouble you will save yourself some inconvenience."
+
+"Do you speak French?" asked the Prince.
+
+"Net."
+
+"English?"
+
+"Net."
+
+"Italian?"
+
+"Net."
+
+"German?"
+
+"Da."
+
+"Then," continued Lermontoff in German, "I desire to say a few words
+to you which I don't wish this gaoler to understand. I am Prince Ivan
+Lermontoff, a personal friend of the Czar's, who, after all, is master
+of the Grand Dukes and the Navy also. If you will help to put me into
+communication with him, I will guarantee that no harm comes to you, and
+furthermore will make you a rich man."
+
+The Governor slowly shook his head.
+
+"What you ask is impossible. Riches are nothing to me. Bribery may
+do much in other parts of the Empire, but it is powerless in the
+Trogzmondoff. I shall die in the room adjoining this, as my predecessor
+died. I am quite as much a prisoner in the Trogzmondoff as is your
+Highness. No man who has once set foot in this room, either as Governor,
+employee, or prisoner, is allowed to see the mainland again, and thus
+the secret has been well kept. We have had many prisoners of equal rank
+with your Highness, friends of the Czar too, I dare say, but they all
+died on the Rock, and were buried in the Baltic."
+
+"May I not be permitted to receive certain supplies if I pay for them?
+That is allowed in other prisons."
+
+The Governor shook his head.
+
+"I can let you have a blanket," he said, "and a pillow, or a sheepskin
+if you find it cold at first, but my power here is very limited, and, as
+I tell you, the officers have little more comfort than the prisoners."
+
+"Oh, I don't care anything about comfort," protested Lermontoff. "What
+I want is some scientific apparatus. I am a student of science. I have
+nothing to do with politics, and have never been implicated in any plot.
+Someone in authority has made a stupid mistake, and so I am here. This
+mistake I am quite certain will be discovered and remedied. I hold no
+malice, and will say nothing of the place, once I am free. It is no
+business of mine. But I do not wish to have the intervening time wasted.
+I should like to buy some electrical machinery, and materials, for which
+I am willing to pay any price that is asked."
+
+"Do you understand electricity?" questioned the Governor, and for the
+first time his impassive face showed a glimmer of interest.
+
+"Do I understand electricity? Why, for over a year I have been chief
+electrician on a war-ship."
+
+"Perhaps then," said the Governor, relapsing into Russian again, "you
+can tell me what is wrong with our dynamo here in the Rock. After
+repeated requisition they sent machinery for lighting our offices and
+passages with electricity. They apparently did not care to send an
+electrician to the Trogzmondoff, but forwarded instead some books of
+instruction. I have been working at it for two years and a half, but
+I am still using oil lamps and candles. We wired the place without
+difficulty." He held up the candle, and showed, depending from the
+ceiling, a chandelier of electric lamps which Lermontoff had not
+hitherto noticed, various brackets, and one or two stand lamps in a
+corner, with green silk-covered wire attached.
+
+"May I see your dynamo?" asked Lermontoff.
+
+The Governor, with one final warming of his hands, took up a candle,
+told the gaoler to remove the shade from the lamp and bring it, led the
+way along a passage, and then into a room where the prisoner, on first
+entering, had heard the roar of water.
+
+"What's this you have. A turbine? Does it give you any power?"
+
+"Oh, it gives power enough," said the Governor.
+
+"Let's see how you turn on the stream."
+
+The Governor set the turbine at work, and the dynamo began to hum, a
+sound which, to the educated ear of Lermontoff, told him several things.
+
+"That's all right, Governor, turn it off. This is a somewhat
+old-fashioned dynamo, but it ought to give you all the light you can
+use. You must be a natural born electrician, or you never could have got
+this machinery working as well as it does."
+
+The dull eyes of the Governor glowed for one brief moment, then resumed
+their customary expression of saddened tiredness.
+
+"Now," said Jack, throwing off his coat, "I want a wrench, screwdriver,
+hammer and a pair of pincers if you've got them."
+
+"Here is the tool chest," said the Governor, and Jack found all he
+needed. Bidding the Governor hold the candle here, there and elsewhere,
+and ordering the gaoler about as if he were an apprentice, Jack set
+energetically to work, and for half an hour no one spoke.
+
+"Turn on that water again," he commanded.
+
+The Governor did so, and the machine whirred with quite a different
+note. Half a dozen electric lamps in the room flooded the place with a
+dazzling white glow.
+
+"There you are," cried Jack, rubbing the oil off his hands on a piece of
+coarse sacking. "Now, Tommy, put these things back in the tool chest,"
+he said to the gaoler. Then to the Governor:
+
+"Let's see how things look in the big room."
+
+The passage was lit, and the Governor's room showed every mark on wall,
+ceiling and floor.
+
+"I told you, Governor," said Jack with a laugh, "that I didn't know why
+I was sent here, but now I understand. Providence took pity on you, and
+ordered me to strike a light."
+
+At that moment the gaoler entered with his jingling keys, and the
+enthusiastic expression faded from the Governor's face, leaving it once
+more coldly impassive, but he spoke in German instead of Russian.
+
+"I am very much indebted to your Highness, and it grieves me that our
+relationship remains unchanged."
+
+"Oh, that's all right," cried Lermontoff breezily, "If it is within your
+power to allow me to come and give you some lessons in electricity and
+the care of dynamos, I shall be very glad to do so."
+
+To this offer the Governor made no reply, but he went on still in
+German.
+
+"I shall transfer you to cell Number One, which is not only more
+comfortable, but the water there is pure. Did you say you spoke
+English?"
+
+"Yes, quite as well as I do Russian."
+
+The Governor continued, with nevertheless a little hesitation: "On the
+return of the steamer there will be an English prisoner. I will give
+him cell Number Two, and if you don't talk so loud that the gaoler hears
+you, it may perhaps make the day less wearisome."
+
+"You are very kind," said Jack, rigidly suppressing any trace of either
+emotion or interest as he heard the intelligence; leaping at once to
+certain conclusions, nevertheless. "I shan't ask for anything more, much
+as I should like to mention candles, matches, and tobacco."
+
+"It is possible you may find all three in Number One before this time
+to-morrow;" then in Russian the Governor said to the goaler:
+
+"See if Number One is ready."
+
+The gaoler departed, and the Governor, throwing open a drawer in
+his table, took out two candles, a box of matches, and a packet of
+cigarettes.
+
+"Put these in your pocket," he said. "The cell door opens very slowly,
+so you will always know when the gaoler is coming. In that case blow out
+your light and conceal your candle. It will last the longer."
+
+The gaoler returned.
+
+"The cell is ready, Excellency," he said.
+
+"Take away the prisoner," commanded the Governor, gruffly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII --CELL NUMBER ONE
+
+CELL Number One was a great improvement on Number Nine. There was no
+shelf of rock, or stone bench, but a cot bed in the corner, a table,
+and a wooden chair. The living spring issued from the living rock in a
+corner of the room. When the gaoler and his assistant had retired
+and shoved in the outside bolts, Jack lit his candle and a cigarette,
+feeling almost happy. He surveyed the premises now with more care.
+The bed was of iron and fastened to the floor. On the top of it was
+a mattress, a pillow, and a pair of blankets. At its head a little
+triangular shelf of rock had been left in the corner, and on this
+reposed a basin of tin, while a coarse piece of sacking took the place
+of a towel. Jack threw off his overcoat and flung it on the bed, intent
+on a satisfactory wash. He heard something jingle in the pockets, and
+forgetting for the moment what it could possibly be, thrust his hand in,
+and pulled out a glass-stoppered bottle of ozak. He held it out at arm's
+length, and stared at it for some moments like a man hypnotized.
+
+"Holy Saint Peter!" he cried, "to think that I should have forgotten
+this!"
+
+He filled the tin basin with water, and placed it on the table. Again
+he dissolved a minute portion of the chemical, and again filled the
+syringe.
+
+"I must leave no marks on the wall that may arouse attention," he said,
+and taking the full syringe to the arch over the torrent, and placing
+the candle on the floor beside him, he gently pushed in the piston. The
+spray struck the rock, and the rock dissolved slightly but perceptibly.
+Coming back to the table he stood for a few minutes in deep thought.
+Although the cot bed was fixed to the floor, and although it was
+possible that the shelf in the next cell coincided with its position,
+the risk of discovery was too great to cut a passage between the two
+cells there. The obvious spot to attack was the interior of the tunnel
+through which the streamlet ran, but Jack, testing the temperature of
+the water with his hand, doubted his physical ability to remain in that
+ice-cold current more than a few minutes at a time, and if he worked in
+the tunnel he would be all but submerged. He feared he would perish with
+cold and cramp before he had made any impression on the rock.
+
+To the edge of the stream he drew the table, and, mounting it, examined
+the upper orifice through which the water escaped when the cell was
+full. He found he could stand on the table and work in comfort until
+he had excavated sufficient rock to allow him to clamber into the upper
+tunnel and so continue his operations. The water he used would flow
+through the tunnel, and down to the main stream in the next cell. All
+he had to do was to dissolve a semi-circular hole in the rock that would
+bend round the end of those steel bars, and enter the tunnel again on
+the other side. Eager to be at work, he took the full basin, shoved it
+far along the tunnel until it was stopped by the bars, then, placing his
+candle beside it, and standing on the table, he began operations.
+
+The limestone, under the influence of the spray, dissolved very slowly,
+and by the time the basin of water was exhausted, all the effect
+visible under the light of the candle was an exceedingly slight circular
+impression which was barely visible to the naked eye.
+
+"I must make the solution stronger, I think," he said, grievously
+disappointed at the outcome of his labors, and as he looked at it he
+heard the clank of the withdrawing bolts. Blowing out the candle he
+sprang to the floor of the cell, picked up the table, set it down in
+the center of the room, groped for the chair, and sat down, his heart
+palpitating wildly at the fear of discovery.
+
+Followed as usual by the man with the lantern, the gaoler came in,
+carrying a bowl of hot steaming soup, which he placed on the table,
+then he took from his pocket a spoon, a small hunk of black bread, and
+a piece of cheese. In the light of the lantern Lermontoff consulted his
+watch, and found it was six o'clock. The gaoler took the lantern from
+his assistant, held it high, and looked round the room, while Lermontoff
+gazed at him in anxiety, wondering whether that brutal looking official
+suspected anything. Apparently he did not, but merely wished to satisfy
+himself that everything was in order, for he said more mildly than he
+had hitherto spoken:
+
+"It is a long time since any one occupied this cell."
+
+Then his eye rested on the vacant corner shelf.
+
+"Ah, Excellency," he continued, "pardon me, I have forgotten. I must
+bring you a basin."
+
+"I'd rather you brought me a candle," said Lermontoff nonchalantly,
+although his lips were dry, and he moistened them as he spoke; then,
+to learn whether money was valueless on the rock, as the Governor had
+intimated, he drew from his pocket one of the remaining gold pieces,
+glad that he happened to have so many, and slipped it into the palm of
+the gaoler's hand, whose fingers clutched it as eagerly as if he were in
+St. Petersburg.
+
+"I think a candle can be managed, Excellency. Shall I bring a cup?"
+
+"I wish you would."
+
+The door was again locked and bolted, but before Lermontoff had finished
+his soup, and bread and cheese, it was opened again. The gaoler placed
+a tin basin, similar to the former one, on the ledge, put a candle and a
+candle-stick on the table, and a tin cup beside them.
+
+"I thought there was no part of Russia where bribery was extinct," said
+the Prince to himself, as the door closed again for the night.
+
+After supper Lermontoff again shined his table, stood upon it, lit his
+candle, and resumed his tunnelling, working hard until after midnight.
+His progress was deplorably slow, and the spraying of the rock proved
+about as tiring a task as ever he had undertaken. His second basin-full
+of solution was made a little stronger, but without perceptible
+improvement, in its effect. On ceasing operations for the night he
+found himself in a situation common to few prisoners, that of being
+embarrassed with riches. He possessed two basins, and one of them must
+be concealed. Of course he might leave his working basin in the upper
+tunnel where it had rested when the gaoler had brought in his supper,
+but he realized that at any moment the lantern's rays might strike its
+shining surface, and so bring on an investigation of the upper tunnel,
+certain to prove the destruction of his whole scheme. A few minutes
+thought, however, solved the problem admirably: he placed the basin face
+downwards in the rapid stream which swept it to the iron bars between
+the two cells, and there it lay quite concealed with the swift water
+rippling over it. This done, he flung off his clothes, and got into
+bed, not awakening until the gaoler and his assistant brought in bread,
+cheese and coffee for breakfast.
+
+The next day he began to feel the inconveniences of the Governor's
+friendship, and wished he were safely back to the time when one loaf
+lasted four days, for if such were now the case, he would be free of the
+constant state of tension which the ever-recurring visits of the gaoler
+caused. He feared that some day he might become so absorbed in his
+occupation that he would not hear the withdrawing of the bolt, and thus,
+as it were, be caught in the act.
+
+Shortly after lunch the Governor sent for him, and asked many questions
+pertaining to the running of the dynamo. Lermontoff concealed his
+impatience, and set about his instructions with exemplary earnestness.
+Russian text books on electricity at hand were of the most rudimentary
+description, and although the Governor could speak German he could not
+read it, so the two volumes he possessed in that language were closed
+to him. Therefore John was compelled to begin at the very A B C of the
+science.
+
+The Governor, however, became so deeply interested that he momentarily
+forgot his caution, unlocked a door, and took Lermontoff into a room
+which he saw was the armory and ammunition store-house of the prison.
+On the floor of this chamber the Governor pointed out a large battery
+of accumulators, and asked what they were for. Lermontoff explained the
+purposes of the battery, meanwhile examining it thoroughly, and finding
+that many of the cells had been all but ruined in transit, through the
+falling away of the composition in the grids. Something like half of the
+accumulators, however, were intact and workable; these he uncoupled and
+brought into the dynamo room, where he showed the Governor the process
+of charging. He saw in the store room a box containing incandescent
+lamps, coils of silk-covered wire and other material that made his eyes
+glisten with delight. He spoke in German.
+
+"If you will give me a coil of this wire, one or two of the lamps, and
+an accumulator, or indeed half a dozen of them, I will trouble you no
+more for candles."
+
+The Governor did not reply at the moment, but a short time after asked
+Lermontoff in Russian how long it would be before the accumulators were
+charged. Lermontoff stated the time, and the Governor told the gaoler
+to bring the prisoner from the cell at that hour, and so dismissed his
+instructor.
+
+One feature of this interview which pleased Lermontoff was that however
+much the Governor became absorbed in these lessons, he never allowed
+himself to remain alone with his prisoner. It was evident that in his
+cooler moments the Governor had instructed the gaoler and his assistant
+to keep ever at the heels of the Prince and always on the alert. Two
+huge revolvers were thrust underneath the belt of the gaoler, and the
+lantern-holder, was similarly armed. Lermontoff was pleased with this,
+for if the Governor had trusted him entirely, even though he demanded no
+verbal parole, it would have gone against his grain to strike down the
+chief as he ruthlessly intended to do when the time was ripe for it, and
+in any case, he told himself, no matter how friendly the Governor might
+be, he had the misfortune to stand between his prisoner and liberty.
+
+Lermontoff was again taken from his cell about half an hour before the
+time he had named for the completion of the charging, and although the
+Governor said nothing of his intention, the gaoler and his man brought
+to the cell six charged batteries, a coil of wire, and a dozen lamps.
+Lermontoff now changed his working methods. He began each night as soon
+as he had finished dinner, and worked till nearly morning, sleeping all
+day except when interrupted by the gaoler. Jack, following the example
+of Robinson Crusoe, attempted to tie knots on the tail of time by
+cutting notches with his knife on the leg of the table, but most days
+he forgot to perform this operation, and so his wooden almanac fell
+hopelessly out of gear. He estimated that he had been a little more than
+a week in prison when he heard by the clang of the bolts that the next
+cell was to have an occupant.
+
+"I must prepare a welcome for him," he said, and so turned out the
+electric light at the end of the long flexible wire. He had arranged a
+neat little switch of the accumulator, and so snapped the light on and
+off at his pleasure, without the trouble of unscrewing the nuts which
+held in place one of the copper ends of the wire. Going to the edge
+of the stream and lighting his candle, he placed the glass bulb in the
+current, paid out the flexible line attached to it, and allowed the bulb
+to run the risk of being smashed against the iron bars of the passage,
+but the little globe negotiated the rapids without even a perceptible
+clink, and came to rest in the bed of the torrent somewhere about
+the center of the next cell, tugging like a fish on a hook. Then Jack
+mounted the table, leaned into the upper tunnel, and listened.
+
+"I protest," Drummond cried, speaking loudly, as if the volume of
+sound would convey meaning to alien ears, "I protest against this as
+an outrage, and demand my right of communication with the British
+Ambassador."
+
+Jack heard the gaoler growl: "This loaf of bread will last you for four
+days," but as this statement was made in Russian, it conveyed no more
+meaning to the Englishman than had his own protest of a moment before
+brought intelligence to the gaoler. The door clanged shut, and there
+followed a dead silence.
+
+"Now we ought to hear some good old British oaths," said Jack to
+himself, but the silence continued.
+
+"Hullo, Alan," cried Jack through the bars, "I said you would be nabbed
+if you didn't leave St. Petersburg. You'll pay attention to me next time
+I warn you."
+
+There was no reply, and Jack became alarmed at the continued stillness,
+then he heard his friend mutter:
+
+"I'll be seeing visions by and by. I thought my brain was stronger than
+it is--could have sworn that was Jack's voice."
+
+Jack got speedily and quietly down, turned on the switch, and hopped
+up on the table again, peering through. He knew that the stream had
+now become a river of fire, and that it was sending to the ceiling an
+unholy, unearthly glow.
+
+"Oh, damn it all!" groaned Drummond, at which Jack roared with laughter.
+
+"Alan," he shouted, "fish out that electric bulb from the creek and
+hold it aloft; then you'll see where you are. I'm in the next cell; Jack
+Lamont, Electrician and Coppersmith: all orders promptly attended to:
+best of references, and prices satisfactory."
+
+"Jack, is that really you, or have I gone demented?"
+
+"Oh, you always were demented, Alan, but it is I, right enough. Pick up
+the light and tell me what kind of a cell you've got."
+
+"Horrible!" cried Drummond, surveying his situation. "Walls apparently
+of solid rock, and this uncanny stream running across the floor."
+
+"How are you furnished? Shelf of rock, stone bench?"
+
+"No, there's a table, cot bed, and a wooden chair."
+
+"Why, my dear man, what are you growling about? They have given you one
+of the best rooms in the hotel. You're in the Star Chamber."
+
+"Where in the name of heaven are we?"
+
+"Didn't you recognize the rock from the deck of a steamer?"
+
+"I never saw the deck of a steamer."
+
+"Then how did you come here?"
+
+"I was writing a letter in my room when someone threw a sack over my
+head, and tied me up in a bundle, so that it was a close shave I wasn't
+smothered. I was taken in what I suppose was a cab and flung into what
+I afterwards learned was the hold of a steamer. When the ship stopped,
+I was carried like a sack of meal on someone's shoulder, and unhampered
+before a gaunt specter in uniform, in a room so dazzling with electric
+light that I could hardly see. That was a few minutes ago, Now I am
+here, and starving. Where is this prison?"
+
+
+
+"Like the Mikado, as Kate would say, the authorities are bent on making
+the punishment fit the crime. You are in the rock of the Baltic, which
+you fired at with that gun of yours. I told you those suave officials at
+St. Petersburg were playing with you."
+
+"But why have they put you here, Jack?"
+
+"Oh, I was like the good dog Tray, who associated with questionable
+company, I suppose, and thus got into trouble."
+
+"I'm sorry."
+
+"You ought to be glad. I'm going to get out of this place, and I don't
+believe you could break gaol, unassisted, in twenty years. Here is where
+science confronts brutality. I say, Drummond, bring your table over to
+the corner, and mount it, then we can talk without shouting. Not much
+chance of any one outside hearing us, even if we do clamor, but this is
+a damp situation, and loud talk is bad for the throat. Cut a slice of
+that brown bread and lunch with me. You'll find it not half bad, as you
+say in England, especially when you are hungry. Now," continued Jack, as
+his friend stood opposite him, and they found by experiment that their
+combined reach was not long enough to enable them to shake hands
+through the bars, "now, while you are luxuriating in the menu of the
+Trogzmondoff, I'll give you a sketch of my plan for escape."
+
+"Do," said Drummond.
+
+"I happen to have with me a pair of bottles containing a substance
+which, if dissolved in water, and sprinkled on this rock, will
+disintegrate it. It proves rather slow work, I must admit, but I intend
+to float in to you one of the bottles, and the apparatus, so that you
+may help me on your side, which plan has the advantage of giving you
+useful occupation, and allowing us to complete our task in half the
+time, like the engineers on each side of the Simplon Tunnel."
+
+"If there are bars in the lower watercourse," objected Drummond, "won't
+you run a risk of breaking your bottle against them?"
+
+"Not the slightest. I have just sent that much thinner electric lamp
+through, but in this case I'll just tie up the bottle and squirt gun in
+my stocking, attach that to the wire, and the current will do the rest.
+You can unload, and I'll pull my stocking back again. If I dared wrench
+off a table leg, I could perhaps shove bottle and syringe through to you
+from here, but the material would come to a dead center in the middle of
+this tunnel, unless I had a stick to push it within your reach.
+
+"Very well; we'll work away until our excavation connects, and we have
+made it of sufficient diameter for you to squeeze through. You are then
+in my cell. We put out our lights, and you conceal yourself behind the
+door. Gaoler and man with the lantern come in. You must be very careful
+not to close the door, because if you once shove it shut we can't open
+it from this side, even though it is unlocked and the bolts drawn.
+It fits like wax, and almost hermetically seals the room. You spring
+forward, and deal the gaoler with your fist one of your justly
+celebrated English knock-down blows, immediately after felling the man
+with the lantern. Knowing something of the weight of your blow, I take
+it that neither of the two men will recover consciousness until we have
+taken off their outer garments, secured revolvers and keys. Then we lock
+them in, you and I on the outside."
+
+"My dear Jack, we don't need any tunnel to accomplish that. The first
+time these two men come into my room, I can knock them down as easily
+here as there."
+
+"I thought of that, and perhaps you could, but you must remember we
+have only one shot. If you made a mistake; if the lantern man bolted and
+fired his pistol, and once closed the door--he would not need to pause
+to lock it--why, we are done for. I should be perfectly helpless in the
+next room, and after the attempt they'd either drown us, or put us into
+worse cells as far apart as possible."
+
+"I don't think I should miss fire," said Drummond, confidently, "still,
+I see the point, and will obey orders."
+
+"My official position on the rock, ever since I arrived, has been that
+of electrical tutor-in-chief to the Governor. I have started his dynamo
+working, and have wired such portions of the place as were not already
+wired before. During these lessons I have kept my eyes open. So far as
+the prison is concerned, there is the Governor, a sort of head clerk,
+the gaoler and his assistant; four men, and that is all. The gaoler's
+assistant appears to be the cook of the place, although the cooking done
+is of the most limited description. The black bread is brought from St.
+Petersburg, I think, as also tinned meat and soup; so the cuisine is on
+a somewhat limited scale."
+
+"Do you mean to say that only these four men are in charge of the
+prison?"
+
+"Practically so, but there is the garrison as well. The soldiers live
+in a suite of rooms directly above us, and as near as I can form an
+opinion, there are fourteen men and two officers. When a steamer arrives
+they draft as many soldiers as are necessary, unload the boat; then the
+Tommies go upstairs again. The military section apparently holds little
+intercourse with the officials, whom they look upon as gaolers. I should
+judge that the military officer is chief of the rock, because when he
+found the Governor's room lit by electricity, he demanded the same for
+his quarters. That's how I came to get upstairs. Now, these stairs are
+hewn in the rock, are circular, guarded by heavy oaken doors top and
+bottom, and these doors possess steel bolts on both sides of them. It is
+thus possible for either the military authorities upstairs, or the civil
+authorities, to isolate themselves from the others. In case of a revolt
+among the soldiers, the Governor could bolt them into their attic,
+and they would find great difficulty in getting out. Now, my plan of
+procedure is this. We will disarm gaoler and assistant, take their keys,
+outside garments and caps. The gaoler's toggery will fit you, and the
+other fellow's may do for me. Then we will lock them in here, and if
+we meet clerk or Governor in the passages we will have time to overcome
+either or both before they are aware of the change. I'll go up the
+circular stair, bolt from the inside the upper door, and afterwards
+bolt the lower door. Then we open all the cells, and release the other
+prisoners, descend from the rock, get into the Finnish fishing boat,
+keep clear of the two cannon that are up above us, and sail for the
+Swedish coast. We can't miss it; we have only to travel west, and
+ultimately we are safe. There is only one danger, which is that we may
+make our attempt when the steamer is here, but we must chance that."
+
+"Isn't there any way of finding out? Couldn't you pump the Governor?"
+
+"He is always very much on his guard, and is a taciturn man. The
+moment the tunnel is finished I shall question him about some further
+electrical material, and then perhaps I may get a hint about the
+steamer. I imagine she comes irregularly, so the only safe plan would be
+for us to make our attempt just after she had departed."
+
+"Would there be any chance of our finding a number of the military
+downstairs?"
+
+"I don't think so. Now that they have their electric light they spend
+their time playing cards and drinking vodka."
+
+"Very well, Jack, that scheme seems reasonably feasible. Now, get
+through your material to me, and issue your instructions."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX --"STONE WALLS DO NOT A PRISON MAKE"
+
+IN a very short time Drummond became as expert at the rock dissolving
+as was his friend. He called it piffling slow work, but was nevertheless
+extremely industrious at it, although days and weeks and, as they
+suspected, months, passed before the hands of the two friends met in
+the center of the rock. One lucky circumstance that favored them was the
+habit of the gaoler in visiting Drummond only once every four days.
+
+The Lieutenant made his difficult passage, squeezing through the newly
+completed tunnel half an hour after a loaf had been set upon his table.
+Jack knew that the steamer had recently departed, because, two days
+before, the Governor had sent for him, and had exhibited a quantity of
+material recently landed, among other things a number of electric bells
+and telephones which the Governor was going to have set up between
+himself and the others, and also between his room and that of the clerk
+and gaoler. There were dry batteries, and primary batteries, and many
+odds and ends, which made Jack almost sorry he was leaving the place.
+
+Heavy steps, muffled by the thickness of the door, sounded along the
+outer passage.
+
+"Ready?" whispered Jack. "Here they come. Remember if you miss your
+first blow, we're goners, you and I."
+
+Drummond made no reply, for the steps had come perilously near and he
+feared to be heard. Noiselessly he crossed the cell and took up his
+position against the wall, just clear of the space that would be covered
+by the opening of the door.
+
+At the same moment Jack switched off the light, leaving the room black.
+Each of the two waiting prisoners could hear the other's short breathing
+through the darkness.
+
+On came the shuffling footsteps of the gaoler and lantern-bearer.
+They had reached the door of Number One, had paused, had passed on and
+stopped in front of Number Two.
+
+"Your cell!" whispered Jack, panic-stricken. "And they weren't due to
+look in on you for four days. It's all up! They'll discover the cell
+is empty and give the--Where are you going, man?" he broke off, as
+Drummond, leaving his place near the door, groped his way hurriedly
+along the wall.
+
+"To squeeze my way back and make a fight for it. It's better than--"
+
+"Wait!"
+
+Lamont's hand was on his shoulder, and he whispered a sharp command for
+silence. The two attendants had halted in front of Number Two, and while
+the lantern-bearer fumbled with the awkward bolt, his companion was
+saying:
+
+"Hold on! After all, I'll bring the other his food first, I think."
+
+"But," remonstrated the lantern-bearer, "the Governor said we were to
+bring the Englishman to him at once."
+
+"What if he did? How will he know we stole a half minute to give the
+Prince his dinner? If we bring the Englishman upstairs first, the Prince
+may have to wait an hour before we can get back with the Englishman."
+
+"Let him wait, then."
+
+"With his pocket full of roubles? Not I. He may decide to give no more
+of his gold pieces to a gaoler who lets him go hungry too long."
+
+"I've got the door unfastened now and--"
+
+"Then fasten it again and come back with me to Number One."
+
+Faint as were the words, deadened by intervening walls, their purport
+reached Jack.
+
+"Back to your place," he whispered, "they're coming!"
+
+The rattle of bolts followed close on his words. The great door of
+Number One swung ponderously inward. The lantern-bearer, holding his
+light high in front of him, entered; then stepped to one side to admit
+the gaoler, who came close after, the tray of food in his outstretched
+hands.
+
+Unluckily for the captives' plan, it was to the side of the cell
+opposite to that where Alan crouched that the lantern-bearer had taken
+his stand. There was no way of reaching him at a bound. The open
+door stood between. Were the gaoler to be attacked first, his
+fellow-attendant could readily be out of the cell and half-way up the
+corridor before Alan might hope to reach him.
+
+The friends had counted on both men entering the room together and
+crossing as usual to the table. This change of plan disconcerted them.
+Already the gaoler had set down his tray and was turning toward the
+door. Alan, helpless, stood impotently in the shadow, biting his
+blond mustache with helpless rage. In another second their cherished
+opportunity would vanish. And, as the gaoler's next visit was to be to
+Number Two, discovery stared them in the eyes.
+
+It was Jack who broke the momentary spell of apathy. He was standing at
+the far end of the cell, near the stream.
+
+"Here!" he called sharply to the lantern-bearer, "bring your light. My
+electric apparatus is out of order, and I've mislaid my matches. I want
+to fix--"
+
+The lantern-bearer, obediently, had advanced into the room. He was
+half-way across it while Lamont was still speaking. Then, from the
+corner of his eye, he spied Alan crouching in the angle behind the door,
+now fully exposed to the rays of the lantern.
+
+The man whirled about in alarm just as Alan sprang. In consequence the
+Englishman's mighty fist whizzed past his head, missing it by a full
+inch.
+
+The gaoler, recovering from his amaze, whipped out one of the revolvers
+he wore in his belt. But Jack, leaping forward, knocked it from his hand
+before he could fire; and, with one hand clapped across the fellow's
+bearded lips, wound his other arm about the stalwart body so as to
+prevent for the instant the drawing of the second pistol.
+
+Alan's first blow had missed clean; but his second did not. Following up
+his right-hand blow with all a trained boxer's swift dexterity, he sent
+a straight left hander flush on the angle of the light-bearer's jaw.
+The man dropped his lantern and collapsed into a senseless heap on the
+floor, while Alan, with no further delay, rushed toward the gaoler.
+
+The fall of the lantern extinguished the light. The cell was again
+plunged in dense blackness, through which could be heard the panting and
+scuffing of the Prince and the gaoler.
+
+Barely a second of time had elapsed since first Jack had seized the man,
+but that second had sufficed for the latter to summon his great brute
+strength and shake off his less gigantic opponent and to draw his
+pistol.
+
+"Quick, Alan!" gasped Jack. "He's got away from me. He'll--"
+
+Drummond, guided by his friend's voice, darted forward through
+the darkness, caught his foot against the sprawling body of the
+lantern-bearer and fell heavily, his arms thrown out in an instinctive
+gesture of self-preservation. Even as he lost his balance he heard
+a sharp click, directly in front of him. The gaoler had pulled the
+trigger, and his pistol--contract-made and out of order, like many of
+the weapons of common soldiers in Russia's frontier posts--had missed
+fire.
+
+To that luckiest of mishaps, the failure of a defective cartridge to
+explode, the friends owed their momentary safety.
+
+As Alan pitched forward, one of his outing arms struck against an
+obstacle. It was a human figure, and from the feel of the leather
+straps, which his fingers touched in the impact, he knew it was the
+gaoler and not Lamont.
+
+Old football tactics coming to memory, Alan clung to the man his arm had
+chanced upon, and bore him along to the ground; Jack, who had pressed
+forward in the darkness, being carried down as well by the other's fall.
+
+Gaoler, Prince and Englishman thus struggled on the stone floor in one
+indistinguishable heap. It was no ordinary combat of two to one, for
+neither of the prisoners could say which was the gaoler and which his
+friend. The gaoler, troubled by no such doubts, laid about him lustily,
+and was only prevented from crying out by the fact that his heavy fur
+cap had, in the fall, become jammed down over his face as far as the
+chin and could not for the moment be dislodged.
+
+He reached for and drew the sword-bayonet that hung at his side (for
+his second pistol had become lost in the scrimmage), and thrust blindly
+about him. Once, twice his blade met resistance and struck into flesh.
+
+"Jack," panted Alan, "the beast's stabbing. Get yourself loose and find
+the electric light."
+
+As he spoke, Alan's hand found the gaoler's throat. He knew it was not
+Alan's from the rough beard that covered it. The gaoler, maddened by the
+pressure, stabbed with fresh fury; most of his blows, fortunately, going
+wild in the darkness.
+
+Alan's free hand reached for and located the arm that was wielding
+the bayonet, and for a moment the two wrestled desperately for its
+possession.
+
+Then a key clicked, and the room was flooded with incandescent light,
+just as Alan, releasing his grip on the Russian's throat, dealt him a
+short-arm blow on the chin with all the power of his practiced muscles.
+The gaoler relaxed his tense limbs and lay still, while Alan, bleeding
+and exhausted, struggled to his feet.
+
+"Hot work, eh?" he panted. "Hard position to land a knockout from. But
+I caught him just right. He'll trouble us no more for a few minutes, I
+fancy. You're bleeding! Did he wound you?"
+
+"Only a scratch along my check. And you?"
+
+"A cut on the wrist and another on the shoulder, I think. Neither of
+them bad, thanks to the lack of aim in the dark. Close call, that! Now
+to tie them up. Not a movement from either yet."
+
+"You must have come close to killing them with those sledge-hammer blows
+of yours!"
+
+"It doesn't much matter," said the imperturbable pugilist, "they'll be
+all right in half an hour. It's knowing where to hit. If there are only
+four men downstairs, we don't need to wear the clothes of these beasts.
+Let us take only the bunch of keys and the revolvers."
+
+Securing these the two stepped out into the passage, locked and bolted
+the door; then Jack, who knew his way, proceeded along the passage to
+the stairway, leaped nimbly up the steps, bolted the door leading to the
+military quarters, then descended and bolted the bottom door.
+
+"Now for the clerk, and then for the Governor."
+
+The clerk's room connected with the armory, which was reached by passing
+through the apartment that held turbine and dynamo, which they found
+purring away merrily.
+
+Covering the frightened clerk with four revolvers, Jack told him in
+Russian that if he made a sound it would be his last. They took him,
+opened cell Number Three, which was empty, and thrust him in.
+
+Jangling the keys, the two entered the Governor's room. The ancient man
+looked up, but not a muscle of his face changed; even his fishy eyes
+showed no signs of emotion or surprise.
+
+"Governor," said Jack with deference, "although you are under the
+muzzles of a quartet of revolvers, no harm is intended you. However, you
+must not leave your place until you accompany us down to the boat, when
+I shall hand the keys over to you, and in cell Number One you will find
+gaoler and lantern man a little worse for wear, perhaps, but still in
+the ring, I hope. In Number Three your clerk is awaiting you. I go now
+to release your prisoners. All communication between yourself and the
+military is barred. I leave my friend on guard until I return from the
+cells. You must not attempt to summon assistance, or cry out, or move
+from your chair. My friend does not understand either Russian or German,
+so there is no use in making any appeal to him, and much as I like
+you personally, and admire your assiduity in science, our case is so
+desperate that if you make any motion whatever, he will be compelled to
+shoot you dead."
+
+The Governor bowed.
+
+"May I continue my writing?" he asked.
+
+Jack laughed heartily.
+
+"Certainly," and with that he departed to the cells, which he unlocked
+one by one, only to find them all empty.
+
+Returning, he said to the Governor:
+
+"Why did you not tell me that we were your only prisoners?"
+
+"I feared," replied the Governor mildly, "that you might not believe
+me."
+
+"After all, I don't know that I should,", said Jack, holding out his
+hand, which the other shook rather unresponsively.
+
+"I want to thank you," the Governor said slowly, "for all you have told
+me about electricity. That knowledge I expect to put to many useful
+purposes in the future, and the exercise of it will also make the hours
+drag less slowly than they did before you came."
+
+"Oh, that's all right," cried Jack with enthusiasm. "I am sure you
+are very welcome to what teaching I have been able to give you, and no
+teacher could have wished a more apt pupil."
+
+"It pleases me to hear you say that, Highness, although I fear I have
+been lax in my duties, and perhaps the knowledge of this place which
+you have got through my negligence, has assisted you in making an escape
+which I had not thought possible."
+
+Jack laughed good-naturedly.
+
+"All's fair in love and war," he said. "Imprisonment is a section of
+war. I must admit that electricity has been a powerful aid to us.
+But you cannot blame yourself, Governor, for you always took every
+precaution, and the gaoler was eternally at my heels. You can never
+pretend that you trusted me, you know."
+
+"I tried to do my duty," said the old man mournfully, "and if
+electricity has been your helper, it has not been with my sanction.
+However, there is one point about electricity which you impressed upon
+me, which is that although it goes quickly, there is always a return
+current."
+
+"What do you mean by that, Governor?"
+
+"Is it not so? It goes by a wire, and returns through the earth. I
+thought you told me that."
+
+"Yes, but I don't quite see why you mention that feature of the case at
+this particular moment."
+
+"I wanted to be sure what I have stated is true. You see, when you are
+gone there will be nobody I can ask."
+
+All this time the aged Governor was holding Jack's hand rather limply.
+Drummond showed signs of impatience.
+
+"Jack," he cried at last, "that conversation may be very interesting,
+but it's like smoking on a powder mine. One never knows what may happen.
+I shan't feel safe until we're well out at sea, and not even then. Get
+through with your farewells as soon as possible, and let us be off."
+
+"Right you are, Alan, my boy. Well, Governor, I'm reluctantly compelled
+to bid you a final good-by, but here's wishing you all sorts of luck."
+
+The old man seemed reluctant to part with him, and still clung to his
+hand.
+
+"I wanted to tell you," he said, "of another incident, almost as
+startling as your coming into this room a while since, that happened six
+or eight months ago. As perhaps you know, we keep a Finland fishing-boat
+down in the cove below."
+
+"Yes, yes," said Jack impatiently, drawing away his hand.
+
+"Well, six or eight months ago that boat disappeared, and has never been
+heard of since. None of our prisoners was missing; none of the garrison
+was missing; my three assistants were still here, yet in the night the
+boat was taken away."
+
+"Really. How interesting! Never learned the secret, did you?"
+
+"Never, but I took precautions, when we got the next boat, that it
+should be better guarded, so I have had two men remain upon it night and
+day."
+
+"Are your two men armed, Governor?"
+
+"Yes, they are."
+
+"Then they must surrender, or we will be compelled to shoot them. Come
+down with us, and advise them to surrender quietly, otherwise, from safe
+cover on the stairway, we can pot them in an open boat."
+
+"I will go down with you," said the Governor, "and do what I can."
+
+"Of course they will obey you."
+
+"Yes, they will obey me--if they hear me. I was going to add that only
+yesterday did I arrange the electric bell down at the landing, with
+instructions to those men to take a telegram which I had written in case
+of emergencies, to the mainland, at any moment, night or day, when that
+bell rang. Your Highness, the bell rang more than half an hour ago. I
+have not been allowed out to see the result."
+
+The placid old man put his hand on the Prince's shoulder, as if
+bestowing a benediction upon him. Drummond, who did not understand the
+lingo, was amazed to see Jack fling off the Governor's grasp, and with
+what he took to be a crushing oath in Russian, spring to the door, which
+he threw open. He mounted the stone bench which gave him a view of the
+sea. A boat, with two sails spread, speeding to the southwest, across
+the strong westerly wind, was two miles or more away.
+
+"Marooned, by God!" cried the Prince, swinging round and presenting his
+pistol at the head of the Governor, who stood there like a statue of
+dejection, and made no sign.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX --ARRIVAL OF THE TURBINE YACHT
+
+BEFORE Jack could fire, as perhaps he had intended to do, Drummond
+struck down his arm.
+
+"None of that, Jack," he said. "The Russian in you has evidently been
+scratched, and the Tartar has come uppermost. The Governor gave a
+signal, I suppose?"
+
+"Yes, he did, and those two have got away while I stood babbling here,
+feeling a sympathy for the old villain. That's his return current, eh?"
+
+"He's not to blame," said Drummond. "It's our own fault entirely. The
+first thing to have done was to secure that boat."
+
+"And everything worked so beautifully," moaned Jack, "up to this point,
+and one mistake ruins it. We are doomed, Alan."
+
+"It isn't so bad as that, Jack," said the Englishman calmly. "Should
+those men reach the coast safely, as no doubt they will, it may cost
+Russia a bit of trouble to dislodge us."
+
+"Why, hang it all," cried Jack, "they don't need to dislodge us. All
+they've got to do is to stand off and starve us out. They are not
+compelled to fire a gun or land a man."
+
+"They'll have to starve their own men first. It's not likely we're going
+to go hungry and feed our prisoners."
+
+"Oh, we don't mind a little thing like that, we Russians. They may
+send help, or they may not. Probably a cruiser will come within hailing
+distance and try to find out what the trouble is. Then it will lie off
+and wait till everybody's dead, and after that put in a new Governor and
+another garrison."
+
+"You take too pessimistic a view, Jack. This isn't the season of the
+year for a cruiser to lie off in the Baltic. Winter is coming on. Most
+of the harbors in Finland will be ice-closed in a month, and there's no
+shelter hereabouts in a storm. They'll attack; probably open shell fire
+on us for a while, then attempt to land a storming party. That will be
+fun for us if you've got good rifles and plenty of ammunition."
+
+Jack raised his head.
+
+"Oh, we're well-equipped," he said, "if we only have enough to eat."
+
+Springing to his feet, all dejection gone, he said to the Governor:
+
+"Now, my friend, we're compelled to put you into a cell. I'm sorry to do
+this, but there is no other course open. Where is your larder, and what
+quantity of provisions have you in stock?"
+
+A gloomy smile added to the dejection of the old man's countenance.
+
+"You must find that out for yourself," he said.
+
+"Are the soldiers upstairs well supplied with food?"
+
+"I will not answer any of your questions."
+
+"Oh, very well. I see you are determined to go hungry yourself. Until I
+am satisfied that there is more than sufficient for my friend and me, no
+prisoner in my charge gets anything to eat. That's the sort of gaoler I
+am. The stubborn old beast!" he cried in English, turning to Drummond,
+"won't answer my questions."
+
+"What were you asking him?"
+
+"I want to know about the stock of provisions."
+
+"It's quite unnecessary to ask about the grub: there's sure to be
+ample."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Why? Because we have reached the beginning of winter, as I said before.
+There must be months when no boat can land at this rock. It's bound to
+be provisioned for several months ahead at the very lowest calculation.
+Now, the first thing to do is to put this ancient Johnny in his little
+cell, then I'll tell you where our chief danger lies."
+
+The Governor made neither protest nor complaint, but walked into Number
+Nine, and was locked up.
+
+"Now, Johnny, my boy," said Drummond, "our anxiety is the soldiers. The
+moment they find they are locked in they will blow those two doors open
+in just about half a jiffy. We can, of course, by sitting in front of
+the lower door night and day, pick off the first four or five who come
+down, but if the rest make a rush we are bound to be overpowered. They
+have, presumably, plenty of powder, probably some live shells, petards,
+and what-not, that will make short work even of those oaken doors. What
+do you propose to do?"
+
+"I propose," said Jack, "to fill their crooked stairway with cement.
+There are bags and bags of it in the armory."
+
+The necessity for this was prevented by an odd circumstance. The two
+young men were seated in the Governor's room, when at his table a
+telephone bell rang. Jack had not noticed this instrument, and now took
+up the receiver.
+
+"Hello, Governor," said a voice, "your fool of a gaoler has bolted the
+stairway door, and we can't open it."
+
+"Oh, I beg pardon," replied Jack, in whatever imitation of the
+Governor's voice he could assume. "I'll see to it at once myself."
+
+He hung up the receiver and told his comrade what had happened.
+
+"One or both of these officers are coming down. If we get the officers
+safely into a cell, there will be nobody to command the men, and it is
+more than likely that the officers carry the keys of the powder room.
+I'll turn out the electric lamps in the hall, and light the lantern. You
+be ready at the foot of the stairway to fire if they make the slightest
+resistance."
+
+The two officers came down the circular stairway, grumbling at the delay
+to which they had been put. Lermontoff took advantage of the clamping
+of their heavy boots in the echoing stairway to shove in the bolts once
+more, and then followed them, himself followed by Drummond, into the
+Governor's room. Switching on the electric light, he said:
+
+"Gentlemen, I am Prince Lermontoff, in temporary charge of this prison.
+The Governor is under arrest, and I regret that I must demand your
+swords, although I have every reason to believe that they will be
+handed back to you within a very few days after I have completed my
+investigations."
+
+The officers were too much accustomed to sudden changes in command to
+see anything odd in this turn of affairs. Lermontoff spoke with a quiet
+dignity that was very convincing, and the language he used was that of
+the nobility. The two officers handed him their swords without a word of
+protest.
+
+"I must ask you whether you have yet received your winter supply of
+food."
+
+"Oh, yes," said the senior officer, "we had that nearly a month ago."
+
+"Is it stored in the military portion of the rock, or below here?"
+
+"Our rations are packed away in a room upstairs."
+
+"I am sorry, gentlemen, that I must put you into cells until my mission
+is accomplished. If you will write a requisition for such rations as you
+are accustomed to receive, I shall see that you are supplied. Meanwhile,
+write also an order to whomsoever you entrust in command of the men
+during your absence, to grant no one leave to come downstairs, and ask
+him to take care that each soldier is rigidly restricted to the minimum
+quantity of vodka."
+
+The senior officer sat down at the table, and wrote the two orders.
+The men were then placed in adjoining cells, without the thought of
+resistance even occurring to them. They supposed there had been some
+changes at headquarters, and were rather relieved to have the assurance
+of the Prince that their arrest would prove temporary. Further
+investigation showed that there would be no danger of starvation for six
+months at least.
+
+Next day Jack, at great risk of his neck, scaled to the apex of the
+island, as he had thought of flying, if possible, a signal of distress
+that might attract some passing vessel. But even though he reached the
+sharp ridge, he saw at once that no pole could be erected there, not
+even if he possessed one. The wind aloft was terrific, and he gazed
+around him at an empty sea.
+
+When four days had passed they began to look for the Russian relief
+boat, which they knew would set out the moment the Governor's telegram
+reached St. Petersburg.
+
+On the fifth day Jack shouted down to Drummond, who was standing by the
+door.
+
+"The Russian is coming: heading direct for us. She's in a hurry, too,
+crowding on all steam, and eating up the distance like a torpedo-boat
+destroyer. I think it's a cruiser. It's not the old tub I came on,
+anyway."
+
+"Come down, then," answered Alan, "and we--"
+
+A cry from above interrupted him. Jack, having at first glance spied the
+vessel whose description he had shouted to Drummond, had now turned his
+eyes eastward and stood staring aghast toward the sunrise.
+
+"What's the matter?" asked Alan.
+
+"Matter?" echoed Jack. "They must be sending the whole Russian Navy here
+in detachments to capture our unworthy selves. There's a second boat
+coming from the east--nearer by two miles than the yacht. If I hadn't
+been all taken up with the other from the moment I climbed here I'd have
+seen her before."
+
+"Is she a yacht, too?"
+
+"No. Looks like a passenger tramp. Dirty and--"
+
+"Merchantman, maybe."
+
+"No. She's got guns on her--"
+
+"Merchantman fitted out for privateersman, probably. That's the sort of
+craft Russia would be likeliest to send to a secret prison like this.
+What flag does--"
+
+"No flag at all. Neither of them. They're both making for the rock, full
+steam, and from opposite sides. Neither can see the other, I suppose.
+I--"
+
+"From opposite sides? That doesn't look like a joint expedition. One of
+those ships isn't Russian. But which?"
+
+Jack had clambered down and stood by Alan's side.
+
+"We must make ready for defense in either case," he said. "In a few
+minutes we'll be able to see them both from the platform below."
+
+"One of those boats means to blow us out of existence if it can," mused
+Jack. "The other cannot know of our existence. And yet, if she doesn't,
+what is she doing here, headed for the rock?"
+
+With that Jack scrambled, slid and jumped down. Drummond was very quiet
+and serious. Repeating rifles stood in a row on the opposite wall, easy
+to get at, but as far off as might be from the effects of a possible
+shell. The two young men now mounted the stone bench by the door, which
+allowed them to look over the ledge at the eastern sea. Presently the
+craft appeared round the end of the island, pure white, floating like a
+swan on the water, and making great headway.
+
+"By Jove!" said Jack, "she's a fine one. Looks like the Czar's yacht,
+but no Russian vessel I know of can make that speed."
+
+"She's got the ear-marks of Thornycroft build about her," commented
+Drummond. "By Jove, Jack, what luck if she should prove to be English.
+No flag flying, though."
+
+"She's heading for us," said Jack, "and apparently she knows which side
+the cannon is on. If she's Russian, they've taken it for granted we've
+captured the whole place, and are in command of the guns. There, she's
+turning."
+
+The steamer was abreast of the rock, and perhaps three miles distant.
+Now she swept a long, graceful curve westward and drew up about half a
+mile east of the rock.
+
+"Jove, I wish I'd a pair of good glasses," said Drummond. "They're
+lowering a boat."
+
+Jack showed more Highland excitement than Russian stolidity, as he
+watched the oncoming of a small boat, beautifully riding the waves,
+and masterfully rowed by sailors who understood the art. Drummond stood
+imperturbable as a statue.
+
+"The sweep of those oars is English, Jack, my boy."
+
+As the boat came nearer and nearer Jack became more and more agitated.
+
+"I say, Alan, focus your eyes on that man at the rudder. I think my
+sight's failing me. Look closely. Did you ever see him before?"
+
+"I think I have, but am not quite sure."
+
+"Why, he looks to me like my jovial and venerable father-in-law, Captain
+Kempt, of Bar Harbor. Perfectly absurd, of course: it can't be."
+
+"He does resemble the Captain, but I only saw him once or twice."
+
+"Hooray, Captain Kempt, how are you?" shouted Jack across the waters.
+
+The Captain raised his right hand and waved it, but made no attempt to
+cover the distance with his voice. Jack ran pell-mell down the steps,
+and Drummond followed in more leisurely fashion. The boat swung round to
+the landing, and Captain Kempt cried cordially:
+
+"Hello, Prince, how are you? And that's Lieutenant Drummond, isn't it?
+Last time I had the pleasure of seeing you, Drummond, was that night of
+the ball."
+
+"Yes," said Drummond. "I was very glad to see you then, but a hundred
+times happier to see you to-day."
+
+"I was just cruising round these waters in my yacht, and I thought
+I'd take a look at this rock you tried to obliterate. I don't see
+any perceptible damage done, but what can you expect from British
+marksmanship?"
+
+"I struck the rock on the other side, Captain. I think your remark is
+unkind, especially as I've just been praising the watermanship of your
+men."
+
+"Now, are you boys tired of this summer resort?" asked Captain Kempt.
+"Is your baggage checked, and are you ready to go? Most seaside places
+are deserted this time of year."
+
+"We'll be ready in a moment, captain," cried his future son-in-law. "I
+must run up and get the Governor. We've put a number of men in prison
+here, and they'll starve if not released. The Governor's a good old
+chap, though he played it low down on me a few days ago," and with that
+Jack disappeared up the stairway once more.
+
+"Had a gaol-delivery here?" asked the Captain.
+
+"Well, something by way of that. The Prince drilled a hole in the rock,
+and we got out. We've put the garrison in pawn, so to speak, but I've
+been mighty anxious these last few days because the sail-boat they had
+here, and two of the garrison, escaped to the mainland with the news. We
+were anxiously watching your yacht, fearing it was Russian. Jack
+thought it was the Czar's yacht. How came you by such a craft, Captain?
+Splendid-looking boat that."
+
+"Oh, yes, I bought her a few days before I left New York. One likes to
+travel comfortably, you know. Very well fitted up she is."
+
+Jack shouted from the doorway:
+
+"Drummond, come up here and fling overboard these loaded rifles. We
+can't take any more chances. I'm going to lock up the ammunition room
+and take the key with me as a souvenir."
+
+"Excuse me, Captain," said Drummond, who followed his friend, and
+presently bundles of rifles came clattering down the side of the
+precipice, plunging into the sea. The two then descended the steps, Jack
+in front, Drummond following with the Governor between them.
+
+"Now, Governor," said Jack, "for the second time I am to bid you
+farewell. Here are the keys. If you accept them you must give me your
+word of honor that the boat will not be fired upon. If you do not
+promise that, I'll drop the bunch into the sea, and on your gray head be
+the consequences."
+
+"I give you my word of honor that you shall not be fired upon."
+
+"Very well, Governor. Here are the keys, and good-by."
+
+In the flurry of excitement over the yacht's appearance, both Jack and
+Drummond had temporarily forgotten the existence of the tramp steamer
+the former had seen beating toward the rock.
+
+Now Lamont suddenly recalled it.
+
+"By the way, Governor," he said, "the relief boat you so thoughtfully
+sent for is on her way here. She should reach the rock at almost any
+minute now. In fact, I fancy we've little time to waste if we want to
+avoid a brush. It would be a pity to be nabbed now at the eleventh hour.
+Good-by, once more."
+
+But the Governor had stepped between him and the boat.
+
+"I--I am an old man," he said, speaking with manifest embarrassment.
+"I was sent to take charge of this prison as punishment for refusing to
+join a Jew massacre plot. Governorship here means no more nor less than
+a life imprisonment. My wife and children are on a little estate of mine
+in Sweden. It is twelve years since I have seen them. I--"
+
+"If this story is a ruse to detain us--"
+
+"No! No!" protested the Governor, and there was no mistaking his
+pathetic, eager sincerity. "But--but I shall be shot--or locked in one
+of the cells and the water turned on--for letting you escape. Won't you
+take me with you? I will work my passage. Take me as far as Stockholm.
+I shall be free there--free to join my wife and to live forever out of
+reach of the Grand Dukes. Take me--"
+
+"Jump in!" ordered Jack, coming to a sudden resolution. "Heaven knows I
+would not condemn my worst enemy to a perpetual life on this rock. And
+you've been pretty decent to us, according to your lights. Jump aboard,
+we've no time to waste."
+
+Nor did the Governor waste time in obeying. The others followed, and the
+boat shoved off. But scarcely had the oars caught the water when around
+the promontory came a large man-o'-war's launch, a rapid-fire gun
+mounted on her bows. She was manned by about twenty men in Russian
+police uniform.
+
+"From the 'tramp,'" commented Alan excitedly. "And her gun is trained on
+us."
+
+"Get down to work!" shouted Jack to the straining oarsmen.
+
+"No use!" groaned Kempt. "She'll cross within a hundred yards of us.
+There's no missing at such close range and on such a quiet sea. What a
+fool I was to--"
+
+The launch was, indeed, bearing down on them despite the rowers' best
+efforts, and must unquestionably cut them off before they could reach
+the yacht.
+
+Alan drew his revolver.
+
+"We've no earthly show against her," he remarked quietly, "and it seems
+hard to 'go down in sight of port.' But let's do what we can."
+
+"Put up that pop-gun," ordered Kempt. "She will sink us long before
+you're in range for revolver work. I'll run up my handkerchief for a
+white flag."
+
+"To surrender?"
+
+"What else can we do?"
+
+"And he lugged back to the rock, all of us? Not I, for one!"
+
+The launch was now within hailing distance, and every man aboard her was
+glaring at the helpless little yacht-gig.
+
+"Wait!"
+
+It was the Governor who spoke. Rising from his seat in the stern, he
+hailed the officer who was sighting the rapid-fire gun.
+
+"Lieutenant Tschersky!" he called.
+
+At sight of the old man's lean, uniformed figure, rising from among the
+rest, there was visible excitement and surprise aboard the launch. The
+officer saluted and ordered the engine stopped that he might hear more
+plainly.
+
+"Lieutenant," repeated the Governor, "I am summoned aboard His Highness
+the Grand Duke Vladimir's yacht. You will proceed to the harbor and
+await my return to the rock. There has been a mutiny among the garrison,
+but I have quelled it."
+
+The officer saluted again, gave an order, and the launch's nose pointed
+for the rock.
+
+"Governor," observed Lamont, as the old man sank again into his seat,
+"you've earned your passage to Stockholm. You need not work for it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI --THE ELOPEMENT
+
+THE girls on the yacht had no expectation that Captain Kempt would
+come back with the two young men. But when, through their powerful
+binoculars, the girls became aware that Drummond and the Prince were
+in the small boat, they both fled to the chief saloon, and sat there
+holding one another's hands. Even the exuberant Kate for once had
+nothing to say. She heard the voice of her father on deck, giving
+command to the mate.
+
+"Make for Stockholm, Johnson. Take my men-o'-war's men--see that no one
+else touches the ammunition--and fling the shells overboard. Heave the
+gun after them, and then clear out the rifles and ammunition the same
+way. When we reach Stockholm to-morrow morning, there must not be a gun
+on board this ship, and the ridiculous rumor that got abroad among your
+men that we were going to attack something or other, you will see is
+entirely unfounded. You impress that on them, Johnson."
+
+"Oh, Dorothy," whispered Katherine, drawing a deep breath. "If you are
+as frightened as I am, get behind me."
+
+"I think I will," answered Dorothy, and each squeezed the other's hand.
+
+"I tell you what it is, Captain," sounded the confident voice of the
+Prince. "This vessel is a beauty. You have done yourself fine. I had no
+idea you were such a sybarite. Why, I've been aboard the Czar's yacht,
+and I tell you it's nothing--Great heavens! Katherine!" he shouted, in a
+voice that made the ceiling ring.
+
+She was now standing up and advanced toward him with both hands held
+out, a welcoming smile on her pretty lips, but he swooped down on her,
+flung his arms round her like a cabman beating warmth into his hands,
+kissed her on the brow, the two cheeks and the lips, swaying her back
+and forward as if about to fling her upstairs.
+
+"Stop, stop," she cried. "Aren't you ashamed of yourself? Before my
+father, too! You great Russian bear!" and, breathless, she put her open
+palm against his face, and shoved his head away from her.
+
+"Don't bother about me, Kate," said her father. "That's nothing to the
+way we acted when I was young. Come on, boys, to the smoking-room,
+and I'll mix you something good: real Kentucky, twenty-seven years in
+barrel, and I've got all the other materials for a Manhattan."
+
+"Jack, I am glad to see you," panted Katherine, all in disarray, which
+she endeavored to set right by an agitated touch here and there. "Now,
+Jack, I'm going to take you to the smoking-room, but you'll have to
+behave yourself as you walk along the deck. I won't be made a spectacle
+of before the crew."
+
+"Come along, Drummond," said the Captain, "and bring Miss Dorothy with
+you."
+
+But Drummond stood in front of Dorothy Amhurst, and held out his hand.
+
+"You haven't forgotten me, Miss Amhurst, I hope?"
+
+"Oh, no," she replied, with a very faint smile, taking his hand.
+
+"It seems incredible that you are here," he began. "What a lucky man I
+am. Captain Kempt takes his yacht to rescue his son-in-law that is to
+be, and incidentally rescues me as well, and then to find you here! I
+suppose you came because your friend Miss Kempt was aboard?"
+
+"Yes, we are all but inseparable."
+
+"I wrote you a letter, Miss Amhurst, the last night I was in St.
+Petersburg in the summer."
+
+"Yes, I received it."
+
+"No, not this one. It was the night I was captured, and I never got a
+chance to post it. It was an important letter--for me."
+
+"I thought it important--for me," replied Dorothy, now smiling quite
+openly. "The Nihilists got it, searching your room after you had been
+arrested. It was sent on to New York, and given to me."
+
+"Is that possible? How did they know it was for you?"
+
+"I had been making inquiries through the Nihilists."
+
+"I wrote you a proposal of marriage, Dorothy."
+
+"It certainly read like it, but you see it wasn't signed, and you can't
+be held to it."
+
+He reached across the table, and grasped her two hands.
+
+"Dorothy, Dorothy," he cried, "do you mean you would have cabled 'Yes'?"
+
+"No."
+
+"You would not?"
+
+"Of course not. I should have cabled 'Undecided.' One gets more for
+one's money in sending a long word. Then I should have written--" she
+paused, and he cried eagerly:
+
+"What?"
+
+"What do you think?" she asked.
+
+"Well, do you know, Dorothy, I am beginning to think my incredible luck
+will hold, and that you'd have written 'Yes.'"
+
+"I don't know about the luck: that would have been the answer."
+
+He sprang up, bent over her, and she, quite unaffectedly raised her face
+to his.
+
+"Oh, Dorothy," he cried.
+
+"Oh, Alan," she replied, with quivering voice, "I never thought to see
+you again. You cannot imagine the long agony of this voyage, and not
+knowing what had happened."
+
+"It's a blessing, Dorothy, you had learned nothing about the
+Trogzmondoff."
+
+"Ah, but I did: that's what frightened me. We have a man on board who
+was flung for dead from that dreadful rock. The Baltic saved him; his
+mother, he calls it."
+
+Drummond picked her up in his arms, and carried her to the luxurious
+divan which ran along the side of the large room. There they sat down
+together, out of sight of the stairway.
+
+"Did you get all of my letters?"
+
+"I think so."
+
+"You know I am a poor man?"
+
+"I know you said so."
+
+"Don't you consider my position poverty? I thought every one over there
+had a contempt for an income that didn't run into tens of thousands."
+
+"I told you, Alan, I had been unused to money, and so your income
+appears to me quite sufficient."
+
+"Then you are not afraid to trust in my future?"
+
+"Not the least: I believe in you."
+
+"Oh, you dear girl. If you knew how sweet that sounds! Then I may tell
+you. When I was in London last I ran down to Dartmouth in Devonshire. I
+shall be stationed there. You see, I have finished my foreign cruising,
+and Dartmouth is, for a time at least, to be my home. There's a fine
+harbor there, green hills and a beautiful river running between them,
+and I found such a lovely old house; not grand at all, you know, but so
+cosey and comfortable, standing on the heights overlooking the harbor,
+in an old garden filled with roses, shrubs, and every kind of flower;
+vines clambering about the ancient house. Two servants would keep it
+going like a shot. Dorothy, what do you say?"
+
+Dorothy laughed quietly and whole heartedly.
+
+"It reads like a bit from an old English romance. I'd just love to see
+such a house."
+
+"You don't care for this sort of thing, do you?" he asked, glancing
+round about him.
+
+"What sort of thing?"
+
+"This yacht, these silk panelling, these gorgeous pictures, the
+carving, the gilt, the horribly expensive carpet."
+
+"You mean should I feel it necessary to be surrounded by such luxury? I
+answer most emphatically, no. I like your ivy-covered house at Dartmouth
+much better."
+
+For a moment neither said anything: lips cannot speak when pressed
+together.
+
+"Now, Dorothy, I want you to elope with me. We will be in Stockholm
+long before daylight to-morrow at the rate this boat is going. I'll get
+ashore as soon as practicable, and make all inquiries at the consulate
+about being married. I don't know what the regulations are, but if it is
+possible to be married quietly, say in the afternoon, will you consent
+to that, and then write a letter to Captain Kempt, thanking him for the
+trip on the yacht, and I'll write, thanking him for all he has done for
+me, and after that we'll make for England together. I've got a letter of
+credit in my pocket, which luckily the Russians did not take from me.
+I shall find all the money we need at Stockholm, then we'll cross the
+Swedish country, sail to Denmark, make our way through Germany to Paris,
+if you like, or to London. We shan't travel all the time, but just take
+nice little day trips, stopping at some quaint old town every afternoon
+and evening."
+
+"You mean to let Captain Kempt, Katherine, and the Prince go to America
+alone?"
+
+"Of course. Why not? They don't want us, and I'm quite sure we--well,
+Dorothy, we'd be delighted to have them, to be sure--but still, I've
+knocked a good deal about Europe, and there are some delightful old
+towns I'd like to show you, and I hate traveling with a party."
+
+Dorothy laughed so heartily that her head sank on his shoulder.
+
+"Yes, I'll do that," she said at last.
+
+And they did.
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Rock in the Baltic, by Robert Barr
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A ROCK IN THE BALTIC ***
+
+***** This file should be named 4982.txt or 4982.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/4/9/8/4982/
+
+Produced by Jim Weiler
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at
+  www.gutenberg.org/license.
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at 809
+North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887.  Email
+contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the
+Foundation's web site and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit:  www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For forty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+