A SUSPECTED HOUSEHOLD
Cheerful though their hosts were, the midshipmen could see that a
cloud of anxiety hung over them. To be "suspected" in Russia is
equivalent to being condemned. Secret police spies in the very bosom
of the household may be sending denunciations. The man who meets you
and shakes hands with you in the street may have reported on your
conduct. The letters you write are opened, those you should receive
stopped in the post. At any moment the agent of the authorities may
appear and conduct you to a prison which you may leave only for the
long journey to Siberia.
Count Preskoff did not think that matters had yet reached this point.
He was in disgrace at court, and had enemies who would injure him to
the utmost with the emperor, but he believed that no steps would be
taken until Count Smerskoff had received his final refusal of
Katinka's hand. He had already once proposed for it, but would not
consider the answer which her father then gave him as final.
"I cannot accept your refusal, count," he had said. "The marriage
would be for the advantage of all parties concerned. My family is, as
you are aware, not without influence at court, and they would, were I
the husband of your daughter, do all in their power to incline the
emperor favorably towards you; while, were I rejected, they would
probably view your refusal to accept my offers as a slight to the
family, and resent it accordingly. I cannot but think that when you
have given the matter calm consideration, you will see the advantages
which such an alliance would offer. I shall therefore do myself the
honor to renew my proposals at some future date."
This conversation took place in the beginning of December; Count
Preskoff had shortly afterwards left for his estates in the north, and
he felt sure that upon his return the subject would be renewed, and
that upon his announcement of his continued determination to refuse
his daughter's hand to this pressing suitor, the latter would use
every means in his power to ruin him, and that the cloud which had so
long threatened would burst over his head.
From Olga, who, being about his own age, a little under sixteen, was
his special chum in the family, Jack gathered a general idea of the
situation. Olga was an adept at pantomimic action, and a natural
mimic; hence, although he could only understand a word here and there,
he obtained an accurate idea of the conversation between her father
and the governor, and of her father's calm manner, and the gestures
and intonations of apparent friendship but veiled menace. By putting
her ears to a keyhole and hiding behind a curtain, she expressed the
possibility of there being a spy in the very household, who would
listen to the unguarded talk of her father and report it to the
governor. Jack determined that he would watch every movement of the
domestics, and especially observe if he could detect any sign of an
understanding between one of them and the governor.
It was some four or five days after the count had returned that Count
Smerskoff rode up to the door. Orders had already been given that if
he arrived he should be shown to the count's private study. The
midshipmen saw him riding up, and, according to the plan they had
agreed upon, one stood near the entrance to observe whether any sign
of recognition passed between him and any of the servants gathered
upon the steps to receive him, the other took his place in the hall.
The interview was not a long one.
"I am come, Count Preskoff," the governor said, "to renew my request
for the hand of your daughter. I trust that upon consideration you
will have thought it better to overlook the objections you preferred
to my suit."
"Upon the contrary," the count said calmly, "I have thought the matter
over in every light, and am more convinced even than before that such
a marriage would not conduce to the happiness of my daughter. She
herself is wholly repugnant to it, and even were it otherwise, I
should myself most strongly object."
"On what grounds, count?" the officer said angrily. "Noble as your
family is, my own is fully equal to it."
"That I am perfectly willing to allow, sir, and will frankly own that
my objection is a purely personal one. The incidents of your past
career are notorious. You have killed two men in duels, which, in both
cases, you forced upon them. You have been involved in gambling
transactions of such a description that it needed all the influence of
your family to save you from public disgrace. To such a man it is
impossible that I could intrust my daughter."
Count Smerskoff rose to his feet, bursting with passion.
"Since you know my reputation, count, it would have been wiser to
abstain from insulting me. You shall hear from me before night."
"It is useless your sending your second to me," the count said calmly,
"for I absolutely refuse to meet you. I shall publish my refusal, and
state that the grounds upon which I base it are that you are a
notorious ruffian; but that if you can find any man of honor to take
up your quarrel, I shall be prepared to meet him."
"I will force you to it," the soldier said, burning with passion. "I
will publicly insult you. I will strike you," and he drew a step
nearer.
"You will do so at your peril," the count said, drawing a pistol from
his pocket. "I know your method, sir, and am prepared for it. If you
lay a finger upon me, if you insult me in public, I will shoot you
dead where you stand, and take the consequences."
"You shall repent this," Count Smerskoff exclaimed. "There are lives
worse than death, and you shall have cause to remember your words of
to-day," and turning round he strode from the room.
Jack was still lounging in the hall as he passed out. One of the
servants had also remained there, and when the governor was seen
striding down the staircase, the man hastened to open the door. Jack
saw the officer pause for a moment, "At eight to-night at the cross
roads," he said, and passed out, and flinging himself upon his horse,
rode off. Among the Russian words learned by the midshipmen were all
words connected with roads. They had been specially desirous of asking
questions which might enable them to find their way across country,
and every word which would be likely to be included in a direction as
to route had been learned. This was the more easy, as on their march
there had been but few objects of interest to attract their attention.
The expressions therefore "the road to the right," "the road to the
left," "the turning by the wood or stream," "the cross roads," and
other similar expressions had been learned by heart. Jack's quick
ears, consequently, gathered the purport of the brief order.
"I have found the spy," he said triumphantly, when he joined his
comrade outside. "Come for a stroll, Dick. I don't want to be seen
talking here."
When well away from the house, Jack repeated the words he had
overheard, and they determined that they would be present at the
interview between the governor and his spy. They had a long discussion
whether it would be better to invite the count himself to be present;
but they agreed at last that it would be better not to do so, as he
might break in upon the interview, and possibly only bring matters to
a climax at once, which they agreed had better be avoided, as even if
the men fought then and there, the fact of the governor being killed
by the count would only precipitate the danger which already
threatened. Still they agreed that it was absolutely necessary that
the conversation should be thoroughly understood, and the few words
which they would glean here and there might be insufficient to put
them in possession of the full details of the plot.
They therefore resolved to take the coachman into their confidence.
They knew that he was warmly attached to the count, and that he could
be relied upon in an emergency. As they had full permission to take
the horses or carriage whenever they pleased, they now went to the
stable and told the coachman that they should like to go for a drive
in the sledge, as the weather showed signs of breaking, and the snow
would probably shortly disappear.
The horses were at once put to, and, in a few minutes they were
whirling over the snow. They directed the coachman to drive into the
forest where they had had the encounter with the wolves, and when well
in its shelter they stopped the sledge and alighted, and requested the
coachman to do the same. Much surprised, the unrolled the sheepskin
wrappings from his legs and got down from his seat.
"Alexis, you love the count, your master, do you not?"
"Yes, young lord," the Russian said earnestly, though much surprised
at the question. "His fathers have been the masters of mine for many
generations. My good lord is always kind and considerate to his serfs.
I drove his father before him. I drove him when he was a boy. He has
never said a harsh word to me. I would give my life for him willingly.
Why do the young lords ask?"
"Your master has enemies, Alexis. There are many who think that he is
too kind to his serfs. They have poisoned the ear of the Czar against
him. They have told him that your master is a dangerous man. They have
turned the face of the Czar from him."
The Russian nodded. It was no secret that the count was banished from
the capital.
"The chief of his enemies," Jack went on, "is the governor, Count
Smerskoff. He wishes to marry the Countess Katinka, and because the
count refuses he will try to injure him and to obtain his exile to
Siberia."
"I will kill him," the coachman said. "I will slay him in the middle
of his soldiers. They may kill me, but what of that, it is for my
master."
"No, Alexis, not now," Jack said, laying his hand upon the arm of the
angry Russian. "Perhaps later, but we will see. But I have found out
that Paul, the hall servant, is acting as his spy. I heard the
governor order him to meet him at the cross roads at eight o'clock
to-night. I suppose he means where the road crosses that to town,
about half-way along. We mean to be there, but you know we don't
understand Russian well enough to hear all that is said. We want you
to be there with us, too, to hear what they mean to do."
"I will be there," the Russian said; "and if the young lords think it
well, I will kill them both."
"No, Alexis," Jack said; "that would never do. It might get about that
the governor had been killed by order of the count, and this would do
more harm than if he were alive. Will you be in the stables at seven
o'clock? We will join you there. There are plenty of bushes at the
cross-roads, and we shall be able to hide there without difficulty."
The coachman assented, and taking their seats, they again drove on. It
must not be supposed that the conversation was conducted as simply and
easily as has been narrated, for it needed all the efforts of the boys
to make the Russian understand them, and they had to go over and over
again many of the sentences, using their scanty vocabulary in every
way, to convey their meaning to their hearer. The rest of the
afternoon passed slowly. The count himself was tranquil and even
cheerful, although his face wore an air of stern determination. The
countess looked anxious and careworn. The eyes of the three girls were
swollen with crying, and the lads afterwards learned that Katinka had
gone down on her knees to her father, to implore him to allow her to
sacrifice herself for the common good by marrying Count Smerskoff.
This, however, the count had absolutely refused to do, and had even
insisted upon her promising him that, should he be exiled and his
estates confiscated, she would not afterwards purchase his release by
consenting to marry her suitor. Respecting the grief and anxiety into
which the family were plunged, the midshipmen kept apart from them all
the afternoon, only joining them at the evening meal at six o'clock.
As they withdrew, saying, in answer to the count's invitation that
they should stop with them, that they were first going for a little
walk, Jack whispered in Olga's ear, "Keep up your courage. All may not
be lost yet."
The coachman was waiting for them in the stable, and they started at
once in an opposite direction to that at which the meeting was to take
place, in case Paul might by any possibility observe their departure.
Taking a long _dètour_, they reached the cross-roads, and lay down
under cover of the brushwood. It was nearly half an hour later before
they heard footsteps approaching along the road from the chateau. On
reaching the junction of the roads, the man stopped, and from their
place of concealment they could dimly see his figure.
The boys had taken the precaution of abstracting a brace of pistols
and two swords from the count's armory. The coachman they knew would
have his knife. This they had done at Jack's suggestion that it was
possible that their presence might be betrayed by a cough or other
accidental noise, in which case they knew they would have to fight for
their lives. A few minutes later they heard the tramp of a horse's
hoof. It approached quickly, and the rider halted by the standing
figure.
"Is that you, Paul?"
"It is, my lord," the serf said, bowing.
"You are alone?"
"No one had approached the place since I came here a quarter of an
hour ago."
"It is time for action," the horseman said. "To-morrow you will come
boldly at twelve o'clock to my house, and demand to see me on
important business. You will be shown to my room, where two officers
who I wish to have as witnesses will be present. You will then state
to me that you wish to make a denunciation of your master, Count
Preskoff. I shall ask what you have to say, and tell you that you are
of course aware of the serious consequences to yourself should such
statements be proved untrue. You will say that you are aware of that,
but that you are compelled by your love for the Czar, our father, to
speak. You will then say that you have heard the count using insulting
words of the Czar, in speaking of him to his wife, on many occasions,
and that since his return, on one occasion, you put your ear to the
keyhole and heard him telling her of a great plot for a general rising
of the serfs, and an overthrow of the government; that he said he had
prepared the serfs of his estates in the north for the rising; that
those of his estates here would all follow him; that many other nobles
had joined in the plot, and that on a day which had not yet been
agreed upon a rising would take place in twenty places simultaneously;
and that the revolt once begun he was sure that the serfs, weary of
the war and its heavy impositions, would everywhere join the movement.
I shall cross-question you closely, but you will stick to your story.
Make it as simple and straightforward as you can; say you cannot
answer for the exact words, but that you will answer that this was the
general sense of the conversation you overheard. Now, are you sure you
thoroughly understand?"
"I quite understand, my lord," the man said humbly, "and for this your
Excellency has promised me?"
"Five hundred roubles and your freedom."
"But when am I to be paid?" the man said doubtfully.
"Do you doubt my word, slave?" the horseman said angrily.
"By no means, your Excellency. But things might happen, and after I
had told my story and it had been taken down before witnesses, your
Excellency's memory might fail. I should prefer the money before I
told my story."
The horseman was silent a moment.
"You are an insolent dog to doubt me," he said in an angry tone; "but
you shall have the money; when you call to-morrow the sergeant of the
guard will have instructions to hand you a letter which will contain
notes for five hundred roubles."
"I thought," the man said, "your Excellency said gold. Five hundred
roubles in notes are not worth two hundred in gold, and you see I
shall have much to do to earn the money, for I may be sent to St.
Petersburg and cross-questioned. I may even be confronted with my
master; and after it is over and I am freed, I must, in any case,
leave this part of the country, for my life will not be safe for a day
here."
"Very well," the count said, "you shall have a thousand roubles in
paper; but beware! if you fail me or break down in cross-examination,
you shall end your life in the mines of Siberia."
So saying, without another word he turned and rode back, while the
serf strode off towards the chateau. During this conversation, which
the boys imperfectly understood, they had difficulty in restraining
the count's faithful retainer, who, furious at hearing the details of
the plot against his master, would have leaped up to attack the
speakers, had not the boys kept their restraining hands on his
shoulder, and whispered in his ear, "Be quiet, for the count's sake."
Waiting long enough to be sure that the two men had passed not only
out of sight but of the sound of their voices, the lads suffered their
companion to rise, and to indulge his feelings in an explosion of deep
oaths. Then, when he was a little calm, they obtained from him a
repetition of the leading facts of the conversation.
The boys consulted among themselves, and agreed that it was necessary
to acquaint the count with all the facts that they had discovered, and
to leave him to act as seemed best according to his judgment.
They entered the house alone, telling the coachman to call in half an
hour, and to say that the count had given orders that he was to see
him to take instructions for the horses in the morning. Then they
joined the family in the drawing-room. There all proceeded as usual.
Katinka, at her father's request, played on the piano, and a stranger
would not have dreamed of the danger which menaced the household. When
the half-hour had nearly expired, Jack said to the count,--
"I have told Alexis to call upon you for orders for to-morrow. Would
you mind receiving him in your study? I have a very particular reason
for asking it."
"But I have no orders to give Alexis," the count said, surprised.
"No, sir, but he has something he particularly wishes to say to
you--something really important."
"Very well," the court replied, smiling; "you seem to be very
mysterious, but of course I will do as you wish. Is he coming soon?"
"In two or three minutes, sir, I expect him."
"Then," the count remarked, "I suppose I had better go at once, and
learn what all this mystery is about. He isn't coming, I hope, to
break to me the news that one of my favorite horses is dead." So
saying, with a smile, he left the room. No sooner had he gone than the
girls overwhelmed the midshipmen with questions, but they told them
that they must not be inquisitive, that their father would, no doubt,
tell them the secret in due time.
"If you will allow me, countess," Dick said, "I will leave this door a
little open, so that we may hear when Alexis goes in." The door was
placed ajar, and a few minutes later the footsteps of two men were
heard coming along the corridor. Paul opened the door. "Is his
Excellency here?" he asked. "Alexis wishes to see him."
"He is in his study," the countess answered.
The study door was heard to close, and when the sound of Paul's feet
returning along the corridor ceased Dick said, "You will excuse us,
countess, we are going to join the conference."
"It is too bad," Katinka exclaimed, "to keep us in the dark in this
way. Mind, if the secret is not something very important and
delightful, you will be in disgrace, and we shall banish you from this
room altogether."
The lads made a laughing reply, and then, promising they would soon be
back, they went to the study. Alexis was standing silent before his
master, having explained that he would rather not speak until the
young English lords appeared. Jack began the narrative, and said that
fearing Count Smerskoff, whom they knew to be his enemy, might have
suborned one of the servants to act as his spy they had watched him
closely, and had heard him make an appointment with Paul to meet him
that evening at the cross-roads; that they had taken Alexis into their
confidence, and had with him been concealed spectators of the
interview; that they themselves had been able to gather only the
general drift of the conversation, but that Alexis would give him a
full report of it.
The count's face had at first expressed only surprise at Jack's
narration, but the expression changed into one of fierce anger as he
proceeded. Without a word he motioned to Alexis to continue, and the
latter detailed word for word the conversation which he had overheard.
When he had concluded, he added, "Your Excellency must pardon me for
not having killed your enemies upon the spot, but the young English
lords had told me that it was necessary to lie quiet, whatever I
heard, and besides, the governor might have ridden off before I could
reach him."
The count stood for a minute silent when the narration ceased. "You
did well, Alexis," he said in a stern voice. "It is for me to judge
and sentence. I had thought that I, at least, was safe from treachery
among those around me. It seems I was wrong, and the traitor shall
learn that the kind master can be the severe lord, who holds the life
and death of his serfs in his hand." He was silent, and remained two
or three minutes in deep thought. "Go to the stable, Alexis. You will
be joined there soon by Ivan and Alexander. They will have their
instructions. After that Paul will come out; seize him and bind him
when he enters the stable. Now go. You have done well. Tell Paul, as
you go out, that I wish to see the steward."
A minute or two later the steward, a white-headed old man, who had
from childhood been in the service of the family, entered. "Demetri,"
he said, "will you tell Ivan and Alexander to go out into the stable?
They will find Alexis waiting for them. Order them, when Paul joins
them there, to aid Alexis in seizing him instantly. Give them your
instructions quietly, and without attracting notice. Above all do not
let Paul see you speaking to them. When you have seen them out, find
Paul, and order him to go to the stable and tell Alexis that I wish to
speak to him; when he has gone, join me here."