ALBAN GOES TO WARSAW
Alban had never been abroad, and it would have been difficult for him to
give any good account of his journey to Warsaw. The swiftly changing
scenes, the new countries, the uproar and strife of cities, the glamour
of the sea, put upon his ripe imagination so heavy a burden that he
lived as one apart, almost as a dreamer who had forgotten how to dream.
If he carried an abiding impression it was that of the miracle of travel
and the wonders that travel could work. In twenty hours he had almost
forgotten the existence of the England he had left. Chains of bondage
fell from his willing shoulders. He felt as one released from a prison
house to all the freedom of a boundless world.
And so at last he came to the beautiful city of Warsaw and his sterner
task began. Here, as in London, that pleasant person Count Sergius
Zamoyski reminded him how considerable was the service he could confer,
not alone upon his patron but upon the friends of his evil days.
"It has all been a mistake," the Count would say with fine protestation
of regret; "my Government arrested that poor old fellow Boriskoff, but
it would gladly let him go. To begin with, however, we must have
pledges. You know perfectly well that the man is a fanatic and will
work a great mischief unless some saner head prevents it. We must find
his daughter and see that she promises to hold her tongue concerning our
friend at Hampstead. When that is done, we shall pack off the pair to
London and they will carry a good round sum in their pockets. Herr
Gessner is not the man to deal ungenerously with them--nor with you to
whom he may owe so much."
He was a shrewd man of the world, this amiable diplomat, and who can
wonder that so simple a youth as Alban Kennedy proved no match for him.
Alban honestly believed that he would be helping both Gessner and his
old friends, the Boriskoffs, should he discover little Lois' whereabouts
and take her back to London. A very natural longing to see her once more
added to the excitements of the journey. He would not have been willing
to confess this interest, but it prompted him secretly so that he was
often reminding himself of the old days when Lois had been his daily
companion and their mutual confidences had been their mutual pleasure.
Just as a knight-errant of the old time might set out to seek his
mistress, so did Alban go to Warsaw determined to succeed. He would find
Lois in this whirling wonderland of delight, and, finding her, would
return triumphant to their home.
Now, they arrived in Warsaw upon the Thursday evening after the
memorable interview at Hampstead; and driving through the crowded
streets of that pleasant city, by its squares, its gardens, and its
famous Palaces, they descended at last at the door of the Hotel de
France; and there they heard the fateful news which the city itself had
discussed all day and would discuss far into the night.
General Trubenoff, the new Dictator, had been shot dead at the gate of
the Arsenal that very afternoon, men said, and the Revolutionaries were
already armed and abroad. What would happen in the next few hours,
heaven and the Deputy Governor alone could tell. Were this not
sufficiently significant, the aspect of the great Square itself was
menacing enough to awe the imagination even of the least impressionable
of travellers. Excited crowds passed and repassed; Cossacks were riding
by at the gallop--even the reports of distant rifle shots were to be
heard and, from time to time, the screams and curses of those upon whose
faces and shoulders the soldiers' whips fell so pitilessly.
In the great hall of the hotel itself pandemonium reigned. Afraid of the
streets and of their homes, the wives and daughters of many officials
fled hither as to a haven of refuge which would never be suspected. They
crowded the passages, the staircases, the reception-rooms. They besieged
the officers for news of that which befell without. Their terrified
faces remained a striking tribute to the ferocity of their enemies and
the reality of the peril.
Let it be said in justice that this majestic spectacle of tragedy found
Alban Kennedy well prepared to understand its meaning. Had he told the
truth he would have said that the mob orators of Union Street had
prepared him for such a state of things as he now beheld. The Cossacks,
were they not the Cossacks whom old Paul had called "the enemies of the
human race?" The gilt-belarded generals, had he not seen them cast upon
the screen in England and there heard their names with curses? Just as
they had told him would be the case, so now he had stumbled upon
autocracy face to face with its ancient enemy, the people. He saw the
brutal Cossacks with their puny horses and their terrible whips parading
beneath his balcony and treating all the poor folk with that insolence
for which they are famous. He beheld the huddled crowds lifting white
faces to the sky and cowering before the relentless lash. Not a whit had
the patriot exiles in London exaggerated these things or misrepresented
them. Men, and women too, were struck down, their faces ripped by the
thongs, their shoulders lacerated before his very eyes. And all this, as
he vaguely understood, that freedom might be denied to this nation and
justice withheld from her citizens. Truly had he travelled far since he
left England a few short days ago.
Sergius Zamoyski had engaged a handsome suite of rooms upon the first
floor of the magnificent modern hotel which looks down upon the Aleja
Avenue, and to these they went at once upon their arrival. It was
something at least to escape from the excited throngs below and to stand
apart, alike from the rabble and the soldiers. Nor was the advantage of
their situation to be despised; for they had but to step out upon the
veranda before their sitting-rooms to command the whole prospect of the
avenue, and there, at their will, to be observers of the conflict. To
Sergius Zamoyski, familiar with such scenes, Warsaw offered no
surprises whatever. To Alban it remained a city of whirlwind, and of
human strife and suffering beyond all imagination terrible. He would
have been content to remain out there upon that high balcony until the
last trooper had ridden from the street and the last bitter cry been
raised. The Count's invitation to dinner seemed grotesque in its
reversion to commonplace affairs.
"All this is an every-day affair here now," that young man remarked with
amazing nonchalance; "since the workmen began to shoot the patrols, the
city has had no peace. I see that it interests you very much. You will
find it less amusing when you have been in Russia for a month or two.
Now let us dress and dine while we can. Those vultures down below will
not leave a bone of the carcass if we don't take care."
He re-entered the sitting-room and thence the two passed to their
respective dressing-rooms. An obsequious valet offered Alban a cigarette
while he made his bath, and served a glass of an American cocktail. The
superb luxury of these apartments did not surprise the young English boy
as much as they might have done, for he had already stayed one night at
an almost equally luxurious hotel in Berlin and so approached them
somewhat familiarly; but the impression, oddly conceived and incurable,
that he had no right to enjoy such luxuries and was in some way an
intruder, remained. No one would have guessed this, the silent valet
least of all; but in truth, Alban dressed shyly, afraid of the splendor
and the richness; and his feet fell softly upon the thick Persian
carpets as though some one would spy him out presently and cry, "Here is
the guest who has not the wedding garment." In the dining-room, face to
face with the gay Count, some of these odd ideas vanished; so that an
observer might have named them material rather than personal.
They dined with open windows, taking a zakuska in the Russian fashion in
lieu of hors d'oeuvre, and nibbling at smoked fish, caviar and other
pickled mysteries. The Count's ability to drink three or four glasses of
liquor with this prefatory repast astonished Alban not a little--which
the young Russian observed and remarked upon.
"I am glad that I was born in the East," he said lightly, "you English
have no digestions. When you have them, your climate ruins them. Here in
Russia we eat and drink what we please--that is our compensation. We are
Tartars, I admit--but when you remember that a Tartar is a person who
owns no master, rides like a jockey, and drinks as much as he pleases
with impunity, the imputation is not serious. None of you Western people
understand the Russian. None of you understand that we are men in a very
big sense of the word--men with none of your feminine Western
weaknesses--great fighters, splendid lovers, fine drinkers. You preach
civilization instead--and we point to your Whitechapel, your Belleville,
your Bowery. Just think of it, your upper classes, as you yourselves
admit, are utterly decadent, alike in brains and in morals; your middle
classes are smug hypocrites--your lower classes starve in filthy dens.
This is what you desire to bring about in Russia under the name of
freedom and liberty. Do you wonder that those of us who have travelled
will have none of it. Are you surprised that we fight your civilization
with the whip--as we are fighting it outside at this moment. If we fail,
very well, we shall know how to fail. But do not tell me that it would
be a blessing for this country to imitate your institutions, for I could
not believe you if you did."
He laughed upon it as though disbelieving his own words and, giving
Alban no opportunity to reply, fell to talk of that which they must do
and of the task immediately before them.
"We are better in this hotel than at the Palace Zamoyski, my kinsman's
house," he said, "for here no inquisitive servants will trouble us.
Naturally, you think it a strange thing to be brought to a great city
like this and there asked to identify a face. Let me say that I don't
think it will be a difficult matter. The Chief of the Police will call
upon me in the morning and he will be able to tell us in how many houses
it would be possible for the girl Lois Boriskoff to hide. We shall
search them and discover her--and then learn what Herr Gessner desires
to learn. I confess it amazes me that a man with his extraordinary
fortune should have dealt so clumsily with these troublesome people. A
thousand pounds paid to them ten years ago might have purchased his
security for life. But there's your millionaire all over. He will not
pay the money and so he risks not only his fortune but his life. Let me
assure you that he is not mistaken when he declares that there is no
time to lose. These people, should they discover that he has been aiding
my Government, would follow him to the ends of the earth. They may have
already sent an assassin after him--it would be in accord with their
practice to lose no time, and as you see they are not in a temper to
procrastinate. The best thing for us to do is to speak of our business
to no one. When we have discovered the girl, we will promise her
father's liberty in return for her silence. Herr Gessner must now deal
with these people once and for all--generously and finally. I see no
other chance for him whatever."
Alban agreed to this, although he had some reservations to make.
"I know the Boriskoffs very well," he said, "and they are kindly people.
We have always considered old Paul a bit of a madman, but a harmless
one. Even his own countrymen in London laugh when he talks to them. I am
sure he would be incapable of committing such a crime as you suggest;
and as for his daughter, Lois, she is quite a little schoolgirl who may
know nothing about the matter at all. Mr. Gessner undoubtedly owes Paul
a great deal, and I should be pleased to see the poor fellow in better
circumstances. But is it quite fair to keep him in prison just because
you are afraid of what his daughter may say?"
"It is our only weapon. If we give him liberty, will he hold his tongue
then? By your own admissions a louder talker does not exist. And
remember that it may cost Herr Gessner many thousand pounds and many
weeks of hard work to secure his liberty at all. Is he likely to
undertake this while the daughter is at liberty and harbored among the
ruffians of this city? He would be a madman to do so. I, who know the
Poles as few of them know themselves, will tell you that they would
sooner strike at those whom they call 'traitors in exile' than at their
enemies round about us. If the girl has told them what she knows of Herr
Gessner and his past, I would not be in his shoes to-night for a million
of roubles heaped up upon the table. No, no, we have no time to lose--we
owe it to him to act with great dispatch."
Alban did not make any immediate reply. Hopeful as the Count was, the
difficulties of tracking little Lois down in such a city at such a time
seemed to him well-nigh insuperable. He had seen hundreds of faces like
hers as they drove through Warsaw that very afternoon. The monstrous
crowd showed him types both of Anna and of Lois, and he wondered no
longer at the resemblance he had detected between them when he first saw
Richard Gessner's daughter on the balcony of the house in St. James'
Square. None the less, the excitements of the task continued to grow
upon him. How would it all end, he asked impulsively. And what if they
were too late after all and his friend and patron were to be the victim
of old Boriskoff's vengeance? That would be terrible indeed--it would
drive him from Lois' friendship forever.
All this was in his mind as the dinner drew toward a conclusion and the
solemn waiters served them cigars and coffee. There had been some
cessation of the uproar in the streets during the latter moments; but a
new outcry arising presently, the Count suggested that they should
return to the balcony and see what was happening.
"I would have taken you to the theatre," he said laughingly, "but we
shall see something prettier here. They are firing their rifles, it
appears. Do not let us miss the play when we can have good seats for
nothing. And mind you bring that kummel, for it is the best in Europe."
They were just lighting the great arc lamps upon the avenue as the two
emerged from the dining-room and took up their stations by the railing
of the balcony. In the roadway below the spectacle had become superb in
its weird drama and excited ferocity. Great crowds passed incessantly
upon the broad pavements and were as frequently dispersed by the fiery
Cossacks who rode headlong as though mad with the lust of slaughter.
Holding all who were abroad to be their enemies, these fellows slashed
with their brutal whips at every upturned face and had no pity even for
the children. Alban saw little lads of ten and twelve years of age
carried bleeding from the streets--he beheld gentle women cut and lashed
until they fell dying upon the pavement--he heard the death-cry from
many a human throat. Just as the exiles had related it, so the drama
went, with a white-faced, terror-stricken mob for the people of its
scene and these devils upon their little horses for the chief actors.
When the troopers fell (and from time to time a bullet would find its
billet and leave a corpse rolling in a saddle) this was but the signal
for a new outburst, surpassing the old in its diabolical ferocity. A
very orgy of blood and slaughter; a Carnival of whips cutting deep into
soft white flesh and drawing from their victims cries so awful that
they might have risen up from hell itself.
And in this crowd, among this people perhaps, little Lois Boriskoff must
be looked for. Her friends would be the people's friends. Wayward as she
was, a true child of the streets, Alban did not believe that she would
remain at home this night or consent to forego the excitements of a
spectacle so wonderful. Nor in this was he mistaken, for he had been but
a very few minutes upon the balcony when he perceived Lois herself
looking up to him from the press below and plainly intimating that she
had both seen and recognized him.