THE RACE FOR SIBERIA
The unnatural strain I had put on my strength, undermined as it had
been by the drugged vodka, gave way under this depressing failure,
and for an instant I seriously thought of abandoning my effort to
catch the Czar's messenger.
I could leave Colonel Menken to pursue his journey, taking care of
himself as best he could, while I followed by a later train. But I
had little thought of that, as to adopt such a course would be to
abandon the gallant officer to his fate. Whatever the War Syndicate
might or might not know or suspect about myself, there could be no
doubt that they knew all there was to know about Menken, and that the
Colonel would never be allowed to reach Dalny with his despatch,
alive.
"Show me the passenger list," I demanded sternly, determined to use
to the full the advantages conferred on me by my uniform.
The station inspector hastened to obey. He took me into the booking
office, opened a volume, and there I read the name and destination of
every passenger who had left for Moscow that night. It is by such
precautions that the Russian police are enabled to control the
Russian nation as the warders control the convicts in an English
prison.
At the very head of the list I read the name of Colonel Menken,
passenger to Dalny, on his imperial majesty's service.
It was incredible folly thus publicly to proclaim himself as an
object of suspicion to the powerful clique engaged in thwarting the
policy of their nominal ruler.
I glanced my eye down the list in search of some name likely to be
that of an emissary of the Syndicate. It was with something like a
shock that I came upon the conspicuous entry--
"The Princess Y----, lady-in-waiting to H. I. M. the Dowager Empress,
passenger to Port Arthur, on a visit to her uncle, commanding one of
the forts."
Stamping my foot angrily, in order to impress the railway official, I
said--
"Order a pilot engine immediately to take me to Moscow. Tell the
driver he is to overtake the express, and enter the Moscow station
behind it."
There was some demur, of course, and some delay. But I wore the
livery of the dreaded Third Section, and my words were more powerful
than if I had been the young man who wears the Russian crown.
By dint of curses, threats, blows and an occasional ruble note, I got
my way. Indeed, I managed things so well that the railway officials
did not even ask me for my name. I showed them my official badge; but
when they made their report in the morning they would only be able to
say that an inspector of the Secret Police had ordered a pilot engine
to take him to Moscow in pursuit of the midnight express.
The impression which I was careful to convey, without putting it into
words, was that I was on the track of an absconding Nihilist.
Within half an hour of my arrival at the terminus a light but
powerful locomotive drew up on the main line of rails, with
everything in readiness for an immediate start.
I leaped into the driver's cab, where I found the driver himself and
two stokers hard at work increasing the head of steam, and gave the
order to go.
The driver touched the tap, the whistle rang out once, and the wheels
began to revolve. Ten seconds later we were beyond the station lights
and facing the four hundred miles of frozen plain that lay between us
and Moscow.
Every one has heard the story of this famous piece of road. The
engineers of the line, accustomed to map out their routes in other
countries with reference to the natural obstacles and the convenience
of commerce, waited upon the great autocrat, Nicholas I., a very
different man from his descendant, and asked him for instructions as
to laying out the first railway in the Russian Empire.
The Czar called for a map of his dominions, and then, taking a ruler
in his hand, drew a straight line between the old and new capitals.
And so the line has been made, a symbol to all who travel on it of
the irresponsible might of the Russian Czardom.
It was not till we were fairly on our way, and the speed had risen to
something like fifty miles an hour, that I realized what I had done
in entering on this furious race.
I had never traveled on a detached engine before, and the sensation
at first was quite unnerving.
Unlike a motor car, in which the hand of the driver has to be
perpetually on the steering-gear, and his eye perpetually on the
alert, the pilot engine seemed to be flung forward like a missile,
guided by its own velocity, and clinging to the endless rails with
its wheels as with iron claws. With the rush as of wind, with the
roar as of a cataract, with the rocking as of an earthquake, the
throbbing thing of iron sprang and fled through the night.
Hour after hour we rushed across the blinding desert of snow, in
which nothing showed except the flying disk of light cast by the
engine lamps, and the red and white balls of fire that seemed to
start, alight, and go out again as we frantically dashed past some
wayside station.
As the speed increased the light pilot engine, not steadied by a
long train of coaches, almost rose from the rails as it raced along.
Over and over again I thanked my stars that there were no curves to
be taken, and I blessed the memory of that famous ruler wielded by
the hand of Nicholas I. Here and there, at some slight rise in the
ground, the engine literally did leave the rails and skim through the
air for a few yards, alighting with a jar that brought my teeth
together like castanets, and rushing forward again.
I clung to a small brass hand-rail, and strained my eyes through the
darkness. I could not have sat down, even had there been a seat
provided for me--the pace was too tremendous. I was tired and unwell,
and a slight feeling of headache and sickness began to gain on me,
engendered by the vibration of the engine, the smell of oil, and the
fearful heat of the furnace.
It was some hours since we had started, but it was still pitch dark,
with the wintry blackness of a northern night. I leaned and gazed
forward with dull eyes, when I was aware of two red sparks that did
not grow and rush toward us as I expected.
Were we slackening speed by any chance? I turned to the engine
driver, and pointed with my hand.
The grimy toiler nodded. Then making a trumpet of his hands he
shouted above the rattle of the wheels--
"The rear-lights of the express!"