THROUGH THE STORM
I moved to the door and locked it noiselessly. I dared not open it to
see if the servant had gone, for if he had not that would have roused
his suspicions at once. The Duke had already crossed to the further side
of the room, and I joined him there.
He wasted no time in preliminaries.
"Mishka has told me all," he began, speaking in English, though still in
the hoarse low growl appropriate to his assumed character. "And I have
learned much since. There is to be a meeting to-night, and if things are
as I suspect she will be brought before the tribunal. We must save her
if we can. Will you come? To say it will be at the risk of your life is
to put it mildly. It will be a forlorn hope."
"I'll come; tell me how," I said.
"You will go to the place where you met Mishka to-day, dine there, and
change your clothes. They will have some for you, and you need not use
the formula. They expect you already; I knew you would come! Mishka will
join you, and will accompany you to the rank where I shall be waiting
with my droshky. You will hire me in the usual way; and we will tell you
my plans when we are clear of the city. Have you any weapon?"
"No."
He felt in an inner pocket of his filthy greatcoat and brought out a
revolver and a handful of spare cartridges.
"It's loaded; you can have these, too, though if there's any shooting I
doubt if you'll have the chance of reloading. Let's hope you won't fall
in with the police for the third time to-day! Mishka will join you
between nine and ten. We need not start till then,--these light nights
are a drawback, but that cannot be helped. The meeting will be held as
usual, after midnight. That is all now. I must not stay longer. Give me
the note you spoke of. A blank sheet--anything--I will destroy it
immediately."
I put a sheet of note-paper into an envelope, and addressed it to
Lieutenant Mirakoff at his barracks. His was the first name that
occurred to me.
"You know him?" he asked, pointing to the name.
"Very slightly."
He nodded and picked up the note, holding it carefully by one corner
between his filthy thumb and finger.
I unlocked the door as quietly as I had locked it, and a moment later he
opened it noisily and backed out, growling guttural and surly thanks;
backed right up against the servant, who, as we both guessed, was
waiting just outside. Even I was surprised at the altercation that
followed. A Russian droshky driver has a bigger command of bad language
than any other cabby in the world, and the Grand Duke Loris had
evidently studied his part from life. He was letter perfect in it!
I strode to the door and flung it open.
"Here, stop that!" I shouted. "Be off with you, Ivan; you impudent
rascal!"
He leered at me and shambled off, but I could hear the coarse voice
growling ribaldries all the way down the staircase.
It was a masterpiece of impersonation!
I waited a while, till I judged it safe to start on the first stage of
my expedition. I meant to take a circuitous route to the cafe, in case I
was still being watched. I would run no unnecessary risks, not for my
own sake, but I guessed that the success of our enterprise--whatever it
was--would depend on the exercise of infinite caution, at the beginning,
anyhow. I felt strangely elated, happier than I had done for many a long
day; although I knew that the worst, or almost the worst, had come to
pass, and that Anne was here, in the power of her enemies. But we were
going to save her,--we would save her. "A forlorn hope" even Loris
Solovieff had called it. Nothing of the kind. Could anything that such a
man as he attempted be a forlorn hope; and together, working loyally
side by side, what could we not dare, and accomplish? Nothing seemed
impossible to-night.
"Merely an earth to cleave, a sea to part!"
I kept a wary lookout as I made my way along the streets, most of them
thronged at this hour of the summer evening. The air was sultry, and
huge masses of cloud were piling up, ominous of a storm before long.
I reached the cafe eventually and, so far as I knew, unobserved, and
came out of it an hour or so later, looking, I hope, as like a shabbily
attired Russian student as the Grand Duke Loris looked like a droshky
driver, accompanied by a man of the artisan type, who might have been my
father,--none other than Mishka himself.
The sky was overcast, and already, above the rumble of the traffic, one
could hear the mutter of distant thunder. It reminded me of that
eventful night in London, little more than a month ago, though I had
seemed to live a lifetime since then.
"The storm comes soon," said Mishka. "That is well, very well."
We came to a rank where several droshkys were standing; and he paused
irresolute, fumbling in his pocket.
"We will drive, Paul," he asserted aloud, with the air of a man who has
just decided to indulge in an extravagance. "Yes, I say we will; the
storm comes soon, and thy mother is alone."
He began to haggle, after the usual fashion, with the nearest driver;
and again I marvelled at the Duke's disguise; for it was he, of course.
Once clear of the city Mishka unfolded the plan.
"Presently we turn across country and come to a house; there we leave
the droshky; and there also will be horses for us in readiness if we
should need them--later. Thence we go on foot through the forest to the
meeting-place. We must separate when we get near it, but you will keep
close to Ivan"--we spoke always of the Duke by that name--"and I will
come alone. You will be challenged, and you will give the word, 'For
Freedom,' and the sign I showed you. Give it to me, now."
He held out his hand, palm upwards; and I touched it with my thumb and
fingers in turn; five little taps.
"Good, you are a quick learner--Paul! The meeting will be in an old
chapel,--or so we imagine; the place is changed many times, but it must
be there, or in the clearing. Either way there will be little light,
there among the pines. That is in our favor. If she is there, we shall
know how to act; we must decide then. She will be accused--that is
certain--but the five may acquit her. If that comes to pass--good; we
shall easily get speech with her, and perhaps she may return with us. At
least she will be safe for the moment. But if they condemn her, we must
act quickly and all together. We must save her and get her
away,--or--die with her!"
"Well said!" growled "Ivan."
The rain was pattering down now in big drops, and the lightning flashes
were more frequent, the thunder nearer each time. The horse shied as
there came a more vivid flash than before, followed almost instantly by
a crackling roll--the storm was upon us.
As the thunder ceased, I found "Ivan" had pulled the horse up, and was
listening intently. I listened also, and above the faint tinkle of our
bells and the slight movements of the horse, I heard, faint, as yet, but
rapidly approaching, the thud of hoofs and the jangle of accoutrements.
"A patrol," said "Ivan" quickly. "They are coming towards us; I saw them
by the lightning flash. They will challenge us, and I shall drive on,
trusting to the darkness and storm. If they follow--as they probably
will--and shoot, you two must seize your opportunity, and jump. There is
just the chance that they may not see you; I shall drive on. If I
distance them, I will follow you. But we must not all be taken, and it
will be better for me than for you."
He started again on the instant, and another flash showed several
mounted figures just ahead.
A challenge rang out, and "Ivan's" reply was to lash the horse into a
gallop. We charged through them, and they wheeled after us, and fired. I
heard the "zsp" of a bullet as it ripped through the leather hood close
to my ear; but in the darkness and confusion they fired wildly. And, for
the present at any rate, our gallant little horse was more than a match
for theirs, and was distancing them rapidly.
Another flash, and "Now!" roared "Ivan," above the roar of the thunder.
I had already sprung up, knowing that I must jump before the next flash
came; and Mishka, as I found afterwards, did the same.
Steadying myself for a moment, I let myself drop, stumbled backward for
a few steps, fell, and rolled into the ditch, just as the pursuers
clattered past, in a whirlwind of oaths.
For the moment I, at least, had escaped; but where was Mishka?