THE PRISON HOUSE
"There was a woman," I confessed. "And that's how I came to be chipped
about. They were going to murder her."
"To murder her!" he exclaimed. "Why, she's one of them; the cleverest
and most dangerous of the lot! Said to be a wonderfully pretty girl,
too. Did you see her?"
"Only for a moment; there wasn't much light. From what I could make out
they accused her of treachery, and led her in; she stood with her back
against the wall,--she looked quite a girl, with reddish hair. Then the
row began. There were only two or three took her part, and I joined in;
one can't stand by and see a helpless girl shot or stabbed by a lot of
cowardly brutes."
I had found an air of apparent candor serve me before, and guessed it
might do so again.
"Well, what then?"
"That's all I remember clearly; we had a lively time for a few minutes,
and then some one shouted that the soldiers were coming; and the next I
knew I was sitting on the floor, wondering what had happened. I'd been
there quite a while when you found me."
"It is marvellous how she always escapes," he said, more to himself than
to me. "Still, we've got a good haul this time. Now, how did you get
here? Some one must have told you, guided you?"
"That I can't tell you."
"You mean you won't?"
"Well, put it that way if you like."
"Don't be a fool, Wynn; I am asking you for your own sake. If you don't
tell me, you'll be made to tell later. You haven't the least idea what
you've let yourself in for, man! Come, did not Count Solovieff--you know
well who I mean--bring you here?"
"No. I came alone."
"At least he knew you were coming?"
"He may have done. I can't say."
He shrugged his shoulders.
"Have it your own way. You will regret your obstinacy later; remember, I
have warned you."
"Thanks,--it's good of you, Mirakoff; but I've told you all I mean to
tell any one."
He paused, biting his mustache, and frowning down at me.
"Fetch more water," he said abruptly to the soldier, who had heard all
that passed, and might or might not understand; the Russians are a
polyglot people.
"I have done what I could," Mirakoff continued hurriedly in the brief
interval while we were alone. "You had two passports. I took the false
one,--it is yonder; they will think it belongs to one of the dead men.
Your own is still in your pocket; the police will take it when you get
to prison; at least it will show your identity, and may make things
easier."
"Thanks, again," I said earnestly. "And if you could contrive to send
word to the American or English Embassy, or both."
"I'll see what I can do. Give him the water," he added, as the soldier
again returned.
He watched as I drank, then turned on his heel and left me, without
another word. He had, as I knew, already compromised his dignity
sufficiently by conversing with me at all.
But he had cheered me immensely. I was sure now that those three--Anne,
her father, and Loris--had got clear away, doubtless to the house Mishka
had mentioned, where horses would be waiting for them; and by this time
they might be far from the danger zone. Therefore I felt able to face
what lay in store for myself, however bad it might be. It was bad
enough, even at the beginning; though, as Mirakoff had said, it would
have been worse but for his intervention. A few minutes after he left
me, I was hoisted into a kind of improvised carrying chair, borne by a
couple of big soldiers, who went along the narrow track at a jog-trot,
and amused themselves by bumping me against every tree trunk that was
conveniently near. They had been ordered to carry me, and they did so;
but I think I'd have suffered less if I had marched with the others,
even counting in the bayonet prods!
We reached the road at last, where horses were waiting, and a wagon,
containing several wounded prisoners. I was thrown in on top of them,
and we started off at a lumbering gallop, the guard of soldiers
increasing in numbers as those who had followed on foot through the wood
mounted and overtook us. I saw Mirakoff pass and ride on ahead; he did
not even glance in my direction. More than once we had to stop to pick
up a dead or dying man, one of the batch of prisoners who had been
forced to "run by the stirrup," with their hands tied behind them, and a
strap passed round their waist, attaching them to the stirrup of the
horse, which its rider urges to full speed,--that is part of the fun. It
is a very active man who can maintain the pace, though it is marvellous
what some can accomplish under the sharp incentives of fear and pain. He
who stumbles is jerked loose and left by the wayside where he fell; as
were those whom we found, and who were tossed into the wagon with as
much unconcern as scavengers toss refuse into their carts.
It was during one of these brief halts I saw something that discounted
the tidings I had heard from Mirakoff.
I was the least hurt of any of the wretched occupants of the wagon, and
I had managed to drag myself to the far end and to sit there, in the
off-side corner, my knees hunched up to my chin. My arms were helpless,
so I could do nothing to assist my unfortunate companions, and could
only crouch there, with my teeth set, enduring the pain that racked me,
with as much fortitude as I could muster.
There was a clatter and jingle on the road behind us, and an instant
later a droshky passed, at a comparatively slow pace,--the one horse
seemed almost spent,--preceded and followed by a small escort of
cavalry.
For the moment I forgot the torture I was enduring, as I recognized,
with dismay, the Grand Duke Loris as one of the two occupants of the
little carriage,--a bizarre, disreputable-looking figure, for he still
wore the filthy clothes and the dirty face of "Ivan," the droshky man,
though the false beard and wig were gone. Yet, in spite of his attire
and the remains of his disguise, he looked every inch a prince. His blue
eyes were wide and serene, and he held a cigarette between two begrimed
fingers. Beside him was a spick and span officer, sitting well back in
his corner and looking distinctly uncomfortable; while the easy grace of
the Duke's attitude would have suited a state-carriage rather than this
shabby little vehicle; though it suited that, too.
He glanced at the cart, and our eyes met. I saw a flash of recognition
in his, but next instant the droshky, with its escort, had passed, and
we were lumbering on again.
He also was a prisoner, then! But what of Anne and her father? Had they
escaped? Surely, if they had been taken, he would not have sat there
smoking so unconcernedly! But who could tell? I, at least, knew him for
a consummate actor.
Well, conjecture was futile; and I was soon in a state of fever,
consequent on pain and loss of blood, that rendered conjecture, or
coherent thought of any kind impossible.
I don't even recollect arriving at the prison,--that same grim fortress
of Peter and Paul which I had mused on as I looked at it across the
river such a short time back, reckoned by hours, an eternity reckoned by
sensations! What followed was like a ghastly nightmare; worse, for it
was one from which there was no awaking, no escape. Often even now I
start awake, in a sweat of fear, having dreamed that I was back again in
that inferno, racked with agony, faint with hunger, parched with thirst.
For the Russian Government allows its political prisoners twelve ounces
of black bread a day, and there's never enough water to slake the
burning thirst of the victims, or there wasn't in those awful summer
days, which, I have been told, are yet a degree more endurable than the
iron cold of winter.
Small wonder that of the hundreds of thousands of prisoners who are
flung into Russian jails only a small percentage are ever brought to
trial, and executed or deported to Siberia. The great majority are never
heard of again; they are dead to the outside world when the great gates
clang behind them, and soon they perish from pain and hunger and
privation. It is well for them if they are delicate folk, whose misery
is quickly ended; it is the strong who suffer most in the instinctive
struggle for life.
Whether I was ever interrogated I don't know to this day, nor exactly
how long I was in the horrible place; I guess it was about a fortnight,
but it was a considerable time, even after I left it, before I was able
even to attempt to piece things out in my mind.
I was lying on my bunk,--barely conscious, though no longer
delirious,--when one of the armed warders came and shook me by the
shoulder, roughly bidding me get up and follow him. I tried to obey, but
I was as weak as a rat, and he just put his arm round me and hauled me
along, easily enough, for he was a muscular giant, and I was something
like a skeleton.
I didn't feel the faintest interest in his proceedings, for I was almost
past taking interest in anything; but I remembered later that we went
along some flagged passages, and up stone stairs, passing more than one
lot of sentries. He hustled me into a room and planked me down on a
bench with my back to the wall, where I sat, blinking stupidly for a
minute. Then, with an effort, I pulled myself together a bit, and was
able to see that there were several men in the room, two of them in
plain clothes, and the face of one of them seemed vaguely familiar.
"Is this your man, Monsieur?" I heard one of the Russians say; and the
man at whom I was staring answered gravely: "I don't know; if he is, you
have managed to alter him almost out of knowledge."
I knew by his accent that he was an Englishman, and a moment later I
knew who he was, as he came close up to me and said sharply: "Maurice
Wynn?"
"Yes, I'm Wynn," I managed to say. "How are you, Inspector Freeman?"
Somehow at the moment it did not seem in the least wonderful that he
should be here in Petersburg, and in search of me. I didn't even feel
astonished at his next words.
"Maurice Wynn, I have a warrant for your arrest on the charge of
murdering Vladimir Selinski,--alias Cassavetti."