"I WAS THE MAN SELECTED"
O thou young man, the air of Heaven is soft,
And warm and pleasant; but the grave is cold!
Heaven's air is better than the cold dead grave.
--MATTHEW ARNOLD.
Stepan Stepanovitch started forward, and caught his daughter in his
arms as she fell. He carried her to a couch and hung over her in
some alarm. She had fainted quite away. After a minute or two of
fruitless effort to rouse her, her father departed in search of Miss
Forester; and Felix was left alone in charge. For a while he gazed,
with a troubled face, upon the strongly marked brows, the olive
complexion, and night-black hair of the young beauty. How different
from the girl whose memory he carried with him from England--the
pale, appealing face, in its chestnut halo, the expressive mouth, and
eyes of deepest blue.
Nadia stirred and awoke. Felix bent over her, fanning her with a
screen of feathers. Her large, eloquent eyes rested intently upon
his face. He felt himself coloring under her scrutiny. Abruptly she
sat up.
"I fainted," she said, as if angry that she should so have given way.
"How weak of me! Because I heard you say that my father was in
danger. I--I--when I was a child, I heard terrific tales of the
inhuman conduct of Nihilists. I used to lie awake in my bed at
Moscow, fearing to hear the shrieks of murder, the call of
Revolution, in the streets at night. And when I grew up, my father
said he was going to a province where such things never happened.
All my old nightmares were swept away. We live secure from day to
day; the peasants here are kind and faithful, and not surly and
treacherous. I have grown to look upon all those terrors as past,
like a dark night when it is morning. And the shock of hearing you
say those words--of hearing you tell my father that his life was in
danger--was too great. It seemed to stop my heart."
"I would have given much to keep such knowledge from you," said
Felix, remorsefully. "Forgive me. I had no idea that you were
there."
"It is true?" she asked, fixing her eyes upon his face, as if to
compel him to deny his former words.
"It was true," said Felix; "but it is not serious, for the man who
has devised the scheme is a criminal, and he will be brought to
justice and put out of the way. I have with me the proof of his
guilt, and upon that your father will proceed at once to take steps
against him."
"Where is he?" gasped Nadia.
"I do not know. But I think not within a hundred miles of this
place."
Miss Forester and the Governor then entered, and there was much
petting and consoling of the girl, who was completely reassured by
what they told her.
"How came my good friend Vronsky to know of this traitor, Cravatz?"
asked the Governor, when they were all seated and talking the thing
over.
"That is part of what I have come to-day to tell you," replied Felix.
"If I have your permission, sir, I will tell it to both these ladies
as well as to yourself. I have no wish to sail under false colors.
I wished Vronsky to tell you when first I had the honor of being
presented to you. But at that time he thought it better not, little
dreaming that circumstances would later arise which would bring me
into such a strange position with regard to your Excellency."
The Governor looked curiously at the young man, who stood up before
them with pride and composure, though his confession would evidently
cost him an effort. "You have my permission to speak, if you think
what you have to say is necessary for me to hear," he replied, kindly.
"Then I will speak," said Felix, "and if, after you have heard, you
think it better for me to take my leave at once, and not again to
accept your hospitality, nor visit your house, as it has been my
delight and privilege to do, I shall feel that you are justified in
your decision." He hesitated a moment. There was a deep silence,
which showed how much his unexpected words had impressed his three
auditors.
"You are an Englishman, I have always understood?" asked Stepan
Stepanovitch, abruptly.
"I am," replied Felix, in some distress. "Both my parents were
English, and on my father's side I come of a good old family. As you
may know, the English county gentry hold themselves the equals of the
Continental nobility. The Vanstons trace back their pedigree to a
Flemish noble, one Van Steen, who came to the Court of England with
Queen Anne of Cleves, married an Englishwoman, and founded a family."
"Yet you seem to imply that you yourself have been in some sort
involved with this miscreant Cravatz. I ask your pardon if I have
misunderstood you."
Felix crimsoned, like a boy. Nadia, who had never till that moment
seen his face express emotion, gazed with a thrill of excitement at
the feeling which he evidently found it hard to control. He spoke
low and rapidly. "When I was quite a young man I unhappily became
imbued with revolutionary notions. There are in London plenty of
desperate characters who are ready and waiting to take advantage of
the enthusiasm of young lads such as I was. I fell into the hands of
an Anarchist Brotherhood. I was put on by them to do the more
dangerous part of their propaganda. The police interfered, I was
sent to prison for a term of two years, and have actually served my
sentence in an English jail."
He paused, his head sinking upon his chest. Nobody spoke. The face
of Nadia had turned from crimson to chalk-white.
"My only brother," went on Felix, "disowned me. It is not to be
wondered at. But what was to become of me? When I came back to the
world, my prison record stood between me and every effort I made to
earn a living. I was pretty well in despair when Vronsky found me,
and by God's goodness, conceived an affection for me. He brought me
out of England, and for a time it seemed as if the Brotherhood, who
dogged my steps, had been thrown off the scent. But this man,
Cravatz, was determined to track me down. He had a grudge against
me, for I had exposed a slight piece of dishonesty of which he had
been guilty. He found out where I was, and came to me secretly,
bearing the order from the Brotherhood for your removal. I was the
man selected for the business."
Nadia had sprung to her feet. She rushed to her father, flung her
arms about his neck, and sank to the ground beside him. Felix waited
a moment, but as nobody spoke he went on:
"When first I saw myself again in their toils, I felt I would
struggle no more. I made up my mind that only death awaited me. But
Vronsky's courage and faithfulness never wavered. He made a careful
examination of the paper, the order which Cravatz had handed me; and
he discovered, with infinite pains and the use of a microscope, that
the name of the person ordered to murder you had been changed. There
is a law in the Brotherhood that any brother who has been exposed to
conspicuous danger, and has in consequence suffered imprisonment or
other punishment for the cause, shall not again be called upon to do
dangerous work for a period of seven years, except in very
exceptional cases. This made Vronsky doubt whether the Council would
have sanctioned my being appointed to a mission which meant almost
certain death. He became convinced that it was Cravatz himself who
had been appointed by the Council to execute their command, and that
he was using me as his tool, intending to take the credit of your
assassination to himself afterwards. He determined that Cravatz
should be handed over to justice. The matter has taken him long, but
all is now complete. Within the last few months Cravatz has
committed murder of a peculiarly cold-blooded kind in this very
province. But one more thing remains to be said. In some way
unknown to us, Cravatz seems to have been informed that Vronsky was
making plans against him. He is on his guard. If you wish to lay
hands upon him, you must act speedily, and in the manner he is least
likely to expect. We believe him to be at Gretz, or somewhere on the
road between that and here, as we think it unlikely that he will
venture into this neighborhood until the time for the execution of
your sentence draws nearer."
The Governor looked up. "How long do they give me?" he asked, with a
smile.
"Until the 31st of August, your Excellency."
Nadia, who had been clinging to her father with her face hidden, now
raised it and shot a glance at Felix. "Why did you not, when you
came out of prison, fling off all connection with such fiends?" she
cried, in a passion of protest.
"Mademoiselle, you might as well ask the son of a drunkard why he
does not fling off all connection with such a father. The answer
simply is that it is not in my power to free myself. They bound me
by an oath, and they hold me to it. I repudiate it, but what matters
that if they do not?"
"If Cravatz wants to get rid of you it is a cleverly devised trap,"
said the Governor, thoughtfully.
"It is a cleverly devised trap, for I die either way. Cravatz argues
that I, seeing death is before me in any case, shall choose rather to
take the extreme risk and kill you, thereby earning for myself some
glory among the miscreants who call themselves friends of liberty,
than to be secretly made away with as a traitor by them. But even
were I to commit this incredible baseness, as he expects, he would
take to himself the credit of your murder, since hardly anybody but
himself knows that I am here at all. He would have the glory of
achieving your death, and would get this glory without risk to
himself. It was worth trying for." He paused a minute--a long
minute. Then he took up his hat.
"Shall I go, your Excellency?" he asked, quietly.
The Governor held out his hand. "Accept my sympathy," he said,
gravely. Felix knelt, took the offered hand, and kissed it with
gratitude.
Stepan Stepanovitch, without a word, turned to his table, opened the
package sent him by Vronsky, and began to examine the contents.
Among these were one or two photos--snapshots. "These are pictures
of Cravatz?" he asked.
Felix assented, and drawing near the table, told him the story of
Streloff's behavior that day.
The Governor listened with attention. "But this means," he said,
"that until Cravatz is arrested your life is not safe. If so much is
known one must move very warily. You could hardly arrest the man
Streloff on the evidence you have. But if there is one spy, there
may be others, and you go in danger. They will not give you till
August 31st."
Felix pondered. "That is true," he said. "I am hoping to take a
short holiday in England before long, but I should not be safe there.
Several things combine to make me sure that Cravatz has not made
known at headquarters the fact of my presence here; because he is
playing his own game. But were I to attempt to leave the country, he
could telegraph to a dozen places to have me waylaid and disposed of.
While he is at large, I can think of no place in which I should be
safe."
"I can imagine a way to insure your safety," said the Governor,
thoughtfully, "but I do not like to suggest it, because it might seem
to you as if I do not trust you."
Felix made a movement of gratitude. "Your Excellency," he said, with
a sincerity which carried conviction, "I am in your hands. Do what
you think best. You have every reason to distrust a man with such a
record as mine. How could I complain? I will not protest my
loyalty, my hatred of assassination. I will only say that I am
ready, not merely to give my life for yours if necessary--that would
be quite simple--but to fall in with any plan you may have to
suggest, in deepest gratitude to you for thinking of my safety."
The Governor smiled. Nadia, who stood near, impulsively held out
both hands to Felix, and the young man bent his head above them, the
hot color suffusing his face. He was only twenty-five, after all.
"You may rely upon him, your Excellency," quietly said Miss Forester,
the English governess. "My countrymen are not traitors--still less
are they assassins."
The Governor smiled. "Had Mr. Vanston harbored designs against my
life," he said, "he would not have told us the things we have just
heard. I am going to save him from the power of his tyrants. Let me
consider."
There was deep silence in the pleasant room.
"Well, this is my plan," said Stepan Stepanovitch, after a few
minutes' thought. "You have a man with you to-day?"
"Max, my coachman----"
"Only he?"
"Only he, your Excellency."
"Is he faithful?"
"Entirely. He is not a Russian, though he speaks Russian well. He
is a German Pole, and came to this country with me. He will do
anything I tell him."
"Then," said the Governor, "I will send out two or three of my own
private police--men I can trust--to waylay you on your homeward
journey. They shall be stationed in the darkest part of the wood,
And when you drive up, you must let there be as many signs of a
scrimmage as you can. The cook shall give them a little blood to
scatter, and you must drop a torn handkerchief, or something by which
you can be identified. Am I right in supposing that the horses, if
frightened, will gallop back to Savlinsky?"
"Yes, I am pretty sure they would."
"Then you must all of you return here by different ways, very
privately. You must on no account be seen. You had better be
waylaid on the farther side of the village, that all may see you pass
through. But you must, of course, not go through it on your way back
here. I will make arrangements to admit you and your man by the
little postern door in the grounds which opens upon the forest. And
you must remain here in hiding until Cravatz is secured. The only
thing against the plan is that I must give my good Vronsky a severe
fright. For it is most important that he should be as surprised as
anybody by your disappearance. What do you say? You and I know
enough of these secret societies to feel sure that their threats are
not empty. If we can put our hands upon Cravatz at once, you can be
released in a few days. But we are not sure of doing so. And as
long as he is at large, so long will he manage some kind of
communication with his man, Streloff. I could, of course, merely
detain you here, without going to the risk and trouble of a feigned
abduction. But this would show Streloff that you and I understand
each other. They would know that we are on the alert, and they would
take measures accordingly. By my plan, Streloff will be puzzled. He
will see that Vronsky is not in the secret of your disappearance; and
I can think of a way of getting you off afterwards to Gretz in such a
manner that nobody shall know where you come from, or where you have
been."
Felix nodded his head slowly two or three times. "It is a clever
plan," he said, "but I fail to see in what respect it seems as though
you did not trust me."
"Silly fellow, I shall have you under lock and key," said the
Governor, with a smile. "And if so minded, I can keep you there, can
I not? And nobody will know that you are there--will they? So that
if we want to feel extra secure, Nadia and I--to sleep the sounder in
our beds--we might send and have you murdered in yours--might we not?"
Felix smiled. He also bowed. "If the plan looks as if you did not
trust me, it will also show whether or no I trust your Excellency,"
he said gallantly.
"Ah, well said! Well said!" cried Nadia, clasping her hands together
in admiration. "Papa, you and Mr. Vanston are two! Two of a kind, I
mean! Two men, each honorable enough to understand the other!"
"You think so?" said the Governor, laying his hand fondly a moment
upon the dark hair. "Then take this young man away with you and play
tennis diligently with him, that all may see we are upon just our
usual terms. Until the time comes!"