BEFORE I complied with Prince Kalkov’s request I took out a fresh cigar and spent some time over lighting it.

“You have quite a stage instinct, monsieur, in pausing thus at the critical moment. If I did not know you, I might be tempted to think you were arranging the duly dramatic unfolding of the tale, or perhaps,” he added lightly, “considering what part of it you need not tell.”

“It is after all only the story of a failure, Prince, and naturally one does not care to dwell too long upon it. I went to Boreski, as you know, led him to believe that I was the Emperor, laid before him the papers as we arranged, and he took the objection I had anticipated—that he must have the money in cash instead of a draft.”

“You told him the reason—that the money was a dowry?”

“Of course, and he immediately checkmated me by saying he was already married to the Duchess and that the consent to the marriage must be dated back.”

“He is a daring fellow. It was a tight corner. What did you say?”

“I couldn’t alter the date, of course, for the reason that I could not write in the same hand, so I put up what we Americans term a bluff,” and I described to him what had passed, withholding, of course, all mention of Helga and her part in it.

“It was very clever, M. Denver. And why did you not come away?”“If I had come the papers would have been placed in the hands of the Powers’ representatives at once. I stayed, therefore, in the hope of finding the means to avert such a catastrophe.”

“That was almost reckless, but under the circumstances no more than I should have expected.” He was a fiend at the game of implied suggestion, and again I was convinced he had secret information of some kind. “But in the end you found you could do nothing?” he continued. “They made you a prisoner.”

Why did he use that plural? What “they” had he in his mind?

“A prisoner in effect, because, if I left, Boreski meant to use the papers at once. But I could have left at any moment.”

He smiled and nodded.

“Ingenious, highly ingenious. And then?”

“Then there was nearly the devil to pay. By some means or other the Nihilist brotherhood got wind of the fact that I was at Boreski’s——”

“At Boreski’s?” he shot in, as if in surprise.

“Presumably it was Boreski’s house, and a hurried flight followed with the object of saving me from them, but it was ineffectual. They found me, and an attempt was made upon my life by a man named Vastic, and I only averted it by shooting him.”

“What infernal villainy! It shows, of course, that Boreski is in league with this brotherhood. And where was this?”

“I can find my way to the place, I think.”

“It would be at Brabinsk, of course.”

How the devil did he know that?

“It was a very close shave, I assure you,” I said, trying to conceal my surprise. “It was Brabinsk; I remember to have heard the name. How did you know it?”

“Through my agents. As a matter of fact, an anonymous communication has been laid in the matter to the effect that murder was done there last night—the murder of this man, Vastic.”

I felt my nerves chill at this, with sudden dread for Helga. He noticed the change instantly. Nothing seemed to escape those piercing eyes of his.

“The facts are as I have told you. His revolver was at my head when I got the drop on him and fired. It was his life or mine.”

“Exactly. I don’t think you need bother your head about the matter. My men are out there by this time, and we know how to deal with such cases. Vastic was one of the few really dangerous men in this brotherhood, and by killing him you have added to our obligation. We shall try to avoid any fuss. By the way, were there any witnesses?”

He was the devil with these quietly-put, probing, torturing questions.

“What was the account they gave of it? A second man was joined in the attempt and witnessed it.”

He saw the obvious parry.

“Naturally nothing was said of that,” he answered with a laugh. “I mean, was Boreski present? You see, it would be most valuable to be able to connect him with it, and his presence would be enough.”

“No, Boreski was not in the house,” I answered, cursing him in my thoughts for torture he inflicted.

“Then why did you stay there?”

“I have told you—because of the threat to use the papers.”

“Oh, yes, of course. It is a pity. I should like to have had that link in the chain against him.” He frowned as if genuinely concerned, and added after a pause, “Of course, you will see the desirability—the necessity, in fact—of telling everything, everything in the fullest sense, I mean, in such a case?”

“Do you think I have not?” I retorted sharply.

“Where are the papers now?” he asked, putting my implied repudiation on one side.

“I should think we had better ask M. Boreski,” I answered, attempting a light tone and forcing a smile. But it was an effort. I recognized that, and recognized too that I was afraid of him. Not for myself, he could not harm me; but terribly afraid for Helga.

“I should have thought that, too,” he answered, copying my light tone. “But it’s just there I am puzzled. You see, Boreski says he doesn’t know either.” He spoke for all the world as though we were just talking over the thing in full mutual confidence.

“It’s scarcely likely, is it, that he would tell everything?”

“No, no, of course not. But he declares, or at least the Duchess Stephanie does, and it’s the same thing, that he hasn’t them.” Then he started as if an idea had occurred to him. “By the way, you haven’t said anything about this mysterious lady, Mademoiselle Helga Boreski? Didn’t you think it worth while, or didn’t you see her?”

His eyes were on my face, and he saw the wince I gave at the sudden thrust. He had known about her all the time.

“I didn’t wish to bring her name into the affair.”

“Ah, monsieur, that was a mistake. May I ask the motive?”

“Certainly. She is the lady whom I hope to make my wife.” It was my turn to surprise him now, and a long pause followed, while he sat smoking and thinking over the new turn.

“Well, M. Denver, I am genuinely sorry for you; sorry that I ever sent you on this business. You cannot save this lady, and it would of course be idle for me to pretend that I do not see how your feeling for her has actuated you. She is a Nihilist; she has had chief part in this plot; she holds these papers; she was present when the attempt was made on your life—and probably instigated it——”

“No, she did not,” I interposed angrily. “At that time she knew quite well I was not the Emperor.”“So you told them that?” he returned in his quiet suggestive manner.

“I did my utmost to obtain the papers,” I protested.

“We are getting at cross purposes, monsieur,” he answered with dryness. “I will not question you about her. Probably you know who she is and what her motive is in the strange course she is taking. I do not yet; I am speaking frankly—more frankly than you dealt with me—but I have now certain information, and shall soon have more. But already I know enough to warrant me in ordering her arrest.”

“You have seen the Duchess Stephanie this morning?”

“Yes, and shall see her again—and others. You must face the facts, monsieur; and the facts are that this Mademoiselle Helga will not be long at liberty, and that any thought of marriage between you is absolutely out of the question. She will go to the mines.”

“On the contrary, your Highness, she will be my wife,” I said firmly. Now that the mischief was out, and I was no longer clogged by the need to hide things, my embarrassment was at an end, and I recovered my self-possession. There was a prospect of a fight too, and my spirits rose to it.

“We shall see, monsieur. I am, as I say, deeply sorry for you; but, believe me, you will not improve your case if you attempt to espouse this reckless young woman’s cause and fight our Government for her sake.”

“Fight you, you mean, Prince?”

“As a member of that Government, yes: in a way it is fighting me.”

“You forget the Emperor is my friend.”

“But not the friend of desperate young women Nihilists, monsieur,” he answered with calculated deliberateness. “You must give her up.”

“That I will never do.”

“Then the consequences will be disastrous. But now,” and he waved his hand as if putting that matter aside, “there is another matter. Your killing of this man, Vastic, has made you many enemies. Your name is known to them as well as your appearance, and your life may be in danger at their hands. You were mentioned by name in the charge which reached us. We shall of course protect you.”

“I can protect myself, thank you,” I interposed.

“We can run no risks of any trouble with the American Embassy on your account, and we must therefore charge ourselves with the task of protecting you. What I propose to you, therefore, is, as I said at first, that you either return to the frontier, or that you start on your journey to Khiva under strong escort, and that you adopt one of those courses forthwith.”

“I thank your Highness, but I shall not go. I shall not leave Petersburg, at any rate until I have seen the Emperor.”

He rose then and tossed away his cigar.

“I hold you for a man of decision, monsieur, but in this case I will give you an opportunity of reconsidering this one. I will see you again in an hour.”

“You will not find me here. I shall go to an hotel.”

“For that hour at least it will not be convenient to us for you to take such a step.”

“Does your Highness make me a prisoner?” I demanded indignantly.

“I will see you again in an hour, monsieur,” he replied, and with that left the room, without heeding my angry retort.

As soon as he had gone the servant entered and asked my permission to attend to the rooms. I gave it to him, and throwing such things as lay to hand into a grip I went to the door.

“I shall not be back,” I said to him, and he turned and looked at me curiously.

“Very well, monsieur,” he answered. “But I believe His Highness wishes to see you here.”I flung the door open, for my temper was up, and then found I was indeed a prisoner. Three men were posted there on guard.

Affecting to believe their presence had nothing to do with me, I made as if to brush by them.

“Your pardon, monsieur,” said the man in command, “but my orders are to desire you to be so good as to await His Highness’s return.”

“I have told the Prince I will see him another time,” I returned.

“Deepest regrets, monsieur; but my orders were very precise;” and as it was quite evident that he was prepared to prevent my departure by force if necessary, I gave in, went back into the room and slammed the door. Just one of those childish acts a man commits in a rage.

But the situation was far too grave for my vexation over the mere personal indignity to last long. The thing had to be considered as an indication of the length to which the Prince was ready to go in the absence of the Emperor. He would stick at nothing; and the treachery which had destroyed Helga’s father years ago was still a practical policy with him.

The question was what he could do to me and whether he would attempt to keep me from seeing the Emperor. It was clear that his suspicions had fastened upon Helga. He had had his own reasons for asking so pointedly about her real motives.

“You probably know who she is; I do not—yet,” he had said; but he had a connecting link almost in his hands in the person of Boreski. Moreover he had accepted my news as meaning that I should associate myself with her. If then he guessed that she was so dangerous to him as the daughter of the dead Lavalski would be, I could not doubt he would strain every nerve, not only to secure her and put her away as a Nihilist, but also to keep me as her champion from getting to the Emperor’s ear.But what should I do? That was the question. Drive me out of Russia he should not; that I was resolved; but shut up in my room in the Palace I was as powerless as if I had been in New York. He could set his dogs to hunt down Helga and have her half-way to Siberia before I might get a chance to escape; and the thought was almost maddening in my then state of mind.

Presently it occurred to me to try and meet craft with craft, to pretend to accept his offer of a safe conduct to the frontier and then return. To get out of the Palace by way of the frontier was a long route, but it was better than remaining where I was, and things being as they were it appeared the only course for me to adopt.

It was nearly three hours, instead of only one, before he returned, and when he came I saw that he had fresh news. I could read him sufficiently well by this time to see that.

“I regret the delay, M. Denver, but it has been unavoidable,” he said in suave apology. “Have you considered your decision?”

“I protest in the strongest manner, Prince Kalkov, against my forcible detention here. I demand, as a citizen of the United States, to have an opportunity of communicating with our Embassy here.”

“That course is open to you naturally, and if you press it I cannot and shall not oppose it. You may indeed find it necessary—in your own defence.”

“Then I am free to go to them?”

“Not exactly that, but you will have the usual opportunities,” he answered with one of his infernal implied threats.

“What do you mean by usual opportunities?”

“Our legal procedure in regard to foreigners is not perhaps very swift, but it is very just; and if you prefer an open investigation into this man Vastic’s death to the course I indicated before, I cannot of course object. And as an American accused of murder you would be fully entitled to all the help of the American embassy.”

“But you know the truth as to that,” I cried.

“And personally have not a doubt that your act was committed in self-defence. Still it was committed, and——” He finished with a shrug of the shoulders and a lifting of the hands.

“Do you mean that you accuse me of murder?”

“I? God forbid I should do you such an injustice,” he said, as if in indignant repudiation of the idea. “It is others who do it.”

“You are the devil, Prince Kalkov,” I cried furiously. “This is just another of your infernal schemes.”

“Is that quite just to me, when I have offered you a safe conduct across the frontier, or to anywhere you please? It is you who place me in this awkward situation.”

“To hell with your hypocrisy,” I exclaimed, losing my head in my rage. “Speak out bluntly, and say what you do mean—that if I won’t consent to leave the country you will take this devil’s way of getting me into one of your cursed prisons while you carry out your other plans.”

“Really, M. Denver, this language to me is beyond bounds—even for a free-speaking citizen of the United States. It is true we might not be able to get the proceedings finished for some weeks; I have known it take months, indeed. There was the case of——”

“The devil take your cases. Do your worst, and we’ll fight it out on those lines;” and I turned away and flung myself into a chair.

But he was my match at that tactic also. He sat down, drew a small table to his side, took out some papers and studied them with slow methodical deliberation. He calculated that my temper would not last, and that I should then see the utter futility of resisting him. And of course it proved so.“I’ll accept your terms and leave Russia,” I said, when the silence had lasted many minutes.

“Pardon me,” he said, as if he was buried in some other matters. “Just one minute,” and he went on with his papers, and then folded them up neatly. “Now I am at your service again. Let us talk it over. Why do you treat me as an enemy?”

“I would rather not discuss anything except my departure.”

“As you please, but the matter is not quite where it was when we last spoke of it. I know a great deal more than I did, and I am compelled to regard you as more dangerous than before. You are at liberty to leave, but I shall have to ask you for a written declaration on your word of honour as an American gentleman that you will go straight to America, and that you will make no effort to communicate, directly or indirectly, with my August Master. Further, I shall place at your disposal a courier, who will accompany you to the port you select—I would suggest Hamburg—and attend on you until you reach New York. This I do partly for your personal safety.”

“And chiefly as a spy to see that I do go, you mean.”

“He will of course report to me.”

“And if I refuse?” I asked, when I could force myself to speak without anger.

“I hope you will not refuse, because if you are still in Russia when the man Vastic’s death is investigated—and time in that matter presses, of course—it will be very difficult, I fear, to avoid your being implicated.” The perfect command he had over his expression and tone aggravated me almost as much as what he said.

“I will make a condition on my side—that Mademoiselle Helga Boreski be allowed to leave the country at the same time.”

“Mademoiselle Helga Lavalski, you mean?”

I nearly broke my teeth as I clenched them at this.

“I have said whom I mean.”“Well, there are two objections. You know her story of course, and so do I—now. She is, as you are aware, unwilling to leave until she has ruined me for some fancied wrong; and she is a dangerous Nihilist, with whom the authorities can have no dealings except in the usual legal way. She will go to the mines, as I told you, if we deal with her.”

“And if you have found her, perhaps,” I cried with a sneer.

“True; and true also that we may not have to deal with her at all. She has, as you know, incurred the vengeance of this brotherhood, and it may be less troublesome to leave her to them.”

“Thank God, she is as safe from them as from you.”

“Yes, but not more so. You left a paper in your coat which the servant found and handed to me. You had scribbled on it two or three words which I thought might have reference to her—about a small red-brick house in the north-east corner of the Square of San Sophia. I followed up that clue, and by this time the information we gained is in the hands of the brotherhood. They will know how——”

“Stop, for God’s sake, stop,” I said hoarsely, jumping to my feet in horror. “I can bear no more. If you say another word, I swear to God I shall find it in me to kill you where you sit.”