A Rock in the Baltic ...........................................................................................................................................1

IN the public room of the Sixth National Bank at Bar Harbor in Maine, Lieutenant Alan Drummond, H.M.S.

"Consternation," stood aside to give precedence to a lady. The Lieutenant had visited the bank for the purpose

of changing several crisp white Bank of England notes into the currency of the country he was then visiting.

The lady did not appear to notice either his courtesy or his presence, and this was the more remarkable since

Drummond was a young man sufficiently conspicuous even in a crowd, and he and she were, at that moment,

the only customers in the bank. He was tall, wellknit and stalwart, blond as a Scandinavian, with dark blue

eyes which he sometimes said jocularly were the colors of his university. He had been slowly approaching

the cashier's window with the easy movement of a man never in a hurry, when the girl appeared at the door,

and advanced rapidly to the bank counter with its brass wire screen surrounding the arched aperture behind

which stood the cashier. Although very plainly attired, her gown nevertheless possessed a charm of simplicity

that almost suggested complex Paris, and she wore it with that air of distinction the secret of which is

The young man saw nothing of this, and although he appreciated the beauty of the girl, what struck him at

that instant was the expression of anxiety on her face, whose apparently temporary pallor was accentuated by

an abundance of dark hair. It seemed to him that she had resolutely set herself a task which she was most

reluctant to perform. From the moment she entered the door her large, dark eyes were fixed almost

appealingly on the cashier, and they beheld nothing else. Drummond, mentally slow as he usually was, came

to the quick conclusion that this was a supreme moment in her life, on which perhaps great issues depended.

He saw her left hand grasp the corner of the ledge in front of the cashier with a grip of nervous tension, as if

the support thus attained was necessary to her. Her right hand trembled slightly as she passed an oblong slip

The cashier scrutinized the document for some time in silence. The signature appeared unfamiliar to him.

"One moment, madam," he said quietly, and retired to a desk in the back part of the bank, where he opened a

huge book, turned over some leaves rapidly, and ran his finger down a page. His dilatory action seemed to

increase the young woman's panic. Her pallor increased, and she swayed slightly, as if in danger of falling,

but brought her right hand to the assistance of the left, and so steadied herself against the ledge of the

"By Jove!" said the Lieutenant to himself, "there's something wrong here. I wonder what it is. Such a pretty

The cashier behind his screen saw nothing of this play of the emotions. He returned nonchalantly to his

"Gold, if you please," she replied almost in a whisper, a rosy flush chasing the whiteness from her face, while

At this juncture an extraordinary thing happened. The cashier counted out some golden coins, and passed

"Thank you," said the girl. Then, without touching the money, she turned like one hypnotized, her unseeing

eyes still taking no heed of the big Lieutenant, and passed rapidly out of the bank, The cashier paid no regard

to this abandonment of treasure. He was writing some hieroglyphics on the cashed check.

"By Jove!" gasped the Lieutenant aloud, springing forward as he spoke, sweeping the coins into his hand, and

bolting for the door. This was an action which would have awakened the most negligent cashier had he been

in a trance. Automatically he whisked out a revolver which lay in an open drawer under his hand.

"Stop, you scoundrel, or I fire!" he shouted, but the Lieutenant had already disappeared. Quick as thought the

cashier darted into the passage, and without waiting to unfasten the low door which separated the public and

private rooms of the bank, leaped over it, and, bareheaded, gave chase. A. British naval officer in uniform,

rapidly overtaking a young woman, quite unconscious of his approach, followed by an excited, bareheaded

man with a revolver in his grasp, was a sight which would quickly have collected a crowd almost anywhere,

but it happened to be the lunch hour, and the inhabitants of that famous summer resort were indoors; thus,

fortunately, the street was deserted. The naval officer was there because the hour of the midday meal on

board the cruiser did not coincide with lunch time on shore. The girl was there because it happened to be the

only portion of the day when she could withdraw unobserved from the house in which she lived, during

banking hours, to try her little agitating financial experiment. The cashier was there because the bank had no

lunch hour, and because he had just witnessed the most suspicious circumstance that his constantly alert eye

had ever beheld. Calm and imperturbable as a bank cashier may appear to the outside public, he is a man

under constant strain during business hours. Each person with whom he is unacquainted that confronts him at

his post is a possible robber who at any moment may attempt, either by violence or chicanery, to filch the

treasure he guards. The happening of any event outside the usual routine at once arouses a cashier's distrust,

and this sudden flight of a stranger with money which did not belong to him quite justified the perturbation of

the cashier. From that point onward, innocence of conduct or explanation so explicit as to satisfy any ordinary

man, becomes evidence of more subtle guilt to the mind of a bank official. The ordinary citizen, seeing the

Lieutenant finally overtake and accost the hurrying girl, raise his cap, then pour into her outstretched hand the

gold he had taken, would have known at once that here was an everyday exercise of natural politeness. Not

so the cashier. The farther he got from the bank, the more poignantly did he realize that these two in front,

both strangers to him, had, by their combined action, lured him, pistol and all, away from his post during the

dullest hour of the day. It was not the decamping with those few pieces of gold which now troubled him: it

was fear of what might be going on behind him. He was positive that these two had acted in conjunction. The

uniform worn by the man did not impose upon him. Any thief could easily come by a uniform, and, as his

mind glanced rapidly backwards over the various points of the scheme, he saw how effectual the plan was:

first, the incredible remissness of the woman in leaving her gold on the counter; second, the impetuous

disappearance of the man with the money; and, third, his own heedless plunge into the street after them. He

saw the whole plot in a flash: he had literally leaped into the trap, and during his five or ten minutes' absence,

the accomplices of the pair might have overawed the unarmed clerks, and walked off with the treasure. His

cash drawer was unlocked, and even the big safe stood wide open. Surprise had as effectually lured him away

as if he had been a country bumpkin. Bitterly and breathlessly did he curse his own precipitancy. His duty

was to guard the bank, yet it had not been the bank that was robbed, but, at best a careless woman who had

failed to pick up her money. He held the check for it, and the loss, if any, was hers, not the bank's, yet here he

was, running bareheaded down the street like a fool, and now those two stood quite calmly together, he

handing her the money, and thus spreading a mantle of innocence over the vile trick. But whatever was

happening in the bank, he would secure two of the culprits at least. The two, quite oblivious of the danger that

threatened them, were somewhat startled by a panting man, trembling with rage, bareheaded, and flourishing

"That reason is unanswerable," replied the Lieutenant with a slight laugh, which further exasperated his

opponent. "I think you are exciting yourself unnecessarily. May I beg you to put that pistol in your pocket?

On the cruiser we always cover up the guns when ladies honor us with their presence. You wish me to return

The cashier regarded this as bluff, and an attempt to give the woman opportunity to escape.

"I'd rather not," she pleaded in a low voice, and it was hardly possible to have made a more injudicious

"Oh, I say," protested the Lieutenant, "you are now exceeding your authority. I alone am the culprit. The

young lady is quite blameless, and you have no right to detain her for a moment."

The girl, who had been edging away and showing signs of flight, which the bareheaded man, visibly on the

alert, leaned forward ready to intercept, seemed to make up her mind to bow to the inevitable. Ignoring the

cashier, she looked up at the blond Lieutenant with a slight smile on her pretty lips.

"It was really all my fault at the beginning," she said, "and very stupid of me. I am slightly acquainted with

With that she turned and walked briskly toward the bank, at so rapid a pace as to indicate that she did not

wish an escort. The bareheaded official found his anger unaccountably deserting him, while a great fear that

"Really," said the Lieutenant gently, as they strode along together, "an official in your position should be a

good judge of human nature. How any sane person, especially a young man, can look at that beautiful girl

"Still suspicious, eh?" he asked. "No, I don't know her, but to use a banking term, you may bet your bottom

dollar I'm going to. Indeed, I am rather grateful to you for your stubbornness in forcing us to return. It's a

quality I like, and you possess it in marvelous development, so I intend to stand by you when the managerial

censure is due. I'm very certain I met your manager at the dinner they gave us last night. Mr. Morton, isn't

"Ah, that's awfully jolly. One of the finest fellows I've met in ten years. Now, the lady said she was

acquainted with him, so if I don't wheedle an introduction out of him, it will show that a man at a dinner and

a man in a bank are two different individuals. You were looking for plots; so there is mine laid bare to you.

The cashier had nothing further to say. When they entered the bank together he saw the clerks all busily at

work, and knew that no startling event had happened during his absence. The girl had gone direct to the

manager's room, and thither the young men followed her. The bank manager was standing at his desk, trying

to preserve a severe financial cast of countenance, which the twinkle in his eyes belied. The girl, also

standing, had evidently been giving him a rapid sketch of what had occurred, but now fell into silence when

The advent of the Englishman was a godsend to the manager. He was too courteous a gentleman to laugh in

the face of a lady who very seriously was relating a set of incidents which appealed to his sense of humor, so

the coming of the Lieutenant enabled him to switch off his mirth on another subject, and in reply to the

"Why, Lieutenant, I'm delighted to see you. That was a very jolly song you sang for us last night: I'll never

forget it. What do you call it? Whittington Fair?" And he laughed outright, as at a genial recollection.

"Really, Mr. Morton, you know, that's not according to the rules of evidence. When a fellow comes up for

trial, previous convictions are never allowed to be mentioned till after the sentence. Whiddicomb Fair should

The manager chuckled gleefully. The cashier, when he saw how the land lay, had quietly withdrawn, closing

"Well, Lieutenant, I think I must have this incident cabled to Europe," said Morton, "so the effete nations of

your continent may know that a plain bank cashier isn't afraid to tackle the British navy. Indeed, Mr.

Drummond, if you read history, you will learn that this is a dangerous coast for your warships. It seems rather

inhospitable that a guest of our town cannot pick all the gold he wants out of a bank, but a cashier has

necessarily somewhat narrow views on the subject. I was just about to apologize to Miss Amhurst, who is a

valued client of ours, when you came in, and I hope, Miss Amhurst"he continued gravely, turning to the

"Oh, it does not matter in the least," replied the young woman, with nevertheless a sigh of relief. "It was all

my own fault in so carelessly leaving the money. Some time, when less in a hurry than I am at the present

Meanwhile the manager caught and interpreted correctly an imploring look from the Lieutenant.

"Before you go, Miss Amhurst, will you permit me to introduce to you my friend, Lieutenant Drummond, of

This ritual to convention being performed, the expression on the girl's face showed the renewal of her anxiety

to be gone, and as she turned to the door, the officer sprang forward and opened it for her. If the manager

expected the young man to return, he was disappointed, for Drummond threw over his shoulder the hasty

"I will see you at the Club this evening," whereupon the genial Morton, finding himself deserted, sat down in

There was the slightest possible shade of annoyance on the girl's face as the sailor walked beside her from the

door of the manager's room, through the public portion of the bank to the exit, and the young man noticing

this, became momentarily tonguetied, but nevertheless persisted, with a certain awkward doggedness which

was not going to allow so slight a hint that his further attendance was unnecessary, to baffle him. He did not

speak until they had passed down the stone steps to the pavement, and then his utterance began with a

halfembarrassed stammer, as if the shadow of displeasure demanded justification on his part.

For the first time he heard the girl laugh, just a little, and the sound was very musical to him.

"The introduction was of the slightest," she said. "I cannot claim even an acquaintance with Mr. Morton,

although I did so in the presence of his persistent subordinate. I have met the manager of the bank but once

before, and that for a few moments only, when he showed me where to sign my name in a big book."

"Nevertheless," urged Drummond, "I shall defend the validity of that introduction against all comers. The

head of a bank is a most important man in every country, and his commendation is really very much sought

"You appear to possess it. He complimented your singing, you know," and there was a roguish twinkle in the

girl's eye as she glanced up sideways at him, while a smile came to her lips as she saw the color again mount

to his cheeks. She had never before met a man who blushed, and she could not help regarding him rather as a

big boy than a person to be taken seriously. His stammer became more pronounced.

"II think you are laughing at me, Miss Amhurst, and indeed I don't wonder at it, and II am afraid you

consider me even more persistent than the cashier. But I did want to tell you how sorry I am to have caused

"Oh, you have not done so," replied the girl quickly. "As I said before, it was all my own fault in the

"No, I shouldn't have taken the gold. I should have come up with you, and told you that it still awaited you in

the bank, and now I beg your permission to walk down the street with you, because if any one were looking

at us from these windows, and saw us pursued by a bareheaded man with a revolver, they will now, on

looking out again, learn that it is all right, and may even come to regard the revolver and the hatless one as an

"I am quite unknown in Bar Harbor, having fewer acquaintances than even a stranger like yourself, therefore

so far as I am concerned it does not in the least matter whether any one saw us or not. We shall walk together,

then, as far as the spot where the cashier overtook us, and this will give me an opportunity of explaining, if

not of excusing, my leaving the money on the counter. I am sure my conduct must have appeared

inexplicable both to you and the cashier, although, of course, you would be too polite to say so."

"I know what you would say," she interrupted, with a vivacity which had not heretofore characterized her,

"but, you see, the distance to the corner is short, and, as I am in a hurry, if you don't wish my story to be

"Ah, if there is to be a next" murmured the young man so fervently that it was now the turn of color to

"I am talking heedlessly," she said quickly. "What I want to say is this: I have never had much money. Quite

recently I inherited what had been accumulated by a relative whom I never knew. It seemed so incredible, so

strangewell, it seems incredible and strange yetand I have been expecting to wake and find it all a

dream. Indeed, when you overtook me at this spot where we now stand, I feared you had come to tell me it

"But it was just the reverse of that," he cried eagerly. "Just the reverse, remember. I came to confirm your

"I see how it was," he continued enthusiastically. "I suppose you had never drawn a check before."

"And this was merely a test. You set up your dream against the hard common sense of a bank, which has no

dreams. You were to transform your vision into the actual, or find it vanish. When the commonplace cashier

passed forth the coin, their jingle said to you, 'The supposed phantasy is real,' but the gold pieces themselves

at that supreme moment meant no more to you than so many worthless counters, so you turned your back

She looked up at him, her eyes, though moist, illumined with pleasure inspired by the sympathy in his tones

rather than the import of his words. The girl's life heretofore had been as scant of kindness as of cash, and

there was a deep sincerity in his voice which was as refreshing to her lonesome heart as it was new to her

experience. This man was not so stupid as he had pretended to be. He had accurately divined the inner

meaning of what had happened. She had forgotten the necessity for haste which had been so importunate a

"No, I am not at all a clever person," he laughed. "Indeed, as I told you, I am always blundering into trouble,

and making things uncomfortable for my friends. I regret to say I am rather under a cloud just now in the

"Why, what has happened?" she asked. After their temporary halt at the corner where they had been

overtaken, they now strolled along together like old friends, her prohibition out of mind.

"Well, you see, I was temporarily in command of the cruiser coming down the Baltic, and passing an island

rock a few miles away, I thought it would be a good opportunity to test a new gun that had been put aboard

when we left England. The sea was very calm, and the rock most temptsome. Of course I knew it was

Russian territory, but who could have imagined that such a point in space was inhabited by anything else than

"What!" cried the girl, looking up at him with new interest. "You don't mean to say you are the officer that

"Oh, England could not give me up, of course, but she apologized, and assured Russia she had no evil intent.

Still, anything that sets the diplomatists at work is frowned upon, and the man who does an act which his

"Yes, it did, and no one could have been more surprised than I when I saw the answering puff of smoke."

"Nobody knows. I suppose that rock in the Baltic is a concealed fort, with galleries and gunrooms cut in the

stone after the fashion of our defences at Gibraltar. I told the courtmartial that I had added a valuable bit of

information to our naval knowledge, but I don't suppose this contention exercised any influence on the minds

of my judges. I also called their attention to the fact that my shell had hit, while the Russian shot fell half a

mile short. That remark nearly cost me my commission. A courtmartial has no sense of humor."

"Well, hardly that. You see, Continental nations are extremely suspicious of Britain's good intentions, as

indeed they are of the good intentions of each other. No government likes to havewell, what we might call

a 'frontier incident' happen, and even if a country is quite in the right, it nevertheless looks askance at any

official of its own who, through his stupidity, brings about an international complication. As concerns myself,

I am rather under a cloud, as I told you. The courtmartial acquitted me, but it did so with reluctance and a

warning. I shall have to walk very straight for the next year or two, and be careful not to stub my toe, for the

eyes of the Admiralty are upon me. However, I think I can straighten this matter out. I have six months' leave

coming on shortly, which I intend to spend in St. Petersburg. I shall make it my business to see privately

some of the officials in the Admiralty there, and when they realize by personal inspection what a

"I should do nothing of the kind," rejoined the girl earnestly, quite forgetting the shortness of their

acquaintance, as she had forgotten the flight of time, while on his part he did not notice any incongruity in the

"Your own country has investigated the matter, and has deliberately run the risk of unpleasantness by

refusing to give you up. How, then, can you go there voluntarily? You would be acting in your private

"Technically, that is so; still, England would not hold the position she does in the world today if her men

had not often taken a course in their private capacity which the government would never have sanctioned. As

things stand now, Russia has not insisted on her demand, but has sullenly accepted England's decision, still

quite convinced that my act was not only an invasion of Russia's domain, but a deliberate insult; therefore the

worst results of an inconsiderate action on my part remain. If I could see the Minister for Foreign Affairs, or

the head of the Admiralty in St. Petersburg face to face for ten minutes, I'd undertake to remove that

"No, no, it isn't so much that, but I have great faith in the Russian as a judge of character. I suppose I am

imagined to be a venomous, browbeating, truculent Russophobe, who has maliciously violated their

territory, flinging a shell into their ground and an insult into their face. They are quite sincere in this belief. I

want to remove that impression, and there's nothing like an ocular demonstration. I like the Russians. One of

"I shouldn't attempt it," she persisted. "Suppose Russia arrested you, and said to England, 'We've got this man

"That is unthinkable: Russia wouldn't do such a thing. In spite of all that is said about the Russian

Government, its members are gentlemen. Of course, if such a thing happened, there would be trouble. That is

a point where we're touchy. A very cheap Englishman, wrongfully detained, may cause a most expensive

campaign. Our diplomatists may act correctly enough, and yet leave a feeling of resentment behind. Take this

"'We have in our employment an impetuous young fool with a thirst for information. He wished to learn how

a new piece of ordnance would act, so fired it off with no more intention of striking Russia than of hitting the

moon. He knows much more about dancing than about foreign affairs. We've given him a month's leave, and

he will slip across privately to St. Petersburg to apologize and explain. The moment you see him you will

recognize he is no menace to the peace of nations. Meanwhile, if you can inculcate in him some cold, calm

"Oh, quite. There will be nothing frigidly official about my unauthorized mission. I have a cousin in the

embassy at St. Petersburg, but I shan't go near him; neither shall I go to an hotel, but will get quiet rooms

"It seems to me you are about to afford the Russian Government an excellent opportunity of spiriting you off

Drummond indulged in the freehearted laugh of a youth to whom life is still rather a good joke.

"I shouldn't mind studying the Siberian system from the inside if they allowed me to return before my leave

was up. I believe that sort of thing has been exaggerated by sensational writers. The Russian Government

would not countenance anything of the kind, and if the minor officials tried to play tricks, there's always my

cousin in the background, and it would be hard luck if I couldn't get a line to him. Oh, there's no danger in my

Suddenly the girl came to a standstill, and gave expression to a little cry of dismay.

"Think of your new fortune, Miss Amhurst, safely lodged in our friend Morton's bank, and don't hurry for any

"That sounds formidable, but unless the people who are waiting for you muster more than ten thousand

"It's the other way about, Mr. Drummond. Individually they are poorer than I, therefore I should have

"Well, if anybody left me two thousand pounds, I'd take an afternoon off to celebrate. Here we are in the

suburbs again. Won't you change your mind and your direction; let us get back into the country, sit down on

"I must bid you goodby here, Lieutenant Drummond. This is my shortest way home."

"There's so much I wanted to say, but perhaps the most important is this: I shall see you the night of the 14th,

"It is very likely," laughed the girl, "unless you overlook me in the throng. There will be a great mob. I hear

"We hope all our friends will come. It's going to be a great function. Your Secretary of the Navy has

promised to look in on us, and our Ambassador from Washington will be there. I assure you we are doing our

best, with festooned electric lights, hanging draperies, and all that, for we want to make the occasion at least

remotely worthy of the hospitality we have received. Of course you have your card, but I wish you hadn't, so

"That would be quite unnecessary," said the girl, again with a slight laugh and heightened color.

"If any of your friends need cards of invitation, won't you let me know, so that I may send them to you?"

"I'm sure I shan't need any, but if I do, I promise to remember your kindness, and apply."

"It will be a pleasure for me to serve you. With whom shall you come? I should like to know the name, in

"Ah," said the Lieutenant, with a note of disappointment in his voice which he had not the diplomacy to

conceal. His hold of her hand relaxed, and she took the opportunity to withdraw it.

"What sort of a man is Captain Kempt? I shall be on the lookout for him, you know."

"I think he is the handsomest man I have ever seen, and I know he is the kindest and most courteous."

"There speaks the conceit of youth," said Dorothy, smiling. "Captain Kempt, U.S.N., retired. His youngest

"Oh, yes, Captain Kempt. II remember him now. He was at the dinner last night, and sat beside our

captain. What a splendid storyteller he is!" cried the Lieutenant with honest enthusiasm.

"I shall tell him that, and ask him how he liked your song. Goodby," and before the young man could collect

Skimming lightly over the ground at first, she gradually slackened her pace, and slowed down to a very sober

walk until she came to a threestoried socalled "cottage" overlooking the Bay, then with a sigh she opened

THREE women occupied the sewingroom with the splendid outlook: a mother and her two daughters. The

mother sat in a low rockingchair, a picture of mournful helplessness, her hands listlessly resting on her lap,

while tears had left their traces on her timeworn face. The elder daughter paced up and down the room as

striking an example of energy and impatience as was the mother of despondency. Her comely brow was

marred by an angry frown. The younger daughter stood by the long window, her forehead resting against the

pane, while her fingers drummed idly on the window sill. Her gaze was fixed on the blue Bay, where rested

the huge British warship "Consternation," surrounded by a section of the United States squadron seated like

white swans in the water. Sails of snow glistened here and there on the bosom of the Bay, while motorboats

and whatnot darted this way and that impudently among the stately ships of the fleet.

In one corner of the room stood a sewingmachine, and on the long table were piles of mimsy stuff out of

which feminine creations are constructed. There was no carpet on the floor, and no ceiling overhead; merely

the bare rafters and the boards that bore the pine shingles of the outer roof; yet this attic was notable for the

The elder girl, as she walked to and fro, spoke with nervous irritation in her voice.

"There is absolutely no excuse, mamma, and it's weakness in you to pretend that there may be. The woman

has been gone for hours. There's her lunch on the table which has never been tasted, and the servant brought

She pointed to a tray on which were dishes whose cold contents bore out the truth of her remark.

"Perhaps she's gone on strike," said the younger daughter, without removing her eyes from H.M.S.

"Consternation." "I shouldn't wonder if we went downstairs again we'd find the house picketed to keep away

"Oh, you can always be depended on to talk frivolous nonsense," said her elder sister scornfully. "It's the silly

sentimental fashion in which both you and father treat workpeople that makes them so difficult to deal with.

"Working classes! How you talk! Dorothy is as much a lady as we are, and sometimes I think rather more of

"It's people like you who spoil dependents in her position, with your Dorothy this and Dorothy that. Her

"Christened Dorothy, as witness godfather and godmother," murmured the younger without turning her head.

"I think," protested their mother meekly, as if to suggest a compromise, and throw oil on the troubled waters,

"that she is entitled to be called Miss Amhurst, and treated with kindness but with reserve."

"Tush!" exclaimed the elder indignantly, indicating her rejection of the compromise.

"I don't see," murmured the younger, "why you should storm, Sabina. You nagged and nagged at her until

she'd finished your balldress. It is mamma and I that have a right to complain. Our dresses are almost

untouched, while you can sail grandly along the decks of the 'Consternation' like a fully rigged yacht. There,

I'm mixing my similes again, as papa always says. A yacht doesn't sail along the deck of a battleship, does

"It's a cruiser," weakly corrected the mother, who knew something of naval affairs.

"Well, cruiser, then. Sabina is afraid that papa won't go unless we all have grand new dresses, but mother can

"To think of that person accepting our money, and absenting herself in this disgraceful way!"

"Accepting our money! That shows what it is to have an imagination. Why, I don't suppose Dorothy has had

a penny for three months, and you know the dress material was bought on credit."

"Oh, I am only pleading for a little humanity. The girl for some reason has gone out. She hasn't had a bite to

eat since breakfast time, and I know there's not a silver piece in her pocket to buy a bun in a milkshop."

"Where can the girl have gone?" wailed the mother, almost wringing her hands, partially overcome by the

crisis. "Did she say anything about going out to you, Katherine? She sometimes makes a confidant of you,

"Then why didn't you tell us before?" exclaimed mother and daughter in almost identical terms.

"She has eloped with the captain of the 'Consternation,'" explained Katherine calmly, little guessing that her

words contained a color of truth. "Papa sat next him at the dinner last night, and says he is a jolly old salt and

a bachelor. Papa was tremendously taken with him, and they discussed tactics together. Indeed, papa has

quite a distinct English accent this morning, and I suspect a little bit of a headache which he tries to conceal

"You can't conceal a headache, because it's invisible," said the mother seriously. "I wish you wouldn't talk so

"Oh, papa and I understand one another," affirmed Katherine with great confidence, and now for the first

time during this conversation the young girl turned her face away from the window, for the door had opened

"Now, Amhurst, what is the meaning of this?" cried Sabina before her foot was fairly across the threshold.

All three women looked at the newcomer. Her beautiful face was aglow, probably through the exertion of

coming up the stairs, and her eyes shone like those of the Goddess of Freedom as she returned steadfastly the

The girl slowly raised her two hands, and showed her shapely wrists close together, and a bit of the forearm

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean," said Sabina, apparently impressed in spite of herself, but the younger

"Splendid, splendid, Dorothy," she cried. "I don't know what you mean either, but you look like Maxine

"Oh, Miss Amhurst, Miss Amhurst," bemoaned the matron. "You will heartlessly leave us in this crisis when

we are helpless; when there is not a sewing woman to be had in the place for love or money. Every one is

working night and day to be ready for the ball on the fourteenth, and youyou whom we have nurtured"

"Oh, Dorothy," said Katherine, coming a step forward and clasping her hands, "do you mean to say I must

attend the ball in a calico dress after all? But I'm going, nevertheless, if I dance in a morning wrapper."

"Of course, where more money is in the question, kindness does not count," snapped the elder daughter.

"Dorothy, I never thought it of you," said Katherine, with an exaggerated sigh. "I wish it were a fancy dress

"I don't care: I'd make a stunning little naval cadet. But, Dorothy, you must be starved to death; you've never

"You seem to have forgotten everything today," said Sabina severely. "Duty and everything else."

"And did you elope with the captain of the 'Consternation,' and were you married secretly, and was it before a

"What are you saying?" asked Dorothy, with a momentary alarm coming into her eyes.

"Oh, I was just telling mother and Sab that you had skipped by the light of the noon, with the captain of the

'Consternation,' who was a jolly old bachelor last night, but may be a married man today if my suspicions

"Kate, dear," she said, "you shall wear the grandest ball dress that ever was seen in Bar Harbor."

"I shall always call you Miss Kempt, and now, if I have your permission, I will sit down. I am tired."

"Yes, and hungry, too," cried Katherine. "What shall I get you, Dorothy? This is all cold."

"Well, I declare!" ejaculated Sabina with a gasp, drawing herself together, as if the bottom had fallen out of

Mrs. Captain Kempt folded her hands one over the other and put on a look of patient resignation, as one who

"Yes," replied Dorothy, with serene confidence, "I should be very much obliged if Captain Kempt would

"Really!" gasped Sabina, "and may not my mother supplement my father's efforts by providing you with a

"I could not think of troubling her, Miss Kempt. Some of my customers have flattered me by saying that my

taste in dress is artistic, and that my designs, if better known, might almost set a fashion in a small way, so I

shall look after my costume myself; but if Mrs. Captain Kempt were kind enough to allow me to attend the

"How admirable! And is there nothing that I can do to forward your ambitions, Miss Amhurst?"

"I am going to the ball merely as a lookeron, and perhaps you might smile at me as you pass by with your

After this there was silence in the sewing room until Katherine, followed by a maid, entered with tea and

cakes. Some dress materials that rested on a gypsy table were swept aside by the impulsive Katherine, and the

table, with the tray upon it, was placed at the right hand of Dorothy Amhurst. When the servant left the room,

Katherine sidled to the long sewing table, sprang up lightly upon it, and sat there swinging a dainty little foot.

Sabina had seated herself in the third chair of the room, the frown still adding severity to an otherwise

"I soothed my mother's fears by telling her that you had eloped with the captain of the 'Consternation.' I must

have been wrong in that guess, because if the secret marriage I hoped had taken place, you would have said to

Sabina that the shackles were on your wrists instead of off. But something important has happened, and I

Dorothy made no response to this appeal, and after a minute's silence Sabina said practically:

"All that has happened is that Miss Amhurst wishes father to present her with a ticket to the ball on the

'Consternation,' and taking that for granted, she requests mother to chaperon her, and further expresses a

desire that I shall be exceedingly polite to her while we are on board the cruiser."

"Oh," cried Katherine jauntily, "the last proviso is past praying for, but the other two are quite feasible. I'd be

delighted to chaperon Dorothy myself, and as for politeness, good gracious, I'll be polite enough to make up

'For I hold that on the seas, The expression if you please A particularly gentlemanly tone implants, And so do

Now, Dorothy, don't be bashful. Here's your sister and your cousin and your aunt waiting for the horrifying

"I'll tell you what is going to happen, Kate," said the girl, smiling at the way the other ran on. "Mrs. Captain

Kempt will perhaps consent to take you and me to New York or Boston, where we will put up at the best

hotel, and trick ourselves out in ball costumes that will be the envy of Bar Harbor. I shall pay the expense of

this trip as partial return for your father's kindness in getting me an invitation and your mother's kindness in

"Oh, then it isn't an elopement, but a legacy. Has the wicked but wealthy relative died?"

"Yes, don't I? But, you see, I thought somehow that Dorothy had no relatives; but if she had one who was

wealthy, and who allowed her to slave at sewing, then I say he was wicked, dead or alive, so there!"

"When work is paid for it is not slavery," commented Sabina with severity and justice.

"My grandfather, in Virginia, owned slaves before the war, and I have often thought that any curse which

may have been attached to slavery has at least partly been expiated by me, as foreshadowed in the Bible,

where it says that the sins of the fathers shall affect the third or fourth generations. I was thinking of that

when I spoke of the shackles falling from my wrists, for sometimes, Miss Kempt, you have made me doubt

whether wages and slavery are as incompatible as you appear to imagine. My father, who was a clergyman,

often spoke to me of his father's slaves, and while he never defended the institution, I think the past in his

mind was softened by a glamor that possibly obscured the defects of life on the plantation. But often in

depression and loneliness I have thought I would rather have been one of my grandfather's slaves than endure

"Oh, Dorothy, don't talk like that, or you'll make me cry," pleaded Kate. "Let us be cheerful whatever

happens. Tell us about the money. Begin 'Once upon a time,' and then everything will be all right. No matter

how harrowing such a story begins, it always ends with lashin's and lashin's of money, or else with a prince in

a gorgeous uniform and gold lace, and you get the half of his kingdom. Do go on."

Dorothy looked up at her impatient friend, and a radiant cheerfulness chased away the gathering shadows

"Well, once upon a time I lived very happily with my father in a little rectory in a little town near the Hudson

River. His family had been ruined by the war, and when the plantation was sold, or allowed to go derelict,

whatever money came from it went to his elder and only brother. My father was a dreamy scholar and not a

business man as his brother seems to have been. My mother had died when I was a child; I do not remember

her. My father was the kindest and most patient of men, and all I know he taught me. We were very poor, and

I undertook the duties of housekeeper, which I performed as well as I was able, constantly learning by my

failures. But my father was so indifferent to material comforts that there were never any reproaches. He

taught me all that I know in the way of what you might call accomplishments, and they were of a strangely

varied ordera smattering of Latin and Greek, a good deal of French, history, literature, and even dancing,

as well as music, for he was an excellent musician. Our meager income ceased with my father's life, and I had

to choose what I should do to earn my board and keep, like Orphant Annie, in Whitcomb Riley's poem. There

appeared to be three avenues open to me. I could be a governess, domestic servant, or dressmaker. I had

already earned something at the latter occupation, and I thought if I could set up in business for myself, there

was a greater chance of gaining an independence along that line than either as a governess or servant. But to

"Although there had been no communication between the two brothers for many years, I had my uncle's

address, and I wrote acquainting him with the fact of my father's death, and asking for some assistance to set

up in business for myself, promising to repay the amount advanced with interest as soon as I was able, for

although my father had never said anything against his elder brother, I somehow had divined, rather than

knew, that he was a hard man, and his answering letter gave proof of that, for it contained no expression of

regret for his brother's death. My uncle declined to make the advance I asked for, saying that many years

before he had given my father two hundred dollars which had never been repaid. I was thus compelled, for

the time at least, to give up my plan for opening a dressmaking establishment, even on the smallest scale, and

was obliged to take a situation similar to that which I hold here. In three years I was able to save the two

hundred dollars, which I sent to my uncle, and promised to remit the interest if be would tell me the age of

the debt. He replied giving the information, and enclosing a receipt for the principal, with a very correct

mathematical statement of the amount of interest if compounded annually, as was his legal right, but

expressing his readiness to accept simple interest, and give me a receipt in full."

"The brute!" ejaculated Katherine, which remark brought upon her a mild rebuke from her mother on

"I merely mention this detail," continued Dorothy, "as an object lesson in honesty. Never before since the

world began was there such a case of casting bread upon the waters as was my sending the two hundred

dollars. My uncle appears to have been a most methodical man. He filed away my letter which contained the

money, also a typewritten copy of his reply, and when he died, it was these documents which turned the

attention of the legal arm who acted for him to myself, for my uncle had left no will. The Californian firm

communicated with lawyers in New York, and they began a series of very cautious inquiries, which at last

resulted, after I had furnished certain proofs asked for, in my being declared heiress to my uncle's estate."

"I asked the lawyers from New York to deposit ten thousand dollars for me in the Sixth National Bank of this

town, and they did so. It was to draw a little check against that deposit, and thus learn if it was real, that I

"Ten thousand dollars," murmured Katherine, in accents of deep disappointment. "Is that all?"

"No, you deserve ten times as much, and I'm not going to New York or Boston at your expense to buy new

Dorothy laughed quietly, and drew from the little satchel she wore at her side a letter, which she handed to

"Oh, I won't tell any one," said Katherine, unfolding it. She read eagerly halfway down the page, then

"Fifteen million dollars! Fifteen million dollars!" and, swinging her arms back and forth like an athlete about

to leap, sprang to the floor, nearly upsetting the little table, tray and all, as she embraced Dorothy Amhurst.

"Fifteen millions! That's something like! Why, mother, do you realize that we have under our roof one of the

richest young women in the world? Don't you see that the rest of this conference must take place in our

drawingroom under the most solemn auspices? The idea of our keeping such an heiress in the attic!"

THROUGHOUT the long summer day a gentle excitement had fluttered the hearts of those ladies, young, or

not so young, who had received invitations to the ball on board the "Consternation" that night. The last

touches were given to creations on which had been spent skill, taste, and money. Our three young women,

being most tastefully and fashionably attired, were in high spirits, which state of feeling was exhibited

according to the nature of each; Sabina rather stately in her exaltation; Dorothy quiet and demure; while

Katherine, despite her mother's supplications, would not be kept quiet, but swung her graceful gown this way

and that, practising the slide of a waltz, and quoting W. R. Gilbert, as was her custom. She glided over the

Meanwhile, in a room downstairs that goodnatured veteran Captain Kempt was telling the latest stories to

his future soninlaw, a young officer of the American Navy, who awaited, with dutiful impatience, the

advent of the serene Sabina. When at last the ladies came down the party set out through the gathering

darkness of this heavenly summer night for the private pier from which they were privileged, because of

Captain Kempt's official standing, to voyage to the cruiser on the little revenue cutter "Whippoorwill,"

which was later on to convey the Secretary of the Navy and his entourage across the same intervening waters.

Just before they reached the pier their steps were arrested by the boom of a cannon, followed instantly by the

sudden apparition of the "Consternation" picked out in electric light; masts, funnel and hull all outlined by

"How beautiful!" cried Sabina, whose young man stood beside her. "It is as if a gigantic racket, all of one

"It reminds me," whispered Katherine to Dorothy, "of an overgrown popcorn ball," at which remark the two

"Crash!" sounded a cannon from an American ship, and then the white squadron became visible in a blaze of

lightning. And now all the yachts and other craft on the waters flaunted their lines of fire, and the whole Bay

"Now," said Captain Kempt with a chuckle, "watch the Britisher. I think she's going to show us some color,"

and as he spoke there appeared, spreading from nest to mast, a huge sheet of blue, with four great stars which

pointed the corners of a parallelogram, and between the stars shone a huge white anchor. Cheers rang out

from the crew of the "Consternation," and the band on board played "The StarSpangled Banner."

"That," said Captain Kempt in explanation, "is the flag of the United States Secretary of the Navy, who will

be with us tonight. The visitors have kept very quiet about this bit of illumination, but our lads got on to the

secret about a week ago, and I'll be very much disappointed if they don't give 'em tit for tat."

When the band on the "Consternation" ceased playing, all lights went out on the American squadron, and

then on the flagship appeared from mast to mast a device with the Union Jack in the corner, a great red cross

dividing the flag into three white squares. As this illumination flashed out the American band struck up the

The "Whippoorwill" speedily whisked the party and others across the sparkling waters to the foot of the

grand stairway which had been specially constructed to conduct the elect from the tide to the deck. It was

more than double as broad as the ordinary gangway, was carpeted from top to bottom, and on every step

stood a bluejacket, each as steady as if cast in bronze, the line forming, as one might say, a living handrail

Captain Kempt and his wife went first, followed by Sabina and her young man with the two girls in their

"Aren't those men splendid?" whispered Katherine to her friend. "I wish each held an oldfashioned torch. I

On deck the bluff captain of the "Consternation," in resplendent uniform, stood beside Lady Angela Burford

of the British Embassy at Washington, to receive the guests of the cruiser. Behind these two were grouped an

assemblage of officers and very fashionably dressed women, chatting vivaciously with each other. As

Dorothy looked at the princesslike Lady Angela it seemed as if she knew her; as if here were one who had

stepped out of an English romance. Her tall, proudly held figure made the stoutish captain seem shorter than

he actually was. The natural haughtiness of those classic features was somewhat modified by a pro tem smile.

"Now, young ladies, best foot forward. The Du Maurier woman is to receive the Gibson girls."

"I know I shall laugh, and I fear I shall giggle," said Katherine, but she encountered a glance from her elder

sister quite as haughty as any Lady Angela might have bestowed, and all thought of merriment fled for the

moment; thus the ordeal passed conventionally without Katherine either laughing or giggling.

Sabina and her young man faded away into the crowd. Captain Kempt was nodding to this one and that of his

numerous acquaintances, and Katherine felt Dorothy shrink a little closer to her as a tall, unknown young

man deftly threaded his way among the people, making directly for the Captain, whom he seized by the hand

"Captain Kempt, I am delighted to meet you again. My name is DrummondLieutenant Drummond, and I

"The pleasure was mine, sir, the pleasure was mine," exclaimed the Captain with a cordiality equal to that

with which he had been greeted. He had not at first the least recollection of the young man, but the Captain

was something of an amateur politician, and possessed all a politician's expertness in facing the unknown,

"Isn't it a perfect night?" gasped the Lieutenant. "I think we are to be congratulated on our weather."

He still clung to the Captain's hand, and shook it again so warmly that the Captain said to himself:

"I must have made an impression on this young fellow," then aloud he replied jauntily:

"Oh, we always have good weather this time of year. You see, the United States Government runs the

weather. Didn't you know that? Yes, our Weather Bureau is considered the best in the world."

The Lieutenant laughed heartily, although a hollow note intervened, for the young man had got to the end of

his conversation, realized he could not shake hands for a third time, yet did not know what more to say. The

suavity of the politician came to his rescue in just the form the Lieutenant had hoped.

"And my daughter, Katherine, and Miss Amhurst, a friend of oursLieutenant Drummond, of the

"I wonder," said the Lieutenant, as if the thought had just occurred to him, "if the young ladies would like to

go to a point where they can have a comprehensive view of the decorations. II may not be the best guide,

"Don't ask me," said Captain Kempt. "Ask the girls. Everything I've had in life has come to me because I

"Of course we want to see the decorations," cried Katherine with enthusiasm, and so bowing to the Captain

and Mrs. Kempt, the Lieutenant led the young women down the deck, until he came to an elevated spot out of

the way of all possible promenaders, on which had been placed in a somewhat secluded position, yet

commanding a splendid view of the throng, a settee with just room for two, that had been taken from some

one's cabin. A bluejacket stood guard over it, but at a nod from the Lieutenant he disappeared.

"Hello!" cried Katherine, "reserved seats, eh? How different from a theatre chair, where you are entitled to

your place by holding a colored bit of cardboard. Here a man with a cutlass stands guard. It gives one a

The Lieutenant laughed quite as heartily as if he had not himself hoped to occupy the position now held by

the sprightly Katherine. He was cudgelling his brain to solve the problem represented by the adage "Two is

company, three is none." The girls sat together on the settee and gazed out over the brilliantly lighted,

animated throng. People were still pouring up the gangways, and the decks were rapidly becoming crowded

with a manycolored, evershifting galaxy of humanity. The hum of conversation almost drowned the

popular selections being played by the cruiser's excellent band. Suddenly one popular selection was cut in

two. The sound of the instruments ceased for a moment, then they struck up "The Stars and Stripes for Ever."

"I should say we could," boasted the Lieutenant, "and we can play his music, in a way to give some hints to

"Exactly," smiled the Lieutenant, "and now, young ladies, will you excuse me for a few moments? This

musical selection means that your Secretary of the Navy is on the waters, and I must be in my place with the

rest of the officers to receive him and his staff with all ceremony. Please promise you will not leave this spot

Dorothy saw all levity depart from his face, giving way to a look of sternness and command. Although he

was engaged in a joke, the subordinate must see no sign of fooling in his countenance. He said a sharp word

to a bluejacket, who nimbly sprang to the end of the settee, raised his hand in salute, and stiffened himself to

an automaton. Then the girls saw the tall figure of the Lieutenant wending its way to the spot where the

"I say, Dorothy, we're prisoners. I wonder what this Johnny would do if we attempted to fly. Isn't the

"Agreeable! Why, he's splendid. I tell you, Dorothy, I'm going to have the first dance with him. I'm the eldest.

"Nonsense, you're not going to sit here all night with nobody to speak to. I'll ask the Lieutenant to bring you a

"Katherine," said Dorothy, almost as severely as if it were the elder sister who spoke, "if you say anything

"You can't get back. I'll appeal to the guard. I'll have you locked up if you don't behave yourself."

"You should behave yourself. Really, Katherine, you must be careful what you say, or you'll make me feel

"Don't be frightened, Miss Propriety, I wouldn't make you unhappy for the world. But surely you're going to

"Some other time. Not tonight. There are too many people here. I shouldn't enjoy it, andthere are other

reasons. This is all so new and strange to me: these brilliant men and beautiful womenthe lights, the music,

everythingit is as if I had stepped into another world; something I had read about, or perhaps dreamed

"It isn't selfish at all, Katherine. I shall enjoy myself completely here. I don't really wish to talk to any one,

but simply to enjoy my dream, with just a little fear at the bottom of my heart that I shall suddenly wake up,

"Hello!" cried Katherine, with renewed animation, "they've got the Secretary safe aboard the lugger, and they

seem to be clearing the decks for action. Here is my dear Lieutenant returning; tall even among tall men.

Look at him. He's in a great hurry, yet so polite, and doesn't want to bump against anybody. And now,

Dorothy, don't you be afraid. I shall prove a perfect model of diffidence. You will be proud of me when you

learn with what timidity I pronounce prunes and prism. I think I must languish a little at him. I don't know

quite how it's done, but in old English novels the girls always languished, and perhaps an Englishman expects

a little languishment in his. I wonder if he comes of a noble family. If he doesn't, I don't think I'll languish

very much. Still, what matters the pomp of pageantry and pride of raceisn't that the way the poem runs? I

love our dear little Lieutenant for himself alone, and I think I will have just one dance with him, at least."

Drummond had captured a campstool somewhere, and this he placed at right angles to the settee, so that he

might face the two girls, and yet not interrupt their view. The sailor on guard once more faded away, and the

"Well," cried Drummond cheerfully, "I've got everything settled. I've received the Secretary of the Navy: our

captain is to dance with his wife, and the Secretary is Lady Angela's partner. There they go!"

"Ladies, I am disappointed that you have not complimented our electrical display."

"I am sure it's very nice, indeed, and most ingenious," declared Dorothy, speaking for the first time that

evening to the officer, but Katherine, whose little foot was tapping the deck to the dance music, tossed her

head, and declared nonchalantly that it was all very well as a British effort at illumination, but she begged the

"I suppose," said the Lieutenant cheerfully, "that we should have been where Moses was when the candle

"You might have had torches," said Dorothy. "My friend forgets she was wishing the sailors held torches on

Katherine was displeased at the outlook. She was extremely fond of dancing, and here this complacent young

"Miss Kempt, I am sorry that you are disappointed at our display. Your slight upon British electrical

engineering leaves us unscathed, because this has been done by a foreign mechanic, whom I wish to present

"Oh, indeed," said Katherine, rather in the usual tone of her elder sister. "I don't dance with mechanics, thank

She emphasized the light fantastic word, but the Lieutenant did not take the hint; he merely laughed again in

"Oh," said Katherine loftily, "Lady Angela may dance with any blacksmith that pleases her, but I don't. I'm

"Yes, he is, and I think him by all odds the finest fellow aboard this ship. It's quite likely you have read about

his sister. She is a year older than Jack, very beautiful, cultured, everything that a grande dame should be, yet

she has given away her huge estate to the peasantry, and works with them in the fields, living as they do, and

faring as they do. There was an article about her in one of the French reviews not long ago. She is called the

"The Princess Natalia!" echoed Katherine, turning her face toward the young man. "How can Princess Natalia

be a sister of Jack Lamont? Did she marry some old prince, and take to the fields in disgust?"

"Oh, no; Jack Lamont is a Russian. He is called Prince Ivan Lermontoff when he's at home, but we call him

Jack Lamont for short. He's going to help me on the Russian business I told you of."

"What Russian business?" asked Katherine. "I don't remember your speaking of it."

Dorothy went white, edged a little way from her friend, while her widening eyes flashed a warning at the

Lieutenant, who, too late, remembered that this conversation on Russia had taken place during the walk from

the bank. The young man coughed slightly behind his open hand, reddened, and stammered:

"Oh, I thought I had told you. Didn't I mention the prince to you as we were coming here?"

"Not that I recollect," said Katherine. "Is he a real, genuine prince? A right down regular, regular, regular

"I don't know about the royalty, but he's a prince in good standing in his own land, and he is also an excellent

blacksmith." The Lieutenant chuckled a little. "He and his sister have both been touched a good deal by

Tolstoian doctrine. Jack is the most wonderful inventor, I think, that is at present on the earth, Edison

notwithstanding. Why, he is just now engaged on a scheme by which he can float houses from the mountains

here down to New York. Float thempipeline them would perhaps be a better term. You know they have

pipelines to carry petroleum. Very well; Jack has a solution that dissolves stone as white sugar dissolves in

tea, and he believes he can run the fluid from the quarries to where building is going on. It seems that he then

puts this liquid into molds, and there you have the stone again. I don't understand the process myself, but Jack

tells me it's marvelously cheap, and marvelously effective. He picked up the idea from nature one time when

"No, no, this is in France. I believe the real name of the river is the Tarn. There's a gorge called Detroitthe

strait, you know. Wonderful placetremendous chasm. You go down in a boat, and all the tributary rivers

pour into the main stream like jets from the nozzle of a hose. They tell me this is caused by the rain

percolating through the dead leaves on the surface of the ground far above, and thus the water becomes

saturated with carbonic acid gas, and so dissolves the limestone until the granite is reached, and the granite

forms the bed of these underground rivers. It all seemed to me very wonderful, but it struck Jack on his

scientific side, and he has been experimenting ever since. He says he'll be able to build a city with a hose next

"On the cruiser just at present. I was instrumental in getting him signed on as John Lamont, and he passed

without question. No wonder, for he has scientific degrees from all sorts of German universities, from

Oxford, and one or two institutions in the States. When at home he lives in St. Petersburg."

"He's got a blacksmith shop, with two rooms above, and I'm going to stop with him for a few months as soon

as I get my leave, When the cruiser reaches England we pay off, and I expect to have nothing to do for six

"Why do you call him Lamont? Is it taken from his real name of whatd'yecallitoff?"

"Lermontoff? Yes. The Czar Demetrius, some time about the beginning of the seventeenth century,

established a Scottish Guard, just as Louis XI did in France two hundred years before, and there came over

from Scotland. Lamonts, Carmichaels, Buchanans and others, on whom were bestowed titles and estates.

Prince Ivan Lermontoff is a descendant of the original Lamont, who was an officer in the Scottish Guard of

"That's what I tell him when he annoys me, as I am by way of being a Scotchman myself. Ah, the waltz is

"Oh, Dorothy," she exclaimed, when the Lieutenant was out of hearing, "think of it! A real prince, and my

ambition has never risen higher than a paltry count, or some plebeian of that sort. He's mine, Dorothy; I found

"What are lieutenants to me? The proud daughter of a captain (retired) cannot stoop to a mere lieutenant."

"You are beginning to take notice, aren't you, Dot? But I bestow the Lieutenant freely upon you, because I'm

Ah, here they come. Isn't he perfectly splendid? Look at his beard! Just the color of a brandnew

twentydollar gold piece. See that broad ribbon diagonally across him. I wonder what it means. And gaze at

"Yes, for a blacksmith. I wonder if he beat those stars out on his anvil. He isn't nearly so tall as Lieutenant

"Dorothy, I'll not allow you to disparage my Prince. How can you be so disagreeable? I thought from the very

first that the Lieutenant was too tall. If the Prince expects me to call him 'your Highness,' he'll be

"Oh, no, I'm not," said Dorothy, shaking her head and laughing, and then "Hush!" she added, as Katherine

The next moment the young men stood before them, and, introductions being soberly performed, the Prince

lost no time in begging Katherine to favor him with a dance, to which request the young woman was

graciously pleased to accede, without, however, exhibiting too much haste about her acceptance, and so they

"SOME one has taken the camp stool," said Lieutenant Drummond. "May I sit here?" and the young woman

When he had seated himself he glanced around, then impulsively held out his hand.

"Very well, thank you," replied the girl with a smile, and after half a moment's hesitation she placed her hand

"Yes, but not tonight. I am here merely as a lookeron in Vienna. You must not allow politeness to keep

you away from the floor, or, perhaps, I should say the deck. I don't mind being alone in the least."

"Now, Miss Amhurst, that is not a hint, is it? Tell me that I have not already tired you of my company."

"Oh, no, but I do not wish you to feel that simply because we met casually the other day you are compelled to

"Indeed, Miss Amhurst, although I should very much like to have the pleasure of dancing with you, there is

no one else here that I should care to ask. I have quailed under the eagle eye of my Captain once or twice this

evening, and I have been rather endeavoring to keep out of his sight. I fear he has found something new about

me of which to disapprove, so I have quite determined not to dance, unless you would consent to dance with

"Heaven only knows! I try not to be purposely wicked, and indeed have put forth extra efforts to be extra

good, but it seems all of no avail. I endeavor to go about the ship with a subdued, humble, unobtrusive air,

but this is rather difficult for a person of my size. I don't think a man can droop successfully unless he's under

Dorothy laughed with quiet content. She was surprised to find herself so much at her ease with him, and so

mildly happy. They shared a secret together, and that of itself was an intangible bond linking him with her

who had no ties with any one else. She liked him; had liked him from the first; and his unconcealed delight in

her company was gratifying to a girl who heretofore had found none to offer her the gentle courtesies of life.

"Is it the Russian business again? You do not look very much troubled about it."

"Ah, that isthat is" he stammered in apparent confusion, then blurted out, "because youbecause I am

sitting here. Although I have met you but once before, it seems somehow as if I had known you always, and

my slight anxiety that I told you of fades away in your presence. I hope you don't think I am forward in

saying this, but really tonight, when I saw you at the head of the gangway, I could scarcely refrain from

going directly to you and greeting you. I am afraid I made rather a hash of it with Captain Kempt. He is too

much of a gentleman to have shown any surprise at my somewhat boisterous accosting of him, and you know

I didn't remember him at all, but I saw that you were under his care, and chanced it. Luckily it seems to have

been Captain Kempt after all, but I fear I surprised him, taking him by storm, as it were."

"I thought you did it very nicely," said Dorothy, "and, indeed, until this moment I hadn't the least suspicion

that you didn't recognize him. He is a dear old gentleman, and I'm very fond of him."

"I say," said the Lieutenant, lowering his voice, "I nearly came a cropper when I spoke of that Russian affair

"Oh, she never noticed anything," said Dorothy hurriedly. "You got out of that, too, very well. I thought of

telling her I bad met you before while she and I were in New York together, but the opportunity never

seemedwell, I couldn't quite explain, and, indeed, didn't wish to explain my own inexplicable conduct at

the bank, and so trusted to chance. If you had greeted me first tonight, I suppose"she smiled and looked up

"I have walked up and down every street, lane and alley in Bar Harbor, hoping to catch a glimpse of you. I

"Well, I have been stretching my shore leave just a little bit. I wanted to apologize for talking so much about

"It was very interesting, and, if you remember, we walked farther than I had intended."

"Oh, no. I told them I had been detained. It happened not to be necessary to enter into details, so I was saved

the task of explanation, and, besides, we had other interesting things to discuss. This function on the cruiser

has loomed so large as a topic of conversation that there has been little need of any other subject to talk about

"I suppose you must have attended many grander occasions than this. Although we have endeavored to make

a display, and although we possess a reasonably efficient band, still, a cruiser is not exactly designed for the

use to which it is being put tonight. We have many disadvantages to overcome which are not met with in the

The girl's eyes were on the deck for some moments before she replied, then she looked across at the dancers,

"I think the ball on the 'Consternation' quite equals anything I have ever attended."

"It is nice of you to say that. Praise fromI won't name Sir Hubert Stanleybut rather Lady Hubert

Stanleyis praise, indeed. And now, Miss Amhurst, since I have confessed my fruitless wanderings through

Bar Harbor, may I not have the pleasure of calling upon you tomorrow or next day?"

"I suppose," she said slowly, with the flicker of a smile curving those enticing lips, "that since you were so

very friendly with Captain Kempt tonight he may expect you to smoke a cigar with him, and it will possibly

happen that Katherine and I, who are very fond of the Captain, may chance to come in while you are there."

"Katherine? Ah, Katherine is the name of the young lady who was with you hereMiss Kempt?"

"I wonder if they'd think I was taking a liberty if I brought Jack Lamont with me?"

"Oh, yes, there's no doubt about that. I shouldn't have taken the liberty of introducing him to you as Prince

Lermontoff if he were not, as we say in Scotland, a real Mackaythe genuine article. Well, then, the Prince

"Oh, yes. As I told you, I intend to live very quietly in St. Petersburg, and the Prince has his shop and a pair

of rooms above it in a working quarter of the city. I shall occupy one of the rooms and he the other. The

Prince is an excellent cook, so we shan't starve, even if we engage no servant."

"He hasn't given them away exactly, but he is a very indulgent landlord, and he spends so much money on his

experiments and travel that, although he has a formidable income, he is very frequently quite short of money.

"Yes. Of course I saw him for a moment only. I wonder why they haven't returned. There's been several

"Perhaps," said the Lieutenant, with a slight return of his stammering, "your friend may be as fond of dancing

"Quite. There is absolutely no danger. I may not accomplish anything, but I'll have a try at it. The Prince has

a good deal of influence in St. Petersburg, which he will use quietly on my behalf, so that I may see the

Drummond was interrupted by a fellowofficer, who raised his cap, and begged a word with him.

"No, but I know he has left a note for you in your cabin. Shall I go and fetch it?"

"No trouble at all. Delighted, I'm sure," said Chesham, again raising his cap and going off.

"Under the present condition of things a bit of neglect that would go unnoticed with another man is a sign of

unrepentant villainy in me. Any other Lieutenant may steal a horse while I may not look over a hedge. You

see how necessary it is for me to go to Russia, and get this thing smoothed over."

"I think, perhaps, you are too sensitive, and notice slights where nothing of the kind is meant," said the girl.

"Will you excuse me a moment?" he said, and as she looked at him he flattered himself that he noticed a trace

"I am ordered home. The Admiralty commands me to take the first steamer for England."

"Oh, no, not serious; it's just their way of doing things. They might easily have allowed me to come home in

my own ship. My only fear is I shall have to take the train for New York early tomorrow morning. But," he

said, holding out his hands, "it is not serious if you allow me to write to you, and if you will permit me to

IN midafternoon of the day following the entertainment on board the "Consternation" our two girls were

seated opposite one another under the rafters of the sewing room, in the listless, desultory manner of those

who have not gone home till morning, till daylight did appear. The dominant note of a summer cottage is the

rockingchair, and there were two in the sewing room, where Katherine and Dorothy swayed gently back and

forth as they talked. They sat close to the low, broad window which presented so beautiful a picture of the

blue Bay and the white shipping. The huge "Consternation" lay moored with her broadside toward the town,

all sign of festivity already removed from hull and rigging, and, to the scarcely slumbersatisfied eyes of the

girls, something of the sadness of departure seemed to hang as a haze around the great ship. The girls were

not discussing the past, but rather anticipating the future; forecasting it, with long, silent pauses intervening.

"So you will not stay with us? You are determined to turn your wealthy back on the poor Kempt family?"

"But I shall return to the Kempt family now and then, if they will let me. I must get away for a time and

think. My life has suddenly become all topsyturvy, and I need to get my bearings, as does a ship that has

"I think it's too bad, Dorothy, that you did not allow us to make public announcement of your good fortune.

Just imagine what an ovation you would have had on board the cruiser last night if it had been known that the

richest woman in that assemblage was a pretty, shy little creature sitting all by herself, and never indulging in

"I shouldn't in the least care for that sort of ovation, Kate, and if every one present were as well pleased with

the festivities as I, they must all have enjoyed themselves immensely. I believe my friend Kate did my share

"'She danced, and she danced, and she danced them a' din.' I think those are the words of the Scottish song

that the Prince quoted. He seems up in Scottish poetry, and does not even resent being called a Scotchman.

This energetic person of the song seems to have danced them all to a standstill, as I understood him, for he

informs me 'a' means 'all' and 'din' means 'done,' but I told him I'd rather learn Russian than Scotch; it was so

much easier, and his Highness was good enough to laugh at that. Didn't the Lieutenant ask you to dance at

"Yes, that's so. I had forgotten. I shall never say anything against him again."

"Of all the crowned heads, emperors, kings, sultans, monarchs of every description, dukes, counts, earls,

marquises, whom I have met, and who have pestered my life asking me to share their royal perquisites, I

think I may say quite truthfully that I like this Jack Lamont better than any one of them."

"No, not yet, but with an eye to the future I have persuaded him to give up Tolstoi and read Mark Twain, who

is not only equally humorous, but much more sensible than the Russian writer. Jack must not be allowed to

give away his estates to the peasants as his silly sister has done. I may need them later on."

"I have got that far: he hasn't. He doesn't know anything about it, but I'll wake him up when the right time

comes. There are many elements of sanity about him. He told me that he intended to give up his estates, but

in the first place he had been too busy, and in the second he needed the money. His good sense, however,

requires refining, so that he may get rid of the dross. I don't blame him; I blame Tolstoi. For instance, when I

asked him if he had patented his liquid city invention, he said he did not wish to make a profit from his

discovery, but intended it for the good of humanity at large. Imagine such an idiotic idea as that!"

"Oh, of course, but the plan is not practicable. If he allows such an invention to slip through his fingers, the

Standard Oil people will likely get hold of it, form a monopoly, and then where would humanity at large be? I

tell him the right way is to patent it, make all the money be can, and use the cash for benefiting humanity

"I did not intimate who the sensible person was, but I elucidated the principle of the thing."

"Many things, Dorothy, many things. At one time he became confidential about his possessions in foreign

lands. It seems he owns several castles, and when he visits any of them he cannot prevent the moujiks, if that

is the proper term for the peasantry over there, from prostrating themselves on the ground as he passes by,

beating their foreheads against the earth, and chanting, in choice Russian, the phrase: 'Defer, defer, here

comes the Lord High Executioner,' or words to that effect. I told him I didn't see why he should interfere with

so picturesque a custom, and he said if I visited one of his castles that these estimable people, at a word from

him, would form a corduroy road in the mud with their bodies, so that I might step dryshod from the

carriage to the castle doors, and I stipulated that he should at least spread a bit of stair carpet over the poor

"I don't know how much time is required to attain the point of friendship you reached. I am inexperienced. It

is true I have read of love at first sight, and I am merely waiting to be told whether or not this is an instance

"I don't know why, but you are. No, it was not a case of love at first sight. It was a case of feminine

vengeance. Yes, you may look surprised, but I'm telling the truth. After I walked so proudly off with his high

mightiness, we had a most agreeable dance together; then I proposed to return to you, but the young man

would not have it so, and for the moment I felt flattered. By and by I became aware, however, that it was not

because of my company he avoided your vicinity, but that he was sacrificing himself for his friend."

"I surmise that the tall Lieutenant did not fall a victim to my wiles as I had at first supposed, but, in some

unaccountable manner, one can never tell how these things happen; he was most anxious to be left alone with

the coy Miss Dorothy Amhurst, who does not understand how long a time it takes to fall in love at first sight,

although she has read of these things, dear, innocent girl. The first villain of the piece has said to the second

villain of the piece: 'There's a superfluous young woman over on our bench; I'll introduce you to her. You

lure her off to the giddy dance, and keep her away as long as you can, and I'll do as much for you some day.'

"Whereupon Jack Lamont probably sworeI understand that profanity is sometimes distressingly prevalent

aboard shipbut nevertheless he allowed the Lieutenant to lead him like a lamb to the slaughter. Well, not

being powerful enough to throw him overboard when I realized the state of the case, I did the next best thing.

I became cloyingly sweet to him. I smiled upon him: I listened to his farrago of nonsense about the chemical

components of his various notable inventions, as if a girl attends a ball to study chemistry! Before half an

hour had passed the infant had come to the conclusion that here was the first really sensible woman he had

ever met. He soon got to making love to me, as the horrid phrase goes, as if love were a mixture to be

compounded of this ingredient and that, and then shaken before taken. I am delighted to add, as a testimony

to my own powers of pleasing, that Jack soon forgot he was a sacrifice, and really, with a little instruction, he

would become a most admirable flirt. He is coming to call upon me this afternoon, and then he will get his

"What a wonderful imagination you have, Kate. All you have said is pure fancy. I saw he was taken with you

"Nonsense, Kate. If I thought for a moment you were really in earnest, I should say you underestimate your

"Oh, that's all very well, Miss Dorothy Dimple; you are trying to draw a red herring across the trail, because

you know that what I want to hear is why Lieutenant Drummond was so anxious to get me somewhere else.

What use did he make of the opportunity the goodnatured Prince and my sweet complacency afforded him?"

"Come down to particulars, Dorothy, and let me judge. You are so inexperienced, you know, that it is well to

"Of himself, of course. He told me why he was going to Russia, and spoke of some checks he had met in his

"Good gracious me!" cried Katherine, jumping to her feet. "The Prince has come. What a stupid thing that we

have no mirror in this room, and it's a sewing and sitting room, too. Do I look all right, Dorothy?"

"Ah, well, I can glance at a glass on the next floor. Won't you come down and see him trampled on?"

"No, thank you. I shall most likely drop off to sleep, and enjoy forty winks in this very comfortable chair.

Don't be too harsh with the young man, Kate. You are quite wrong in your surmises about him. The

Lieutenant never made any such arrangement as you suggest, because he talked of nothing but the most

commonplace subjects all the time I was with him, as I was just about to tell you, only you seem in such a

"Oh, that doesn't deceive me in the least. I'll be back shortly, with the young man's scalp dangling at my belt.

Dorothy picked up a magazine that lay on the table, and for a few moments turned its leaves from one story

to another, trying to interest herself, but failing. Then she lifted the newspaper that lay at her feet, but it also

was soon cast aside, and she leaned back in her chair with halfclosed eyes, looking out at the cruiser in the

Bay. A slight haze arose between her and the ship, thickening and thickening until at last it obscured the

Dorothy was oppressed by a sense of something forgotten, and she strove in vain to remember what it was. It

was of the utmost importance, she was certain, and this knowledge made her mental anxiety the greater.

At last out of the gloom she saw Sabina approach, clothed in rags, and then a flash of intuition enabled her to

grasp the difficulty. Through her remissness the ball dress was unfinished, and the girl, springing to her feet,

turned intuitively to the sewingmachine, when the ringing laugh of Katherine dissolved the fog.

"Why, you poor girl, what's the matter with you? Are you sitting down to drudgery again? You've forgotten

"Already! Why, bless me, I've been away an hour and a quarter. You dear girl, you've been asleep and in

THREE days later the North Atlantic squadron of the British Navy sailed down the coast from Halifax, did

not even pause at Bar Harbor, but sent a wireless telegram to the "Consternation," which pulled up anchor

Katherine stood by the broad window in the sewing room in her favorite attitude, her head sideways against

the pane, her eyes languidly gazing upon the Bay, fingers drumming this time a very slow march on the

window sill. Dorothy sat in a rockingchair, reading a letter for the second time. There had been silence in

the room for some minutes, accentuated rather than broken by the quiet drumming of the girl's fingers on the

I wonder if I've got the lines right," she whispered to herself. She had forgotten there was anyone else in the

"Kate, that's a solemn change, from Gilbert to Kipling. I always judge your mood by your quotations. Has life

"Oh, I don't know," said Katherine, without turning round. "They are humorous all, and so each furnishes

something suitable for the saddened mind. Wisdom comes through understanding your alphabet properly. For

instance, first there was Gilbert, and that gave us G; then came Kipling, and he gave us K; thus we get an

algebraic formula, G.K., which are the initials of Chesterton, a still later arrival, and as the mind increases in

despondency it sinks lower and lower down the alphabet until it comes to S, and thus we have Barnyard

Shaw, an improvement on the Kailyard school, who takes the O pshaw view of life. And relaxing hold of

him I sink deeper until I come to WW. W. Jacobshow I wish he wrote poetry! He should be the

humorist of all sailors, and perhaps some time he will desert barges for battleships. Then I shall read him with

"Mark Twain isn't yours to give, my dear. He belongs to me also. You've forgotten that comparisons are

'How doth the little busy bee Improve each shining hour, And gather honey all the day From every opening

Watts. You see, I'm still down among the W's. Oh, Dorothy, how can you sit there so placidly when the

I don't know who wrote that, but you have no tears for others' woes, merely greeting them with ribald

laughter," for Dorothy, with the wellread letter in her hand, was making the rafters ring with her merriment,

something that had never before happened during her long tenancy of that room. Kate turned her head slowly

round, and the expression on her face was halfindignant, halfhumorous, while her eyes were uncertain

"Why, Katherine, you look like a tragedy queen, rather than the spirit of comedy! Is it really a case of

'Titwillow, titwillow, titwillow'? You see, I'm arescuing you from the bottom of the alphabet, and

bringing you up to the Gilbert plane, where I am more accustomed to you, and understand you better. Is this

despondency due to the departure of the 'Consternation,' and the fact that she carries away with her Jack

"The ship that has gone out with him we call she. If he had eloped with a real she, then wearing the willow, or

singing it, however futile, might be understandable. As it is I see nothing in the situation to call for a sigh."

"That is because you are a hardened sinner, Dorothy. You have no heart, or at least if you have, it is

untouched, and therefore you cannot understand. If that note in your hand were a love missive, instead of a

"Business letters are quite necessary, and belong to the world we live in," said Dorothy, a glow of brighter

color suffusing her cheeks. "Surely your acquaintance with Mr. Lamont is of the shortest."

"He has called upon me every day since the night of the ball," maintained Katherine stoutly.

"Only three! How you talk! One would think you had never been schooled in mathematics. Why, three is a

magic figure. You can do plenty of amazing things with it. Don't you know that three is a numeral of love?"

"Three," said Katherine taking one last look at the empty horizon, then seating herself in front of her friend,

"three is a recurring decimal. It goes on and on and on forever, and if you write it for a thousand years you

are still as far from the end as when you began. It will carry you round the world and back again, and never

"Is it so serious as all that, Kate, or are you just fooling again?" asked Dorothy, more soberly than heretofore.

"Spoken? He has done nothing but speak, and I have listenedoh, so intently, and with such deep

understanding. He has never before met such a woman as I, and has frankly told me so."

"Yes, you see, Dorothy, I am really much deeper than the ordinary woman. Who, for instance, could find

such a beautiful love simile from a book of arithmetic costing twentyfive cents, as I have unearthed from

decimal fractions? With that example in mind how can you doubt that other volumes of college learning

reveal to me their inner meaning? John presented to me, as he said goodby, a beautifully bound copy of that

celebrated textbook, 'Saunders' Analytical Chemistry,' with particularly tender passages marked in pencil,

Rather bewildered, for Kate's expression was one of pathos, unrelieved by any gleam of humor, Dorothy

"No, I didn't. How can you be so unsympathetic? Is it impossible for you to comprehend the unseen link that

binds John and me? I rummaged the book store until I found a charming little edition of 'Marshall's

Geologist's Pocket Companion,' covered with beautiful brown limp Russia leatherI thought the Russia

binding was so inspirationalwith a sweet little clasp that keeps it closedtypical of our hands at parting.

On the flyleaf I wrote: 'To J. L., in remembrance of many interesting conversations with his friend, K. K.' It

only needed another K to be emblematic and political, a reminiscence of the olden times, when you people of

the South, Dorothy, were making it hot for us deserving folks in the North. I hadn't time to go through the

book very thoroughly, but I found many references to limestone, which I marked, and one particularly choice

bit of English relating to the dissolution and reconsolidation of various minerals I drew a parallelogram

around in red ink. A friend of mine in a motor launch was good enough to take the little parcel direct to the

'Consternation,' and I have no doubt that at this moment Jack is perusing it, and perhaps thinking of the giver.

"You don't mean to say, Kate, that your conversation was entirely about geology?"

"Certainly not. How could you have become imbued with an idea so absurd? We had many delightful

dalliances down the romantic groves of chemistry, hearttoheart talks on metallurgy, and onceah, shall I

ever forget itwhile the dusk gently enfolded us, and I gazed into those bright, speaking, intelligent eyes of

his as he bent nearer and nearer; while his low, sonorous voice in wellchosen words pictured to me the

promise which fortified cement holds out to the world; that is, ignorant person, Portland cement strengthened

by ribs of steel; and I sat listening breathless as his glowing phrases prophesied the future of this

Katherine closed her eyes, rocked gently back and forth, and crooned, almost inaudibly:

"'When you gang awa, Jimmie, Faur across the sea, laddie, When ye gang to Russian lands What will ye send

I know what I shall get. It will probably be a newly discovered recipe for the compounding of cement which

"Kate, dear, you are overdoing it. It is quite right that woman should be a mystery to man, but she should not

aspire to become a mystery to her sister woman. Are you just making fun, or is there something in all this

"Like the steel strengthening in the cement, it may be there, but you can't see it, and you can't touch it, but it

makesoh, such a difference to the slab. Heigho, Dorothy, let us forsake these hardheaded subjects, and

turn to something human. What have your lawyers been bothering you about? No trouble over the money, is

"No. Of course, there are various matters they have to consult me about, and get my consent to this project or

"It is with reference to your assistance, and your continued assistance, that I wish to speak to you. Let us

follow the example of the cement and the steel, and form a compact. In one respect I am going to imitate the

"You can answer that question better than I, Kate. The Kempt family are not visitors, but live here all the year

"I confess it's a little dull in the winter time, and in all seasons it is situated a considerable distance from New

"That will depend largely on where my friend Kate advises me to go, because I shall take her with me if she

"Companion, lady'smaid, parlor maid, maidofallwork, cook, governess, typewritergirlwhich have I to

be? Shall I get one afternoon a week off, and may my young man come and see me, if I happen to secure one,

"You shall fix your own salary, Kate, and my lawer men will arrange that the chosen sum is settled upon you

"Do you think I am going to take advantage of my friendship with an heiress, and so pension myself off?"

"It is I who am taking the advantage," said Dorothy, "and I beg you to take compassion, rather than

"Well, this is the first proposal I've ever had, and I believe it is customary to say on those occasions that it is

"Oh, my mind's already made up. I'm going to jump at your offer, but I think it more ladylike to pretend a

"I don't know. I've settled on only one thing. I intend to build a little stone and tile church, very quaint and

oldfashioned, if I get the right kind of architect to draw a plan for it, and this church is to be situated in

"It is a village near the Hudson River, on the plain that stretches toward the Catskills."

"Yes, I suppose it is, but it seems to me a suitable place where two young women may meditate on what they

"Yes, that's an important question for the two. I say, Dorothy, let's take the other side of the river, and enter

Vassar College. Then we should at least have some fun, and there would be some reasonably welleducated

"Oh, you wish to use your lately acquired scientific knowledge in order to pass the examinations; but, you

see, I have had no tutor to school me in the mysteries of limeburning and the mixing of cement. Now, you

have scorned my side of the river, and I have objected to your side of the river. That is the bad beginning

"How can we do that? Live in a houseboat on the river like Frank Stockton's 'Budder Grange'?"

"No, settle in the city of New York, which is practically an island in the Hudson."

"Yes, we could live in a hotel until we found the ideal flat, high up in a nice apartment house, with a view

like that from the top of Mount Washington, or from the top of the Washington Monument."

"But you forget I made one proviso in the beginning, and that is that I am going to build a church, and the

church is to be situated, not in the city of New York, but in the village of Haverstock."

"New York is just the place from which to construct such an edifice. Haverstock will be somewhere near the

West Shore Railway. Very well. We can take a trip up there once a week or oftener, if you like, and see how

the work is progressing, then the people of Haverstock will respect us. As we drive from the station they'll

"'There's the two young ladies from New York who are building the church.' But if we settle down amongst

them they'll think we're only ordinary villagers instead of the distinguished persons we are. Or, while our flat

is being made ready we could live at one of the big hotels in the Catskills, and come down as often as we like

on the inclined railway. Indeed, until the weather gets colder, the Catskills is the place.

'And lo, the Catskills print the distant sky, And o'er their airy tops the faint clouds driven, So softly blending

"That ought to carry the day for the Catskills, Kate. What sort of habitation shall we choose? A big hotel, or a

"Oh, a big hotel, of coursethe biggest there is, whatever its name may be. One of those whose rates are so

high that the proprietor daren't advertise them, but says in his announcement, 'for terms apply to the manager.'

It must have ample grounds, support an excellent band, and advertise a renowned cuisine. Your room, at

least, should have a private balcony on which you can place a telescope and watch the building of your

church down below. I, being a humble person in a subordinate position, should have a balcony also to make

"Very well, Kate, that's settled. But although two lone women may set up housekeeping in a New York flat,

"I was going to suggest," pursued Dorothy, not noticing the interruption, "that we invite your father and

mother to accompany us. They might enjoy a change from sea air to mountain air."

"We shall each possess a latchkey when we settle down in New York. Our flat will be our castle, and,

although our latchkey will let us in, our Yale lock will keep other people out. A noted summer resort calls

for different treatment, because there we lead a semipublic life. Besides, I am selfish enough to wish my

"I doubt if she will, but I'll see. Besides, now that I come to think about it, it's only fair I should allow my

Dorothy drew the letter from its place of concealment, and read it for the third time, although one not

"Dear Miss Amhurst," and ended "Yours most sincerely, Alan Drummond." It gave some account of his

doings since he bade goodbye to her. A sailor, he informed her, needs little time for packing his belongings,

and on the occasion in question the Prince had been of great assistance. They set out together for the early

morning train, and said "au revoir" at the station. Drummond had intended to sail from New York, but a

friendly person whom he met on the train informed him that the Liverpool liner "Enthusiana" set out from

Boston next day, so he had abandoned the New York idea, and had taken passage on the liner named, on

whose notepaper he wrote the letter, which epistle was once more concealed as Dorothy heard Katherine's

"We're all going," she cried. "Father, mother and Sabina. It seems father has had an excellent offer to let the

house furnished till the end of September, and he says that, as he likes high life, he will put in the time on the

top of the Catskills. He abandons me, and says that if he can borrow a shilling he is going to cut me off with

it in his will. He regrets the departure of the British Fleet, because he thinks he might have been able to raise

a real English shilling aboard. Dad only insists on one condition, namely, that he is to pay for himself, mother

and Sabina, so he does not want a room with a balcony. I said that in spite of his disinheritance I'd help the

family out of my salary, and so he is going to reconsider the changing of his will."

"We will settle the conditions when we reach the Catskills," said Dorothy, smiling.

CAPTAIN and Mrs. Kempt with Sabina had resided a week in the Matterhorn Hotel before the two girls

arrived there. They had gone direct to New York, and it required the seven days to find a flat that suited them,

of which they were to take possession on the first of October. Then there were the lawyers to see; a great

many business details to settle, and an architect to consult. After leaving New York the girls spent a day at

Haverstock, where Dorothy Amhurst bought a piece of land as shrewdly as if she had been in the real estate

business all her life. After this transaction the girls drove to the station on the line connecting with the

inclined railway, and so, as Katherine remarked, were "wafted to the skies on flowery beds of ease," which

she explained to her shocked companion was all right, because it was a quotation from a hymn. When at last

"Isn't this heavenly?" she cried, "and, indeed, it ought to be, for I understand we are three thousand feet

higher than we were in New York, and even the skyscrapers can't compete with such an altitude."

The broad valley of the Hudson lay spread beneath them, stretching as far as the eye could see, shimmering in

the thin, bluish veil of a summer evening, and miles away the river itself could be traced like a silver ribbon.

The gallant Captain, who had been energetically browbeaten by his younger daughter, and threatened with

divers pains and penalties should he fail to pay attention and take heed to instructions, had acquitted himself

with eclat in the selection of rooms for Dorothy and his daughter. The suite was situated in one corner of the

huge caravansary, a large parlor occupying the angle, with windows on one side looking into the forest, and

on the other giving an extended view across the valley. The front room adjoining the parlor was to be

Dorothy's very own, and the end room belonged to Katherine, he said, as long as she behaved herself. If

Dorothy ever wished to evict her strenuous neighbor, all she had to do was to call upon the Captain, and he

would lend his aid, at which proffer of assistance Katherine tossed her head, and said she would try the room

There followed days and nights of revelry. Hops, concerts, entertainments of all sorts, with a more

pretentious ball on Saturday night, when the weektired man from New York arrived in the afternoon to find

temperature twenty degrees lower, and the altitude very much higher than was the case in his busy office in

the city. Katherine revelled in this round of excitement, and indeed, so, in a milder way, did Dorothy. After

the functions were over the girls enjoyed a comforting chat with one another in their drawing room; all

windows open, and the moon ashining down over the luminous valley, which it seemed to fill with

Young Mr. J. K. Henderson of New York, having danced repeatedly with Katherine on Saturday night,

unexpectedly turned up for the hop on the following Wednesday, when he again danced repeatedly with the

same joyous girl. It being somewhat unusual for a keen business man to take a four hours' journey during an

afternoon in the middle of the week, and, as a consequence, arrive late at his office next morning, Dorothy

began to wonder if a concrete formation, associated with the name of Prince Ivan Lermontoff of Russia, was

strong enough to stand an energetic assault of this nature, supposing it were to be constantly repeated. It was

after midnight on Wednesday when the two reached the corner parlor. Dorothy sat in a cane armchair, while

Katherine threw herself into a rockingchair, laced her fingers behind her head, and gazed through the open

"Well," sighed Katherine, "this has been the most enjoyable evening I ever spent!"

"No, I haven't exactly forgotten him, butI do think he might have written to me."

"Good gracious, no. We never talked of writing. Old red sandstone, rather, was our topic of conversation.

"Then again, Kate, Russian notions regarding writing to young ladies may differ from ours, or he may have

"It seems rather strange that Mr. Henderson should have time to come up here in the middle of the week."

"Why is it strange?" asked Katherine. "Mr. Henderson is not a clerk bound down to office hours. He's an

official high up in one of the big insurance companies, and gets a simply tremendous salary."

"He talks less like the Troy Technical Institute, and more like the 'Home Journal' than poor Prince Jack did,

and then he has a much greater sense of humor. When I told him that the oath of an insurance man should be

'bet your life!' he laughed. Now, Jack would never have seen the point of that. Anyhow, the hour is too late,

Next morning's mail brought Dorothy a bulky letter decorated with English stamps. She locked the door, tore

open the envelope, and found many sheets of thin paper bearing the heading of the Bluewater Club, Pall Mall.

"I am reminded of an old adage," she read, "to the effect that one should never cross a bridge before arriving

at it. Since I bade goodby to you, up to this very evening, I have been plodding over a bridge that didn't

exist, much to my own discomfort. You were with me when I received the message ordering me home to

England, and I don't know whether or not I succeeded in suppressing all signs of my own perturbation, but

we have in the Navy now a man who does not hesitate to overturn a court martial, and so I feared a

reopening of the Rock in the Baltic question, which might have meant the wrecking of my career. I had

quite made up my mind, if the worst came to the worst, to go out West and become a cowboy, but a

passenger with whom I became acquainted on the 'Enthusiana' informed me, to my regret, that the cowboy

is largely a being of the past, to be met with only in the writings of Stewart Edward White, Owen Wister, and

several other famous men whom he named. So you see, I went across the ocean tolerably depressed, finding

"When I arrived in London I took a room at this Club, of which I have been a member for some years, and

reported immediately at the Admiralty. But there, in spite of all diligence on my part, I was quite unable to

learn what was wanted of me. Of course, I could have gone to my Uncle, who is in the government, and

perhaps he might have enlightened me, although he has nothing to do with the Navy, but I rather like to avoid

Uncle Metgurne. He brought me up since I was a small boy, and seems unnecessarily ashamed of the result.

She laid down the letter, pressed the electric button, and unlocked the door. When the servant came, she said:

"Will you ask at the office if they have any biographical book of reference relating to Great Britain, and if so,

The servant appeared shortly after with a red book which proved to be an English "Who's Who" dated two

"Metgurne, twelfth Duke of, created 1681, Herbert George Alan." Here followed a number of other titles, the

information that the son and heir was Marquis of Thaxted, and belonged to the Diplomatic Service, that Lord

Metgurne was H. M. Secretary of State for Royal Dependencies; finally a list of residences and clubs. She put

"I think I ought to have told you that when I reach St. Petersburg I shall be as anxious to avoid my cousin

Thaxted as I am to steer clear of his father in London. So I sat in my club, and read the papers. Dear me, this

is evidently going to be a very long letter. I hope you won't mind. I think perhaps you may be interested in

"After two or three days of anxious waiting there came a crushing communication from the Admiralty which

confirmed my worst fears and set me at crossing the bridge again. I was ordered to report next morning at

eleven, at Committee Room 5, in the Admiralty, and bring with me full particulars pertaining to the firing of

gun number soandso of the 'Consternation's' equipment on such a date. I wonder since that I did not take to

drink. We have every facility for that sort of thing in this club. However, at eleven next day, I presented

myself at the Committee Room and found in session the grimmest looking five men I have ever yet been

called upon to face. Collectively they were about ten times worse in appearance than the courtmartial I had

previously encountered. Four of the men I did not know, but the fifth I recognized at once, having often seen

his portrait. He is Admiral Sir John Pendergest, popularly known in the service as 'Old Grouch,' a blue terror

who knows absolutely nothing of mercy. The lads in the service say he looks so disagreeable because he is

sorry he wasn't born a hanging judge. Picture a face as cleanly cut as that of some severe old Roman Senator;

a face as hard as marble, quite as cold, and nearly as white, rescued from the appearance of a death mask by a

pair of piercing eyes that glitter like steel. When looking at him it is quite impossible to believe that such a

personage has ever been a boy who played pranks on his masters. Indeed, Admiral Sir John Pendergest seems

to have sprung, fully uniformed and forbidding, from the earth, like those soldiers of mythology. I was so

taken aback at confronting such a man that I never noticed my old friend, Billy Richardson, seated at the table

as one of the minor officials of the Committee. Billy tells me I looked rather white about the lips when I

realized what was ahead of me, and I daresay he was right. My consolation is that I didn't get red, as is my

disconcerting habit. I was accommodated with a chair, and then a ferretyfaced little man began asking me

questions, consulting every now and then a foolscap sheet of paper which was before him. Others were ready

"Dear Miss Amhurst, I have confessed to you that I am not brilliant, and, indeed, such confession was quite

unnecessary, for you must speedily have recognized the fact, but here let me boast for a line or two of my one

accomplishment, which is mathematical accuracy. When I make experiments I don't note the result by rule of

"'At twentythree minutes, seventeen seconds past ten, A.M., on May the third of this year,' was my reply.

"The five high officials remained perfectly impassive, but the two stenographers seemed somewhat taken by

"'He said seventeen,' growled Sir John Pendergest, in a voice that seemed to come out of a sepulchre.

"'He did, sir, but I also took observations, and raised the muzzle .000327 of an inch.'

"'Was your gunner inaccurate, then, to that extent?' "'No, sir, but I had weighed the ammunition, and found it

"I must not bore you with all the questions and answers. I merely give these as samples. They questioned me

about the recoil, the action of the gun, the state of this, that and the other after firing, and luckily I was able to

answer to a dot every query put to me. At the finish one of the judges asked me to give in my own words my

opinion of the gun. Admiral Sir John glared at him as he put this question, for of course to any expert the

answers I had furnished, all taken together, gave an accurate verdict on the gun, assuming my statements to

have been correct, which I maintain they were. However, as Sir John made no verbal comment, I offered my

"'Thank you, Lieutenant Drummond,' rumbled Sir John in his deep voice, as if he were pronouncing sentence,

"I was out in the street before Billy Richardson overtook me, and then he called himself to my attention by a

"'Why, we've been for weeks holding an inquiry on this blessed gun, and the question is whether or not a lot

more of them are to be made. You know what an opinionated beast Old Grouch is. Well, my boy, you have

corroborated his opinion of the gun in every detail. He is such a browbeating, tyrannical brute that the rest

of the Committee would rather like to go against him if they dared, but you have put a spoke in their wheel.

Why, Sir John never said "thank you" to a human being since he was born until twentyseven minutes and

fifteen seconds after eleven this morning, as you would have put it,' and at the time of writing this letter this

surmise of Billy's appears to be justified, for the tape in the club just now announced that the Committee has

unanimously decided in favor of the gun, and adds that this is regarded as a triumph for the chairman,

"Dear Miss Amhurst, this letter, as I feared, has turned out intolerably long, and like our first conversation, it

is all about myself. But then, you see, you are the only one on the other side of the water to whom I have

confided my selfish worries, and I believe you to be so kindhearted that I am sure you will not censure me

for this once exceeding the limits of friendly correspondence. Having been deeply depressed during all the

previous long days, the sudden reaction urges me to go out into Pall Mall, fling my cap in the air, and whoop,

which action is quite evidently a remnant of my former cowboy aspirations. Truth to tell, the Russian

business seems already forgotten, except by my stout old Captain on the 'Consternation,' or my Uncle. The

strenuous Sir John has had me haled across the ocean merely to give testimony, lasting about thirtyfive

minutes, when with a little patience he might have waited till the 'Consternation' herself arrived, or else have

cabled for us to try the gun at Bar Harbor. I suppose, however, that after my unfortunate contretemps with

Russia our government was afraid I'd chip a corner off the United States, and that they'd have to pay for it. So

perhaps after all it was greater economy to bring me across on the liner 'Enthusiana.'

"By the way, I learned yesterday that the 'Consternation' has been ordered home, and so I expect to see Jack

Lamont before many days are past. The ship will be paid off at Portsmouth, and then I suppose he and I will

have our freedom for six months. I am rather looking forward to Jack's cooking me some weird but tasteful

Russian dishes when we reach his blacksmith's shop in St. Petersburg. If I get on in Russia as I hope and

expect, I shall spend the rest of my leave over in the States. I saw very little indeed of that great country, and

am extremely anxious to see more. When one is on duty aboard ship one can only take very short excursions

ashore. I should like to visit Niagara. It seems ridiculous that one should have been all along the American

coast from Canada to New York, and never have got far enough inland to view the great Falls. "Russia is

rather dilatory in her methods, but I surely should know within two or three weeks whether I am going to

succeed or not. If not, then there is no use in waiting there. I shall try to persuade the Prince to accompany me

to America. During the weeks I am waiting in St. Petersburg I shall continually impress upon him the utter

futility of a life which has not investigated the great electrical power plant at Niagara Falls. And then he is

interested in the educational system of the United States. While we were going to the station early that

morning he told me that the United States educational system must be the most wonderful in the world,

because he found that your friend, Miss Katherine Kempt, knew more about electricity, metallurgy, natural

philosophy and a great number of other things he is interested in, than all the ladies he has met in Europe put

together. He thinks that's the right sort of education for girls, and all this rather astonished me, because,

although your friend was most charming, she said nothing during my very short acquaintance with her to lead

me to suspect that she had received a scientific training. "Dear Miss Amhurst, I am looking every day for a

letter from you, but none has yet been received by the Admiralty, who, when they get one, will forward it to

SUMMER hotel that boasts a thousand acres of forest, more or less, which serve the purposes of a

backyard, affords its guests, even if all its multitude of rooms are occupied, at least one spot for each visitor

to regard as his or her favorite nook. So large an extent of woodland successfully defies landscape gardening.

It insists on being left alone, and its very immensity raises a financial barrier against trimlykept gravel

walks. There were plenty of landscape garden walks in the immediate vicinity of the hotel, and some of them

ambitiously penetrated into the woods, relapsing from the civilization of beaten gravel into a primitive thicket

trail, which, however, always led to some celebrated bit of picturesqueness: a waterfall, or a pulpit rock

upstanding like a tower, or the fancied resemblance of a human face carved by Nature from the cliff, or a

viewpoint jutting out over the deep chasm of the valley, which usually supported a rustic summer house or

pavilion where unknown names were carved on the woodworkthe last resort of the undistinguished to

Dorothy discovered a little Eden of her own, to which no discernible covertway led, for it was not

conspicuous enough to obtain mention in the little gratis guide which the hotel furnisheda pamphlet on

coated paper filled with halftone engravings, and halfextravagant eulogies of what it proclaimed to be, an

earthly paradise, with the rates by the day or week given on the cover page to show on what terms this

Dorothy's bower was green, and cool, and crystal, the ruggedness of the rocks softened by the wealth of

foliage. A very limpid spring, high up and out of sight among the leaves, sent its waters tinkling down the

face of the cliff, ever filling a crystalclear lakelet at the foot, which yet was never full. Velvety and beautiful

as was the moss surrounding this pond, it was nevertheless too damp to form an acceptable couch for a

human being, unless that human being were brave enough to risk the rheumatic inconveniences which

followed Rip Van Winkle's long sleep in these very regions, so Dorothy always carried with her from the

hotel a featherweight, spider'sweb hammock, which she deftly slung between two saplings, their light

suppleness giving an almost pneumatic effect to this fairy net spread in a fairy glen; and here the young

woman swayed luxuriously in the relaxing delights of an indolence still too new to have become

She always expected to read a great deal in the hammock, but often the book slipped unnoticed to the moss,

and she lay looking upward at the little discs of blue sky visible through the checkering maze of green leaves.

One afternoon, deserted by the latest piece of fictional literature, marked in plain figures on the paper cover

that protected the cloth binding, one dollar and a half, but sold at the department stores for one dollar and

eight cents, Dorothy lay halfhypnotized by the twinkling of the green leaves above her, when she heard a

sweet voice singing a rollicking song of the Civil War, and so knew that Katherine was thus heralding her

Dorothy went still further back into the history of her country, and gave a faint imitation of an Indian

warwhoop, to let the oncomer know she was welcome, and presently Katherine burst impetuously through

"Here I am, Miss Energy, or shall I call you Missapplied Energy? Katherine, you have walked so fast that

"It isn't exertion, it's vexation. Dorothy, I have had a perfectly terrible time. It is the anxiety regarding the

proper discipline of parents that is spoiling the nervous system of American children. Train them up in the

way they should go, and when they are old they do depart from it. There's nothing more awful than to own

parents who think they possess a sense of humor. Thank goodness mother has none!"

"Of course it is. He treats the most serious problem of a woman's life as if it were the latest thing in 'Life.'"

"The most important problem? That means a proposal. Goodness gracious, Kate, is that insurance man back

"Oh, heartless and heartbreaking Katherine, is there another? Sit here in the hammock beside me, and tell

"No, thank you," refused Katherine. "I weigh more than you, and I cannot risk my neck through the collapse

"Then it is the life insurance man whose interests you are consulting? Have you taken out a policy with him?"

"Dear me, you are nearly as bad as father, but not quite so funny. You are referring to Mr. Henderson, I

presume. A most delightful companion for a dance, but, my dear Dorothy, life is not all glided out to the

"True; quite undisputable, Kate, and them sentiments do you credit. Who is the man?"

"The human soul," continued Katherine seriously, "aspires to higher things than the society columns of the

"Again you score, Kate, and are rising higher and higher in my estimation. I see it all now. Those solemn

utterances of yours point directly toward Hugh Miller's 'Old Red Sandstone' and works of that sort, and now I

remember your singing 'When Johnny comes marching home.' I therefore take it that Jack Lamont has

For answer Katherine withdrew her hands from behind her, and offered to her friend a sheet of paper she had

been holding. Dorothy saw blazoned on the top of it a coatofarms, and underneath it, written in words of

the most formal nature, was the information that Prince Ivan Lermontoff presented his warmest regards to

Captain Kempt, U.S.N., retired, and begged permission to pay his addresses to the Captain's daughter

"I hope she won't be like a former one, if all I've read of her is true. This letter was sent to your father, then?"

"It was, and he seems to regard it as a huge joke. Said he was going to cable his consent, and as the

'Consternation' has sailed away, he would try to pick her up by wireless telegraphy, and secure the young man

that way: suggests that I shall have a lot of new photographs taken, so that be can hand them out to the

reporters when they call for particulars. Sees in his mind's eye, he says, a huge blacklettered heading in the

evening papers: 'A Russian Prince captures one of our fairest daughters,' and then insultingly hinted that

perhaps, after all, it was better not to use my picture, as it might not bear out the 'fair daughter' fiction of the

"Yes, Kate, I can see that such treatment of a vital subject must have been very provoking."

"Provoking? I should say it was! He pretended he was going to tack this letter up on the noticeboard in the

hall of the hotel, so that every one might know what guests of distinction the Matterhorn House held. But the

most exasperating feature of the situation is that this letter has been lying for days and days at our cottage in

Bar Harbor. I am quite certain that I left instructions for letters to be forwarded, but, as nothing came, I

telegraphed yesterday to the people who have taken our house, and now a whole heap of belated

correspondence has arrived, with a note from our tenant saying he did not know our address. You will see at

the bottom of the note that the Prince asks my father to communicate with him by sending a reply to the

'Consternation' at New York, but now the 'Consternation' has sailed for England, and poor John must have

"But Jack told me that the 'Consternation' paid off as soon as she arrived, and probably he will have gone to

"If you address him at the Admiralty in London, the letter will be forwarded whereever he happens to be."

"Of course I am. You know that very well, and I don't want any stupid misapprehension to arise at the

beginning, such as allows a silly author to carry on his story to the fourhundredth page of such trash as this,"

and she gently touched with her toe the unoffending volume which lay on the ground beneath the hammock.

"Then why not adopt your father's suggestion, and cable? It isn't you who are cabling, you know."

"I couldn't consent to that. It would look as if we were in a hurry, wouldn't it?"

"Hand me up that despised book, Kate, and I'll write my cablegram on the flyleaf. If you approve of the

Katherine gave her the book, and lent the little silver pencil which hung jingling, with other trinkets, on the

chain at her belt. Dorothy scribbled a note, tore out the flyleaf, and presented it to Katherine, who read:

"Alan Drummond, Bluewater Club, Pall Mall, London. Tell Lamont that his letter to Captain Kempt was

delayed, and did not reach the Captain until today. Captain Kempt's reply will be sent under cover to you at

When Katherine finished reading she looked up at her friend, and exclaimed: "Well!" giving that one word a

"Dorothy, you are a brick; that's what you are. You will do anything to help a friend in trouble."

"I have so few friends that whatever I can do for them will not greatly tax any capabilities I may possess."

"Nevertheless, Dorothy, I thoroughly appreciate what you have done. You did not wish any one to know you

were corresponding with him, and yet you never hesitated a moment when you saw I was anxious."

"Indeed, Kate, there was nothing to conceal. Ours is a very ordinary exchange of letters. I have only had two:

one at Bar Harbor a few days after he left, and another longer one since we came to the hotel, written from

"Did the last one go to Bar Harbor, too? How came you to receive it when we did not get ours?"

"It did not go to Bar Harbor. I gave him the address of my lawyers in New York, and they forwarded it to me

here. Lieutenant Drummond was ordered home by some one who had authority to do so, and received the

message while he was sitting with me on the night of the ball. He had got into trouble with Russia. There had

been an investigation, and he was acquitted. I saw that he was rather worried over the order home and I

expressed my sympathy as well as I could, hoping everything would turn out for the best. He asked if he

might write and let me know the outcome, and, being interested, I quite willingly gave him permission, and

my address. The letter I received was all about a committee meeting at the Admiralty in which he took part.

He wrote to me from the club in Pall Mall to which I have addressed this cablegram."

There was a sly dimple in Katherine's cheeks as she listened to this straightforward explanation, and the

faintest possible suspicion of a smile flickered at the corner of her mouth. She murmured, rather than sang:

"I am pleased to note," said Dorothy demurely, "that the letter written by the Prince to your father has

brought you back to the Gilbert and Sullivan plane again, although in this fairy glen you should quote from

"Yes, Dot, this spot might do for a cove in the 'Pirates of Penzance,' only we're too far from the sea. But, to

return to the matter in hand, I don't think there will be any need to send that cablegram. I don't like the idea of

a cablegram, anyhow. I will return to the hotel, and dictate to my frivolous father a serious composition quite

as stately and formal as that received from the Prince. He will address it and seal it, and then if you are kind

enough to enclose it in the next letter you send to Lieutenant Drummond, it will be sure to reach Jack Lamont

"Oh," she cried eagerly, "I'll go into the hotel with you and write my letter at once."

"You're a dear girl, Dorothy. I'll race you to the hotel, as soon as we are through this thicket."

THE next letter Dorothy received bore Russian stamps, and was dated at the blacksmith's shop, Bolshoi

Prospect, St. Petersburg. After a few preliminaries, which need not be set down here, Drummond continued:

"The day after Jack arrived in London, there being nothing whatever to detain him in England, we set off

together for St. Petersburg, and are now domiciled above his blacksmith shop. We are not on the fashionable

side of the river, but our street is wide, and a very short walk brings us to a bridge which, being crossed,

allows us to wander among palaces if we are so disposed. We have been here only four days, yet a good deal

has already been accomplished. The influence of the Prince has smoothed my path for me. Yesterday I had an

audience with a very important personage in the Foreign Office, and today I have seen an officer of high

rank in the navy. The Prince warns me to mention no names, because letters, even to a young lady, are

sometimes opened before they reach the person to whom they are addressed. These officials who have been

kind enough to receive me are gentlemen so polished that I feel quite uncouth in their presence. I am a little

shaky in my French, and feared that my knowledge of that language might not carry me through, but both of

these officials speak English much better than I do, and they seemed rather pleased I had voluntarily visited

St. Petersburg to explain that no discourtesy was meant in the action I had so unfortunately taken on the

Baltic, and they gave me their warmest assurances they would do what they could to ease the tension between

our respective countries. It seems that my business here will be finished much sooner than I expected, and

then I am off on the quickest steamer for New York, in the hope of seeing Niagara Falls. I have met with one

disappointment, however. Jack says he cannot possibly accompany me to the United States. I have failed to

arouse in him the faintest interest about the electric works at Niagara. He insists that he is on the verge of a

most important discovery, the nature of which he does not confide in me. I think he is working too hard, for

he is looking quite haggard and overdone, but that is always the way with him. He throws himself heart and

soul into any difficulty that confronts him, and works practically night and day until he has solved it.

"Yesterday he gave the whole street a fright. I had just returned from the Foreign Office, and had gone

upstairs to my room, when there occurred an explosion that shook the building from cellar to roof, and sent

the windows of our blacksmith's shop rattling into the street. Jack had a most narrow escape, but is unhurt,

although that fine beard of his was badly singed. He has had it shaved off, and now sports merely a mustache,

looking quite like a man from New York. You wouldn't recognize him if you met him on Broadway. The

carpenters and glaziers are at work today repairing the damage. I told Jack that if this sort of thing kept on

I'd be compelled to patronize another hotel, but he says it won't happen again. It seems he was trying to

combine two substances by adding a third, and, as I understood him, the mixing took place with unexpected

suddenness. He has endeavored to explain to me the reaction, as he calls it, which occurred, but I seem to

have no head for chemistry, and besides, if I am to be blown through the roof some of these days it will be no

consolation to me when I come down upon the pavement outside to know accurately the different elements

which contributed to my elevation. Jack is very patient in trying to instruct me, but he could not resist the

temptation of making me ashamed by saying that your friend, Miss Katherine Kempt, would have known at

once the full particulars of the reaction. Indeed, he says, she warned him of the disaster, by marking a passage

in a book she gave him which foreshadowed this very thing. She must be a most remarkable young woman,

and it shows how stupid I am that I did not in the least appreciate this fact when in her company."

The next letter was received a week later. He was getting on swimmingly, both at the Foreign Office and at

the Russian Admiralty. All the officials he had met were most courteous and anxious to advance his interests.

He wrote about the misapprehensions held in England regarding Russia, and expressed his resolve to do what

"Of course," he went on, "no American or Englishman can support or justify the repressive measures so often

carried out ruthlessly by the Russian police. Still, even these may be exaggerated, for the police have to deal

with a people very much different from our own. It is rather curious that at this moment I am in vague trouble

concerning the police. I am sure this place is watched, and I am also almost certain that my friend Jack is

being shadowed. He dresses like a workman; his grimy blouse would delight the heart of his friend Tolstoi,

but he is known to be a Prince, and I think the authorities imagine he is playing up to the laboring class,

whom they despise. I lay it all to that unfortunate explosion, which gathered the police about us as if they had

sprung from the ground. There was an official examination, of course, and Jack explained, apparently to

everybody's satisfaction, exactly how he came to make the mistake that resulted in the loss of his beard and

his windows. I don't know exactly how to describe the feeling of uneasiness which has come over me. At first

sight this city did not strike me as so very much different from New York or London, and meeting, as I did,

so many refined gentlemen in high places, I had come to think St. Petersburg was after all very much like

Paris, or Berlin, or Rome. But it is different, and the difference makes itself subtly felt, just as the air in some

coast towns of Britain is relaxing, and in others bracing. In these towns a man doesn't notice the effect at first,

but later on he begins to feel it, and so it is here in St. Petersburg. Great numbers of workmen pass down our

street. They all seem to know who the Prince is, and the first days we were here, they saluted him with a

deference which I supposed was due to his rank, in spite of the greasy clothes he wore. Since the explosion an

indefinable change has come over these workmen. They salute the Prince still when we meet them on the

street, but there is in their attitude a certain sly sympathy, if I may so term it; a bond of camaraderie which is

implied in their manner rather than expressed. Jack says this is all fancy on my part, but I don't think it is.

These men imagine that Prince Ivan Lermontoff, who lives among them and dresses like them, is concocting

some explosive which may yet rid them of the tyrants who make their lives so unsafe. All this would not

matter, but what does matter is the chemical reaction, as I believe Jack would term it, which has taken place

among the authorities. The authorities undoubtedly have their spies among the workingmen, and know well

what they are thinking about and talking about. I do not believe they were satisfied with the explanations Jack

gave regarding the disaster. I have tried to impress upon Jack that he must be more careful in walking about

the town, and I have tried to persuade him, after work, to dress like the gentleman he is, but he laughs at my

fears, and assures me that I have gone from one extreme to the other in my opinion of St. Petersburg. First I

thought it was like all other capitals; now I have swung too far in the other direction. He says the police of St.

Petersburg would not dare arrest him, but I'm not so sure of that. A number of things occur to me, as usual,

too late. Russia, with her perfect secret service system, must know that Prince Lermontoff has been serving in

the British Navy. They know he returned to St. Petersburg, avoids all his old friends, and is brought to their

notice by an inexplicable explosion, and they must be well aware, also, that he is in the company of the man

who fired the shell at the rock in the Baltic, and that he himself served on the offending cruiser.

"As to my own affairs, I must say they are progressing slowly but satisfactorily; nevertheless, if Jack would

leave St. Petersburg, and come with me to London or New York, where he could carry on his experiments

quite as well, or even better than here, I should depart at once, even if I jeopardized my own prospects."

"Your two charming notes to me arrived here together. It is very kind of you to write to a poor exile and

cheer him in his banishment. I should like to see that dell where you have swung your hammock. Beware of

Hendrick Hudson's men, so delightfully written of by Washington Irving. If they offer you anything to drink,

don't you take it. Think how disastrous it would be to all your friends if you went to sleep in that hammock

for twenty years. It's the Catskills I want to see now rather than Niagara Falls. Your second letter containing

the note from Captain Kempt to Jack was at once delivered to him. What on earth has the genial Captain

written to effect such a transformation in my friend? He came to me that evening clothed in his right mind; in

evening rigout, with his decorations upon it, commanded me to get into my dinner togs, took me in a

carriage across the river to the best restaurant St. Petersburg affords, and there we had a champagne dinner in

which he drank to America and all things American. Whether it was the enthusiasm produced by Captain

Kempt's communication, or the effect of the champagne, I do not know, but he has reconsidered his

determination not to return to the United States, and very soon we set out together for the west.

"I shall be glad to get out of this place. We were followed to the restaurant, I am certain, and I am equally

certain that at the next table two police spies were seated, and these two shadowed us in a cab until we

reached our blacksmith's shop. It is a humiliating confession to make, but somehow the atmosphere of this

place has got on my nerves, and I shall be glad to turn my back on it. Jack poohpoohs the idea that he is in

any danger. Even the Governor of St. Petersburg, he says, dare not lay a finger on him, and as for the Chief of

Police, he pours scorn on that powerful official. He scouts the idea that he is being watched, and allinall is

quite humorous at my expense, saying that my state of mind is more fitting for a schoolgirl than for a stalwart

man over six feet in height. One consolation is that Jack now has become as keen for America as I am. I

expect that the interview arranged for me tomorrow with a great government official will settle my own

business finally one way or another. A while ago I was confident of success, but the repeated delays have

made me less optimistic now, although the gentle courtesy of those in high places remains undiminished.

"Dear Miss Amhurst, I cannot afford to fall lower in your estimation than perhaps I deserve, so I must say

that this fear which has overcome me is all on account of my friend, and not on my own behalf at all. I am

perfectly safe in Russia, being a British subject. My cold and formal Cousin Thaxted is a member of the

British Embassy here, and my cold and formal uncle is a Cabinet Minister in England, facts which must be

well known to these spyinformed people of St. Petersburg; so I am immune. The worst they could do would

be to order me out of the country, but even that is unthinkable. If any one attempted to interfere with me, I

have only to act the hero of the penny novelette, draw myself up to my full height, which, as you know, is not

that of a pigmy, fold my arms across my manly chest, cry, 'Ha, ha!' and sing 'Rule Britannia,' whereupon the

villains would wilt and withdraw. But Jack has no such security. He is a Russian subject, and, prince or

commoner, the authorities here could do what they liked with him. I always think of things when it is too late

to act. I wish I had urged Jack ashore at Bar Harbor, and induced him to take the oath of allegiance to the

United States. I spoke to him about that coming home in the carriage, and to my amazement he said he

"But enough of this. I daresay he is in no real danger after all. Nevertheless, I shall induce him to pack

tomorrow, and we will make for London together, so my next letter will bear a British stamp, and I assure

you the air of England will taste good to one benighted Britisher whose name is Alan Drummond."

THE habit of industry practised from childhood to maturity is not obliterated by an unexpected shower of

gold. Dorothy was an early riser, and one morning, entering the parlor from her room she saw, lying upon the

table, a letter with a Russian stamp, but addressed in an unknown hand to her friend Katherine Kempt. She

surmised that here was the first communication from the Prince, and expected to learn all about it during the

luncheon hour at the latest. But the morning and afternoon passed, and Katherine made no sign, which

Dorothy thought was most unusual. All that day and the next Katherine went about silent, sedate and serious,

never once quoting the humorous Mr. Gilbert. On the third morning Dorothy was surprised, emerging from

her room, to see Katherine standing by the table, a black book in her hand. On the table lay a large package

from New York, recently opened, displaying a number of volumes in what might be termed serious binding,

leather or cloth, but none showing that high coloring which distinguishes the output of American fiction.

"Goodmorning, Dorothy. The early bird is after the worm of science." She held forth the volume in her

hand. "Steele's 'FourteenWeeks' Course in Chemistry,' an old book, but fascinatingly written. Dorothy," she

"An interesting subject, Kate, but you've got the wrong textbooks. You should have had a parcel of novels

Dorothy seated herself, and Katherine followed her example, Steele's "FourteenWeeks' Course" resting in

"It means that man is a simpleton, easily taken in. He is too honest for crafty women, who delude him

"Indeed, Katherine, you are anything but that. You couldn't do a mean or ungenerous action if you tried your

"Reform? You don't need to reform. You are perfectly delightful as you are, and I know no man who is

worthy of you. That's a woman's opinion; one who knows you well, and there is nothing dishonest about the

"Dorothy, three days ago, be the same more or less, I received a letter from John Lamont."

"Did you? You were quite right. The reading of that letter has revolutionized my character. I am a changed

woman, Dorothy, and thoroughly ashamed of myself. When I remember how I have deluded that poor,

credulous young man, in making him believe I understood even the fringe of what he spoke about, it fills me

with grief at my perfidy, but I am determined to amend my ways if hard study will do it, and when next I see

"Now, that's heartless of you, Dorothy. Don't you see I'm in deadly earnest? Must my former frivolity dog my

steps through life? When I call to mind that I made fun to you of his serious purpose in life, the thought

"Nonsense, Kate, don't go to the other extreme. I remember nothing you have said that needs withdrawal.

You have never made a malicious remark in your life, Kate. Don't make me defend you against yourself. You

have determined, I take it, to plunge into the subjects which interest the man you are going to marry. That is a

"I know I don't deserve all that, Dorothy, but I like it just the same. I like people to believe in me, even if I

"I'd rather, Dorothy, if it doesn't weary you, but you will understand when you have heard it, in what a new

The letter proved to be within the leaves of the late Mr. Steele's book on Chemistry, and from this volume she

extracted it, pressed it for a moment against her breast with her open hand, gazing across at her friend.

"'You may recollect that footnote which you marked with red ink in the book you so kindly gave me on the

subject of Catalysis, which did not pertain to the subject of the volume in question, and yet was so

illuminative to any student of chemistry. They have done a great deal with Catalysis in Germany with

amazing commercial results, but the subject is one so recent that I had not previously gone thoroughly into

Katherine paused in the reading, and looked across at her auditor, an expression almost of despair in her

"Don't ask me," replied Dorothy, suppressing a laugh, struck by the ludicrousness of any young and beautiful

"Have you ever heard of a Catalytic process, Dorothy?" beseeched Katherine. "It is one of the phrases he

"'I saw at once that if I could use Catalytic process which would be instantaneous in its solidifying effect on

my liquid limestone, instead of waiting upon slow evaporation, I could turn out building stone faster than one

can make brick. You, I am sure, with your more alert mind, saw this when you marked that passage in red.'"

"Oh, Dorothy," almost whimpered Katherine, leaning back, "how can I go on? Don't you see what a sneak I

am? It was bad enough to cozen with my heedless, random markings of the book, but to think that line of red

ink might have been marked in his blood, for I nearly sent the poor boy to his death."

"'In my search for a Catalytic whose substance would remain unchanged after the reaction, I quite overlooked

the chemical ingredients of one of the materials I was dealing with, and the result was an explosion which

nearly blew the roof off the shop, and quite startled poor Drummond out of a year's growth. However, no real

harm has been done, while I have been taught a valuable lesson; to take into account all the elements I am

using. I must not become so intent on the subject I am pursuing as to ignore everything else.' And now,

Dorothy, I want to ask you a most intimate question, which I beg of you to answer as frankly as I have

"I know what your question is, Kate. A girl who is engaged wishes to see her friend in the same position. You

would ask me if I am in love with Alan Drummond, and I answer perfectly frankly that I am not."

"Quite. He is the only man friend I have had, except my own father, and I willingly confess to a sisterly

"Because there is something about him in this letter, which I would read to you if I thought you didn't care."

"Oh, he is in love with Jack's sister, very likely. I should think that would be a most appropriate arrangement.

Jack is his best friend, and perhaps a lover would weaken the influence which Tolstoi exerts over an

emotional person's mind. Lieutenant Drummond, with his sanity, would probably rescue a remnant of her

"Oh, well, if you can talk as indifferently as that, you are all right, Dorothy. No, there is no other woman in

"'It is amazing how little an Englishman understands people of other nations. Here is my tall friend

Drummond marching nonchalantly among dangers of which he has not the least conception. The authorities

whom he thinks so courteous are fooling him to the top of his bent. There is, of course, no danger of his

arrest, but nevertheless the eyes of the police are upon him, and he will not believe it, any more than be will

believe he is being hoodwinked by the Foreign Minister. What I fear is that he will be bludgeoned on the

street some dark night, or involved in a onesided duel. Twice I have rescued him from an imminent danger

which he has not even seen. Once in a restaurant a group of officers, apparently drunk, picked a quarrel and

drew swords upon him. I had the less difficulty in getting him away because he fears a broil, or anything that

will call down upon him the attention of his woodenheaded cousin in the Embassy. On another occasion as

we were coming home toward midnight, a perfectly bogus brawl broke out suddenly all around us.

Drummond was unarmed, but his huge fists sent sprawling two or three of his assailants. I had a revolver, and

held the rest off, and so we escaped. I wish he was safely back in London again.' What do you think of that,

"I think exactly what Mr. Lamont thinks. Lieutenant Drummond's mission to Russia seems to me a journey of

"After all, I am glad you don't care, Dorothy. He should pay attention to what Jack says, for Jack knows

Russia, and he doesn't. Still, let us hope he will come safely out of St. Petersburg. And now, Dot, for

Next morning Dorothy saw a letter for herself on the table in the now familiar handwriting, and was more

relieved than perhaps she would have confessed even to her closest friend, when she saw the

twopencehalfpenny English stamp on the envelope. Yet its contents were startling enough, and this letter

I write you in great trouble of mind, not trusting this letter to the Russian postoffice, but sending it by an

English captain to be posted in London. Two days ago Jack Lamont disappeared; a disappearance as

complete as if he had never existed. The night before last, about ten o'clock, I thought I heard him come into

his shop below my room. Sometimes he works there till daylight, and as, when absorbed in his experiments,

he does not relish interruptions, even from me, I go on with my reading until he comes upstairs. Toward

eleven o'clock I thought I heard slight sounds of a scuffle, and a smothered cry. I called out to him, but

received no answer. Taking a candle, I went downstairs, but everything was exactly as usual, the doors

locked, and not even a bench overturned. I called aloud, but only the echo of this barn of a room replied. I lit

the gas and made a more intelligent search, but with no result. I unlocked the door, and stood out in the street,

which was quite silent and deserted. I began to doubt that I had heard anything at all, for, as I have told you,

my nerves lately have been rather prone to the jumps. I sat up all night waiting for him, but he did not come.

Next day I went, as had been previously arranged, to the Foreign Office, but was kept waiting in an anteroom

for two hours, and then told that the Minister could not see me. I met a similar repulse at the Admiralty. I

dined alone at the restaurant Jack and I frequent, but saw nothing of him. This morning he has not returned,

and I am at my wit's end, not in the least knowing what to do. It is useless for me to appeal to the embassy of

my country, for, Jack being a Russian, it has no jurisdiction. The last letter I received from you was tampered

with. The newspaper extract you spoke of was not there, and one of the sheets of the letter was missing.

Such was the last letter that Alan Drummond was ever to send to Dorothy Amhurst.

SUMMER waned; the evenings became chill, although the sun pretended at noon that its power was

undiminished. Back to town from mountain and sea shore filtered the warmweather idlers, but no more

letters came from St. Petersburg to the hill by the Hudson. So far as our girls were concerned, a curtain of

The flat was now furnished, and the beginning of autumn saw it occupied by the two friends. Realization in

this instance lacked the delight of anticipation. At last Katherine was the bachelor girl she had longed to be,

but the pleasures of freedom were as Dead Sea fruit to the lips. At last Dorothy was effectually cut off from

all thoughts of slavery, with unlimited money to do what she pleased with, yet after all, of what advantage

was it in solving the problem that haunted her by day and filled her dreams by night. She faced the world

with seeming unconcern, for she had not the right to mourn, even if she knew he were dead. He had made no

claim; had asked for no affection; had written no word to her but what all the world might read. Once a week

she made a little journey up the Hudson to see how her church was coming on, and at first Katherine

accompanied her, but now she went alone. Katherine was too honest a girl to pretend an interest where she

felt none. She could not talk of architecture when she was thinking of a man and his fate. At first she had

been querulously impatient when no second communication came. Her own letters, she said, must have

reached him, otherwise they would have been returned. Later, dumb fear took possession of her, and she grew

silent, plunged with renewed energy into her books, joined a technical school, took lessons, and grew paler

and paler until her teachers warned her she was overdoing it. Inwardly she resented the serene impassiveness

of her friend, who consulted calmly with the architect upon occasion about the decoration of the church,

when men's liberty was gone, and perhaps their lives. She built up within her mind a romance of devotion, by

which her lover, warning in vain the stolid Englishman, had at last been involved in the ruin that Drummond's

stubbornness had brought upon them both, and unjustly implicated the quiet woman by her side in the

responsibility of this sacrifice. Once or twice she spoke with angry impatience of Drummond and his

stupidity, but Dorothy neither defended nor excused, and so no open rupture occurred between the two

But with a woman of Katherine's temperament the final outburst had to come, and it came on the day that the

first flurry of snow fell through the still air, capering in large flakes past the windows of the flat down to the

muddy street far below. Katherine was standing by the window, with her forehead leaning against the plate

glass, in exactly the attitude that had been her habit in the sewingroom at Bar Harbor, but now the staccato

of her fingers on the sill seemed to drum a Dead March of despair. The falling snow had darkened the room,

and one electric light was aglow over the dainty Chippendale desk at which Dorothy sat writing a letter. The

smooth, regular flow of the pen over the paper roused Katherine to a frenzy of exasperation. Suddenly she

"My God," she cried, "how can you sit there like an automaton with the snow falling?"

"Of course you don't. You don't think of the drifts in Siberia, and the two men you have known, whose hands

you have clasped, manacled, driven through it with the lash of a Cossack's whip."

Dorothy rose quietly, and put her hands on the shoulders of the girl, feeling her frame tremble underneath her

"Katherine," she said, quietly, but Katherine, with a nervous twitch of her shoulders flung off the friendly

"Don't touch me," she cried. "Go back to your letterwriting. You and the Englishman are exactly alike;

unfeeling, heartless. He with his selfish stubbornness has involved an innocent man in the calamity his own

"Calmly! Calmly! Yes, that is the word. It is easy for you to be calm when you don't care. But I care, and I

"What can I do? I am a pauper and a dependent, but one thing I am determined to do, and that is to go and

"If I had wealth I would use it in such a campaign of bribery and corruption in that country of tyrants that I

should release two innocent men. I'd first find out where they were, then I'd use all the influence I possessed

"The American Ambassador, Kate, cannot move to release either an Englishman or a Russian."

"I'd do it somehow. I wouldn't sit here like a stick or a stone, writing letters to my architect."

"That is an excellent idea, Kate. I advise you to go north by tonight's train, if you like, and see him, or

Kate sat down, and Dorothy drew the curtains across the window pane and snapped on the central cluster of

"Will you come with me if I go north?" asked Kate, in a milder tone than she had hitherto used.

"I have been trying, but it is difficult to know what to do. I have received information that the house in which

Mr. Lamont and Mr. Drummond lived is now deserted, and no one knows anything of its former occupants.

That information comes to me semiofficially, but it does not lead far. I have started inquiry through more

questionable channels; in other words, I have invoked the aid of a Nihilist society, and although I am quite

determined to go to Russia with you, do not be surprised if I am arrested the moment I set foot in St.

"Oh, Dorothy," moaned Katherine, struggling to keep back the tears that would flow in spite of her. Dorothy

"You have been a little unjust," she said, "and I am going to prove that to you, so that in trying to make

amends you may perhaps stop brooding over this crisis that faces two poor lone women. You wrong the

Englishman, as you call him. Jack was arrested at least two days before he was. Nihilist spies say that both of

them were arrested, the Prince first, and the Englishman several days later. I had a letter from Mr. Drummond

a short time after you received yours from Mr. Lamont. I never showed it to you, but now things are so bad

that they cannot be worse, and you are at liberty to read the letter if you wish to do so. It tells of Jack's

disappearance, and of Drummond's agony of mind and helplessness in St. Petersburg. Since he has never

written again, I am sure he was arrested later. I don't know which of the two was most at fault for what you

call stubbornness, but I believe the explosion had more to do with the arrests than any action of theirs."

"No, no, my dear girl. No one is to blame but the tyrant of Russia. Now the Nihilists insist that neither of

these men has been sent to Siberia. They think they are in the prison of 'St. Peter and St. Paul.' That

information came to me today in the letter I was just now answering. So, Katherine, I think you have been

unjust to the Englishman. If he had been arrested first, there might be some grounds for what you charge, but

they evidently gave him a chance to escape. He had his warning in the disappearance of his friend, and he had

"I'm sorry, Dorothy. I'm a silly fool, and today, when I saw the snowwell, I got all wrought up."

"I think neither of the men are in the snow, and now I am going to say something else, and then never speak

of the subject again. You say I didn't care, and of course you are quite right, for I confessed to you that I

didn't. But just imagineimaginethat I cared. The Russian Government can let the Prince go at any

moment, and there's nothing more to be said. He has no redress, and must take the consequences of his

nationality. But if the Russian Government have arrested the Englishman; if they have put him in the prison

of 'St. Peter and St. Paul,' they dare not release him, unless they are willing to face war. The Russian

Government can do nothing in his case but deny, demand proof, and obliterate all chance of the truth ever

being known. Alan Drummond is doomed: they dare not release him. Now think for a moment how much

worse my case would be than yours, ifif" her voice quivered and broke for the moment, then with

tightly clenched fists she recovered control of herself, and finished: "if I cared."

"No, no, don't jump at any false conclusion. We are both nervous wrecks this afternoon. Don't misunderstand

me. I don't careI don't care, except that I hate tyranny, and am sorry for the victims of it."

"We need a sane man in the house, Kate. Telegraph for your father to come down and talk to us both. I must

THE Nihilist was shown into the dainty drawing room of the flat, and found Dorothy Amhurst alone, as he

had stipulated, waiting for him. He was dressed in a sort of naval uniform and held a peaked cap in his hand,

standing awkwardly there as one unused to luxurious surroundings. His face was bronzed with exposure to

sun and storm, and although he appeared to be little more than thirty years of age his closely cropped hair was

white. His eyes were light blue, and if ever the expression of a man's countenance betokened stalwart

honesty, it was the face of this sailor. He was not in the least Dorothy's idea of a dangerous plotter.

"No, Madam, but if you ask me anything I am not allowed to answer I shall not reply."

"In my young days I shipped aboard a bark plying between Helsingfors and New York."

"Yes, Madam. For a time I was an unimportant officer on board a battleship in the Russian Navy, until I was

discovered to be a Nihilist, when I was cast into prison. I escaped last May, and came to New York."

"I was so fortunate as to become mate on the turbine yacht 'The Walrus,' owned by Mr. Stockwell."

"No, Madam. I think he has never been aboard this one, although it is probably the most expensive boat in

these waters. I am told it cost anywhere from half a million to a million. She was built by Thornycroft, like a

cruiser, with Parson's turbine engines in her. After the failure, Captain and crew were discharged, and I am on

board as a sort of watchman until she is sold, but there is not a large market for a boat like 'The Walrus,' and I

am told they will take the fittings out of her, and sell her as a cruiser to one of the South American republics."

"Well, Mr. Johnson, you ought to be a reliable man, if the Court has put you in charge of so valuable a

"Then why do you come to me asking ten thousand dollars for a letter which you say was written to me, and

The man's face deepened into a mahogany brown, and he shifted his cap uneasily in his hands.

"Madam, I am not acting for my self. I am Secretary of the Russian Liberation Society. They, through their

"Our object, Madam, is the repression of tyranny. For that we are in continual need of money. It is the poor,

and not the millionaires, who subscribe to our fund. It has been discovered that you are a rich woman, who

will never miss the money asked, and so the demand was made. Believe me, Madam, I am acting by the

command of my comrades. I tried to persuade them to leave compensation to your own generosity, but they

refused. If you consider their demand unreasonable, you have but to say so, and I will return and tell them

The sailor looked up at the decorated ceiling for several moments before he replied.

"That is a question I cannot answer," he said at last. "It all depends on what you think of the writer."

"There is no signature, Madam. It was found in the house where the two young men lived. Our people

searched the house from top to bottom surreptitiously, and they think the writer was arrested before he had

finished the letter. There is no address, and nothing to show for whom it is intended, except the phrase

The girl leaned back in her chair, and drew a long breath. "It is not for me," she said, hastily; then bending

"My dearest Dorothy," she read, in writing well known to her. "You may judge my exalted state of mind

when you see that I dare venture on such a beginning. I have been worrying myself and other people all to no

purpose. I have received a letter from Jack this morning, and so suspicious had I grown that for a few

moments I suspected the writing was but an imitation of his. He is a very impulsive fellow, and can think of

only one thing at a time, which accounts for his success in the line of invention. He was telegraphed to that

his sister was ill, and left at once to see her. I had allowed my mind to become so twisted by my fears for his

safety that, as I tell you, I suspected the letter to be counterfeit at first. I telegraphed to his estate, and received

a prompt reply saying that his sister was much better, and that he was already on his way back, and would

reach me at eleven tonight. So that's what happens when a grown man gets a fit of nerves. I drew the most

gloomy conclusions from the fact that I had been refused admission to the Foreign Office and the Admiralty.

Yesterday that was all explained away. The business is at last concluded, and I was shown copies of the

letters which have been forwarded to my own chiefs at home. Nothing could be more satisfactory.

Tomorrow Jack and I will be off to England together. "My dearest Dorothy (second time of asking), I am

not a rich man, but then, in spite of your little fortune of Bar Harbor, you are not a rich woman, so we stand

on an equality in that, even though you are so much my superior in everything else. I have five hundred

pounds a year, which is something less than two thousand five hundred dollars, left me by my father. This is

independent of my profession. I am very certain I will succeed in the Navy now that the Russian Government

has sent those letters, so, the moment I was assured of that, I determined to write and ask you to be my wife.

Will you forgive my impatience, and pander to it by cabling to me at the Bluewater Club, Pall Mall, the word

'Yes' or the word 'Undecided'? I shall not allow you the privilege of cabling 'No.' And please give me a

chance of pleading my case in person, if you use the longer word. Ah, I hear Jack's step on the stair. Very

Here the writing ended. She folded the letter, and placed it in her desk, sitting down before it.

"I shall write it for double the amount asked. I also am a believer in liberty."

"Oh, Madam, that is a generosity I feel we do not deserve. I should like to have given you the letter after all

"I am quite sure of that," said Dorothy, bending over her writing. She handed him the check, and he rose to

"Sit down again, if you please. I wish to talk further with you. Your people in St. Petersburg think my friends

"Well, Madam, they have means of knowing those who are transported, and they are certain the two young

men were not among the recent gangs sent. They suppose them to be in the fortress of 'St. Peter and St. Paul ',

"Ah, Madam, there are worse places than Siberia. In Siberia there is a chance: in the dreadful Trogzmondoff

"A bleak 'Rock in the Baltic,' Madam, the prison in which death is the only goal that releases the victim."

"It is both prison and fortress, Madam, If Russia ever takes the risk of arresting a foreigner, it is to the

Trogzmondoff he is sent. They drown the victims there; drown them in their cells. There is a spring in the

rock, and through the line of cells it runs like a beautiful rivulet, but the pulling of a lever outside stops the

exit of the water, and drowns every prisoner within. The bodies are placed one by one on a smooth, inclined

shute of polished sandstone, down which this rivulet runs so they glide out into space, and drop two hundred

feet into the Baltic Sea. No matter in what condition such a body is found, or how recent may have been the

execution, it is but a drowned man in the Baltic. There are no marks of bullet or strangulation, and the

"How come you to know all this which seems to have been concealed from the rest of the world?"

"I know it, Madam, for the best of reasons. I was sentenced this very year to Trogzmondoff. In my youth

trading between Helsingfors and New York, I took out naturalization papers in New York, because I was one

of the crew on an American ship. When they illegally impressed me at Helsingfors and forced me to join the

Russian Navy, I made the best of a bad bargain, and being an expert seaman, was reasonably well treated, and

promoted, but at last they discovered I was in correspondence with a Nihilist circle in London, and when I

was arrested, I demanded the rights of an American citizen. That doomed me. I was sent, without trial, to the

Trogzmondoff in April of this year. Arriving there I was foolish enough to threaten, and say my comrades

had means of letting the United States Government know, and that a battleship would teach the gaolers of the

"The cells hewn in the rock are completely dark, so I lost all count of time. You might think we would know

night from day by the bringing in of our meals, but such was not the case. The gaoler brought in a large loaf

of black bread, and said it was to serve me for four days. He placed the loaf on a ledge of rock about three

feet from the floor, which served as both table and bed. In excavating the cell this ledge had been left intact,

with a bench of stone rising from the floor opposite. Indeed, so ingenious had been the workmen who hewed

out this room that they carved a rounded stone pillow at one end of the shelf. "I do not know how many days

I had been in prison when the explosion occurred. It made the whole rock quiver, and I wondered what had

happened. Almost immediately afterward there seemed to be another explosion, not nearly so harsh, which I

thought was perhaps an echo of the first. About an hour later my cell door was unlocked, and the gaoler, with

another man holding a lantern, came in. My third loaf of black bread was partly consumed, so I must have

been in prison nine or ten days. The gaoler took the loaf outside, and when he returned. I asked him what had

happened. He answered in a surly fashion that my American warship had fired at the rock, and that the rock

Dorothy, who had been listening intently to this discourse, here interrupted with:

"It was an English warship that fired the shell, and the Russian shot did not come within half a mile of her."

"I never heard that it was an English ship. The gaoler sneered at me, and said he was going to send me after

the American vessel, as I suppose he thought it was. I feared by his taking away of the bread that it was

intended to starve me to death, and was sorry I had not eaten more at my last meal. I lay down on the shelf of

rock, and soon fell asleep. I was awakened by the water lapping around me. The cell was intensely still. Up to

this I had always enjoyed the company of a little brook that ran along the side of the cell farthest from the

door. Its music had now ceased, and when I sprang up I found myself to the waist in very cold water. I

guessed at once the use of the levers outside the cell in the passage which I had noticed in the light of the

lantern on the day I entered the place, and I knew now why it was that the prison door was not pierced by one

of those gratings which enable the gaoler in the passage to look into the cell any time of night or day.

Prisoners have told me that the uncertainty of an inmate who never knew when he might be spied upon added

to the horror of the situation, but the watertight doors of the Trogzmondoff are free from this feature, and

"The channel in the floor through which the water runs when the cell is empty, and the tunnel at the ceiling

through which the water flows when the cell is full, give plenty of ventilation, no matter how tightly the door

may he closed. The water rose very gradually until it reached the top outlet, then its level remained stationary.

I floated on the top quite easily, with as little exertion as was necessary to keep me in that position. If I raised

my head, my brow struck the ceiling. The next cell to mine, lower down, was possibly empty. I heard the

water pour into it like a little cataract. The next cell above, and indeed all the cells in that direction were

flooded like my own. Of course it was no trouble for me to keep afloat; my only danger was that the intense

coldness of the water would numb my body beyond recovery. Still, I had been accustomed to hardships of

that kind before now, in the frozen North. At last the gentle roar of the waterfall ceased, and I realized my

cell was emptying itself. When I reached my shelf again, I stretched my limbs back and forth as strenuously

as I could, and as silently, for I wished no sound to give any hint that I was still alive, if, indeed, sound could

penetrate to the passage, which is unlikely. Even before the last of the water had run away from the cell, I lay

stretched out at full length on the floor, hoping I might have steadiness enough to remain deathquiet when

the men came in with the lantern. I need have had no fear. The door was opened, one of the men picked me

up by the heels, and, using my legs as if they were the shafts of a wheelbarrow, dragged me down the passage

to the place where the stream emerged from the last cell, and into this torrent he flung me. There was one

swift, brief moment of darkness, then I shot, feet first, into space, and dropped down, down, down through

"Into what?" cried Dorothy, white and breathless, thinking the recital of these agonies had turned the man's

"The Baltic, Madam, is the Finlander's mother. It feeds him in life, carries him whither he wishes to go, and

every true Finlander hopes to die in her arms. The Baltic seemed almost warm after what I had been through,

and the taste of the salt on my lips was good. It was a beautiful starlight night in May, and I floated around

the rock, for I knew that in a cove on the eastern side, concealed from all view of the sea, lay a Finland

fishingboat, a craft that will weather any storm, and here in the water was a man who knew how to handle it.

Prisoners are landed on the eastern side, and such advantage is taken of the natural conformation of this

precipitous rock, that a man climbing the steep zigzag stairway which leads to the inhabited portion is hidden

from sight of any craft upon the water even four or five hundred yards away. Nothing seen from the outside

gives any token of habitation. The fishingboat, I suppose, is kept for cases of emergency, that the Governor

may communicate with the shore if necessary. I feared it might be moored so securely that I could not

unfasten it. Security had made them careless, and the boat was tied merely by lines to rings in the rock, the

object being to keep her from bruising her sides against the stone, rather than to prevent any one taking her

away. I pushed her out into the open, got quietly inside, and floated with the swift tide, not caring to raise a

sail until I was well out of gunshot distance. Once clear of the rock I spread canvas, and by daybreak was

long out of sight of land. I made for Stockholm, and there being no mark or name on the boat to denote that it

belonged to the Russian Government, I had little difficulty in selling it. I told the authorities what was

perfectly true: that I was a Finland sailor escaping from the tyrant of my country, and anxious to get to

America. As such events are happening practically every week along the Swedish coast I was not interfered

with, and got enough money from the sale of the boat to enable me to dress myself well, and take passage to

"Of course I could have shipped as a sailor from Stockholm easy enough, but I was tired of being a common

sailor, and expected, if I was respectably clothed, to get a better position than would otherwise be the case.

This proved true, for crossing the ocean I became acquainted with Mr. Stockwell, and he engaged me as mate

of his yacht. That's how I escaped from the Trogzmondoff, Madam, and I think no one but a Finlander could

"I quite agree with you," said Dorothy. "You think these two men I have been making inquiry about have

"I don't know, Madam. I never saw the western side by daylight. I noticed nothing on the eastern side as I

was climbing the steps, to show that any cannon was on the Trogzmondoff at all."

"I suppose you had no opportunity of finding out how many men garrison the rock?"

"No, Madam. I don't think the garrison is large. The place is so secure that it doesn't need many men to guard

it. Prisoners are never taken out for exercise, and, as I told you, they are fed but once in four days."

"Practically none, Madam. The steamer stood out, and I was landed in the cove I spoke of at the foot of the

"It wouldn't be possible to bring a steamer like 'The Walrus' alongside the rock, then?"

"If twenty or thirty determined men were landed on the stairway, do you think they could capture the

"Yes, if they were landed secretly, but one or two soldiers at the top with repeating rifles might hold the

"But if a shell were fired from the steamer, might not the attacking company get inside during the confusion

"That is possible, Madam, but a private steamer firing shells, or, indeed, landing a hostile company, runs

"I? Oh, I should be delighted to try it, if you allow me to select the crew. I can easily get aboard the small

"Very good. I need not warn you to be extremely cautious regarding those you take into your confidence.

Meanwhile, I wish you to communicate with the official who is authorized to sell the yacht. I am expecting a

gentleman tomorrow in whose name the vessel will probably be bought, and I am hoping he will accept the

"He was for many years captain in the United States Navy. I offer you the position of mate, but I will give

you captain's pay, and a large bonus in addition if you faithfully carry out my plans, whether they prove

successful or not. I wish you to come here at this hour tomorrow, with whoever is authorized to sell or

charter the steamer. You may say I am undecided whether to buy or charter. I must consult Captain Kempt on

PRINCE IVAN LERMONTOFF came to consider the explosion one of the luckiest things that had ever

occurred in his workshop. Its happening so soon after he reached St. Petersburg he looked upon as

particularly fortunate, because this gave him time to follow the new trend of thought along which his mind

had been deflected by such knowledge as the unexpected outcome of his experiment had disclosed to him.

The material he had used as a catalytic agent was a new substance which he had read of in a scientific review,

and he had purchased a small quantity of it in London. If such a minute portion produced results so

tremendous, he began to see that a man with an apparently innocent material in his waistcoat pocket might

probably be able to destroy a naval harbor, so long as water and stone were in conjunction. There was also a

possibility that a small quantity of ozak, as the stuff was called, mixed with pure water, would form a

reducing agent for limestone, and perhaps for other minerals, which would work much quicker than if the

liquid was merely impregnated with carbonic acid gas. He endeavored to purchase some ozak from Mr.

Kruger, the chemist on the English quay, but that good man had never heard of it, and a day's search

persuaded him that it could not be got in St. Petersburg, so the Prince induced Kruger to order half a pound of

it from London or Paris, in which latter city it had been discovered. For the arrival of this order the Prince

waited with such patience as he could call to his command, and visited poor Mr. Kruger every day in the

One afternoon he was delighted to hear that the box had come, although it had not yet been unpacked.

"I will send it to your house this evening," said the chemist. "There are a number of drugs in the box for your

old friend Professor Potkin of the University, and he is even more impatient for his consignment than you are

for yours. Ah, here he is," and as he spoke the venerable Potkin himself entered the shop.

He shook hands warmly with Lermontoff, who had always been a favorite pupil of his, and learned with

"Cannot you dine with me this evening at halfpast five?" asked the old man. "There are three or four friends

"Truth to tell, Professor," demurred the Prince, "I have a friend staying with me, and I don't just like to leave

"Bring him with you, bring him with you," said the Professor, "but in any case be sure you come yourself. I

shall be expecting you. Make your excuses to your friend if he does not wish to endure what he might think

The Prince promised to be there whether his friend came or no. The chemist here interrupted them, and told

"And your package," he said to the Prince, "I shall send about the same time. I have been very busy, and can

"You need not trouble to send it, and in any case I don't wish to run the risk of having it delivered at a wrong

address by your messenger. I cannot afford to wait so long as would be necessary to duplicate the order. I am

dining with the Professor tonight, so will drive this way, and take the parcel myself."

"Perhaps," said the chemist, "it would be more convenient if I sent your parcel to Professor Potkin's house?"

"We experimenters," he said, "never trust each other," so they shook hands and parted.

On returning to his workshop, Lermontoff bounded up the stairs, and hailed his friend the Lieutenant.

"I say, Drummond, I'm going to dine tonight with Professor Potkin of the University, my old teacher in

chemistry. His hour is halfpast five, and I've got an invitation for you. There will be several scientists

"I'd a good deal rather not," said the Englishman, "I'm wiring into these books, and studying strategy; making

"Well, you take my advice, Alan, and don't leave any of those plans round where the St. Petersburg police

will find them. Such a line of study is carried on much safer in London than here. You'd be very welcome,

Drummond, and the old boy would be glad to see you. You don't need to bother about evening togsplain

living and high thinking, you know. I'm merely going to put on a clean collar and a new tie, as sufficient for

"I'd rather not go, Jack, if you don't mind. If I'm there you'll all be trying to talk English or French, and so I'd

feel myself rather a damper on the company. Besides, I don't know anything about science, and I'm trying to

At five o'clock Jack was at the chemist's and received his package. On opening it he found the ozak in two

"Will you give me three spray syringes, as large a size as you have, rubber, glass, and metal. I'm not sure but

this stuff will attack one or other of them, and I don't want to spend the rest of my life running down to your

Getting the syringes, he jumped into his cab, and was driven to the Professor's.

There were three others besides the Professor and himself, and they were all interested in learning the latest

It was a quarter past ten when the company separated. Lermontoff stepped into his cab, and the driver went

rattling up the street. In all the talk the Prince had said nothing of his own discovery, and now when he found

himself alone his mind reverted to the material in his pocket, and he was glad the cabman was galloping his

horse, that he might be the sooner in his workshop. Suddenly he noticed that they were dashing down a street

"I say," he cried to the driver, "you've taken the wrong turning. This is a blind street. There's neither quay nor

"I see that now," said the driver over his shoulder. "I'll turn round at the end where it is wider."

He did turn, but instead of coming up the street again, dashed through an open archway which led into the

courtyard of a large building fronting the Neva. The moment the carriage was inside, the gates clanged shut.

"Now, what in the name of Saint Peter do you mean by this?" demanded the Prince angrily.

The cabman made no reply, but from a door to the right stepped a tall, uniformed officer, who said:

"Orders, your Highness, orders. The isvoshtchik is not to blame. May I beg of your Highness to accompany

"I am one who is called upon to perform a disagreeable duty, which your Highness will make much easier by

"Then I demand that the gates be opened that I may return home, where more important business awaits me

"I hope you will pardon me, Prince Lermontoff. I act, as the isvoshtchik has acted, under compulsion. My

"Then, for the second time I inquire, am I under arrest? If so, show me your warrant, and then I will go with

you, merely protesting that whoever issued such a warrant has exceeded his authority."

"I have seen nothing of a warrant, your Highness, and I think you are confusing your rights with those

pertaining to individuals residing in certain countries you have recently visited."

"I have none. I act on my superior's word, and do not presume to question it. May I hope that you will follow

me without a further parley, which is embarrassing to me, and quite unhelpful to yourself. I have been

instructed to treat you with every courtesy, but nevertheless force has been placed at my disposal. I am even

to take your word of honor that you are unarmed, and your Highness is well aware that such leniency is

"Well, sir, even if my word of honor failed to disarm me, your politeness would. I carry a revolver. Do you

The Prince held the weapon, butt forward, to the officer, who received it with a gracious salutation.

"Oh, very well," he said. "May I write a note to a friend who is waiting up for me?"

The Prince stepped down from the vehicle, walked diagonally across a very dimly lighted courtyard with his

guide, entered that section of the rectangular building which faced the Neva, passed along a hall with one gas

jet burning, then outside again, and immediately over a gangplank that brought him aboard a steamer. On

the lower deck a passage ran down the center of the ship, and along this the conductor guided his prisoner,

opened the door of a stateroom in which candles were burning, and a comfortable bed turned down for

"I think your Highness will find everything here that you need. If anything further is required, the electric bell

"I know nothing of that, your Highness. My duty ends by escorting you here. I must ask if you have any other

"Thank you, Excellency," replied the officer, as suavely as if Lermontoff had given his parole. Out of the

darkness he called a tall, roughlooking soldier, who carried a musket with a bayonet at the end of it. The

"Oh, by the way, I forgot to pay my cabman. Of course it isn't his fault that he brought me here."

He closed the door of his cabin, pulled out his notebook, and rapidly wrote two letters, one of which he

addressed to Drummond and the other to the Czar. When the cabman came he took him within the cabin and

"Here," he said in a loud voice that the sentry could overhear if he liked, "how much do I owe you?"

"That's too much, you scoundrel," he cried aloud, but as he did so he placed three gold pieces in the palm of

"Get these delivered safely, and I'll give you ten times this money if you call on Prince Lermontoff at the

The man saluted, thanked him, and retired; a moment later he heard the jingle of a bell, and then the steady

throb of an engine. There was no window to the stateroom, and he could not tell whether the steamer was

going up or down the river. Up, he surmised, and he suspected his destination was Schlusselburg, the

fortressprison on an island at the source of the Neva. He determined to go on deck and solve the question of

direction, but the soldier at the door brought down his gun and barred the passage.

Lermontoff pressed the button, and presently an attendant came to learn what was wanted.

The steward departed, and shortly after returned with a big, bronzed, bearded man, whose bulk made the

"So am I," said the Prince jauntily. "My name is Lermontoff. Perhaps you have heard of me?"

"I am a Prince of Russia, and by some mistake find myself your passenger instead of spending the night in

"The General said you were not to be allowed to leave this stateroom, as you did not give your parole."

"So he is a general, is he? Well, Captain, I'll give you my parole that I shall not attempt to swim the Neva on

"I cannot allow you on deck now," said the Captain, "but when we are in the Gulf of Finland you may walk

The big Captain looked at him with deep displeasure clouding his brow, feeling that he had been led to give

"I told your Highness that I am not allowed to answer questions. The General, however, has given me a letter

"He told me not to disturb you tonight, but place it before you at breakfast tomorrow."

"No, your Excellency; he just said, 'Do not trouble his Highness tonight, but give him this in the morning.'"

The Captain pulled a letter from 'his pocket and presented it to the Prince. It contained merely the two notes

AFTER the Captain left him, Lermontoff closed and bolted the door, then sat down upon the edge of his bed

to meditate upon the situation. He heard distant bells ringing on shore somewhere, and looking at his watch

saw it was just eleven o'clock. It seemed incredible that threequarters of an hour previously he had left the

hospitable doors of a friend, and now was churning his way in an unknown steamer to an unknown

destination. It appeared impossible that so much could have happened in fortyfive minutes. He wondered

what Drummond was doing, and what action he would take when he found his friend missing.

However, pondering over the matter brought no solution of the mystery, so, being a practical young man, he

cast the subject from his mind, picked up his heavy overcoat, which he had flung on the bed, and hung it up

on the hook attached to the door. As he did this his hand came in contact with a tube in one of the pockets,

and for a moment he imagined it was his revolver, but he found it was the metal syringe he had purchased

that evening from the chemist. This set his thoughts whirling in another direction. He took from an inside

pocket one of the bottles of ozak, examining it under the candle light, wishing he had a piece of rock with

which to experiment. Then with a yawn he replaced the materials in his overcoat pocket, took off his boots,

and threw himself on the bed, thankful it was not an ordinary shelf bunk, but a generous and comfortable

restingplace. Now Katherine appeared before his closed eyes, and hand in hand they wandered into

When he awoke it was pitch dark in his cabin. The candles, which he had neglected to extinguish, had burned

themselves out. The short, jerky motion of the steamer indicated that he was aboard a small vessel, and that

this small vessel was out in the open sea. He believed that a noise of some kind had awakened him, and this

was confirmed by a knock at his door which caused him to spring up and throw back the bolt. The steward

was there, but in the dim light of the passage he saw nothing of the sentinel. He knew it was daylight outside.

"The Captain, Excellency, wishes to know if you will breakfast with him or take your meal in your room?"

"Present my compliments to the Captain, and say I shall have great pleasure in breakfasting with him."

The Prince washed himself, smoothed out his rumpled clothes as well as he could, and put on his boots.

While engaged in the latter operation the door opened, and the big Captain himself entered, inclosed in

"Hyvaa pyvaa, Highness," said the Captain. "Will you walk the deck before breakfast?"

"Goodday to you," returned the Prince, "and by your salutation I take you to be a Finn."

"I am a native of Abo," replied the Captain, "and as you say, a Finn, but I differ from many of my

"Well, there are not too many good Russians, and here is one who would rather have heard that you were a

"It is to prevent any mistake," replied the Captain, almost roughly, "that I mention I am a good Russian."

"Right you are, Captain, and as I am a good Russian also, perhaps good Russian Number One can tell me to

what part of the world he is conveying good Russian Number Two, a man guiltless of any crime, and

"We may both be good, but the day is not, Highness. It has been raining during the night, and is still

The Captain in most friendly manner took the overcoat from its hook, shook it out, and held it ready to

embrace its owner. Lermontoff shoved right arm, then left, into the sleeves, hunched the coat up into place,

They emerged on deck into a dismal gray morning. No land or craft of any kind was in sight. The horizon

formed a small, close circle round the ship. Clouds hung low, running before the wind, and bringing

intermittently little dashes of rain that seemed still further to compress the walls of horizon. The sea was not

what could be called rough, but merely choppy and fretful, with short waves that would not have troubled a

larger craft. The steamer proved to be a small, undistinguished dingylooking boat, more like a commercial

tramp than a government vessel. An officer, apparently the mate, stood on the bridge, sinewy hands grasping

the rail, peering ahead into the white mist that was almost a fog. The promenade deck afforded no great scope

for pedestrianism, but Captain and prisoner walked back and forth over the restricted space, talking genially

together as if they were old friends. Nevertheless there was a certain cautious guardedness in the Captain's

speech; the wary craft of an unready man who is in the presence of a person more subtle than himself. The

bluff Captain remembered he had been caught napping the night before, when, after refusing to tell the Prince

the direction of the steamer, he had given himself away by mentioning the Gulf of Finland. Lermontoff

noticed this reluctance to plunge into the abyss of free conversation, and so, instead of reassuring him he

would ask no more questions, he merely took upon his own shoulders the burden of the talk, and related to

The steward advanced respectfully to the Captain, and announced breakfast ready, whereupon the two men

followed him into a saloon not much larger than the stateroom Lermontoff had occupied the night before, and

not nearly so comfortably furnished. A plenteous breakfast was supplied, consisting principally of fish,

steaming potatoes, black bread, and very strong tea. The Captain swallowed cup after cup of this scalding

beverage, and it seemed to make him more and more genial as if it had been wine. Indeed, as time went on he

forgot that it was a prisoner who sat before him, for quite innocently he said to the steward who waited on

"Oh, well, give them somethingsomething hot. It may be their last meal," then turning, he met the gaze of

The Prince nodded carelessly, as if he believed, and offered his open cigarette case to the Captain, who shook

The Captain rose with his lighted pipe, and together they went up on deck again. The Prince saw nothing

more of the tall sentinel who had been his guard the night before, so without asking permission he took it for

granted that his movements, now they were in the open sea, were unrestricted, therefore he walked up and

down the deck smoking cigarettes. At the stroke of a bell the Captain mounted the bridge and the mate came

Suddenly out of the thickness ahead loomed up a great black British freighter making for St. Petersburg, as

the Prince supposed. The two steamers, big and little, were so close that each was compelled to sheer off a

bit; then the Captain turned on the bridge and seemed for a moment uncertain what to do with his prisoner. A

number of men were leaning over the bulwarks of the British ship, and it would have been quite possible for

the person on one boat to give a message to those on the other. The Prince, understanding the Captain's

quandary, looked up at him and smiled, but made no attempt to take advantage of his predicament. Some one

on board the English ship shouted and fluttered a handkerchief, whereupon the Prince waved his cigarette in

Lermontoff walked the deck, thinking very seriously about his situation, and wondering where they intended

to take him. If he were to be put in prison, it must be in some place of detention on the coast of Finland,

which seemed strange, because he understood that the fortresses there were already filled with dissatisfied

inhabitants of that disaffected land. His first impression had been that banishment was intended, and he had

expected to be landed at some Swedish or German port, but a chance remark made by the Captain at

breakfast inclined him to believe that there were other prisoners on board not quite so favorably treated as

himself. But why should he be sent out of Russia proper, or even removed from St. Petersburg, which, he was

well aware, suffered from no lack of gaols. The continued voyage of the steamer through an open sea again

aroused the hope that Stockholm was the objective point. If they landed him there it merely meant a little

temporary inconvenience, and, once ashore, he hoped to concoct a telegram so apparently innocent that it

would win through to his friend, and give Drummond at least the knowledge of his abidingplace. The

thought of Drummond aroused all his old fear that the Englishman was to be the real victim, and this

enforced voyage was merely a convenient method of getting himself out of the way.

After lunch a dismal drizzle set in that presently increased to a steady downpour, which drove Lermontoff to

his cabin, and that room being unprovided with either window or electric light, the Prince struck a match to

one of the candles newly placed on the washstand. He pushed the electric button summoning the steward,

and, giving him some money, asked if there was such a thing as a piece of stone on board, carried as ballast,

or for any other reason. The steward said he would inquire, and finally returned with a sharpening stone used

for the knives in the galley. Bolting his door, Lermontoff began an experiment, and at once forgot he was a

prisoner. He filled the washbasin with water, and opening one of the glassstoppered bottles, took out with

the point of his knife a most minute portion of the substance within, which he dissolved in the water with no

apparent effect. Standing the whetstone up on end, he filled the glass syringe, and directed a fine, vaporous

spray against the stone. It dissolved before his eyes as a sand castle on the shore dissolves at the touch of an

"By St. Peter of Russia!" he cried, "I've got it at last! I must write to Katherine about this."

Summoning the steward again to take away this fluid, and bring him another pailful of fresh water,

Lermontoff endeavored to extract some information from the deferential young man.

"Yes, that's what the Captain said. But if it meant death for a sailor to be drunk, the commerce of the world

"This is a government steamer, Excellency, and if a sailor here disobeys orders he is guilty of mutiny. On a

"Excellency has been very generous to me already," was the noncommittal reply of the steward, whose eyes

"Well, here's enough to make a jingle in your pocket, and here are two letters which you are to try to get

That night at dinner the Captain opened a bottle of vodka, and conversed genially on many topics, without

touching upon the particular subject of liberty. He partook sparingly of the stimulant, and, to Lermontoff's

disappointment, it did not in the least loosen his tongue, and thus, still ignorant of his fate, the Prince turned

When he awoke next morning he found the engines had stopped, and, as the vessel was motionless, surmised

it had reached harbor. He heard the intermittent chuckchuck of a pony engine, and the screech of an

"Now," he said to himself, "if my former sentinel is at the door they are going to take me to prison. If he is

He jumped up, threw back the bolt, opened the door. There was no one there. In a very few minutes he was

on deck, and found that the steamer was lying in the lee of a huge rock, which reminded him of Mont St.

Michel in Normandy, except that it was about half again as high, and three times as long, and that there were

no buildings of any kind upon it, nor, indeed, the least sign of human habitation.

The morning was fine; in the east the sun had just risen, and was flooding the grim rock with a rosy light.

Except this rock, no trace of land was visible as far as the eye could see. Alongside the steamer was moored a

sailingboat with two masts, but provided also with tholepins, and sweeps for rowing. The sails were furled,

and she had evidently been brought to the steamer's side by means of the oars. Into this craft the crane was

lowering boxes, bags, and whatnot, which three or four men were stowing away. The mate was

superintending this transshipment, and the Captain, standing with his back against the deckhouse, was

handing one by one certain papers, which Lermontoff took to be bills of lading, to a young man who signed

in a book for each he received. When this transaction was completed, the young man saluted the Captain, and

"No, not at anchor. Merely lying here. The sea is too deep, and affords no anchorage at this point."

The Captain nodded his head at the rock, and Lermontoff gazed at it again, running his eyes from top to

"Then you lie to the lee of this rock, and the small boat takes the supplies ashore?"

"Yes, in a way. They keep a lookout. And now, Highness, I see your overcoat is on your back. Have you left

"It is called the Trogzmondoff, Highness, and the water surrounding you is the Baltic."

"Very, very Russian," returned the Captain drawing a deep breath. "This way, if your Highness pleases. There

is a rope ladder, which is sometimes a little unsteady for a landsman, so be careful."

And with this mutual goodby in Finnish, the Prince went down the swaying ladder.

FOR once the humorous expression had vanished from Captain Kempt's face, and that goodnatured man sat

in the dainty drawingroom of the flat a picture of perplexity. Dorothy had told him the story of the Nihilist,

saying she intended to purchase the yacht, and outlining what she proposed to do with it when it was her own.

Now she sat silent opposite the genial Captain, while Katherine stood by the window, and talked enough for

two, sometimes waxing indignant, and occasionally giving, in terse language, an opinion of her father, as is

the blessed privilege of every girl born in the land of the free, while the father took the censure with the

"My dear girls, you really must listen to reason. What you propose to do is so absurd that it doesn't even

admit of argument. Why, it's a filibustering expedition, that's what it is. You girls are as crazy as Walker of

Nicaragua. Do you imagine that a retired Captain of the United States Navy is going to take command of a

pirate craft of far less legal standing than the 'Alabama,' for then we were at war, but now we are at peace. Do

you actually propose to attack the domain of a friendly country! Oh!" cried the Captain, with a mighty

explosion of breath, for at this point his supply of language entirely gave out.

"Not know about it? With a crew of men picked up here in New York, and coming back to New York? Not

know about it? Bless my soul, the papers would be full of it before your men were an hour on shore. In the

"Then what's the harm of going in search of it?" demanded his daughter. "Besides that, Johnson knows

"Johnson, Johnson! You're surely not silly enough to believe Johnson's cockandbull story?"

"I believe every syllable he uttered. The man's face showed that he was speaking the truth."

"But, my dear Kate, you didn't see him at all, as I understand the yarn. He was here alone with you, was he

"Why, look you here. False in one thing, false in all. I'll just take a single point. He speaks of a spring sending

water through the cells up there in the rock. Now, that is an impossibility. Wherever a spring exists, it comes

"There are lots of springs up in the mountains," interrupted Katherine. "I know one on Mount Washington

"Quite so, Katherine, quite so, but nevertheless there is a lake, subterraneous or above ground, which feeds

your White Mountain spring, and such a lake must be situated higher than the spring is. Why, girl, you ought

to study hydrometeorology as well as chemistry. Here is a rock jutting up in midocean"

"It's in the Baltic, near the Russian coast," snapped Kate, "and I've no doubt there are mountains in Finland

"Why, yes it does, father. How can you speak like that? Don't you know Lieutenant Drummond fired at it?"

"Because the rock fired back at him. There can't be two like that in the Baltic."

"Captain Kempt," said Dorothy very soothingly, as if she desired to quell the rising storm, "you take the

allegation about the spring of water to prove that Johnson was telling untruths. I expect him here within an

hour, and I will arrange that you have an opportunity, privately, of crossexamining him. I think when you

see the man, and listen to him, you will believe. What makes me so sure that he is telling the truth is the fact

that he mentioned the foreign vessel firing at this rock, which I knew to be true, and which he could not

"He might very well have learned all particulars from the papers, Dorothy. They were full enough of the

subject at the time, and, remembering this, he thought to strengthen his story by"

"Quite so, Kate; exactly what I was going to say myself. But to come back to the project itself. Granting the

existence of the rock, granting the truth of Johnson's story, granting everything, granting even that the young

men are imprisoned there, of which we have not the slightest proof, we could no more succeed in capturing

"Even if it were built like a battleship we would have no chance whatever. Why, that rock might defy a

regular fleet. Our venture would simply be a marine Jameson Raid which would set the whole world laughing

"No, Kate," corrected Dorothy, "he said the very reverse; that two or three determined men on the rock with

repeating rifles could defeat a host. It was I who suggested that we should throw a shell, and then rush the

"Great heavens, Dorothy Amhurst, whom I have always regarded as the mildest, sweetest and most charming

of girls; to hear you calmly propose to throw a shell among a lot of innocent men defending their own

territory against a perfectly unauthorized invasion! Throw a shell, say you, as if you were talking of tossing a

copper to a beggar! Oh, Lord, I'm growing old. What will become of this younger generation? Well, I give it

up. Dorothy, my dear, whatever will happen to those unfortunate Russians, I shall never recover from the

shock of your shell. The thing is absolutely impossible. Can't you see that the moment you get down to

details? How are you going to procure your shells, or your shellfiring gun? They are not to be bought at the

"Oh, damn Johnson! Dorothy, I beg your pardon, but really, this daughter of mine, combined with that

"That would be a great deal better than what you propose. You should do something sane. You mustn't

involve a pair of friendly countries in war. Of course the United States would utterly disclaim your act, and

discredit me if I were lunatic enough to undertake such a wild goose chase, which I'm not; but, on the other

hand, if two of our girls undertook such an expedition, no man can predict the public clamor that might arise.

Why, when the newspapers get hold of a question, you never know where they will end it. Undoubtedly you

two girls should be sent to prison, and, with equal undoubtedness, the American people wouldn't permit it."

"One moment, Captain Kempt," said Dorothy, again in her mildest tones, for voices had again begun to run

high, "you spoke of doing something sane. You understand the situation. What should you counsel us to do?"

"There, Dad, it's up to you," said Katherine. "Let us hear your proposal, and then you'll learn how easy it is to

"Utterly useless: one man is a Russian, and the other an Englishman. Diplomacy not only can do nothing, but

"Yet," said the Captain, with little confidence, "although the two men are foreigners, the two girls are

"We don't count: we've no votes," said Kate. "Besides, Dorothy tried the diplomatic service, and could not

"Four balls are out, Kate, and I've only fanned the air twice. Now, girls, I'll tell you what I'd do. You two

come with me to Washington. We will seek a private interview with the President. He will get into

communication with the Czar, also privately, and outside of all regular channels. The Czar will put machinery

in motion that is sure to produce those two young men much more effectually and speedily than any cutthroat

"Of course it is," cried the Captain enthusiastically. "Don't you see the pull the President will have? Why,

they've put an Englishman into 'the jug,' and when the President communicates this fact to the Czar he will be

afraid to refuse, knowing that the next appeal may be from America to England, and when you add a couple

"The point you raise, Captain," said Dorothy, "is one I wish to say a few words about. The President cannot

get Mr. Drummond released, because the Czar and all his government will be compelled to deny that they

know anything of him. Even the President couldn't guarantee that the Englishman would keep silence if he

were set at liberty. The Czar would know that, but your plan would undoubtedly produce Prince Ivan

Lermontoff. All the president has to do is to tell the Czar that the Prince is engaged to an American girl, and

"But," objected the Captain, "as the Prince knows the Englishman is in prison, how could they be sure of

"He cannot know that, because the Prince was arrested several days before Drummond was.

"They have probably chucked them both into the same cell," said the Captain, but Dorothy shook her head.

"If they had intended to do that, they would doubtless have arrested them together. I am sure that one does

not know the fate of the other, therefore the Czar can quite readily let Lermontoff go, and he is certain to do

that at a word from the President. Besides this, I am as confident that Jack is not in the Trogzmondoff, as I am

"Oh, Dorothy," cried the Captain, with a deep sigh, "if we've got back again to Johnson" He waved his

"Just show them into the morning room," said Dorothy, rising. "Captain Kempt, it is awfully good of you to

"Here is a check I have signeda blank check. I wish you to buy the yacht 'Walrus' just as she stands, and

make the best bargain you can for me. A man is so much better at this kind of negotiation than a woman."

"Keep quiet," said the Captain, rising, for the first time speaking with real severity, whereupon Katherine, in

"But, my dear woman, don't you see how you've been hoodwinked by this man Johnson? He is shy of a job.

"No, he asked for ten only, Captain Kempt, and I voluntarily doubled the amount."

"Nevertheless, he has worked you up to believe that these young men are in that rock. He has done this for a

very crafty purpose, and his purpose seems likely to succeed. He knows he will be well paid, and you have

promised him a bonus besides. If he, with his Captain Kidd crew, gets you on that yacht, you will only step

ashore by giving him every penny you possess. That's his object. He knows you are starting out to commit a

crimethat's the word, Dorothy, there's no use in our mincing mattersyou will be perfectly helpless in his

hands. Of course, I could not allow my daughter Kate to go on such an expedition."

"I am over twentyone years old," cried Kate, the light of rebellion in her eyes.

"Dorothy, I'll not submit to that," cried Katherine, with a rising tremor of anger in her voice, "I shall not be

set aside like a child. Who has more at stake than I? And as for capturing the rock, I'll dynamite it myself, and

bring home as large a specimen of it as the yacht will carry, and set it up on Bedloe's Island beside the

Goddess and say, 'There's your statue of Liberty, and there's your statue of Tyranny!'"

"Katherine," chided her father, "I never before believed that a child of mine could talk such driveling

"Your Presidential plan, Captain Kempt," interposed Dorothy, "is excellent so far as Prince Lermontoff is

concerned, but it cannot rescue Lieutenant Drummond. Now, there are two things you can do for me that will

make me always your debtor, as, indeed, I am already, and the first is to purchase for me the yacht. The

second is to form your own judgment of the man Johnson, and if you distrust him, then engage for me

"First sane idea I have heard since I came into this flat," growled the Captain.

"The Americans won't let the Finlander hold me for ransom, you may depend upon that."

It was a woebegone look the gallant Captain cast on the demure and determined maiden, then, feeling his

"I'm going, father," she said, with a firmness quite equal to his own, and he on his part recognized when his

daughter had toed the danger line. He indulged in a laugh that had little of mirth in it.

"All I can say is that I am thankful you haven't made up your minds to kidnap the Czar. Of course you are

AS the sailingboat cast off, and was shoved away from the side of the steamer, there were eight men aboard.

Six grasped the oars, and the young clerk who had signed for the documents given to him by the Captain took

the rudder, motioning Lermontoff to a seat beside him. All the forward part of the boat, and, indeed, the space

"What is this place called?" asked the Prince, but the young steersman did not reply.

Tying the boat to iron rings at the small landing where the steps began, three of the men shipped their oars.

Each threw a bag over his shoulder, walked up half a dozen steps and waited. The clerk motioned Lermontoff

to follow, so he stepped on the shelf of rock and looked upward at the rugged stairway cut between the main

island and an outstanding perpendicular ledge of rock. The steps were so narrow that the procession had to

move up in Indian file; three men with bags, then the Prince and the clerk, followed by three more men with

boxes. Lermontoff counted two hundred and thirtyseven steps, which brought him to an elevated platform,

projecting from a doorway cut in the living rock, but shielded from all sight of the sea. The eastern sun shone

through this doorway, but did not illumine sufficiently the large room whose walls, ceiling and floor were of

solid stone. At the farther end a man in uniform sat behind a long table on which burned an oil lamp with a

green shade. At his right hand stood a broad, round brazier containing glowing coals, after the Oriental

fashion, and the officer was holding his two hands over it, and rubbing them together. The room,

nevertheless, struck chill as a cellar, and Lermontoff heard a constant smothered roar of water.

The clerk, stepping forward and saluting, presented to the Governor seated there the papers and envelopes

given him by the Captain. The officer selected a blue sheet of paper, and scrutinized it for a moment under

"We have landed first the supplies, Governor; then the boat will return for the others."

The Governor nodded, and struck a bell with his open palm. There entered a big man with a bunch of keys at

The Governor gave utterance to a sound that was more like the grunt of a pig than the ejaculation of a man.

He did not answer, but looked up at the questioner, and the latter saw that his face, gaunt almost as that of a

"Number Nine," he repeated, whereupon the gaoler and the man with the lantern put a hand each on

Lermontoff's shoulders, and marched him away. They walked together down a long passage, the swaying

lantern casting its yellow rays on the iron bolts of door after door, until at last the gaoler stopped, threw back

six bolts, inserted a key, unlocked the door, and pushed it ponderously open. The lantern showed it to be built

like the door of a safe, but unlike that of a safe it opened inwards. As soon as the door came ajar Lermontoff

heard the sound of flowing water, and when the three entered, he noticed a rapid little stream sparkling in the

rays of the lantern at the further end of the cell. He saw a shelf of rock and a stone bench before it. The gaoler

"Well, my son, judging from the unappetizing look of it, I think it will last me much longer."

The gaoler made no reply, but he and the man with the lantern retired, drawing the door heavily after them.

Lermontoff heard the bolts thrust into place, and the turn of the key; then silence fell, all but the babbling of

the water. He stood still in the center of the cell, his hands thrust deep in the pockets of his overcoat, and, in

"Jack, my boy," he muttered, "this is a new deal, as they say in the West. I can imagine a man going crazy

here, if it wasn't for that stream. I never knew what darkness meant before. Well, let's find out the size of our

He groped for the wall, and stumbling against the stone bench, whose existence he had forgotten, pitched

head forward to the table, and sent the fourday loaf rolling on the floor. He made an ineffectual grasp after

the loaf, fearing it might fall into the stream and be lost to him, but he could not find it, and now his designs

for measuring the cell gave place to the desire of finding that loaf. He got down on his hands and knees, and

felt the stone floor inch by inch for half an hour, as he estimated the time, but never once did he touch the

"How helpless a man is in the dark, after all," he muttered to himself. "I must do this systematically,

On all fours he reached the margin of the rivulet, and felt his way along the brink till his head struck the

opposite wall. He turned round, took up a position that he guessed was three feet nearer the door, and again

traversed the room, becoming so eager in the search that he forgot for the moment the horror of his situation,

just as, when engaged in a chemical experiment, everything else vanished from his mind, and thus after

several journeys back and forth he was again reminded of the existence of the stone bench by butting against

it when he knew he was still several feet from the wall. Rubbing his head, he muttered some unfavorable

phrases regarding the immovable bench, then crawled round it twice, and resumed his transverse excursions.

At last he reached the wall that held the door, and now with breathless eagerness rubbed his shoulder against

it till he came to the opposite corner. He knew he had touched with knees and hands practically every square

"Now, that's a disaster," cried he, getting up on his feet, and stretching himself. "Still, a man doesn't starve in

four days. I've cast my bread on the waters. It has evidently gone down the stream. Now, what's to hinder a

man escaping by means of that watercourse? Still, if he did, what would be the use? He'd float out into the

Baltic Sea, and if able to swim round the rock, would merely be compelled to knock at the front door and beg

admission again. No, by Jove, there's the boat, but they probably guard it night and day, and a man in the

water would have no chance against one in the boat. Perhaps there's gratings between the cells. Of course,

there's bound to be. No one would leave the bed of a stream clear for any one to navigate. Prisoners would

visit each other in their cells, and that's not allowed in any respectable prison. I wonder if there's any one next

door on either side of me. An iron grid won't keep out the sound. I'll try," and going again to the margin of

the watercourse, he shouted several times as loudly as he could, but only a sepulchral echo, as if from a vault,

"I imagine the adjoining cells are empty. No enjoyable companionship to be expected here. I wonder if

they've got the other poor devils up from the steamer yet. I'll sit down on the bench and listen."

He could have found the bench and shelf almost immediately by groping round the wall, but he determined to

In his mind he had a picture of the cell, but now that he listened to the water it seemed to have changed its

direction, and he found he had to rearrange this mental picture, and make a different set of calculations to fit

the new position. Then he shuffled slowly forward with hands outstretched, but he came to the wall, and not

to the bench. Again he mapped out his route, again endeavored, and again failed.

"This is bewildering," he muttered. "How the darkness baffles a man. For the first time in my life I appreciate

He stood perplexed for a few moments, and, deeply thinking, his hands automatically performed an operation

as the servants of habit. They took from his pocket his cigarette case, selected a tube of tobacco, placed it

between his lips, searched another pocket, brought out a matchbox, and struck a light. The striking of the

match startled Lermontoff as if it had been an explosion; then he laughed, holding the match above his head,

and there at his feet saw the loaf of black bread. It seemed as if somebody had twisted the room end for end.

The door was where he thought the stream was, and thus he learned that sound gives no indication of

direction to a man blindfolded. The match began to wane, and feverishly he lit his cigarette.

"Why didn't I think of the matches, and oh! what a pity I failed to fill my pockets with them that night of the

Professor's dinner party! To think that matches are selling at this moment in Sweden two hundred and fifty

Guided by the spark at the end of his cigarette, he sought the bench and sat down upon it. He was surprised to

find himself so little depressed as was actually the case. He did not feel in the least disheartened. Something

was going to happen on his behalf; of that he was quite certain. It was perfectly ridiculous that even in Russia

a loyal subject, who had never done any illegal act in his life, a nobleman of the empire, and a friend of the

Czar, should be incarcerated for long without trial, and even without accusation. He had no enemies that he

knew of, and many friends, and yet he experienced a vague uneasiness when be remembered that his own

course of life had been such that he would not be missed by his friends. For more than a year he had been in

England, at sea, and in America, so much absorbed in his researches that he had written no private letters

worth speaking of, and if any friend were asked his whereabouts, he was likely to reply:

elsewhere. I haven't seen him or heard of him for months. Lost in a wilderness or in an experiment, perhaps."

These unhappy meditations were interrupted by the clang of bolts. He thought at first it was his own door that

was being opened, but a moment later knew it was the door of the next cell upstream. The sound, of course,

could not penetrate the extremely thick wall, but came through the aperture whose roof arched the

watercourse. From the voices he estimated that several prisoners were being put into one cell, and he

wondered whether or not he cared for a companion. It would all depend. If fellowprisoners hated each other,

Then the door clanged shut again, and he heard the murmur of voices in Russian, but could not make out

what was said. One of the new prisoners, groping round, appeared to have struck the stone bench, as he

himself had done. The man in the next cell swore coarsely, and Lermontoff, judging from such snatches of

their conversation as he could hear that they were persons of a low order, felt no desire to make their more

intimate acquaintance, and so did not shout to them, as he had intended to do. And now he missed something

that had become familiar; thought it was a cigarette he desired, for the one he had lit had been smoked to his

"Ah, they can shut it off," he said. "That's interesting. I must investigate, and learn whether or no there is

He crawled on hands and knees until he came to the bed of the stream, which was now damp, but empty.

Kneeling down in its course, he worked his way toward the lower cell, and, as he expected, came to stout iron

bars. Crouching thus he sacrificed a second match, and estimated that the distance between the two cells was

as much as ten feet of solid rock, and saw also that behind the perpendicular iron bars were another horizontal

While in this position he was startled by a piercing scream to the rear. He backed out from the tunnel and

stood upright once more. He heard the sound of people splashing round in water. The screamer began to

jabber like a maniac, punctuating his ravings with shrieks. Another was cursing vehemently, and a third

appealing to the saints. Lermontoff quickly knelt down in the watercourse, this time facing the upper cell, and

struck his third match. He saw that a steel shield, reminding him of the thin shutter between the lenses of a

camera, had been shot across the tunnel behind the second group of cross bars, and as an engineer be could

not but admire the skill of the practical expert who had constructed this diabolical device, for in spite of the

pressure on the other side, hardly a drop of water oozed through. He tried to reach this shield, but could not. It

was just beyond the touch of his fingers, with his arm thrust through the two sets of bars, but if he could have

stretched that far, with the first bar retarding his shoulder, he knew his hand would be helpless even if he had

some weapon to puncture the steel shield. The men would be drowned before he could accomplish anything

Crawling into his cell again he heard no more of the chatter and cries of the maniac, and he surmised that the

other two were fighting for places on bench or shelf, which was amply large enough to have supported both,

had they not been too demented with fear to recognize that fact. The cursing man was victorious, and now he

stood alone on the shelf, roaring maledictions. Then there was the sound of a plunge, and Lermontoff,

standing there, helpless and shivering, heard the prisoner swim round and round his cell like a furious animal,

"Don't exhaust yourself like that," shouted Lermontoff. "If you want to live, cling to the hole at either of the

two upper corners. The water can't rise above you then, and you can breathe till it subsides."

The other either did not hear, or did not heed, but tore round and round in his confined tank, thrashing the

"Poor devil," moaned Jack. "What's the use of telling him what to do. He is doomed in any case. The other

A moment later the water began to dribble through the upper aperture into Jack's cell, increasing and

increasing until there was the roar of a waterfall, and he felt the cold splashing drops spurt against him.

Beyond this there was silence. It was perhaps ten minutes after that the lever was pulled, and the water

belched forth from the lower tunnel like a mill race broken loose, temporarily flooding the floor so that Jack

He sunk down shivering on the stone shelf, laid his arms on the stone pillow, and buried his face in them.

IN this position Jack slept off and on, or rather, dozed into a kind of semistupor, from which he awoke with

a start now and then, as he thought be heard again the mingled cries of devotion and malediction. At last he

slept soundly, and awoke refreshed, but hungry. The loaf lay beside him, and with his knife he cut a slice

from it, munching the coarse bread with more of relish than he had thought possible when he first saw it.

Then he took out another cigarette, struck a match, looked at his watch, and lit the cigarette. It was ten

minutes past two. He wondered if a night had intervened, but thought it unlikely. He had landed very early in

the morning, and now it was afternoon. He was fearfully thirsty, but could not bring himself to drink from

"They are going to throw the poor wretches into the sea," he muttered, but the yellow gleam of a lantern

Jack sprang to the floor of his cell, repressing a cry of delight. Nothing the grim Governor could do to him

would make his situation any worse, and perhaps his persuasive powers upon that official might result in

some amelioration of his position. In any case there was the brief respite of the interview, and he would

gladly have chummed with the devil himself to be free a few moments from this black pit.

Although the outside door of the Governor's room stood open, the room was not as well illumined as it had

been before, for the sun had now gone round to the other side of the island, but to the prisoner's aching eyes it

seemed a chamber of refulgence. The same lamp was burning on the table, giving forth an odor of bad oil, but

in addition to this, two candles were lighted, which supplemented in some slight measure the efforts of the

lamp. At the end of the table lay a number of documents under a paperweight, arranged with the neat

precision of a methodical man. The Governor had been warming his hands over the brazier, but ceased when

Lermontoff was brought up standing before him. He lifted the paperweight, took from under it the two

letters which Lermontoff had given to the steward on the steamer, and handed them to the prisoner, who thus

"I wish to say," remarked the Governor, with an air of bored indifference which was evidently quite genuine,

"that if you make any further attempt to communicate with the authorities, or with friends, you will bring on

"The appeal you have written here," replied the Governor, "would have proved useless, even if it had been

delivered. The Czar 'knows nothing of the Trogzmondoff, which is a stronghold entirely under the control of

"Yes," rejoined the Governor, with frigid calmness, "and if you give me no trouble you will save yourself

"Then," continued Lermontoff in German, "I desire to say a few words to you which I don't wish this gaoler

to understand. I am Prince Ivan Lermontoff, a personal friend of the Czar's, who, after all, is master of the

Grand Dukes and the Navy also. If you will help to put me into communication with him, I will guarantee

"What you ask is impossible. Riches are nothing to me. Bribery may do much in other parts of the Empire,

but it is powerless in the Trogzmondoff. I shall die in the room adjoining this, as my predecessor died. I am

quite as much a prisoner in the Trogzmondoff as is your Highness. No man who has once set foot in this

room, either as Governor, employee, or prisoner, is allowed to see the mainland again, and thus the secret has

been well kept. We have had many prisoners of equal rank with your Highness, friends of the Czar too, I dare

"May I not be permitted to receive certain supplies if I pay for them? That is allowed in other prisons."

"I can let you have a blanket," he said, "and a pillow, or a sheepskin if you find it cold at first, but my power

here is very limited, and, as I tell you, the officers have little more comfort than the prisoners."

"Oh, I don't care anything about comfort," protested Lermontoff. "What I want is some scientific apparatus. I

am a student of science. I have nothing to do with politics, and have never been implicated in any plot.

Someone in authority has made a stupid mistake, and so I am here. This mistake I am quite certain will be

discovered and remedied. I hold no malice, and will say nothing of the place, once I am free. It is no business

of mine. But I do not wish to have the intervening time wasted. I should like to buy some electrical

machinery, and materials, for which I am willing to pay any price that is asked."

"Do you understand electricity?" questioned the Governor, and for the first time his impassive face showed a

"Do I understand electricity? Why, for over a year I have been chief electrician on a warship."

"Perhaps then," said the Governor, relapsing into Russian again, "you can tell me what is wrong with our

dynamo here in the Rock. After repeated requisition they sent machinery for lighting our offices and passages

with electricity. They apparently did not care to send an electrician to the Trogzmondoff, but forwarded

instead some books of instruction. I have been working at it for two years and a half, but I am still using oil

lamps and candles. We wired the place without difficulty." He held up the candle, and showed, depending

from the ceiling, a chandelier of electric lamps which Lermontoff had not hitherto noticed, various brackets,

The Governor, with one final warming of his hands, took up a candle, told the gaoler to remove the shade

from the lamp and bring it, led the way along a passage, and then into a room where the prisoner, on first

The Governor set the turbine at work, and the dynamo began to hum, a sound which, to the educated ear of

"That's all right, Governor, turn it off. This is a somewhat oldfashioned dynamo, but it ought to give you all

the light you can use. You must be a natural born electrician, or you never could have got this machinery

The dull eyes of the Governor glowed for one brief moment, then resumed their customary expression of

"Now," said Jack, throwing off his coat, "I want a wrench, screwdriver, hammer and a pair of pincers if

"Here is the tool chest," said the Governor, and Jack found all he needed. Bidding the Governor hold the

candle here, there and elsewhere, and ordering the gaoler about as if be were an apprentice, Jack set

The Governor did so, and the machine whirred with quite a different note. Half a dozen electric lamps in the

"There you are," cried Jack, rubbing the oil off his hands on a piece of coarse sacking. "Now, Tommy, put

these things back in the tool chest," he said to the gaoler. Then to the Governor:

The passage was lit, and the Governor's room showed every mark on wall, ceiling and floor.

"I told you, Governor," said Jack with a laugh, "that I didn't know why I was sent here, but now I understand.

At that moment the gaoler entered with his jingling keys, and the enthusiastic expression faded from the

Governor's face, leaving it once more coldly impassive, but he spoke in German instead of Russian.

"I am very much indebted to your Highness, and it grieves me that our relationship remains unchanged."

"Oh, that's all right," cried Lermontoff breezily, "If it is within your power to allow me to come and give you

some lessons in electricity and the care of dynamos, I shall be very glad to do so."

"I shall transfer you to cell Number One, which is not only more comfortable, but the water there is pure. Did

The Governor continued, with nevertheless a little hesitation: "On the return of the steamer there will be an

English prisoner. I will give him cell Number Two, and if you don't talk so loud that the gaoler hears you, it

"You are very kind," said Jack, rigidly suppressing any trace of either emotion or interest as he heard the

intelligence; leaping at once to certain conclusions, nevertheless. "I shan't ask for anything more, much as I

"It is possible you may find all three in Number One before this time tomorrow;" then in Russian the

The gaoler departed, and the Governor, throwing open a drawer in his table, took out two candles, a box of

"Put these in your pocket," he said. "The cell door opens very slowly, so you will always know when the

gaoler is coming. In that case blow out your light and conceal your candle. It will last the longer."

CELL Number One was a great improvement on Number Nine. There was no shelf of rock, or stone bench,

but a cot bed in the corner, a table, and a wooden chair. The living spring issued from the living rock in a

corner of the room. When the gaoler and his assistant had retired and shoved in the outside bolts, Jack lit his

candle and a cigarette, feeling almost happy. He surveyed the premises now with more care. The bed was of

iron and fastened to the floor. On the top of it was a mattress, a pillow, and a pair of blankets. At its head a

little triangular shelf of rock had been left in the corner, and on this reposed a basin of tin, while a coarse

piece of sacking took the place of a towel. Jack threw off his overcoat and flung it on the bed, intent on a

satisfactory wash. He heard something jingle in the pockets, and forgetting for the moment what it could

possibly be, thrust his hand in, and pulled out a glassstoppered bottle of ozak. He held it out at arm's length,

He filled the tin basin with water, and placed it on the table. Again he dissolved a minute portion of the

"I must leave no marks on the wall that may arouse attention," he said, and taking the full syringe to the arch

over the torrent, and placing the candle on the floor beside him, he gently pushed in the piston. The spray

struck the rock, and the rock dissolved slightly but perceptibly. Coming back to the table he stood for a few

minutes in deep thought. Although the cot bed was fixed to the floor, and although it was possible that the

shelf in the next cell coincided with its position, the risk of discovery was too great to cut a passage between

the two cells there. The obvious spot to attack was the interior of the tunnel through which the streamlet ran,

but Jack, testing the temperature of the water with his hand, doubted his physical ability to remain in that

icecold current more than a few minutes at a time, and if he worked in the tunnel he would be all but

submerged. He feared he would perish with cold and cramp before he had made any impression on the rock.

To the edge of the stream he drew the table, and, mounting it, examined the upper orifice through which the

water escaped when the cell was full. He found he could stand on the table and work in comfort until he had

excavated sufficient rock to allow him to clamber into the upper tunnel and so continue his operations. The

water he used would flow through the tunnel, and down to the main stream in the next cell. All he had to do

was to dissolve a semicircular hole in the rock that would bend round the end of those steel bars, and enter

the tunnel again on the other side. Eager to be at work, he took the full basin, shoved it far along the tunnel

until it was stopped by the bars, then, placing his candle beside it, and standing on the table, he began

The limestone, under the influence of the spray, dissolved very slowly, and by the time the basin of water was

exhausted, all the effect visible under the light of the candle was an exceedingly slight circular impression

"I must make the solution stronger, I think," he said, grievously disappointed at the outcome of his labors,

and as he looked at it he heard the clank of the withdrawing bolts. Blowing out the candle he sprang to the

floor of the cell, picked up the table, set it down in the center of the room, groped for the chair, and sat down,

Followed as usual by the man with the lantern, the gaoler came in, carrying a bowl of hot steaming soup,

which he placed on the table, then he took from his pocket a spoon, a small hunk of black bread, and a piece

of cheese. In the light of the lantern Lermontoff consulted his watch, and found it was six o'clock. The gaoler

took the lantern from his assistant, held it high, and looked round the room, while Lermontoff gazed at him in

anxiety, wondering whether that brutal looking official suspected anything. Apparently he did not, but merely

wished to satisfy himself that everything was in order, for he said more mildly than he had hitherto spoken:

"Ah, Excellency," he continued, "pardon me, I have forgotten. I must bring you a basin."

"I'd rather you brought me a candle," said Lermontoff nonchalantly, although his lips were dry, and he

moistened them as he spoke; then, to learn whether money was valueless on the rock, as the Governor had

intimated, he drew from his pocket one of the remaining gold pieces, glad that he happened to have so many,

and slipped it into the palm of the gaoler's hand, whose fingers clutched it as eagerly as if he were in St.

The door was again locked and bolted, but before Lermontoff had finished his soup, and bread and cheese, it

was opened again. The gaoler placed a tin basin, similar to the former one, on the ledge, put a candle and a

"I thought there was no part of Russia where bribery was extinct," said the Prince to himself, as the door

After supper Lermontoff again shined his table, stood upon it, lit his candle, and resumed his tunnelling,

working hard until after midnight. His progress was deplorably slow, and the spraying of the rock proved

about as tiring a task as ever he had undertaken. His second basinfull of solution was made a little stronger,

but without perceptible improvement, in its effect. On ceasing operations for the night he found himself in a

situation common to few prisoners, that of being embarrassed with riches. He possessed two basins, and one

of them must be concealed. Of course he might leave his working basin in the upper tunnel where it had

rested when the gaoler had brought in his supper, but he realized that at any moment the lantern's rays might

strike its shining surface, and so bring on an investigation of the upper tunnel, certain to prove the destruction

of his whole scheme. A few minutes thought, however, solved the problem admirably: he placed the basin

face downwards in the rapid stream which swept it to the iron bars between the two cells, and there it lay

quite concealed with the swift water rippling over it. This done, he flung off his clothes, and got into bed, not

awakening until the gaoler and his assistant brought in bread, cheese and coffee for breakfast.

The next day he began to feel the inconveniences of the Governor's friendship, and wished he were safely

back to the time when one loaf lasted four days, for if such were now the case, he would be free of the

constant state of tension which the everrecurring visits of the gaoler caused. He feared that some day he

might become so absorbed in his occupation that he would not hear the withdrawing of the bolt, and thus, as

Shortly after lunch the Governor sent for him, and asked many questions pertaining to the running of the

dynamo. Lermontoff concealed his impatience, and set about his instructions with exemplary earnestness.

Russian text books on electricity at hand were of the most rudimentary description, and although the

Governor could speak German he could not read it, so the two volumes he possessed in that language were

closed to him. Therefore John was compelled to begin at the very A B C of the science.

The Governor, however, became so deeply interested that he momentarily forgot his caution, unlocked a

door, and took Lermontoff into a room which he saw was the armory and ammunition storehouse of the

prison. On the floor of this chamber the Governor pointed out a large battery of accumulators, and asked what

they were for. Lermontoff explained the purposes of the battery, meanwhile examining it thoroughly, and

finding that many of the cells had been all but ruined in transit, through the falling away of the composition

in the grids. Something like half of the accumulators, however, were intact and workable; these he uncoupled

and brought into the dynamo room, where he showed the Governor the process of charging. He saw in the

store room a box containing incandescent lamps, coils of silkcovered wire and other material that made his

"If you will give me a coil of this wire, one or two of the lamps, and an accumulator, or indeed half a dozen

The Governor did not reply at the moment, but a short time after asked Lermontoff in Russian how long it

would be before the accumulators were charged. Lermontoff stated the time, and the Governor told the gaoler

to bring the prisoner from the cell at that hour, and so dismissed his instructor.

One feature of this interview which pleased Lermontoff was that however much the Governor became

absorbed in these lessons, he never allowed himself to remain alone with his prisoner. It was evident that in

his cooler moments the Governor had instructed the gaoler and his assistant to keep ever at the heels of the

Prince and always on the alert. Two huge revolvers were thrust underneath the belt of the gaoler, and the

lanternholder, was similarly armed. Lermontoff was pleased with this, for if the Governor had trusted him

entirely, even though he demanded no verbal parole, it would have gone against his grain to strike down the

chief as he ruthlessly intended to do when the time was ripe for it, and in any case, he told himself, no matter

how friendly the Governor might be, he had the misfortune to stand between his prisoner and liberty.

Lermontoff was again taken from his cell about half an hour before the time he had named for the completion

of the charging, and although the Governor said nothing of his intention, the gaoler and his man brought to

the cell six charged batteries, a coil of wire, and a dozen lamps. Lermontoff now changed his working

methods. He began each night as soon as he had finished dinner, and worked till nearly morning, sleeping all

day except when interrupted by the gaoler. Jack, following the example of Robinson Crusoe, attempted to tie

knots on the tail of time by cutting notches with his knife on the leg of the table, but most days he forgot to

perform this operation, and so his wooden almanac fell hopelessly out of gear. He estimated that he had been

a little more than a week in prison when he heard by the clang of the bolts that the next cell was to have an

"I must prepare a welcome for him," he said, and so turned out the electric light at the end of the long flexible

wire. He had arranged a neat little switch of the accumulator, and so snapped the light on and off at his

pleasure, without the trouble of unscrewing the nuts which held in place one of the copper ends of the wire.

Going to the edge of the stream and lighting his candle, he placed the glass bulb in the current, paid out the

flexible line attached to it, and allowed the bulb to run the risk of being smashed against the iron bars of the

passage, but the little globe negotiated the rapids without even a perceptible clink, and came to rest in the bed

of the torrent somewhere about the center of the next cell, tugging like a fish on a hook. Then Jack mounted

"I protest," Drummond cried, speaking loudly, as if the volume of sound would convey meaning to alien ears,

"I protest against this as an outrage, and demand my right of communication with the British Ambassador."

Jack heard the gaoler growl: "This loaf of bread will last you for four days," but as this statement was made

in Russian, it conveyed no more meaning to the Englishman than had his own protest of a moment before

brought intelligence to the gaoler. The door clanged shut, and there followed a dead silence.

"Now we ought to hear some good old British oaths," said Jack to himself, but the silence continued.

"Hullo, Alan," cried Jack through the bars, "I said you would be nabbed if you didn't leave St. Petersburg.

There was no reply, and Jack became alarmed at the continued stillness, then he heard his friend mutter:

"I'll be seeing visions by and by. I thought my brain was stronger than it iscould have sworn that was

Jack got speedily and quietly down, turned on the switch, and hopped up on the table again, peering through.

He knew that the stream had now become a river of fire, and that it was sending to the ceiling an unholy,

"Alan," he shouted, "fish out that electric bulb from the creek and hold it aloft; then you'll see where you are.

I'm in the next cell; Jack Lamont, Electrician and Coppersmith: all orders promptly attended to: best of

"Oh, you always were demented, Alan, but it is I, right enough. Pick up the light and tell me what kind of a

"Horrible!" cried Drummond, surveying his situation. "Walls apparently of solid rock, and this uncanny

"Why, my dear man, what are you growling about? They have given you one of the best rooms in the hotel.

"I was writing a letter in my room when someone threw a sack over my head, and tied me up in a bundle, so

that it was a close shave I wasn't smothered. I was taken in what I suppose was a cab and flung into what I

afterwards learned was the hold of a steamer. When the ship stopped, I was carried like a sack of meal on

someone's shoulder, and unhampered before a gaunt specter in uniform, in a room so dazzling with electric

light that I could hardly see. That was a few minutes ago, Now I am here, and starving. Where is this prison?"

"Like the Mikado, as Kate would say, the authorities are bent on making the punishment fit the crime. You

are in the rock of the Baltic, which you fired at with that gun of yours. I told you those suave officials at St.

"Oh, I was like the good dog Tray, who associated with questionable company, I suppose, and thus got into

"You ought to be glad. I'm going to get out of this place, and I don't believe you could break gaol, unassisted,

in twenty years. Here is where science confronts brutality. I say, Drummond, bring your table over to the

corner, and mount it, then we can talk without shouting. Not much chance of any one outside hearing us, even

if we do clamor, but this is a damp situation, and loud talk is bad for the throat. Cut a slice of that brown

bread and lunch with me. You'll find it not half bad, as you say in England, especially when you are hungry.

Now," continued Jack, as his friend stood opposite him, and they found by experiment that their combined

reach was not long enough to enable them to shake hands through the bars, "now, while you are luxuriating in

"I happen to have with me a pair of bottles containing a substance which, if dissolved in water, and sprinkled

on this rock, will disintegrate it. It proves rather slow work, I must admit, but I intend to float in to you one of

the bottles, and the apparatus, so that you may help me on your side, which plan has the advantage of giving

you useful occupation, and allowing us to complete our task in half the time, like the engineers on each side

"If there are bars in the lower watercourse," objected Drummond, "won't you run a risk of breaking your

"Not the slightest. I have just sent that much thinner electric lamp through, but in this case I'll just tie up the

bottle and squirt gun in my stocking, attach that to the wire, and the current will do the rest. You can unload,

and I'll pull my stocking back again. If I dared wrench off a table leg, I could perhaps shove bottle and

syringe through to you from here, but the material would come to a dead center in the middle of this tunnel,

"Very well; we'll work away until our excavation connects, and we have made it of sufficient diameter for

you to squeeze through. You are then in my cell. We put out our lights, and you conceal yourself behind the

door. Gaoler and man with the lantern come in. You must be very careful not to close the door, because if

you once shove it shut we can't open it from this side, even though it is unlocked and the bolts drawn. It fits

like wax, and almost hermetically seals the room. You spring forward, and deal the gaoler with your fist one

of your justly celebrated English knockdown blows, immediately after felling the man with the lantern.

Knowing something of the weight of your blow, I take it that neither of the two men will recover

consciousness until we have taken off their outer garments, secured revolvers and keys. Then we lock them

"My dear Jack, we don't need any tunnel to accomplish that. The first time these two men come into my

"I thought of that, and perhaps you could, but you must remember we have only one shot. If you made a

mistake; if the lantern man bolted and fired his pistol, and once closed the doorhe would not need to pause

to lock itwhy, we are done for. I should be perfectly helpless in the next room, and after the attempt they'd

"I don't think I should miss fire," said Drummond, confidently, "still, I see the point, and will obey orders."

"My official position on the rock, ever since I arrived, has been that of electrical tutorinchief to the

Governor. I have started his dynamo working, and have wired such portions of the place as were not already

wired before. During these lessons I have kept my eyes open. So far as the prison is concerned, there is the

Governor, a sort of head clerk, the gaoler and his assistant; four men, and that is all. The gaoler's assistant

appears to be the cook of the place, although the cooking done is of the most limited description. The black

bread is brought from St. Petersburg, I think, as also tinned meat and soup; so the cuisine is on a somewhat

"Practically so, but there is the garrison as well. The soldiers live in a suite of rooms directly above us, and as

near as I can form an opinion, there are fourteen men and two officers. When a steamer arrives they draft as

many soldiers as are necessary, unload the boat; then the Tommies go upstairs again. The military section

apparently holds little intercourse with the officials, whom they look upon as gaolers. I should judge that the

military officer is chief of the rock, because when he found the Governor's room lit by electricity, he

demanded the same for his quarters. That's how I came to get upstairs, Now, these stairs are hewn in the rock,

are circular, guarded by heavy oaken doors top and bottom, and these doors possess steel bolts on both sides

of them. It is thus possible for either the military authorities upstairs, or the civil authorities, to isolate

themselves from the others. In case of a revolt among the soldiers, the Governor could bolt them into their

attic, and they would find great difficulty in getting out. Now, my plan of procedure is this. We will disarm

gaoler and assistant, take their keys, outside garments and caps. The gaoler's toggery will fit you, and the

other fellow's may do for me. Then we will lock them in here, and if we meet clerk or Governor in the

passages we will have time to overcome either or both before they are aware of the change. I'll go up the

circular stair, bolt from the inside the upper door, and afterwards bolt the lower door. Then we open all the

cells, and release the other prisoners, descend from the rock, get into the Finnish fishing boat, keep clear of

the two cannon that are up above us, and sail for the Swedish coast. We can't miss it; we have only to travel

west, and ultimately we are safe. There is only one danger, which is that we may make our attempt when the

"He is always very much on his guard, and is a taciturn man. The moment the tunnel is finished I shall

question him about some further electrical material, and then perhaps I may get a hint about the steamer. I

imagine she comes irregularly, so the only safe plan would be for us to make our attempt just after she had

"I don't think so. Now that they have their electric light they spend their time playing cards and drinking

"Very well, Jack, that scheme seems reasonably feasible. Now, get through your material to me, and issue

IN a very short time Drummond became as expert at the rock dissolving as was his friend. He called it

piffling slow work, but was nevertheless extremely industrious at it, although days and weeks and, as they

suspected, months, passed before the hands of the two friends met in the center of the rock. One lucky

circumstance that favored them was the habit of the gaoler in visiting Drummond only once every four days.

The Lieutenant made his difficult passage, squeezing through the newly completed tunnel half an hour after a

loaf had been set upon his table. Jack knew that the steamer had recently departed, because, two days before,

the Governor had sent for him, and had exhibited a quantity of material recently landed, among other things a

number of electric bells and telephones which the Governor was going to have set up between himself and

the others, and also between his room and that of the clerk and gaoler. There were dry batteries, and primary

batteries, and many odds and ends, which made Jack almost sorry he was leaving the place.

Heavy steps, muffled by the thickness of the door, sounded along the outer passage.

"Ready?" whispered Jack. "Here they come. Remember if you miss your first blow, we're goners, you and I."

Drummond made no reply, for the steps had come perilously near and he feared to be heard. Noiselessly he

crossed the cell and took up his position against the wall, just clear of the space that would be covered by the

At the same moment Jack switched off the light, leaving the room black. Each of the two waiting prisoners

On came the shuffling footsteps of the gaoler and lanternbearer. They had reached the door of Number One,

"Your cell!" whispered Jack, panicstricken. "And they weren't due to look in on you for four days. It's all

up! They'll discover the cell is empty and give the Where are you going, man?" he broke off, as

Drummond, leaving his place near the door, groped his way hurriedly along the wall.

Lamont's hand was on his shoulder, and he whispered a sharp command for silence. The two attendants had

halted in front of Number Two, and while the lanternbearer fumbled with the awkward bolt, his companion

"But," remonstrated the lanternbearer, "the Governor said we were to bring the Englishman to him at once."

"What if he did? How will he know we stole a half minute to give the Prince his dinner? If we bring the

Englishman upstairs first, the Prince may have to wait an hour before we can get back with the Englishman."

"With his pocket full of roubles? Not I. He may decide to give no more of his gold pieces to a gaoler who lets

Faint as were the words, deadened by intervening walls, their purport reached Jack.

The rattle of bolts followed close on his words. The great door of Number One swung ponderously inward.

The lanternbearer, holding his light high in front of him, entered; then stepped to one side to admit the

Unluckily for the captives' plan, it was to the side of the cell opposite to that where Alan crouched that the

lanternbearer had taken his stand. There was no way of reaching him at a bound. The open door stood

between. Were the gaoler to be attacked first, his fellowattendant could readily be out of the cell and

The friends had counted on both men entering the room together and crossing as usual to the table. This

change of plan disconcerted them. Already the gaoler had set down his tray and was turning toward the door.

Alan, helpless, stood impotently in the shadow, biting his blond mustache with helpless rage. In another

second their cherished opportunity would vanish. And, as the gaoler's next visit was to be to Number Two,

It was Jack who broke the momentary spell of apathy. He was standing at the far end of the cell, near the

"Here!" he called sharply to the lanternbearer, "bring your light. My electric apparatus is out of order, and

The lanternbearer, obediently, had advanced into the room. He was halfway across it while Lamont was

still speaking. Then, from the corner of his eye, he spied Alan crouching in the angle behind the door, now

The man whirled about in alarm just as Alan sprang. In consequence the Englishman's mighty fist whizzed

The gaoler, recovering from his amaze, whipped out one of the revolvers he wore in his belt. But Jack,

leaping forward, knocked it from his hand before he could fire; and, with one hand clapped across the

fellow's bearded lips, wound his other arm about the stalwart body so as to prevent for the instant the drawing

Alan's first blow had missed clean; but his second did not. Following up his righthand blow with all a

trained boxer's swift dexterity, he sent a straight left hander flush on the angle of the lightbearer's jaw. The

man dropped his lantern and collapsed into a senseless heap on the floor, while Alan, with no further delay,

The fall of the lantern extinguished the light. The cell was again plunged in dense blackness, through which

Barely a second of time had elapsed since first Jack had seized the man, but that second had sufficed for the

latter to summon his great brute strength and shake off his less gigantic opponent and to draw his pistol.

Drummond, guided by his friend's voice, darted forward through the darkness, caught his foot against the

sprawling body of the lanternbearer and fell heavily, his arms thrown out in an instinctive gesture of

selfpreservation. Even as he lost his balance he heard a sharp click, directly in front of him. The gaoler had

pulled the trigger, and his pistolcontractmade and out of order, like many of the weapons of common

To that luckiest of mishaps, the failure of a defective cartridge to explode, the friends owed their momentary

As Alan pitched forward, one of his outing arms struck against an obstacle. It was a human figure, and from

the feel of the leather straps, which his fingers touched in the impact, he knew it was the gaoler and not

Old football tactics coming to memory, Alan clung to the man his arm had chanced upon, and bore him along

to the ground; Jack, who had pressed forward in the darkness, being carried down as well by the other's fall.

Gaoler, Prince and Englishman thus struggled on the stone floor in one indistinguishable heap. It was no

ordinary combat of two to one, for neither of the prisoners could say which was the gaoler and which his

friend. The gaoler, troubled by no such doubts, laid about him lustily, and was only prevented from crying

out by the fact that his heavy fur cap had, in the fall, become jammed down over his face as far as the chin

He reached for and drew the swordbayonet that hung at his side (for his second pistol had become lost in the

scrimmage), and thrust blindly about him. Once, twice his blade met resistance and struck into flesh.

"Jack," panted Alan, "the beast's stabbing. Get yourself loose and find the electric light."

As he spoke, Alan's hand found the gaoler's throat. He knew it was not Alan's from the rough beard that

covered it. The gaoler, maddened by the pressure, stabbed with fresh fury; most of his blows, fortunately,

Alan's free hand reached for and located the arm that was wielding the bayonet, and for a moment the two

Then a key clicked, and the room was flooded with incandescent light, just as Alan, releasing his grip on the

Russian's throat, dealt him a shortarm blow on the chin with all the power of his practiced muscles. The

gaoler relaxed his tense limbs and lay still, while Alan, bleeding and exhausted, struggled to his feet.

"Hot work, eh?" he panted. "Hard position to land a knockout from. But I caught him just right. He'll trouble

"A cut on the wrist and another on the shoulder, I think. Neither of them bad, thanks to the lack of aim in the

"You must have come close to killing them with those sledgehammer blows of yours!"

"It doesn't much matter," said the imperturbable pugilist, "they'll be all right in half an hour. It's knowing

where to hit. If there are only four men downstairs, we don't need to wear the clothes of these beasts. Let us

Securing these the two stepped out into the passage, locked and bolted the door; then Jack, who knew his

way, proceeded along the passage to the stairway, leaped nimbly up the steps, bolted the door leading to the

The clerk's room connected with the armory, which was reached by passing through the apartment that held

Covering the frightened clerk with four revolvers, Jack told him in Russian that if he made a sound it would

be his last. They took him, opened cell Number Three, which was empty, and thrust him in.

Jangling the keys, the two entered the Governor's room. The ancient man looked up, but not a muscle of his

"Governor," said Jack with deference, "although you are under the muzzles of a quartet of revolvers, no harm

is intended you. However, you must not leave your place until you accompany us down to the boat, when I

shall hand the keys over to you, and in cell Number One you will find gaoler and lantern man a little worse

for wear, perhaps, but still in the ring, I hope. In Number Three your clerk is awaiting you. I go now to

release your prisoners. All communication between yourself and the military is barred. I leave my friend on

guard until I return from the cells. You must not attempt to summon assistance, or cry out, or move from your

chair. My friend does not understand either Russian or German, so there is no use in making any appeal to

him, and much as I like you personally, and admire your assiduity in science, our case is so desperate that if

"Certainly," and with that he departed to the cells, which he unlocked one by one, only to find them all

"After all, I don't know that I should,", said Jack, holding out his hand, which the other shook rather

"I want to thank you," the Governor said slowly, "for all you have told me about electricity. That knowledge I

expect to put to many useful purposes in the future, and the exercise of it will also make the hours drag less

"Oh, that's all right," cried Jack with enthusiasm. "I am sure you are very welcome to what teaching I have

"It pleases me to hear you say that, Highness, although I fear I have been lax in my duties, and perhaps the

knowledge of this place which you have got through my negligence, has assisted you in making an escape

"All's fair in love and war," he said. "Imprisonment is a section of war. I must admit that electricity has been

a powerful aid to us. But you cannot blame yourself, Governor, for you always took every precaution, and the

gaoler was eternally at my heels. You can never pretend that you trusted me, you know."

"I tried to do my duty," said the old man mournfully, "and if electricity has been your helper, it has not been

with my sanction. However, there is one point about electricity which you impressed upon me, which is that

"Is it not so? It goes by a wire, and returns through the earth. I thought you told me that."

"Yes, but I don't quite see why you mention that feature of the case at this particular moment."

"I wanted to be sure what I have stated is true. You see, when you are gone there will be nobody I can ask."

All this time the aged Governor was holding Jack's hand rather limply. Drummond showed signs of

"Jack," he cried at last, "that conversation may be very interesting, but it's like smoking on a powder mine.

One never knows what may happen. I shan't feel safe until we're well out at sea, and not even then. Get

"Right you are, Alan, my boy. Well, Governor, I'm reluctantly compelled to bid you a final goodby, but

"I wanted to tell you," he said, "of another incident, almost as startling as your coming into this room a while

since, that happened six or eight months ago. As perhaps you know, we keep a Finland fishingboat down in

"Well, six or eight months ago that boat disappeared, and has never been heard of since. None of our

prisoners was missing; none of the garrison was missing; my three assistants were still here, yet in the night

"Never, but I took precautions, when we got the next boat, that it should be better guarded, so I have had two

"Then they must surrender, or we will be compelled to shoot them. Come down with us, and advise them to

surrender quietly, otherwise, from safe cover on the stairway, we can pot them in an open boat."

"Yes, they will obey meif they hear me. I was going to add that only yesterday did I arrange the electric

bell down at the landing, with instructions to those men to take a telegram which I had written in case of

emergencies, to the mainland, at any moment, night or day, when that bell rang. Your Highness, the bell rang

The placid old man put his hand on the Prince's shoulder, as if bestowing a benediction upon him.

Drummond, who did not understand the lingo, was amazed to see Jack fling off the Governor's grasp, and

with what he took to be a crushing oath in Russian, spring to the door, which he threw open. He mounted the

stone bench which gave him a view of the sea. A boat, with two sails spread, speeding to the southwest,

"Marooned, by God!" cried the Prince, swinging round and presenting his pistol at the head of the Governor,

BEFORE Jack could fire, as perhaps he had intended to do, Drummond struck down his arm.

"None of that, Jack," he said. "The Russian in you has evidently been scratched, and the Tartar has come

"Yes, he did, and those two have got away while I stood babbling here, feeling a sympathy for the old villain.

"He's not to blame," said Drummond. "It's our own fault entirely. The first thing to have done was to secure

"And everything worked so beautifully," moaned Jack, "up to this point, and one mistake ruins it. We are

"It isn't so bad as that, Jack," said the Englishman calmly. "Should those men reach the coast safely, as no

"Why, hang it all," cried Jack, "they don't need to dislodge us. All they've got to do is to stand off and starve

"They'll have to starve their own men first. It's not likely we're going to go hungry and feed our prisoners."

"Oh, we don't mind a little thing like that, we Russians. They may send help, or they may not. Probably a

cruiser will come within hailing distance and try to find out what the trouble is. Then it will lie off and wait

till everybody's dead, and after that put in a new Governor and another garrison."

"You take too pessimistic a view, Jack. This isn't the season of the year for a cruiser to lie off in the Baltic.

Winter is coming on. Most of the harbors in Finland will be iceclosed in a month, and there's no shelter

hereabouts in a storm. They'll attack; probably open shell fire on us for a while, then attempt to land a

storming party. That will be fun for us if you've got good rifles and plenty of ammunition."

"Now, my friend, we're compelled to put you into a cell. I'm sorry to do this, but there is no other course

"Oh, very well. I see you are determined to go hungry yourself. Until I am satisfied that there is more than

sufficient for my friend and me, no prisoner in my charge gets anything to eat. That's the sort of gaoler I am.

The stubborn old beast!" he cried in English, turning to Drummond, "won't answer my questions."

"Why? Because we have reached the beginning of winter, as I said before. There must be months when no

boat can land at this rock. It's bound to be provisioned for several months ahead at the very lowest

calculation. Now, the first thing to do is to put this ancient Johnny in his little cell, then I'll tell you where our

The Governor made neither protest nor complaint, but walked into Number Nine, and was locked up.

"Now, Johnny, my boy," said Drummond, "our anxiety is the soldiers. The moment they find they are locked

in they will blow those two doors open in just about half a jiffy. We can, of course, by sitting in front of the

lower door night and day, pick off the first four or five who come down, but if the rest make a rush we are

bound to be overpowered. They have, presumably, plenty of powder, probably some live shells, petards, and

whatnot, that will make short work even of those oaken doors. What do you propose to do?"

"I propose," said Jack, "to fill their crooked stairway with cement. There are bags and bags of it in the

The necessity for this was prevented by an odd circumstance. The two young men were seated in the

Governor's room, when at his table a telephone bell rang. Jack had not noticed this instrument, and now took

"Hello, Governor," said a voice, "your fool of a gaoler has bolted the stairway door, and we can't open it."

"Oh, I beg pardon," replied Jack, in whatever imitation of the Governor's voice he could assume. "I'll see to it

"One or both of these officers are coming down. If we get the officers safely into a cell, there will be nobody

to command the men, and it is more than likely that the officers carry the keys of the powder room. I'll turn

out the electric lamps in the hall, and light the lantern. You be ready at the foot of the stairway to fire if they

The two officers came down the circular stairway, grumbling at the delay to which they had been put.

Lermontoff took advantage of the clamping of their heavy boots in the echoing stairway to shove in the bolts

once more, and then followed them, himself followed by Drummond, into the Governor's room. Switching on

"Gentlemen, I am Prince Lermontoff, in temporary charge of this prison. The Governor is under arrest, and I

regret that I must demand your swords, although I have every reason to believe that they will be handed back

The officers were too much accustomed to sudden changes in command to see anything odd in this turn of

affairs. Lermontoff spoke with a quiet dignity that was very convincing, and the language he used was that of

the nobility. The two officers handed him their swords without a word of protest.

"I am sorry, gentlemen, that I must put you into cells until my mission is accomplished. If you will write a

requisition for such rations as you are accustomed to receive, I shall see that you are supplied. Meanwhile,

write also an order to whomsoever you entrust in command of the men during your absence, to grant no one

leave to come downstairs, and ask him to take care that each soldier is rigidly restricted to the minimum

The senior officer sat down at the table, and wrote the two orders. The men were then placed in adjoining

cells, without the thought of resistance even occurring to them. They supposed there had been some changes

at headquarters, and were rather relieved to have the assurance of the Prince that their arrest would prove

temporary. Further investigation showed that there would be no danger of starvation for six months at least.

Next day Jack, at great risk of his neck, scaled to the apex of the island, as he had thought of flying, if

possible, a signal of distress that might attract some passing vessel. But even though he reached the sharp

ridge, he saw at once that no pole could be erected there, not even if he possessed one. The wind aloft was

When four days had passed they began to look for the Russian relief boat, which they knew would set out the

"The Russian is coming: heading direct for us. She's in a hurry, too, crowding on all steam, and eating up the

distance like a torpedoboat destroyer. I think it's a cruiser. It's not the old tub I came on, anyway."

A cry from above interrupted him. Jack, having at first glance spied the vessel whose description he had

shouted to Drummond, had now turned his eyes eastward and stood staring aghast toward the sunrise.

"Matter?" echoed Jack. "They must be sending the whole Russian Navy here in detachments to capture our

unworthy selves. There's a second boat coming from the eastnearer by two miles than the yacht. If I hadn't

been all taken up with the other from the moment I climbed here I'd have seen her before."

"Merchantman fitted out for privateersman, probably. That's the sort of craft Russia would be likeliest to send

"No flag at all. Neither of them. They're both making for the rock, full steam, and from opposite sides.

"From opposite sides? That doesn't look like a joint expedition. One of those ships isn't Russian. But which?"

"We must make ready for defense in either case," he said. "In a few minutes we'll be able to see them both

"One of those boats means to blow us out of existence if it can," mused Jack. "The other cannot know of our

existence. And yet, if she doesn't, what is she doing here, headed for the rock?"

With that Jack scrambled, slid and jumped down. Drummond was very quiet and serious. Repeating rifles

stood in a row on the opposite wall, easy to get at, but as far off as might be from the effects of a possible

shell. The two young men now mounted the stone bench by the door, which allowed them to look over the

ledge at the eastern sea. Presently the craft appeared round the end of the island, pure white, floating like a

"By Jove!" said Jack, "she's a fine one. Looks like the Czar's yacht, but no Russian vessel I know of can make

"She's got the earmarks of Thornycroft build about her," commented Drummond. "By Jove, Jack, what luck

"She's heading for us," said Jack, "and apparently she knows which side the cannon is on. If she's Russian,

they've taken it for granted we've captured the whole place, and are in command of the guns. There, she's

The steamer was abreast of the rock, and perhaps three miles distant. Now she swept a long, graceful curve

"Jove, I wish I'd a pair of good glasses," said Drummond. "They're lowering a boat."

Jack showed more Highland excitement than Russian stolidity, as he watched the oncoming of a small boat,

beautifully riding the waves, and masterfully rowed by sailors who understood the art. Drummond stood

"I say, Alan, focus your eyes on that man at the rudder. I think my sight's failing me. Look closely. Did you

"Why, he looks to me like my jovial and venerable fatherinlaw, Captain Kempt, of Bar Harbor. Perfectly

The Captain raised his right hand and waved it, but made no attempt to cover the distance with his voice. Jack

ran pellmell down the steps, and Drummond followed in more leisurely fashion. The boat swung round to

"Hello, Prince, how are you? And that's Lieutenant Drummond, isn't it? Last time I had the pleasure of seeing

"Yes," said Drummond. "I was very glad to see you then, but a hundred times happier to see you today."

"I was just cruising round these waters in my yacht, and I thought I'd take a look at this rock you tried to

obliterate. I don't see any perceptible damage done, but what can you expect from British marksmanship?"

"I struck the rock on the other side, Captain. I think your remark is unkind, especially as I've just been

"Now, are you boys tired of this summer resort?" asked Captain Kempt. "Is your baggage checked, and are

"We'll be ready in a moment, captain," cried his future soninlaw. "I must run up and get the Governor.

We've put a number of men in prison here, and they'll starve if not released. The Governor's a good old chap,

though he played it low down on me a few days ago," and with that Jack disappeared up the stairway once

"Well, something by way of that. The Prince drilled a hole in the rock, and we got out. We've put the garrison

in pawn, so to speak, but I've been mighty anxious these last few days because the sailboat they had here,

and two of the garrison, escaped to the mainland with the news. We were anxiously watching your yacht,

fearing it was Russian. Jack thought it was the Czar's yacht. How came you by such a craft, Captain?

"Oh, yes, I bought her a few days before I left New York. One likes to travel comfortably, you know. Very

"Drummond, come up here and fling overboard these loaded rifles. We can't take any more chances. I'm

"Excuse me, Captain," said Drummond, who followed his friend, and presently bundles of rifles came

clattering down the side of the precipice, plunging into the sea. The two then descended the steps, Jack in

"Now, Governor," said Jack, "for the second time I am to bid you farewell. Here are the keys. If you accept

them you must give me your word of honor that the boat will not be fired upon. If you do not promise that,

In the flurry of excitement over the yacht's appearance, both Jack and Drummond had temporarily forgotten

"By the way, Governor," he said, "the relief boat you so thoughtfully sent for is on her way here. She should

reach the rock at almost any minute now. In fact, I fancy we've little time to waste if we want to avoid a

brush. It would be a pity to be nabbed now at the eleventh hour. Goodby, once more."

"II am an old man," he said, speaking with manifest embarrassment. "I was sent to take charge of this

prison as punishment for refusing to join a Jew massacre plot. Governorship here means no more nor less

than a life imprisonment. My wife and children are on a little estate of mine in Sweden. It is twelve years

"No! No!" protested the Governor, and there was no mistaking his pathetic, eager sincerity. "Butbut I shall

be shotor locked in one of the cells and the water turned onfor letting you escape. Won't you take me

with you? I will work my passage. Take me as far as Stockholm. I shall be free therefree to join my wife

"Jump in!" ordered Jack, coming to a sudden resolution. "Heaven knows I would not condemn my worst

enemy to a perpetual life on this rock. And you've been pretty decent to us, according to your lights. Jump

Nor did the Governor waste time in obeying. The others followed, and the boat shoved off. But scarcely had

the oars caught the water when around the promontory came a large mano'war's launch, a rapidfire gun

mounted on her bows. She was manned by about twenty men in Russian police uniform.

"No use!" groaned Kempt. "She'll cross within a hundred yards of us. There's no missing at such close range

The launch was, indeed, bearing down on them despite the rowers' best efforts, and must unquestionably cut

"We've no earthly show against her," he remarked quietly, "and it seems hard to 'go down in sight of port.'

"Put up that popgun," ordered Kempt. "She will sink us long before you're in range for revolver work. I'll

The launch was now within hailing distance, and every man aboard her was glaring at the helpless little

It was the Governor who spoke. Rising from his seat in the stern, he hailed the officer who was sighting the

At sight of the old man's lean, uniformed figure, rising from among the rest, there was visible excitement and

surprise aboard the launch. The officer saluted and ordered the engine stopped that he might hear more

"Lieutenant," repeated the Governor, "I am summoned aboard His Highness the Grand Duke Vladimir's

yacht. You will proceed to the harbor and await my return to the rock. There has been a mutiny among the

The officer saluted again, gave an order, and the launch's nose pointed for the rock.

"Governor," observed Lamont, as the old man sank again into his seat, "you've earned your passage to

THE girls on the yacht had no expectation that Captain Kempt would come back with the two young men.

But when, through their powerful binoculars, the girls became aware that Drummond and the Prince were in

the small boat, they both fled to the chief saloon, and sat there holding one another's hands. Even the

exuberant Kate for once had nothing to say. She heard the voice of her father on deck, giving command to the

"Make for Stockholm, Johnson. Take my meno'war's mensee that no one else touches the

ammunitionand fling the shells overboard. Heave the gun after them, and then clear out the rifles and

ammunition the same way. When we reach Stockholm tomorrow morning, there must not be a gun on board

this ship, and the ridiculous rumor that got abroad among your men that we were going to attack something

or other, you will see is entirely unfounded. You impress that on them, Johnson."

"Oh, Dorothy," whispered Katherine, drawing a deep breath. "If you are as frightened as I am, get behind

"I tell you what it is, Captain," sounded the confident voice of the Prince. "This vessel is a beauty. You have

done yourself fine. I had no idea you were such a sybarite. Why, I've been aboard the Czar's yacht, and I tell

you it's nothingGreat heavens! Katherine!" he shouted, in a voice that made the ceiling ring.

She was now standing up and advanced toward him with both hands held out, a welcoming smile on her

pretty lips, but he swooped down on her, flung his arms round her like a cabman beating warmth into his

hands, kissed her on the brow, the two cheeks and the lips, swaying her back and forward as if about to fling

"Stop, stop," she cried. "Aren't you ashamed of yourself? Before my father, too! You great Russian bear!"

and, breathless, she put her open palm against his face, and shoved his head away from her.

"Don't bother about me, Kate," said her father. "That's nothing to the way we acted when I was young. Come

on, boys, to the smokingroom, and I'll mix you something good: real Kentucky, twentyseven years in

"Jack, I am glad to see you," panted Katherine, all in disarray, which she endeavored to set right by an

agitated touch here and there. "Now, Jack, I'm going to take you to the smokingroom, but you'll have to

behave yourself as you walk along the deck. I won't be made a spectacle of before the crew."

"It seems incredible that you are here," he began. "What a lucky man I am. Captain Kempt takes his yacht to

rescue his soninlaw that is to be, and incidentally rescues me as well, and then to find you here! I suppose

"I wrote you a letter, Miss Amhurst, the last night I was in St. Petersburg in the summer."

"No, not this one. It was the night I was captured, and I never got a chance to post it. It was an important

"I thought it importantfor me," replied Dorothy, now smiling quite openly. "The Nihilists got it, searching

your room after you had been arrested. It was sent on to New York, and given to me."

"It certainly read like it, but you see it wasn't signed, and you can't be held to it."

"Of course not. I should have cabled 'Undecided.' One gets more for one's money in sending a long word.

"Well, do you know, Dorothy, I am beginning to think my incredible luck will hold, and that you'd have

He sprang up, bent over her, and she, quite unaffectedly raised her face to his.

"Oh, Alan," she replied, with quivering voice, "I never thought to see you again. You cannot imagine the long

"Ah, but I did: that's what frightened me. We have a man on board who was flung for dead from that dreadful

Drummond picked her up in his arms, and carried her to the luxurious divan which ran along the side of the

"Don't you consider my position poverty? I thought every one over there had a contempt for an income that

"I told you, Alan, I had been unused to money, and so your income appears to me quite sufficient."

"Oh, you dear girl. If you knew how sweet that sounds! Then I may tell you. When I was in London last I ran

down to Dartmouth in Devonshire. I shall be stationed there. You see, I have finished my foreign cruising,

and Dartmouth is, for a time at least, to be my home. There's a fine harbor there, green hills and a beautiful

river running between them, and I found such a lovely old house; not grand at all, you know, but so cosey and

comfortable, standing on the heights overlooking the harbor, in an old garden filled with roses, shrubs, and

every kind of flower; vines clambering about the ancient house. Two servants would keep it going like a shot.

"It reads like a bit from an old English romance. I'd just love to see such a house."

"You don't care for this sort of thing, do you?" he asked, glancing round about him.

"This yacht, these silk pannellings, these gorgeous pictures, the carving, the gilt, the horribly expensive

"You mean should I feel it necessary to be surrounded by such luxury? I answer most emphatically, no. I like

"Now, Dorothy, I want you to elope with me. We will be in Stockholm long before daylight tomorrow at the

rate this boat is going. I'll get ashore as soon as practicable, and make all inquiries at the consulate about

being married. I don't know what the regulations are, but if it is possible to be married quietly, say in the

afternoon, will you consent to that, and then write a letter to Captain Kempt, thanking him for the trip on the

yacht, and I'll write, thanking him for all he has done for me, and after that we'll make for England together.

I've got a letter of credit in my pocket, which luckily the Russians did not take from me. I shall find all the

money we need at Stockholm, then we'll cross the Swedish country, sail to Denmark, make our way through

Germany to Paris, if you like, or to London. We shan't travel all the time, but just take nice little day trips,

"Of course. Why not? They don't want us, and I'm quite sure wewell, Dorothy, we'd be delighted to have

them, to be surebut still, I've knocked a good deal about Europe, and there are some delightful old towns