our time here. Alexis shall bring the carriage over every morning
for you, wherever you may be quartered."

The girls were as indignant and aggrieved as even the midshipmen could
wish to see them, but there was no help for it. A quarter of an hour
later a carriage was at the door, a portmanteau well filled with
clothes placed behind, and with the sergeant trotting alongside, the
boys left the chateau where they bad been so hospitably entertained,
promising to come over without fail the next morning.

They were conducted to the governor's house, and taken not to the
large room where he conducted his public business, and where they had
before seen him, but to a smaller room, fitted up as a private study
on the second floor. The governor, who looked, Jack thought, even more
savage and ill-tempered than usual, was seated at a writing-table. He
signed to the sergeant who accompanied them to retire, and pointed to
two chairs. "So," he said, "I am told that you are able to converse
fairly in Russian, although you have chosen to sit silent whenever I
have been present, as if you did not understand a word of what was
being said. This is a bad sign, and gives weight to the report which
has been brought to me, that you are meditating an escape."

"It is a lie, sir," Dick said firmly, "whoever told it you. As to our
learning Russian, we have, as you see, picked up a little of the
language, but I'm not aware of any rule or law by which gentlemen,
whether prisoners or otherwise, are obliged to converse, unless it
pleases them to do so. You never showed any signs of being even aware
of our presence in the room, and there was therefore no occasion for
us to address you."

"I do not intend to bandy words with you," the governor replied
savagely. "I repeat that I am informed you meditate attempting an
escape, and as this is a breach of honor, and a grave offence upon the
part of officers on parole, I shall at once revoke your privilege, and
you will be confined in the same prison with common soldiers."

"In the first place," Jack said, "as my friend has told you, the
report of our thinking of escaping is a lie. If we had wanted to
escape, at any rate from this place, we could have done it at any time
since we have been here. In the second place, I deny that we are
prisoners on parole. We did not give you our promise, because you did
not ask for it. You said to Dr. Bertmann, in our hearing, that our
parole was no matter, one way or t