lking as fast and as loud as we could.

"That's all right. I'll fix things for you," Peter reassured us when we
stopped at last, out of breath. I suddenly wanted to hide him so they
wouldn't get him as well as ourselves. He was so self-confident. What
did _he_ know of how things happened over here? He was talking and
acting like a rational human being, which was sure proof he was in no
position to cope with the Russian Secret Service. I felt a frantic
desire to get him out of the room and make him promise that on no
account would he admit he knew us.

"You must go at once," I whispered. "There's a spy at the door. If he
sees you, they'll arrest you, too. Please go, go at once." And I tried
to push him away.

"You poor things," he said, laughing. "There's no need to be frightened
like this. Of course I won't go. Why should they arrest me?"

"Why should they have arrested us? Oh, you _don't_ know." My teeth were
chattering.

"Now, look here," he said seriously. "You've been alone and scared, and
I'm sure you haven't eaten anything for days. Now, don't think about
this any more. I'll get you out in no time. Have you a cigarette,
anybody?"

I sat back, and my body stopped shaking. Everything seemed very still. I
had the distinct thought, "What is to come, will come," and I drew a
deep breath that seemed to come from my toes. It was enough Peter was
here, after all.

We talked till three in the morning. Peter had gone to Bucharest to meet
us, and when we didn't arrive, he took the first train to Kiev. I began
to believe in his bodily presence. Before he left to go back to his
hotel, I had regained my conviction he was a match for even the Russian
Secret Service.

Can you imagine how we feel to-day? We go tottering round the room,
taking things up and putting them down again, in a nervous anxiety to
_do_ something. We chirp the rag-times popular in America two years ago.
We feel as though we were just recovering from a sickness, with a
pleasant bodily weakness like a convalescent's in the springtime. Peter
brought me a bunch of red roses when he came over this morning. I am
writing this while he is seeing Mr. Douglas, the English Consul.

So much love to you from

RUTH.

_September._

_Darlingest ones:--_

It has been three weeks since our arrest, and to-day is the first time
we have been allowed to leave the room and go outdoors. We are