manner of power. In Russia one
comes easily to fear the police. But now he was free of fear.

"You be careful," he said. "I saw what was being done."

With his left hand he pushed the door, and it swung open. He motioned
the woman to enter, and nodded as he saw her cross the threshold.

The officer vented a click of impatience.

"I tell you----" he began, and moved forward a step. Lucas extended
an arm and the hand that held the flute across his chest.

"Back!" he said. "You mustn't enter this house--you know that! You
can go to the Governor, if you like, and I will go over his head. But
you shall not touch that woman."

"She is arrested," said the officer obstinately, still studying his
antagonist. "If you wish to aid her, you must go to the Bureau; but
you cannot take her away like this."

"Eh?" Lucas swung round on him; the time was fertile in inspirations.
"Can't I?!" he demanded threateningly. "But I have taken her, man. If
you seize her now you must arrest me, too, and then--we shall see!"

"I must do my duty," persisted the other.

"Do it, then," said Lucas, standing square across the door. "Do it,
and see if you can explain afterwards how you did it. I am not a
woman who can be insulted with safety; my arrest will have to be
explained to St. Petersburg, and you will have to pay for it. I saw
how she was being handled, and how your duty was being done. I tell
you, you're in danger. Be careful!"

"So?" replied the officer slowly. He turned to the folk who were the
absorbed audience of this conference. "Move away, there," he
commanded harshly. "This is none of your business. Off with you!"

They shifted back reluctantly, and he waited till he could speak
unheard by them. Then he turned to Lucas again with a touch of the
confidential in his manner.

"What do you want with her?" he asked.

"Want with her?" repeated Lucas, not immediately comprehending. Then,
as the man's meaning reached him he trembled. "I don't want her," he
cried. "I don't want her. You want her, not I; and you shan't have
her. Do you understand? You shan't have her!"

"Shan't I?" retorted the officer, but there was indecision in his
voice.

"No!" said Lucas.

There was a pause. Neither of them was sure of himself. The officer
found himself in face of a situation which he could not gauge; and
it would never do for a provincial police official to attract notice
in remote St. Petersburg. For all he knew, this flimsy little man,