occasional guttural command. The noises from
the inside of the fort never penetrated to the outside. But then these
Russians were a quiet people.

Within a few moments the two girls showed their order to the sentry and
were allowed to pass beyond the gate. They then started on their walk
along the same road which Nona had traveled alone several days before.
But actually this was the first chance the girls had for talking over
Nona's experiences together. True, they shared the same bedroom, so that
on her return Nona had given a brief report. But really they had been
too tired at night to grasp the situation.

Now naturally Barbara thought her companion meant to talk of her recent
experience. Neither one of them attempted conversation at the beginning
of their walk, for the main road was as filled with supplies of every
kind that were being hauled to the great fort, as it had been on the day
of Nona's solitary excursion. But indeed this was a daily occurrence.

So, as soon as possible, the girls got away from the road into a lane
that was lined with peasants' huts. This lay in an opposite direction
from the path Nona had previously taken. She had no desire to meet her
former acquaintance again until she had made up her mind as to her own
attitude toward her.

Neither Barbara nor Mildred had so far been able to give her any
definite advice.

Mildred really refused to consider that the older woman could have known
Nona's mother years before in their own country. Her story was too
incredible to be believed.

Barbara had not taken this same point of view. At the present moment
she was going over the situation in retrospection. In the first place,
it was absurd to think that any train of circumstances could be
impossible in such a surprising world. The woman, whom they had once
known as Lady Dorian and whom they now were to think of by another name,
had evidently once been a woman of wealth and culture, no matter what
her present condition of poverty. She seemed to have traveled everywhere
and she may of course have met Nona Davis' family. There was actually no
reason why she should not have known them, Barbara concluded in her
sensible western fashion. Doubtless when Nona allowed the older woman to
explain the situation it would not be half so mysterious as it now
appeared. The really remarkable thing was, not that the other woman
should be familiar with Nona's mother's history, but that her own
daughter should be so