e a wonderfully pretty girl,
too. Did you see her?"

"Only for a moment; there wasn't much light. From what I could make out
they accused her of treachery, and led her in; she stood with her back
against the wall,--she looked quite a girl, with reddish hair. Then the
row began. There were only two or three took her part, and I joined in;
one can't stand by and see a helpless girl shot or stabbed by a lot of
cowardly brutes."

I had found an air of apparent candor serve me before, and guessed it
might do so again.

"Well, what then?"

"That's all I remember clearly; we had a lively time for a few minutes,
and then some one shouted that the soldiers were coming; and the next I
knew I was sitting on the floor, wondering what had happened. I'd been
there quite a while when you found me."

"It is marvellous how she always escapes," he said, more to himself than
to me. "Still, we've got a good haul this time. Now, how did you get
here? Some one must have told you, guided you?"

"That I can't tell you."

"You mean you won't?"

"Well, put it that way if you like."

"Don't be a fool, Wynn; I am asking you for your own sake. If you don't
tell me, you'll be made to tell later. You haven't the least idea what
you've let yourself in for, man! Come, did not Count Solovieff--you know
well who I mean--bring you here?"

"No. I came alone."

"At least he knew you were coming?"

"He may have done. I can't say."

He shrugged his shoulders.

"Have it your own way. You will regret your obstinacy later; remember, I
have warned you."

"Thanks,--it's good of you, Mirakoff; but I've told you all I mean to
tell any one."

He paused, biting his mustache, and frowning down at me.

"Fetch more water," he said abruptly to the soldier, who had heard all
that passed, and might or might not understand; the Russians are a
polyglot people.

"I have done what I could," Mirakoff continued hurriedly in the brief
interval while we were alone. "You had two passports. I took the false
one,--it is yonder; they will think it belongs to one of the dead men.
Your own is still in your pocket; the police will take it when you get
to prison; at least it will show your identity, and may make things
easier."

"Thanks, again," I said earnestly. "And if you could contrive to send
word to the American or English Embassy, or both."

"I'll see what I can do. Give him the water," he added, as the soldier
again returned.

He watched as I drank, t