menace of a bull.

"Then came the Mensheviki with their law," he bellowed suddenly.
"Again we became policemen, galloping to their whistle. Where are
they? Where is their law?"

He spat on the snow, twirled his quirt.

"There is only one law to govern the land," he roared. "It is the law
of hands off and mind your business! It's a good law."

"A good law for those who already have something," cried a high, thin
voice from the throng of peasants.

The Cossacks, who all possessed their portion of land, yelled with
laughter. One of them called out to the Swedish girl for her opinion,
and the fair young giantess strode gracefully out into the fire-ring,
her cap in her hand and the thick blond ringlets shining like gold on
her beautiful head.

"Listen! Listen to this soldier of the Death Battalion!" shouted the
Cossacks in great glee. "She will tell us what the law should be!"

She laughed: "We fought for it--we women soldiers," she said. "And the
law we fought for was made when the first tyrant fell.

"This is the law: Freedom of mind; liberty of choice; an equal chance
for all; no violence; only orderly debate to determine the will of the
land."

A Cossack said loudly: "_Da volna!_ Those who have nothing would take,
then, from those who have!"

"I think not!" cried another,"--not in the Urals!"

Thunderous laughter from their comrades and cries of, "Palla! Let us
hear our pretty boy, who has made for the whole world a law."

Palla Dumont, her slender hands thrust deep in her great coat sleeves,
and standing like a nun lost in mystic revery, looked up with gay
audacity--not like a nun at all, now, save for the virginal allure
that seemed a part of the girl.

"There is only one law, Tavarishi," she said, turning slightly from
her hips as she spoke, to include those behind her in the circle: "and
that law was not made by man. That law was born, already made, when
the first man was born. It has never changed. It comprehends
everything; includes everything and everybody; it solves all
perplexity, clears all doubts, decides all questions.

"It is a living law; it exists; it is the key to every problem; and it
is all ready for you."

The girl's face had altered; the half mischievous audacity in defiance
of her situation--the gay, impudent confidence in herself and in these
wild comrades of hers, had given place to something more serious, more
ardent--the youthful intensity that smiles through the flaming
ench