ypocritically soft under the cold glance of the stars. Suddenly,
"Stop, stop!" Rouletabille cried to the coachman.

"Are you mad!" shouted Koupriane.

"We are mad if we arrive like madmen. That would make the catastrophe
sure. There is still a chance. If we wish not to lose it, then we must
arrive easily and calmly, like friends who know the general is out of
danger."

"Our only chance is to arrive before the bogus doctors. Either they
aren't there, or it already is all over. Priemkof must have been
surprised at the affair of the poisoning, but he has seized the
opportunity; fortunately he couldn't find his accomplices immediately."

"Here is the datcha, anyway. In the name of heaven, tell your driver to
stop the horses here. If the 'doctors' are already there it is we who
shall have killed the general."

"You are right."

Koupriane moderated his excitement and that of his driver and horses,
and the carriage stopped noiselessly, not far from the datcha. Ermolai
came toward them.

"Priemkof?" faltered Koupriane.

"He has gone again, Excellency."

"How--gone again?"

"Yes, but he has brought the doctors."

Koupriane crushed Rouletabille's wrist. The doctors were there!

"Madame Trebassof is better," continued Ermolai, who understood nothing
of their emotion. "The general is going to meet them and take them to
his wife himself."

"Where are they?"

"They are waiting in the drawing-room."

"Oh, Excellency, keep cool, keep cool, and all is not lost," implored
the reporter.

Rouletabille and Koupriane slipped carefully into the garden. Ermolai
followed them.

"There?" inquired Koupriane.

"There," Ermolai replied.

From the corner where they were, and looking through the veranda, they
could see the "doctors" as they waited.

They were seated in chairs side by side, in a corner of the drawing-room
from where they could see every-thing in the room and a part of the
garden, which they faced, and could hear everything. A window of the
first-floor was open above their heads, so that they could hear any
noise from there. They could not be surprised from any side, and they
held every door in view. They were talking softly and tranquilly,
looking straight before them. They appeared young. One had a pleasant
face, pale but smiling, with rather long, curly hair; the other was more
angular, with haughty bearing and grave face, an eagle nose and glasses.
Both wore long black coats buttoned over their calm ches