as still beating faintly and they forced spirits
between his lips until after a time he revived. Paul himself helped
put the wounded man in bed and would not leave him until he saw that
Baxter had dropped off into a natural sleep.

Then with the others he paced the floor impatiently until it began to
grow light. There were four of them--and with the help of as many more
trusty servants they felt they could give Boris and his crew a pretty
fight--if they could only find him!

Not till they came to decide on what men they would take with them did
Paul recall how he had been disposed of earlier in the night.

"That big _moujik_ who showed me to my room last evening!" he cried
suddenly, turning to Peter. "Where is the dog? It was he who struck me
down!"

"By the Lord!" exclaimed Andrieff, "that explains why the horses are
gone! The cur is a traitor! I'll cut his heart out this day!"

"He took old Moka out of the room, too, do you remember?" Peter asked.
"He must have been in Boris's pay all the while--the man has been with
us but a short time. Oh! if I could but get my hands upon his
villainous throat!" But of what avail were imprecations? The four men
finally ceased to talk, but the fierce determination which grimly
lighted each face, boded ill for Boris' cut-throat gang, when they
should be come up with, on the morrow.

At last day dawned, and as soon as they could catch horses enough--the
brutes had wandered back toward the stables as it became lighter--they
were off.

The heavy rain, which had kept up nearly all the night, had completely
obliterated the fugitives' tracks. Without a trail their first step
seemed to be to visit the shooting-lodge whence Boris had made his
sally.

Two hours' hard riding brought them to the place. It looked deserted,
but Paul rode his horse close to the door and knocked viciously upon
it. There was no response.

"It seems," said Peter, with a politeness that his looks belied, "that
our friends are not at home."

Verdayne's answer sounded very much like an oath. He gave the door one
final kick, and finding his rough summons ineffectual, turned to his
companions.

"Look you!" he said. "I am not at all sure that this house is as empty
as it seems. I'm going to ride alongside the garden wall so that I can
climb over the top. I want to go investigating."

In a twinkling he had put his plan into execution and dropped over the
wall into the garden. He walked round the house and fou