Chapter XVIII: Through the Storm

I moved to the door and locked it noiselessly. I dared not open it to see if the servant had gone, for if he had not that would have roused his suspicions at once. The Duke had already crossed to the further side of the room, and I joined him there.

He wasted no time in preliminaries.

"Mishka has told me all," he began, speaking in English, though still in the hoarse low growl appropriate to his assumed character. "And I have learned much since. There is to be a meeting to-night, and if things are as I suspect she will be brought before the tribunal. We must save her if we can. Will you come? To say it will be at the risk of your life is to put it mildly. It will be a forlorn hope."

"I'll come; tell me how," I said.

"You will go to the place where you met Mishka to-day, dine there, and change your clothes. They will have some for you, and you need not use the formula. They expect you already; I knew you would come! Mishka will join you, and will accompany you to the rank where I shall be waiting with my droshky. You will hire me in the usual way; and we will tell you my plans when we are clear of the city. Have you any weapon?"

"No."

He felt in an inner pocket of his filthy greatcoat and brought out a revolver and a handful of spare cartridges.

"It's loaded; you can have these, too, though if there's any shooting I doubt if you'll have the chance of reloading. Let's hope you won't fall in with the police for the third time to-day! Mishka will join you between nine and ten. We need not start till then,--these light nights are a drawback, but that cannot be helped. The meeting will be held as usual, after midnight. That is all now. I must not stay longer. Give me the note you spoke of. A blank sheet--anything--I will destroy it immediately."

I put a sheet of note-paper into an envelope, and addressed it to Lieutenant Mirakoff at his barracks. His was the first name that occurred to me.

"You know him?" he asked, pointing to the name.

"Very slightly."

He nodded and picked up the note, holding it carefully by one corner between his filthy thumb and finger.

I unlocked the door as quietly as I had locked it, and a moment later he opened it noisily and backed out, growling guttural and surly thanks; backed right up against the servant, who, as we both guessed, was waiting just outside. Even I was surprised at the altercation that followed. A Russian droshky driver has a bigger command of bad language than any other cabby in the world, and the Grand Duke Loris had evidently studied his part from life. He was letter perfect in it!

I strode to the door and flung it open.

"Here, stop that!" I shouted. "Be off with you, Ivan; you impudent rascal!"

He leered at me and shambled off, but I could hear the coarse voice growling ribaldries all the way down the staircase.

It was a masterpiece of impersonation!

I waited a while, till I judged it safe to start on the first stage of my expedition. I meant to take a circuitous route to the cafe, in case I was still being watched. I would run no unnecessary risks, not for my own sake, but I guessed that the success of our enterprise--whatever it was--would depend on the exercise of infinite caution, at the beginning, anyhow. I felt strangely elated, happier than I had done for many a long day; although I knew that the worst, or almost the worst, had come to pass, and that Anne was here, in the power of her enemies. But we were going to save her,--we would save her. "A forlorn hope" even Loris Solovieff had called it. Nothing of the kind. Could anything that such a man as he attempted be a forlorn hope; and together, working loyally side by side, what could we not dare, and accomplish? Nothing seemed impossible to-night.

"Merely an earth to cleave, a sea to part!"

I kept a wary lookout as I made my way along the streets, most of them thronged at this hour of the summer evening. The air was sultry, and huge masses of cloud were piling up, ominous of a storm before long.

I reached the cafe eventually and, so far as I knew, unobserved, and came out of it an hour or so later, looking, I hope, as like a shabbily attired Russian student as the Grand Duke Loris looked like a droshky driver, accompanied by a man of the artisan type, who might have been my father,--none other than Mishka himself.

The sky was overcast, and already, above the rumble of the traffic, one could hear the mutter of distant thunder. It reminded me of that eventful night in London, little more than a month ago, though I had seemed to live a lifetime since then.

"The storm comes soon," said Mishka. "That is well, very well."

We came to a rank where several droshkys were standing; and he paused irresolute, fumbling in his pocket.

"We will drive, Paul," he asserted aloud, with the air of a man who has just decided to indulge in an extravagance. "Yes, I say we will; the storm comes soon, and thy mother is alone."

He began to haggle, after the usual fashion, with the nearest driver; and again I marvelled at the Duke's disguise; for it was he, of course.

Once clear of the city Mishka unfolded the plan.

"Presently we turn across country and come to a house; there we leave the droshky; and there also will be horses for us in readiness if we should need them--later. Thence we go on foot through the forest to the meeting-place. We must separate when we get near it, but you will keep close to Ivan"--we spoke always of the Duke by that name--"and I will come alone. You will be challenged, and you will give the word, 'For Freedom,' and the sign I showed you. Give it to me, now."

He held out his hand, palm upwards; and I touched it with my thumb and fingers in turn; five little taps.

"Good, you are a quick learner--Paul! The meeting will be in an old chapel,--or so we imagine; the place is changed many times, but it must be there, or in the clearing. Either way there will be little light, there among the pines. That is in our favor. If she is there, we shall know how to act; we must decide then. She will be accused--that is certain--but the five may acquit her. If that comes to pass--good; we shall easily get speech with her, and perhaps she may return with us. At least she will be safe for the moment. But if they condemn her, we must act quickly and all together. We must save her and get her away,--or--die with her!"

"Well said!" growled "Ivan."

The rain was pattering down now in big drops, and the lightning flashes were more frequent, the thunder nearer each time. The horse shied as there came a more vivid flash than before, followed almost instantly by a crackling roll--the storm was upon us.

As the thunder ceased, I found "Ivan" had pulled the horse up, and was listening intently. I listened also, and above the faint tinkle of our bells and the slight movements of the horse, I heard, faint, as yet, but rapidly approaching, the thud of hoofs and the jangle of accoutrements.

"A patrol," said "Ivan" quickly. "They are coming towards us; I saw them by the lightning flash. They will challenge us, and I shall drive on, trusting to the darkness and storm. If they follow--as they probably will--and shoot, you two must seize your opportunity, and jump. There is just the chance that they may not see you; I shall drive on. If I distance them, I will follow you. But we must not all be taken, and it will be better for me than for you."

He started again on the instant, and another flash showed several mounted figures just ahead.

A challenge rang out, and "Ivan's" reply was to lash the horse into a gallop. We charged through them, and they wheeled after us, and fired. I heard the "zsp" of a bullet as it ripped through the leather hood close to my ear; but in the darkness and confusion they fired wildly. And, for the present at any rate, our gallant little horse was more than a match for theirs, and was distancing them rapidly.

Another flash, and "Now!" roared "Ivan," above the roar of the thunder. I had already sprung up, knowing that I must jump before the next flash came; and Mishka, as I found afterwards, did the same.

Steadying myself for a moment, I let myself drop, stumbled backward for a few steps, fell, and rolled into the ditch, just as the pursuers clattered past, in a whirlwind of oaths.

For the moment I, at least, had escaped; but where was Mishka?