The Czar's Spy: The Mystery of a Silent Love
At a glance I took in the peril of the situation, and without a second's
hesitation made a dive for the man beneath his weapon. He lowered it,
but it was too late, for I gripped him around the waist, rendering his
gun useless. It was the work of an instant, for I knew that to close
with him was my only chance.
Yet if the boat was not in waiting below that closed door? If my Finn
driver was not there in readiness, then I was lost. The unfortunate girl
whom I was there to rescue drew back in fright against the wall for a
single second, then, seeing that I had closed with the hulking fellow,
she sprang forward, and with both hands seized the gun and attempted to
wrest it from him. His fingers had lost the trigger, and he was trying
to regain it to fire and so raise the alarm. I saw this, and with an old
trick learned at Uppingham I tripped him, so that he staggered and
nearly fell.
An oath escaped him, yet in that moment Elma succeeded in twisting the
gun from his sinewy hands, which I now held with a strength begotten of
a knowledge of my imminent peril. My whole future, as well as hers,
depended upon my success in that desperate encounter. He was huge and
powerful, with a strength far exceeding my own, yet I had been reckoned
a good wrestler at Uppingham, and now my knowledge of that most ancient
form of combat held me in good stead.
The man shouted for help, his deep, hoarse voice sounding along the
stone corridors. If heard by his comrades-in-arms, then the alarm would
at once be given.
We struggled desperately, swaying to and fro, he trying to throw me,
while I, at every turn, practiced upon him the tricks learned in my
youth. It seemed an even match, however, for he kept his feet by sheer
brute force, and his muscles seemed hard and unbending as steel.
Suddenly, however, as we were striving so vigorously and desperately,
the English girl slipped past us with the carbine in her hand, and with
a quick movement dragged open the heavy door that gave exit to the
lake.
At that instant I unfortunately made a false move, and his hand closed
upon my throat like a band of steel. I fought and struggled to loose
myself, exerting every muscle, but alas! he gained the advantage. I
heard a splash, and saw that Elma no longer held the sentry's weapon in
her hands, having thrown it into the water.
Then at the same moment I heard a voice outside cry in a low tone:
"Courage, Excellency! Courage! I will come and help you."
It was the faithful Finn, who had been awaiting me in the deep shadow,
and with a few strokes pulled his boat up to the narrow rickety ledge
outside the door.
"Take the lady!" I succeeded in gasping in Russian. "Never mind me," and
I saw to my satisfaction that he guided Elma to step into the boat,
which at that moment drifted past the little platform.
I struggled valiantly, but against such a man of brute strength I was
powerless. He held my throat, causing me excruciating pain, and each
moment I felt my chance of victory grow smaller. My strength was
failing. While I held his arms at his sides, I could keep him secure
without much effort, but now with his fingers pressing in my windpipe I
could not breathe.
I was slowly being strangled.
To be vanquished meant imprisonment there, perhaps even death. Victory
meant Elma's life, as well as my own. Mine was therefore a fight for
life. A sudden idea flashed across my mind, and I continued to struggle,
at the same time gradually forcing my enemy backward towards the door.
He shouted for help, but was unheard. He cursed and swore and shouted
until, with a sudden and almost superhuman effort, I tripped him,
bringing his head into such violent contact with the stone lintel of the
door that the sound could surely be heard a considerable distance. For a
moment he was stunned, and in that brief second I released his grip from
my throat and hurled him backwards beyond the door.
There was the sound of the crashing of wood as the rotten platform gave
way, a loud splash, and next instant the dark waters closed over the
big, bearded fellow who would have snatched Elma Heath from me, and have
held me prisoner in that castle of terrors. He sank like a stone, for
although I stood watching for him to rise, I could only distinguish the
woodwork floating away with the current.
In a moment, however, even as I stood there in horror at my deed of
self-defense, the place suddenly resounded with shouts of alarm, and in
the tower above me the great old rusty bell began to swing, ringing its
brazen note across the broad expanse of waters.
The fair-bearded Finn again shot the boat across to where I stood,
crying--
"Jump, Excellency! For your life, jump! The guards will be upon us!"
Behind me in the passage I saw a light and the glitter of arms. A shot
rang out, and a bullet whizzed past me, but I stood unharmed. Then I
jumped, and nearly upset the boat, but taking an oar I began to row for
life, and as we drew away from those grim, black walls the fire belched
forth from three rifles.
"Row!" I shrieked, turning to see if my fair companion had been hit.
"Keep cool, Excellency," urged the Finn. "See, right away there in the
shadow. We might trick them, for the patrol-boat will be at the head of
the river waiting to cut us off."
Again the guards fired upon us, but in the darkness their aim was
faulty. Lights appeared in the high windows of the castle, and we could
see that the greatest commotion had been caused by the escape of the
prisoner. The men at the door in the tower were shouting to the
patrol-boats, which were nowhere to be seen, calling them to row us down
and capture us, but by plying our oars rapidly we shot straight across
the lake until we got under the deep shadow of the opposite shore, and
then crept gradually along in the direction we had come.
"If we meet the boats, Excellency, we must run ashore and take to the
woods," explained the Finn. "It is our only chance."
Scarcely had he spoken when out in the center of the lake we could just
distinguish a long boat with three rowers going swiftly towards the
entrance to the river, which we so desired to gain.
"Look!" cried our guide, backing water, and bringing the boat to a
standstill. "They are in search of us! If we are discovered they will
fire. It is their orders. No boat is allowed upon this lake."
Elma sat watching our pursuers, but still calm and silent. She seemed to
intrust herself entirely to me.
The guards were rowing rapidly, the oars sounding in the rowlocks,
evidently in the belief that we had made for the river. But the
Finlander had apparently foreseen this, and for that reason we were
lying safe from observation in the deep shadow of an overhanging tree.
A gray mist was slowly rising from the water, and the Finn, noticing it,
hoped that it might favor us. In Finland in late autumn the mists are
often as thick as our proverbial London fogs, only whiter, denser, and
more frosty.
"If we disembark we shall be compelled to make a detour of fully four
days in the forest, in order to pass the marshes," he pointed out in a
low whisper. "But if we can enter the river we can go ashore anywhere
and get by foot to some place where the lady can lie in hiding."
"What do you advise? We are entirely in your hands. The Chief of Police
told me he could trust you."
"I think it will be best to risk it," he said in Russian after a brief
pause. "We will tie up the boat, and I will go along the bank and see
what the guards are doing. You will remain here, and I shall not be
seen. The rushes and undergrowth are higher further along. But if there
is danger while I am absent get out and go straight westward until you
find the marsh, then keep along its banks due south," and drawing up the
boat to the bank the shrewd, big-boned fellow disappeared into the dark
undergrowth.
There were no signs yet of the break of day. Indeed, the stars were now
hidden, and the great plane of water was every moment growing more
indistinct as we both sat in silence. My ears were strained to catch the
dipping of an oar or a voice, but beyond the lapping of the water
beneath the boat there was no other sound. I took the hand of the
fair-faced girl at my side and pressed it. In return she pressed mine.
It was the only means by which we could exchange confidences. She whom I
had sought through all those months sat at my side, yet powerless to
utter one single word.
Still holding her hands in both my own I gripped them to show her that I
intended to be her champion, while she turned to me in confidence as
though happy that it should be so. What, I wondered, was her history?
What was the mystery surrounding her? What could be that secret which
had caused her enemies to thus brutally maim and mutilate her, and
afterwards send her to that grim, terrible fortress that still loomed up
before us in the gloom? Surely her secret must affect some person very
seriously, or such drastic means would never be employed to secure her
silence.
Suddenly I heard a stealthy footstep approaching, and next moment a low
voice spoke which I recognized as that of our friend, the Finn.
"There is danger, Excellency--a grave danger!" he said in a low half
whisper. "Three boats are in search of us."
And scarcely had he uttered those words when there was the flash of a
rifle from the haze, a loud report, and again a bullet whizzed past just
behind my head. In an instant the truth became apparent, for I saw the
dark shadow of a boat rapidly rowed, bearing full upon us. The shot had
been fired as a signal that we had been sighted, and were pursued. Other
shots rang out, mingled with the wild exultant shouts of the guards as
they bore down full upon us, and then I knew that, notwithstanding our
escape, we were now lost. They were too close upon us to admit of
eluding them. The peril we had dreaded had fallen. The Finn's presence
on the bank had evidently been detected by a boat drawn up at the shore,
and he had been followed to where we had lain in what we had so
foolishly believed to be a safe hiding-place. Nought else was to be done
but to face the inevitable. Three times the red fire of a rifle belched
angrily in our faces, and yet, by good fortune, neither of us was
struck. Yet we knew too well that the intention of our pursuers was to
kill us.
"Quick, Excellency! Fly! while there is yet time!" gasped the Finn,
grasping my hand and half dragging me from the boat, while, I, in turn,
placed Elma upon the bank.
"_Hoida!_ This way! Swiftly!" cried our guide, and the three of us,
heedless of the consequences, plunged forward into the impenetrable
darkness, just as our fierce pursuers came alongside where we had only a
moment ago been seated. They shouted wildly as they sprang to land after
us, but our guide, who had been born and bred in these forests, knew
well how to travel in a semi-circle, and how to conceal himself. It was
a race for freedom--nay, for very life.
So dark that we could see before us hardly a foot, we were compelled to
place our hands in front of us to avoid collision with the big tree
trunks, while ever and anon we found ourselves entangled in the mass of
dead creepers and vegetable parasites that formed the dense undergrowth.
Around us on every side we heard the shouts and curses of our pursuers,
while above the rest we heard an authoritative voice, evidently that of
a sergeant of the guard, cry--
"Shoot the man, but spare the woman! The Colonel wants her back. Don't
let her escape! We shall be well rewarded. So keep on, comrades! _Mene
edemmäski!_"
But the trembling girl beside me heard nothing, and perhaps indeed it
was best that she could not hear. My only fear was that our pursuers, of
whom there now seemed to be a dozen, had extended, with the intention of