CHAPTER XXV
NO. 17, THE PLACE OF ST. JOHN
WE stood silent for perhaps a minute and I strained my ears for the sound of voices in the rooms near. Not so much as a whisper was to be heard.
Presently the stairs creaked above, and I saw a woman, tear-stained and troubled-looking, peering cautiously down at us.
“What are you doing there? Come down,” said Burski, quickly.
I guessed that she was Volna’s old nurse, and that she had been listening above stairs. She came down, her eyes full of alarm.
“In which room are they?” I asked, sharply.
“The back——” she began, pointing to a door, when Burski stopped her.
“Silence,” he interposed.
But I had the information I needed and sprang past him and ran up the stairs. “You must not go up, Mr. Anstruther,” he cried.
“Why not? I am no prisoner,” I answered; and before he could prevent me, I had reached the door and entered the room, Burski at my heels, to find Volna in a condition of mingled defiance and distress, and Bremenhof pacing the floor angrily.
“What is the meaning of this?” he cried.
“That is exactly what I have come to see,” said I.
Volna got up. “Is it true, Mr. Anstruther, that you sent this address to Colonel Bremenhof?”
“Should this man remain to hear what has to be said?” I asked Bremenhof, pointing to Burski.
He found the question an awkward one. Unwilling to let Burski overhear the conversation and yet equally unwilling to remain without some protection, he was at a loss what to do.
“Take the key of the door with you, Burski, and remain within call,” he said, after a pause.
I waited until we three were alone and then answered Volna’s question. “It is possible that Colonel Bremenhof obtained the address through me. How did you get it, sir?”
But Volna did not wait for him to answer. “He has told me more than once that in consideration of his allowing you to leave the country, you betrayed my address to him.”
I turned to Bremenhof. “Do you repeat that now in my presence?”
“You have no right to come blustering here,” he said.
“Do you repeat that story of my treachery now in my presence? Come. Dare you?”
“Don’t think to intimidate me.”
“I thought you would not dare. Now, will you tell Miss Drakona what really passed last night; or shall I?”
“These matters cannot be gone into now. You must both come to the Department and the whole thing shall be——” I put my back against the door and he took alarm instantly. He broke off and said quickly: “My men are here.”
“You will not call them yet, Colonel Bremenhof,” I said very deliberately.
“Do you presume to threaten me?”
“This is a personal matter between Miss Drakona, yourself and me. You have slandered me to her, and your official position cannot and shall not—understand, shall not—prevent your giving an explanation.”
“I’ll soon see about that.”
“Don’t call your men. I warn you;” and I put my hand to my pocket as though I had a weapon concealed. I had none; but he was not a difficult person to bluff; and my look was steady enough to frighten him.
“Mr. Anstruther!” exclaimed Volna, in alarm.
“This matter must be set straight, Miss Drakona.” My tone was as firm to her as it had been to him; and this served to complete his discomfiture.
“Now, Colonel Bremenhof, I am waiting.”
He sat down and was as troubled and fidgetty as a schoolboy waiting for a birching. His eyes were everywhere in the room, his lips moved nervously, and his fingers played with his beard. But he said nothing.
“I will help you to start. You gave me your word last night that Madame Drakona should be released to-day; that you would place the evidence against her in my hands at your house to-night; and that all charges against this lady should be withdrawn. Is that true?”
“Yes; that is what I have explained,” he muttered.
“The express object, as I told you plainly, was that Miss Drakona should be a perfectly free agent to marry my friend Count Ladislas Tuleski or not as she chose.”
“I have said that too, in effect.”
“In effect!” cried Volna contemptuously.
“The one condition you imposed was that I should leave the country, and to that I agreed.”
“That is only your way of putting it,” he said, beginning to gather courage as the minutes passed.
“I wrote as much to you this morning, Miss Drakona, and gave the letter to my servant, Felsen, to bring to you. Have you received it?”
“Colonel Bremenhof has given it to me, Mr. Anstruther.”
“Turned letter carrier, eh?” said I, drily.
“The explanation of my possession of it is perfectly simple. Your servant was arrested by one of my men this morning; and when he was searched, the letter was found upon him. I deemed it best to bring it here myself.”
“And to add that I betrayed the address to you?”
“Your man told me that you had instructed him to bring it to me. Of course, he may have lied. But how was I to know that?”
His air of blameless innocence, as palpably false as his explanation, was laughable; but it was my cue at the moment to accept both.
“There is only one thing that really matters,” I declared. “Are you prepared to keep your word to release Madame Drakona, to give up the evidence against her, and to certify officially that there is no charge against Miss Drakona here?”
His start of anger and the vicious look he shot at me showed that he appreciated the tight corner in which this put him. He was hesitating how to answer, when unfortunately Volna’s indignation would not be restrained.
“If you are satisfied with the explanation, Mr. Anstruther, I am not. Colonel Bremenhof’s charge against you was of deliberate, not involuntary betrayal. That it was part of your pledge to him.”
I raised my hand in protest; but it was too late. He saw his chance and took it at once cunningly. He rose and said: “If I am already judged, nothing more can be done here. Burski!” he called in a loud ringing voice.
I stepped from the door and Burski and the second man entered.
“You called, Colonel?”
“We are going to the offices of the Department. Let the Englishman be searched. He has a weapon.”
Burski drew his revolver and turned to me.
“No, you are mistaken. I know what you thought. See!” and I turned my pocket inside out. “I don’t resist.”
Resistance being useless, it was just as well to make a virtue of offering none.
“You threatened me,” said Bremenhof.
“Is that the charge against me?”
“The charge will be explained in proper time,” he snapped.
“And I will see that the explanation is proper, too.”
“Silence!” he cried. Now that his men were present, his natural instincts as an official bully reasserted themselves.
It was an ugly development of the situation; and my chagrin was the more bitter because only my own blind self-confidence had brought it about.
Volna blamed herself, however, setting it all down to her last angry interposition. “I am so sorry,” she said to me. “This is my fault.”
“Not a bit of it. He meant to do it in any case. You only made it a little easier for him to show his hand. The real blame is mine, as I will explain to you.”
“The explanation will have to wait,” sneered Bremenhof. “You have many other things to explain first. See that a carriage is brought, Burski, for Miss Drakona to go with me. You will take the Englishman. Take him away now.”
Volna gave a cry of distress, and was coming toward me when Bremenhof pushed between us.
“You must not speak to the prisoner,” he said, bluntly.
“Come, Mr. Anstruther,” said Burski.
“You need have no fear on my account, Miss Drakona,” I assured her, as I went out with Burski.
“What is the reason for this?” he asked, as we stood a moment on the landing, after he had sent his companion for the carriage.
“It means that for the moment you have out-played me—for the moment, that’s all.”
“Can I help you?”
I looked at him steadily. “Yes, by dropping your pretence.”
“You wrong me, friend. I can still help you to escape. I can get you out of the city, if you will.”
“Colonel Bremenhof’s orders, eh? No, thank you; not again. I am just as anxious to be a prisoner now as he is to get me out of the city.”
“He means mischief for you. I told you last night.”
“You told me many lies last night and acted others. And I have had quite enough of them and of you. Now, go ahead and do as he told you.”
He shrugged his shoulders. “If you get to Headquarters it will be too late,” he said.
At that moment his comrade came running up. “If the prisoners are to be taken, Burski, you’d better come. There’s a crowd of the strikers close by.”
Burski looked at me sharply.
I smiled. “May be a bit awkward for you, eh?”
We went down to the front door.
“Is the carriage there yet?” asked Burski.
“Just driven up,” was the reply.
The clamour of a crowd outside reached our ears. I put out my hand to open the door and Burski stopped me. He was looking very anxious. “Call the chief,” he said hurriedly.
The man sprang up the stairs.
Burski and I were left alone.
The clamour outside increased and some one knocked at the door.
“Why don’t you open the door? If you are in earnest about helping me to escape, let me call in the crowd.”
Instead of replying he drew his revolver.
The knock was repeated, and a voice called: “Burski, Stragoff, either of you. Quick, man, quick, if you’re coming.”
The noise of the crowd was growing every moment, and my guard’s perplexity grew with it.
The door of the room above us was opened, and Bremenhof called, “Burski, Burski. Are you there?”
Attracted by the call his eyes left me a moment. The next I had his revolver hand in mine, and, having the advantage of the surprise, wrenched it away from him.
He called out, and Bremenhof and the second man came running down.
The noise without shewed that the crowd were close to the house. I threw the door wide open.
Two men were on the doorstep and fell back at the sight of the weapon in my hand.
The crowd were close at hand, streaming past the corner of the Place of St. John.
I fired two shots in the air. At the sound the crowd turned and faced towards me.
“The police are here. Rescue! Rescue!” I shouted with all the strength of my lungs.
A loud roar of angry shouts answered me, and a number of the men breaking from the crowd came pouring toward the house.
The police agents outside darted away like hares.
At the same instant Burski and the others seized me; and after a short, fierce struggle I was dragged back inside and the door was slammed just as the first comers from the mob reached the house.