Jack Archer: A Tale of the Crimea

  CHAPTER XIV.

  A SUSPECTED HOUSEHOLD

  Cheerful though their hosts were, the midshipmen could see that acloud of anxiety hung over them. To be "suspected" in Russia isequivalent to being condemned. Secret police spies in the very bosomof the household may be sending denunciations. The man who meets youand shakes hands with you in the street may have reported on yourconduct. The letters you write are opened, those you should receivestopped in the post. At any moment the agent of the authorities mayappear and conduct you to a prison which you may leave only for thelong journey to Siberia.

  Count Preskoff did not think that matters had yet reached this point.He was in disgrace at court, and had enemies who would injure him tothe utmost with the emperor, but he believed that no steps would betaken until Count Smerskoff had received his final refusal ofKatinka's hand. He had already once proposed for it, but would notconsider the answer which her father then gave him as final.

  "I cannot accept your refusal, count," he had said. "The marriagewould be for the advantage of all parties concerned. My family is, asyou are aware, not without influence at court, and they would, were Ithe husband of your daughter, do all in their power to incline theemperor favorably towards you; while, were I rejected, they wouldprobably view your refusal to accept my offers as a slight to thefamily, and resent it accordingly. I cannot but think that when youhave given the matter calm consideration, you will see the advantageswhich such an alliance would offer. I shall therefore do myself thehonor to renew my proposals at some future date."

  This conversation took place in the beginning of December; CountPreskoff had shortly afterwards left for his estates in the north, andhe felt sure that upon his return the subject would be renewed, andthat upon his announcement of his continued determination to refusehis daughter's hand to this pressing suitor, the latter would useevery means in his power to ruin him, and that the cloud which had solong threatened would burst over his head.

  From Olga, who, being about his own age, a little under sixteen, washis special chum in the family, Jack gathered a general idea of thesituation. Olga was an adept at pantomimic action, and a naturalmimic; hence, although he could only understand a word here and there,he obtained an accurate idea of the conversation between her fatherand the governor, and of her father's calm manner, and the gesturesand intonations of apparent friendship but veiled menace. By puttingher ears to a keyhole and hiding behind a curtain, she expressed thepossibility of there being a spy in the very household, who wouldlisten to the unguarded talk of her father and report it to thegovernor. Jack determined that he would watch every movement of thedomestics, and especially observe if he could detect any sign of anunderstanding between one of them and the governor.

  It was some four or five days after the count had returned that CountSmerskoff rode up to the door. Orders had already been given that ifhe arrived he should be shown to the count's private study. Themidshipmen saw him riding up, and, according to the plan they hadagreed upon, one stood near the entrance to observe whether any signof recognition passed between him and any of the servants gatheredupon the steps to receive him, the other took his place in the hall.The interview was not a long one.

  "I am come, Count Preskoff," the governor said, "to renew my requestfor the hand of your daughter. I trust that upon consideration youwill have thought it better to overlook the objections you preferredto my suit."

  "Upon the contrary," the count said calmly, "I have thought the matterover in every light, and am more convinced even than before that sucha marriage would not conduce to the happiness of my daughter. Sheherself is wholly repugnant to it, and even were it otherwise, Ishould myself most strongly object."

  "On what grounds, count?" the officer said angrily. "Noble as yourfamily is, my own is fully equal to it."

  "That I am perfectly willing to allow, sir, and will frankly own thatmy objection is a purely personal one. The incidents of your pastcareer are notorious. You have killed two men in duels, which, in bothcases, you forced upon them. You have been involved in gamblingtransactions of such a description that it needed all the influence ofyour family to save you from public disgrace. To such a man it isimpossible that I could intrust my daughter."

  Count Smerskoff rose to his feet, bursting with passion.

  "Since you know my reputation, count, it would have been wiser toabstain from insulting me. You shall hear from me before night."

  "It is useless your sending your second to me," the count said calmly,"for I absolutely refuse to meet you. I shall publish my refusal, andstate that the grounds upon which I base it are that you are anotorious ruffian; but that if you can find any man of honor to takeup your quarrel, I shall be prepared to meet him."

  "I will force you to it," the soldier said, burning with passion. "Iwill publicly insult you. I will strike you," and he drew a stepnearer.

  "You will do so at your peril," the count said, drawing a pistol fromhis pocket. "I know your method, sir, and am prepared for it. If youlay a finger upon me, if you insult me in public, I will shoot youdead where you stand, and take the consequences."

  "You shall repent this," Count Smerskoff exclaimed. "There are livesworse than death, and you shall have cause to remember your words ofto-day," and turning round he strode from the room.

  Jack was still lounging in the hall as he passed out. One of theservants had also remained there, and when the governor was seenstriding down the staircase, the man hastened to open the door. Jacksaw the officer pause for a moment, "At eight to-night at the crossroads," he said, and passed out, and flinging himself upon his horse,rode off. Among the Russian words learned by the midshipmen were allwords connected with roads. They had been specially desirous of askingquestions which might enable them to find their way across country,and every word which would be likely to be included in a direction asto route had been learned. This was the more easy, as on their marchthere had been but few objects of interest to attract their attention.The expressions therefore "the road to the right," "the road to theleft," "the turning by the wood or stream," "the cross roads," andother similar expressions had been learned by heart. Jack's quickears, consequently, gathered the purport of the brief order.

  "I have found the spy," he said triumphantly, when he joined hiscomrade outside. "Come for a stroll, Dick. I don't want to be seentalking here."

  When well away from the house, Jack repeated the words he hadoverheard, and they determined that they would be present at theinterview between the governor and his spy. They had a long discussionwhether it would be better to invite the count himself to be present;but they agreed at last that it would be better not to do so, as hemight break in upon the interview, and possibly only bring matters toa climax at once, which they agreed had better be avoided, as even ifthe men fought then and there, the fact of the governor being killedby the count would only precipitate the danger which alreadythreatened. Still they agreed that it was absolutely necessary thatthe conversation should be thoroughly understood, and the few wordswhich they would glean here and there might be insufficient to putthem in possession of the full details of the plot.

  They therefore resolved to take the coachman into their confidence.They knew that he was warmly attached to the count, and that he couldbe relied upon in an emergency. As they had full permission to takethe horses or carriage whenever they pleased, they now went to thestable and told the coachman that they should like to go for a drivein the sledge, as the weather showed signs of breaking, and the snowwould probably shortly disappear.

  The horses were at once put to, and, in a few minutes they werewhirling over the snow. They directed the coachman to drive into theforest where they had had the encounter with the wolves, and when wellin its shelter they stopped the sledge and alighted, and requested thecoachman to do the same. Much surprised, the unrolled the sheepskinwrappings from his legs and got down from his seat.

  "Alexis, you love the count, your master, do you not?"

  "Yes, young lord," the Russian said earnestly,
though much surprisedat the question. "His fathers have been the masters of mine for manygenerations. My good lord is always kind and considerate to his serfs.I drove his father before him. I drove him when he was a boy. He hasnever said a harsh word to me. I would give my life for him willingly.Why do the young lords ask?"

  "Your master has enemies, Alexis. There are many who think that he istoo kind to his serfs. They have poisoned the ear of the Czar againsthim. They have told him that your master is a dangerous man. They haveturned the face of the Czar from him."

  The Russian nodded. It was no secret that the count was banished fromthe capital.

  "The chief of his enemies," Jack went on, "is the governor, CountSmerskoff. He wishes to marry the Countess Katinka, and because thecount refuses he will try to injure him and to obtain his exile toSiberia."

  "I will kill him," the coachman said. "I will slay him in the middleof his soldiers. They may kill me, but what of that, it is for mymaster."

  "No, Alexis, not now," Jack said, laying his hand upon the arm of theangry Russian. "Perhaps later, but we will see. But I have found outthat Paul, the hall servant, is acting as his spy. I heard thegovernor order him to meet him at the cross roads at eight o'clockto-night. I suppose he means where the road crosses that to town,about half-way along. We mean to be there, but you know we don'tunderstand Russian well enough to hear all that is said. We want youto be there with us, too, to hear what they mean to do."

  "I will be there," the Russian said; "and if the young lords think itwell, I will kill them both."

  "No, Alexis," Jack said; "that would never do. It might get about thatthe governor had been killed by order of the count, and this would domore harm than if he were alive. Will you be in the stables at seveno'clock? We will join you there. There are plenty of bushes at thecross-roads, and we shall be able to hide there without difficulty."

  The coachman assented, and taking their seats, they again drove on. Itmust not be supposed that the conversation was conducted as simply andeasily as has been narrated, for it needed all the efforts of the boysto make the Russian understand them, and they had to go over and overagain many of the sentences, using their scanty vocabulary in everyway, to convey their meaning to their hearer. The rest of theafternoon passed slowly. The count himself was tranquil and evencheerful, although his face wore an air of stern determination. Thecountess looked anxious and careworn. The eyes of the three girls wereswollen with crying, and the lads afterwards learned that Katinka hadgone down on her knees to her father, to implore him to allow her tosacrifice herself for the common good by marrying Count Smerskoff.This, however, the count had absolutely refused to do, and had eveninsisted upon her promising him that, should he be exiled and hisestates confiscated, she would not afterwards purchase his release byconsenting to marry her suitor. Respecting the grief and anxiety intowhich the family were plunged, the midshipmen kept apart from them allthe afternoon, only joining them at the evening meal at six o'clock.As they withdrew, saying, in answer to the count's invitation thatthey should stop with them, that they were first going for a littlewalk, Jack whispered in Olga's ear, "Keep up your courage. All may notbe lost yet."

  The coachman was waiting for them in the stable, and they started atonce in an opposite direction to that at which the meeting was to takeplace, in case Paul might by any possibility observe their departure.Taking a long _detour_, they reached the cross-roads, and lay downunder cover of the brushwood. It was nearly half an hour later beforethey heard footsteps approaching along the road from the chateau. Onreaching the junction of the roads, the man stopped, and from theirplace of concealment they could dimly see his figure.

  The boys had taken the precaution of abstracting a brace of pistolsand two swords from the count's armory. The coachman they knew wouldhave his knife. This they had done at Jack's suggestion that it waspossible that their presence might be betrayed by a cough or otheraccidental noise, in which case they knew they would have to fight fortheir lives. A few minutes later they heard the tramp of a horse'shoof. It approached quickly, and the rider halted by the standingfigure.

  "Is that you, Paul?"

  "It is, my lord," the serf said, bowing.

  "You are alone?"

  "No one had approached the place since I came here a quarter of anhour ago."

  "It is time for action," the horseman said. "To-morrow you will comeboldly at twelve o'clock to my house, and demand to see me onimportant business. You will be shown to my room, where two officerswho I wish to have as witnesses will be present. You will then stateto me that you wish to make a denunciation of your master, CountPreskoff. I shall ask what you have to say, and tell you that you areof course aware of the serious consequences to yourself should suchstatements be proved untrue. You will say that you are aware of that,but that you are compelled by your love for the Czar, our father, tospeak. You will then say that you have heard the count using insultingwords of the Czar, in speaking of him to his wife, on many occasions,and that since his return, on one occasion, you put your ear to thekeyhole and heard him telling her of a great plot for a general risingof the serfs, and an overthrow of the government; that he said he hadprepared the serfs of his estates in the north for the rising; thatthose of his estates here would all follow him; that many other nobleshad joined in the plot, and that on a day which had not yet beenagreed upon a rising would take place in twenty places simultaneously;and that the revolt once begun he was sure that the serfs, weary ofthe war and its heavy impositions, would everywhere join the movement.I shall cross-question you closely, but you will stick to your story.Make it as simple and straightforward as you can; say you cannotanswer for the exact words, but that you will answer that this was thegeneral sense of the conversation you overheard. Now, are you sure youthoroughly understand?"

  "I quite understand, my lord," the man said humbly, "and for this yourExcellency has promised me?"

  "Five hundred roubles and your freedom."

  "But when am I to be paid?" the man said doubtfully.

  "Do you doubt my word, slave?" the horseman said angrily.

  "By no means, your Excellency. But things might happen, and after Ihad told my story and it had been taken down before witnesses, yourExcellency's memory might fail. I should prefer the money before Itold my story."

  The horseman was silent a moment.

  "You are an insolent dog to doubt me," he said in an angry tone; "butyou shall have the money; when you call to-morrow the sergeant of theguard will have instructions to hand you a letter which will containnotes for five hundred roubles."

  "I thought," the man said, "your Excellency said gold. Five hundredroubles in notes are not worth two hundred in gold, and you see Ishall have much to do to earn the money, for I may be sent to St.Petersburg and cross-questioned. I may even be confronted with mymaster; and after it is over and I am freed, I must, in any case,leave this part of the country, for my life will not be safe for a dayhere."

  "Very well," the count said, "you shall have a thousand roubles inpaper; but beware! if you fail me or break down in cross-examination,you shall end your life in the mines of Siberia."

  So saying, without another word he turned and rode back, while theserf strode off towards the chateau. During this conversation, whichthe boys imperfectly understood, they had difficulty in restrainingthe count's faithful retainer, who, furious at hearing the details ofthe plot against his master, would have leaped up to attack thespeakers, had not the boys kept their restraining hands on hisshoulder, and whispered in his ear, "Be quiet, for the count's sake."

  Waiting long enough to be sure that the two men had passed not onlyout of sight but of the sound of their voices, the lads suffered theircompanion to rise, and to indulge his feelings in an explosion of deepoaths. Then, when he was a little calm, they obtained from him arepetition of the leading facts of the conversation.

  The boys consulted among themselves, and agreed that it was necessaryto acquaint the count with all the facts that they had discovered, andto leave him
to act as seemed best according to his judgment.

  They entered the house alone, telling the coachman to call in half anhour, and to say that the count had given orders that he was to seehim to take instructions for the horses in the morning. Then theyjoined the family in the drawing-room. There all proceeded as usual.

  Katinka, at her father's request, played on the piano, and a strangerwould not have dreamed of the danger which menaced the household. Whenthe half-hour had nearly expired, Jack said to the count,--

  "I have told Alexis to call upon you for orders for to-morrow. Wouldyou mind receiving him in your study? I have a very particular reasonfor asking it."

  "But I have no orders to give Alexis," the count said, surprised.

  "No, sir, but he has something he particularly wishes to say toyou--something really important."

  "Very well," the court replied, smiling; "you seem to be verymysterious, but of course I will do as you wish. Is he coming soon?"

  "In two or three minutes, sir, I expect him."

  "Then," the count remarked, "I suppose I had better go at once, andlearn what all this mystery is about. He isn't coming, I hope, tobreak to me the news that one of my favorite horses is dead." Sosaying, with a smile, he left the room. No sooner had he gone than thegirls overwhelmed the midshipmen with questions, but they told themthat they must not be inquisitive, that their father would, no doubt,tell them the secret in due time.

  "If you will allow me, countess," Dick said, "I will leave this door alittle open, so that we may hear when Alexis goes in." The door wasplaced ajar, and a few minutes later the footsteps of two men wereheard coming along the corridor. Paul opened the door. "Is hisExcellency here?" he asked. "Alexis wishes to see him."

  "He is in his study," the countess answered.

  The study door was heard to close, and when the sound of Paul's feetreturning along the corridor ceased Dick said, "You will excuse us,countess, we are going to join the conference."

  "It is too bad," Katinka exclaimed, "to keep us in the dark in thisway. Mind, if the secret is not something very important anddelightful, you will be in disgrace, and we shall banish you from thisroom altogether."

  The lads made a laughing reply, and then, promising they would soon beback, they went to the study. Alexis was standing silent before hismaster, having explained that he would rather not speak until theyoung English lords appeared. Jack began the narrative, and said thatfearing Count Smerskoff, whom they knew to be his enemy, might havesuborned one of the servants to act as his spy they had watched himclosely, and had heard him make an appointment with Paul to meet himthat evening at the cross-roads; that they had taken Alexis into theirconfidence, and had with him been concealed spectators of theinterview; that they themselves had been able to gather only thegeneral drift of the conversation, but that Alexis would give him afull report of it.

  The count's face had at first expressed only surprise at Jack'snarration, but the expression changed into one of fierce anger as heproceeded. Without a word he motioned to Alexis to continue, and thelatter detailed word for word the conversation which he had overheard.When he had concluded, he added, "Your Excellency must pardon me fornot having killed your enemies upon the spot, but the young Englishlords had told me that it was necessary to lie quiet, whatever Iheard, and besides, the governor might have ridden off before I couldreach him."

  The count stood for a minute silent when the narration ceased. "Youdid well, Alexis," he said in a stern voice. "It is for me to judgeand sentence. I had thought that I, at least, was safe from treacheryamong those around me. It seems I was wrong, and the traitor shalllearn that the kind master can be the severe lord, who holds the lifeand death of his serfs in his hand." He was silent, and remained twoor three minutes in deep thought. "Go to the stable, Alexis. You willbe joined there soon by Ivan and Alexander. They will have theirinstructions. After that Paul will come out; seize him and bind himwhen he enters the stable. Now go. You have done well. Tell Paul, asyou go out, that I wish to see the steward."

  A minute or two later the steward, a white-headed old man, who hadfrom childhood been in the service of the family, entered. "Demetri,"he said, "will you tell Ivan and Alexander to go out into the stable?They will find Alexis waiting for them. Order them, when Paul joinsthem there, to aid Alexis in seizing him instantly. Give them yourinstructions quietly, and without attracting notice. Above all do notlet Paul see you speaking to them. When you have seen them out, findPaul, and order him to go to the stable and tell Alexis that I wish tospeak to him; when he has gone, join me here."