CHAPTER XVII

"I WAS THE MAN SELECTED"

O thou young man, the air of Heaven is soft, And warm and pleasant; but the grave is cold! Heaven's air is better than the cold dead grave. --MATTHEW ARNOLD.

Stepan Stepanovitch started forward, and caught his daughter in his arms as she fell. He carried her to a couch and hung over her in some alarm. She had fainted quite away. After a minute or two of fruitless effort to rouse her, her father departed in search of Miss Forester; and Felix was left alone in charge. For a while he gazed, with a troubled face, upon the strongly marked brows, the olive complexion, and night-black hair of the young beauty. How different from the girl whose memory he carried with him from England--the pale, appealing face, in its chestnut halo, the expressive mouth, and eyes of deepest blue.

Nadia stirred and awoke. Felix bent over her, fanning her with a screen of feathers. Her large, eloquent eyes rested intently upon his face. He felt himself coloring under her scrutiny. Abruptly she sat up.

"I fainted," she said, as if angry that she should so have given way. "How weak of me! Because I heard you say that my father was in danger. I--I--when I was a child, I heard terrific tales of the inhuman conduct of Nihilists. I used to lie awake in my bed at Moscow, fearing to hear the shrieks of murder, the call of Revolution, in the streets at night. And when I grew up, my father said he was going to a province where such things never happened. All my old nightmares were swept away. We live secure from day to day; the peasants here are kind and faithful, and not surly and treacherous. I have grown to look upon all those terrors as past, like a dark night when it is morning. And the shock of hearing you say those words--of hearing you tell my father that his life was in danger--was too great. It seemed to stop my heart."

"I would have given much to keep such knowledge from you," said Felix, remorsefully. "Forgive me. I had no idea that you were there."

"It is true?" she asked, fixing her eyes upon his face, as if to compel him to deny his former words.

"It was true," said Felix; "but it is not serious, for the man who has devised the scheme is a criminal, and he will be brought to justice and put out of the way. I have with me the proof of his guilt, and upon that your father will proceed at once to take steps against him."

"Where is he?" gasped Nadia.

"I do not know. But I think not within a hundred miles of this place."

Miss Forester and the Governor then entered, and there was much petting and consoling of the girl, who was completely reassured by what they told her.

"How came my good friend Vronsky to know of this traitor, Cravatz?" asked the Governor, when they were all seated and talking the thing over.

"That is part of what I have come to-day to tell you," replied Felix. "If I have your permission, sir, I will tell it to both these ladies as well as to yourself. I have no wish to sail under false colors. I wished Vronsky to tell you when first I had the honor of being presented to you. But at that time he thought it better not, little dreaming that circumstances would later arise which would bring me into such a strange position with regard to your Excellency."

The Governor looked curiously at the young man, who stood up before them with pride and composure, though his confession would evidently cost him an effort. "You have my permission to speak, if you think what you have to say is necessary for me to hear," he replied, kindly.

"Then I will speak," said Felix, "and if, after you have heard, you think it better for me to take my leave at once, and not again to accept your hospitality, nor visit your house, as it has been my delight and privilege to do, I shall feel that you are justified in your decision." He hesitated a moment. There was a deep silence, which showed how much his unexpected words had impressed his three auditors.

"You are an Englishman, I have always understood?" asked Stepan Stepanovitch, abruptly.

"I am," replied Felix, in some distress. "Both my parents were English, and on my father's side I come of a good old family. As you may know, the English county gentry hold themselves the equals of the Continental nobility. The Vanstons trace back their pedigree to a Flemish noble, one Van Steen, who came to the Court of England with Queen Anne of Cleves, married an Englishwoman, and founded a family."

"Yet you seem to imply that you yourself have been in some sort involved with this miscreant Cravatz. I ask your pardon if I have misunderstood you."

Felix crimsoned, like a boy. Nadia, who had never till that moment seen his face express emotion, gazed with a thrill of excitement at the feeling which he evidently found it hard to control. He spoke low and rapidly. "When I was quite a young man I unhappily became imbued with revolutionary notions. There are in London plenty of desperate characters who are ready and waiting to take advantage of the enthusiasm of young lads such as I was. I fell into the hands of an Anarchist Brotherhood. I was put on by them to do the more dangerous part of their propaganda. The police interfered, I was sent to prison for a term of two years, and have actually served my sentence in an English jail."

He paused, his head sinking upon his chest. Nobody spoke. The face of Nadia had turned from crimson to chalk-white.

"My only brother," went on Felix, "disowned me. It is not to be wondered at. But what was to become of me? When I came back to the world, my prison record stood between me and every effort I made to earn a living. I was pretty well in despair when Vronsky found me, and by God's goodness, conceived an affection for me. He brought me out of England, and for a time it seemed as if the Brotherhood, who dogged my steps, had been thrown off the scent. But this man, Cravatz, was determined to track me down. He had a grudge against me, for I had exposed a slight piece of dishonesty of which he had been guilty. He found out where I was, and came to me secretly, bearing the order from the Brotherhood for your removal. I was the man selected for the business."

Nadia had sprung to her feet. She rushed to her father, flung her arms about his neck, and sank to the ground beside him. Felix waited a moment, but as nobody spoke he went on:

"When first I saw myself again in their toils, I felt I would struggle no more. I made up my mind that only death awaited me. But Vronsky's courage and faithfulness never wavered. He made a careful examination of the paper, the order which Cravatz had handed me; and he discovered, with infinite pains and the use of a microscope, that the name of the person ordered to murder you had been changed. There is a law in the Brotherhood that any brother who has been exposed to conspicuous danger, and has in consequence suffered imprisonment or other punishment for the cause, shall not again be called upon to do dangerous work for a period of seven years, except in very exceptional cases. This made Vronsky doubt whether the Council would have sanctioned my being appointed to a mission which meant almost certain death. He became convinced that it was Cravatz himself who had been appointed by the Council to execute their command, and that he was using me as his tool, intending to take the credit of your assassination to himself afterwards. He determined that Cravatz should be handed over to justice. The matter has taken him long, but all is now complete. Within the last few months Cravatz has committed murder of a peculiarly cold-blooded kind in this very province. But one more thing remains to be said. In some way unknown to us, Cravatz seems to have been informed that Vronsky was making plans against him. He is on his guard. If you wish to lay hands upon him, you must act speedily, and in the manner he is least likely to expect. We believe him to be at Gretz, or somewhere on the road between that and here, as we think it unlikely that he will venture into this neighborhood until the time for the execution of your sentence draws nearer."

The Governor looked up. "How long do they give me?" he asked, with a smile.

"Until the 31st of August, your Excellency."

Nadia, who had been clinging to her father with her face hidden, now raised it and shot a glance at Felix. "Why did you not, when you came out of prison, fling off all connection with such fiends?" she cried, in a passion of protest.

"Mademoiselle, you might as well ask the son of a drunkard why he does not fling off all connection with such a father. The answer simply is that it is not in my power to free myself. They bound me by an oath, and they hold me to it. I repudiate it, but what matters that if they do not?"

"If Cravatz wants to get rid of you it is a cleverly devised trap," said the Governor, thoughtfully.

"It is a cleverly devised trap, for I die either way. Cravatz argues that I, seeing death is before me in any case, shall choose rather to take the extreme risk and kill you, thereby earning for myself some glory among the miscreants who call themselves friends of liberty, than to be secretly made away with as a traitor by them. But even were I to commit this incredible baseness, as he expects, he would take to himself the credit of your murder, since hardly anybody but himself knows that I am here at all. He would have the glory of achieving your death, and would get this glory without risk to himself. It was worth trying for." He paused a minute--a long minute. Then he took up his hat.

"Shall I go, your Excellency?" he asked, quietly.

The Governor held out his hand. "Accept my sympathy," he said, gravely. Felix knelt, took the offered hand, and kissed it with gratitude.

Stepan Stepanovitch, without a word, turned to his table, opened the package sent him by Vronsky, and began to examine the contents. Among these were one or two photos--snapshots. "These are pictures of Cravatz?" he asked.

Felix assented, and drawing near the table, told him the story of Streloff's behavior that day.

The Governor listened with attention. "But this means," he said, "that until Cravatz is arrested your life is not safe. If so much is known one must move very warily. You could hardly arrest the man Streloff on the evidence you have. But if there is one spy, there may be others, and you go in danger. They will not give you till August 31st."

Felix pondered. "That is true," he said. "I am hoping to take a short holiday in England before long, but I should not be safe there. Several things combine to make me sure that Cravatz has not made known at headquarters the fact of my presence here; because he is playing his own game. But were I to attempt to leave the country, he could telegraph to a dozen places to have me waylaid and disposed of. While he is at large, I can think of no place in which I should be safe."

"I can imagine a way to insure your safety," said the Governor, thoughtfully, "but I do not like to suggest it, because it might seem to you as if I do not trust you."

Felix made a movement of gratitude. "Your Excellency," he said, with a sincerity which carried conviction, "I am in your hands. Do what you think best. You have every reason to distrust a man with such a record as mine. How could I complain? I will not protest my loyalty, my hatred of assassination. I will only say that I am ready, not merely to give my life for yours if necessary--that would be quite simple--but to fall in with any plan you may have to suggest, in deepest gratitude to you for thinking of my safety."

The Governor smiled. Nadia, who stood near, impulsively held out both hands to Felix, and the young man bent his head above them, the hot color suffusing his face. He was only twenty-five, after all.

"You may rely upon him, your Excellency," quietly said Miss Forester, the English governess. "My countrymen are not traitors--still less are they assassins."

The Governor smiled. "Had Mr. Vanston harbored designs against my life," he said, "he would not have told us the things we have just heard. I am going to save him from the power of his tyrants. Let me consider."

There was deep silence in the pleasant room.

"Well, this is my plan," said Stepan Stepanovitch, after a few minutes' thought. "You have a man with you to-day?"

"Max, my coachman----"

"Only he?"

"Only he, your Excellency."

"Is he faithful?"

"Entirely. He is not a Russian, though he speaks Russian well. He is a German Pole, and came to this country with me. He will do anything I tell him."

"Then," said the Governor, "I will send out two or three of my own private police--men I can trust--to waylay you on your homeward journey. They shall be stationed in the darkest part of the wood, And when you drive up, you must let there be as many signs of a scrimmage as you can. The cook shall give them a little blood to scatter, and you must drop a torn handkerchief, or something by which you can be identified. Am I right in supposing that the horses, if frightened, will gallop back to Savlinsky?"

"Yes, I am pretty sure they would."

"Then you must all of you return here by different ways, very privately. You must on no account be seen. You had better be waylaid on the farther side of the village, that all may see you pass through. But you must, of course, not go through it on your way back here. I will make arrangements to admit you and your man by the little postern door in the grounds which opens upon the forest. And you must remain here in hiding until Cravatz is secured. The only thing against the plan is that I must give my good Vronsky a severe fright. For it is most important that he should be as surprised as anybody by your disappearance. What do you say? You and I know enough of these secret societies to feel sure that their threats are not empty. If we can put our hands upon Cravatz at once, you can be released in a few days. But we are not sure of doing so. And as long as he is at large, so long will he manage some kind of communication with his man, Streloff. I could, of course, merely detain you here, without going to the risk and trouble of a feigned abduction. But this would show Streloff that you and I understand each other. They would know that we are on the alert, and they would take measures accordingly. By my plan, Streloff will be puzzled. He will see that Vronsky is not in the secret of your disappearance; and I can think of a way of getting you off afterwards to Gretz in such a manner that nobody shall know where you come from, or where you have been."

Felix nodded his head slowly two or three times. "It is a clever plan," he said, "but I fail to see in what respect it seems as though you did not trust me."

"Silly fellow, I shall have you under lock and key," said the Governor, with a smile. "And if so minded, I can keep you there, can I not? And nobody will know that you are there--will they? So that if we want to feel extra secure, Nadia and I--to sleep the sounder in our beds--we might send and have you murdered in yours--might we not?"

Felix smiled. He also bowed. "If the plan looks as if you did not trust me, it will also show whether or no I trust your Excellency," he said gallantly.

"Ah, well said! Well said!" cried Nadia, clasping her hands together in admiration. "Papa, you and Mr. Vanston are two! Two of a kind, I mean! Two men, each honorable enough to understand the other!"

"You think so?" said the Governor, laying his hand fondly a moment upon the dark hair. "Then take this young man away with you and play tennis diligently with him, that all may see we are upon just our usual terms. Until the time comes!"