The Girl from Hong-Kong: A Story of Adventure Under Five Suns — page 224: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

218 THE GIRL FROM HONG-KONG. —a region that can never be purified by the powers of priest or prince, since here lurk the seeds of discontent, forever gnawing at the vitals of the wretched poor, brought daily into contact with the pomp and glory of vast wealth. © | The city seems quiet at this hour, but Smolensko, who: has means of acquiring information from many sources, declares to Terry that the patrol has been strengthened and kept upon the gut vive on account of the feverish desire to entrap that leader of the Nihitist party, Vladimir. Now they'hide in the house of a sympathizer who has replied to all of the sword-master’s signals—anon they push on, and ky degrees Terry sées, as the night slips away and early dawn draws near, that they are gradually leaving the outskirts of the city, together with its forti- fications, behind. Luckily St. Petersburg does not depend upon a chain of forts for defense—her only danger lies from a naval force like that of Great Britain, and to guard the mouth of the Neva Kronstadt has been made to bristle with guns set in the most massive of works, a second Gibraltar. Just as the early gray of dawn brightens the east, their guide raps in a peculiar way upon the door of an humble cottage built after the peasant style. ‘We must rest here,’’ he has said. comicbooks.com