The Argosy, Volume XLIV — page 181: what you’re looking at

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

WHEN I WAS CZAR. | 177 As they went out he sat glaring at us °‘ He has had a.stroke of some kind, and and fingering the packets. “ What next?” I asked. “You shall answer for your crime, and may thank your God I do not send you with your wife to the mines at once.” “JT don’t thank God, I thank my wife’s and my precautions.” “You dare to pit yourself against me; and see the result. Failure!” He all but hissed the word at us as he shook the packet in triumph. “What vou hold there is the proof of your failure, not mine. You had better open it.” He had been so certain that for the moment he only laughed; but on meet- ing my look, doubt and anxiety began to steal over his face. “The papers you seek are across the frontier; you have nothing there but blank sheets.” “It is a lie, another damnable lie. I was at the embassy to-day.” “You forget I was there and saw Mr. Marvyn—last night.” “My God!” His whole soul seemed to speak in that one cry of dismay, and for a mo- ment he looked at the packet like a dazed man, afraid to open it and learn the truth. Then with shaking, frenzied fingers he tore at the seals. Helga clung to my arm. The paper was tough and resisted his efforts for a time, thus accentuating his excitement and suspense. At last he opened it and stared at the blank sheets. Then he turned on me such a look of baffled rage as I had never seen on a man’s face before. He strove to speak, and failed; and the sheets fluttered down to the ground from his nerveless fingers. Then he sprang up and staggered to- ward me, stopped suddenly, uttered a loud, inarticulate cry, and, pressing his hand to his heart, fell prone almost at my feet. “ He is ill,” said Helga, speaking for the first time and bending over him. “ Probably dying,” I murmured, and, seeing the crisis, I went to the door and called his men. | “The prince is very ill,” I told them. Wa you had better let some one go for a doctor.” CHAPTER XXXII. AT THE ELEVENTH HOUR. IT was instantly clear that we had to face a situation fraught with many awkward complications. We were under arrest by Prince Kalkov’s orders, and his men left us in no doubt that both Helga and I were suspected of having in some way caused the sudden collapse. Two of them stood by the doors to prevent our leaving, and the others lifted the prince and laid him on a couch; and one of these three—he who had searched me—said very curtly: “I have sent for doctors and my chief; in the meantime you will, of course, remain here.” “You mean we are under arrest?” I. asked. “These were the prince’s orders— before this occurred.” “You will find he is suffering from heart trouble, I expect; and pending the doctor’s arrival you had better loose the clothes about his neck, open the window to give him air, and let him take a glass of brandy.” “Perhaps he has had some of that already,” he returned, his eye falling on the empty glass. He spoke with the knowing air of a man who suspects, and he snatched the glass and put it beyond my reach. “ Do not forget I told you how to re- vive him, even if you are such a fool as your words suggest,” I answered con- temptuously. “It was from that de- canter there the brandy was poured; you had better seize that as well.” The doctors were first to arrive, fol- lowed quickly by a police official, and shortly after by Pierre, the prince’s confidential man. The official spoke a few words to the doctors and then turned to me. Fortunately for us, he was a very dif- ferent stamp of man from his subordi- nate, and addressed me courteously. “This is a very embarrassing posi- tion, monsieur. I understand that the GORMIGOOO YN SS (COL