The Red Symbol Part 23

"I'll see what I can do. Give him the water," he added, as the soldier again returned.

He watched as I drank, then turned on his heel and left me, without another word. He had, as I knew, already compromised his dignity sufficiently by conversing with me at all.

But he had cheered me immensely. I was sure now that those three--Anne, her father, and Loris--had got clear away, doubtless to the house Mishka had mentioned, where horses would be waiting for them; and by this time they might be far from the danger zone. Therefore I felt able to face what lay in store for myself, however bad it might be. It was bad enough, even at the beginning; though, as Mirakoff had said, it would have been worse but for his intervention. A few minutes after he left me, I was hoisted into a kind of improvised carrying chair, borne by a couple of big soldiers, who went along the narrow track at a jog-trot, and amused themselves by b.u.mping me against every tree trunk that was conveniently near. They had been ordered to carry me, and they did so; but I think I'd have suffered less if I had marched with the others, even counting in the bayonet prods!

We reached the road at last, where horses were waiting, and a wagon, containing several wounded prisoners. I was thrown in on top of them, and we started off at a lumbering gallop, the guard of soldiers increasing in numbers as those who had followed on foot through the wood mounted and overtook us. I saw Mirakoff pa.s.s and ride on ahead; he did not even glance in my direction. More than once we had to stop to pick up a dead or dying man, one of the batch of prisoners who had been forced to "run by the stirrup," with their hands tied behind them, and a strap pa.s.sed round their waist, attaching them to the stirrup of the horse, which its rider urges to full speed,--that is part of the fun. It is a very active man who can maintain the pace, though it is marvellous what some can accomplish under the sharp incentives of fear and pain. He who stumbles is jerked loose and left by the wayside where he fell; as were those whom we found, and who were tossed into the wagon with as much unconcern as scavengers toss refuse into their carts.

It was during one of these brief halts I saw something that discounted the tidings I had heard from Mirakoff.

I was the least hurt of any of the wretched occupants of the wagon, and I had managed to drag myself to the far end and to sit there, in the off-side corner, my knees hunched up to my chin. My arms were helpless, so I could do nothing to a.s.sist my unfortunate companions, and could only crouch there, with my teeth set, enduring the pain that racked me, with as much fort.i.tude as I could muster.

There was a clatter and jingle on the road behind us, and an instant later a droshky pa.s.sed, at a comparatively slow pace,--the one horse seemed almost spent,--preceded and followed by a small escort of cavalry.

For the moment I forgot the torture I was enduring, as I recognized, with dismay, the Grand Duke Loris as one of the two occupants of the little carriage,--a bizarre, disreputable-looking figure, for he still wore the filthy clothes and the dirty face of "Ivan," the droshky man, though the false beard and wig were gone. Yet, in spite of his attire and the remains of his disguise, he looked every inch a prince. His blue eyes were wide and serene, and he held a cigarette between two begrimed fingers. Beside him was a spick and span officer, sitting well back in his corner and looking distinctly uncomfortable; while the easy grace of the Duke's att.i.tude would have suited a state-carriage rather than this shabby little vehicle; though it suited that, too.

He glanced at the cart, and our eyes met. I saw a flash of recognition in his, but next instant the droshky, with its escort, had pa.s.sed, and we were lumbering on again.

He also was a prisoner, then! But what of Anne and her father? Had they escaped? Surely, if they had been taken, he would not have sat there smoking so unconcernedly! But who could tell? I, at least, knew him for a consummate actor.

Well, conjecture was futile; and I was soon in a state of fever, consequent on pain and loss of blood, that rendered conjecture, or coherent thought of any kind impossible.

I don't even recollect arriving at the prison,--that same grim fortress of Peter and Paul which I had mused on as I looked at it across the river such a short time back, reckoned by hours, an eternity reckoned by sensations! What followed was like a ghastly nightmare; worse, for it was one from which there was no awaking, no escape. Often even now I start awake, in a sweat of fear, having dreamed that I was back again in that inferno, racked with agony, faint with hunger, parched with thirst.

For the Russian Government allows its political prisoners twelve ounces of black bread a day, and there's never enough water to slake the burning thirst of the victims, or there wasn't in those awful summer days, which, I have been told, are yet a degree more endurable than the iron cold of winter.

Small wonder that of the hundreds of thousands of prisoners who are flung into Russian jails only a small percentage are ever brought to trial, and executed or deported to Siberia. The great majority are never heard of again; they are dead to the outside world when the great gates clang behind them, and soon they perish from pain and hunger and privation. It is well for them if they are delicate folk, whose misery is quickly ended; it is the strong who suffer most in the instinctive struggle for life.

Whether I was ever interrogated I don't know to this day, nor exactly how long I was in the horrible place; I guess it was about a fortnight, but it was a considerable time, even after I left it, before I was able even to attempt to piece things out in my mind.

I was lying on my bunk,--barely conscious, though no longer delirious,--when one of the armed warders came and shook me by the shoulder, roughly bidding me get up and follow him. I tried to obey, but I was as weak as a rat, and he just put his arm round me and hauled me along, easily enough, for he was a muscular giant, and I was something like a skeleton.

I didn't feel the faintest interest in his proceedings, for I was almost past taking interest in anything; but I remembered later that we went along some flagged pa.s.sages, and up stone stairs, pa.s.sing more than one lot of sentries. He hustled me into a room and planked me down on a bench with my back to the wall, where I sat, blinking stupidly for a minute. Then, with an effort, I pulled myself together a bit, and was able to see that there were several men in the room, two of them in plain clothes, and the face of one of them seemed vaguely familiar.

"Is this your man, Monsieur?" I heard one of the Russians say; and the man at whom I was staring answered gravely: "I don't know; if he is, you have managed to alter him almost out of knowledge."

I knew by his accent that he was an Englishman, and a moment later I knew who he was, as he came close up to me and said sharply: "Maurice Wynn?"

"Yes, I'm Wynn," I managed to say. "How are you, Inspector Freeman?"

Somehow at the moment it did not seem in the least wonderful that he should be here in Petersburg, and in search of me. I didn't even feel astonished at his next words.

"Maurice Wynn, I have a warrant for your arrest on the charge of murdering Vladimir Selinski,--alias Ca.s.savetti."

CHAPTER XXIII

FREEMAN EXPLAINS

The next I knew I was in bed, in a cool, darkened room, with a man seated in an easy-chair near at hand, smoking a cigarette, and reading what looked remarkably like an English newspaper.

I lay and looked at him lazily, for a few minutes. I hadn't the least idea as to where I was, or how I came there; I didn't feel any curiosity on the point. The blissful consciousness of cleanliness and comfort was quite sufficient for me at present. My broken arm had been set and put in rude splints while I was in the prison, by one of my fellow sufferers, I expect, and was now scientifically cased in plaster of Paris; the bullet wounds in my right arm and side were properly dressed and strapped, and felt pretty comfortable till I tried to shift my position a little, when I realized they were there.

At the slight movement the man in the chair laid down his paper and came up to the bed.

"h.e.l.lo, Mr. Wynn; feel a bit more like yourself, eh?" he asked bluffly, in English.

"Why, yes, I feel just about 'O. K.,' thanks," I responded, and laughed inanely. My voice sounded funny--thin and squeaky--and it jumped from one note to another. I hadn't the least control over it. "Say, where am I, and who are you? I guess you've done me a good turn!"

"Humph, I suppose we have. Good Lord, think of an Englishman--you're an American, but it's all the same in this case--being treated like that by these Russian swine! You're still in St. Petersburg; we've got to patch you up a bit before we can take you back to good old England."

Now why should he, or any one else, be "taking me back to England?" I puzzled over it in silence before I put the question.

"Never you mind about that now," he said with brusque kindliness. "All you've got to think about is getting strong again."

But already I began to remember, and past events came jumping before my mind like cinematograph pictures.

"You fetched me out of prison,--you and Inspector Freeman," I said slowly.

"Look here, don't you worry," he began.

"Yes, I must--I want to get things clear; wait a bit. He said something.

I know; he came to arrest me for murder,--the murder of Ca.s.savetti."

"Just so; and a jolly good thing for you he did! But, as you've remembered that much, I must warn you that I'm a detective in charge of you, and anything you say will be used against you."

More cinematograph pictures,--Ca.s.savetti as I saw him, lying behind the door, his eyes open, staring; myself on the steps below Westminster Bridge, calling to Anne, as she sat in the boat. Anne! No more pictures, but a jiggery of red and black splashes, and then a darkness, through which I pa.s.sed somehow into a pleasant place,--a garden where roses bloomed and a fountain plashed, and Anne was beside me; I held her hand in mine.

Now she was gone, she had vanished mysteriously. What was that man saying? "The Fraulein has not been here at all!" Why, she was here a moment ago; what a fool that waiter was! A waiter? No, he was a droshky driver; I knew it, though I could not see him. There were other voices speaking now,--men's voices,--subdued but distinct; and as I listened I came back from the land of dreams--or delirium--to that of reality.

"Yes, he's been pretty bad, sir. He came to himself quite nicely, and began to talk. No, I didn't tell him anything, as you said I wasn't to, but he remembered by himself, and then I had to warn him, and he went right off again."

"You're an a.s.s, Harris," said another voice. "What did you want to speak to him at all for?"

I opened my eyes at that, and saw Freeman and the other man looking down at me.

"He isn't an a.s.s; he's a real good sort," I announced. "And I didn't murder Ca.s.savetti, though I'd have murdered half a dozen Ca.s.savettis to get out of that h.e.l.l upon earth yonder!"

I shut my eyes again, settled myself luxuriously against my pillows, and went,--back to Anne and the rose-garden.

I suppose I began to pull round from that time, and in a few days I was able to get up. I almost forgot that I was still in custody, and even when I remembered the fact, it didn't trouble me in the least. After what I had endured in the Russian prison, it was impossible, at present, anyhow, to consider Detective-Inspector Freeman and his subordinate, Harris, as anything less than the best of good fellows and good nurses.

True, they never left me to myself for an instant; one or other of them was always in close attendance on me; but there was nothing of espionage in that attendance. They merely safe-guarded me, and, at the same time, helped me back to life, as if I had been their comrade rather than their prisoner. Freeman, in due course, gave me his formal warning that "anything I said with respect to the crime with which I was charged would be used against me;" but in all other respects both he and Harris acted punctiliously on the principle held by only two civilized nations in the world,--England and the United States of America,--that "a man is regarded as innocent in the eyes of the law until he has been tried and found guilty."

"Well, how goes it to-day?" Freeman asked, as he relieved his lieutenant one morning. "You look a sight better than you did. D'you think you can stand the journey? We don't want you to die on our hands _en route_, you know!"

"We'll start to-day if you like; I'm fit enough," I answered. "Let's get back and get it over. It's a preposterous charge, you know; but--"