Part 20 (2/2)

AN ESCAPE FROM PRISON

When he had dressed d.i.c.k's wounds, Doctor Bertmann said he would go down and see the governor. He had already told the lads that he had received fatal injuries, and was unconscious, and that he might, or might not, recover his senses before he died. It was an hour before he returned, accompanied by the other officer. Both looked grave.

”I'm sorry to say, my young friend,” the doctor said to Jack, for d.i.c.k had now gone off in a quiet doze, ”that the affair has a.s.sumed a very serious aspect. The count is dead. He recovered consciousness before he died, and denounced you both as having made a sudden and altogether unprovoked attack upon him. He had, he affirmed, discovered that you were meditating a breach of your parole, and that he had informed you that the privileges extended to you would, therefore, be withdrawn.

Then, he said, transported by rage, you sprang upon him. He drew his sword and attempted to defend himself, but the two of you, closing with him, hurled him through the window, in spite of his struggles.”

The other officer had, while the doctor was speaking, been examining the writing-table.

”I do not see the papers he spoke of,” he said to the doctor.

Then, turning to the sergeants of the guard, he asked if any papers upon the table had been touched. The sergeant replied that no one had gone near the table since he had entered the room.

”In that case,” the officer said, ”his mind cannot have been quite clear, although he seemed to speak sensibly enough. You heard him order me, doctor, to fold up a report and attesting statement directed to the Minister of the Interior, and to post them immediately? It is clear that there are no such doc.u.ments here. I entered the room with the sergeant almost at the moment when the struggle ended, and as no one has touched the table since, it is clear that they cannot have been here. Perhaps I may find them on the table downstairs. It is now,” he said, turning to Jack, ”my duty to inform you that you are in custody for the deliberate murder of Count Smerskoff, as sworn to by him in his last moments.”

”He was a liar when he was alive,” Jack said, ”and he died with a falsehood on his lips. However, sir, we are at your orders.”

A stretcher was brought in, d.i.c.k was placed upon it, and under a guard the mids.h.i.+pmen were marched to the prison, the soldiers with difficulty keeping back the crowd who pressed forward to see the English prisoners who had murdered the governor.

Doctor Bertmann walked with Jack to the prison door. Upon the way he a.s.sured Jack that he entirely believed his version of the story, as he knew the governor to be a thoroughly bad man.

”Singularly enough,” he said, ”I had intended to see you to-day. I went back to Sebastopol on the very day after you arrived here, with a regiment marching down, and left again with a convoy of wounded after only two days' stay there. I got here last night, and I had intended coming out to call upon you at Count Preskoff's to-day. You would, no doubt, like me to see him at once, and inform him of what has taken place.”

Jack said that he would be very much obliged, if he would do so.

”I will return this afternoon to see my patient,” Doctor Bertmann said, as they parted, ”and will then bring you news from the count, who will, no doubt, come to see you himself.”

The cell to which the boys were conducted was a small one, and horribly dirty. Jack shrugged his shoulders, as he looked at it.

”It is not fit for a pig,” he said to himself. ”After all, Russia is not such a pleasant place as I thought it yesterday.”

When they were left alone, Jack set to work to cheer up his companion, who was weak, and inclined to be despondent from the loss of blood which he had suffered.

”At any rate, old boy,” Jack said, in reply to d.i.c.k's a.s.sertion of his conviction that they would be shot, ”we shall have the satisfaction that we have procured the safety of our friends at the chateau. Now that their enemy is gone, the count will no doubt be let alone. It was dreadful to think what would have become of the countess and the three girls if their father had been sent to Siberia, and they turned out penniless. Besides, old fellow, we are a long way from being dead yet.

After all, it is only the governor's word against ours, and you may be sure that the count will move heaven and earth to bring matters right.”

It was dusk before the doctor returned.

”I have seen the count,” he said, ”and the ladies and he were greatly distressed at my news. It is plain to see that you are prime favorites. The young ladies were very Niobes. The count was most anxious to learn all particulars, but I could only tell him that you a.s.serted the governor had attacked you first. He drove in at once, and made no doubt that he should be allowed to see you. In this, however, he was disappointed, and indeed you have had a most fortunate escape.

The officer second in command here is a relative of the late governor.

Fortunately he was absent this morning, and only returned this afternoon. Like the late count he is of a violent and pa.s.sionate temper, and when he heard the news swore that had he been here, he would have instantly had you brought out and shot in the square.

Indeed, it was with difficulty that the other officers dissuaded him from doing so upon his return. He has ordered that a court-martial shall a.s.semble to-morrow, and that you shall be at once tried and executed.”

”But surely,” Jack said, ”no court-martial of officers would find us guilty. The count's violent temper was notorious, and it is against all reason that two unarmed men should make an attack upon one armed with a sword, and within call of a.s.sistance. You yourself know, Doctor Bertmann, that the reason which he alleged for the attack is a false one, as we were not asked for our parole.”

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