Part 12 (1/2)
There was a crash, and the sound of hurrying footsteps A voice from the outer hall screaed the girl through the doorway and slammed it behind him They were in a small cellar, almost entirely filled with barrels, with only a narrow alley-way left to reach a farther door He dragged her through this apartht of stairs They were on the level of the restaurant, and the girl could hear the clatter of plates as he pushed her up another stairway and into a roo-roo whether the apartment overlooked the front or the back of the preh to lock the door and then he turned to her, slipping off his nize ebosom ”You shall pay for this, colonel”
”There will be a lot of payh,” he said calrace Are you aware that, at the lish police were raiding it?”
”I should not have been in the room but for you,” she said, ”my father----”
”It is about your father I want to speak,” he said ”Irene, I am the sole heir to your father's estate Beyond the property which is settled on you, you have nothing My affection for you is known and approved at Court”
”Your affection!” she laughed bitterly ”I'd as soon have the affection of a wolf!”
”You could not have a ly ”Do you knohat has happened to-night? An anarchist club in London has been raided, and the Grand duchess Irene Yaroslav has been found in the company of men whose object is to destroy thesense of disaster all that it meant She kneell as he in what bad odour her father stood at Court, and guessed the steps which would be taken if this ht here by a trick,” she said steadily ”A letter caht, from Israel Kensky----”
”It was from me,” he interrupted
”And you planned the raid, of course?”
He nodded
”I planned the raid in the entleht is a well-kno York gun-man He is wanted by the police, who probably have hiht, and an offer was e sum of money, on condition that he would destroy the Czar”
She gasped
”You see, un-man's evidence is taken in court, matters will look very bad for the Yaroslav family”
”What do you propose?” she asked
”There are two alternatives,” he said ”The first is that I should arrest you and hand you over to the police The second is that you should undertake most solemnly to marry me, in which case I will take you away from here”
She was silent
”Is there a third possibility?” she asked, and he shook his head
”My dear,” he said familiarly as he flicked a speck of dust from his sleeve ”I think you will take the easier way None of these scu that you are one of themselves--as I happen to know, some of the best families in Russia are associated with plotters of this type As for the Aht be inclined to talk, in a feeeks he will be on his way to New York to serve a life sentence I have been looking up his record, and particularly drew the attention of the English police to the fact that he would be here to-night”
Cherry Bied feet--he had marked and shot the fuse-box to pieces before the police cah the door in the wall--heard the sound of voices in the little room and stopped to listen It was not a thick door, and he could hear Serganoff's voice very clearly He stooped down to the key-hole Serganoff had not taken the key out, and it was an old-fashi+oned key, the end of which projected an eighth of an inch on the other side of the door Cherry Bim felt in his pocket and produced a pair of peculiarly shaped nippers, and gripped the end of the key, turning it gently Then he slipped his handy gun froanoff's voice ”You must decide In a few minutes the police will be up here, for they are instructed to make a complete search of the house I can either explain that you are here to witness the raid, or that I have followed you up and arrested you Which is it to be?”
Still she did not answer Serganoff had laid his revolver on the table and this she wasto reach He divined her intention before she sprang forward, and, gripping her by the waist, threw her back
”That will beit will!” said a voice behind him
He turned as swift as a cat and fired The horrified girl heard only one shot, so quickly did one report follow another She saw Cherry Bim raise his hand and wipe the blood from his cheek, saw the splinter of here the bullet had struck behind hiroaned and sprawled forward over the table She dared not look at hier