evidence of
her relations with Kornilov, and her foes knew nothing more about her
than that she had been commander of the woman's battalion. This alone,
however, was crime enough in their eyes to warrant her instant
execution, and with part of her clothing taken from her she stood in
line with twenty Russian officers to receive her death blow. It
happened, however, that on the Bolshevik committee that was present to
witness the execution was one of the men who had served beside her in
the trenches, and he recognized his old comrade.

"Are you Yashka?" he asked. When she replied in the affirmative he
pulled her from the line and took her place in the squad of the
condemned, saying that they would have to shoot him before they could
shoot Yashka whom he knew and loved. After a stormy argument a reprieve
was shown to the executioners and Yashka was allowed to be taken from
the field of death and returned to prison.

Through the intercession of friends she was sent to Moscow, and there,
after further imprisonment, was set at liberty. She had witnessed
enough of the Bolshevist horrors to be even a more bitter enemy of
their regime than she had been before. She determined to fly from
Russia and gain aid from the Allies to carry on a war against them and
the Germans alike, and with this end in view was secretly carried
aboard the American steamer _Sheridan_ and brought to the United
States. Here, for the time being, her career ends. It will remain for
the future to show if she takes further part in the affairs of her
country for which she so bravely fought, bled and suffered,--but
whether circumstances allow her to do so or not, she has carved her
name in lasting letters on the tablets of modern history.

HEROES OF FICTION

CHAPTER XXXII

WILLIAM TELL

Many hundreds of years ago, at the end of the Thirteenth Century to be
exact, in the country that is now Switzerland, there lived a Swiss
hunter and herdsman named William Tell. He lived in the little town of
Burglen among the mountains, and with him lived his wife and his two
sons, who, when this story opens, were about ten and twelve years old.
William Tell was so strong that his name was known far and wide; he was
so skilful a hunter that nothing seemed ever to escape his keen arrow
when once it was on the wing; he was so venturesome a mountain climber
that the steepest precipice was not too dangerous for him; and with all
these great abilities he had a