him," the coachman said. "I will slay him in the middle
of his soldiers. They may kill me, but what of that, it is for my
master."

"No, Alexis, not now," Jack said, laying his hand upon the arm of the
angry Russian. "Perhaps later, but we will see. But I have found out
that Paul, the hall servant, is acting as his spy. I heard the
governor order him to meet him at the cross roads at eight o'clock
to-night. I suppose he means where the road crosses that to town,
about half-way along. We mean to be there, but you know we don't
understand Russian well enough to hear all that is said. We want you
to be there with us, too, to hear what they mean to do."

"I will be there," the Russian said; "and if the young lords think it
well, I will kill them both."

"No, Alexis," Jack said; "that would never do. It might get about that
the governor had been killed by order of the count, and this would do
more harm than if he were alive. Will you be in the stables at seven
o'clock? We will join you there. There are plenty of bushes at the
cross-roads, and we shall be able to hide there without difficulty."

The coachman assented, and taking their seats, they again drove on. It
must not be supposed that the conversation was conducted as simply and
easily as has been narrated, for it needed all the efforts of the boys
to make the Russian understand them, and they had to go over and over
again many of the sentences, using their scanty vocabulary in every
way, to convey their meaning to their hearer. The rest of the
afternoon passed slowly. The count himself was tranquil and even
cheerful, although his face wore an air of stern determination. The
countess looked anxious and careworn. The eyes of the three girls were
swollen with crying, and the lads afterwards learned that Katinka had
gone down on her knees to her father, to implore him to allow her to
sacrifice herself for the common good by marrying Count Smerskoff.
This, however, the count had absolutely refused to do, and had even
insisted upon her promising him that, should he be exiled and his
estates confiscated, she would not afterwards purchase his release by
consenting to marry her suitor. Respecting the grief and anxiety into
which the family were plunged, the midshipmen kept apart from them all
the afternoon, only joining them at the evening meal at six o'clock.
As they withdrew, saying, in answer to the count's invitation that
they should stop with them, that they were first