looked--great hordes of them, all crouching in the shadow of the wall to
save their lacerated skins from the burning sunshine. Verily did they
resemble sheep driven into pens for the slaughter. As for the Cossacks
who moved in and out among them, there was hardly a moment which found
their whips at rest. Standing or sitting, you could not escape the
dreadful thongs--lashes of raw hide upon a core of wires, leaded at the
end and cutting as knives. Sometimes they would strike at a huddled form
as though they resented its mute confession of overwhelming misery. An
upturned face almost invariably invited a cut which laid it open from
forehead to chin. And not only this, but there were ordered floggings,
one of which Alban must witness as he stood at the window above, too
fascinated by the horror of the spectacle to move away and not unwilling
to know the truth.

Many police assisted at this--driving their victims before them to a
rude bench in the centre of the yard. There was neither strap nor
triangle. They threw their man down and held him across the plank,
gripping his wrists and ankles and one forcing his head to the floor.
The whip of a single lash, wired to cut and leaded everywhere, fell
across the naked flesh with a sound of a cane upon a board. Great welts
were left at the very first blow, torn flesh afterwards and sights not
to be recounted. The most stolid were broken to shrieks and screams
despite their resolutions. The laugh upon defiant lips became instantly
a terrible cry seeming to echo the ultimate misery. As they did to these
poor wretches so would they do to Lois, Alban said. He was giddy when a
voice called him from the window and he almost reeled as he turned.

"Well, what do you want with me?"

"I am to take you to the cell of the girl Lois Boriskoff, mein Herr.
Please to follow me."

An official, well dressed in civilian's clothes, spoke to him this time
and with a sufficient knowledge of the English language. The bald-headed
secretary still snapped up the unconsidered insectile trifles which
troubled his paper. Alban, his heart thumping audibly, followed the
newcomer from the room and remembered only that he was going to Lois.

CHAPTER XXVIII

THE MEETING

They had imprisoned many of the women in one of the stables behind the
great yard of the station. So numerous were the captives that the common
cells had been full and overflowing long ago. Zaniloff, charged with the
command to r