y dear brother, for I feel that I may call you so,"
said Vola, at the same time embracing him. "Put yourself in my charge,
and you shall be initiated into the Order of Liberty."

"I will do so, and there is my hand," said Barnwell, earnestly.

"Which I take in the name of humanity. But in our order one brother can
initiate another. We have no lodge-meetings, no names, being simply
known by numbers, and those numbers known only to a trusted few. Night
shall not come upon us before you shall know how to send and receive a
communication--how to act, and how to avoid detection."

"Good! Just so soon as that is done I shall go to Germany, and most
likely work altogether outside of Russia for the present."

"It shall be as you wish, for I see your heart is in the matter."

"Aye, my very soul!"

"Good!" and leading him into an inner room, he proceeded to initiate him
into the mysteries of that mysterious order, known the world over as
Nihilists.

CHAPTER XIII.

TUE YOUNG NIHILIST.

A week from that time, and after William Barnwell had made himself
thoroughly familiar with the secrets and the workings of this great and
mysterious order, the order that has shaken thrones and hurled tyrants
to their final account, he started for Germany.

The reader knows something of the cruel sufferings of our hero. Being a
free-born American, a natural hater of tyranny in all its forms, and
enduring it as he did, it is no wonder that he sought revenge, and that
his heart should naturally go out in behalf of oppressed humanity, when
he had tasted of that barbarian oppression himself.

With his identity thoroughly established, his passports all correct, and
his heart full with the new doctrine that his initiation had developed
in him, together with the mission which poor old Batavsky had intrusted
him with, he bade good-by to Russia.

From St. Petersburg he went to Warsaw, and from there to Posen, Germany,
where he felt for the first time since leaving his native land that he
was in the domain of freedom.

Before leaving Russia he had sent home for his entire fortune, and at
Berlin had it converted into German money, and it was so considerable
that he soon became known as the rich cosmopolitan.

Gradually he made his way towards the little hamlet of Merz, near the
border, and when the warm season began he went there with his servant,
horses and carriage (one built to order for a special object), and took
up his residence in a