steaming bloodred stream appeared. This steaming red stream gave
Michael Petroff a feeling of luxurious delight. He sat up and said:
"Just wait! Ha, ha!"

But suddenly he covered his eyes with his hand. A dim, longing pain had
come over him, and he could not tell why.

"Michael Petroff--?" said he softly, "Michael Petroff--?" and the tears
sprung to his eyes. And so, with his hand over his wet eyes and a
confused sorrow in his heart, he fell asleep.

He was sleeping soundly when he was awakened by a knock at his door:
"It is I, the attendant, don't be startled."

"What is it!"

The attendant stepped in and said in an undertone: "Dr. Maerz told me to
ask you to come. The teacher wants to speak to you."

"The teacher?"

"The 'Rajah,' you know."

"You do not know what he wants of me?"

"No, Dr. Maerz has sent for you."

"Very well, I will come."

Michael Petroff rose and made his toilet slowly and scrupulously. The
attendant came back and begged him to hurry. Michael Petroff was tying
his cravat carefully. "I am coming at once," said he impatiently, "but
I can't make a call half dressed."

Finally he was ready; he looked in the glass a moment, stroked his
moustache and stepped out.

"Oh Captain!" whispered the little lawyer through the crack of the
door, for the knocking and talking in Petroff's room had made him still
more anxious. "I beg you--!"

"I am in a hurry," answered Michael Petroff, and hastened along the
corridor. As he passed Engelhardt's door he heard him declaiming: "We
pray thee, do not destroy the dome of the world. Praised be thy name!"
And with an altered, gasping voice Engelhardt went on: "I am
struggling, I am struggling--!" In the room overhead a step went
restlessly up and down, back and forth, like the distant throbbing of a
machine.

Then the attendant opened the door of the "Rajah's" room and Michael
Petroff stepped in.

"Good morning!" said he, loudly and cheerfully, as if it were broad
daylight and as if the "Rajah" were not a dying man. "Good morning,
Doctor. Here I am.--Good morning--Prince!" he added more softly after a
glance at the "Rajah." "Michael Petroff, Captain in the Russian army."

The "Rajah's" appearance had greatly impressed Michael Petroff. The
"Rajah" was sitting up in bed with his great dark eyes fixed upon him.
A shaded electric light burned above his head, but in spite of the dim
light the "Rajah's" face, framed by his dark hair and beard, shone like