e
would have fallen but that Loris steadied her with his arm.

"What now?" she gasped. "There has been no fighting;" she glanced wildly
around, "and yet--where are they all? We left twenty to guard her,
within, besides these others." She stretched her hand towards the empty
huts.

"Give the signal!" she continued, turning to Loris. "If there are any
within they will answer that!"

He drew his revolver and fired five shots in the air; while we all sat,
staring at him, and wondering what would happen next; at least that was
what I was wondering. The silence was so uncanny!

CHAPTER XLIII

THE WOMAN FROM SIBERIA

At last there was a movement within. Halting footsteps approached the
gates, and a man's voice, hoarse and weak, demanded: "Who is there?"

"It is Yossof," Anne exclaimed. "How comes he here alone? Where is my
mother, Yossof?"

I started as I heard that. Her mother was alive, then, though Anne had
said she could not remember her, and Treherne had told me she died soon
after her arrest, more than twenty years back.

"She is within and safe; Natalya is with her," came Yossof's quavering
voice, as he labored to unbar the gates. We heard him gasping and
groaning as if the task was beyond his strength, but he managed it at
last. The great doors swung open, and he stood leaning against one of
them. In the chill morning light his face looked gray and drawn like
that of a corpse, just as it had looked that first time I saw him on the
staircase at Westminster. On the weed-grown path beside him lay a
revolver, as if he had dropped it out of his hand when he started to
unbar the gates.

"What has happened, Yossof?" Anne asked urgently.

"Nothing; all is well, Excellency," he answered. "I rode and gave the
word as the order was, and when I reached the town the madness had
begun, so I did not enter, but came on hither. My horse was spent, and
I found another, but he fell and I left him and came on foot. I found
none here save the Countess and Natalya; the others had fled, fearing an
attack. So I closed the gates and kept guard."

"God reward thee, friend; thou hast done well, indeed," Anne said, and
moved on to the house.

I felt a twitch on my sleeve, and Mishka muttered in my ear.

"Count our men in and then see the gate barred. We shall be safer so. I
will look after Yossof, and find also what food is in the house for us
all. We need it sorely!"

So I sat in my saddle beside the gateway, waiting