nd it
shuttered, dark and silent. He whistled a long whistle to himself.

"I wonder," he thought, "if all the birds have flown. I wonder if they
really have left the house entirely empty." Just then Andrieff joined
him, and putting their shoulders against the rear door that opened
into the garden, they easily forced an entrance. With drawn revolvers
they leaped inside, and began to prowl about the place. Finally in a
wardrobe on an upper floor they discovered a servant hiding. As they
dragged him out at first he showed fight, but one blow from Andrieff's
sledge-like fist beat him into submission, and in another moment they
had him pinned against the wall.

"Tell me where your master is," said Andrieff in a fierce voice.

The man remained silent.

"Tell me," he said again, "and tell me quickly. Tell me at once or you
will regret it."

The man gave a sudden wrench and twisted one of his arms free. He
reached out and grasped a heavy silver candlestick.

But Andrieff was too quick for him. He dealt him a blow on the muscles
of his shoulder which half paralyzed the creature's arm. The
candlestick dropped with a clatter from his hand.

Then Andrieff gave his pent-up passion full play, and it was a miracle
that he did not kill his man.

He wrenched an antimacassar from a chair and used it as a gag. With
one powerful hand he dragged the captive by the neck to the window;
with the other he threw up the casement and whistled sharply for
Peter, who soon came running up the stairs and through the open door.

"We'll bind this cur," said the overseer through his teeth, and he
thrust the man back into a deep, cane-hooded chair. Then he and Peter
securely lashed the man's feet together, tying his hands behind his
back.

This work done, they paused and listened; but, in spite of the scuffle
there had been, there was no sound of approaching footsteps, nor,
indeed, any sign that they had been overheard.

"Now, then," said he of the red beard, "heat that poker in the fire."

Peter quickly thrust the poker between the bars of the grate, in which
the coals were red.

"_Stoi_!" cried the man--"Stop! They have gone to the old _Chateau
Ivanovitch_."

"If you're lying," said Andrieff, "we'll come back and cut you into
ribbons for the dogs."

"By the beard of my father," the man gasped, "I am telling you the
truth. God strike me if I am not!" and he looked at the reddening
poker with frightened eyes.

"I believe the hound sp