Once in the boat, and we could row back to where the horses
awaited us, and then away. The woman had not arrested our progress or
raised an alarm, after all. Once I had mistrusted her, but I now saw
that her heart was really filled with pity for the poor girl now at my
side.
Without a sound we crept forward until within a few yards from that
unlocked door where the boat awaited us below, when, of a sudden, the
uncertain light of the lantern fell upon something that shone and a deep
voice cried out of the darkness in Russian--
"Halt! or I fire!"
And, startled, we found ourselves looking down the muzzle of a loaded
carbine.
A huge sentry stood with his back to the secret exit, his dark eyes
shining beneath his peaked cap, as he held his weapon to his shoulder
within six feet of us.
The big, bearded fellow demanded fiercely who I was.
My heart sank within me. I had acted recklessly, and had fallen into the
hands of his Excellency, the Baron Xavier Oberg, the unscrupulous
Governor-General--fallen into a trap which, it seemed, had been very
cleverly prepared for me.
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