Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 64, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 April 1904 — The Secret Dispatch [ARTICLE]

The Secret Dispatch

By JAMES GRANT

CHAPTER XIII. With evident suspicion and mistrust, Bernikoff viewed the growing intimacy between his'prisoner Ivan and the Scottish captain; and though lie neither recommended that it should cease dr interdicted it, he made many mental notes thereof. Though Balgonie sympathized with Ivan to the fullest extent, he knew too well the danger of doing more; and he [felt that he had his own share of secret

sorrow and anxiety, and might yet have igrcater to endure. The girl he loved was .already a political fugitive; her -father and cousin were prisoners, and perhaps In chains; her brother and his kinsman, 'Usakoff, already viewed as criminals; and with the terrors of despotism hanging over them all. Natalie a fugitive—and where? In the wild forests,—perhaps, where wolves |and outlaws lurked, what perils and privations might she not be suffering! NaItalie, so delicate, so pure, so gently nurtured, and so highly bred. Balgonie was aware, also, that intimacy with the family of Mierowitz, and |the deep interest-he had in their fate, was fraught with personal peril to himself in such a land of tyranny as Russia. •Full of such thoughts as these one fore(noon, lie was leaning on a cannon in one of those deep embrasures of the fortress which faced the drawbridge communicating with the land. The guard was in the act of lowering the bridge to permit a man to pass out. This person was just parting from Bernikoff, with whom he had been for some time in close and earnest conversation, and from whom he was evidently receiving money —an unusual circumstance, as that distinguished field officer generally lavished more kicks and cuffs than thanks or coins. On beholding this man, as he bowed humbly, cap in hand, cross the bridge and disappear among the houses of the town beyond. Balgonie experienced a species of nervous shock. He could not doubt that this fellow, so gigantic in stature and powerful in muscular developin ent, in.. th e couj’-e coat and 1e a them gjfdle, with the long lock of grizzled hair dangling behind his right Oar, was Nicholas Paulovitch, the murderer of Podatehkine, the gypsy woodman, and the swindling mendicant of the barrier at the Neva. . ‘This man here in Schlusselburg,” thought Balgonie, with indignation and alarm; “here in earnest conversation with Bernikoff. The spirit of mischief seems to pervade the air again!” A few minutes afterward a Cossack named Jagouski, who had been severely knonted by Bernikoff for pilfering a pipeful at tobacco, came forward with tottering steps, and looking painfully thin and feeble from recent suffering, and with the crouching bearing of the Muscovite toward a superior, said that his Excellency the Governor wished to speak with him in his quarters, whither Balgonie at once repaired. “Carl Ivanovitch,” said Bernikoff, who certainly had rather a perturbed air, “some suspicious characters are in our vicinity, and have actually been hovering in boats about the fortress. What think you of that?” “Suspicious characters, excellency—bow?” '

“In the town one dropped this coin—a silver rouble of the prisoner Ivan —Ivan the Unknown Person. To possess one, unless as I do this, for proof of treason, is to court death or Siberia.” “And from whom bad you this?” ”A spy.” replied the colonel jnirtly. “The man who has just left you?” “The same.” “Nicholas Paulovitrh,”.continued Balgonie, With, increasing astonishment at the other’s coolness; "the assassin of the corporal—the wretch of whom I told you when! first arrived here!” “All that may or may not be,” replied Berqikoff. with a stern air, almost amounting to rudeness; “when I require this fellow no more, you may impale him, if you please; but molest him not at present.” “I do not se<j. excellency, that all this in any way concerns me,” said Balgonie, haughtily. •> , “It does concern you thus far. I shall anticipate any attempt that may be made by those lurkers, whoever they may be. You must remember," he added, lowering his voice, "the tenor of the dispatch you brought me.” "Perfectly,” replied Charlie, in a somewhat faint voice, as he. knew not how terrible or repugnant might be the duty assigned him by this military despot. “Well, you shall pass forth into the town to-night, with a patrol of twenty men, armed with sabers and carbines. Surround and search the main street, and compel all therein who seem Muypieious, to produce their papers; and, if they are without such, bring them to me, and I shall question them in a fashion of my own.” “And I am to take twenty men with me?” said Balgonie, after an unpleasant pause. ' “Yes! the bridge will be lowered for you after sunset. Whoever these hirkers are, they have been seen and overheard; and this coin is proof sufficient to warrant the transportation of a whole province. Be they who they may, by every dome in sacred Mother Moscow’, they ahull find me ready for them!” Balgonie had no resource but to obey in silence; ami an angry sigh escaped him ns he stuck his loaded pistols in his girdle when the sun sank behind the ,greed painted “roofs of the wooden town ami the evening gun boomed from the ramparts.

I><*tiliriK in the twilight through the streets of Schlusselburg. he marched straight to where he knew that the principal tea house was situated; and while hia heart sank within him in fear of whom he might arrest—perhaps Natalie himself —he nt once surrounded the building to prevent nil egress, nnd to the evident alarm and perturbation of all who were within. When the crooked sabers of the dismounted Cossacks were seen flashing In the porch, and when Balgonie entered With hie sword drawn, passing along the

narrow way between the numerous tables, at which the groups were seated, amid an oppressive -odor of strong tea, coarse tobacco and Russian leather from boots, caps and girdles—-many a peasant in his canvas coat, and many a stout merchant in his flir cloak felt his heart quail with apprehension, he knew not Of what; and every saucer —the tea is not drunk from cups—was set down untasted, while one or two men nearly choked themselves with their lumps of sugar, for usually it is not put into the tea, but is retained- in the mouth of the drinker, so that, in a spirit of economy, the poor Muscovite may indulge in two, perhaps three, cups of his favorite beverage, and use thereto but one piece of sugar.

For his intrusion Balgonie apologized; this, though a very unusual proceeding in a country so despotic, failed to reas'sure the tea drinkers, -who were all hushed in silence and expectation; and a girl who had been singing for their amusement crouched down in a corner for concealment.

Balgonie counted the number of persons, and noted-the-exact hour by his watch; he then proceeded, with a heart full of anxiety and dread, to examine each person in succession, in reality looking for those he had no wish to find. All who possessed the requisite papers showed them; others proved, all in succession, to be soldiers and drivers, sailors and serfs; thus, after a time, a load seemed to be lifted from the mind of the young officer. As he turned to leave the apartment without a prisoner, the Cossack Jagouski rather roughly dragged the singing girl from the nook where she had sought concealment, and then Balgonie recognized the fine dark face, the black eyes and the large glittering earrings of Olga Taulowna. the gypsy girl whom he had befriended at Longa —she who saved him from a terrible fate in the forest.

“Let the girl go free, Jagouski,” said Balgonie; “I shall answer for her if required.” Olga drew a paper from her - bosom and showed that it was her passport from the commandant of Krejko, permitting her to travel to and from Schlusselburg. . Jagouski saluted and withdrew a few paces: and now, as if the cloud of doubt and dread - Balgonie’s arrival had cast over all was dispersed, again the noisy hum of voices pervaded the long room of the lea house, and laughter even broke forth at intervals.

"Olga.” said Balgonie, “you here —:so far from home?” ‘‘Yes, Ilospodeen, for my home is anywhere. or wherever night finds me; but I have news for you.” “News —and for me?”' “Yes,” said she, sinking her voice to a whisper; “I have news of Natalie Mierowna. She is here. In the neigh.borhood of Schlusselburg.” Charlie felt his heart die within him nt this intelligence, for such a vicinity was full of peril. "Be to-morrow at noon on the road that leads to Tosna, and you shall learn more. Till then, adieu; and God be with you.”

CHAPTER XIV. The noon of the following day saw Charlie Balgonie—after an anxious and almost sleepless night—proceeding .on foot along the road that leads southward to Tosna, a little town -which stands on a stream of the same name, a tributary of the Neva, but some ten miles distant from Schlusselburg. Before him rose the tall fir trues of the forest where he was to meet Olga—the “wood of the honey tree,” as it was named. There, as Balgonie approached, all was still save the voice of the woodcock, and the hum of insects; he lingered for a few minutes on the outskirts, just where the highway to Tosna dipped down into the deep and gloomy’ dingle of intertwisted branches, which formed a species of leafy tunnel overhead.

To the northward he could so; the place he had left, the gloomy 'Castle of Schlusselburg, moated round by the Neva and Lake Ladoga, jutting into the latter on its rock, its towers wearing a somber brown tint even in the noonday sunshine, as if no light could brighten them; and the white flag of Russia was fluttering on the summit of the keep, where Ivan was pining away the years of youth in silence and seclusion.

g Balgonie heard a voice waking the echoes of the dingle; three notes were struck on a tambourine, as a signal to him, and Olga approached singing "I have kept my appointment, Olga.” "And I mine.” she replied gayly, while tripping toward him in a playful manner; "now follow me, Hospodeen, and I shall take you to those who will be right glad to see you.” "First let us be sure that we are unwatched.” "Hight,” said she; and stooping in her earnestness, her keen, dark and glittering eyes swept the whole kindscape that lay between the wood ami Schlusselburg, nnd glanced keenly beyond the stems of the trees into the dingles nnd vista; but, save the birds on the branches and the gnats revolving in the sunshine, no living thing was visible. "Follow me. Hospodeen,” said the gypsy; "we have not far to go.” They descended into the dark dingle,' or hollow, and then quitted the highway; Olga gathering up tier skirts that she might tread with greater facility nrnong the thick gorsixnnd long rank grass. She explained to Balgonie that, as there was no path to guide them, her chief clews were a set of notches, cut to nil appearances carelessly, as if with a woodman’s ax, on the bark of the great pine trees. "These marks seem fresh, and recently cut —who made them?” asked Balgonie. "The Hospodeen, Basil Mierowitx.” she whispered. "Poor Basil!” responded Charlie, in a low tone.

After toiling through the dense forest for more then half an hour, they Arrived at the foot of a gray granite cliff, the face of which was screened, or nearly covered, by masses of depending Ivy,

creepers and green lichens, forming a background which, at a little distance, blended with the greenery of the woods. “We have arrived,” said she, turning, with a flush on her dark face which made it radiantly beautiful. She struck three strokes on her tambourine and shook its bells. Charlie thought of her kinsman, Nicholas Paulovitch, and instinctively grasped one of the pistols at his girdle, on seeing the dark and bearded face of a man appear among the ivy leaves some twentyfeet above him. A rope ladder was lowered, and whatever doubts or misgivings were in his mind, he felt himself constrained now to go through-the adventure' to its end. He clambered up. and on the great screen of ivy being lifted aside, found himself face to face with his old friend Basil Mierowitz, the subaltern of his company, who, grasping both his hands with kindly warmth of manner, led him into a cavern or grotto, oue of a series of many, into which the granite rocks had there been hollowed by some long past convulsion of nature. Another hand was instantly laid on his, a smaller and softer one —and two beautiful—dark eyes were bending tenderly on his face. “Natalie!” he exclaimed, in a tremulous voice, and would have pressed her to his breast, but for the presence of

Basil and several other men. Amid the twilight of the cavern, he eould perceive its rough natural walls and arch, with hazy but sunny rays that streamed faintly in the background, athwart the obscurity, as if the vault communicated with other galleries in the rock, through which the upper light of day stole in by the crannies and chasms. He was also enabled to see- that, with Natalie, her brother Basil, and her cousin Usakoff, . who had been a lieutenant in the Valikolutz Grenadiers, there were about twenty men in the place, all clad in sheepskin coats, the invariable dress of the Russian peasant, and nearly all had red serge breeches, rough boots and girdles of rope or untanned leather. Though attired like woodmen or laboring serfs, all these men had unmistakably the bearing of well-trained soldiers; all were strong, active, and resolute in aspect; and Balgonie had no doubt that they were those natives of the Ukarine, the deserters from the Livonian frontier, bf whom Bernikoff had spoken; for against the walls of the cavern were ranged a number of muskets and bayonets, with sets of aceoiiterments, sabers and pistols. There, too, stood a regimental drum, decorated with the imperial arms, and the forbidden name of the Emperor Ivan! Every moment seemed to increase the perils that surrounded the luckless Balgonie, for now he was in the very den of the conspirators, "Oh! Basil—Usakoff —my friends, if IndeedT may yet dare to call you so, and live,” said Balgonie, in a voice that was broken by emotion, "for what rash and dreadful purpose do I find you and these unfortunate fellows here?” “You and all Russia, too, shall learn ere long,” replied Mierowitz calmly and sternly; yet with a grave and noble air, with which his coarse canvas coat assorted oddly. -77 \'.L' — ~ “And poor Natalie!” exclaimed Balgonie, in a toiie of grief and reproach; “have you no love for her?”

“Until Natalie informed me, I knew not, my friend, Carl Ivanovitch, that you were the bearer of that secret dispatch, which might have cost you limb or life, when it was too late to arrest those I had set upon your track.” “Well, certainly, I was not much indebted to the good offices o£ your rogue, Podatchkine.”

“The corporal's orders were simply to abstract the document and bring it to me; not to slay its bearer, unless such a catastrophe became unavoidable.” “He fell into his own snare —a dark and deadly one.” "Happily you escaped it, and I have saved two hundred silver roubles for the service of the emperor.” “Who do you mean?” asked Balgonie, in a whisper. "Ivan —the prisoner of Schlusselburg!” exclaimed Usakoff, with enthusiasm. “Alas!” added Balgonie, “you court but your own destruction.” “Think not so; but join us. and share our perils and our glory,” replied the other.

“I am bound by allegiance to the empress.” “You nrc but a tool in her hands, Carl Balgonie.” „ .t, “Perhaps so; but one with a sharp edge, I hope.” replied Balgonie. who felt only genuine sorrow; and a silence of nearly a minute ensued. (To be continued.)