There was a crash, and the sound of hurrying footsteps. A voice from the outer hall screamed, "The police!"
At that moment Serganoff dragged the girl through the doorway and slammed it behind him. They were in a small cellar, almost entirely filled with barrels, with only a narrow alley-way left to reach a farther door. He dragged her through this apartment, up a short flight of stairs. They were on the level of the restaurant, and the girl could hear the clatter of plates as he pushed her up another stairway and into a room. By its furniture she guessed it was a private dining-room. The blinds were drawn and she had no means of knowing whether the apartment overlooked the front or the back of the premises.
He stopped long enough to lock the door and then he turned to her, slipping off his mask.
"I thought you would recognize me," he said coolly.
"What does this outrage mean?" asked the girl with heaving bosom. "You shall pay for this, colonel."
"There will be a lot of payment to be made before this matter is through," he said calmly. "Calm yourself, Irene. I have saved you from a great disgrace. Are you aware that, at the moment I brought you from that room, the English police were raiding it?"
"I should not have been in the room but for you," she said, "my father----"
"It is about your father I want to speak," he said. "Irene, I am the sole heir to your father"s estate. Beyond the property which is settled on you, you have nothing. My affection for you is known and approved at Court."
"Your affection!" she laughed bitterly. "I"d as soon have the affection of a wolf!"
"You could not have a more complete wolf than I," he said meaningly. "Do you know what has happened to-night? An anarchist club in London has been raided, and the Grand d.u.c.h.ess Irene Yaroslav has been found in the company of men whose object is to destroy the monarchy."
She realized with a sickening sense of disaster all that it meant. She knew as well as he in what bad odour her father stood at Court, and guessed the steps which would be taken if this matter became public.
"I was brought here by a trick," she said steadily. "A letter came to me, as I thought, from Israel Kensky----"
"It was from me," he interrupted.
"And you planned the raid, of course?"
He nodded.
"I planned the raid in the most promising circ.u.mstances," he said. "The gentleman who offered to be your good knight is a well-known New York gun-man. He is wanted by the police, who probably have him in their custody at this moment. He was brought here to-night, and an offer was made to him, an offer of a large sum of money, on condition that he would destroy the Czar."
She gasped.
"You see, my little Irene, that when this gun-man"s evidence is taken in court, matters will look very bad for the Yaroslav family."
"What do you propose?" she asked.
"There are two alternatives," he said. "The first is that I should arrest you and hand you over to the police. The second is that you should undertake most solemnly to marry me, in which case I will take you away from here."
She was silent.
"Is there a third possibility?" she asked, and he shook his head.
"My dear," he said familiarly as he flicked a speck of dust from his sleeve. "I think you will take the easier way. None of these sc.u.m will betray you, thinking that you are one of themselves--as I happen to know, some of the best families in Russia are a.s.sociated with plotters of this type. As for the American, who might be inclined to talk, in a few weeks he will be on his way to New York to serve a life sentence. I have been looking up his record, and particularly drew the attention of the English police to the fact that he would be here to-night."
Cherry Bim, creeping up the stairs in his stockinged feet--he had marked and shot the fuse-box to pieces before the police came in, and had burst his way through the door in the wall--heard the sound of voices in the little room and stopped to listen. It was not a thick door, and he could hear Serganoff"s voice very clearly. He stooped down to the key-hole. Serganoff had not taken the key out, and it was an old-fashioned key, the end of which projected an eighth of an inch on the other side of the door. Cherry Bim felt in his pocket and produced a pair of peculiarly shaped nippers, and gripped the end of the key, turning it gently. Then he slipped his handy gun from his pocket and waited.
"Now, Irene," said Serganoff"s voice. "You must decide. In a few minutes the police will be up here, for they are instructed to make a complete search of the house. I can either explain that you are here to witness the raid, or that I have followed you up and arrested you. Which is it to be?"
Still she did not answer. Serganoff had laid his revolver on the table and this she was manoeuvring to reach. He divined her intention before she sprang forward, and, gripping her by the waist, threw her back.
"That will be more useful to me than to you," he said.
"Sure thing it will!" said a voice behind him.
He turned as swift as a cat and fired. The horrified girl heard only one shot, so quickly did one report follow another. She saw Cherry Bim raise his hand and wipe the blood from his cheek, saw the splinter of wood where the bullet had struck behind him; then Serganoff groaned and sprawled forward over the table. She dared not look at him, but followed Bim"s beckoning finger.
"Down the stairs and out of that door, miss," he said, "or the bulls will have you."
She did not ask him who the "bulls" were; she could guess. She flew down the stairs, with trembling hands unfastened the lock and stepped into the street. It was empty, save for two men, and one of these came forward to meet her with outstretched hands.
"Thank G.o.d you"re safe!" he said. "You weren"t there, were you?"
Malcolm Hay was incoherent. The detective who was with him could but smile a little, for the girl had come out of the door which, according to his instructions, led only to the private dining-room.
"Take me away," she whispered.
He put his arm about her trembling figure, and led her along the street.
All the time he was in terror lest the police should call her back, and desire him to identify her; but nothing happened and they gained Shaftesbury Avenue and a blessed taxicab.
"To Israel Kensky," she said. "I can"t go home like this."
He stretched out of the window and gave fresh instructions.
"I am greatly obliged to you, Mr. Hay," she faltered and then covered her face with her hands. "Oh, it was dreadful, dreadful!"
"What happened?" he asked.
She shook her head. Then suddenly:
"No, no, I must go home. Will you tell the cabman? There is a chance that I may get into my suite without Boolba seeing. Will you go on to Israel Kensky after you have left me, and tell him what has happened?"
He nodded, and again gave the change of instructions.
They reached the hotel at a period when most of the guests were either lingering over their dinner or had gone to the theatre.
"I hate leaving you like this," he said; "how do I know that you will get in without detection?"
She smiled in spite of her distress.
"You"re an inventor, aren"t you, Mr. Hay?" she laughed. "But I am afraid even you could not invent a story which would convince my father if he knew I had been to that horrible place." Presently she said: "My room overlooks the street. If I get in without detection I will come to the window and wave a handkerchief."
He waited in a fit of apprehension, until presently he saw a light leap up to three windows, and her figure appeared. There was a flutter of a white handkerchief, and the blinds were drawn. Malcolm Hay drove to Maida Vale, feeling that the age of romance was not wholly dead.
To his surprise Kensky had had the news before he reached there.
"Is she safe? Is she safe?" asked the old man tremulously. "Now, thank Jehovah for his manifold blessings and mercies! I feared something was wrong. Her Highness wrote to me this afternoon, and I did not get the letter," said Israel. "They waylaid the messenger, and wrote and told her to go to the Silver Lion--the devils!"
His hand was shaking as he took up the poker to stir the fire.