For five minutes all present withdrew from the stable, leaving the priest and the prisoner alone together.  Then the door opened and the priest came out.

“It is finished,” he said.  “May God pardon the sinner!” and he moved away rapidly towards the house.

Alexis spoke a word to his fellow-servants, and these lifted a heavy log from the wood-pile in the courtyard, and carried it into the stable.  Then they seized Paul, and in spite of his screams and struggles laid him with his head across the log.  Alexis raised the heavy axe in the air; it flashed in the light of the lantern; there was a dull, heavy thud, and the head of the traitor rolled on the ground.

“Now,” the count said, unmoved, “put a horse into a cart, take picks and shovels, and carry the body of this traitor out to the forest and bury it there.  Dig a hole deeply, that the wolves may not bring it to light.  Demetri will give each of you to-morrow fifty roubles for your share in this night’s work, and beware that you never let a syllable concerning it pass your lips, even when you are together and alone.  Alexis, on you I bestow your freedom, if you care to have it, and also, as a gift to yourself and your heirs after you, the little farm that was vacant by the death of Nouvakeff last week.”

So saying, followed by the two midshipmen who had been awed, but not disapproving spectators of the tragedy, he returned to the house, and led the way back to his study.

“You do not disapprove,” he asked gravely, “of what I have done?  It is not, I know, in accordance with your English ideas, nor even in Russia may a noble take a serf’s life, according to law, though hundreds are killed in fits of hasty passion, or by slow ill-treatment, and no inquiry is ever made.  Still, this was a case of life against life.  My safety and happiness and that of my dear wife and daughters were concerned, and were the lives of fifty serfs at stake, I should not hesitate.”

Although the boys felt that the matter, if brought before an English court of justice, might not be favorably considered, their sympathies were so thoroughly with the count, that they did not hesitate to say that they thought he could not have acted otherwise than he had done, and that the life of the traitor was most justly forfeited.

“I shall now have a respite for a short time,” the count said.  “Count Smerskoff will of course be perturbed and annoyed at the non-appearance of his spy, and will after a time quietly set inquiries on foot.  But I will tell Demetri to give it to be understood that Paul has asked for leave of absence for a few days to go to a distance to visit a friend who is ill.  He was always a silent and unsociable fellow, and the others will not wonder at his having started without mentioning his intention to any of them.”

“What are we to say to the ladies, sir?” Jack asked.  “We must invent some reason for our mysterious absence.”