“You be careful,” he said.  “I saw what was being done.”

With his left hand he pushed the door, and it swung open.  He motioned the woman to enter, and nodded as he saw her cross the threshold.

The officer vented a click of impatience.

“I tell you——­” he began, and moved forward a step.  Lucas extended an arm and the hand that held the flute across his chest.

“Back!” he said.  “You mustn’t enter this house—­you know that!  You can go to the Governor, if you like, and I will go over his head.  But you shall not touch that woman.”

“She is arrested,” said the officer obstinately, still studying his antagonist.  “If you wish to aid her, you must go to the Bureau; but you cannot take her away like this.”

“Eh?” Lucas swung round on him; the time was fertile in inspirations.  “Can’t I?!” he demanded threateningly.  “But I have taken her, man.  If you seize her now you must arrest me, too, and then—­we shall see!”

“I must do my duty,” persisted the other.

“Do it, then,” said Lucas, standing square across the door.  “Do it, and see if you can explain afterwards how you did it.  I am not a woman who can be insulted with safety; my arrest will have to be explained to St. Petersburg, and you will have to pay for it.  I saw how she was being handled, and how your duty was being done.  I tell you, you’re in danger.  Be careful!”

“So?” replied the officer slowly.  He turned to the folk who were the absorbed audience of this conference.  “Move away, there,” he commanded harshly.  “This is none of your business.  Off with you!”

They shifted back reluctantly, and he waited till he could speak unheard by them.  Then he turned to Lucas again with a touch of the confidential in his manner.

“What do you want with her?” he asked.

“Want with her?” repeated Lucas, not immediately comprehending.  Then, as the man’s meaning reached him he trembled.  “I don’t want her,” he cried.  “I don’t want her.  You want her, not I; and you shan’t have her.  Do you understand?  You shan’t have her!”

“Shan’t I?” retorted the officer, but there was indecision in his voice.

“No!” said Lucas.

There was a pause.  Neither of them was sure of himself.  The officer found himself in face of a situation which he could not gauge; and it would never do for a provincial police official to attract notice in remote St. Petersburg.  For all he knew, this flimsy little man, who had snatched his Jewess from him, might be able to set in motion those mills which grind erring servants of the State into disgrace and ruin.  He certainly had a large and authoritative way with him.

“Will you come to the Bureau, then, and speak with the chief?” he suggested.  “You see, your action causes a difficulty.”

“No, I won’t,” said Lucas flatly.

He also was in doubt.  It seemed to him that he stood in a considerable peril, and he was aware that his mood of high temper was failing him.  It needed an effort to maintain an assured and uncompromising front.  Behind him, on the unlighted stairs, the woman breathed heavily.  He summoned what he had of stubbornness to uphold him.  The affair so far had gone valiantly; he meant that it should continue on the same plane.