“Am I not to be confronted with whoever is responsible for my arrest?”

“I know nothing of that, your Highness.  My duty ends by escorting you here.  I must ask if you have any other weapon upon you?”

“No, I have not.”

“Will you give me your parole that you will not attempt to escape?”

“I shall escape if I can, of course.”

“Thank you, Excellency,” replied the officer, as suavely as if Lermontoff had given his parole.  Out of the darkness he called a tall, rough-looking soldier, who carried a musket with a bayonet at the end of it.  The soldier took his stand beside the door of the cabin.

“Anything else?” asked the Prince.

“Nothing else, your Highness, except good-night.”

“Oh, by the way, I forgot to pay my cabman.  Of course it isn’t his fault that he brought me here.”

“I shall have pleasure in sending him to you, and again, good-night.”

“Good-night,” said the Prince.

He closed the door of his cabin, pulled out his note-book, and rapidly wrote two letters, one of which he addressed to Drummond and the other to the Czar.  When the cabman came he took him within the cabin and closed the door.

“Here,” he said in a loud voice that the sentry could overhear if he liked, “how much do I owe you?”

The driver told him.

“That’s too much, you scoundrel,” he cried aloud, but as he did so he placed three gold pieces in the palm of the driver’s hand together with the two letters, and whispered: 

“Get these delivered safely, and I’ll give you ten times this money if you call on Prince Lermontoff at the address on that note.”

The man saluted, thanked him, and retired; a moment later he heard the jingle of a bell, and then the steady throb of an engine.  There was no window to the stateroom, and he could not tell whether the steamer was going up or down the river.  Up, he surmised, and he suspected his destination was Schlusselburg, the fortress-prison on an island at the source of the Neva.  He determined to go on deck and solve the question of direction, but the soldier at the door brought down his gun and barred the passage.

“I am surely allowed to go on deck?”

“You cannot pass without an order from the captain.”

“Well, send the captain to me, then.”

“I dare not leave the door,” said the soldier.

Lermontoff pressed the button, and presently an attendant came to learn what was wanted.

“Will you ask the captain to come here?”

The steward departed, and shortly after returned with a big, bronzed, bearded man, whose bulk made the stateroom seem small.

“You sent for the captain, and I am here.”

“So am I,” said the Prince jauntily.  “My name is Lermontoff.  Perhaps you have heard of me?”

The captain shook his shaggy head.

“I am a Prince of Russia, and by some mistake find myself your passenger instead of spending the night in my own house.  Where are you taking me, Captain?”