Stolen Souls — IV - The Man with the Fatal Finger, part 2

------------------------------------------------------------------------ Eight months passed, during which the strange incident gradually faded from my mind.

The increased number of persons who were being sent from all parts of Russia to Siberia without trial had become a subject of much comment in England.

Horrifying reports anent the state of the _etapes_, and the shocking brutality and inhuman treatment to which the oft-times innocent convicts were subjected, were continually reaching London from various sources, and public feeling against Russian autocracy had risen to fever heat.

Hence it was that one day when I entered my office I received instructions to proceed without delay to Siberia, in order to inspect the general condition of the prisoners and ascertain the truth of the harrowing details.

The prospect of this mission delighted me, for not only was it certain to be fraught with a good deal of exciting adventure, but it would also enable me to complete the novel, already half written, and which I had been compelled to put aside owing to lack of information regarding life in the Asiatic penal settlements.

That evening, after calling upon Grigorovitch and informing him of my projected journey, I returned home, and sat at my writing-table far into the night, finishing some work upon which I had been engaged.

The whole of the following day I spent in packing my traps, and otherwise preparing for a long absence.

In the evening, while I was busy writing some letters, the servant announced that a young lady, who refused her name, desired to see me.

I was not particularly clean, and I confess that just then I was too much engaged in making arrangements for my departure to think of anything else.

However, my curiosity got the better of me, and I told her to admit the stranger.

"You?"

I cried, when a moment later Prascovie Souvaroff entered.

"Yes.

Why not?"

she asked, laughing, and offering me her hand.

What could I say?

I stammered out a greeting, invited her to be seated, and began to question her regarding her sudden disappearance.

To my questions she replied-- "It was imperative.

You English know nothing of the persecution which follows those who flee from the wrath of the White Tzar.

We were compelled to leave hurriedly, and as the Secret Police were watching both you and me it was unsafe for us to meet.

To-night I have risked coming to you for a most important purpose," she added, looking up into my face earnestly.

"Oh!

What's that?"

I asked.

"I want you to take me to Siberia."

"To Siberia?

You?"

I repeated in astonishment.

"Yes.

I hear you are going.

Any news affecting us travels rapidly.

I--I have an intense desire to see what the country beyond the Urals is like."

"Who told you I was going?"

"I'm not at liberty to say," she replied.

"All I ask is that I may be allowed to accompany you.

I have here sufficient money to defray the cost of my journey;" and she drew from the breast of her dress a large packet of Russian bank-notes.

I shook my head, replying that Siberia was no place for a delicately-reared woman, and pointed out the uninviting prospect of a winter journey of five thousand miles in a sleigh.

"Besides," I added, "your connection with the Terrorists would render it unsafe for you to return to Russia; and, again, there are _les convenances_ to be studied."

"Do you think that I, a Russian, am afraid of a cold sleigh journey?"

she asked earnestly, after a few moments' silence.

"Scarcely!

Of course, I should not travel in this dress, but would assume the disguise of a Russian lad, in order to act as your servant and interpreter.

As for _les convenances_"--and, shrugging her shoulders, she pulled a little grimace, and added, "Bah!

we are not lovers!"

I asked for news of her father, but she informed me that he was in Zurich.

She refused to give me her address, and all argument was useless.

The point she urged, that she would be companion and interpreter combined, impressed me, and ere I had finally promised, she had given me instructions that I should, in applying for my passport from the Russian Embassy, also make application for one for "Ivan Ivanovitch, servant."

Four evenings later, I was on the platform at Charing Cross Station, watching my big iron-bound trunks being stowed away into the Continental express, and chatting to two old Fleet Street friends, who had come to see the last of me, when a rather short young man, enveloped in a long, heavy ulster, approached, and, touching his cap respectfully, said-- "Good-evening, sir.

I hope I'm not late."

"No, plenty of time," I said indifferently, although I had a difficult task to keep my countenance.

Turning to my friends, I explained, "That's my interpreter, Ivanovitch."

Meanwhile, the object of our attention had walked across to the van to see his own trunk placed with mine.

Five minutes afterwards, when we were in the carriage together, gliding out over the bridge that spans the Thames, I burst into a hearty laugh as I, for the first time, regarded her critically.

Her disguise was so complete that, for the moment when she had greeted me, I had been deceived.

Laughing at her successful make-up, she removed her round fur cap, and showed how she had contrived, by cutting her hair shorter, to make it appear like a man's. Underneath her overcoat she wore a suit of thick, rough tweed, and with great gusto she related how she had filled up her large boots with wool.

She produced the inevitable cigarettes, and we spent the two hours between London and Queenborough in smoking and chatting.

To describe in detail our long railway journey across Europe by way of Berlin and Moscow would occupy too much space.

Suffice it to say that I travelled through Holy Russia with a passport which bore the _vise_ of the Minister of the Interior at Petersburg, and which ensured myself and my "servant" civility and attention on the part of police officials.

At length we passed through the Urals and alighted at Ekaterinbourg, where the railway at that time ended.

A fortnight after leaving London, I purchased a sleigh, hired three Government horses, and Prascovie and I, in the great fur coats, skin gloves, and sheepskin boots we had bought, took our seats; the baggage and provisions having been packed in the bottom of the conveyance, and covered with a layer of straw.

Then our driver shouted to the little knot of persons who had assembled before the post-station, whipped up the three shaggy horses, and away we started on the first stage of our long, dreary drive across Siberia.

Over the snow the horses galloped noiselessly, and the bells on the wooden arch over their heads tinkled merrily as we moved swiftly along through the sharp, frosty air.

Soon we were out upon the Great Post Road, and as far as the eye could see, there was no other object visible on the broad, snow-covered plain but the long straight line of black telegraph poles and striped verst-posts that marked our route.

Day after day we continued our journey, often passing through miles of gloomy pine forests, and then out again upon the great barren steppes.

Frequently we met convoys of convicts, pitiful, despairing bands of men and women, dragging their clanking chains with them wearily, and trudging onward towards a life to which death would be preferable.

No mercy was shown them by their mounted escorts, for if a prisoner stumbled and fell from sheer exhaustion, he was beaten back to his senses with the terrible knout which each Cossack carried.

On dark nights we halted at post-houses, but when the moon shone, we continued our drive, snatching sleep as best we could.

We lived upon our tinned meats and biscuits, the post-houses--which are usually about twenty to thirty miles apart--supplying tea and other necessaries.

Although the journey was terribly monotonous and uncomfortable, with a biting wind, and the intense white of the snow affecting one's eyes painfully, my fair fellow-traveller uttered no word of complaint.

All day she would sit beside me chatting in English, laughing, smoking cigarettes, and now and then carrying on a conversation in Russian with our black-bearded, fierce-looking driver, afterwards interpreting his observations.

Indeed, it appeared that the further we travelled from civilisation, the more light-hearted she became.

Arriving at last at Tomsk, we remained there three weeks, during which time I visited the _kameras_ of the "forwarding prison," the horrors of which I afterwards fully described.

An open letter I had from the Minister of the Interior admitted me everywhere, but I was compelled to secrete the notes I made in the money-belt I wore under my clothes, otherwise they would have been discovered and confiscated by the prying _ispravniks_, or police officers, during the repeated examination of our baggage at almost every small town we passed through.

Since leaving England, time had slipped rapidly away, until, one day, after we had left Tomsk, and were well on our way towards Yeniseisk, I chanced to take out my diary.

I discovered that it was the last day of the old year.

The journey had been most cheerless and wearisome.

It was now about four o'clock in the afternoon, and the sun, which had struggled out for half an hour, had sunk upon the hazy horizon, leaving a pale yellow streak in the grey lowering sky.

An icy wind blew in fierce gusts across the barren steppe; the monotony of the dull thud of the horses' hoofs in the snow and the incessant jingle of the bells had grown utterly unendurable.

The only stoppage we had made that day was about noon, when we changed horses, and Prascovie had then told me she felt very fatigued.

Almost hidden under her furs, she was now sleeping soundly.

Her head had fallen upon my shoulder; and I--well, although I tried to console myself with a cigar, I confess I was thinking of the folk at home, and had the nostalgia of England upon me.

Suddenly she moved uneasily, and awoke with a start.

She addressed a question to the driver, which he answered.

"You must be terribly tired," I said, recollecting that it was two days since we drove out of Tomsk, and that, owing to the lack of accommodation at the post-houses, we had been unable to rest.

"No, I'm not very tired," she replied.

"But I feel so cramped and cold."

"Never mind," I said cheerfully, placing my arm tenderly around her waist and drawing her closer to me: "in a couple of hours we shall get something hot to eat."

She did not answer, but in a few moments she again fell asleep with her head upon my shoulder; and I, too, also dozed off.

Our lonely halting-place was, like all Siberian post-houses, built of pine logs, and little better than a large hut, devoid of any vestige of comfort, and horribly dirty.

The sitting-room was a bare, uncarpeted place, with a large brick stove in the centre, a picture of the Virgin upon the wall, a wooden table, and three or four rough chairs, while the little dens that served as sleeping apartments contained nothing beyond a chair and a straw mattress.

It was not long after our arrival that the great _samovar_ was placed upon the table, and, together with the two sinister-looking fellows who kept the place, we sat down to a rough, uncivilised meal.

The evening we spent in smoking and drinking vodka, Prascovie and I being able to carry on a private conversation by speaking English.

I asked why she was so unusually thoughtful, but she replied that it was only because she was in need of rest.

"I am sorry I am breaking down," she said apologetically, and laughing at the same time.

"But I'm only a woman.

It was, indeed, very kind of you to have been bothered with me."

"Don't mention it," I said.

"I'm sure I'm indebted to you, for your knowledge of Russian assists me in my work.

Do you remember," I added, "that it is a year to-night since we first met?"

"Was it?"

she asked in a strange tone of alarm.

"Ah, I remember.

I--I

was happy then, wasn't I?"

"Are you not happy now?"

I inquired.

"Yes--very," she replied, smiling.

"But I'm tired, and must go to my room, or I shall be fit for nothing to-morrow."

"Very well," I replied.

"I'll tell you to go in a few minutes."

Then, after joining the driver and post-house keepers in another glass of vodka, I said to her-- "Ivan, you can go.

I shall require you no longer."

Gathering up her coat, hat and gloves, she bowed, and, wishing the men "Good-night," went to her room.

After smoking for another hour, I also sought my dirty little den.

In the heart of Siberia one must expect to rough it, therefore I took my revolver from my belt, placed it under my pillow, and, after removing some of my clothes, strapped my fur rug around my neck, and, stretching myself upon the hard pallet, soon dropped off to sleep.

Next morning, when I had dressed, I knocked several times at Prascovie's door, but received no reply.

Subsequently I pushed it open and entered, discovering, to my surprise, that the room was empty.

Notwithstanding my limited knowledge of Russian, I managed to make the men understand that my servant was missing, and they searched the premises, but without avail.

They examined the road outside, but, as it had been snowing heavily during the night, no footprints were visible.

Prascovie had mysteriously disappeared!

While I remained in charge of the post-house, the three men mounted the horses and rode out in different directions, thinking it possible that she had strayed away upon the steppe and become lost in a snowdrift.

Towards evening, however, they returned, after a long and futile search.

Anxious to solve the mystery, and reluctant to leave without her, I remained there several days.

As the nearest dwelling was twenty miles distant, and her overcoat and hat still remained in her room, her disappearance was all the more puzzling.

I examined her box, but found nothing in it except articles of male wearing apparel; so after a week of anxious waiting, I became convinced that to remain there longer was useless.

With heavy heart, and sorely puzzled over the mystery, I continued my lonely journey towards the mines of Yeniseisk.

Having inspected them, I journeyed south, alone and dejected, and investigated the great prisons at Krasnoiarsk and Irkutsk, afterwards returning through Omsk and Tobolsk, and thence to the Urals and civilisation.

I missed her companionship very much, and long before my journey ended, I had grown dull, morose, and melancholy.

After an absence of six months, I again returned to London.

When I arrived home, fatigued and hungry, and before I had time to cast off my worn-out travelling suit, the servant girl handed me a small packet which she said had arrived by registered post a week before.

It had a Russian stamp upon it, and bore the postmark of Kiakhta, a small town south of Irkutsk, on the border of Mongolia.

Breaking open the seals, I found a small box, from which I took a thick gold ring, set with a magnificent diamond.

Attached to it was a small piece of paper which bore, in a man's handwriting, the following words:-- "_The husband of Prascovie Souvaroff, who owes to you the safe return of his beloved wife, sends this little gift as a slight recognition of the kindness she received at your hands_."

There was neither, name, address, nor date; nothing to show who was the anonymous husband.

------------------------------------------------------------------------ The mystery was solved in a most unexpected manner.

Some months after the results of my investigations had been published, I chanced one night to attend the banquet of the Association of Foreign Consuls held in the Whitehall Rooms of the Hotel Metropole.

As usual, a number of the _corps diplomatique_ were present, and among them Serge Velitchko, one of the _attaches_ of the Russian Embassy, an old friend of mine, whom I had not seen since my return.

"I congratulate you on your lucky escape, old fellow," he exclaimed, after we had exchanged cordial greetings.

"Escape?

What do you mean?"

I inquired.

"Ah, it's all very well," he replied, laughing, as we strolled together into an ante-room that was unoccupied.

"Prascovie was very fascinating, wasn't she?"

"How did you know?"

I asked in amazement, for I imagined no one was aware that she had been my companion.

"Oh, we knew all about it, never fear," he said, with a smile.

"By Jove!

it was quite a romance, travelling all that distance with a pretty companion, and then losing her on the Yeniseisk Steppe.

It was lucky for you, however, that she left you in time, otherwise you would, in all probability, have been working underground at Kara, or some other place equally delightful, by this time."

"Explain yourself," I urged impatiently.

"You're talking in enigmas."

"Listen, and I'll let you into the secret," said my friend, casting himself lazily into a chair.

"The man you knew as Souvaroff was, until about six years ago, wealthy and popular at our Court at Petersburg; but he was suspected of political intrigue, and sentenced to lifelong exile and hard labour in Siberia.

After his banishment, Prascovie, who was then living at Moscow, was detected by the police distributing some revolutionary pamphlets, for which she also was sent to Siberia.

At the prison at Irkutsk father and daughter met.

While there, Prince Pavlovitch Kostomaroff, the governor of the Yeniseisk province, who had previously known and admired _la belle_ Souvaroff in Petersburg society, discovered her, and offered her marriage.

This she accepted, and they were married privately, because, had it become known that the Prince had wedded a political exile, he would have fallen into disfavour with the Tzar.

The Prince not being governor of the province in which his wife was imprisoned, a difficulty presented itself how he should obtain her release.

Even Ivan Kobita, controller of the prison, was ignorant of the secret union, but it so happened that he also became enamoured of his fair captive.

At length, in return for her promise to marry him, he allowed her and her father comparative freedom.

As might be expected, they were not long in taking advantage of this, for within a fortnight, aided by the Prince, and provided with a passport obtained by him, they managed to escape and come to England."

"And what of Kobita?"

"He quickly discovered the ruse, and ascertained that the Prince had connived at their escape.

Our Secret Police tracked the fugitives to their hiding-place in London.

Still unaware that she was the Prince's wife, Kobita obtained leave of absence and came to England.

Before his arrival, however, he wrote, urging her to marry him, declaring that if she refused, he would expose the Prince as aiding and abetting dangerous Nihilists.

Prascovie, who clearly saw that if the truth reached the Tzar, her husband would be disgraced and deprived of liberty, was at her wits' ends.

She was in desperation when, two years ago, Kobita arrived in London--" "Was that on the night I called upon them?"

"Yes.

It was on receipt of the letter from Kobita that Souvaroff sent for you and requested you to put the obituary notice in the papers, in order that when the Siberian official came to claim his daughter's hand, he could convince him of her death.

But this plan was not carried out quickly enough.

Kobita arrived on the night of your visit, and was received by Prascovie's father, who stated that she had gone to call upon a friend in the vicinity, and offered to send his servant to direct him to the house in question.

To this Prascovie's admirer had no objection, and, shaking Souvaroff warmly by the hand, wished him _au revoir_, and started off, accompanied by the servant, in search of the imaginary neighbour.

The hand-shaking proved fatal, for he had not walked far before he fell dead.

The whole thing had been carefully planned, and the trusty servant, who had been instructed how to act, extracted everything from the dead man's pockets that would lead to identification.

Hence his burial in a nameless grave."

"Do you assert that he was murdered?"

"Yes.

We were in possession of all these facts, but refrained from causing Souvaroff's arrest, because it was not a wise policy to expose to the London public that Russia had established a bureau of secret police in their midst.

Prascovie and her father hid for some months, and we lost sight of them until she called upon you, and accompanied you in disguise to Siberia.

Once or twice you very narrowly escaped being apprehended; indeed, on one occasion orders were telegraphed to Tomsk for the arrest of your companion and yourself, because the declaration on your passport regarding `Ivan Ivanovitch' was known to be false.

By the intervention of a high official, however, the order was countermanded, and you were allowed to pass."

"What has become of Prascovie's father?"

I asked in astonishment.

"Surely he was not Kobita's murderer, for the man died of heart disease."

"You are mistaken.

He died of Obeah poison.

Souvaroff, who was once a consul in Hayti, knew of the secret poison which the natives extract from the gecko lizard, and which cannot be detected.

So deadly is it, that one drop is sufficient to produce a fatal result, and the manner in which he administered it was somewhat novel.

He prepared to receive his enemy by allowing the nail of the forefinger of his right hand to grow long, afterwards thinning it to a point as fine as a needle.

Upon this point he placed the poison, and kept a glove on until Kobita's arrival.

Then, in wishing him adieu, he pricked the skin of his victim while shaking hands with him, producing an effect similar to syncope."

"Where is Souvaroff now?"

"Dead.

He returned to Petersburg as soon as his daughter had left with you, but was arrested and placed in solitary confinement in the Fortress.

While there, he wrote a confession of the murder, and afterwards committed suicide."

"And will they arrest Prascovie?"

"No. She lives in another province to that in which she was imprisoned.

No one there knows that she is an escaped convict, and as the Prince was once attached to this Embassy, we are not likely to divulge."

He chaffed me a little, laughed heartily in his good-natured way, and soon afterwards we rejoined the guests.

I have heard nothing since of my unconventional travelling companion.

A

short time ago, however, I received an anonymous present of furs, and I shrewdly suspect whence it came.

The Prince's ring, which is the admiration and envy of many of my friends, still glitters on my finger, and I regard it as a souvenir of the most happy and romantic journey of my life.

CHAPTER FIVE.

SANTINA.