When I Was Czar

by Arthur W. Marchmont

As the time approached I gave him the sum I had promised, stowed the rest of the money about me, and then fastened him up. He himself suggested an ingenious method. I wrapped a sheet round him, and then wound certain cords about him, until he looked like a mummy in clean clothes, and could move neither hand nor foot; and then I fastened a pillow over his head.

Bearing all he had said in mind, I opened the window, got down on to the roof below, crept along it, and finding the coast clear, dropped to the ground. I fell on to a flower bed, and darted at full speed across the lawn to the point he had told me.

He had earned his money well, for I was able to follow his instructions to the letter with the greatest ease. He had told me to make for that part of the gardens where the greenhouses stood, and past them to take a path to the left until I came to a spot where an out-house with a low sloping roof stood against the high outside wall. By means of this I was to climb to the top of the wall, and then drop into a dark unfrequented road. I was to go along this to the right for about half a mile, when I should find myself at a point from which I could easily reach any part of the city.

I remember being struck by the fact that a part of the Palace grounds so near to the building should be so deserted, but I had not a thought or suspicion of treachery of any kind.

I reached the road within a very short time of leaving the room, and turning, as he had told me, to the right, I ran along it at a sharp speed. It was overhung with heavy trees and very dark, but on this fact I congratulated myself as I ran.

I had covered half the distance when the path narrowed between the high wall of the Palace grounds on one side and an equally high hedge on the other, and it was so dark that I could not see the ground beneath me. I was so keen to get to Helga that I pressed on at headlong speed, until my foot slipped on something wet and greasy and down I went all a-sprawl in the dirt.

My hat flew off and my head struck the ground, and my face slid along in the mud, but beyond grazing my skin and griming myself considerably, I suffered no hurt. I fell on the soft mud and thus made scarcely any noise, a fact to which I believe I owed my life.

I sat up, and was groping about for my hat when I heard a sound some way ahead of me. Thinking some one was coming I rolled under the shadow of the great hedge and waited.

I have said before that my sense of hearing is very acute, but though I strained it now to the utmost I heard nothing for some time. In the meanwhile I found that in the dark I had blundered into a kind of broad ditch which crossed the path, the bottom being of soft wet mire.

I pulled myself cautiously up on to the dry ground, and putting my ear to the earth lay as still as death and listened.