The Baron looked puzzled. “I shall be charmed to meet any friend of your excellency’s,” he nodded.
The Chargé stepped to the inner door of the room. “Will you young people please come in here,” he called.
Side by side Caruth and Marie entered, followed by Reverend Mr. Forbes, the American clergyman. Caruth’s head was bound up, but his eyes were bright.
“Baron,” said the Chargé. “Let me present to you Mr. and Mrs. Caruth, just married by the Reverend Mr. Forbes, who will shortly officiate at your own wedding. A foreign-born wife, as you of course know, takes the status of her husband and becomes a citizen of his country. Mr. and Mrs. Caruth are about to sail for America on the Sea Spume, leaving Russia forever. I give you my personal assurance of this. Would you mind viséing their passports, and thus guaranteeing them safe conduct out of Russia?”
The Baron swallowed once or twice. Then he smiled.
“We Russians are not all quite so black as we are painted,” he said. “I shall be happy to endorse their passports.” He paused for a moment. “I regret to add,” he finished, “that the visé will be good for twenty-four hours only.”
He turned to the Professor, who was plucking him by the sleeve.
“I have not forgotten, Professor,” he smiled. “You want your daughter. Your own daughter, I mean, of course. There she stands,” and he pointed to Mrs. Caruth.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
IF Florence had delayed her flight from Helsingfors a day longer, she would probably not have gone at all. At practically the same moment at which she arrived at St. Petersburg, Bill Wilkins left that city, having completed arrangements for the shipment of the gold.