'And what steps did the authorities take?' asked Pewtress, in the perfectly unexcited and matter-of-fact tone of a School Board inspector.
'Well,' said Petrovitch, laughing a little, 'I was not there at the time, but my friends told me that what followed was well worth seeing. A few seconds after my disappearance the two sentries and the whole of the guard from the guard-room inside the prison came swarming into the street, and there was a most delightful hue-and-cry and clamour. About a hundred yards away to the right a carriage was making off at a mad pace, and after this went the whole posse; with the lieutenant of the guard at their head. They must have been immensely relieved when they saw it pull up opposite the house of a well-known and irreproachable doctor. When, panting and exultant, they surrounded the carriage, they found inside it a surprised and indignant gentleman, who had driven in hot haste to fetch Dr. Seroff to his sick daughter, who had taken a turn for the worse.'
'And were you under the seat, Mr Peter Hitch?' inquired the interested Toomey.
'Not exactly. I had been driven off in the other carriage, which went at a quiet trot, eminently suited to my delicate state of health.'
'The gentleman who went for the doctor, I presume, was "one of you"?' put in Vernon.
'He was of the Ukrivatelli,' said Petrovitch, 'and I am afraid he had a bad time of it for a day or two. He was promptly taken where I had come from, and I fear the young lady's sick-room was invaded by a corporal's guard, but our friend and his family were so evidently innocent that the authorities had nothing left but to put up with their loss, and to grin and bear it, as you say.'
'But where did the other carriage take you?'
'Into the next street, to the most orthodox house in the town, the residence of a district judge, whence after spending a week I made for the frontier with passport quite in order, a clean chin, a strong French accent, and very black eyebrows. So ends the story, which I am afraid hasn't been a very exciting one.'
'The quite truth of it is its interest,' said Hirsch; 'to Count Litvinoff must you go for pure excitement.'