"Really? That's too blissful for words."
And crawling down slowly, lifting the suit-case containing the bank notes to the seat as she did so, she clambered down into the road beside him, making sympathetic inquiries as to the nature of the injury. He reassured her, but she saw how greatly he was absorbed and she wandered around upon the other side of the car. But her plan was already made. Ahead of the car along the side of the road she had seen some large loose rocks. There would be others here in the darkness. Feeling with her feet, at last she found one, another, and stooping quickly picked the heaviest of them up, into her arms. Then she paused, feeling that her companion might have observed her, but after waiting a moment motionless she bent over and deposited them noiselessly upon the floor of the car.
"I think I will take my nap," she said sleepily. And as Khodkine assented she mounted into the tonneau. There was no moon and the clouds enshrouded the car in darkness, but for a moment Tanya lay upon the seat in the tonneau, watching furtively through the rear curtains. The car was already jacked from the ground and Khodkine was tinkering at the rim. Now was the time. She must act quickly. The bags were of nearly the same size. Silently, and taking care that no movement should shake the car, she hauled the suit-case which contained the banknotes over the back of the seat into the tonneau, then quickly removed the piles of notes, transferred them to her own bag, the contents of which she put upon the floor. Then she took up the heavy stones, wrapping them in the lap robe which she had used all day as a dust cover, and put them into the other suit-case, packing it tightly with the aid of the rubber tubes and other small articles until the stones were tightly wedged. Then she locked the suit-case, put the key in her pocket and with an effort restored it to its position beside the wheel in front. She then crept back noiselessly to the seat of the tonneau, where she lay breathless, her heart throbbing with excitement. It was done. She had done it. Gregory Khodkine was still hammering at the rebellious rim. She was a little frightened when she realized what hung upon the success or failure of her plan. The weights of the two suitcases it seemed to her were much the same. Gregory Khodkine could never know what she had done unless he examined the contents of the bag he had guarded so carefully all day. The key in her pocket would prevent that. But suppose that he became curious about the absent key. Suppose he found her new clothing upon the floor. The new suit-case was somewhat larger than the old one and she managed to get the linen and toilet articles into it. The other things she stuffed behind the cushions of the seat on which she sat. Suppose he chose to test the weight of her suit-case!
That at all hazards must be prevented. She moved it alongside of her just before Khodkine bobbed up out of the darkness and peered in, reporting that he would be ready to start in ten minutes. She snored gently, in reply, and presently heard him fussing at the wheel again.
Were the packages all inside the bag? Had she left any of the contents of her suit-case upon the floor of the tonneau? She could see nothing in the darkness, but her fingers eagerly searched the tonneau and finding nothing she breathed more easily. Fortune so far had favored her. What was to follow must be left to chance. Whatever happened she had much to gain and nothing to lose--unless, perhaps, the tender lapses from duty of Gregory Khodkine who was born Hochwald.
After a while he got into the driver's seat. She trembled as she saw him lift the suit-case containing the rocks and her newly bought finery to the seat beside him and for a terrible moment thought that he paused, examining the lock. Through her half closed eyes she saw him peer over his shoulder at her in a moment of hesitation and then heard the whirr of the engine as they started upon their way. Then one by one she took the articles that she had stuffed behind the curtains of the rear seat and choosing favorable opportunity dropped them onto the road or threw them into the hedge. When this was done she breathed more easily and straightened, yawned and sat up.
"I have slept," she said with a laugh. "How far have we gone?"
"Not two miles," grumbled Khodkine.
"Oh!" said Tanya in a tone of disappointment, "I thought we must be nearly there."
Now that she had started upon this venture she found a new interest in living. She was wide awake now, thinking quickly, for every vestige of her weariness seemed by some strange magic of her success to have vanished. Women have a natural talent for deception in minor matters, but it is under the spur of great necessity that they reach the perfection of dissimulation. Tanya weighed every chance of failure, and gained confidence in her ability to carry the thing through to its end. And so when they reached their journey's end and drew up at the doors of the Bayrischer Hof, she was standing upright in the tonneau, trying to carry lightly her heavy burden and had even stepped down upon the pavement before Gregory Khodkine had come beside her. If she could ever get the bag up to her room without letting it pass into alien hands!