"He fooled us all by showing something none of us thought he had—a little courage! He dropped from the window above. That was how we knew he was gone, for he broke a pane of glass in one of the greenhouse beds as he dropped. We rushed out—"
"You were so near as that, and still he got away?" said Stepan, with a groan.
"Oh, we were out after him at once!" said Milikoff. "He ran toward the river, and we were after him. We drove him in. We have that much consolation, Stepan—we drove him into the water, and though we watched a long time for him to come up, there was no sign of him. I think he drowned like the rat he was!"
"You think so, and it does seem probable. But we can't be sure! And, even so, he is worth more to us alive than dead. For the time, at least. He is a wretched traitor—treacherous to both sides. I wouldn't mind his death, because he has sent hundreds of men better than himself to death of late. But I wish we had been able to hold him and use him. He would have been afraid of us, I think, when he discovered how much we knew!"
"It would have been enough for him to see you, Stepan, and know that you were one of us, I think. He would have guessed very quickly what you were doing during all those weeks when you were so close to him. That is what has saved us. If it had not been for you we would have trusted him, I think, with his tale of how the Austrian government had wronged him, and his pretence that he was one of a group that wanted a free and independent Hungary!"
Stepan was thinking hard.
"Where are the others?" he asked.
"They are busy in the town. We are almost ready to blow up the arsenal, and perhaps we shall be able to finish the tunnel and plant the mine to-night."
"That will be good," Stepan nodded, "unless Hallo has warned them. It was he who gave us the information as to just where we should have to place the mine, and he must have guessed what use we would make of it."
"Perhaps so. But they have not moved any of the stores. If we can explode our mine, we shall strike a good blow for Servia."