"… We could hear a voice boasting: 'Did you see that BLOOD in yonder? Well, that is our answer. We were suspicious of that Lieutenant of yours so we took the matter into our own hands.'… 'WHO DID THE KILLING?'… 'The Sergeant.'… 'And what did he DO with the bodies?'… 'Threw them into the well!'… 'The devil! you'll have to fish them out again!'… Then there was a long silence…. Finally we heard: 'Here, Sergeant!' from HE of Gallipoli; 'when will my lieutenant report?'… 'The Captain said to present his compliments and say that he is temporarily detained.'… My 'prisoner' poked me in the ribs impulsively and smiled…. 'Where are the BODIES?'… 'Burned!' said the Sergeant. 'WHAT?'… 'BURNED UP?… 'Who burned them?'… 'I did, Sir.'… 'Didn't throw them in the well?'… 'No, Sir.'… 'Well, I'll be damned!… FALL IN! Unless those prisoners are produced I'll court-martial every one of you!'
"… We could hear the measured tread of a squad overhead tramping away until the thump, thump, thumping sank into a faint indistinct vibration which was caught up by the beating of our hearts and the throbbing of our fascinated and incredulous ears…. 'Well!' ejaculated my amused 'prisoner'; 'It'll be exceedingly interesting to read the future accounts of my double execution. I am sure my family will read it with greater interest than they've ever manifested in any of London's or Gorky's fanciful novels!'… 'I assume that you will not be surprised to learn that you have some mighty good friends in that crowd outside,' I ventured…. 'Oh, not at all,' my prisoner returned, 'and I venture to say that your friend from Gallipoli will find it convenient to contribute to the general misunderstanding and confusion by allowing the suspected executioners to air their conflicting explanations of my disappearance.'
"'We haven't disappeared yet, my friend!' I grumbled, as we turned back in the direction of our underground camp…. 'If we had some shovels it would solve the problem; but the way we're fixed it looks like a case of starvation or surrender for the whole of us,—we can't stay down here indefinitely!'… 'Patience, courage, my friend,' my 'prisoner' replied whole-heartedly; 'this is the first time in my life I have been absolutely alone, the first moment in our lives we have been positively FREE!'… He took a few swift steps and swung around gracefully, like a figure in a dance…. 'I love the mazurka!' he exclaimed!… 'I'd like to have a real pillow fight again with the children!… We used to have such fun!… It was about the only time my wife would ever smile!… I used to tell her that she reminded me of the sad goddesses that stood on the dull red cornices of my Winter Palace looking coldly into space during any of the Court ceremonies…. Really that was true,—a woman like my wife, in a manteau de cour, a head flaming with the rays of her kokoshnik and supported by that long white veil, DOES resemble an icicle in the Winter Palace!… But when we are alone!… the Zaritsa is a motherly MOTHER!… You'll see…. We have always loved simplicity…. This is our chance…. I never did like the late suppers and high life indulged in by some of my relations…. My greatest dissipation was at the Marinsky when we'd sup between acts and go straight home to bed…. Grand Duke Alexis never wanted to go to bed…. After the theatre he was always primed for another party out at the Islands…. Our motto has always been, "Early to bed and early to rise."… Had to…. At work early after breakfast till eleven … luncheon … to work again at half past twelve until dinner … back to work until very late at night…. NOW we are hearing of our misguided workmen and soldiers attempting to run the country on SIX HOURS WORK A DAY!… That would be delightful if they would only devote the remaining hours to recreation and STUDY.'… My 'prisoner' seemed positively boyish….
"His voice was in pleasant contrast to the shrill staccato accents I had heard in that gloomy underground room of the Foreign Office at Berlin…. I could see at a glance that his present attitude was not a pose,—his simplicity, like his courage and democracy, was GENUINE…. It explains the reason for his composure at THIS VERY MINUTE when a less courageous man would be excitedly running around in circles and making my life miserable by bemoaning our ill luck…. To show the morale of this family of cave dwellers I'll record this incident: 'Be careful about those electric lamps,' I requested of the ladies. 'If they give out we'll be in darkness.' … 'Then we'll use our hands and dig ourselves out to daylight!' exclaimed Maria…. 'WHY can't we start doing THAT NOW?' exclaimed Tatiana…. 'Come on!' chorused Alexis and his four sisters as they fell to and are now pawing the dirt away from the embankment that impedes our escape…. I'll have to supervise that work a little, for if these girls continue to pile back the dirt the way they are doing it they may stop up the passage both ways and bury us all alive…."
X
ROMANCE IN SIGHT OF DEATH
28. The next page of the diary is badly blurred and torn, but the following can be made out:
"We are all about played out…. The boy is exhausted and lying over in a little excavation upon his sisters' wraps, his fingers bleeding and one eye blinded with the sand…. The passageway behind us is almost closed up…. In front of us we have hit a solid wall…. The exhausted mother is binding her boy's hands with a portion of her petticoat…. As she kneels there, with the faint flicker of a light falling on her finely chiseled profile, she resembles Botticelli's magnificent Madonna in the Uffizi Gallery at Florence…. The picture is completed by the dark background and the solicitous attitude of the girls as they cluster around the sufferer…. With a little imagination one can delineate the jeweled crown which the two girlish angels are holding above her head…. Pathos, resignation and a sort of recreating FAITH are painted against that threatening wall and overhanging dirt…. If that should fall WE ARE ALL BOUND TO SUFFOCATE before any help can come…. My 'prisoner' is not a bit discouraged, however…. He is using his jackknife against the concrete wall with great patience and whistling softly and slowly an air from 'The Blessing of the Waters.'… WATER!… I know those girls are CHOKING for a drink as I have been for the last ten hours myself…. Still, not one of them has murmured at our grief and Anastasie has become quite chummy in pretending to cheer ME up…. Aristocracy or Royalty, even, with Democracy in a tunnel, makes us ALL of one size! Under certain conditions a man of my education and family connections MIGHT be privileged to forget the veiled lady of Buckingham and accept these endearing little attentions with some guarantee of hope…. But WHAT IF WE ALL ARE BURIED HERE like the happy families of Herculaneum and Pompeii?… Future inquisitive scientists may find this diary with our bones and classify us as a species of an extinct Tartar tribe!… The wall my prisoner is gouging out seems to be getting wet…."
29. Then there follows the entry:
"Water has burst through the hole my prisoner has been making in that wall!…"