‘Who can tell? It is not the first time the Bear has had him in its grip. He passed ten years in Siberia when little more than a boy. Probablement, he will disappear—vanish utterly, and be heard of never again.’
‘Is there no way of helping him? Are there no means of rescuing him?’
The man spread his hands with a gesture eloquent of despair. ‘There is no hope—none,’ he answered with a half-sob in his voice. There was silence for a few moments, then I noticed his strange face lighten, and coming close to me, he said in a lower whisper than before: ‘And yet, monsieur, who can tell? Fedor Karavich has friends where none would expect to find them—friends secret, but devoted to the cause, even amongst the highest of the high. All that gold can do, all that powerful influence unseen and working in the dark, can do for him will be done; but after all’—— He finished with a despondent shake of the head.
‘The cause, as you call it, seems to have its emissaries everywhere,’ I remarked. ‘Even you yourself’—— I paused. If an apparition had suddenly stood before the man, he could scarcely have looked more scared. He gave a great gasp, but did not speak.
A moment later, we heard the sound of footsteps. As M. Legros entered by one door, the steward disappeared through another. I became at once immersed in my novel.
The same party sat down to dinner that had met at breakfast. Each of them addressed a few words to me in English, and treated me with the utmost courtesy; but, as before, the chief part of the conversation was kept up in a language of which I knew nothing. When dinner was over, cigarettes and cards were introduced, and I was invited by M. Legros to form one in a rubber of whist. This, however, I declined to do, and went back to my book instead. And so a couple of hours sped quietly away.
At length I said to M. Legros: ‘If you have no objection, and these gentlemen will not think it rude on my part, I will retire to my berth.’
‘Do so by all means,’ he answered. ‘But if I were you, I would only partially undress. It is by no means unlikely that you may be called in a hurry.’
About four hours later, I was called in a hurry. A tap came to my door, and the voice of Legros said: ‘Are you awake, monsieur? If so, be good enough to dress as quickly as possible.’
Five minutes later I joined him in the saloon.