“Well, yes, if you choose to call it so,” he said, rather resentfully, I thought. “We merely assist our countrymen to escape the police, and they pay toll for our aid,” he added. “She heard you were inquiring for her, here in Skerstymone, and has sent me as messenger to take you to her. She fears to come herself.”
I looked steadily at the man, and saw for the first time that, although a moujik, he was nevertheless a sturdy adventurer, whose brow was deeply furrowed by hardship.
“And you wish me to pay toll like the others?” I exclaimed with a smile.
“If we act as guide we are surely entitled to something. There are many risks,” he answered, puffing at his cigarette, afterwards examining it with the air of a connoisseur.
“How much?”
“The high nobility is rich,” he replied. “He was once at the English Embassy in St Petersburg. Let us say two hundred roubles.”
“Two hundred, to be paid only in Sonia’s presence,” I acquiesced eagerly. Truth to tell, I would have paid five hundred, or even a thousand for safe conduct to her.
“It’s a bargain,” he answered, draining his glass. “Meet me to-night at ten o’clock at this place. I hope you are a good walker, for we must travel by the secret paths. The post-road would mean arrest for me; it might also go rather hard with you to be found in my company.”
“I can walk well,” I answered. “To-night at ten.”
Then I ordered more vodka, and after drinking success to our midnight journey, he rose and left me, bending a good deal as he shuffled along the street in his old frieze overcoat many sizes too large for him.