Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1883-05-02


walked along, keeping step 10 the melody
of an old school song that she hummed.
This was a real adventure
As the evening shadows began TO close
darkly, she reached the town and made
her way through the dim streets, throng-
ing with grave men and women, and
solemn, squalid children munching their
little portions of black bread and green
cucumbers; past the stores with their
signs, looking like alphabets gone mad,
so twisted and inverted seemed the Rus
sian letters; and at length, tired and
jaded, she reached the hotel.
She felt too strange and weary to note
the suspicious looks cast at her, or the
hesitation with which she was at length
shown 10 room; and she attributed the
curious alertness of the servant who
brought her supper to his eagerness to UNI
derstand her not very legible gestures.
Overcome by the long walk through
the chill evening air, Agnes fell asleep
almost as soon as her head touched the
pillow, and she was placidly dreaming of
home and friends when, with a great
start, she awoke.
For moment she lay in the stupor
~
she heard distinctly a great rapping, a
confused murmur of voices, and saw a
stream of light that had crept under the
badly hung door.
For an instant she lay trembling and
hesitating; then, upon the imperative
summons being third time repeated,
she hastily threw her travelling mantle
about her and opened the door.
Without stood her landlord, his sullen
countenance more forbidding than ever
as only half-revealed by the dim light of
the Pickering candle carried by some one
who stood beside him, some one whose
uniform bespoke him to be one of the
sons of the Russian Wars.
At the same time the two men en-
deavored to explain matters to the fright
ened girl, but their language was to her
as the chattering of some wild beast.
"Oh, why did we come into this dread
full country, she thought, desperately
trying to catch some clue to the meaning
of this ill-timed visit, as the men talked
on more and more vehemently, adding
emphatic gestures to their words. "Why
did not study Russian in place of Latin,
which j never can useY' getting more
and more confused as the torrent of
words poured on.
Leaving the ge,addrme to watch the
girl, the landlord at last went away, only
to return with hastily awakened, sleepy
looking man who winked and blinked rs
the feeble light of the candle fell upon
his half-open eyes.
"Your passport" he said to Agnes, in
broked English.
Her passport!
Her purse she had attached to her
chatelaine, but everything else she had
left in the car, and Clement had charge
of all such matters as passports.
81 haven't it," she replied, looking up
at the last conner with appealing eyes.
"You see, got off the train to pick these
flowers" motioning to the poor faded
bunch that lay on small table, "and
was left behind"
The interpreter only misunderstood
this explanation. He would have
doubted its trnth could he have fully
gathered the meaning. Leaving car
for those weedsW IncredibleW
AS it was, he explained to the Others
that the young lady had no passport.
Three pair of eyes cast suspicious looks
at Agnes; three heads wagged sagely.
"But the landlord saw it when | was
here BEFORE" she gasped, reading trouble
in their suspicious glances.
More suspicious looks and head shak-
ing
She had been there before and gone
away; for what had she returned? In
these days of social revolt and mysterious
al IA, ,ta.l.t
be of dire import; even her sex was
against her, SO many girls and young
women had been proven guilty of treason
against the Government.
Nothing could be done in the dead of
the night, however, and at last the three
disappeared, leaving the girl in an agony
of fear.
All, how bright her life seemed now !!
how small and trivial all her discomfort
How willingly she would be with her
friends, even listening to the two old
ladies as they gossiped of this one and
that, blindly flattering themselves that
their language was an unknown tongue
to her, while Clement and Mabel sat
apart conversing in low tones. Her far
away home appeared before her strained
old affections What would all the dear
ones do, could they but know her plight?
With the morning came brighter hopes.
Surely there would be some one whom
she could explain all the unlucky cir
cumstance.
With happier face, she dressed her
self and opened her door to go to the
breakfast room. Almost upon the thresh-
old gendarme stood, guarding the exit
lie made no objection to her passing him,
however, but followed close at her heels
At the table every guest turned to
look Mt her; all eyes were fastened upon
her as the soldier took his station behind
her chair. Agnes grew hysterical under
their searching glances. She covered
her face and laughed nervously.
"Would the girls believe all thisW she
thought, her mind wandering from the
room with its gaping, breakfast-forgetting
people and the immovable figure behind
her, to her own cosy little nest, and a
group of open-mouthed, idcredulous com
rades to whom she might some day tell
the adventure.
The meal over affairs took even more
serious turn. The dull mind of the land
lord was really aroused, and, more than
all, he was eager to attain the notoriety
such circumstance would give him. To
arrest Nihilist, young girl also, UNI
der his very roof, what better proof could
the officials have of his loyalty? His son,
hot-headed Socialist, would then be
secure from all these sour looks when he
came on his fitful visits to his parents
So the worthy host talked away to all
who would listen, telling of deeply-laid
plot hidden under all this innocent SEEM
ing, while Agnes returned to her room to
while away the hours that must elapse
ere she could leave the inn with its
strange inhabitants.
81 could explain it easily, if only
knew more French" she said to herself
as she sat listening to the measured tread
of the sentinel in the hallway; "but
what received French grammar ever
taught such sentences as Il was left be-
hind by the western-bound train. when I