The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1890-01-01
LOLA PULASKI;
The Victim Of Circumstan-
! tial Evidence.
A Stog Of NihIllstic Plsttlngs and Crimes.
By LEON EDWARDS.
CHAPTER XVI.

CHAPTER XVI.
INTHE DARE.
But you are innocent--l know
that"
AYE, Lance, innocent and YET
guilty"
"I do not understand you"
"Then I will De palmer. You know
certain person drew a prize on New
Years Night2"
Number three-her cell Is the same
number"
II swore to take her place and I pre-
pared myself for the work" -.
@And she kept you from carrying ii
out"
GLOW do you know?"
II know great deal, said Lance,
tapping his bulging forehead. "But
let me tell you, comrade. if you do this
thing, the sacrifice will not avail.
"But why not?"
because the authorities are deter
mined to get rid of Lola Pulaski"
"You are sure?"
"I am certain. Count Linwold is at
the bottom of it. I stick close to the
prison, but bless you, I have flocks OF
little birds that bring me the news
from the palace. You know 1 once
lived there---1as once an officer of the
guards, but suspicion fastened on me.
Conspiracy made me guilty Of crime,
and was sentenced to this prison for
/ life. I am as much prisoner as the
worst criminal, though friends had my
sentence committed, so that the pris-
oner became the cerberus, the recorder
of the Neva Jail. Bah! what is life
when a man can't own it? Come. fill
up. What no more? Well, I will drink
for the two; brandy is curse to the
whole-hearted, but it is the friend, the
one true friend of the outcast with a
memory"
- Lance filed his glass to the brim,
and drained it off as if it had been
water; then he rose and said, SIS he
glanced at q clock above one of the
doors:
what can I do for you, comrade?"
admit me to the prison"
"What, and earn the reward? Come,
come, I am not that kind of a man."
Il must see Lola tonight, and you
can arrange it," said Ivan, rising and
laying his hand on the giants arm.
"You would subject me to danger. /"
"Where can we go? What can we
do in st. Petersburg without danger?
I ask you in the name Of our sacred
,oroa tn So this thino
"I can't refuse" said Lance, reach
ing out his big, hairy hand and seizing
Ivan's.
"Now, comrade," said Lance, as he
prepared to accompany Ivan to the
Neva prison, across the street, 81
shall test your skill at disguise. For
one hour you can take the character OF
Maux, that hideous devil of turnkey"
"I've seen him." said Ivan.
"Oh, he is one of US. You shall see
him again, and he'll stand before you
while you make yourself up"
= By this time they were out on the
kreet and making for the rear of the
prison, whose towering wall rose grim
and black before them.
Taking key from his pocket, Lance
opened little door, or gate in the
thick wall, closed it again, and pro-
duced dark lantern from the breast
Of his shaggy coat.
It would be quite impossible to de-
scribe the twistings and windings,
through ponderous doors and along
gloomy passage ways by which the two
men entered the Neva prison, without
coming in contact with the officials in
the front of the building.
Directly under the reception room
were a number of dingy apartments oc-
cupied by the turnkeys and subordi-
nate officials, all of whom were ex-con-
yicts, though in Russia this would not
imply that they were necessarily GRIM
inals.
Leaving Ivan in one of these wretch
ed apartments, Lance went out and,
after q few minutes, brought back
Maux, the turnkey.
The man seemed to understand what
was wanted of him, for, without word
he took off his outer clothing, which
Ivan proceeded to change for his own.
From the pockets of the clothes he
he had laid aside, Ivan produced q
beard and whiskers, which, with lit
tie trimming, looked exactly Like
Maux's.
With little candle grease and burnt
cofk, laid on by the aid of cracked
looking-glass, Ivan soon made up his
face so that even Lance could not tell
the men apart, and this resemblance
extended even to the shutting walk,
and the hoarse, muf1ed voice.
n Snow, comrade," said Lance, after
Rhe had expressed his surprise at the
transformation, "you look like Maux,
the turnkey; you walk like him, and
YOU talk like him; and so far SO good.
But you don't know about the ways Of
the prison nor the numbers of the
cells. Disguises and resemblances are
at the best only superficial. Come
yith me, however, and if you should be
seen you'll pass for Maux, whose duty
it is to tonight to pace all the corridors
once an hour, and see that none of the
Door wretches is trying to eat through
granite walls and iron DOORS"
"Ha" growled Maux, "if I had tbs
Gear and all his tools in my watching
they'd hardly eat their way out. Curse
them, I'd rattle on their doors every
ten minutes, so that they could MOI
even sleep"
patience, patience, Maux, and dom
talk too loud" said Lance, as he tool
Ivan's hand and left the dingy room.
Through damp, gloomy labyrinth:
they passed, and at length they as
cended o narrow stairs, and stood close