Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1899-12-27
CHAPTER v.

PLADJA, THE FINN, EXPLAINS HIMSELF.
1t was the colonel who broke the 81.
lence. He held out his hand with a
frank smile. speaking in excellent Eng.
lish.
1--WE owe you great thanks. SIR" he
said. 'for aid most opportune. But for
your assistance fear we should have
been compulsory passengers aboard the
gunboat you have SO yaliantly beaten
off, sailing for Cronstadt, which In my
case. at any rate, would have meant a
very early death. We should have
ranked as prisoners, but not of war;"
"But why" staInmered Desmond.
"Surely the fact of your vessel bearing
ccntraband of war doesn't affect your
unfortunately" replied the colonel,
at belonged to me. l. see l must ey-
plain little. The fact is, l have had
my little differences with the paternal
government Of the czar. and n few
thousand of my fellow countrymen-I
have the honor to be a Pole-took
upon ourselves to reason with our Rus
sian administrators on q matter of
sentiment. We objected to their meth
DDS and perhaps were a tri1e forcible
In our manner Of expressing our ideas.
In fact, as you probably are aware"
continued he. 1--WE killed few thou
sand Of them a year or two back"
Desmond held out his hand. IF you
are one of the Polish patriots, sir,
should like to shake hands with you
again. BY Jove, wish we'd sunk
those brutes! But how in the world
did you come to be pursued? Where
did you sail from"
"as think heard our friend here in
form you"
"Of course. I forgot. But how in
the world did Russian gunboat come
to be on your trail from Bremen"
"I see l must give you the whole
story. Besides my Polish property,
have good deal of land ON the Baltic
coast. This has been confscated by
the paternal government aforesaid, to-
gether with what own elsewhere.
The creature whom they have in
stalled as their agent is, l much regret
to say my cousin. This vile wretch
found out, by some means unknown to
me, my presence in Bremen and noti-
fed the executive. He was, in fact,
the gentleman who bid US that dra-
matte farewell from the gunboat's deck
just now. How he got his gunboat
timed to meet us In the Baltic i cannot
say. Probably we were watched leav-
ing Bremen harbor. Anyway, there we
were, and the result we have seen."
But the contraband of war-he must
have known of that or wouldn't have
dared to stop ship under the stars
and stripes"
"That he doubtless heard of from
the same source whence he got the
news Of my movements. You must un-
derstand," continued ths colonel, smil-
ing, that the executive put an exag-
gerated value on the control of my
person and talents. l fear have been
ing to the fact that your British gov
ernment had begun seriously to agree
with me in my estimate Of Russian af-
fairs that ] thought the time was ripe
again to bring forward my old argu-
ments. The rifles and powder were to
have been landed farther north--on my
own old estates, In fact-and rising
fomented. This was due to the fact that
we had information that the country
side was drained of troops for the
south. fear now that further action
In the matter has been prevented by
this untimely ARRAY"
"Well. am still more proud and
thankful, now hear the rights Of the
case, that we got to you In time" said
Desmond. But how can serve you
now?"
"My dear sir, you pile up the obliga.