The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1900-02-23
CHAPTER XIII,
THE STUDENTS STORY.

- IA 1855 $500
student, sis, as you have rightly con,
Guided, your fathers brother. His real
address is Siberia. Ask your friends,
the police, and they will tell You that
this is so Indeed they will assure you
that our good friend is still enjoying a
dogs life ia the mines, somewhere near
Sakhalin.
Every well. But, as you are aware,
he is nothing Of the sort. He is here
and engaged in certain very important
and very secret arrangements, MS to
which | may have more to say at a
later period, supposing that it should
be worth your while to come to terms
with me.
"Well, then, in order to be here your
respected unclo must have first left ST.
IBERIA He did so, He left the mines
without permission Of the authorities
In a word, he escaped and came to st
Petersburg. Capital-a very well con
ceived and c~leverly executed escape, as
to which ! may some day. ever another
bottle of wine, amuse you with the de
tails, but at present | desire to come
quickly to the main interest of the
story.
"Cleverly as friend Andre escaped
however, the police--for once in their
J lives-showed some little sagacity in
following up the matter, They could
not catch him on the spot, neither could
they find him through all the thousands
of miles that lie between Sakhalin and
st. Petersburg, but by some Glance
they found him in st, Petersburg itself
shortly after his arrival here Very un'
lucky this, as you will admit.
well, they Swallowed him, having
once got upon his scent, and, though
Andre was clever enough to keep out OF
their clutches, the position became
strained, and a meeting Of certain PEG.
pie was held in order to devise some
means Of relieving the strain.
Zone Of the ~bloodhounds died about
this time. BY ~bloodhounds I mean those
who did the shadowing and hunting for
the authorities. He died Of loss of blood
caused by a rent in his carcass made by
some sharp steel substance, such as the
blade Of a knife.
HE was murdered, you mean" / in.
UCAl VptGu ~ OlSS usl, SOu lOIsltc uS
for harboring in the house such rascals
a. Andre and yourself and for dealing
with you instead Of handing you over
to justice, as we ought to do. ~
"You are positively rude, my friend
continued the student. land extremely
unjust besides, to one Of us, at any
rate, Andre may be all you imply, but
then he is a near relative Of yours and
entitled to indulgence from the respect
able members of his family, but l.
what i'll do you know Of met | am an
innocent lamb, incapable Of hurt OF
harm. | am telling you a picturesque
story of the adventures of this near rel.
alive Of your own What have l to do
with it2 ! am narrator only"
"Stop," l said. "What has all this
TO do with my fatherY You are not to
sappose that ! shall submit to be put
of with your conceitedly told yarns
about Others unless they carry substan,
tial information as to my father and his
whereabouts The check can be stopped
and you arrested
"And you can do just what the blood.
hound aforesaid did, my companion
laughed, land that is, lie down in some
dark porch or gateway, with a big hole
In you, and take your last look up at
the stars while your blood runs over
the pavement, But surely we need not
quarrel ever a grievance which does not
exist am coming to your precious
father in a minute or two
zee on, then" | said, | was begin.
ming to loathe the sight Of this little
toad Of a man,
"Well, the bloodhound died, as
say, but another was Put upon the
scent, and, when he died, a third, and
still they would not let Andre alone,
though they could not catch him,
"Then, at last, one of us--I mean,
n Of the body of men and patriots
who We're privileged to call themselves
the friends of Authenticated a very
brilliant plot for the relief of Andre
and for the getting of him safely over
the frontier, which-ardently as our
friend desired to go abroad for the good
of his health and for the advantage of
certain projects in which he was inter.
ested-had been hitherto quite impossi-
BILE, owing to the care with which the
authorities had laid their plans to pre-
vent II,
"The railway stations bristled with
gendarmes and ununiformed police
spies, In fact-and the frontier was
guarded as though it were a powder
magazine and some M had threatened
TO put a match to 1t,
"Now, this was the plan, and you
must listen very carefully to it, for |
an pledged to interest you, and the
|, 1000 ruhles In my pocket have been
paid me for what am going to tell you
next.
"Rut a. this part of the tale Is 90
very interesting we will drink a glass
II wine to steady our nerves.
"pvipk the whole bottle and b
hanged, only 90 ont" ! raved,