, 1904-06-15

out of you before | am done. | am Colo
mel Jurnieff."
1.-The uncle of Almag'
Eyes, the uncle of Alma"
"Then you already knew the name or
the girl I love. and your questions were
simply perfuhctory. | demand in JUS
tice that | be released"
"That will be settled later. Just now
you are my prisoner. Take him TO the
prison of detention
Two soldiers forced Harvey to ac-
them. Then Colonel Jurnieff
fell into a study.
"This dog is right" he said. THE
order was our own. This espionage I'M
der which we have kept him was not
by order of the minister of police. but
at the request of the general, my oroth-
er. | must silence him somehow. lie IS
irrepressible and will do us harm. He
must never be acquitted OF this cnarSe,
no matter what the evidence may be.
With Alma here and that fellow III 81
IBERIA there will be distance enough be-
tween them to save us from further
care"
Harvey saw no one for several days
except the guard who brought his
meals. One day the guard, as he push
ed the dinner through the door. said
to Harvey: Il have been paid well to
hand you this. Take it. Swallow 1t
when you have read it."
1t was a tote written on thin paper
In pencil. 1t read:
MY Dear NJ. Irons-I have been weeping
my eyes out since l learned that you were
In prison. After our meeting at the fair
last year my father sent me here to Colo
mel Jurnieff, his brother. l have been al
most a prisoner ever since. l have not
been able to ascertain where you were.
Your letters. wen had you known where
l was, would have been seized.
/ assure you l know you were not
guilty of killing M. Biartelkis or taking
away his daughter, but my uncle will try
to have you convicted and sent to Siberia.
l shall do all | can to reach your Ameri-
can representative at st. Petersburg, but
may not be able to accomplish it. | have
but two friends. One of them is bribing
the guard to give you this. Whatever
happens. remember 1 love you and be-
lieve in you. ALMA.
Harvey kissed the note and sobbed
MY poor darling" he murmured.
Bit by bit he chewed the paper and
swallowed it.
Then came the trial. The tribunal
was semimilitary. Colonel Jurnieff and
Captain Orskoff were present. The
magistrate, a stern old man. looked
with unsympathetic eyes upon Harvey
n nd with IAathinn ttt1nn HaScnn Cnn-
tain Orskoff first offered what he knew
or what he did not know, which Har-
vey felt amounted to the same thing SO
far as his chances were concerned.
"In performing my duties during the
fair" said the captain, Il saw Hafiz
Effendi, who was known to be a dealer
in the slave girls of Circassia and Geor-
gia before his imperial highness the
z issued his ukase that all such traf-
fc be stopped. l watched Hafiz Effen-
di, but could discover nothing that
would lead me to believe he contem-
plated breaking the law. l saw him
with this mar from Bokhara who calls
himself Milk, and when l learned that
Biartelkis and Koura were missing
suspected them. They denied having
anything to do with the crime. Ac-
cording to the brother of Hafiz, who
keeps a coffee house, both of them
spent that night at his place. There
was no one at the bazaar who could
tell where the proprietor had gone, |
discovered hat u boat manned chiefly
by native sailors and captained by
Hassan, a Turk. had left Tifis during
the night. No one had seen the boat
depart, and there seemed to me some
thing mysterious in this. | sent word
to Lieutenant Thokt. who at once start
ed to intercept the boat. The gunboat
overlook Hassan on the Caspian. He
had spoken a vessel with a black hull,
but the persons on board evidently
wished to have nothing to do with
Hassan, for the black boat went away
Lieutenant Thokt arrived in time to
prevent the escape of Hassan. He can
tell himself what he did"
Il went IN board" said Lieutenant
Thokt, land found Hassan In COM
mand and this other prisoner, evidently
as much in a hurry to escape as Has
san. He said he was an American 60
ing to Astrakhan. The vessel had not
at any time been headed for the Volga.
Hassan told me his story and the
American told me his. They agreed in
some respects, but differed In others.
| found Koura Biartelkis on board, a
prisoner, and brought her back to Tif1is
and arrested Hassan and the Ameri-
can"
20 great mes of earth!'' moaned
Hassan when called upon to speak for
himself. ut is with trembling tongue
l attempt to tell even the truth, for
what am 1? What am l that l should