The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-09-15

mon call him rogue, despot, or thief, and he would shrug his shoulders and glance aside at his profit and loss &C., count. But let them call him fool" and the end of his days surely was at hand.
 l And so this self-examination tonight
 troubled itself with no thought of wrongs committed. with no desire to repay, but only with that supreme act of folly, to which the sleeping lad in the room nearby was the surest witness. What would the l threats of such a pauper as Paul Boris koff have mattered if the man had stood alone against him? A word to the police,
 a hundred pounds to a score of ruffians.
 and he would have been troubled no more. l But >his quarrel was not with q man but a nation. PerceiVing that the friendship
 of the Russian government was necessary
 to many of his mining schemes in the 1 east, he had changed his name as light ly as another would have changed his coat, had cast the garments of a sham
 patriotism and emerged an enemy to all
 that he had hitherto befriended, foe to l Poland, servant to Russia.
 Acting secretly and with a strong mans i discretion, no bruit of this odd conver-
 sation had been made public. no whisper | of it heard in the camp of the revolution 1 aries. Many knew Maxim Gogol-none 1 had heard of Richard Gessn T. His de- | sire for secrecy was in good accord with l the plans of a police he assisted and the l bureaucracy he bribed. He lived for
 while in Vienna, then at Tifiis-he came l at length to England. where his daugh- l ter had been educated: and there he es- 1 tabished himself ostenslbly a wealthy banker, in reality as the secret director 1 of one of the greatest conspiraotes against 1 the liberty of q little nation that the world 1 had ever seen.
 Upon such a man the blow of discovery 1 fell with stunning force. Gessner had l grown so accustomed to the security of this suburban life that he could imagine no circumstance which might disturb it. All that he did for the satisfaction of | the Russian government had been clever ly done by agents and deputies. Entitled l by his years to leisure, he had latterly almost abandoned politics for a culture of the arts and the sciences, in some
 branches of which he was a master To contrive for her an alliance worthy of his own fortune and of her beauty had become the absorbing passion of his life. He studied the Peerage as other men study balance sheet. All sorts and com ditons of possible husbands appeared at
 "B'lve Gables:' were dined, discussed and
 dismissed. The older families despised him and would not be appeased To
 crown his vexation. his daughter named 1 lover for herself. He had twice shown Capt. Willy Forrest from the door and
 
 fascinated by this showy adventurer as by none other who visited them. Cess
 ner for his part. would sooner have lost the half of his fortune than that she should have married him.
 These vacations had been real enough ten days ago; but to night a greater made light of them, and now they were almost
 forgotten. Detection had stalked out of the slums to humble this man In an in stant and bring him to his knees. Cess ner could have rected to you the most
 trivial details attending the reception of Paul Boriskoffs letter and the claim it
 made upon him-how a secretary had passed 1t to him with suggestion that Scotland Yard should know of It, how he had taken up the scrawl idly enough to flush before the mall an instant later and to feel his heart sink in an abyss | of unutterable dismay He had crumpled the dirty paper in his hand, he remem- bered. and thrown 1t to the ground-to
 pick 1t up immediately and smooth it out as though 1t were a precious document. i To his secretary he tried to explain that l the writer was an odd fanatic who must | be humored. Determined at the first blush to face the matter out, to answer and to defy this pauper Pole who had 1 dared to threaten him, he came ultimate 1 ly to see that discretion would best serve him. Paul Boriskoff had named Ken sington Gardens as a rendezvous where 1 matters might be discussed. Gessner was there to the ruinute-without Idea, with
 out hope. seeking only that pity which he himself had never bestowed upon any hu-
 man being
 Paul Boriskoff did not hurry to the Gardens, sure was he of the success of his undertaking. The frowsy black coat, in which he made his bow to the millionaire, had not seen the light for
 many years-his hat was a wide-brimmed l trto In, Pa1t xpbI Ioh 1 lighted the nursemaids which passed him l by. Gessner would never have recog-
 nized, in the hollow-cheeked. pale-faced l humble creature. the sturdy young Pole 1 who had come to him nearly a generation 1 ago and had said, Our fortunes are
 made; this Is my discovery" Believing l at the moment that money would buy
 such a derelict, body and soul, he opened l the negotiations firmly and in that lofty tone which suited Throgmorton street so
 well. But five minutes had not passed l before he understood his mistake and realized that Borlskoff, the lad who had
 trusted him, and Borlskofr. the Pole who l now threatened him, were one and the i same after all.
 "I remember you perfectly" he said; l "it would be idle to say that I do not. 1 You had some claim In the matter of certain furnace. Yes, I remember that
 and would willingly admit 1t. But, my friend you fell Into trouble with the gov 1 ernment, and what could I do thenP Was l not I also compelled to leave Poland? l Did not l change my name for that very reason? How could I repay the debt? l Here in England 1t is different. You
 make your existence known to me and
 respond at once. Speak freely, then. for 1 shall hear you patiently"
 They were seated on a bench beneath
 a chestnut in full bloom. Distantly, through a vista of giant trunks the wa
 ters of the Round Pond glimmered in the l evening light Children, worn out by the
 day, sat idle in groups on the benches of
 the Long Walk or Jagged through fitful
 game on the open spaces between the | trees. Few observed these two men who
 thus earnestly recalled the drama of their 1 lives; none remarked their odd associa- 1 ton, for were not both obviously for 1 eigners and who shall dictate a fashion
 to such as they? Indeed they conversed 1 without any animation of gesture. the one 1 convulsed by fears he did not dare to eX-
 press, the other by hopes on the thres-
 hold of realization
 .I sneak freely" said Boriskoff with
 unaffected candor, flor to do that have l come here. And first I must set your ! memory right In matter that concerns l us both You did not leave Poland to i serve your country; you left it to betray
 us. Spare your words, for the story has i been told many times in Warsaw and In i London. Shall I give you the list of 1 those who are tortured today at Sagha- i lien because of what you did? It would l be vain for if you have any feeling, even l that of a dog, they are remembered by l you,> You betrayed the man who trusted