The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-13
CHAPTER XXI. A Figure in the Straw.

ture nor any adornment whatever. A l thick carpet of straw, giving fiecks of | gold wherever the sunlight struck down upon it. had been laid to such 8 depth that grawn man might have concealed himself therein. A few empty bales | stood here and there as though thrown | down at hazard; there were coils of rope i and great blocks of timber used by the 1 steyedores who loaded the barges But i of the common things of daily life not | trace. No tables no chairs, neither bed nor blanket adorn this rude habitation. Let a sergeant of police open his lantern there and the tousled straw would an- swer him as mockery. This, for truth, had been the case. Little Lois could tell a tale of Cossacks on the barge, even of rifles fired down into the hold, and of a child's heart beating so quickly that she thought she must cry out for very pain of it. But that was before the men were told that the ship belonged to merry Herr Petermann. They went away at once then-to drink the old fellows beer and to laugh with him.
 That had been a terrible day and Lois had never forgotten it. Whenever old Petermann opened the door of his office now, she would start and tremble as though Cossacks hand already touched her shoulder. Sometimes she lay deep down In the straw, afraid to declare her
 
 her. And so it was upon that morning of Alban's visit.
 Old Petermann had shut the cabin door behind him and disereetly left the young people together. Seeing little in the deep gloom and his eyes blinking wherever he turned them, Alban stood almost knee-deep in straw and cried Lois name aloud.
 'Lois-where arc you Lofs-why don't you answer mel"
 She erept from the depths at his very feet and shaking the straw from her pretty hair, she stood upright and put both her arms upon his shoulders.
 "I am here, Alb dear. just waiting for youS Won't you kiss me, Alb dear?'
 He put his arms about her neck and kissed her at her wish-xjust brother might have kissed sister in the hour of her peril
 q came at once, Lois" he said, "of course I did not understand that it would be like this. Why are you here? What ever has dlappened-what does it all mean? will you not teach me to understand, Lois?'
 "Sit by my side, Alb dear, sit down and listen to me. I want you to know what your friends have been doing. on, I have been so lonely, so frightened, and I don't deserve that. You know that my father is in prison Alb-the Count told you that?'
 q heard it before I left England, Lois You did not answer my letters2
 q was ashamed to, dear. That was the first thing they taught me at the school-to be ashamed to write to you until you would not be ashamed to read my letters Can't you understand, Alb? Wasn't I right to be ashamed?
 She buried her head upon his breast and put a little hot hand into his own.
 rd ba1. whole being and brought 8 sense of hap piness very foreign to him lately. How gentle and kindly this little waif of Tor tune had even been. And how even those few weeks of a better schooling had ini- proved her. She had shed all the old vulgarities-she was just simple schooi girl as he would have wished her to be- eve are never right to be ashamed be- fore those who love us, Alban sald kindly; you did not write to me and how was I to know what had happened? UT course your father told you what l had been doing and why l went away rom Union street? It was all his kindness know it now and I have come to Russia to thank him-when he is free. That won't be very long now that have found you. They were frightened of you, I,ois-they thought you were going to be- tray their secrets to the Revolutionary party I knew that you would not do sol said so all along.
 She looked upat him with glowing eyes, and putting her lips very close to his ear she said:
 ..r loved you, Alb-I never could have told them while I loved you-not even to save my father, and God knows how nuoh I love him. Did not they say that you were very happy with Mr. Gessher! There would have been no more hap piness if I had told them
 And that is what kept you silent Lois?
 her face again. she asked him question which surprised him greatly.
 DO YOU know why the police wished to arrest me, Alb dear?
 How could I know that, Lols?'
 Tt was the Count who told them to do so. He is only deceiving you dear. He does not want to release my father ana will never do so If I were in prison too he thinks that MT. Gessner would he quite safe. Do not trust the Count if vou would help us. My people under stand him and they will punish him some day He has done great wrong to many in Warsaw. and he deserves to De punished You must remember this, dear, when he promises my fathers freedom. He is not telling you the trurh-he IS ohly asking you to punish me.
 "But Lois, what have you done. what charge can they bring against little school girl?'
 q am my fathers daughter she said proudly, s"that is why they would punish me. Oh, you don't know, dear. Even the little children are criminals in War saw, My father escaped from Saghalen and I have no right to live in Russia. When he sent me to school here did not come under my own name; they called me Lois Werner and I believed l was German. Then my people heard that Count Sergius wished to have me arrest ed. and they took me away from the school and brought me here. Herr Peter mann is one of my fathers oldest friends. He has saved a great many who would be in prison but for his kindness. We can trust Herr Petermann, dear-he will never betray us
 Alban understood but he had no an- swer ready for her. All that she had told him filled him with unutterable con- tempt toward the men he had but lately considered as his patrons and his friends. The polished courtly Sergius, his mas ter Richard Gessner-to what duplieity had they not stopped, nay, to what treachery? For they had sent him into Russia, not to befriend this child, but to put the ultimate shame of a Russian prison upon her-the cell, the lash, the unnamable infamy. As in flash he de- tected the whole conspiracy and laid It bare. He. Alban Kennedy, had been chosen as their instrument-he had been sent to Poland to condemn this nttie friend of the dreadful years to the living death in a Russian prison. The pIoou oad In his vens at the thought. Fer