Worcester Democrat and the ledger-enterprise. (Pocomoke City, Md.) 1921-1953, 1936-12-18
CHAPTER IL

The motorboat bearing Sonia and
Puycassou rescued the stranded party.
They moored the Hydra to the bank,
lifted the wounded girl carefully and
carried her to a sod hut on the bank of
the river. Then they brought Mar
skine in.
Tatiana had been shot through the
right lung. The wound was serious,
yet not necessarily fatal if she could
get the proper medical attention. But
what could they do?
She had been placed on a bed of
dried grass. Her lips were pale, blood
less, and she gazed in bewilderment
at the grave, worried men and the
anxious Sonia. Running her hand thru
the latter's golden hair, she asked:
"Who are you, my pretty one?'
"Sonia Strogoff, Your Highness."
The name brought a smile to the
unfortunate woman's mouth.
II should have known it from your
devotion. Thank you, Sonia, I shall
pray for you in heaven with your faith
err"
She coughed sharply.
"Your Highness must not talk, "
begged Sonia. "Well save you."
There was a sigh from the group Of
men. How could they save her?
"First of all, let's bandage the
wound" said Puycassou. II went
through tn whole war and know some
thing about first-aid."
/ He drew a first-aid kit from his
pocket. Sonia brought water and
gently washed the blood away from
the narrow puncture. The newspaper
man, with deft fingers, placed gauze
pad over the wound and bandaged it
in place. At his touch, gentle as that
of a woman's Tatiana's eyes filled
with tears. Her hand sought and
found the hand of the young girl sit
ting beside her.
"Let's leave them alone" suggested
Jean. "We'll take Narskine and put
him by the wall outside, so he won't
bother them or hear what we say;
then we'll go down by the river and
see what we can plan."
Narskine made no protest, either by
word or motion, when they carried him
outside. Sir Herbert seemed crushed;
Otto, half asleep; Puycassou, worried.
The situation had never seemed so
grave.
Forgive me, Sir Herbert" Jean
went on. "But I'm sorry that your :.
this Narskine, is alive. What can
we do? How long can we keep him
with us? If we leave him, he will de-
nounce us, you can be sure of it. The
roles are reversed now. We're taking
the princess away and he will be on
our trail"
The Englishman looked grieved and
worried.
"Then there's the princess. IF we
don't get her to shelter and obtain
some specialist she'll die. If we can
get the right doctors, she's saved.
Should we take her to Astrakhan by
boat? She'll either be dead when we
get there or she'll be put in the pris-
on infirmary. Staying here, we'll be
captured"
Puvcassou cut in-"And they're
looking for us because of that bust
ness at Kazan."
Jean the artist, turned to him.
~ can relieve your mind on that
score. There's been on trouble about
the Kaxan affair. Nobody suspects
us or connects us with the fire. The
coachman did not talk.
"When we reached Kazan, bound
and gagged in the bottom of the coach,
the horse went directly to the stables,
and there we found the coachman. We
hadn't tied him very well and he had
fled at the first signs of the fire. Be
lieving it was some business of the
G. P. u, he let us loose, holding a
finger to his lips to show us we should
keep quiet"
"That's a stroke of luck!" cried the
reporter, visibly relieved. "Lf ever
get back to my paper I'll write some
thing about that . Then what hap
pened?"
1--WE went to the hotel. Sir Herbert
phoned the British Ambassador at Mos
cow for his letter of credit. we took
the next train, taking your baggage
as well as ours"
"Our baggage? Where is it now?'
1--WE forwarded it to Novorossisk or
the Blask Sea, where we can pick il
up later"
eyes :. but that doesn't get US out
Of this mess" grumbled Jean.
Well let's see how much fuel is left il