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Show - . I L BY GEORGE HORTON ' - ' i Copyrighted, 1900, by Tk Bobbe-lIrrf3 Company. ; of Russia,' made of disaffected Russians. Poles. Finns, even .Jews all who hate this accursed Government." : Hardy glanoed at the boy. marveling much at the revelation of bate In that ingenuous word, "accursed." , ' , "Why are you an enemy of Rueslar he asked. .. . "Oh. for no particular reason." faltered the boy. turning pale. "I perhaps I am not. And the nihilists all disappeared, as though the earth had swallowed them up. Not a thing was left to prove the identity of a member, except one costly, fur-lined overcoat, which proves that this society numbers among its members some of the wealthier classes, perhaps of the nobility. I tell you" and Wang etruck the paper with his right hand In his excitement "that this country la a house divided against itself. Leave It alone and It will work out Its own destruction, and salvation!" sal-vation!" The boy's eyes were flashing now and his cheeks were so aflame with excitement excite-ment that the scar nearly disappeared. Hardy gulped down his coffee and started for the door. "If anybody calls for me. Wang," he said, "tell themthat I wlU be back in an hour." He did return In that time, wearing an exact duplicate of the overcoat that he had lost the night before. And still there was no sign of the police. He felt reassured. re-assured. Had there been any telltale letters, let-ters, cards or documents In the pockets of the missing garment, the officers of the law, he reasoned, would have lost no time In laying hands on him. If. on the other hand, no such proof existed, be reasoned, he would be tolerably safe. The police may have observed that he had been wearing a certain overcoat. Well, here he was, as far as appearances went, still possessing the same garment. For he had gone directly to Seltser & Gallanter and had made a clean breast to the head of the firm, whose Interest It was to protect pro-tect him. as the American Trading company com-pany was Seltser & Gallanter's best customer. cus-tomer. That they did their utmost in the premises, will appear by the sequel, for the police lost no time In visiting every clothing store In Moscow and in Instituting Institut-ing inquiries In all the principal cities of the empire. ' (To Be Continued.) CHAPTXaXXXVL' i . Hardy Buys an Overcoat. 1 They were In utter 'darkness now. Above could be heard a hoarse ' uproar, faint and confused, shouts and sounds of heavy boots on the flooring; here In the cellar, the shuffling feet of the escaping nihilists, the bump or rattle of an occasional occa-sional obstruction kicked or run against, muttered oaths. MordecaL still holding Hardy by the arm, pulled . him rapidly across the cellar until they stumbled ' against the feet of men crawling on the hands and knees. The American pitched forward on the back of one of these, who kicked at him savagely and swore a foul oath under his breath. '. "Get down," whispered Mordecal, "and crawl,, crawl with me!" They passed through an opening in the wall,, so low that it brought the American flat on his stomach, and still scratched his back. That It was barely wide enough far two at a time was evident from the tact that, though he had crowded close to Mordecal, the wall scraped his right elde. They were through in a trice and still In utter darkness. The sound of scuffling feet agalncould be heard the sound of nihilists fleeing. . " "The fools!" muttered Mordecal, "they forgot to put back the stone." It was evident from his grunts and a scratching sound that he . was struggling with some heavy object. "There," he muttered at last, "it Is flush now, and Just In time! Listen, my dear pupil, do you not hear them 7 They are In the cellar. Put your ear against the wall." - Hardy did as was requested, and he could Indeed hear faint sounds on the other side of the wall. "Where are we now?" he asked. "We are In the cellar of the adjoining house, belonging to a member of the order. or-der. The brothers have escaped by an underground passage by an old forgotten sewer. But it will not be safe for you to follow them. They will have recovered their wits by this time and some of them will lie in wait for you and kill you, feeling sure that you will tell what you have seen and heard.", Hardy's eyes were becoming accustomed accus-tomed to the darkness, and In the distance dis-tance he could see a slit of dim, gray light. He felt his way to It, striking a barrel and hitting his head against a hanging shelf on the way. By the sense of touch he assured himself that he had arrived at the cellar window, boarded up. and that the slit of gray light came though an Imperfect Joining- The door n - be somewhere near. With his fln-I fln-I i against the waU, he took several a,. J to the left without finding it; then hei returned to the right, made the same experiment, and his efforts were rewarded reward-ed with success. Mordecal was at his side. "What are vou ffoinff to do?" asked the Jew. , ' "I am going to walk boldly out of this door," replied Hardy. "The explosion will have drawn the whole neighborhood to the front of the house, on . the other street, and 1 shall not be noticed. If I am. I can explain how I -came here, and how I escaped. I am going to chance It. and the quicker the better" and he pushed back the heavy bolt which he had found by this time. "Good-bye. my friend, and thank you. I suppose you will rejoin your brethren. You have saved my life and I shall never frrget it. For your sake I will say nothing about what I have seen and heard this night. The nest Is broken up for the present and the police do not seem to need my aid." "Go. then." said Mordecal, "and farewell, fare-well, and lufk go with you! "I shall attempt at-tempt to escape ; alone. I shall not rejoin re-join those Ingrates. I became one of them to avenge the death of my mother, but there is no place for the Jew In Russia, Rus-sia, either among the friends or the enemies en-emies of the Government. I shall go back to America." ' "Good-bye." Kaid Hardy once more, "my dear friend and teacher" and he took the thin, clammy hand in his, pressing It warmly. "Good-bye!" sobbed Mordecal, "my dear pupil!" ' Hardy opened the door and stepped out. He closed It quietly behind him and ran up the cellar steps Into the starlight. He was In back yard surrounded by a high fence, over which a street lamp, peeping, cast its yellow gleam over a midnight world of snow. He walked briskly down a broad path, passed out of a gate into an alley and hurried away. As he had anticipated, no one noticed him. The half dosen police, who had been stationed at the rear of the adjoining house, had run around to the front to the aid of their brothers, on hearing the explosion. The American walked a couple of squares, then turned sharply to the right end gained the main street. He wss safe ncw. and he hailed a passing cab. and o'fH.md the isvoschik to take him to the P ";iiasky Baiar. As he stood on the A f waiting for the vehicle to draw up. heYelt chilly and. his excitement having subsided somewhat, he made a discovery discov-ery hat gave him a shock and filled him with a feeling of uneasiness that was destined to possess him for many days to come. ' He left his overcoat behind somewhere 1 In the den of nihilists. He got into the cab, and as it tore through the streets, the wheels squeaking in the snow, he sat there shivering, his chin in his hand, racking his brain to remember, If possible, pos-sible, whether there was anything in the , pockets, a letter, cards, a cigar case, that might betray the identity of the owner. To save his life he could not settle this .point in his mind. It was' late when he reached the hotel. ho-tel. To his surprise he found Wang alt- ting up. reading. The boy sprang to his ffrt. trembling with delight. "Ah, my dear master!" he cried, : "so here you are at last!" 1 "But why did you not go to bed. Wang?" asked Hardy not unkindly. "You look pale and tired. You' have been working too hard lately, and you need ''"'fP'feIl asleep," replied Wang, "and I had a horrible dream about you. I thought you were In a cave filled with poisonous snakes, all about your feet, and hanging writhing from the ceiling, close to your head. It seemed to me that you did not dare to stir, nor even to breathe, for fear they would strike you. and I, who was looking at the entrance, could not help you. could not cry out, nor even move a finger, for the same reason. For a moment all the snakes seemed unaware of your presence, then one, at the far end of the cave, fixed his twinkling, malignant ma-lignant eyes on you, and began to glide v through the noisome, poisonous mass to-ward to-ward your face. Closer and closer he came, and Just as he drew back his head to strike, I awoke. Ugh! 'Twaa a frightful fright-ful dream." "Yes," laughed Hardy nervously, "it certainly was a nasty nightmare, but ' pure Imagination, I assure you, for I have been in no cave filled with snakes. Now fo to bed, I command you. Good night!" lardy passed fnto the adjoining room and went to bed. but he got little sleep that night. He was listening for the tramp of heavy feet up the stairs, the thumping of a sword hilt upon his bedroom door, and that gruff command again, which he had already heard once: "Open In the name of the Czar!" But the hours passed and he was un-dlurbed, un-dlurbed, and Just as the gray light of H "a 'began to sift In through the cur-t cur-t he fell into a sound . slumber. It wufully 10 o'clock when he went out Intj his office and sent fo his coffee. A9 he was drinking It. Wang entered in great excitement, with a newspaper. "Look at this!" cried the boy. "The police raided a den of nihilists last night, and the latter threw a bomb, killing four j of the officers and wounding six others. It wae the society known as 'The Enemies '''.' j 1 ' ' I ' . I . |