“Listen to me a moment, colonel, and then I will let you go. Do you realize that I am now in the service of your country, and am acting under the direct commands of your ambassador? Do you understand that you are jeopardizing your whole career at this moment? If I should report to the ambassador what you have done, you would be sent back to St. Petersburg at once. For what are you so conducting yourself?” The man struggled fiercely, but Nick Carter held him; and the detective saw that he was coming to his senses, too. “I shall release you now, Turnieff,” he said, and suited the action to the word. “There is a gate yonder; pass through it. We will walk down the avenue together while we talk. I only hope for your own sake that no person has seen this affair.” But Turnieff did not reply. Neither did he follow the advice of the detective and go to the gate. He stood quite still, staring at Nick, evidently impressed by what had been said to him, but too stubborn to do as was suggested. And Nick, half disgusted by all of the events of the night, turned away. “I shall say nothing of this affair to the ambassador,” he said. “From me, he will be made no wiser concerning what has occurred between you and me to-night, and I advise you to be silent on the subject, also. In the morning when your temper has cooled, we will discuss it. Good night.” He moved on down the thoroughfare, which happened to be Connecticut Avenue. Turnieff stung to madness by the coolness, not unmixed with contempt of the detective, leaped the pickets of the iron fence and rushed after him. “You will fight. I will make you fight,” he exclaimed. “If you won’t meet me as gentlemen should meet, then have it this way,” and he struck wildly at the detective again. Nick turned in time to ward off the blow, but not soon enough to prevent the savage rush of the Russian having its effect. For Turnieff was no weakling, although Nick Carter was greatly the stronger of the two. The Russian clinched, winding his long arms around the detective’s body with such tenacity that it was all that Nick could do to escape the consequences of it. They struggled for a moment there in the middle of the sidewalk; but at the end of that moment Nick threw Turnieff away from him with such force that the man staggered backward, and finally fell to his knees on the cement flagging. As he did so three men rushed forward out of the darkness, coming apparently from nowhere, for Nick had not suspected their nearness. They reached the fallen man ere he could get upon his feet and they seized upon him, evidently to assist him—that was how Nick regarded their intentions. As they grasped Turnieff, as if to assist him to his feet, the Russian uttered a sharp cry; he collapsed in their hands; something fell to the pavement with a clatter; and then one of the three men cried out in accents of horror: “Good heaven, the fellow has stabbed him! The man has been stabbed!”