“But is it true?” “I can’t tell you. You must draw your own conclusions. If it is true, would you draw back? The cause of the revolution is the cause of freedom.” “Humph! Maybe so. I’ll think about it. But--I want to know. What’ll the Czarski do to us if he catches us?” “Nothing. We’ll lose the gold, but nothing more. We are American citizens on an American vessel on the high seas. No one will dare to touch us.” “Well, where do I come in? What’s my part in the melodrama?” “You?” The Professor was amazed. “Why, my dear young lady, my daughter wanted to marry and didn’t want to come. I told you all this.” “Ye-es. You told me why she didn’t want to come. But you ain’t told me why you want everybody to think she did come.” The Professor hesitated, and the girl put her finger on the weak spot. “You didn’t bring her because you thought it was too dangerous,” she remarked shrewdly; “and you didn’t want others to know how risky you thought it was. And you picked me for the goat. Ain’t that it?” The Professor leaned forward. “Not exactly,” he explained. “It _would_ be very dangerous for her to visit Russia. Being what she is and who she is, it would be _very_ dangerous. For you, it is not so. Danger may threaten you, but you can always escape by declaring who you are. With her it is different. Besides”--he spoke slowly and impressively--“I have reasons--reasons that I assure you are crucial--for having it thought that she is with us. I implore you to keep the secret. It might and probably would cost her her life if certain persons on board suspected the truth. You will keep faith?” “Oh, sure! I’ll keep faith. You needn’t worry about that. Especially if that stuck-up Fitzhugh woman is one of the ‘certain persons.’” The Professor said nothing more. He was by no means satisfied with the situation; but, then, he had been dissatisfied with it from the first. It was a mere choice of evils, and, he told himself despondently, in trying to better matters he was only too likely to make them worse. Nothing but the absolute necessity of keeping the real Olga out of Russia would have ever driven him to such a desperate scheme as this. It was really more desperate than he knew, though not more so than he might have guessed had he known of the relations that were developing between Miss Lee and Thomas Wilkins.