"That is what I don't mean to tell to the first blockhead I meet. First of all I should like to know who you are. If you are robbers I shall defend myself against you to the best of my ability; if you are fools I shall try to enlighten you; if you are brave and honest men I will shake hands with you." The last idea only occurred to Maria when she caught sight of Bodza's face. She had encountered such enthusiasts before now, and had had opportunities of studying them. Bodza's eyes sparkled. "We are neither robbers, nor fools, but brave men in very deed, who are battling for one great brotherhood, from the icy sea to the warm sea."[11] [Footnote 11: _I.e._, From the White Sea to the Black Sea; he meant the Slavs.] Maria at once stuck her pistol into her breast-pocket and confidentially extended her hand to the master. "Then I greet thee, my brother, I have just come from Russia." Thomas Bodza squinted suspiciously at Maria, and holding the iron ring on his little finger right in front of her eyes, inquired: "Dost thou then know the meaning of these three letters: U. S. S.?" Maria answered with a smile: "_Ud slovenske stridnosce._"[12] [Footnote 12: "Member of the Slavonic League;" the language is Slovak.] Then the master did indeed press the hand offered to him. "Come inside!" said he, himself escorting the stranger, whilst the peasants, obsequiously raising their caps, made a way for them right up to the door. The master dismissed everyone from the room, and when they two were alone asked excitedly in Russian: "You come from Russia, you say? From what part of Russia?" "From the eternal city where stand the golden gates of the Kremlin," answered Maria, also in the Russian tongue. All Bodza's doubts instantly disappeared. "What news in the Empire since the death of Romulus?" Maria knew very well whom was meant by Romulus. It was none other than Muraviev, who was to be the builder of the walls of the new Rome, which was ere long to be the Lord of the whole earth. Maria was no proselyte of this extravagant confederacy, but, living, as she did, nearer to the main source of it all, she was better able, with the assistance of current rumours and her own lively imagination, to amuse Thomas Bodza with more fables than he could have told her. "Romulus is not dead, Romulus is still alive," whispered she to the interrogator mysteriously. "How so?" asked Bodza, much surprised; "where is he then?" "He has disappeared--like Romulus. The Gods have taken him!"--and Maria smiled enigmatically, as if she could reveal a great deal more if she only chose. Bodza seized her hand violently. "And in his own time he will appear again, eh?" The only answer Maria gave was to press his hand significantly. "Then it is true that they have not beheaded him?" continued the master excitedly, "and one of his good spiritual brethren sacrificed himself in his stead?"