“But he will know me!” protested Michael. “You expect him to talk with me—even see me—and not know who I am? That would only be putting our heads into the maw of the lion! I can tell you this, my daughter—I shall strike first, while the advantage lies with me!” “Truth!” exclaimed Wassili excitedly. “The master speaks truth! And I am the one to attend to the task!” “But he will not know you,” pleaded Katerin. “He thinks of you as you were years ago, in the days when you were Governor, while now you are an old man in the rags of a peasant, with——” “Ah, he will know, he will know! We must not trust to ice so thin! I shall not turn my horse loose too soon when danger is over the hill. I may be old, but I have not lost my cunning with my enemies, I hope.” “You forget that our lives depend upon our deceiving this Peter Petrovitch, my father.” “I think our lives depend upon his not seeing me till I am ready to strike,” argued Michael. “What would our lives be worth if he were to come in here now and see me? A beggar’s kopeck—the turn of a hand, the call of a quail in the brush! P-fooh! I know!” “But we have no time to spare. The Ataman’s men may be at the door at any minute. Before that we must win this stranger to our side, and before he can discover who we are, slip away with him to Vladivostok—to Harbin—to——” “Vladivostok! You expect an enemy to take us to Vladivostok? To Harbin? Why, I would sooner, than that——” “He wants to find you. What if I tell him you may be found in Harbin? Or Vladivostok?” Michael thrust aside a cloud of smoke that had gathered before him, and squinted his eyes at his daughter, as if he really doubted her sanity now. “And how could you find me in Vladivostok, when I am here in this rat-hole in Chita? Truly, my ears hear strange words. They are not worth a last year’s egg.” “You do not understand. If this stranger looks to me to help him find Michael Kirsakoff, and he does not know you for Michael Kirsakoff, what is to prevent our telling him that we can take him to some other city—to find you?” Michael cocked his head to one side and pursed his lips. Then a smile broke over his face as he began to comprehend. “We have no time to spare,” pressed Katerin. “It must be done before he can learn by any mischance who we are. Once we are free of the city, his chances of discovering our ruse diminish.” “But how can he take us away, even if what you say is true? The Ataman would prevent us—he would betray us. There would be some slip—and we would be in the hands of our enemy, or delivered into the hands of the Ataman. We double our danger and gain nothing,” objected Michael. “The Ataman would not dare stop an American officer. We must chance that. This stranger would give his eyes to find you. Very good, then! We shall fall in with his desires and turn them to our advantage. We must take him away under the pretext that he is to find you, then in reality he will be aiding our escape from the city.”