“Send Wassili for the droshky and the driver who is in the plan—a man who can be trusted. That can be done as soon as Slipitsky has the passports ready. He was drying the ink this morning, over a smoky lamp to make the signatures fast and soften the wax of the seals so that the counterfeit seal could be pressed in. Then we drive straight toward Zorogoff’s headquarters, to make it appear first that we are going there. But we go around the building, so that it will appear to the first line of sentries on the other side that we have just left headquarters. That will make the first cordon willing to let us pass with scarcely any questioning. The next cordon will take it for granted that we are all right because we have passed the first—and if there is any trouble, the passports will let us through. The earlier we start, the better.” She rose, flushed with hope, which was engendered by the very telling of how they were to escape. “I am ready when you are,” said Peter. “Let us not lose any time.” Tears came into her eyes. “We put our lives in your hands,” she said. “God will bless you if you aid us in our escape.” “The road to Harbin is before us yet,” he said with a smile. “You and your father are not yet out of danger.” “True,” she said, moving toward the door of her room. “I shall have him get ready at once, and see Slipitsky about the passports.” Peter opened the door for her, and bowed as she passed out. He closed the door after her, and stood looking at the windows of his room, the same queer twisted smile of the morning at the corner of his mouth. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ XXII THE OFFICER FROM THE ATAMAN PETER paced the floor of his room, his head bent in thought, after Katerin left him. He considered the possibilities of the proposed trip to Harbin in relation to himself and Michael. An escape from Chita, he saw now, would be most desirable for his own purpose, providing he was not being walked into a trap in Harbin. It was quite possible that Katerin and Michael would try to elude him in Harbin. It was inconceivable that they were not quite as anxious to escape from Peter as they were from the Ataman, for they were in full possession of his secret. And once clear of the cordon of Cossack guards surrounding Chita, they might be able to give him the slip. He had a desire to play out the intricate game in which he found himself enmeshed. He knew he would find it amusing to watch Katerin and Michael play at being fugitives from the Ataman with him, and then play at stalking Michael himself in Harbin—to see a man pretend to seek himself. And at any time, Peter could turn to Michael, and say, “Thou art the man I seek.”