"Is your high nobility well acquainted with Sonia!" I replied in the affirmative, offering him a cigarette from my case. At last I had found one who had met the dark-eyed girl of whom I was in search. "You know her," I said. "Where is she?" "In hiding." "Far from here?" "Well, not very," he answered. "I could take you to her this very night--if you made it worth my while." "Why not in daylight?" I inquired. "Because the frontier-guards are here in swarms." Then, in reply to my questions, he admitted that he was one of those who obtained his living by smuggling contraband goods and persons without passports across the frontier into and out of Germany. Along the whole of the Russo-German frontier there are bands of peasantry who live by smuggling emigrants, Jews, malefactors, and others who have no permit to leave the country, across into Germany by certain by-paths that remain unguarded, notwithstanding the constant vigilance of the military. "And what is Sonia doing at present?" I inquired, after he had frankly related to me his position in a low tone so that we might not be overheard by any eavesdropper or police spy. "She has always been a leader," he answered, laughing gaily. "She is so still." "A leader of smugglers!" I exclaimed, surprised that the pretty girl who had been admired in every capital in Europe should adopt such a hazardous, reckless life. "Well, yes, if you choose to call it so," he said, rather resentfully, I thought. "We merely assist our countrymen to escape the police, and they pay toll for our aid," he added. "She heard you were inquiring for her, here in Skerstymone, and has sent me as messenger to take you to her. She fears to come herself." I looked steadily at the man, and saw for the first time that, although a moujik, he was nevertheless a sturdy adventurer, whose brow was deeply furrowed by hardship. "And you wish me to pay toll like the others?" I exclaimed with a smile. "If we act as guide we are surely entitled to something. There are many risks," he answered, puffing at his cigarette, afterwards examining it with the air of a connoisseur. "How much?" "The high nobility is rich," he replied. "He was once at the English Embassy in St Petersburg. Let us say two hundred roubles." "Two hundred, to be paid only in Sonia's presence," I acquiesced eagerly. Truth to tell, I would have paid five hundred, or even a thousand for safe conduct to her. "It's a bargain," he answered, draining his glass. "Meet me to-night at ten o'clock at this place. I hope you are a good walker, for we must travel by the secret paths. The post-road would mean arrest for me; it might also go rather hard with you to be found in my company." "I can walk well," I answered. "To-night at ten." Then I ordered more vodka, and after drinking success to our midnight journey, he rose and left me, bending a good deal as he shuffled along the street in his old frieze overcoat many sizes too large for him.