The coachman assented, and taking their seats, they again drove on.  It must not be supposed that the conversation was conducted as simply and easily as has been narrated, for it needed all the efforts of the boys to make the Russian understand them, and they had to go over and over again many of the sentences, using their scanty vocabulary in every way, to convey their meaning to their hearer.  The rest of the afternoon passed slowly.  The count himself was tranquil and even cheerful, although his face wore an air of stern determination.  The countess looked anxious and careworn.  The eyes of the three girls were swollen with crying, and the lads afterwards learned that Katinka had gone down on her knees to her father, to implore him to allow her to sacrifice herself for the common good by marrying Count Smerskoff.  This, however, the count had absolutely refused to do, and had even insisted upon her promising him that, should he be exiled and his estates confiscated, she would not afterwards purchase his release by consenting to marry her suitor.  Respecting the grief and anxiety into which the family were plunged, the midshipmen kept apart from them all the afternoon, only joining them at the evening meal at six o’clock.  As they withdrew, saying, in answer to the count’s invitation that they should stop with them, that they were first going for a little walk, Jack whispered in Olga’s ear, “Keep up your courage.  All may not be lost yet.”

The coachman was waiting for them in the stable, and they started at once in an opposite direction to that at which the meeting was to take place, in case Paul might by any possibility observe their departure.  Taking a long detour, they reached the cross-roads, and lay down under cover of the brushwood.  It was nearly half an hour later before they heard footsteps approaching along the road from the chateau.  On reaching the junction of the roads, the man stopped, and from their place of concealment they could dimly see his figure.

The boys had taken the precaution of abstracting a brace of pistols and two swords from the count’s armory.  The coachman they knew would have his knife.  This they had done at Jack’s suggestion that it was possible that their presence might be betrayed by a cough or other accidental noise, in which case they knew they would have to fight for their lives.  A few minutes later they heard the tramp of a horse’s hoof.  It approached quickly, and the rider halted by the standing figure.

“Is that you, Paul?”

“It is, my lord,” the serf said, bowing.

“You are alone?”

“No one had approached the place since I came here a quarter of an hour ago.”