"
"The General has given you a letter, eh? Then why don't you let me
have it?"
"He told me not to disturb you to-night, but place it before you at
breakfast to-morrow."
"Oh, we're going to travel all night, are we?"
"Yes, Excellency."
"Did the General say you should not allow me to see the letter
to-night?"
"No, your Excellency; he just said, 'Do not trouble his Highness
to-night, but give him this in the morning.'"
"In that case let me have it now."
The Captain pulled a letter from his pocket and presented it to the
Prince. It contained merely the two notes which Lermontoff had written
to Drummond and to the Czar.
CHAPTER XIV
A VOYAGE INTO THE UNKNOWN
AFTER the Captain left him, Lermontoff closed and bolted the door,
then sat down upon the edge of his bed to meditate upon the situation.
He heard distant bells ringing on shore somewhere, and looking at his
watch saw it was just eleven o'clock. It seemed incredible that
three-quarters of an hour previously he had left the hospitable doors
of a friend, and now was churning his way in an unknown steamer to an
unknown destination. It appeared impossible that so much could have
happened in forty-five minutes. He wondered what Drummond was doing,
and what action he would take when he found his friend missing.
However, pondering over the matter brought no solution of the mystery,
so, being a practical young man, he cast the subject from his mind,
picked up his heavy overcoat, which he had flung on the bed, and hung
it up on the hook attached to the door.
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