"
"I think," said Dorothy, "that is an excellent plan."
"Of course it is," cried the Captain enthusiastically. "Don't you see
the pull the President will have? Why, they've put an Englishman into
'the jug,' and when the President communicates this fact to the Czar
he will be afraid to refuse, knowing that the next appeal may be from
America to England, and when you add a couple of American girls to
that political mix-up, why, what chance has the Czar?"
"The point you raise, Captain," said Dorothy, "is one I wish to say a
few words about. The President cannot get Mr. Drummond released,
because the Czar and all his government will be compelled to deny that
they know anything of him. Even the President couldn't guarantee that
the Englishman would keep silence if he were set at liberty. The Czar
would know that, but your plan would undoubtedly produce Prince Ivan
Lermontoff. All the president has to do is to tell the Czar that the
Prince is engaged to an American girl, and Lermontoff will be allowed
to go."
"But," objected the Captain, "as the Prince knows the Englishman is in
prison, how could they be sure of John keeping quiet when Drummond is
his best friend?"
"He cannot know that, because the Prince was arrested several days
before Drummond was.
"They have probably chucked them both into the same cell," said the
Captain, but Dorothy shook her head.
"If they had intended to do that, they would doubtless have arrested
them together.
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