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 fool that I am," he cried in sore distress. "I know it now; there is no outlet. I should have driven on for about five hundred yards farther;" and he backed his horses as if to turn them.

It spelt absolute ruin.

"There's no going back, Markov," I said decisively. I was calm enough now for all the trouble.

"The devil!" exclaimed Zoiloff. "Well, we must make a fight of it."

"Stay a moment. Where does this lane lead, Markov?"

"To a peasant's homestead, with no outlet anywhere."

"Forward to that, then—at a gallop. We can hold the house against the men with far better chances than here," I said to Zoiloff. "Besides, they may not have seen us turn off the road, and may go on to the next turning. But what of Spernow?"

"He was gaining on them fast, and will escape in any event," said Zoiloff; "but it's a perilous fix."

A couple of minutes later we halted in front of the cottage, to the infinite surprise of the inmates. Markov knew them however, and while he was explaining things to them the rest of us set to work to put the place in readiness to resist the expected attack. Fortunately it lent itself well to the purpose; and, long before the peasant owner had been pacified with a good round sum of money, every door and window was closed and barred, and the horses and cart had been stabled close to the rear of the house in a shed, the door of which we could easily command, so as to prevent anyone trying to steal off with them.

The Princess and her companion were placed in an upper room, well out of the danger of stray bullets; and, though we were breathless with our exertions,