Page:Robert Barr - Lord Stranleigh Philanthropist.djvu/73

 assumed the attitude of a fielder, and deftly caught the missile, allowing it to swing gently to rest past his body.

Now the policeman grasped the Nihilist, who struggled fiercely for a moment, and then grew suddenly calm. The procession had stopped. The crowd was silent. An officer of the force came out from a restaurant, carrying a pail of water, and as he held this up to Stranleigh, the latter very gingerly placed within it the deadly sphere. The anarchist, as he was led away, shouted loudly:

"Khoroshó proshtcháité, Gospodin. Skólko platít?"

"What does he say?" whispered Stranleigh, as he sat down again beside the imperturbable Prince who, during this time, had not changed countenance or moved a muscle.

"His Russian is rather incoherent. I fear the man is excited. He appears to address you, saying it's all very well, bids you good-bye, and asserts he will pay the price, or perhaps rather asks what it will cost, an enquiry that is a trifle belated. Poor chap! We are both rather helpless; he in his place, I in mine."

"He is a man of genius," said Stranleigh, "towering genius, who threw away with that bomb a career of the greatest."