Princess Zara

by Ross Beeckman

  CHAPTER XXII

  THE COMBAT IN THE SNOW

  As I ran, I saw an officer in uniform leap from the interior of the_droshka_, and draw his sword in preparation for my attack, while his_yemschik_, whip in hand, scrambled from the snow, and assumed aplace beside him. They evidently supposed the attack to be of a verydifferent character than it really was. The wounded horse wasstruggling and kicking, and I found time to think of the grave dangerthat its hoofs might injure Zara, whom I judged to be unconscious fromfright, or because of the shock; and so, heedless of my own necessitiesin undertaking an assault upon the two men who now faced me, I fired athird bullet into the maddened animal. Then, as I sprang to the attack,I saw and recognized the man who confronted me, and my heart boundedwith thanksgiving that I had taken that route to the palace. Irecognized Alexis Durnief.

  The report of his arrest had been false, or he had managed in some wayto escape; and even then, in that instant of rushing onward upon thetwo men, I could not help wondering by what means he had managed toentice Zara from the house in which she had taken refuge. I had twobullets remaining in my revolver; at least I thought so, and I raisedit, and pulled the trigger a fourth time, thus placing the _yemschik_effectually out of that combat, and rendering it impossible for himever to engage in others; and then, when barely ten feet away from thescoundrelly captain, I leveled the weapon at him and ordered him tothrow down his sword. He laughed derisively, for he was not a coward,and he knew that death would be far preferable to the fate that wouldbe his, if he were captured alive.

  "So! It is my friend Dubravnik, is it?" he said, insolently, but in atone as cool as though he were greeting me in a ballroom. "You havekilled my horses, and my _yemschik_; why not do the same for me?"

  I hesitated.

  To shoot a man like that, was against every impulse of my soul; and yethe was armed with a weapon as deadly as mine, if once I should getwithin reach of its point. I possessed none with which to meet him oneven ground. But, inside the _droshka_, was unquestionably theunconscious form of the woman I loved. The occasion was a crisis. Therecould be no temporizing. Zara must be rescued.

  "Throw down your sword, or I will certainly kill you!" I commanded him,again.

  "Kill," he replied, laconically. There was no other way, and I pulledthe trigger.

  There was no report. Durnief did not fall, as the horses, and his_yemschik_ had done. He stood unharmed, for the cartridge was bad,or the chamber of my revolver was unloaded. Instantly he understoodthat he had me at his mercy, and with a deadly smile upon his face heleaped forward to run me through.

  As he sprang towards me, I hurled the pistol with all my strengthtowards him. It struck him squarely in the breast, staggering him, andforcing him off his guard. Then, before he could recover, I sprang pastthe point of his weapon. I seized his sword arm, by the wrist, with myleft hand, and threw my other arm around his body. We were as evenlymatched as though we had trained at weights and measurements for thecombat, and for a moment we struggled madly together, while I exertedall my strength to bend his wrist backward, so that he would becompelled to drop his sword.

  It seems strange that such a struggle, taking place in the streets of agreat city immediately following upon the four reports of my pistol,had not attracted attention and drawn somebody to the scene, but thepassing night had been one of terror; policemen had been called awayfrom their posts, and at that hour, just after dawn, when everythingwas quiet, nobody heard, or if they heard, feared to come. In using allmy effort to compel him to drop his weapon I neglected the othernecessary points of the struggle, and although I succeeded in mydesign, he forced me backwards at the same instant so that I fellbeneath him, but I still had my right arm tightly clasped around him,and I hugged him to me with all the strength that I could master. WithDurnief, it was a struggle for life, liberty, and everything that hepossessed, and he fought with all the desperation of a madman. With me,it was life, and the woman I loved, and I fought coolly, knowing thathe could not get away from me, believing that I could tire him out, andsatisfied that I could prevent him from securing his sword again. Hemanaged to wrench his hand from my grasp, and he struck me a savageblow on the head with his fist, but I threw the other arm around himthen, and hugged him all the tighter, so that he was unable to repeatthe blow.

  It was a strange combat. A person ten feet away could not have heardit, for there was no sound save our heavy breathing. The snow deadenedevery noise that might have been made otherwise. The air was bitterlycold.

  Presently I became conscious of the fact that my opponent was strivingwith all his might to force me in a certain direction, and I correctlyconjectured that he had been able to discover the location of the swordand was making an attempt to reach it. So I bent my energies toavoiding his effort. My life had been largely one of adventure, and Ihad taken part in many combats, but never before in one like this whereit was simply a matter of endurance, where neither party to the fraywas suffering injury, and where the hope of success was so evenlydivided. Odd as it may seem, while pinioning him thus so that he couldnot act on the offensive, I began to conjecture how long we might holdout, and the probability of assistance arriving to end it; and it wasthe uncertainty of the nature of that assistance that concerned memost.

  I have said that there were not half a dozen confessed nihilistsremaining at liberty in St. Petersburg, but there were hundreds, ay,thousands of nihilistic sympathizers, and there were hundreds of otherswho had become allied to the nihilists in some extrinsic way, who werein sympathy with the order, even if only passively so. If one or moreof such were to happen along the assistance would surely be upon theside of my enemy, and certain defeat and death would be my portion. Ifa mere citizen were to interfere, the captain who still wore hisuniform, would secure the proffered aid, not I. He would be believed,not I, and hence I understood that whatever advantage there might be inthe way of interference, was on his side. Appreciating these facts, Iexerted my strength to the utmost to turn the tide of battle in myfavor, but I could accomplish nothing. He was as strong as I, thoughnot more powerful, and so I relapsed again into the mere effort to holdhim helpless, and to take the chances of wearing him out beforeassistance should come.

  It seemed to me as though an hour passed thus; in reality, it may havebeen only a few moments, for minutes are long under such circumstances;and then there came an interruption--and a strange one.

  "With whom are you struggling, Captain Durnief?" I heard a voice say.

  "Zara!" I exclaimed, before Durnief could reply.

  "With an assassin who has shot our horses, murdered the _yemschik_, andwho would assassinate you, princess," panted Durnief.

  "Zara!" I called to her again. "It is I--Dubravnik."

  I heard her gasp, and although I could not see her, I was consciousthat she deliberately walked around us, probably to obtain a betterview of me; and in that moment I think I doubted her; but I tightenedmy grip around the man I held, and waited grimly for events to shapethemselves.

  "Dubravnik?" she said, in a low tone, as if she were not convinced; butI did not speak again; and the captain also remained silent. Minutes,which seemed like hours, passed in another deathlike silence, brokenonly by the panting of Durnief. I wondered if Zara had fainted, or hadgone for help, or what! There seemed to be no good reason for thesilence, and the waiting. Why did she not grasp the sword, and send itspoint through one of us? It did not much matter to me, then, which oneshe might choose for its sheath.

  Soon, however, I heard a sound directly above me--a sound which a stickmight make in smiting the ground, and I felt that Durnief shuddered. Inanother instant it came again, and his arms relaxed, but only totighten about me the more convulsively. Then a short pause, which wasfollowed by the thudding sound of a blow heavier than its predecessors,and instantly following it, the tensioned muscles of Durnief relaxed.His arms fell from their clasp around me. I pushed him aside as thoughhe were dead, and for a moment believed that he was; then springingupright, to my feet, I was j
ust in time to catch the tottering form ofmy princess, who, though not unconscious, had spent her last remainingstrength in that third blow. Her left hand held Durnief's sword. In herright was the _mujik's_ whip, and I saw that she had used the stock ofit to aid me.

  "I stood for a long time, with the sword pressed against his back,where it would have pierced his heart," she murmured in my ear, whileshe clung to me. "I wanted to kill him, but I could not do it. Then Ifound the _yemschik's_ whip, but I had not the strength to strike. Doyou wonder why I left the house? The _yemschik_ came to get me. Hebrought a note, signed by you. It said that my brother had beenwounded, and was at my house; that it was safe for me to go there now.I hastened. I ran to the _droshka_, and sprang inside before I knewthat it was occupied. Durnief was there. He seized me. Something waswrapped around my head, and I lost consciousness, I think. Then I heardsounds, as if men were fighting, and I crawled from the overturned_droshka_, and saw you two struggling together, in the snow. I wasdazed, frightened, and very weak. I did not remember what had happened;I did not recognize you. I thought, at first, that it was Durnief whomI should assist, and I stood there, watching the struggle for a longtime, trying to remember. Then recollection came, for I heard yourvoice. It recalled to me my senses. I remembered who Dubravnik was. Isit not strange that I should have forgotten? Even for a moment, is itnot strange that I should have forgotten?"

  "No, dear, no," I replied.

  "Then I found the sword, in the snow. I remembered that I wanted tokill Durnief, and I put the point against his back. But I could notpress upon it. I tried, but I could not do it. It was horrible,Dubravnik, horrible. I tried a second time, and the point of the swordwas actually piercing his clothing, when my eyes fell upon the whip. Isecured it. There! See! He is reviving. Seize him, for he must notescape."