The Red Symbol

by John Ironside

  CHAPTER XII

  THE WRECKED TRAIN

  I found the usual polyglot crowd assembled at the Friedrichstrassestation, waiting to board the international express including a numberof Russian officers, one of whom specially attracted my attention. Hewas a splendid looking young man, well over six feet in height, but sofinely proportioned that one did not realize his great stature till onecompared him with others--myself, for instance. I stand full six feet inmy socks, but he towered above me. I encountered him first by cannoningright into him, as I turned from buying some cigarettes. He accepted myhasty apologies with an abstracted smile and a half salute, and passedon.

  That in itself was sufficiently unusual. An ordinary Russianofficer,--even one of high rank, as this man's uniform showed him tobe,--would certainly have bad-worded me for my clumsiness, and probablyhave chosen to regard it as a deliberate insult. Your Russian as a rulewastes no courtesy on members of his own sex, while his vauntedpoliteness to women is of a nature that we Americans consider nothingless than rank impertinence; and is so superficial, that at the leastthing it will give place to the sheer brutality that is characteristicof nearly every Russian in uniform. Have I not seen? But pah! I won'twrite of horrors, till I have to!

  Before I boarded the sleeping car I looked back across the platform, andsaw the tall man returning towards the train, making his way slowlythrough the crowd. A somewhat noisy group of officers saluted him as hepassed, and he returned the salute mechanically, with a sort ofpreoccupied air.

  They looked after him, and one of them shrugged his shoulders and saidsomething that evoked a chorus of laughter from his companions. I heardit; though I doubt if the man who appeared to be the object of theirmirth did. Anyhow, he made no sign. There was something curiously sereneand aloof about him.

  "Wonder who he is?" I thought, as I sought my berth, and turned in atonce, for I was dead tired.

  I slept soundly through the long hours while the train rushed onwardsthrough the night; and did not wake till we were nearing the grim oldcity of Konigsberg. I dressed, and made my way to the buffet car, tofind breakfast in full swing and every table occupied, until I reachedthe extreme end of the car, where there were two tables, each with bothseats vacant.

  I had scarcely settled myself in the nearest seat, when my shoulder wasgrabbed by an excited individual, who tried to haul me out of my place,vociferating a string of abuse, in a mixture of Russian and German.

  I resisted, naturally, and indignantly demanded an explanation. I had toshout to make myself heard. He would not listen, or release his hold,while with his free hand he gesticulated wildly towards two soldiers,who, I now saw, were stationed at the further door of the car. In aninstant they had covered me with their rifles, and they certainly lookedas if they meant business. But what in thunder had I done?

  At that same moment a man came through the guarded doorway,--the tallofficer who had interested me so strongly last night.

  He paused, and evidently took in the situation at a glance.

  "Release that gentleman!" he commanded sternly.

  My captor obeyed, so promptly that I nearly lost my balance, and onlysaved myself from an ignominious fall by tumbling back into the seatfrom which he had been trying to eject me. The soldiers presented armsto the new-comer, and my late assailant, all the spunk gone out of him,began to whine an abject apology and explanation, which the officer cutshort with a gesture.

  I was on my feet by this time, and, as he turned to me, I said inFrench: "I offer you my most sincere apologies, Monsieur. The othertables were full, and I had no idea that these were reserved--"

  "They are not," he interrupted courteously. "At least they were reservedin defiance of my orders; and now I beg you to remain, Monsieur, and togive me the pleasure of your company."

  I accepted the invitation, of course; partly because, although it wasgiven so frankly and unceremoniously, it was with the air of one whoseinvitations were in the nature of "commands;" and also because he nowinterested me more strongly than ever. I knew that he must be animportant personage, who was travelling incognito; though a man of suchphysique could not expect to pass unrecognized. Seen in daylight heappeared even more remarkable than he had done under the sizzling arclights of the station. His face was as handsome as his figure;well-featured, though the chin was concealed by a short beard,bronze-colored like his hair, and cut to the fashion set by the presentTsar. His eyes were singularly blue, the clear, vivid Scandinavian blueeyes, keen and far-sighted as those of an eagle, seldom seen save insailor men who have Norse blood in their veins.

  I wonder now that I did not at once guess his identity, though he gaveme no clue to it.

  When he ascertained that I was an American, who had travelledconsiderably and was now bound for Russia, he plied me with shrewdquestions, which showed that he had a pretty wide knowledge of socialand political matters in most European countries, though he had neverbeen in the States.

  "This is your first visit to Russia?" he inquired, presently. "No?"

  I explained that I had spent a winter in Petersburg some years back, andhad preserved very pleasant memories of it.

  "I trust your present visit may prove as pleasant," he said courteously."Though you will probably perceive a great difference. Not that we arein the constant state of excitement described by some of the foreignpapers," he added with a slight smile. "But Petersburg is no longer thegay city it was, 'Paris by the Neva' as we used to say. We--"

  He checked himself and rose as the train pulled up for the few minutes'halt at Konigsberg; and with a slight salute turned and passed throughthe guarded doorway.

  "Can you tell me that officer's name?" I asked the conductor, as Iretreated to the rear car.

  "You know him as well as I do," he answered ambiguously, pocketing thetip I produced.

  "I don't know his name."

  "Then neither do I," retorted the man surlily.

  I saw no more of my new acquaintance till we reached the frontier, when,as with the other passengers I was hustled into the apartment whereluggage and passports are examined, I caught a glimpse of him stridingtowards the great _grille_, that, with its armed guard, is the actualline of demarcation between the two countries. Beside him trotted a fatlittle man in the uniform of a staff officer, with whom he seemed to beconversing familiarly.

  Evidently he was of a rank that entitled him to be spared the ordealthat awaited us lesser mortals.

  The tedious business was over at last; and, once through the barrier, Ijoined the throng in the restaurant, and looked around to see if he wasamong them. He was not, and I guessed he had already gone on,--by aspecial train probably.

  The long hot day dragged on without any incident to break the monotony.I turned in early, and must have been asleep for an hour or two when Iwas violently awakened by a terrific shock that hurled me clear out ofmy berth.

  I sat up on the floor of the car, wondering what on earth couldhave happened. The other passengers were shrieking and cursing,panic-stricken, though I guess they were more frightened than hurt,for the car had at least kept the rails. I don't recollect how Imanaged to reach the door, but I found myself outside peering throughthe semi-darkness at an appalling sight.

  _His stern face, seen in the light of the blazingwreckage, was ghastly._ Page 87]

  The whole of the front part of the train was a wreck; the engine lay onits side, belching fire and smoke, and the cars immediately behind itwere a heap of wreckage, from which horrible sounds came, screams ofmortal fear and pain. Even as I stood, staring, dazed like a drunkenman, a flame shot up amid the piled-up mass of splintered wood. Thewreckage was already afire, and as I saw that, I dashed forward. Otherswere as ready as I, and in half a minute we were frantically hauling atthe wreckage, and endeavoring to extricate the poor wretches who werewrithing and shrieking under it, before the fire should reach them.

  A big man worked silently beside me, and together we got out several ofthe victims, till the flames drove us back, and we stood togeth
er, alittle away from the scene, breathing hard, and incapable for the momentof any fresh exertion.

  I looked at him then for the first time, though I had known all alongthat he was my courtly friend of the previous morning. His stern face,seen in the sinister light of the blazing wreckage, was ghastly; it wassmeared with the blood that oozed from a wound across his forehead, andhis blue eyes were aflame with horror and indignation.

  He was evidently quite unaware of my presence, and I heard him mutter:"It was meant for me! My God! it was meant for me! And I have survived,while these suffer."

  I do not know what instinct prompted me to look behind at that moment,just in time to see that a man had stolen out from among the pines inour rear, and was in the act of springing on my companion.

  "_Gardez!_" I cried warningly, as I saw the glint of an upraised knife,and flung myself on the fellow. As if my shout had been a signal, moremen swarmed out of the forest and surrounded us.

  What followed was confused and unreal as a nightmare. My antagonist wasa wiry fellow, strong and active as a wild cat; also he had his knife,while I, of course, was unarmed. He got in a nasty slash with his weaponbefore I could seize and hold his wrist with my left hand. We wrestledin grim silence, till at last I had him down, with my knee on his chest.I shifted my hand from his wrist to his throat and choked the fight outof him, anyhow; then felt for the knife, but he must have flung it fromhim, and I had no time to search for it among the brushwood.

  I sprang up and looked for my companion. He had his back to a tree andwas hitting out right and left at the ruffians round him,--like houndsabout a stag at bay.

  "_A moi!_" I yelled to those by the train, who were still ignorant ofwhat was happening so close at hand, and rushed to his assistance. Ihurled aside one man, who staggered and fell; dashed my fist in the faceof a second; he went down too, but at the same moment I reeled under acrashing blow, and fell down--down--into utter darkness.