the thaw came that afternoon. shortly before sunset the rain set in; the persistent, splashing, cold rain that drives northward from the carpathians. in a few hours the roads would be impassable. the dawn would see the rise of the vistula; and there are few sights in nature more alarming than the steady rise of a huge river.
there is to this day no paved road across the plain that lies to the south of warsaw. from the capital to the village of wilanow there are three roads which are sandy in dry weather, and wet in spring and autumn. during the rains the whole tracks, and not only the ruts, are under water. they are only passable and worthy of the name of road in winter, when the sleighs have pressed down a hard and polished track.
along the middle road—which is the worst and the least frequented—a number of carts made their way soon after eight o'clock at night. the road is not only unmade, but is neglected and allowed to fall into such deep ruts and puddles as to make it almost impassable. it is bordered on either side by trees and a deep ditch. in the late summer it is used for the transit of the hay which is grown on the low-lying land. in winter it is the shortest road to wilanow. in spring and autumn it is not used at all.
it was raining hard now, and the wind hummed drearily through the pollarded trees. each of the four carts was dragged by three horses, harnessed abreast in the russian fashion. they were the ordinary hay-carts of the country, to be encountered at any time on the more frequented road nearer to the hills, carrying produce to the city. the carts were going towards the city now, but they were empty.
fifty yards in front of the caravan a man splashed along through the standing water, his head bent to the rain. it was kosmaroff. he was in his working clothes, and the rain had glued his garments to his spare limbs. he walked with long strides, heedless of where he set his feet. he had reached that stage of wetness where whole water could scarcely have made him wetter. or else he had such business in hand that mere outward things were of no account. every now and then he turned his head, half impatiently, to make sure that the carts were following him. the wheels made no sound on the wet sand, but the heavy wood-work of the carts groaned and creaked as they rolled clumsily in the deep ruts.
at the cross-ways, where the shorter runs at right angles into the larger wilanow road, kosmaroff found a man waiting for him, on horseback, under the shadow of the trees, which are larger here. the horseman was riding slowly towards him from the town, and led a spare horse. he was in a rough peasant's overcoat of a dirty white cloth, drawn in at the waist, and split from heel to band, for use in the saddle. they wear such coats still in poland and galicia.
kosmaroff gave a little cough. there is nothing so unmistakable as a man's trick of coughing. the horseman pulled up at once.
“you are punctual,” he said. “i was nearly asleep in the saddle.”
and the voice was that of prince martin bukaty. he had another coat such as he was wearing thrown across the saddle in front of him, and he leaned forward to hand it down to kosmaroff.
“you are not cold?” he asked.
“no; i feel as if i should never be cold again.”
“that is good. put on your coat quickly. you must not catch a chill. you must take care of yourself.”
“so must you,” answered kosmaroff, with a little laugh.
though one was dark and the other fair, there was a subtle resemblance between these two men which lay, perhaps, more in gesture and limb than in face. there also existed between them a certain sympathy which the french call camaraderie, which was not the outcome of a long friendship. far back in the days of poland's greatness they must have had a common ancestor. in the age of chivalry some dark, spare knight, with royal blood in his veins, had perhaps fallen in love with one of the fair bukatys, whose women had always been beautiful, and their men always reckless.
kosmaroff climbed into the saddle, and they stood side by side, waiting for the carts to come up. martin's horse began to whinny at the sound of approaching hoofs, when its rider leaned forward in the saddle and struck it fiercely on the side of its great roman nose, which sounded hollow, like a drum.
“i suppose you had little sleep last night,” said kosmaroff when martin yawned, with his face turned up to the sky.
“i had none.”
“nor i,” said kosmaroff. “we may get some—to-morrow.”
the carts now came up. each team had two drivers, one walking on either side.
“you know what to do,” said martin to these in turn. “come to the iron-foundry, where you will find us waiting for you. when you are laden you are to go straight back as quickly as you can by this same road to the military earthworks, where you will find our friends drawn up in line. you are to turn to the left, down the road running towards the river on this side of the fortifications, and pass slowly down the line, dropping your load as directed by those who will meet you there. if you are stopped on the road by the police or a patrol, who insist on asking what you have in your carts, you must be civil to them, and show them; and while they are looking into your carts you must kill them quietly with the knife.”
the drivers seemed to have heard these instructions before, for they merely nodded, and made no comment. one of them gave a low laugh, and that was all. he appeared to be an old man with a white beard, and had perhaps waited a long time for this moment. there was a wealth of promise in his curt hilarity.
then martin and kosmaroff turned and rode on towards warsaw at a trot. before long they wheeled to the right, quitting the highway and taking to the quieter czerniakowska, that wide and deserted road which runs by the river-side, skirting the high land now converted into a public pleasure-ground, under the name of the lazienki park.
in the daytime the czerniakowska is only used by the sand-carts and the workmen going to and from the manufactories. to-night, in the pouring rain, no one passed that way.
before the iron-foundry is reached the road narrows somewhat, and is bounded on either side by a high stone wall. on the left are the lower lands of the lazienki park; the yards and storehouses of the iron-foundry are on the right.
at the point where the road narrows kosmaroff suddenly reined in his horse, and leaning forward, peered into the darkness. there are no lamps at the farther end of the czerniakowska.
“what is it?” asked martin.
“i thought i saw a glint under the wall,” answered kosmaroff. “there—there it is again. steel. there is some one there. it is the gleam of those distant lights on a bayonet.”
“then let us go forward,” said martin, “and see who it is.”
and he urged his horse, which seemed tired, and carried its head low beneath the rain. they had not gone ten paces when a rough voice called out:
“who goes there?”
“who goes there?” echoed martin. “but this is a high-road.” and he moved nearer to the wall. the man stepped from the shadow, and his bayonet gleamed again.
“no matter,” he said; “you cannot pass this way.”
“but, my friend—” began martin, with a protesting laugh. but he never finished the sentence, for kosmaroff had slipped out of the saddle on the far side, and interrupted him by pushing the bridle into his hand. then the ex-cossack ran round at the back of the horses.
the soldier gave a sharp exclamation of surprise, and the next moment his rifle rattled down against the wall. both men were on the ground now in the water and the mud. there came to martin's ears the sound of hard breathing, and some muttered words of anger; then a sharp cough, which was not kosmaroff's cough.
after an instant of dead silence, kosmaroff rose to his feet.
“first blood,” he said, breathlessly. he went to his horse and wiped his hands upon its mane.
“bah!” he exclaimed, “how he smelled of bad cigarettes!”
martin was leaning in the saddle, looking down at the dark form in the mud.
“oh, he is dead enough,” said kosmaroff. “i broke his neck. did you not hear it go?”
“yes—i heard it. but what was he doing here?”
“that is yet to be found out,” was the reply, in a sharp, strained voice. “this is cartoner's work.”
“i doubt it,” whispered martin. and yet in his heart he could scarcely doubt it at that moment. nothing was further from his recollection than the note he had given to netty in the saski gardens ten hours ago.
“what does it mean?” he asked, with a sudden despair in his voice. he had always been lucky and successful.
“it means,” answered the man who had never been either, “that the place is surrounded, of course. they have got the arms, and we have failed—this time. take the horses back towards the barracks—and wait for me where the water is across the road. i will go forward on foot and make sure. if i do not return in twenty minutes it will mean that they have taken me.”
as he spoke he took off his white overcoat, which was all gray and bespattered with mud, and threw it across the saddle. his working clothes were sombre and dirty. he was almost invisible in the darkness.
“wait a moment,” he said. “i will get over the wall here. bring your horse against the wall.”
martin did so, avoiding the body of the sentry, which lay stretched across the foot-path. the wall was eighteen feet high.
“stand in your stirrups,” said kosmaroff, “and hold one arm up rigid against the wall.”
he was already standing on the broad back of the charger, steadying himself by a firm grip of martin's collar. he climbed higher, standing on martin's shoulders, and steadying himself against the wall.
“are you ready? i am going to spring.”
he placed the middle of his foot in martin's up-stretched palm, gave a light spring and a scramble, and reached the summit of the wall. martin could perceive him for a moment against the sky.
“all right,” he whispered, and disappeared.
martin had not returned many yards along the road they had come when he heard pattering steps in the mud behind him. it was kosmaroff, breathless.
“quick!” he whispered. “quick!”
and he scrambled into the saddle while the horse was still moving. he was, it must be remembered, a trained soldier. he led the way at a gallop, stooping in the saddle to secure the swinging stirrups. martin had to use his spurs to bring his horse alongside. shoulder to shoulder they splashed on in the darkness.
“i went right in,” gasped kosmaroff. “the arms are gone. the place is full of men. there is a sotnia drawn up in the yard itself. it is an ambuscade. we have failed—failed—this time!”
“we must stop the carts, and then ride on and disperse the men,” said martin. “we may do it. we may succeed. it is a good night for such work.”
kosmaroff gave a short, despairing laugh.
“ah!” he said. “you are full of hope—you.”
“yes—i am full of hope—still,” answered martin. he had more to lose than his companion. but he had also less to gain.
they rode hard until they met the carts, and turned them back. so far as these were concerned, there was little danger in going away empty from the city.
then the two horsemen rode on in silence. they were far out in the marsh-lands before kosmaroff spoke.
“i am sure,” he then said, “that i was seen as i climbed back over the wall. i heard a stir among the rifles. but they could not recognize me. it is just possible that i may not be suspected. for you it is different. if they knew where the arms were stored, they must also know who procured them. you will never be able to show yourself in warsaw again.”
“i may be able to make myself more dangerous elsewhere,” said martin, with a laugh.
“i do not know,” went on kosmaroff, “if they will have arrested your father and sister; but i am quite sure that they will be in the palace now awaiting your return there. we must get away to-night.”
“oh,” answered martin gayly, “it does not matter much about that. what i am thinking of are these four thousand men waiting out here in the rain. how are we to get them to their homes in warsaw?”
and kosmaroff had no answer to this question.
beneath the trees on the low, wet land inside the fortifications they found their men drawn up in a double line. there were evidences of military organization and training in their bearing and formation. if the arms had been forthcoming, these would have been dangerous soldiers; for they were desperate men, and had each in his heart a grievance to be wiped out. they were only the nucleus of a great rising, organized carefully and systematically—the brand to be thrown amid the straw. they were to surprise and hold the two strongholds in warsaw, while the whole country was set in a blaze, while the foreign powers and the parties to the treaty which russia had systematically broken were appealed to and urged to assist. it was a wild scheme, but not half so wild as many that have succeeded.
the four thousand heroically waiting the word that was to send them on their forlorn hope heard the news in silence, and all silently moved away.
“it is for another time—it is for another time!” said kosmaroff and martin repeatedly and confidently, as the men moved past them in the darkness.
in warsaw there was a queer silence, and every door was shut. the streets had been quite deserted, and they were now full of soldiers, who, at a given word, had moved out from the barracks to line the streets.
at midnight they were still at their posts, when the first stragglers came in from the south, silent, mud-bespattered, bedraggled men, who shuffled along in their dripping clothes in the middle of the street in groups of two and three. they hung their heads and crept to their houses. and the conquerors watched them without sympathy, without anger.
it was a miserable fiasco.
