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Updated: June 8, 2025
He stood reflecting for a moment while Kosmaroff ate the ship's biscuit offered to him in the lid of a box, and Cartoner stared thoughtfully at the flickering lamp. "I'll take him out to sea and bury him there," said Cable, at length, "if so be as that's agreeable to you. There's many a good man buried at sea, and when my time comes I'll ask for no better berth."
"To me," repeated Kosmaroff, touching himself on the breast and standing at his full height. No one spoke, as if the silent spell of History were again for a moment laid upon their tongues. "Captain Cable," said Kosmaroff, "you and I have met before, and I learned enough of you then to tell you now that this is no place for you, and these men no company for you. I am going will you come?"
She spoke lightly, and seemed quite determined to make as little of the incident as possible. "Then how do matters stand?" inquired the prince. "It comes to this," answered Martin, "that Poland is not big enough to hold both Kosmaroff and Cartoner. Cartoner must go. He must be told to go, or else " Wanda had taken up her work again.
The frontier-line is some miles above the ancient city of Thorn. It is strictly guarded by day and night. The patrol-boats are afloat at every hour. Kosmaroff had arranged to arrive at this spot early in the night, before the mists had been dispelled by the coming of the moon. Even he could only guess at their position. Once they dared to approach the shore in order to discover some landmark.
And Kosmaroff, perceiving this interest, slightly changed his manner. "Ah! you are looking at my clothes," he said, rather less formally. "In Poland things are not always what they seem, mademoiselle. Yes, I am a Pole. I am a boatman, and keep my boat at the foot of Bednarska Street, just above the bridge.
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.
Then Kosmaroff climbed down into his boat. They cut the rope adrift, and he sat down to the oars. There was a lurid streak of dawn low down in the sky, and Kosmaroff headed his boat towards it across the chill, green waters. Above the promise of a stormy day towered a great bank of torn clouds hanging over Poland.
"Good-bye," he said. Cartoner nodded, and said nothing. Kosmaroff then turned towards Cable, who was standing with his hands thrust into his jacket-pockets, looking ahead towards the open sea. "Captain," he said, and held out his hand so that Cable could not help seeing it. The captain hesitated, and at length withdrew his hand from the shelter of his pocket. "Good-bye, mister," he said.
But Kosmaroff had turned towards the prince in his quick, jerky way. "By-the-way," he asked, "what is Cartoner doing in Warsaw?" "Cartoner the Englishman who speaks so many languages? We met him in London," answered the prince. "Who is he? Why should he not be here?" "I will tell you who he is," answered Kosmaroff, with a sudden light in his eyes.
Wanda poured out the wine and handed it to Kosmaroff, who took it with a glance and a quick smile of thanks, which seemed to indicate that he was almost one of the family. And, indeed, they were closely related, not only in the present generation, but in bygone days. For Kosmaroff represented a family long since deemed extinct. "I have come," he said, "to tell you that all is safe.
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