1. DROSKY DRIVER. 2. THE METROPOLITAN OF MOSCOW. 3. TOWER OF IVAN VILLIKOF. 4. CATHEDRAL OF ST. BASIL.]
"Where are you going, De Forrest?" asked Beckwith, nervously.
"I thought we had better keep out of the principal's sight," replied the purser, as he led the way up the _Rue Lubianka_. "Here is another hotel," he added, as they came to the corner on which is the house kept by Mr. Billot.
"But we can't do anything here, without a word of the language."
"We will go into the hotel;" and De Forrest entered, followed by his companion.
"Good morning, young gentlemen," said the proprietor, in good English.
"Good morning, sir," replied De Forrest; "can you give us a room?"
"That suits our case," said De Forrest; and a servant was sent up stairs with them.
The apartment to which they were shown was on the second floor, with windows opening into the Rue Lubianka, so that the runaways could observe the movements of the party. Presently the landlord called to see them, and asked if the room suited them. Then he inquired who and what all the young men in uniform were whom he had seen during the past week, and De Forrest explained the whole matter to his satisfaction.
"But why don't they come to my hotel?" asked Mr. Billot.
"I don't know, sir; it must have been a mistake on the part of the principal."
"A very great mistake," added the landlord, laughing.
"We preferred to come here, but very likely the principal will blame us for it; so, if you please, don't mention to any one that we are here."
The landlord was vexed to have his house passed by, and, afraid that he should lose his two customers if he mentioned them, he was content to keep still. Breakfast was sent up to the runaways, at an extra charge. They staid in their room all day, not daring to leave it lest they should be seen by some of their shipmates. If they had been condemned to such an imprisonment on board of the ship, even for running away, they would have called it tyranny. They looked through the apertures at the sides of the curtains, and saw the second division depart for St. Petersburg, and the third starting for the Kremlin. They dined in their room at five, and at half past eight in the evening, when the party at the other hotel had gone to the Petrofski Gardens, they paid their bill, and took a drosky for the Kief Railway station. The lady who sold the tickets spoke French, so that they had no difficulty there. At noon the next day they arrived at Orel, from which they departed at half past one for Dunaburg, on the line from St. Petersburg to Warsaw. They reached this town at six o'clock on the evening of the next day, and were obliged to wait till two o'clock the next morning for a train, by which they proceeded to Warsaw. They had been three days on the road, and had slept three nights on the train, travelling eleven hundred miles, and paying fifty rubles each for the fares, besides six more for meals. They were tired out, and utterly disgusted with railroad travelling. Taking a carriage at Praga, a suburb of Warsaw, where the station is located, they crossed the high bridge over the Vistula, and were left at the Hotel de l'Europe. They were shown to a room twenty feet square, for which the charge was two rubles a day.