The hall was lit up, and then the hotel keeper, not wishing to have the door injured, pretended to stumble over the key.

“Here it is!” he cried.

“Ha! the fellow must have thrown it there!” cried Frau Schaumberg, in triumph. “Now look into the room at once!”

The door was thrown open and all crowded into the apartment. The trunk was in a corner, locked and strapped.

“The bag is gone!” shrieked the lady of the house. “He has been here, beyond any question! He it was who knocked Bena down! Oh, the rascal! the robber! And to think we thought he was such a fine gentleman!”

“He appeared to be all right,” said the hotel keeper slowly.

“I distrusted him from the start,” sniffed the[Pg 78] wife. She turned to the soldiers. “What shall you do now?”

[Pg 78]

“We’ll go after him,” declared the corporal who was in command. “Take good care that he does not come back and get that trunk,” he added grimly.

“You will take charge of it later?”

“Yes.”

“Perhaps you had better look around the room first,” interposed Herr Schaumberg. “You may get some clew to where he is going.”

The hotel keeper knew well enough that Gilbert had left no clew behind him, but, as said before, he wanted to give the young American all the time possible in which to make good his escape. Gilbert’s frank manner had pleased him from the start, and, for reasons of his own, he bore no good feeling towards the soldiers of the Czar.

The suggestion to search the room was carried out, but nothing of importance was found, even in the trunk, which was smashed open with a hatchet.

“It’s no use wasting time here,” said the corporal at last. “Come, the quicker we get on his trail the better.”

“Yes! yes!” came from Frau Schaumberg. “And I trust with ah my heart you capture him.”

[Pg 79]

[Pg 79]

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