Olga Romanoff

ger and hatred instead of gratitude and joy-were together in a small but luxuriously-furnished room, in an octag

ures death had already set its fatal seal. The other was a young girl, in all the pride and glory of budding womanhood, and beautiful with the

as the sun and shade of her varying moods swept over her inner being. Her straight, dark brows were almost masculine in their firmness; and the voluptuous promise of her full, red, sensuous lips was belied

1

a charm to be used for evil rather than for good. In a few years she would be such a woman as would drive men mad for the love of

air and beard showed up in strong contrast. He had been asleep for the last four hours, resting after the exertion of going to the cathedral, and the girl was sitti

his brow and opened his eyes. They rested for a moment on the girl's face, and then wandered inquiring

s it? Has Se

e clock; "that was only a quarter to n

before. Meanwhile get me the draught ready, so that I

ble drug? Why should you sacrifice what may be months or

den rush of tears. The one being that she loved in all the world was

e,[16] whose eyes have seen the snows of a hundred winters whitening the earth? I tell you that, drug or no drug, I shall not see the setting of to-morrow's sun. As I slept,

k her rising tears and went to a little cupboard let into the wall, out of which she took two small vials, each containing abou

g man put the glass to his lips and emptied it at a gulp. Then he threw himself back upon his pillows, and let the glass fall from hi

aivitch is he

" said the girl, walking towards the transmitter

ssed, according to the winter costume of the time, in a close-fitting suit of dark-blue velvet, long boots of soft, brown leather that came a l

se to her clear, pale cheeks as he instantly dropped on one knee and kissed it

of the House of[17] Romanoff! Your bri

ble to frame a coherent sentence. The strange drug had wrought a miracle of restoration. Fifty y

his face, and, saving only for his long, white hair, if one who had seen Alexander Romanoff, the last of the Tsars of Russia,

he full of his majestic height. As he did so the young man dropped on h

or my unworthiness. May he

al House from which you are sprung," replied the old man in the same language, raising him from his knee as

red to take that which I have to give you, and to do that which I shall ask of you. If there is any doubt in your soul, speak it now and go in pe

ng gaze with a glance as clear a

me to obey. Tell me your will, and I will do it to the death. In the hour that I f

em side by side before an ikon fastened to the eastern wall, with an ever-burning lamp in front of it. He bade them kneel down and join hands,

e been committed to the flames, you will take my ashes to Petersburg and lay them in the Church of Peter and Paul, and that when that is done, you will go to the Lossenskis at Moscow, and

eir knees and kissed each of them on the forehead. Then, taking from his neck a gold chain with a small key attached to it, he went to one of the oak panels,

teel, and behind it was a cavity in the wall, from which came the sheen of gold and the gleam of jewels. A cry of a

l-lined cavity, and laid it reverentl

ession, the Imperial crown of Russia, stolen when the Kremlin was plundered in the days of the Terror, and restore

to the future, and with it you shall receive and hand on a heritage of hate and vengeance, which you sha

t remember them, that you may tell them to your children, and perchance to their children after them, as I now tell them to you; for the hour of vengeance may not come i

threw himself into an easy-chair as he spoke, and motioned them with his hand towards a second low c

n them; and Serge, laying one of the cushions on the floor, sat at her feet, and drew one of her hands unresistingly over his shoulder, and kept it there as thou

did so the angry fire died out of his eyes, and his lips parted in a

2

sties rise and fall! Revolutions come and go, and the face of the world is changed, but the mystery of the

her cheeks, and she bowed her royal head, and looked almost tenderly at the blond, ruddy, y

eyes fixed on the glittering symbol of the vanished sovereignty of his House, as though he

I was born, a hundred years ago. There are barely a score of men left on earth who have seen and spoken with the men who saw the Great Revolt and the beginning of the Terror, and I alon

isten, Children of the Present, and take my words with

ow directly to Olga and Serge, in a quick, earnest tone, as though he feared tha

exiled him as a convict for life, those who remained of his family, and who had[21] taken no part in the war, were allowed to return to Europe, on condit

and Serge Nicholaivitch, the youngest son of his nephew Nicholas. These two settled at the Court of Denmark, and there, two years later, Olga married Pri

olaivitch, are descended in the fourth generation. Thus in you will be united the only two remaining branches of the

h the inner fires of a quenchless rage. Paul Romanoff's eyes answered hers flash for flash, for the same hatred and longing for revenge possessed them both-the old man who

g with an added tone of

stout hearts and keen brains and willing hands have been wanting for the work; but because the strong arm of the Terror has encircled the earth with unbreakab

2

spoke truly after him when he said that the supremacy of the Aerians was based upon the force that they c

rded it so jealously, that they have slain without mercy all who have ventured to take even the first step towar

least item in the legacy of revenge that I bequeath to you to-night. He had devoted his life, as many others

ied in the forests of Norway, he and six others, who were, as he thought, devoted to him and the glorious cause of wresting the empire of the

tes not a vestige of our air-ship or her creators remained. Only a blackened waste in the midst of the forest was left to show the scene of their labours. Within forty-eight hours, it was k

Air-Ship or her Creat

the[23] task before you is to wrest that mastery from them. It is no light task, but it is not impossible; for the

hem, for their hand was everywhere and their eyes saw everything. But now they have abdicated the throne of the world, and left

heir rule the world has become a paradise-for the canaille and the multitude. But they have curbed the mob as well as the king, and abolished the demagogue as well as t

rmies and navies at their command and could enforce obedience. These are but the puppets of the popular will, and now that the moral and physical support of the Supreme Counci

ent there may be, will be a mere matter of counting heads. Individual freedom will by swift degrees vanish from the earth, and h

military despotisms, but now military despotism has been made impossible, a

ery nation, thousands of men and women who are chafing against the limitations imposed on individual aspirations and ambition; and as the r

ork will be long and arduous, but you have all your lives before yo

you will enthrone it in an even higher place than that which your ancestor had almost won for it, when these

world. Think of Natas and the mighty work that he did, and remember that he was

conquer the air as they have done. Aeria itself, by all reports, is such a paradise as the sun nowhere else shines upon. Some day, whether by force or cunning, it may b

a and scaling the mighty battlements of Aeria,[25] hurling their lightnings far and wide in the work of vengeance long delayed! Behind the

at the mines of Kara, no Tsar of Russia has been crowned. Now I, Paul Romanoff, his rightful heir, will crown myself after the fashion of my ances

s aglow with the light of ecstasy. Olga and Serge rose to their feet, half i

imself up to the full height of his majestic stature, raised it

g the glaze of death behind it. He gasped once for breath, and then his mighty form shrank together and pitched forward in a hudd

said Serge, covering his eyes with his hand

h in a long, wailing cry, and she flung herself down on the prostrate form of the only friend she had ever known and loved, and