Soudeikin took the money with a salute and a whispered farewell, and
Ivan trotted his horses quietly down the lane and swung round into the
road at the end of it.
So far all had gone well, but the supreme moment of peril had yet to
come. A mile away down the road was the guardhouse on the Tobolsk road
leading out of the town, and this had to be passed before there was even
a chance of safety.
As there was no hope of getting the sleigh past unobserved, Colston had
determined to trust to a rush when the moment came. He had given Natasha
and the Princess a magazine pistol apiece, and held a brace in his own
hands; so among them they had a hundred shots.
Ivan kept his horses at an easy trot till they were within a hundred
yards of the guard-house. Then, at a sign from Colston, he suddenly
lashed them into a gallop, and the sleigh dashed forward at a headlong
speed, swept round the curve past the guard-house, hurling one of the
sentries on guard to the earth, and away out on to the Tobolsk road.
The next instant the notes of a bugle rang out clear and shrill just as
another sounded from the other end of the town. Colston at once guessed
what had happened. The inspector of the patrols, in going his rounds,
had called at Soudeikin house to see if all was right, and had
discovered the tragedy that had taken place. He looked back and saw a
body of Cossacks galloping down the main street towards the guard-house,
waving their lanterns and brandishing their spears above their heads.
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