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amidships. The schooner was drifting helplessly, but the current, slight as
it was, was taking them deeper into the inlet. The tidal currents there, he
recalled, were fearfully strong.
The way was blocked. The Lena lay fairly across the only entrance and her
boats were drawing near. There was nothing else for it. Abandon ship, he
said. Get for shore, all of you.
What about you? Noble protested.
I ll come, he said. Get going!
He turned to the companionway and went swiftly down the ladder. For the first
time he realized how badly hulled they were: water stood on the deck of the
saloon. He slipped a pistol behind his belt, caught up a coat. Alongside he
heard splashes and yells as the crew jumped over the side. The shore here was
nowhere over fifty yards away.
He went swiftly up the ladder and reaching the rail, turned back for a last
long look. The forem st was gone, trailing over the side in a mass of
wreckage. The stern was a wreck and the deck was literally a shambles. Pope
and Sykes were definitely gone, both killed in those few minutes of shelling.
Luckily, most of the crew had been ashore. Yet ... the Susquehanna ... it was
like deserting an old friend. He sprang to the rail.
Below him and not twenty yards away was the Russian longboat, and in it were
a dozen men, six of whom covered him with rifles. In the stern sat Baron Paul
Zinnovy, smiling.
To jump was to die, and he was not ready to die. The boat came alongside and
the Russians swarmed aboard. Two men seized him and bound his hands behind
him, stripping him of his pistol. Zinnovy scarcely glanced at him, walking
about the ship, looking her over curiously. Other men had gone below to
inspect the cargo. As he was seated in the boat one of the men spoke to the
other and indicating LaBarge, said, Katorzhniki.
It was a word that stood for a living death, it was the term applied to
hard-labor convicts in Siberia.
May had come and gone before the news reached Robert Walker, and he acted
with speed. The purchase of Alaska hung in the balance and the Baron Edouard
Stoeckl was worried. He wanted to be back in Russia, or to have an assignment
in Paris or Vienna, and everything depended on this mission. Now this LaBarge
affair had to come up, and the man involved had to be a personal friend, a
very close friend of Walker himself, known moreover to Seward, Sumner, all of
them. Ratification of the treaty was not enough. The appropriation must be
made. He had watched Congress in action long enough to know that the whole
sale of Alaska might fail right there. And if any man could get out the
necessary vote, it was Walker. Why couldn t that confounded Zinnovy have kept
his ships in Sitka? He sat now, in Walker s home, and the little man with the
wheezy voice glanced over at him. Is there any news of LaBarge? The
Baron s face shadowed a little. He had hoped the subject would not arise.
We have done our best, but
Could it be possible, Walker suggested, to arrange for the transfer of
such a prisoner? Supposing he is in Siberia?
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There is no record of such a prisoner, Stoeckl protested, nor of any such
capture. I am sure the whole affair is the figment of someone s imagination.
Sir, Walker s voice was stiff, the man whose letter lies on my desk is a
man of honor, LaBarge s partner and my friend. Not only was an American vessel
shelled but its cargo was taken. This, sir, savors of piracy. Baron Stoeckl
had friends in the Russian American Company, but Baron Zinnovy was not one of
these. However, he had a very good idea as to Zinnovy s duties in Sitka, and
it would not do to have such news reach the ears of the Czar. Stoeckl knew
that following the return of Princess Helena there had been a great fuss,
which had been calmed down only after some time. At this moment orders for a
complete shake-up at Sitka were carefully pigeonholed in the Ministry of the
Interior. A revisor was to be appointed to investigate, but so far this had
not been done.
I cannot see what good it would do to have the prisoner transferred if he
remained a prisoner.
Walker brushed the question aside. I have heard, correct me if I am wrong,
that some convict labor is used in Sitka?
Baron Stoeckl almost smiled. So that was what the fox was thinking! Maybe
this man was married to Benjamin Franklin s granddaughter with some reason ...
a prisoner transferred to Alaska on the evening of the sale would most
certainly be freed when the Americans took over.
It was a very sensible idea ... and this he, Baron Stoeckl, might arrange.
There were people, the superiors of Zinnovy, in the Ministry of the Interior
who wanted LaBarge to remain a prisoner. Yet a prisoner might be transferred
without incurring the displeasure of these people. It was something that might
be done without endangering his own future prospects.
There was one thing Walker did not know and which Stoeckl had no intention of
telling him. There was every prospect that Zinnovy himself would be appointed
revisor at Sitka.
It is, as you suggest, a possibility that another shipment of convicts might
be sent to Sitka. ... How do the votes stand, Mr. Walker, for the
appropriation? They talked far into the night, weighing the pros and cons and
Stoeckl nursed his injured leg and cursed under his breath.
It was bad luck that Zinnovy had gone to Siberia without putting in at Sitka,
and the prisoners had been landed there and turned over to the police.
Probably not even he knew what had become of LaBarge by now. It was several
days before he saw Walker again. They met briefly, over a glass of sherry. By
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