* * * * *
Needless to say, even Sir Anthony was momentarily nonplussed by Schmidt's melodramatic pronouncement. But, to his credit, he recovered much more swiftly than I did.
"Very inventive, mein herr! But, even I know that the Grand Duchess Anastasia was murdered--along with the rest of the Russian royal family--almost four years ago, exactly."
"Bolshevik propaganda," replied the self-proclaimed Swiss mercenary: "Which I do not have time to elaborate upon."
He moved to get up from his bed, now pointing both Colt M-1917's at us as he did so. But, we hadn't exactly come unarmed, ourselves!
You see, during the train ride to Deepayintinee, the three of us had agreed that, even if we concealed the Mausers General Hopkins had loaned us beneath un-tucked shirts, the midday humidity of summer would still make the fabric cling to them. Thereby revealing their outlines! So, we had decided to keep them in our knapsacks during daylight hours.
And, as I had already mentioned, it was now night time.
"I'm afraid we must insist on elaboration, Herr Schmidt," Sir Anthony replied (both our Mausers aimed right at the former's forehead).
A few tense seconds crawled by as this impasse persisted. Finally, though, Schmidt decided it would not do "his" Anna any good if he died in a needless exchange of gunfire. So, he lowered his Colts and we did likewise with the machine pistols.
"In April of 1917, the Dowager Empress Maria secretly requested the French government's help in rescuing her son and his family from their place of captivity at Ekaterinburg, in the Urals. And, they recruited me to head up the task force as I could speak fluent Russian. The result of growing up at the French embassy in Petrograd (where mein vater had been adjutant to the military attache' of same)."
"Unfortunately, by the time we initiated the rescue attempt und arrived in Ekaterinburg, only the Grand Duchess had not yet been executed. Thus, she was the only one we managed to abscond with. I will not bore you with all the details. Suffice it to say that we made our way to Murmansk, disguised as Eastern Uniate anchorites on holy pilgrimage to Campostela, Spain.* A ploy that would allow us to travel to Thurso, Scotland, via Bergen, Norway. And, from thence to Paris, by train."
"In London, however, we were met by agents of British Military Intelligence, who informed us we were being pursued by an assassin of the Cheka. So, with the discrete help of the American ambassador to the Court of St. James, the Grand Duchess and myself were...re-routed...via Canada to Erie, Pennsylvania. There, we posed as a Volgadeutsche Mennonite widower and his daughter. Shunned in Europe for converting to the Priestless rite of the Old Believers. And, it is in a local shipyard in Erie that I truly learned all I know about carpentry."
"Yet, as of last year," Sir Anthony finished for him: "...the two of you moved here to the Upper Peninsula. Why?"
"I was informed by the French ambassador to Washington, D.C., that the same assassin we had eluded, three years earlier, had resumed the hunt for us after finding fresh clues to our where-abouts. Compelling us to flee, once again."
"You're a very fine story-teller, Herr Schmidt," I retorted: "But, by this point, I think you should regard Sir Anthony and I as honorary Missourians!"
"What he means," the former added, in translation: "...is that we require some proof of your veracity. Like, for example, the name of this assassin."
"That I cannot tell you. I know him only by the nickname by which the Cheka address him; the Tatar."
I looked at Sir Anthony, peripherally.
"What do you think? Could this Tatar be the real culprit behind the disappearance of those girls?"
Sir Anthony shook his head: "A professional assassin would never have let even one witness get away from him (as young Miss Bishop did). Nor would he have posed as a snake-woman from medieval French folklore!"
"What about that bit about the underwater castle? Is Lake Yo-Tel-T'til deep enough to hide such a structure?"
Whereupon, Schmidt snorted derisively.
"The Bolsheviks brag about having total sexual equality within their armed forces. So, it is equally likely that the Tatar has a female accomplice! As to an 'underwater castle?' The girls are more likely being held hostage in an abandoned copper mine. I was told, when first I began working here, that this camp had been founded on the site of one, formerly operated by the Ojibwa."
Sir Anthony looked at me before inquiring as to where the entrance to the alleged mine might be.
"In the basement of the chapel," was the Swiss mercenary's terse reply.
So, that was where the three of us went next.
NEXT: DESCENT INTO TERROR
tbc
Giantess World
Chapter End Notes:
*Eastern Uniate: any Russian Catholic church that acknowledges Papal authority. Yet, which still goes by the Eastern Orthodox rite of worship.
Anchorite: obsolescent term for a Christian religious hermit.
Campostela, Spain: where St. James the Apostle is buried.
Cheka: original name for the Soviet Secret Police.
"...honorary Missourians:" Congressman William Vandiver is the American politician credited with nicknaming his home state "The Show Me State" via some speech in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, circa 1899. One in which he expressed his disbelief on some subject or other by proclaiming "I'm from Missouri, and you have to show me!"
Anchorite: obsolescent term for a Christian religious hermit.
Campostela, Spain: where St. James the Apostle is buried.
Cheka: original name for the Soviet Secret Police.
"...honorary Missourians:" Congressman William Vandiver is the American politician credited with nicknaming his home state "The Show Me State" via some speech in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, circa 1899. One in which he expressed his disbelief on some subject or other by proclaiming "I'm from Missouri, and you have to show me!"