To catch Vera he made an alliance with
"The Whiteley of Crime." He was a man who would destroy a parish
register, or forge a will, or crack a crib, or break up a Pro-Boer
meeting, or burn a house, or kidnap a rightful heir, or manage a
personation, or issue amateur bank-notes, or what you please. Thinking
to kill two birds with one stone, he carried off Rose for her diamonds
and Vera for his friend, the Muscovite police official, lodging them both
in the Haunted House. But there he and the Russian came to blows, and,
in the confusion, Vera made her escape, while Rose was conveyed, _as
Vera_, to Siberia. Not knowing how to dispose of her, the Russian police
consigned her to a nunnery at the mouth of the Obi. Her lover, in a
yacht, found her hiding-place, and got a friendly nun to give her some
narcotic known to the Samoyeds. It was the old _truc_ of the Friar in
"Romeo and Juliet." At the mouth of the Obi they do not bury the dead,
but lay them down on platforms in the open air. Rose was picked up there
by her lover (accompanied by a chaperon, of course), was got on board the
steam yacht, and all went well. I forget what happened to "The Whiteley
of Crime." After him I still rather hanker--he was a humorous ruffian.
Something could be made of "The Whiteley of Crime." Something _has_ been
made, by the author of "Sherlock Holmes."
In yet another romance, a gentleman takes his friend, in a country place,
to see his betrothed.
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