The oil wagon
was now easy of access, and Tom and Ned, with Mr. Damon to aid them,
hastened toward it. Then the work of filling the tanks went on in
something like good old, United States fashion.
The last gallon of kerosene had been put aboard, and Tom and Ned with
Mr. Damon, had climbed on deck, when the gaily uniformed officer, who
had requested the delay, came riding up furiously.
"Hold! Hold! If you please!" he cried. "The governor has come. He wants
to see you."
"Too late!" answered Tom. "Give him our best regards and ask him to some
to the United States if he wants to see us. Sorry we haven't cards
handy. Ned, take the pilot house, and shoot her up sharp when you get
the signal. I'm going to run the motor. I don't know just how she'll
behave on the kerosene."
"You must remain!" angrily cried the officer.
"The United States doesn't take 'must' from anybody, from the Czar
down!" cried Tom as he disappeared into the motor room. The window was
open, and the youth turned on the power the official cried again to him:
"Halt! Here comes the governor! I declared you arrested by his orders,
and in the name of the Czar!"
"Nothing doing!" yelled Tom, and then, looking from the window, he saw
approaching a troop of Cossacks, in the midst of whom rode a man in a
brilliant uniform--evidently the governor.
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