On the evening of the second day we reached the Russo-Prussian
frontier. Moller's evident anxiety as to whether we should be
able to cross it safely showed us plainly that the matter was one
of some danger. His good friend from the other side duly turned
up with a small carriage, as arranged, and in this conveyance
drove Minna, myself, and Robber through by paths to a certain
point, whence he led us on foot to a house of exceedingly
suspicious exterior, where, after handing us over to a guide, he
left us. There we had to wait until sundown, and had ample
leisure in which to realise that we were in a smugglers' drinking
den, which gradually became filled to suffocation with Polish
Jews of most forbidding aspect.

At last we were summoned to follow our guide. A few hundred feet
away, on the slope of a hill, lay the ditch which runs the whole
length of the Russian frontier, watched continually and at very
narrow intervals by Cossacks. Our chance was to utilise the few
moments after the relief of the watch, during which the sentinels
were elsewhere engaged. We had, therefore, to run at full speed
down the hill, scramble through the ditch, and then hurry along
until we were beyond the range of the soldiers' guns; for the
Cossacks were bound in case of discovery to fire upon us even on
the other side of the ditch. In spite of my almost passionate
anxiety for Minna, I had observed with singular pleasure the
intelligent behaviour of Robber, who, as though conscious of the
danger, silently kept close to our side, and entirely dispelled
my fear that he would give trouble during our dangerous passage.
At last our trusted helpmeet reappeared, and was so delighted
that he hugged us all in his arms. Then, placing us once more in
his carriage, he drove us to the inn of the Prussian frontier