Princess Zara

be a catastrophe into a decided advantage. Experience had taught me long ago that the Russian nihilist is a fanatic who possesses distorted ideas of patriotism upon which he builds a theory of govern

be relied upon even then, for they will sell out to another with the

not?" I asked this man, as s

replied, r

hat is in stor

I'm only sorry that I did not have a chance to

et you may escape both, Siberia

le fast enough if you

speak

and Russian, and German, and

ood everything that passed

did not, if I had thought to do so. Still

fact. Why did you

information I could. I certainly did

all neither go to Siberia nor to your death. You will go to prison, and I will keep you there long enough to find out if your information is correct. If it is,

ll you keep

ecessary. I shall want you near me where I can ta

you damn

at your disposal, permission to communicate with your friends as often as you please so long as I see your letters befor

t

n't you acce

ll get all that you want out of me,

amily; you are an educated man, and you are young. In all probability you joined the nihilists without really meaning to do so, and having later been selected for this work here, on account of your ability, you were afraid to refuse it. Suppo

jok

you betray those men to me, what would your life be worth the moment you go

thi

find you, wo

cert

kill

as you st

t by them to be dead, or in Siberia, which is about the same thing. In the mean time you can write to any on

will suffice for the present. Later, I may tell you more about it. I am disposed to make another condition concerning her but I see that it

it, if it is a reasonable

about my true n

hich you are known a

n Mo

e, in th

e s

will see you and will keep my word in every respect. In the mean time I want you to think over

during his absence at the same time apologizing for having sent him from the room. Then I asked that the captain of the palace guard be sent for,

ced that you are the right man in the right place. Tell me how you discovered the presenc

en we passed the threshold I saw instantly that one of the curtains did not hang properly, so I seated myself in a position from which I could keep it in view. Twice I saw that it moved; a very little to be sure, but enough to satisfy me

one of the curtains and I would not have thought to suspect it. This serv

e spy will confess to me that he was sen

ere may be others of the

would not be likely to send more than on

already he had received several warnings from his compatriots that if another week passed without his accomplishment of the design, his own life would pay the forfeit. He was in tha

meeting places, their passwords, and several of their ciphers. Concerning their plans for the future, beyond those in which he was personally engaged, Morét knew almost nothing; but he did put me in the way of finding out nearly all that I wished to know. Nor is it necessary that I should describe my subseq

my own mind that she was prominent at the capital; but at the last he positively refused to answer any further questions concerning her, saying that he would rather go to Siberia and have done with it at once, than to betray her. I desisted, therefore, b

o the palace with the prince, I was prepared to commence work in earnest; bu

l understand that there were countless things to do, unnumbered details to arrange, and a thousand and one ramifications of the work to be

tal task; but the organization of such a bureau as this one whose very existence must remain a secret from

my existence, as it was related to them. With the chiefs of departments and sections, it was necessary that I should have intercourse and interviews, but I had already m

e as to render it not only exact, but absolutely under my personal control and direction, without however in any way creating the suspicion that I was personally interested. Presently you will understand more perfectly how this all came about, and in quite a natural way it would seem, for always things accomplished seem easy enough to the casual observer; and

cret pressure of the thumb, indeterminate in its character but nevertheless significant, was likely to be received from any hand clasp, no matter where given or with whom exchanged, and a princess or a countess was as likely to bestow it upon you as any ordinary person whom you might chance to meet. The pressure itself was merely a tentative question which might be transl

had no doubt that many of them were at heart loyal to the emperor, I already knew better than they did the immensity of the obligation they had undertaken in swearing allegiance to an associa

y these persons and the four weeks of my domicile in the apartment of the palace tha

der, its unlimited ramifications and its boundless possibilities for evil. To discover as I speedily did that princes of the blood, that ladies high in place, that generals in the army and lesser officers under them were among the ranks of the nihilists, was a

ch discusses murder and which arranges for wholesale assassination with the same equanimity of conscience

to be brought in contact with a beautiful woman who was not only high in place and a f