"That will do. No answer. Here, Marie, give this man a couple of rubles."

I received the gratuity with a look of satisfaction which must have surprised the tired waiting maid. In reality I had scored a most important point. Thanks to my suppression of the first message and my addition to the second, I had completely cut off communication between the agent of the Syndicate and its head in Petersburg, for a time; while I had lulled the beautiful plotter into a false security, by which I was likely to benefit.

My anxieties considerably lightened for the time being, I now renewed my search for Colonel Menken.

The train from Petersburg had emptied by this time, so I moved across the station to where the luxurious Manchurian express was being boarded by its passengers.

I got in at one end, and made my way slowly along the corridors, stepping over innumerable bags and other light articles. In a corner of the smoking car I came at last upon the man I sought.

Colonel Menken was a young man for his rank, not over thirty, with a fine, soldierly figure, handsome face and rather dandified air. He wore a brilliant uniform, which looked like that of some crack regiment of Guards. A cigar was in his mouth, and he was making a little nest for himself with rugs and books and papers, and a box of choice Havanas. A superb despatch box, with silver mounts, was plainly marked with his initials, also in silver.

I did not dare to choose a seat for myself in the same part of the train as the man whom I was anxious to guard. The oppressive powers wielded by the police of Russia are tolerated only on one condition, namely, that they are never abused to the disparagement of the social importance of the aristocracy.

Bearing this in mind, I proceeded to the coach set aside for the servants of the rich passengers, and contrived to secure a place close to that occupied in the day-time by the maid of the Princess.

Having more than an hour to spare, I now laid in a large stock of Turkish tobacco and cigarette papers, so as to have some means of beguiling the time on the long, wearisome run across Asia. I also bought a second-hand valise, and stocked it modestly with clothes. Finally I made a hearty breakfast in the station restaurant, and boarded the train a few minutes before it rolled out of Moscow.

Needless to say, I had introduced myself to the superintendent of the train, an official of great dignity and importance. As a police agent, of course I traveled free on the Government lines. The superintendent was good enough to offer me a spare bed in his private cabin at the end of the train, and during the run we became the best of friends.

But I must be excused from dwelling on the details of the journey, not the first I had taken on the great transasiatic line. My whole energies were absorbed in two tasks. In the first place, I had to gain the confidence of the maid, Marie, and in the second to prevent her mistress gaining the confidence of the messenger of the Czar.

"I hope that message I brought to the Princess did not contain any bad news?" I said to Marie as soon as I got a chance of addressing her.

This was when we were fairly on the way.

After first attending to her mistress, and seeing that she was comfortably settled, the maid was at liberty to look after herself, and I had seized the opportunity to render her a few trifling services with her luggage.

"I don't know, I'm sure," was the answer to my question. "The Princess tells me nothing of her secrets."

"Perhaps the Princess Y——"

"Oh, let's call her Sophy," the maid interrupted crossly.

Needless to say I welcomed these symptoms that Marie was no great friend of her employer.

"Perhaps she has no secrets," I continued. "Have you been with her long?"

"Only six months," was the answer. "And I don't think I shall stay much longer. But you're quite mistaken if you think Sophy is one of the innocent ones. She's always up to some mischief or other, though what it is, I don't know."

"If you stay with her a little longer, you may find out. And then, if it is anything political, you may make a good deal of money out of her."

The girl's eyes brightened.

"Keep your eyes open," I said. "Look out for any scraps of paper you see lying about. Keep a diary of the places Sophy goes to, and the people she sees. And when you have anything to tell, let me know. I will give you my address in Petersburg. And you may trust me to see that you come off well."

Marie readily agreed to all I asked of her. The understanding thus arrived at was destined to be of the greatest assistance to me. Indeed, it is not too much to say that to this young Russian girl it is due that the two greatest Powers in the Old World are not at this moment battling on the Afghan frontier.

We had hardly been an hour under way before I saw the two objects of my watchfulness seated side by side in the drawing-room car, apparently on the friendliest terms.

Dismayed by this rapid progress, as it seemed, on the part of the Princess, I reproached myself for not having warned Colonel Menken before we started.

I resolved to put him on his guard at the earliest possible moment, and with that view I hung about the smoking-car, waiting till I saw him return to his corner.

This was not for some hours. Fortunately, owing to the universal expectation of war, there were not many passengers proceeding to the Far East. The train was practically empty, and so when Colonel Menken had seated himself once more in the snug corner he had prepared for himself, I was able to approach him without fear of being overheard.

He was just lighting a cigar as I came up, and took no notice of my respectful salute till he had inhaled the tobacco smoke two or three times and expelled it through his nostrils to test the flavor.

At last he turned to me.

"Well?" he said with some sharpness. "What is the matter?"

"I have seen in the passenger list that you are traveling on the service of the Czar," I answered, "and I venture to place myself at your orders."

Colonel Menken scowled at me haughtily.

"Does that mean that you want a tip?" he sneered. "Or has some fool ordered you to shadow me?"

"Neither, Colonel," I replied. "I am a servant of the Czar, like yourself, as you may see from my uniform, and as I have reason to fear that there is an enemy of his majesty on the train, I wish to put you on your guard."

Menken gave a self-confident smile.

"I am pretty well able to take care of myself, I believe," he said boastfully. "As for the Nihilists, I no longer believe in their existence. You may point out the man you suspect, if you like, of course."

"It is not a man, Colonel, it is a woman."

"In that case the adventure promises to be interesting. I do not know any of the women on board except the Princess Y——."

"You know her!" I allowed a note of surprise to appear in my voice.

"The Princess is related to me," the Czar's messenger declared, with a rebuking frown. "I presume she is not the object of your suspicions?"

"And if she were?"

"If she were, I should tell you that you had made a very absurd mistake, my good fellow. The Princess is in the confidence of the Dowager Empress; she is perfectly aware of the object of my mission, and she has just promised me that if I carry it out successfully she will become my wife."



CHAPTER IX

THE BETROTHAL OF DELILAH

Colonel Menken regarded me with ironical contempt as I tried to apologize for my hinted distrust of his betrothed.

"That will do, my man. I shall tell the Princess of your blunder, and I can assure you she will be heartily amused by it."

"At least you will remember that I wear his imperial majesty's uniform," I ventured. "And, however much I have been misled as to the intentions of her highness, I submit that I am entitled to secrecy on your part."

"Am I to understand that some one has given you orders referring to the Princess? I thought this was simply some idle suspicion of your own?"

"My instructions were to watch over your safety, without letting you perceive it, and to take particular note of any one who seemed to be trying to form your acquaintance on the journey. If you now denounce me to her highness, she will be annoyed, and in any case I shall be of no further use to you."

"So much the better," the Colonel said rudely. "I consider your being here at all as an act of impertinence. If I engage to say nothing to the Princess—who, as you say, might be annoyed—will you undertake to leave me alone for the future?"

"I will undertake to leave the train at Tomsk," I replied.

Colonel Menken closed with this offer, which was meant as a delusive one. I had selected the first important stopping-place at which the train waited sufficiently long for me to procure the materials of a fresh disguise.

I took the train superintendent into my confidence, as far as to say that I wished to assume a false character for the remainder of the journey in order to be better able to play the spy on the object of my suspicion. We agreed that one of the train attendants should be put off at Tomsk, and that I should take his place.

After my scene with the Colonel, I could not venture to do much in the way of overlooking them. But I made the best use of my friendship with Marie, and she reported to me regularly what she observed of the doings of her mistress.

"It is my belief that Sophy is going to marry that stupid Colonel," she informed me, not long after I had heard of the engagement. "Why? I can't think. He has no brains, not much money, and I am certain she is not in love with him."

"There has been a quarrel of some kind between those two," she reported later on. "Colonel Menken has been questioning Sophy about her reason for going to Port Arthur just now, when it may be attacked by the Japanese."

All this time the Princess had made no move to possess herself of the despatch which Menken was carrying—the real object of her presence on board the train.

When Tomsk was reached, I went off into the town and procured different hair and beard so as to effect a complete change in my appearance. The disguise was clumsy enough, but, after all, neither the Colonel nor his companion had had many opportunities of studying my personal appearance.

In the little cabin of my friend the superintendent I carried out the transformation, and finished by donning the livery of the railway restaurant service.

Thus equipped, I proceeded to lay the table at which the betrothed pair usually took their meals together.

As soon as the next meal, which happened to be dinner, was ready, I proceeded to wait upon them. They noticed the change of waiters, and asked me what had become of my predecessor.

"He got off at Tomsk," I told them. This was true—the getting rid of the waiter whose place I wished to take had been a simple matter. It must be remembered that I found myself everywhere received as an inspector attached to the secret police, the dreaded Third Section, and, in consequence, my word was law to those I had to deal with.

I added with an assumed air of mysterious consequence, "The Inspector of Police also left the train at Tomsk. It is asserted that he is going to make an important arrest."

Colonel Menken laughed. Then turning to the beautiful woman who sat facing him across the small table, he said smilingly,

"It is lucky the inspector did not arrest you, my dear."

"Why, what do you mean?" she demanded.

"Simply that this officer, according to his own account, was charged to watch over and protect your devoted servant, and in the exercise of his functions he was good enough to hint to me that you were a suspicious character, of whom I should do well to be on my guard."

"Infamous! The wretch! Why didn't you tell me this before?"

"I promised the fellow not to. He was afraid of getting into trouble, and as he had only blundered out of zeal, I let him off."

"And he has left the train. Why, I wonder?"

"I ordered him to."

The Princess Y—— looked less and less pleased. A minute later, I caught her stealthily glancing in my direction, and realized that her keen wits were already at work, connecting my appearance on the scene with the disappearance of the inspector.

The next day, Colonel Menken and his betrothed took their seats at a different table in the restaurant of the train.

I saw the meaning of this maneuver. It was of course a test by which the Princess Y—— sought to learn if I was a spy, appointed to replace the inspector. I took care not to assist her by following them to the new table; on the contrary, I refused the offer of my brother waiter, who was honest enough not to wish to take my tips from me.

When we reached Irkutsk, I had another proof that the Princess was beginning to feel uneasy. Marie informed me that her mistress had ordered her to go into the town and send off a telegram, as she would not trust the railway officials.

The message, which my ally faithfully reported to me, was addressed to Petrovitch himself and ran as follows:

Received wire from you at Moscow reporting our friend ill, and telling me not to wire you again till my return. I now fear some mistake. All going well otherwise.

We were carried across the frozen Baikal amid a furious snowstorm. Huddled up in thick furs, and fighting to keep our blood circulating under the leaden pressure of the cruel frost, there was no time to think of conspiracies.

But on resuming the journey on the other side of the lake, I saw that the cunning agent of the War Party was maturing some decisive attempt on the messenger of peace. The talks of the lovers became closer and more confidential, the manner of Colonel Menken grew daily more devoted and absorbed, and Marie described her mistress as laboring under an extraordinary excitement.

At last, on the very day the train crossed the Chinese frontier on the way to Mukden, Marie came to me with a decisive report.

"Sophy has won!" she declared. "I overheard them talking again last night. Ever since they left Tomsk they have been having a dispute, Sophy declaring that the Colonel did not love her, because he suspected her, and he, the stupid creature, swearing that he trusted her entirely. It appears she had got out of him that he was carrying a paper of some kind, and so she said that unless he gave her this paper to keep till they reached Dalny or Port Arthur, she would not believe in him, nor have anything more to say to him.

"In the end, she was too many for him. Last night he gave her the paper in a sealed envelope, and I saw her take it from her breast before she undressed last night."

"Where is it? What has she done with it?" I demanded anxiously.

"I can't tell you that. She had it in her hand when she dismissed me for the night. It looked to me as though she meant to break the seal and read it."

Full of the gravest forebodings, I hurried to the rear of the train, got out my inspector's uniform, though without effecting any change in my facial appearance, and made my way to the smoking-car.

Colonel Menken, who had just finished breakfast, was settling himself down to a cigar and an illustrated magazine.

He gazed up at me in astonishment, as he perceived the change in my costume.

"So the Princess was right!" he exclaimed angrily. "You are another policeman."

I bowed.

"And charged, like the last, to protect me from my cousin and future wife!"

"From the person who has robbed you of the Czar's autograph letter to the Emperor of Japan, yes!"

Menken recoiled, thunderstruck.

"You knew what I was carrying?"

"As well as I know the contents of the telegram which the Princess sent from Irkutsk to the head of the Manchurian Syndicate—the man who has sworn that the Czar's letter shall never be delivered."

Colonel Menken staggered to his feet, bewildered, angry, half induced to threaten, and half to yield.

"You must be lying! Sophy never left my sight while we were at Irkutsk!"

"We can discuss that later. Will you, or will you not, reclaim his majesty's letter—the letter entrusted to your honor?"

Menken turned white.

"I—I will approach the Princess," he stammered, obviously divided between fear of losing her, and dread of myself and any action I might take.

"That will not do for me," I said sternly. "I can only make you this offer: Come with me at once to this lady's sleeping berth and regain the despatch, and I will agree to say no more about it; refuse, and I shall report the whole affair to his majesty personally."

"Who are you?" inquired the dismayed man.

"That is of no consequence. You see my uniform—let that be enough for you."

He staggered down the car. I followed, and we reached the car where the Princess was at the moment engaged, with Marie's aid, in putting the last touches to her toilet.

She looked up at our appearance, gave an interrogative glance first at Menken and then, at me, and evidently made up her mind.

"What is it, gentlemen?"

"The—the paper I gave—that you offered to—that—in short, I want it immediately," faltered my companion.

"I have no paper of yours, and I do not know what you are talking about, my friend," said the Princess Y—— with the calmest air in the world.

Menken uttered a cry of despair.

"The letter, the letter I gave you last night—it was a letter from the Czar," he exclaimed feebly.

"I think you must have dreamed it," said the Princess with extreme composure. "Marie, have you seen any letter about?"

"No, your highness," returned the servant submissively.

"If you think there is anything here, you are welcome to look," her mistress added with a pleasant smile. "As for me, I never keep letters, my own or anybody else's. I always tear them up."

And with these words, and another smile and a nod, she stepped gracefully past us, and went to take her seat in the part of the train reserved for ladies.

Somewhere, doubtless, on the white Manchurian plain we had crossed in the night, the fragments of the imperial peacemaker's letter were being scattered by the wind.

Menken's face had changed utterly in the last minute. He resembled an elderly man.

"Tell the Czar that I alone am to blame," were his last words.

Before I could prevent him, he had drawn a revolver from his pocket, and put two bullets through his head.



CHAPTER X

THE ANSWER OF THE MIKADO

A week later, that is to say, on the 8th of February, 1904, I was in Tokio.

The behavior of the Princess Y—— on hearing of the death of her victim had been a strange mixture of heartlessness and hysterical remorse.

At the first sound of the fatal shots, she came rushing to the scene of the tragedy, and cast herself on the floor of the corridor beside the dead man, seizing his hands, crying his name aloud, and weeping frantically.

When I tried to raise her, so that the body might be removed, she turned on me fiercely.

"This is your fault!" she cried. "Who are you, and how dared you interfere with me?"

"As you see by my uniform, I am an inspector of police attached to the Third Section."

She gazed at me searchingly for a moment, and then, lowering her voice, and bringing her lips to my ear, she said with intense energy:

"It is a lie. I am here by the orders of the Minister himself, as you must know well. You are acting against us, whoever you are."

"I am acting by order of the Czar," I responded.

She smiled scornfully.

"I expect that is another lie. You could not have got so far as you have unless you had some one else behind you. Poor Nicholas!—Every one knows what he is, and that he has less power than any other man in Russia. Are you Witte's man, I wonder?"

"You are a bold woman to question me," I said. "How do you know that I am not going to arrest you for stealing and destroying the Czar's letter?"

"I should not remain long under arrest," was the significant answer. She gave me another searching look, and muttered to herself, "If I did not know that he was safe in the hands of my friends in Petersburg I should think you must be a certain Monsieur ——"

She broke off without pronouncing my name, and turned away.

At Mukden, the next stopping place, the Princess Y—— left the train, no doubt intending to travel back to Russia and report her success.

In the meantime, I had reason to think she had notified her friends in Manchuria to keep an eye on me.

All the way to Dalny I felt by that instinct which becomes second nature to a man of my profession that I was under surveillance. I detected a change in the manner of my friend the train superintendent. My trifling luggage was carefully searched. In the night when I was asleep some one went through my pockets. I was able to see that even the contents of my cigarette case, which I had not opened since leaving Petersburg, had been turned out and put back again.

As the train neared Dalny I began to feel a little nervous. I had a dread of being stopped on my way to embark on board the steampacket which was still running to Tokio.

The train drew up at last, at the end of its five-thousand-mile-run, and I stepped off it to the platform, carrying my valise in my hand.

The platform was literally swarming with spies, as it was easy for a man of my experience to detect. I walked calmly through them to the cab-stand, and hailed a droshky.

The driver, before starting off, exchanged a signal almost openly with a stout man in plain clothes, who dogged me from the railway carriage.

Presently I sighted the steamer, alongside the principal wharf, with the smoke pouring out of its funnel, all ready to start.

The cabman whipped his horse and drove straight past the steamer.

"Where are you going?" I shouted.

"To the Custom House first; it is the regulation," was the answer.

Taking out my long neglected case, I placed a cigarette between my lips, and asked the driver for some matches.

He passed me a wooden box. I struck several, but each went out in the high wind before igniting the tobacco.

I was making another attempt as the droshky drew up outside the steps of the Custom House. I dismounted negligently, while one of the officials came and clutched my luggage. Then I walked slowly up the steps, pausing in the porch to strike a fresh match.

A porter snatched the box from my hand. "Smoking is forbidden," he said roughly. "Wait till you are out again."

I shrugged my shoulders, pinched the burning end of the cigarette, which I retained in my mouth, and sauntered with an air of supreme indifference after the man who was carrying my bag.

He led me into a room in which a severe-looking official was seated at a desk.

"Your papers," he demanded.

I produced the papers with which I had been furnished by Rostoy.

The customs official scrutinized them, evidently in the hope of discovering some flaw.

"On what business are you going to Tokio?" he demanded.

I smiled.

"Since when have the police of the Third Section been obliged to render an account of themselves to the officers of the customs?" I asked defiantly.

"How do I know that you are not a Japanese spy?"

I laughed heartily.

"You must be mad. How do I know that you are not a Nihilist?" I retorted.

The customs officer turned pale. I saw that my chance shot had gone home. The Russian imperial services are honeycombed by revolutionary intrigues.

"Well, I shall detain your luggage for examination," he declared.

This time I pretended the greatest agitation. Of course, the more I resisted the more he insisted. In the end he allowed me to depart without my person being searched. The fact is I had convinced him that he held an important prize in my worthless valise.

I was just in time to catch the steamer. As I crossed the gangway, a man dressed like a coal-trimmer turned on me a last careful scrutiny, and remarked,

"Your cigarette has gone out, Mister."

"Can you give me a light? Thank you!" I struck a match, drew a puff of smoke, and handed him back the box. Then I walked on board, the gangway was drawn in, and the Japanese steamer headed out to the open sea.

On reaching Tokio I experienced some difficulty in obtaining an audience of the Japanese ruler.

I was obliged to announce my name. It will hardly be believed, but the chamberlain whom I had entrusted with the important secret, brought back the answer that the Mikado had never heard of me!

"Tell his imperial majesty that there is no monarch of Europe, and only two of Asia, who could say the same. I am here as the confidential plenipotentiary of the Czar, with an autograph letter addressed to the Mikado, and I respectfully ask leave to present it in person."

Such a demand of course could not be refused. But even now the haughty Japanese did not receive me in the privacy of his own cabinet. On the contrary, I found myself introduced into the State Council-Room, in which his majesty was seated at a table surrounded by his chief advisers.

In particular I remarked the venerable Yamagata, conqueror of China, and the round bullet-head of Oyama, the future overthrower of Kuropatkin.

On the table was spread out a large map, or rather plan, of the entire theater of war, including Manchuria, Korea, Japan and the seas between. A man in naval uniform was standing beside the imperial chair, with an expectant look on his face.

All eyes were turned upon me at my entrance. The Mikado beckoned to me to approach him.

"Is it true that you bring me a letter from the Russian Emperor?" he asked abruptly. "We have received information that such a letter was on its way, but that the bearer was murdered on the Manchurian railway four days ago."

"Your majesty's information is substantially correct," I answered. "The messenger, a Colonel Menken, was seduced into parting with his despatch, and committed suicide in consequence."

"Well, and what about yourself?"

"Foreseeing that the unscrupulous men who have been trying to force on a war between his Russian majesty and your majesty would leave no stone unturned to intercept this despatch, the Czar wrote a duplicate with his own hand, which he entrusted to me, in the hope that I might baffle the conspirators."

"Where is it?"

"I endeavored to conceal it by unstitching the front of the shirt I am wearing, and sewing it up between the folds.

"Unfortunately I was drugged at a dinner party in Petersburg just before starting. I was unconscious for an hour and a half, and I fear that the opponents of peace have taken advantage of the opportunity to find and rob me of the letter. But I will see, with your majesty's permission."

The Mikado made no answer. Amid a breathless silence, with all the room watching my movements, I tore open my shirt-front and extracted a paper.

It was blank.

"So," commented the Japanese Emperor, sternly, "you have no such credentials as you boasted of having."

"Pardon me, sire. Anticipating that the War Party would suspect the object of my mission, and would resort to some such step to defeat it, I purposely provided them with a document to steal, believing that when they had robbed me of it they would allow me to proceed unmolested. My real credentials are here."

I drew out my cigarette case, found the partially smoked cigarette I had had in my mouth when I ran the gauntlet of the spies at Dalny, and proceeded to cut off the paper. On the inner surface these words were written in the hand of the Czar:

The bearer of this, M. V——, has my full confidence, and is authorized to settle conditions of peace. NICHOLAS.

As I respectfully placed the scrap of paper, with its charred edges, in the Mikado's hand, I was conscious of a profound sensation in the room. Aged statesmen and brilliant commanders bent eagerly across the table to learn the character of the message thus strangely brought to its destination.

His majesty read the brief note aloud. It was received with a murmur, not entirely of satisfaction I was surprised to note.

Seeing that the Mikado made no remark, I ventured to say:

"I hope that the extreme character of the measures adopted by the Czar to assure your majesty of his peaceful sentiments will have the effect of convincing you that they are genuine."

The Emperor of Japan glanced around his council board as if to satisfy himself that he and his advisers were of one mind before replying:

"I appreciate the zeal and the extraordinary skill with which you have carried out your mission. I regret that I cannot give you a favorable answer to take back to your nation."

I was thunderstruck at this exordium. Slightly raising his voice, the Mikado went on:

"Tell the Emperor of Russia that I do not distrust his sincerity, but I distrust his power. The monarch who cannot send a letter through his dominions in safety; who has to resort to stratagems and precautions like these to overcome the opposition of his own subjects, is not the ruler of his empire.

"Why, sir, do you suppose that if I had a message to send to my brother in St. Petersburg I should have to stoop to arts like these? That any subject of mine would dare to plot against me, to seduce my messengers, to drug and rob them? Incredible! The tale you have told me completely confirms everything I and my advisers have already heard with regard to the Russian Government. It is a ship without a captain, on which the helm is fought for and seized by different hands in turn. To-day the real rulers of Russia are the men who are bent on war—and who, while we are talking, have actually begun the war!"

I gazed around the Council-Room, unable to believe my ears.

"Yes," the stern sovereign continued, "while you, sir, were entering the Inland Sea, charged with this offer of peace"—his majesty tossed the precious piece of paper on the table with a look of disdain—"a Russian gunboat, the Korietz, was firing the first shot of the war at one of my squadrons off Chemulpo."

The glances directed by those present at the naval officer behind the imperial chair convinced me that he had just brought the fatal news to the Council.

"And now," added the Mikado, "I will give my reply to the real masters of Russia—to the directors of the Korietz."

He nodded to the naval officer, who walked across the floor to a box on the wall like a telephone receiver, and pressed a button.

"That," his majesty explained, "is the signal for a flotilla of torpedo boats to enter the harbor of Port Arthur and blow up the Russian fleet."

I think a faint cry of remonstrance or misgiving must have escaped me. The Japanese monarch frowned, and his voice took a still sterner ring.

"Go back to your unfortunate master, and tell him that when he can send me a public envoy, in the light of day, to ask for peace, and to undertake the fulfilment of the pledges which his Ministers have broken, I will grant his request."



CHAPTER XI

WHO SMOKED THE GREGORIDES BRAND

I left the presence of the Japanese Emperor deeply disheartened.

It is true I had myself foretold this failure, and that his Japanese majesty and his advisers had been good enough to compliment me in almost extravagant terms on the energy and resourcefulness I had shown in baffling the enemies of peace.

But I am unaccustomed to defeat, no matter what are the odds against me, and I felt that the first point in the game had been scored against by the formidable woman whose beauty and strangely composite character had fascinated me, even while I was countermining her.

For my work was not yet over. Indeed, it had but just begun.

I had not succeeded in averting war between the two great Powers of Asia. But I hoped to thwart the efforts which I feared would be made to extend the conflagration to Europe.

As soon as I had found myself once more on civilized ground, I had despatched a cable to my Paris office, announcing my whereabouts and asking for information.

The reader may be excused if he has forgotten a little episode which marked my stay in Petersburg. I had noticed something peculiar and at the same time familiar in the scent of the tobacco smoked by Petrovitch, the financial adventurer whose scheme to enrich himself and a corrupt clique of courtiers out of the spoils of Korea and China was the true cause of the war.

By a ruse I had secured one of the cigarettes, smoked by this dangerous plotter, and having ascertained that it bore the mark Gregorides, Crown Aa, had instructed my staff to ascertain the history of this particular make of cigarettes.

While I was resting in my hotel in Tokio, waiting for the reply to my cable, I was honored by a visit from no less a personage than Privy Councillor Katahashi, President of the Imperial Bank of Japan.

"I have come," the Privy Councillor explained as soon as the door was closed, "to express the high sense of your ability and devotion which we all possess, and to ask if it is possible for Japan to secure your services."

Deeply gratified by this proposal, I was obliged to explain that I was already retained in the interest of Russia.

"But what interest?" Mr. Katahashi persisted. "It is clear that you are not acting on behalf of that group which has just succeeded in its purpose of forcing a war."

"That is so," I admitted. "It is no breach of confidence—in fact, I serve my employers by assuring you that my efforts are directed toward peace."

"In that case there can be no antagonism between us, surely. Is it not possible for you and me—I say nothing about our respective Governments—to co-operate for certain purposes?

"I know enough of the conditions which prevail in the Russian Court to feel pretty sure that it was not Nicholas II. who originally sought you out, and entrusted you with this mission," the Japanese statesman added.

"At the close of the last war in this part of the world," the Privy Councillor went on, "Japan was robbed of the fruit of her victories by an alliance of three Powers, Russia, Germany, and France. This time we know that England will support us against any such combination. Thanks to King Edward VII. we have nothing to fear. His diplomacy, moreover, has secured the powerful influence of France on the side of peace. Although nominally allied with the Czar, we know that the French Government is determined to limit the area of the war, and to take no part against us, except in one event."

"You mean," I put in, "in the event of an attack by England on Russia."

"Exactly. And therefore we know that King Edward is making it his particular care that no cause of conflict shall arise."

He paused, and glanced at me as though he considered that he had sufficiently indicated the source from which my instructions were received.

I contented myself with bowing.

"We know, also, that the most restless and ambitious of living monarchs has been bending his whole thoughts and schemes, ever since he ascended the throne, to one supreme end—the overthrow of the British Empire by a grand combination of all the other Powers of the world. If that monarch can force on a general strife in which England will be involved on the side of Japan, while practically every other European Power is leagued against her, M. Petrovitch and his timber concessions will have done their work."

I drew a deep breath as I looked at the Japanese statesman with a questioning gaze.

As if in answer to my unspoken query, a waiter of the hotel knocked at the door in the same moment, and brought me the long-expected cable from my agent in Europe.

I tore it open and read:

Cigarettes Gregorides Crown Aa special brand manufactured to order of Marx, Berlin, tobacconist to German Emperor.

I looked up from reading the telegram to see the eyes of the Japanese Privy Councillor fixed upon me with the inscrutable, penetrating gaze of the Oriental.

"The message you have just received bears on the subject of our conversation, does it not?" he inquired, but in the tone of one who does not doubt what the answer will be.

With the caution which has become a habit with me, I read the cable through carefully for the second time, and then placed it on the fire, where it was instantly consumed.

The Japanese statesman smiled.

"You forget, I think, M. V——, that you have come here as the emissary of a sovereign with whom we are at war, and that, consequently, we cannot afford to respect your privacy.

"I have a copy in my pocket," he went on urbanely. "You have felt some curiosity about a particular brand of cigarettes, and your friends have just informed you that they are those supplied to the German Emperor."

I looked at Mr. Katahashi with new respect.

"Your secret service is well managed, sir," I observed.

"Such a compliment from such a quarter is an ample reward for what little pains I may have taken."

"Then it is you who are——?"

"The organizer of our secret service during the war?—I am."

"But you are a banker?" I turned my eyes to the card by which Mr. Katahashi had announced his visit.

The Japanese gave another of his subtle smiles—those peculiar smiles of the Oriental which make the keenest-witted man of the West feel that he is little better than a blunderer.

"I came here prepared to take you into my confidence," he said gravely. "I am well aware that it is the only safe course in dealing with the Bismarck of underground diplomacy.

"I am equally well aware," the Privy Councillor added, "that a secret confided to Monsieur V—— is as safe as if it had been told in confidence to a priest of Buddha, for whom the penalty of betrayal is to be flayed alive."



CHAPTER XII

THE SECRET SERVICE OF JAPAN

"Three years ago," Mr. Katahashi proceeded, "when we first recognized that Japan would be obliged to fight Russia for her existence as a free and independent country, his imperial majesty the Mikado appointed me head of the intelligence department.

"I perceived that it would be necessary for me to establish centers in the chief European capitals, and to have at my command a corps of agents whose comings and goings would not attract the attention that is usually given to the movements of persons connected with the staff of an embassy.

"In our case precautions were necessary which would not have been recognized in the case of another country.

"On the one hand, our Government has laid to heart the profound advice of Herbert Spencer, that whatever is done for Japan should be done by Japanese.

"On the other hand, our people have characteristic racial features which make it practically impossible for a Japanese to disguise himself as a Western European, so as to deceive European eyes.

"It was therefore necessary to provide an excuse for distributing Japanese agents over the West without the true reason of their presence being known.

"I solved this problem by founding the Imperial Bank of Japan."

"But, surely!" I exclaimed, "the Imperial Bank of Japan is a bona fide concern? Its shares are regularly quoted on the stock exchanges. It negotiates loans, and carries on the ordinary business of a bank?"

"Certainly. Why not? You forget that Japan is not a rich country. What we lack in gold, we are obliged to make up in ingenuity and devotion. Thanks to this idea of mine, the secret service of Japan pays for itself, and even earns a small profit."

It gave me something like a cold shock to comprehend the character of this people whom the Russians had so recklessly provoked to draw the sword.

I thought of the intelligence departments of some Western Powers, of the rank corruption that reigned on the Neva, where every secret had its price; of the insane conceit of Berlin, which had forgotten nothing and learned nothing since the days of Moltke; of the luxurious laziness of Pall Mall, where superannuated soldiers dozed in front of their dusty pigeon-holes after apoplectic lunches, and exercised their wits chiefly in framing evasive answers suited to the intelligence of the House of Commons.

And beside these pictures I placed this of the prosperous commercial house, founded by the man before me, a man whose salary would probably be sniffed at by a deputy-assistant controller in the British War Office.

A bank, paying its way, and adding to the revenues of Japan, and yet every member of its staff a tireless spy, ready to go anywhere and risk everything on behalf of his native country!

Mr. Katahashi seemed to ignore the effect produced on my mind by his modest explanation.

"I have told you this," he resumed, "because if I can succeed in satisfying you that we are both working for the same ends, or at least against the same enemy, I hope it will be agreeable to you to co-operate with me."

I drew my brows together in anxious thought. In spite of the flattery and deference of the Privy Councillor I could not but feel that I should be the junior partner in any such combination as he proposed, or, rather, I should find myself an instrument in the hands of one whose methods were strange to me.

"Although his imperial majesty was not familiar with your name, you must not suppose that your reputation is not known in the right quarters. I have a very full report on your work in my office. I had intended from the first to engage your services if we required any Western aid; and, as a matter of fact, I was on the eve of sending you a retainer, when I heard I had been anticipated by——"

"By Lord Bedale," I put in swiftly.

"By Lord Bedale, certainly," the Japanese acquiesced with a polite bow and smile.

"After your interview with him, I lost sight of you," my extraordinary companion went on. "Your wonderful transformation into a Little Englander of the Peace-at-any-Price school threw my agents off the scent. But I heard of your interview with Nicholas II."

"You did!"

Mr. Katahashi nodded.

"I recognized you in that transaction. I even guessed that you might make an attempt to carry through a message from the Czar. But, knowing the influences arrayed against you, I never expected you to succeed. Your appearance in our Council-Room was a triumph on which I congratulate you warmly.

"And now," the Mikado's Privy Councillor continued, "there remain two questions:

"Supposing you are satisfied that the real author of this war is not any one in Russia, but a certain monarch who smokes cigarettes made by the house of Gregorides—

"And that the same ambitious ruler is now weaving his snares to entangle Great Britain, in short your own employer, the——"

"Marquis of Bedale," I again slipped in.

Again the same polite but incredulous bow and smile from the Japanese statesman.

"Would you be willing to accept a retainer from us?"

I sat upright, frowning.

The somewhat haughty attitude of the Emperor of Japan still rankled within me.

"I will accept a retainer from his majesty the Mikado," I announced stiffly. "From no one else."

Mr. Katahashi looked thoughtful.

"I will see what can be done," he murmured. "The second question——"

There was a momentary hesitation in his manner.

"I have just spoken to you of the precept of the great English philosopher."

"It was, if I remember rightly, that you should employ only Japanese in the service of Japan?"

The Privy Councillor bowed.

"Therefore, you will see, we are obliged to make a proposal which may seem to you unusual—perhaps unreasonable."

"And this proposal is?" I asked, with undisguised curiosity.

"That you should become a Japanese."

I threw myself back in my chair, amazed.

"Your Excellency, I am an American citizen."

"So I have understood."

"An American citizen is on a level with royalty."

"That is admitted."

"Even the Dowager Empress of China, when engaging me in her service, though she raised my ancestors to the rank of marquises, did not ask me to forego my citizenship of the United States."

"That is not necessary," the Privy Councillor protested.

"Explain yourself, if you will be so good."

"A man may be an American citizen, although by birth he is a Frenchman, a German, or even a negro. You yourself are a Pole, I believe."

I could only bow.

"Now I do not propose that you should relinquish your political allegiance, but only that you should exchange your Polish nationality for a Japanese one."

"But how, sir?"

"It is very simple. By being adopted into a Japanese family."

I sat and stared at the Japanese statesman, with his mask-like face and impenetrable eyes. I seemed to be in some strange dream.

Who shall judge the ways of the Asiatic! This daring organizer, a match for the most astute minds of the West, believed that he could only make sure of fidelity by persuading me to go through what seemed the comedy of a mock adoption, a ceremony like the blood brotherhood of an African tribe.

"And suppose I consent, into what family do you purpose to introduce me?"

The Privy Councillor's look became positively affectionate as he responded:

"If you would honor me by becoming my kinsman?"

I rose to my feet, shaking my head slowly.

"I appreciate the compliment your Excellency pays me. But, as we have just now agreed, an American citizen has no equals except royalty. Let us return to the German Emperor and his designs. If I cannot serve you directly I may be able to do so indirectly."

The Japanese made no attempt to press his proposal.

Instead he plunged into a discussion of the intrigues which radiated from Berlin.

"In nearly all the international difficulties and disagreements of the last twenty years," he said, "it is possible to trace the evil influence of Germany.

"To German sympathy, a secret encouragement, was due the wanton invasion of Cape Colony by the Boers. To the Kaiser, and his promises of support, was due the hopeless defiance of the United States by Spain. The same Power tried to drag Great Britain into collision with your Republic over the miserable concerns of Venezuela. For years, Germany has been secretly egging on the French to raise troubles against the English in Egypt. In the same spirit, the Sultan has been abetted, first against England and next against Russia.

"All these schemes have been spoiled by the action of King Edward VII. in establishing cordial relations with France, and even to a certain extent with Russia.

"Now Wilhelm II. has taken advantage of the attraction of France to England, to draw nearer to Russia. He has secured in his interest some of the most influential personages at the Russian Court. The Anglophobe grand dukes, the fire-eaters of the Admiralty, are all his sworn allies.

"But that is not the worst.

"By some means which I have not yet been able to trace, the Kaiser seems to have acquired a peculiar hold over Nicholas II.

"The whole policy of Russia seems to be tinged by this influence. Even where the instigation of Germany is not directly apparent, yet in a hundred ways it is clear that the Russian Government is playing the German game. The cause of all this is a riddle, a riddle which it is for you to solve."

"For me?"

The words escaped me involuntarily. I had listened with growing uneasiness to the Privy Councillor's revelations.

"Undoubtedly. You have facilities which no one else possesses. You enjoy the confidence of the Czar. You cannot be suspected of any selfish designs, still less of any hostile feeling against Wilhelm II., who is understood to be almost your personal friend."

"I never allow personal friendships to influence me in the discharge of my duty."

"It is because I believe that, that I am talking to you like this," Mr. Katahashi responded quickly.

"Well!" he added after a short silence, "what do you say?"

"I must have the night to decide."

The Japanese Privy Councillor rose to say good-by.

After he had gone I sat up late into the night considering how far I could serve my employer in England by entering into the projects of the secret service of Japan.

In the morning, I was still undecided, but on the whole it seemed to me that it would be better to act independently.

I was considering how to convey this decision to the Mikado's minister, when he again presented himself before me.

His manner was deeply agitated. It was evident that he came to make a communication of the highest importance.

Instead of taking the chair I offered him, he stood regarding me with an expression that seemed one of awe.

"Monsieur V——," he said at length, "your conditions are accepted by his imperial majesty."

"What conditions?" I asked, bewildered for the moment.

"Last night you informed me that an American citizen occupied the same rank as royalty."

"Well?"

"The Mikado offers to make you a member of the imperial family by adoption, and one of his majesty's cousins has consented to make you his son!"



CHAPTER XIII

HIS IMPERIAL HIGHNESS

In these days, when princes resign their rank to marry commoners, and queens elope with tutors, it is probable that most Western minds will see nothing out of the way in the condescension of the Japanese ruler in admitting a diplomatic agent to the honor of the imperial cousinship.

But the dynasty of Japan is the most illustrious in the world, excepting only that of Great Britain. Like Edward VII., the Mikado traces his lineage back to pagan gods. From the days of the famous Empress Jimmu, an unbroken line of sacred sovereigns has filled the throne of the Realm of the Rising Sun during more than two thousand years.

Mr. Katahashi was evidently pleased to see that I appreciated to the full the tremendous honor accorded to me.

"An imperial carriage is waiting to convey you to the Palace," he said. "But it will not be becoming for you to wear that uniform. I have brought you a Japanese dress."

An attendant came into the room bearing a gorgeous robe of green silk embroidered with golden chrysanthemums.

I put it on like one in a dream. The Privy Councillor with his own hands girt around my waist the two weapons, sacred from time immemorial to the use of the Japanese noble, the sword with which to behead his friend, and the dagger with which to disembowel himself.

Needless to say, I had no expectation that I should ever have occasion to regard these magnificently embellished weapons in any other light than as ornamental badges of rank.

As we rode to the Palace, I could not forbear contrasting this splendid treatment with that which I had been accustomed to receive from some of the European sovereigns to whom I had rendered important services.

Even the German Kaiser, who trusted me more than the head of his own police, who talked to me almost on the footing of an intimate friend, had never offered me so much as the coveted "von" before my name—had not given me even the pretty Red Eagle which is lavished on second-rate generals and lords-in-waiting.

I became well-nigh appalled as I contrasted the sluggish conversation, the hide-bound officialism, the stereotyped and sleepy methods of the Western Powers with the sleepless energy, the daring initiative, the desperate industry and courage of this rejuvenated Eastern race.

What could any of these obsolete European Governments effect against a nation which was really a vast secret society of forty-five millions, directed by a sacred chief, and wielding all the mechanical resources of the West with the almost inhuman subtlety and ruthlessness of the Orient?

"Anything can be done for money." This maxim, which is forever on the lips of Russian statesmen, no longer sounded true in the meridian of Tokio.

The ruler of Japan had not offered me so much as a yen. Nay, it was clearly expected and intended that I should devote myself to the service of my new country without pay, and with the same single-hearted devotion as Mr. Katahashi himself. The Mikado was going to enroll in his services as an unpaid volunteer the most highly-paid, in other words, the most trusted and feared, secret service agent of two hemispheres.

And it was to cost him? An embroidered garment and two sentences spoken in a private audience!

Such are the methods of Japan!

On our arrival at the Palace we were received by a chamberlain, who conducted us by the private staircase to the Hall of the Imperial Family.

The Hall is an imposing room, hung with portraits of deceased mikados. A single chair, decorated with the emblem of the Rising Sun, stood at the upper end.

Almost as soon as we had taken our places, a door behind the chair was thrown up, and a number of the officers of the household, all wearing the ancient national costume, filed in, and grouped themselves around the imperial chair.

Then a silver bell sounded, and his imperial and sacred majesty, Mutsuhito CXXI., Mikado, walked slowly forward into the Hall, accompanied by his son and heir, the Crown Prince Yoshihito, and an elderly man, attired with great richness, who was, as my guide whispered to me, his imperial highness Prince Yorimo, second cousin to the Emperor, and the man who had consented to be my titular father.

The ceremony was brief but impressive. I could not but be struck by the contrast between the two Mikados—the one whom I had seen yesterday, an alert statesman, wearing Western clothes, and speaking French with hardly a trace of accent, and the one before me now, a solemn, pontifical figure, in his immemorial robes, moving, speaking with the etiquette of a bygone age.

Everything passed in the Japanese language, of which I did not then know a single word.

Mr. Katahashi did his best to provide a running translation, whispering in my ear, and prompting me with the Japanese words which it was necessary for me to pronounce.

As far as I could understand, Prince Yorimo asked permission of the Emperor to adopt a son, as he was childless and desired to have some one who would sacrifice to his own spirit and those of his father and grandfather after he was dead.

The Mikado graciously consenting, I was brought forward, and made to renounce my own family and ancestors, and promise to sacrifice exclusively to those of my new father.

Prince Yorimo next brought forward a robe embroidered with the imperial emblems, the most prominent of which was the Rising Sun. I was divested of the dress lent me by Katahashi, and my adoptive father flung the imperial garment over my shoulders.

The girding on of the samurai weapon followed, and my father addressed me a short exhortation, bidding me hold myself ready at all times to obey the will of the Divine Emperor, even to the point of committing seppuku at his command.

Seppuku is the correct name of the rite known in the West by the vulgar name of hara-kiri, or the "happy despatch." It is a form of voluntary execution permitted by the ancient laws of Japan to men of noble rank, much as European nobles were allowed to be beheaded instead of being hanged.

I was then permitted to kiss the hand of Prince Yorimo, who formally presented me to the Mikado, whose hand also I had to kiss, kneeling.

That was the whole of the ceremony, at the close of which Mr. Katahashi bade me a temporary farewell, and my princely father carried me off to a banquet in his own mansion.

Tedious and uninteresting as I fear these details must seem to the reader, I have thought it right to record them as an illustration of the spirit of Japan, of that country of which I am proud to be an adopted son.

The moment we had quitted the Hall of the Imperial Family, Prince Yorimo began to talk to me in French.

He proved to be a most fascinating companion. Old enough to remember the feudal age, which was still in full vigor in Japan forty years ago, he had since mastered most of the knowledge of the West.

I soon found that the Prince was by no means disposed to treat the adoption as a mere form. It was evident that the old gentleman had taken a strong fancy to me. He gave me a most affectionate welcome on the threshold of his house, and immediately calling his servants around him, introduced me to them as their future master, and bade them obey me as himself.

I was more touched than I care to say by this kind treatment. My own parents have long been dead; I know nothing of any other relations, if I have any; I have long been a wanderer and an adventurer on the face of the earth, and now, at last, I felt as though I had found a home.

Something of this I tried to convey to his imperial highness.

"My son," he replied with deep tenderness, "I feel that to me you will be a son indeed. You shall learn the language of our beautiful country, you shall grow used to our national ways. Before long you will let me provide you with a daughter of the Chrysanthemum to be your wife, and my grandchildren shall be Japanese indeed."

A sound of bells was heard outside.

"My friends are coming to pay the customary congratulation," the aged prince explained. "As it is necessary that you should have a name suited to your new rank, I ask you to take that of my father, Matsukata."

A few words of direction were spoken to the steward of the chambers, who went out. Immediately afterward he returned, throwing open the doors widely, and announced:

"The Marquis Yamagata to congratulate his imperial highness Prince Matsukata!"

And the Prime Minister of Japan came toward me.



CHAPTER XIV

THE SUBMARINE MINE

Having told the reader as much as was necessary to enable him to understand my subsequent proceedings, and the real forces at work in the underground struggle which produced the tragedy of the Dogger Bank, I will suppress the remainder of my adventures in Tokio.

When I left the capital of my new country I wore around my neck, under the light shirt of chain mail without which I have never traveled for the last twenty years, a golden locket containing the miniature portrait of the loveliest maiden in the East or in the West.

It was a pledge. When little, tender fingers had fastened it in its place, little moving lips had whispered in my ear, "Till peace is signed!"

I had decided to return to the capital of what was now the country of my enemies, by much the same route as I had left it.

To do so, it was necessary to run the blockade of Port Arthur, or rather to feign to do so, for the Japanese Minister of Marine had been asked by my friend Katahashi to give secret instructions to Admiral Togo on my behalf.

In order to ensure a welcome from the Russian commander, and to dispel any suspicions, I planned to take in a cargo of Welsh steam coal.

Through an agent at Yokohama I chartered a British collier lying at Chi-fu, with a cargo for disposal. Leaving the Japanese port on a steamer bound for Shanghai, I met the collier in mid-ocean, and transferred myself on board her.

As soon as I had taken command, I ordered the skipper to head for Port Arthur.

This was the first intimation to him that he was expected to run the blockade, and at first he refused.

"I'm not afraid—myself," the sturdy Briton declared, "but I've got a mixed crew on board, Germans and Norwegians and Lascars, and all sorts, and I can't rely on them if we get in a tight place."

I glanced around at the collection of foreign faces and drew the captain aside. He, at least, was an Englishman, and I therefore trusted him.

"There is no danger, really," I said. "Admiral Togo has had secret orders to let me through. This cargo is merely a pretext."

The rough sailor scratched his head.

"Well, maybe you're telling the truth," he grunted. "But, dang me, if I can get the hang of it. You might belong to any country almost by the cut of your jib; you say you've fixed things up with the blessed Japs, and you're running a cargo of coal for the blessed Rooshians. It's queer, mortal queer, that's all I can say. Howsomdever——"

I took out a flask of three-star brandy, and passed it to the doubting mariner.

He put it first to his nose, then to his lips.

"Ah! Nothing wrong about that, Mister," he pronounced, as he handed back the flask.

"It's a fifty-pound job for yourself, no matter what becomes of the cargo," I insinuated.

The worthy seaman's manner underwent a magic change.

"Port your helm!" he yelled out suddenly and sharply to the man at the wheel. "Keep her steady nor'-east by nor', and a point nor'. Full steam ahead! All lights out! And if one of you lubbers so much as winks an eyelid, by George, I'll heave him overboard!"

The crew, who had shown a good many signs of uneasiness since my coming over the side, seemed to think this last hint worth attending to. They slunk forward to their duties, leaving the captain and myself to pace the quarter-deck alone.

We steamed swiftly through the darkness till we began to see the search-lights of the Japanese fleet like small white feathers fluttering on the horizon.

"Come up on the bridge," the skipper advised. "Got a revolver handy?"

I showed him my loaded weapon.

"Right! I ain't much afraid of the Japs, but we may have trouble with some of that all-sorts crew I've got below."

By and by the white plumes became bigger. All at once a ship lying dark on the water, scarcely a mile away on the weather-bow, spat out a long ribbon of light like an ant-eater's tongue, and we found ourselves standing in a glare of light as if we were actors in the middle of a stage.

There was a howl from below, and a mixed body of Lascars, headed by one of the Germans, rushed toward the helm.

"Back, you milk-drinking swabs!" the skipper roared. "As I'm a living man, the first one of you that lays a hand on the wheel, I'll fire into the crowd.

"Hark ye here!" their commander said with rough eloquence. "In the first place, it don't follow that because you can see a flashlight the chap at t'other end can see you. Second place, no ship that does see us is going to sink us without giving us a round of blank first, by way of notice to heave to. Third place, if we do get a notice, I'm going to stop this ship. And, fourth place, you've got five seconds to decide whether you'd rather be taken into Yokohama by a prize crew of Japs, or be shot where you stand by me and this gentleman."

The crew turned tail. Before five seconds had elapsed, not a head was to be seen above decks, except that of the man at the helm, who happened to be a Dane, to be first mate, and to be more than three-parts drunk.

Needless to say the warning shot was not fired.

We steamed steadily on through the fleet, every vessel of which was probably by this time aware of our presence. The search-lights flashed and fell all around us, but not once did we have to face again that blinking glare which tells the blockade runner that the game is up.

But there was another peril in store on which we had not reckoned. The sea all around Port Arthur had been strewn with Russian mines!

Unconscious of what was coming, we steamed gaily past the last outlying torpedo-boat of Admiral Togo's squadron.

"Through!" cried my friend the skipper, pointing with a grin of delight at the Port Arthur lights as they came into view around the edge of a dark cliff.

And even as he looked and pointed, there was a terrific wave, a rush, a flare and a report, and I felt myself lifted off my feet into mid-air.

I fancy I must have been unconscious for a second or two while in the air, for the splash of the sea as I struck it in falling seemed to wake me up like a cold douche.

My first movement, on coming to the surface again, was to put my hand to my neck to make sure of the safety of the precious locket which had been placed there by my dear little countrywoman.

My second was to strike out for a big spar which I saw floating amid a mass of tangled cordage and splinters a few yards in front of me.

Strange as it may seem, only when my arms were resting safely on the spar, and I had time to look about me and take stock of the situation, did I realize the extreme peril I had been in.

Most dangers and disasters are worse to read about than to go through. Had any one warned me beforehand that I was going to be blown up by a mine, I should probably have felt the keenest dread, and conjured up all sorts of horrors. As it was, the whole adventure was over in a twinkling, and by the greatest good luck I had escaped without a scratch.

By this time the forts at the entrance to Port Arthur, attracted, no doubt, by the noise of the explosion, were busily searching the spot with their lights.

The effect was truly magnificent.

From the blackness of the heights surrounding the famous basin, fiery sword after fiery sword seemed to leap forth and stab the sea. The wondrous blades of light met and crossed one another as if some great archangels were doing battle for the key of Asia.

The whole sea was lit up with a brightness greater than that of the sun. Every floating piece of wreckage, every rope, every nail stood out with unnatural clearness. I was obliged to close my eyes, and protect them with my dripping hand.

Presently I heard a hail from behind me. I turned my head, and to my delight saw the brave skipper of the lost ship swimming toward me.

In another dozen strokes he was alongside and clinging with me to the same piece of wood, which he said was the main gaff.

He was rather badly gashed about the head, but not enough to threaten serious consequences. So far as we could ascertain, the whole of the crew had perished.

I confess that their fate did not cost me any very great pang, after the first natural shock of horror had passed. They owed their death to their own lack of courage, which had caused them to take refuge in the lowest part of the ship, where the full force of the explosion came. The captain and I, thanks to our position on the bridge, had escaped with a comparatively mild shaking.

The steersman would have escaped also, in all probability, had he been sober.

In a very short time after the captain had joined me, our eyes were gladdened by the sight of a launch issuing from the fort to our assistance.

The officer in charge had thoughtfully provided blankets and a flask of wine. Thus comforted, I was not long in fully recovering my strength, and by the time the launch had set us on shore my comrade in misfortune was also able to walk without difficulty.

The lieutenant who had picked us up showed the greatest consideration on learning that we had been blown up in an attempt to run a cargo of coal for the benefit of the Russian fleet. On landing we were taken before Admiral Makharoff, the brave man whom fate had marked out to perish two months later by a closely similar catastrophe.

The story which I told to the Admiral was very nearly true, though of course I suppressed the incidents which had taken place in Tokio.

I said that I had been charged to deliver a private communication from the Czar to the Mikado, sent in the hope of averting war, that I had arrived too late, and that, having to make my way back to Petersburg, I had meant to do a stroke of business on the way on behalf of his excellency.

My inspector's uniform, which I had resumed on leaving Yokohama, confirmed my words, and Admiral Makharoff, after thanking me on behalf of the navy for my zeal, dismissed me with a present of a thousand rubles, and a permit to travel inland from Port Arthur.

Needless to say I did not forget to say good-by to my brave Englishman, to whom I handed over the Russian Admiral's reward, thus doubling the amount I had promised him for his plucky stand against the mutineers.

I have hurried over these transactions, interesting as they were, in order to come to the great struggle which lay before me in the capital of Russia.



CHAPTER XV

THE ADVISER OF NICHOLAS II

By the second week in March I was back in Petersburg.

On the long journey across Asia, I had had time to mature my plans, with the advantage of knowing that the real enemy I had to fight was neither M. Petrovitch nor the witching Princess Y——, but the Power which was using them both as its tools.

It was a frightful thing to know that two mighty peoples, the Japanese and Russians, neither of which really wished to fight each other, had been locked in strife in order to promote the sinister and tortuous policy of Germany.

So far, the German Kaiser had accomplished one-half of his program. The second, and more important, step would be to bring about a collision between the Russians and the English.

Thus the situation resolved itself into an underground duel between Wilhelm II. and myself, a duel in which the whole future history of the world, and possibly the very existence of the British Empire, hung in the balance.

And the arbiter was the melancholy young man who wandered through the vast apartments of his palace at Tsarskoe-Selo like some distracted ghost, wishing that any lot in life had been bestowed on him rather than that of autocrat of half Europe and Asia.

It was to Nicholas that I first repaired, on my return, to report the result of my mission.

I obtained a private audience without difficulty, and found his majesty busily engaged in going through some papers relating to the affairs of the Navy.

"So they have not killed you, like poor Menken," he said with a mixture of sympathy and sadness.

"Colonel Menken killed!" I could not forbear exclaiming.

"Yes. Did you not hear of it? A Japanese spy succeeded in assassinating him, and stealing the despatch, just before Mukden. A lady-in-waiting attached to the Dowager Czaritza happened to be on the train, and brought me the whole story."

I shook my head gravely.

"I fear your majesty has been misinformed. Colonel Menken committed suicide. I saw him put the pistol to his head and shoot himself. His last words were a message to your majesty."

The Czar raised his hand to his head with a despairing gesture.

"Will these contradictions never end!" he exclaimed. "Really, sir, I hope you have made a mistake. Whom can I trust!"

I drew myself up.

"I have no desire to press my version on you, sire," I said coldly. "It is sufficient that the Colonel was robbed, and that he is dead. Perhaps Princess Y—— has also given you an account of my own adventures?"

Nicholas II. looked at me distrustfully.

"Let us leave the name of the Princess on one side," he said in a tone of rebuke. "I have every reason to feel satisfied with her loyalty and zeal."

I bowed, and remained silent.

"You failed to get through, I suppose," the Czar continued, after waiting in vain for me to speak.

"I beg pardon, sire, I safely delivered to the Emperor of Japan your majesty's autograph on the cigarette paper. I was robbed of the more formal letter in the house of M. Petrovitch, before starting."

Nicholas frowned.

"Petrovitch again! Another of the few men whom I know to be my real friends." He fidgeted impatiently.

"Well, what did the Mikado say?"

I had intended to soften the reply of the Japanese Emperor, but now, being irritated, I gave it bluntly:

"His majesty professed to disbelieve in your power to control your people. He declared that he could not treat a letter from you seriously unless you were able to send it openly, without your messengers being robbed or murdered on the way across your own dominions."

The young Emperor flushed darkly.

"Insolent barbarian!" he cried hotly. "The next letter I send him shall be delivered by the commander of my army on the soil of Japan."

I was secretly pleased by this flash of spirit, which raised my respect for the Russian monarch.

A recollection seemed to strike him.

"I hear that you were blown up in attempting to bring some coal into Port Arthur," he said in a more friendly tone. "I thank you, Monsieur V——."

I bowed low.

"Some of my admirals seem to have been caught napping," Nicholas II. added. "I have here a very serious report about Admiral Stark at Vladivostok."

"You surprise me, sire," I observed incautiously. "Out in Manchuria I heard the Admiral praised on all hands for his carefulness and good conduct."

"Carefulness! It is possible to be too careful," the Czar complained. "Admiral Stark is too much afraid of responsibility. We have information that the English are taking all kinds of contraband into the Japanese ports, and he does nothing to stop them, for fear of committing some breach of international law."

I began to see what was coming. The Emperor, who seemed anxious to justify himself, proceeded:

"The rights of neutrals have never been regarded by the British navy, when they were at war. However, I have not been satisfied with taking the opinion of our own jurists. I have here an opinion from Professor Heldenberg of Berlin, who of course represents a neutral Power, and he says distinctly that we are entitled to declare anything we please contraband, and to seize English ships—I mean, ships of neutrals—anywhere, even in the English Channel itself, and sink them if it is inconvenient to bring them into a Russian port."

The insidious character of this advice was so glaring that I wondered how the unfortunate young monarch could be deceived by it.

But I saw that comment would be useless just then. I must seek some other means of opening his eyes to the pitfalls which were being prepared for him.

I came from the Palace with a heavy heart. The next day, Petersburg was startled by the publication of a ukase recalling Vice-Admiral Stark and Rear-Admiral Molas, his second in command, from the Pacific.

Immediately on hearing this news I sent a telegram in cipher to Lord Bedale. For obvious reasons I never take copies of my secret correspondence, but to the best of my recollection the wire ran as follows:

Germany instigating Russian Navy to raid your shipping on the pretext of contraband. Object to provoke reprisals leading to war.

As the reader is aware, this warning succeeded in defeating the Kaiser's main design, the British Government steadily refusing to be provoked.

Unfortunately this attitude of theirs played into German hands in another way, as English shippers were practically obliged to refuse goods for the Far East, and this important and lucrative trade passed to Hamburg, to the serious injury of the British ports.

But before this development had been reached, I found myself on the track of a far more deadly and dangerous intrigue, one which is destined to live in history as the most audacious plot ever devised by one great Power against another with which it proposed to be on terms of perfect friendship.



CHAPTER XVI

A STRANGE CONFESSION

I had last seen the strange, beautiful, wicked woman known as the Princess Y—— bending in a passion of hysterical remorse over the body of the man she had driven to death, on the snow-clad train outside Mukden.

I have had some experience of women, and especially of the class which mixes in the secret politics of the European Courts. But Sophia Y—— was an enigma to me. There was nothing about her which suggested the adventuress. And there was much which tended to support the story which had won the belief of her august mistress—that she was an involuntary agent, who had been victimized by an unscrupulous minister of police, by means of a false charge, and who genuinely loathed the tasks she was too feeble to refuse.

I had not been back in Petersburg very long when one afternoon the hotel waiter came to tell me that a lady desired to see me privately. The lady, he added, declined to give her name, but declared that she was well known to me.

I had come back to the hotel, I should mention, in the character of Mr. Sterling, the self-appointed agent of the fraternity of British peace-makers. It was necessary for me to have some excuse for residing in Petersburg during the war, and under this convenient shelter I could from time to time prepare more effectual disguises.

I was not altogether surprised when my mysterious visitor raised her veil and disclosed the features of the Princess herself.

But I was both surprised and shocked by the frightened, grief-stricken look on the face of this woman whom I had come to dread as my most formidable opponent in the Russian Court.

"Mr. Sterling!—Monsieur V——?" she cried in an agitated voice that seemed ready to break down into a sob. "Can you forgive me for intruding on you? I dare not speak to you freely in my own house. I am beset by spies."

"Sit down, Princess," I said soothingly, as I rolled forward a comfortable chair. "Of course I am both charmed and flattered by your visit, whatever be its cause."

With feminine intuition she marked the reserve in my response to her appeal.

"Ah! You distrust me, and you are quite right!" she exclaimed, casting herself into the chair.

She fixed her luminous eyes on me in a deep look, half-imploring, half-reproachful.

"It is true, then, what they have been telling me? You were the man, dressed as an inspector of the Third Section who traveled on the train with me? And you saw the death"—her words were interrupted by a shudder—"of that unhappy man?"

It was not very easy to preserve my composure in the face of her emotion. Nevertheless, at the risk of appearing callous, I replied:

"I cannot pretend to understand your question. However, even if I did it would make no difference.

"Since you know my name is A. V——, you must know also that I never allow myself to talk about my work."

The Princess winced under these cold words almost as though she had been physically rebuffed. She clasped her delicately-gloved hands together, and murmured as though to herself:

"He will not believe in me! He will not be convinced!"

I felt myself in a very difficult position. Either this woman was thoroughly repentant, and sincerely anxious to make some genuine communication to me, or else she was an actress whose powers might have excited envy in the Bernhardt herself.

I concluded that I could lose nothing by encouraging her to speak.

"You must pardon me if I seem distrustful," I said with a wholly sympathetic expression. "I have my principles, and cannot depart from them. But I have every wish to convince you of my personal friendship."

She interrupted me with a terrible glance.

"Personal friendship! Monsieur, do you know what I have come here to tell you?"

And rising wildly to her feet, she spread out her hands in a gesture of utter despair:

"They have ordered me to take your life!"

I am not a man who is easily surprised.

The adventures I have passed through, some of them far more extraordinary than anything I have recorded in my public revelations, have accustomed me to meet almost any situation with diplomatic presence of mind.

But on this occasion I am obliged to admit that I was fairly taken aback.

As the lovely but dangerous woman whom I had cause to regard as the most formidable instrument in the hands of the conspirators, avowed to my face that she had been charged with the mission to assassinate me, I sprang from my chair and confronted her.

She stood, swaying slightly, as though the intensity of her emotion was about to overpower her.

"Do you mean what you say? Do you know what you have said?" I demanded.

The Princess Y—— made no answer, but she lifted her violet eyes to mine, and I saw the big tears welling up and beginning to overflow.

I was dismayed. My strength of mind seemed to desert me. I have looked on without a tear when men have fallen dead at my feet, but I have never been able to remain calm before a woman in tears.

"Madame! Princess!" I was on the point of addressing her by a yet more familiar name. "At least, sit down and recover yourself."

Like one dazed, I led her to a chair. Like one dazed, she sank into it in obedience to my authoritative pressure.

"Come," I said in a tone which I strove to render at once firm and soothing, "it is clear that we must understand each other. You have come here to tell me this, I suppose?"

"At the risk of my life," she breathed. "What must you think of me!"

I recalled the fate of poor Menken, whom the woman before me had led to his doom, though she had not struck the blow.

In spite of myself, a momentary shudder went through me.

The sensitive woman saw or felt it, and shook in her turn.

"Believe me or not, as you will," she exclaimed desperately. "I swear to you that I have never knowingly been guilty of taking life.

"Never for one moment did I anticipate that that poor man would do what he did," the Princess went on with passionate earnestness. "I tempted him to give me the Czar's letter, and I destroyed it—I confess that. Are not such things done every day in secret politics? Have you never intercepted a despatch?"

It was a suggestive question. I thought of more than one incident in my own career which might be harshly received by a strict moralist. It is true that I have always been engaged on what I believed was a lawful task; but the due execution of that task had sometimes involved actions which I should have shrunk from in private life.

"I will not excuse myself, Madame," I answered slowly. "Neither have I accused you."

"Your tone is an accusation," she returned with a touch of bitterness. "Oh, I know well that men are ready to pardon many things in one another which they will not pardon in us."

"I am sorry if I have wounded you," I said with real compunction. "Let us say no more about the tragedy that is past. Am I right in thinking that you have come to me for aid?"

"I do not know. I do not know why I am here. Perhaps it is because I am mad."

I gazed at her flushed face and trembling hands, unable to resist the feeling of compassion which was creeping over me.

What was I to think? What was this woman's real purpose in coming to me?

Had her employers, had the unscrupulous Petrovitch, or the ruthless Minister of Police, indeed charged her to remove me from their path; and had her courage broken down under the hideous burden?

Or was this merely a ruse to win my confidence; or, perhaps, to frighten me into resigning my task and leaving the Russian capital?

Did she wish to save my life, or her own?

I sat regarding her, bewildered by these conjectures.

I saw that I must get her to say more.

"At least you have come to aid me," I protested. "You have given me a warning for which I cannot be sufficiently grateful."

"If you believe it is a genuine one," she retorted. Already she had divined my difficulties and doubts.

"I do not doubt that you mean it genuinely," I hastened to respond. "There is, of course, the possibility that you yourself have been deceived."

"Ah!"

She looked up at me in what I could not think was other than real surprise.

"You think so?" she cried eagerly. The next moment her head drooped again. "No, no. I have known them too long. They have never trifled with me before. Believe me, Monsieur, when they told me that you were to be murdered they were not joking with me."

"But they might have meant to use you for the purpose of terrifying me."

She stared at me in unaffected astonishment.

"Terrify—you!" She pronounced the words with an emphasis not altogether unflattering. "You are better known in Russia than you imagine, M. V——."

I passed over the remark.

"Still they must have foreseen the possibility that you would shrink from such a task; that your womanly instincts would prove too much for you. At least they have never required such work of you before?"

Against my will the last words became a question. I was anxious to be assured that the hands of the Princess were free from the stain of blood.

"Never! They dared not! They could not!" she cried indignantly. "You do not know my history. Perhaps you do not care to know it?"

Whatever I knew or suspected, I could make only one answer to such an appeal. Indeed, I was desirous to understand the meaning of one word which the Princess Y—— had just used.

"Listen," she said, speaking with an energy and dignity which I could not but respect, "while I tell you what I am. I am a condemned murderess!"

"Impossible!"

"Impossible in any other country, I grant you, but very possible in Russia. You have heard, I suppose, everybody has heard, of the deaths of my husband and his children. The first two deaths were natural, I swear it. I, at all events, had no more to do with them than if they had occurred in the planet Saturn. Prince Y—— committed suicide. And he did so because of me; I do not deny it. But it was not because he suspected me of any hand in the deaths of his children. It was because he knew I hated him!

"The story is almost too terrible to be told. That old man had bought me. He bought me from my father, who was head over ears in debt, and on the brink of ruin. I was sold—the only portion of his property that remained to be sold. And from the first hour of the purchase I hated, oh, how I loathed and hated that old man!"

There was a wild note in her voice that hinted at unutterable things.

"And he," she continued with a shiver, "he loved me, loved me with a passion that was like madness. He could hardly bear me out of his sight.

"I killed him, yes, morally, I have no doubt I killed him. He lavished everything on me, jewels, wealth, all the forms of luxury. He made a will leaving me the whole of his great fortune. But I could not endure him, and that killed him. I think," she hesitated and lowered her voice to a whisper, "I think he killed himself to please me."

Hardened as I am, I felt a thrill of horror. The Princess was right; the story was too terrible to be told.

"Then the police came on the scene. From the first they knew well enough that I was innocent. But they were determined to make me guilty. The head of the secret service at that time was Baron Kratz. He had had his eye on me for some time. The Czar, believing in my guilt, had ordered him not to spare me, and that fatal order gave him a free hand.

"How he managed it all, I hardly know. The servants were bullied or bribed into giving false evidence against me. But one part of their evidence was true enough; even I could not deny that I had hated Prince Y——, and that his death came as a welcome relief.

"There was a secret trial, and I was condemned. They read out my sentence. And then, when it was all over, Kratz came to me, and offered me life and liberty in return for my services as an agent of the Third Section."

"And to save your life you consented. Well, I do not judge you," I said.

The Princess glanced at me with a strange smile.

"To save my life! I see you do not yet know our Holy Russia. Shall I tell you what my sentence was?"

"Was it not death, then?"

"Yes, death—by the knout!"

"My God!"

I gazed at her stupified. Her whole beauty seemed to be focussed in one passionate protest. Knouted to death! I saw the form before me stripped, and lashed to the triangles, while the knotted thong, wielded by the hangman's hands, buried itself in the soft flesh.

I no longer disbelieved. I no longer even doubted. The very horror of the story had the strength of truth.

For some time neither of us spoke.

"But now, surely, you have made up your mind to break lose from this thraldom?" I demanded. "And, if so, and you will trust me, I will undertake to save you."

"You forget, do you not, that you yourself are not free? You surely do not mean that you would lay aside your work for my sake?"

It was a question which disconcerted me in more ways than one. In a secret service agent, suspicion becomes second nature. I caught myself asking whether all that had gone before was not merely intended to lead up to this one question, and I cursed myself for the doubt.

"My duty to my present employer comes first, of course," I admitted. "But as soon as I am free again——"

"If you are still alive," she put in significantly.

"Ah! You mean?"

"I mean that when they find out that I am not to be depended on, they will not have far to look for others."

"It is strange that they should have chosen you in the first place," I said thoughtfully. "You said they could not ask you."

"They did not offer me this mission. I volunteered."

"You volunteered!"

She shook herself impatiently.

"Surely you understand? I heard them deciding on your death. And so I undertook the task."

"Because?"

"Because I wished to save you. I had great difficulty. At first they were inclined to refuse me—to suspect my motives. I had to convince them that I hated you for having outwitted me. And I persuaded them that none of their ordinary instruments were capable of dealing with you."

"And you meant to give me this warning all along?"

"I meant to save you from them. Do you not see, as long as we are together, as long as you are visiting me, and I am seen to be following you up, they will not interfere. If I manage the affair skilfully it may be weeks before they suspect that I am playing them false. I shall have my excuse ready. It is no disgrace to be foiled by A. V."

Again there was an interval of silence. The Princess prepared to go.

"Stay!" I protested. "I have not thanked you. Indeed, I do not seem to have heard all. You had some reason, surely, for wishing to preserve my life."

"And what does my reason matter?"

"It matters very much to me. Perhaps," I gave her a searching look, "perhaps the Dowager Czaritza has enlisted you on our side?"

The beautiful woman rose to her feet, and turned her face from me.

"Think so, if you will. I tell you it does not matter."

"And I tell you it does matter. Princess!"

"Don't! Don't speak to me, please! Let me go home. I am not well."

Trembling violently in every limb, she was making her way toward the door, when it was suddenly flung open, and the voice of the hotel servant announced:

"M. Petrovitch!"

The head of the Manchurian Syndicate walked in with a smile on his face, saw the Princess Y—— coming toward him, and stopped short, the smile changing to a dark frown.



CHAPTER XVII

A SUPERNATURAL INCIDENT

Whether because he saw that I was watching him, or because he placed his own interpretation on the circumstances, the war plotter changed his frown into a smile.

"I am glad to see, Princess," he said to the trembling woman, "that you have so soon found our good friend Mr. Sterling again."

The Princess Y—— gave him a glance which seemed to enjoin silence, bowed with grace, and left the room in charge of the servant who had announced M. Petrovitch.

The latter now advanced to greet me with every appearance of cordiality.

The last time I had met this well-dressed, delicate scamp, he had drugged and robbed me. Now I had just been told that he was setting assassins on my track.

But it is my rule always to cultivate friendly intercourse with my opponents. Few men can talk for long without exposing something of their inner thoughts. I wanted M. Petrovitch to talk.

Therefore I returned his greeting with equal cordiality, and made him sit down in the chair from which the Princess Y—— had just risen.

"You will be surprised to hear, no doubt, Mr. Sterling, that I have brought you an invitation from the Emperor."

"From what Emperor?" was the retort on the tip of my tongue. Fortunately I suppressed it; there is no accomplishment so fatal to success in life as wit, except kindness.