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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Princess Zara, by Ross Beeckman
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Princess Zara
+
+Author: Ross Beeckman
+
+Illustrator: Bert Knight
+
+Release Date: January 26, 2008 [EBook #24427]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRINCESS ZARA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "I DO LOVE YOU" (Page 215)]
+
+
+
+
+PRINCESS ZARA
+
+
+
+By
+
+ROSS BEECKMAN
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS BY
+BERT KNIGHT
+
+
+
+NEW YORK
+GROSSET & DUNLAP
+PUBLISHERS
+
+Copyright, 1908-09 by
+W. J. WATT & COMPANY
+
+_Published January_, 1909
+
+
+
+
+    THE THEME
+
+    _Two shall be born the whole wide world apart;
+    And speak in different tongues, and have no thought
+    Each of the other's being, and no heed;
+    And these o'er unknown seas to unknown lands
+    Shall cross, escaping wreck, defying death,
+    And all unconsciously shape every act
+    And lend each wandering step to this one end,--
+    That, one day, out of darkness, they shall meet
+    And read life's meaning in each other's eyes._
+
+                              SUSAN MARR SPALDING.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAP.                                                          PAGE
+
+    I. A LADY OF QUALITY                                         11
+
+   II. A WARNING                                                 22
+
+  III. TWO SHALL BE BORN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD APART              36
+
+   IV. DAN DERRINGTON'S STORY                                    45
+
+    V. IN THE PRESENCE OF THE CZAR                               61
+
+   VI. A NIHILIST SPY                                            69
+
+  VII. FOR LOVE OF A WOMAN                                       85
+
+ VIII. THE PRINCESS' ORIENTAL GARDEN                            101
+
+   IX. A SECRET INTERVIEW                                       122
+
+    X. SENTENCED TO DEATH                                       143
+
+   XI. FOR THE SAKE OF THE CZAR                                 159
+
+  XII. WHEN LOVE WAS BORN                                       177
+
+ XIII. LOVE WILL FIND A WAY                                     191
+
+  XIV. THE SCORN OF A WOMAN                                     205
+
+   XV. THE MURDER OF A SOUL                                     216
+
+  XVI. THE MOMENT OF VENGEANCE                                  234
+
+ XVII. LOVE, HONOR AND OBEY                                     249
+
+XVIII. THE POWER OF THE FRATERNITY                              265
+
+  XIX. PRINCE MICHAEL'S ANGER                                   276
+
+   XX. IN DEFIANCE OF THE CZAR                                  288
+
+  XXI. ONE EVENTFUL NIGHT                                       299
+
+ XXII. THE COMBAT IN THE SNOW                                   312
+
+XXIII. WHAT THE CZAR FORGOT                                     322
+
+ XXIV. SABEREVSKI'S PROPHECY                                    335
+
+
+
+
+PRINCESS ZARA
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+A LADY OF QUALITY
+
+
+The steamship Trave of the North German Lloyd docked at its Hoboken
+pier at eight o'clock one morning in December. Among the passengers who
+presently departed from the vessel was a woman who attracted unusual
+attention for the reason that she was accompanied by a considerable
+suite of retainers and servants who were for a time as busy as flies
+around a honey pot, caring for their mistress' baggage, and otherwise
+attending to the details of her arrival. Nor was it alone for this
+reason that all eyes were from time to time turned in her direction.
+There was about her a certain air of distinction, wealth, power and
+repose, which impressed itself upon the observers. Many there were who
+sought eagerly an opportunity to scan the features of this young
+woman's face, for that she was young, was immediately apparent, and the
+fact added not a little to the interest that was manifested in her.
+
+The young woman, whoever she was, maintained an air of reserve which
+raised a barrier beyond which none of the curious might penetrate; and
+as if insolently disdainful of the attention she attracted, her face
+remained veiled; not too thickly, but effectively enough to set at
+naught these efforts of the curious throng.
+
+A view of her face was, however, not required to determine in the minds
+of the beholders that she possessed more than ordinarily, the
+attractive feminine qualities. Her very presence told that; the air
+with which she moved about among her servitors; the simple gestures she
+made in giving her directions, and the quiet but resourceful and
+effective methods she used in administering her affairs, indicated that
+not only was she a person of great wealth, but that she was also high
+in place and in authority, and one who was accustomed to being obeyed.
+
+Her costume was hidden entirely beneath the magnificent furs which
+enveloped her, and even the maid who attended upon her immediate wants
+was more elaborately gowned and wrapped than the average feminine
+personage of the western world is wont to be.
+
+The immediate party of this distinguished passenger soon took its
+departure from the pier, leaving behind only those whose various duties
+consisted in caring for the seventy-odd pieces of baggage soon to be
+taken from the hold of the vessel; and this immediate party departed
+from the pier in carriages, for the hotel where accommodations had
+already been secured. The young woman and her maid occupied a
+conveyance by themselves; other maids followed in a second one, and a
+third contained two footmen, a courier and her official messenger.
+
+At the hotel, where notice of her arrival in the city had been
+received, she was assigned to a suite of rooms which occupied the
+greater part of one entire floor and which included every convenience
+which the most illustrious personage travelling in the United States
+could have required, or would have found it possible to obtain.
+
+The courier at once sought the hotel office and registered as follows:
+
+                Her Highness Princess Zara de Echeveria
+                       and suite, St. Petersburg.
+
+And when his attention was called to the fact that the names of the
+entire party were required, he shrugged his shoulders and announced:
+
+"I regret, sir, that I do not remember the names of all the persons who
+comprise her highness' suite, but I will supply you presently with a
+list of them."
+
+In the parlor of the apartments occupied by the princess, her maid was
+removing the furs and wraps and making her mistress comfortable, for
+there is inevitably after a sea voyage, a few hours of fatigue which
+nothing but restful quiet and utter idleness will overcome; and
+therefore an hour or more later, when a visiting card was taken to the
+princess she did not even give herself the trouble to examine it, but
+said while she peered through half closed eyelids:
+
+"Whoever it is, Orloff, say that I will not receive until four this
+afternoon."
+
+Down below, in the office of the hotel, the gentleman who had sent up
+the card and who received this message in reply to it, shrugged his
+shoulders, glanced at the face of his watch to discover that it was yet
+barely noon-time, crossed to the book stall where he secured something
+to read and thereby while away the time, and then having sought a
+comfortable chair in a secluded corner deposited himself in it with an
+air of finality which indicated that he had no idea of departing from
+the hotel until after he had secured the solicited audience.
+
+At four he sent a second card to the princess; at half past four he was
+admitted to her presence.
+
+If the eyes of that curious throng of people who had watched her
+arrival at the steamship pier could have seen her then, when this man
+who had waited so long was shown into her presence, they would have
+been amply repaid for their admiring curiosity concerning her. It is
+trite to speak of a woman as being radiantly beautiful, commonplace to
+refer to it at all, save by implication, since feminine beauty is a
+composite attribute, vague and indefinable, and should possess no
+single quality to individualize it. Beauty such as that possessed by
+Princess Zara can neither be defined nor described. It is the _tout
+ensemble_ of her presence and her personal charm.
+
+Zara de Echeveria needed no adornment to emphasize the attractions of
+her gorgeous self. She was one of those rare women who are rendered
+more attractive by the absence of all ornament and her dark eyes were
+more luminous and brilliant than any jewel she might have worn. Her
+gown, though rich, was simplicity itself, and inasmuch as her servants
+had found time during the hours since their arrival, to decorate the
+rooms according to the princess' tastes, she was surrounded by much the
+same settings that would have been contained in her own palatial home
+at St. Petersburg. When it is said that she was barely twenty-five in
+years; that her father had been a Spanish nobleman in the diplomatic
+service at the Russian capital, and that her mother was of royal birth,
+we have an explanation for the exquisitely fascinating and almost
+voluptuous qualities of her beauty, as well as for her royal manner of
+command.
+
+She did not leave her chair when this man was taken into her presence,
+but extended one small and perfectly formed hand upon which gleamed a
+solitary ring; the only jewel she wore that afternoon save a small pin
+in the lace at her throat, which was fashioned precisely after the same
+pattern as the ring.
+
+The man lost no time in raising that beautiful hand to his lips, and he
+bowed low over it, with a courtly grace as distinguished in its
+gesture, as was her reception of him. One wondered why such a man as
+this had been contented to endure five idle hours of waiting upon her
+serene pleasure; and yet if one had looked past him to her, one might
+have ceased to wonder, and have thought a lifetime of waiting would be
+as nothing, if possession of her at the end of it could be its reward.
+
+"It was kind of you to come to me so quickly after my arrival," she
+said to him in a low voice that was perfectly modulated.
+
+"It was kinder of you to receive me, princess," he responded, stepping
+back again to the center of the room and standing tall and
+straight--before her in his commanding manhood. He was a handsome man,
+past fifty, distinguished, and like the princess he greeted, had about
+him the unquestionable air of authority.
+
+"I am afraid I kept you waiting."
+
+"One does not consider moments of waiting, if Princess Zara be the
+object of it," he retorted, smiling.
+
+"Won't you be seated?"
+
+"Thank you; yes."
+
+He drew a chair forward so that they sat nearly facing each other
+across a low table upon which many of the princess' personal effects
+had already been arranged. Among them was a box of Russian cigarettes
+which she now indicated by a gesture, while with a smile which lighted
+her face wonderfully and gave to it that added charm that is
+indescribable, she said:
+
+"There are some of your favorite cigarettes, Saberevski. I had you in
+mind when I included them among my personal baggage, having no doubt
+that I should encounter you when I should arrive in this country; but
+little thinking that you would be the first to greet me. You will
+pardon me for not indulging in one of them myself, for you know that I
+have never acquired the habit. Nevertheless they will perhaps suggest
+to you the flavor of home, and may transport you for a moment to the
+scenes which I know you are longing for."
+
+"Thank you, princess," he replied, and lighted one. Then he leaned back
+in his chair, closed his eyes, and for a time there was utter silence
+between these two. The man seemed indeed to have been transported in
+thought, to his native environment, not so much by the odor and flavor
+of the cigarette he puffed with such calm enjoyment, as by the presence
+of this magnificent creature who confronted him so daintily, and who
+received him so simply and yet so grandly. "You knew, then, that I was
+here in New York, princess?" he asked of her presently, peering at her
+through the smoke he was making; and he smiled comfortably across the
+distance that separated them.
+
+"I knew you were in America, Saberevski; and to me America means New
+York. I believed that you would not be long in making yourself known to
+me after my arrival, for I knew that the papers would announce it, and
+that your--shall I call it your duties?--would require that you should
+not permit my presence here to pass unnoticed."
+
+The man shrugged his shoulders, indulging himself in another smile as
+he replied:
+
+"It is hardly kind of you to attribute this call to duty on my part.
+When I am in your presence I find myself wishing that there were no
+such things as duties to be performed. When I look at you, Zara, I wish
+that I were young again, and that I might throw duty to the winds and
+enter the list against all others who seek you."
+
+An expression of annoyance, as fleeting as it was certain, came into
+her eyes, and she replied with a little show of impatience:
+
+"Spare me that sort of thing, Saberevski. One does not always wish to
+hear such expressions as that; and coming from you, addressed to me,
+they are not pleasant."
+
+"Not even when you know them to be sincere, Zara? I spoke in the past
+tense, and only of what might have been were the disparity of our years
+less, and if the environment by which we are respectively surrounded
+could have been different."
+
+"In other words," she smiled back at him, now recovered from her
+impatience, "if the world had been created a different one, and if we
+were not ourselves; as we are."
+
+"Precisely," he replied, and laughed.
+
+"I did not even look at your card when it was brought to me," she said,
+with an abrupt change of the subject; "had I done so I would not have
+kept you waiting so long. Tell me something about yourself, Saberevski;
+and why it is that you have deemed it wise, or perhaps necessary to
+become an expatriate, and to deprive St. Petersburg and all who are
+there, of your presence and your wise counsels."
+
+"I am afraid it is too long a story and hardly worth the telling at
+that. St. Petersburg has tired of me. I am better away from it, and it
+is much better with me away; believe me."
+
+"And his majesty, the czar? Is he also of that opinion, my friend?"
+
+"His majesty, the czar, does me the honor, princess, to approve of my
+present plans and conduct," replied Saberevski with slow and low toned
+emphasis.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+A WARNING
+
+
+Alexis Saberevski leaned forward in his chair to secure another of the
+cigarettes, and having lighted it with studied deliberation, resumed
+his former position gazing between half closed eyelids toward Princess
+Zara. It was quite evident that he had gone to her with a distinct
+purpose in view which he meant to fulfill before his departure; and it
+was plain to be seen that Zara appreciated the fact. While he was
+silent, she waited, but with a half smile upon her beautiful face, that
+was quizzical and somewhat whimsical, as if in her secret heart she was
+aware of the purpose of his errand but for reasons of her own did not
+wish to anticipate it. And he read her correctly, too. He believed that
+she understood him even better than he knew her; but viewed from his
+own standpoint he had a duty to perform in regard to her, and he had
+gone there to fulfill it.
+
+"Zara," he said, "when I saw the announcement of your intended visit to
+this country----"
+
+"Pardon me, Saberevski," she interrupted him; "but did the knowledge of
+my expected visit come to you through a printed announcement, or were
+you informed of it even before the printers had set the type?"
+
+"I see that I must be quite frank with you," he laughed.
+
+"Between friends frankness is always best," she retorted.
+
+"In that case I will begin again, princess."
+
+"It would be better--and wiser."
+
+"When I was informed of your anticipated visit to this country I
+decided that I would be the first to welcome you here, and in making
+that decision I had a double purpose."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"One of them only, need interest us at this moment, and that is purely
+a personal one. You know, Zara, how I have always regarded you, and how
+I do so now. Your father was my best friend; your mother--it is perhaps
+unnecessary that I should be more explicit regarding her."
+
+"Yes, Saberevski," said Zara in a low tone. "I know that you loved my
+mother, and that all your life you have remained true to your adoration
+of her, even though she never returned it; but go on."
+
+"I love you, Zara, more perhaps than I admit to myself; more profoundly
+than it would be wise for me to tell you, or agreeable for you to hear;
+but in the admiration and esteem I feel for you, there is included no
+sentiment which could offend you."
+
+"I know that, my friend."
+
+"I would like to talk with you quite openly for once, Zara, in order
+that you may comprehend perfectly where I stand, and because I do not
+wish you to misconstrue any assertion I shall make, or to attribute to
+any one of them, another motive than I intend."
+
+"I think you may be assured of that."
+
+"You guessed correctly a moment ago, about my receiving intelligence
+concerning your visit here, before the compositors set the type of the
+announcement; but the intelligence was incorporated among other things
+that were conveyed to me in the same manner, and by the same message.
+It had no direct significance, and beyond the mere statement of the
+fact, there was no comment. I was not directed to call upon you, and in
+fact there was no suggestion made that bore directly upon your presence
+here. But, Zara, the mere statement of your intention conveyed to me
+very many suggestions which I have come here to-day to make known to
+you. I believe it to be my clear duty to do so."
+
+"Well, my friend?"
+
+"You know who and what I have been, and am. Always close to the person
+of the czar; for very many years deeply in his confidence, and
+possessing I believe his friendship to an extraordinary degree, it has
+been my pleasure as well as my duty to serve my emperor in many secret
+ways which our little world at St. Petersburg does not know or
+appreciate. The fact that I am at present an expatriate, as you have so
+aptly stated, is due to reasons which I need not explain, and which do
+not concern us just now. The fact that I am one, has stationed me in
+New York by choice, and not by direction; but I thank God that I am
+here to greet you upon your arrival because I hope by very plain
+speaking to change a course you have determined upon, and to induce
+you----"
+
+"Wait one moment, Saberevski. Don't you think that you are getting
+rather beyond your depth? I appreciate all that you are trying so
+vainly to tell me. I know of your personal interest in me, and I honor
+you and thank you for it. But it is not like Alexis Saberevski to
+hesitate over a statement he has decided to make, and if I am not
+mistaken you began this discourse with a determination to be frank.
+Might I suggest that you make yourself more plain?"
+
+"I have been called a diplomat of the first order, Zara," he replied,
+with a smile, "but your straight-forward methods, and my resolute
+purpose, make my course of procedure somewhat difficult. I will,
+however, be entirely frank."
+
+"That is better."
+
+"Zara de Echeveria, Alexis Saberevski informs you now that he knows you
+to be high in the councils of the nihilists."
+
+Was there a suggestion of pallor for an instant upon the countenance of
+the princess? Was there a quick but imperceptible intaking of her
+breath? Was there a deepening in the expression of her matchless eyes,
+and an imperceptible widening of them, as they dwelt upon her
+companion? Was there a stiffening of her figure in its attitude of
+quiet repose, and did her muscles attain a sudden rigidity, induced by
+that startling announcement? Saberevski could not have answered any one
+of these questions. So perfectly were the features and the facial
+expression of Princess Zara under her control that she outwardly
+betrayed no sign of the effect of the announcement. And yet it might
+well have affected her most deeply; might have startled her even into a
+cry of terror; should have filled her with instant fear, because this
+man who made it was one, who in his former official capacity could have
+condemned almost any person in Russia to exile by a gesture, or a word.
+And Zara did not doubt that his official capacity still obtained. She
+knew him to be an expatriate as she had announced. She understood that
+for some reason, not apparent, he had become a voluntary exile from his
+native country and city, and might never again return to the scenes he
+loved best. But she also knew that he was no less closely in the
+confidence of the Russian emperor, and could never be any the less
+inimical to the enemies of the czar. A statement such as he had made,
+coming from him, charging her with complicity in revolutionary acts
+which had for their object the assassination of the Russian ruler and
+his possible successors, contained an implied threat more terrible in
+its consequences than any other one which could have been made; more
+terrible to her, personally, than to any other person against whom it
+might have been made, because she knew by the experiences of one of her
+girl friends, to what extremities of mental and moral torture a
+Siberian exile may be condemned.
+
+She made no reply. She remained perfectly motionless and silent,
+waiting for him to continue.
+
+"You need not deny me, Zara, for I know," he went on presently. "How
+the knowledge came to me does not matter, and has no connection with
+this interview. But I know. That knowledge has created the duty which I
+have come to you to-day to perform. I want you to abandon your present
+pursuits. Whatever the purpose of your visit to America may be, I beg
+that you will forego it. I do not seek any confession, or even a
+statement from you, upon this subject. Indeed I should prefer that you
+make none. You cannot please me better than by listening to me in
+silence, so that when I leave you presently, you will know and I will
+know, that I will have no more knowledge concerning you and your
+entanglements with those people, than I possessed before I came. I
+would have it that way. I would have it no other way."
+
+She nodded her head, gazing at him intently, but with that same
+changeless expression of impersonal interest, as if she were listening
+to the discussion of a third party who was not known to her save by
+name.
+_
+"Zara," he continued, "you will receive other cards than mine to-day,
+and you should know that every man or woman who will call upon you in
+behalf of the nihilists, is marked and known. You cannot engage in the
+business that brought you here, and afterward return to Russia in
+safety. The secret police of our empire extends all over the world, and
+is as efficient in the city of New York, as it is in Moscow or St.
+Petersburg, so far as its requirements demand. I warn you, not in
+behalf of your party, the principals of which I despise and abhor; not
+in behalf of any individual member of that revolutionist sect, but
+wholly in behalf of Zara de Echeveria, the daughter of my best friend,
+the offspring of the only woman I ever loved. To-day while I talk to
+you, I am not Alexis Saberevski the friend of the czar, but I am Alexis
+Saberevski _your_ friend. I have stepped outside my duty; I have taken
+it upon myself to come here to perform what may be a disloyal act to my
+emperor, in order to warn you against a course which can have but one
+end, and which can bring you to but one fate--Siberia."
+
+He left his chair and stood beside her. He reached down and took one of
+her hands, pressing it between the palms of both his own.
+
+"Zara," he said, with deep-toned feeling, "in some ways you are like a
+daughter to me; in others you are the reincarnation of the woman I
+loved so dearly. I love you for yourself, and for the sake of those two
+who gave you life. I shall never plead with you again. My duty will
+probably nevermore call me into your presence. When we part this day,
+it is likely to be for the last time. If danger befalls you because of
+the conditions you create through this entanglement, I cannot go to
+your rescue, or even to your assistance. I speak to you as with a voice
+from the grave, beseeching you in the names of your father and mother,
+to heed what I have said."
+
+"You have forgotten----" She began impetuously to answer, but he
+unclasped one hand from hers, long enough to make a warning gesture,
+and enunciated the one word: "Hush! Remember, Zara, you are not to
+speak until I have finished, and then upon a different subject. But I
+will answer your unspoken thought, for I read it in your manner. I have
+not forgotten your little friend Yvonne; nor Stanislaus, her brother.
+Indeed, my child, this very scene reminds me of it, and renders all the
+more imperative the duty I am seeking to perform. Let the terrible fate
+of that poor girl appeal to you. Let the awful end of Stanislaus be a
+warning. Vengeance should have no part or place in your heart, even
+though you believe that they cry out to you from their graves to
+undertake it. But they do not do that, Zara, and if either or both of
+them could speak now, they would voice the sentiments I have expressed,
+and emphasize the warnings I have given. Go back to your home in St.
+Petersburg, my child, and leave politics alone. Alexander, the czar,
+admires you and esteems you, but I who am his friend, warn you that the
+admiration and esteem of monarchs can be no more relied upon than the
+shifting fogs of the Gulf of Finland."
+
+Again Princess Zara would have spoken, for her dark eyes lighted with a
+sudden fire and she half started from her chair with an eagerness that
+was impetuously expressive. But Saberevski retained his clasp upon her
+hands, and without seeming to do so, restrained her where she was;
+after a moment he added:
+
+"Now, if you please we will change the subject. My duty as I saw it,
+has been performed, and nothing remains to be said. In a few moments I
+will leave you, and when I do so, we will probably part for the last
+time. Now, Zara, tell me something about yourself."
+
+There was a suspicion of tears in her upturned eyes as she looked at
+him from out of their glowing depths, but she took him at his word, and
+with a visible effort brought back the smile to her countenance as he
+returned to his chair at the opposite side of the table.
+
+"There is little to tell you of myself, Saberevski," she replied, while
+he helped himself to another cigarette. "You know what my life is, even
+though you have been absent from home almost a year."
+
+"Yes," he said, smiling, "one round of pleasures, and of conquest.
+Adorers waiting for you on every hand; lovers perhaps----"
+
+"No; not lovers," she interrupted him. "There is no place for them,
+Saberevski," and a shade of sadness which he attributed to the memory
+of Stanislaus, clouded her eyes for a moment. Had he but known however,
+it was no recollection of that young officer of the czar's household,
+to whom reference has already been made and to whom Zara was once
+betrothed, that affected her. It was a deeper and more far-reaching
+consideration that brought the expression of pain for an instant into
+her eyes, and she longed to cry out the truth to her companion, then
+and there.
+
+Had she done so, her statement would have been something like this:
+
+"There is no room in my heart for a lover, for the reason that the
+cause I have espoused fills it completely. The people whose wrongs I
+seek to redress, the victims whose wandering souls cry out for
+vengeance, and the women exiles in frozen Siberia whose fates are too
+terrible to relate, fill my whole heart and being so completely as to
+leave no room for personal love."
+
+She would have said that, and much more, but she restrained herself;
+and he rose to take his departure.
+
+She gave him both her hands, and in a low tone that was full of
+suppressed feeling, she said to him, at parting:
+
+"Do not think, my friend, that I have failed to appreciate all the
+goodness of your motives in coming to me to-day. From my heart I thank
+you, and if it should be as you say, that we may never meet again,
+although I see no reason for such a thing, I wish you to know that in
+parting, Zara de Echeveria admired and esteemed you above all other men
+of her acquaintance. Good-bye."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+TWO SHALL BE BORN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD APART
+
+
+We need recite but one other interview which Princess Zara undertook
+that day. Several follow upon it, and there were many such during her
+stay of more than a week in New York City.
+
+Many came, were received and went away again; and the princess herself
+was frequently abroad in the streets, or at places of amusement, or was
+entertained by those who worship at the shrine of nobility.
+
+But there was one who called upon her the evening of the day of
+Saberevski's interview, to which it is necessary that we should refer.
+He came at ten o'clock, and was expected, for he was conducted to her
+presence immediately and was received without question, although it
+would have been immediately plain to an observer that these two had
+never met before.
+
+The things which they discussed were largely technical, and had to do
+with the conduct and activities of various nihilistic agents who were
+scattered about over the world, outside of Russia. He was a man whose
+name does not appear again in this story and which therefore need not
+be mentioned now, but he was nevertheless one well known at the courts
+of Europe, and on the streets of New York and Washington.
+
+At the end of their discussion and interchange of confidences, when he
+rose to leave her and she gave him her hand, he said, recurring to the
+subject of their conversation:
+
+"Princess, if we had others like you, as sincere in their efforts for
+the betterment of our people, nihilism would soon become the dominant
+factor of Russian politics, and official oppression would cease to
+exist. If we had others like you, as good and as beautiful as you are,
+the czar would abdicate, or would consent to give us a parliament. As
+it is, the struggle has only just begun, and I greatly fear that
+neither I nor you, young though you are, will live to see its end."
+
+"Thank you," she said. "I understand thoroughly what you mean. It is
+true that I am heart and soul in this movement. It is equally true that
+I am prepared to devote my fortune and my life to an attainment of the
+ends we seek."
+
+"Are you an extremist?" he asked her. "We have not touched upon that
+part of the subject as yet, princess."
+
+She hesitated.
+
+"If you mean by that expression, do I seek the life of Alexander? I
+could answer you in the affirmative without hesitation; but I would
+have to confess that my desire for vengeance upon him is more of a
+personal quality, than of a political character. I am mindful of the
+fact that we cannot destroy a tree by lopping off one of its branches,
+and whenever a czar is dead, another lives to take his place and to
+permit the injustices practiced in his name, to continue. He is like
+the hydra-headed monster of childhood's tales, and another head grows
+as fast as one may be cut off."
+
+"You are a beautiful woman, princess, and with that aid alone you
+should accomplish much."
+
+"Yes," she admitted, as calmly as if he had referred to a ring she wore
+on her hand; "but I find that to be the most unpleasant character of my
+employment. To use such beauty as I have, and such attractions as I
+possess, for the winning of men to our cause, whether they be officials
+or nobles, is hateful to me; and yet I do not hesitate."
+
+"It is not a difficult task for men to join the nihilists because of
+love for you; I could, myself, almost forsake it, did you ask such a
+sacrifice."
+
+"Shame on you!" she stormed at him, snatching away her hand and darting
+out of his reach. "Shame on you for that! Those were treacherous words,
+and I expected them least of all, from you. You make me ashamed;
+ashamed for you, and for the cause I uphold. Are all men so weak, and
+so easily led? Does the mere beauty of a woman make cowards of them
+all? Could a pair of flashing eyes, or the touch of soft hands, change
+the destinies of an empire?"
+
+"They have done so more than once, princess."
+
+"You make me hate myself--and you."
+
+"I am afraid that you took me too literally," he said, with perfect
+composure, for although he knew that he had angered her, she was yet so
+beautiful in her impetuous resentment of his words that he was lost in
+admiration. Indeed he had uttered no more than the truth when he told
+her that he might even forsake the cause if such a woman as Zara could
+have been his reward; and he knew by long years of experience, that he
+uttered the sentiments of nine men out of ten who might fall under her
+influence.
+
+"My mission is accomplished here," she told him, "and already my
+passage is engaged for the return voyage. I leave New York at once and
+I shall probably never return to it. What you have told me of the
+measures taken in our behalf, has encouraged me greatly; and yet
+because of one thing you have said, I dread the return to St.
+Petersburg."
+
+"What was that, princess?"
+
+"I must correct myself. You intimated it; you did not say it."
+
+"What was it?"
+
+"You suggested, in one statement you made, that you had reason to fear
+that the spy-system as arrayed against us at home, might be augmented
+by the addition of skilled operators and experts from this country. I
+had thought that we nihilists had a monopoly of that sort of
+employment, and that the czar and his nobles could claim only the
+loyalty of their own spies. But your suggestion fills me with doubt and
+dread. If Alexander were to introduce imported spies among our
+people----"
+
+He interrupted the princess by laughing heartily.
+
+"Again you took me too literally," he asserted. "Here and there, there
+may be one who will seek Russia and the czar for such employment, but
+it will be for the emolument it will bring, and cannot be induced by
+patriotic sentiment. We would have little cause to dread such people,
+since we would not be long in identifying them, and ultimately I
+believe they would assist, rather than retard our efforts."
+
+"Perhaps so."
+
+"There can be no doubt of your own loyalty to our cause, princess?"
+
+"Certainly not."
+
+"Are the others like you? Pardon me, there can be no others like you
+for there could never be another so beautiful and fascinating as you
+are. But are there others of your acquaintance high in position, who
+are working for the cause as diligently as you are?"
+
+"They are many. Their name is legion."
+
+They parted then. He to go about his several duties among the
+nihilistic sympathizers who could not return to Russia without
+including Siberia in their itinerary, and she to stride across the room
+and stand for a long time facing herself in the mirror, studying the
+features of her own beautiful face in an effort to detect there the
+fascinating qualities before which all men with whom she came in
+contact seemed so ready to succumb.
+
+But her eyes were cold and hard as she regarded her own reflection in
+the glass. There was a fire in their depths which could have attracted
+no man, and which would have repelled all alike, for it was threatening
+and sombre.
+
+Zara de Echeveria almost hated herself at that moment. Hated the beauty
+which gave her such power, and which exerted the magic that made slaves
+of men.
+
+The hour came when she entered a carriage again to be driven to the
+steamship wharf; when she stood upon the deck near the rail, and gazed,
+as she honestly believed, over the house tops of a city she would never
+see again.
+
+Fate, however, had builded differently for her, although she did not
+guess it; and she was going now to meet it as fast as the throbbing
+engines of the mechanical monster could bear her forward.
+
+When the great bulk of the vessel swung into the current of the North
+river, and she turned her eyes once more toward the wharf it had left,
+a waving hand attracted her attention, and she recognized the tall form
+of Alexis Saberevski as he bade her adieu. Beside him on the pier was
+another figure, as tall and as straight as Saberevski's, and she saw
+them turn away together and walk up the pier until they were lost in
+the crowd.
+
+She did not know, then, that the other tall figure of a man was the one
+into whose arms she was fleeing, even though she left him there,
+unknown, upon that North river wharf, while she sailed away to the
+other side of the world.
+
+And he could foresee as little.
+
+But such is Fate.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+DAN DERRINGTON'S STORY
+
+
+I had known Alexis Saberevski in St. Petersburg; I had known him again
+in Paris. I had, in fact, encountered him at one time or another in
+almost every capital of Europe, and I was therefore not greatly
+surprised when, having just left the dining table at my club in my own
+native city, New York, his card was given to me with the information
+that the gentleman was waiting in the reception room.
+
+I had him up at once, with the courtesies of the club extended to him,
+and finding that he had dined, we ensconced ourselves in the depths of
+a pair of huge chairs which occupied one of the secluded corners of the
+library, each equally delighted to be again in the company of the
+other. We had never known each other intimately, and yet we were
+friends; friends after that fashion which sometimes comes between men
+of pronounced characteristics, and which finds its expression in the
+form of a silent confidence, and an undoubted pleasure in each other's
+company.
+
+I knew Saberevski to be a particularly strong man. Strong in the
+highest and best acceptation and meaning of that word, for he was a
+giant in intellect and in character.
+
+He was also a mystery, and this fact possibly rendered him all the more
+interesting to one whose business it had always been to solve
+mysteries. I do not mean by that that I had ever made any effort to
+delve into the secrets of Saberevski's past, or to read without his
+knowledge and consent, any portion of that history which he kept so
+carefully veiled; but the mere fact that an air of mystery did pervade
+his presence, imparted to him a certain fascinating quality which might
+not otherwise have been apparent.
+
+I had not encountered him for several years, and our last parting had
+occurred in front of Browne's hotel, Piccadilly, standing near the
+entrance from Albemarle street. As I received his card from the club
+servant, the words he had uttered at that hour of parting returned to
+me, for I had made a mental note of them, at the time regarding them as
+being of much more import than was nakedly expressed, coming from such
+a man. He had said: "I shall probably never return to St. Petersburg or
+pass across the border of Russia again, Derrington; but I may, and
+probably will some day, find myself in New York; when I do, you shall
+know of it." That day when I received his card, the last words he had
+uttered to me recurred to my mind, and it was with unmixed pleasure
+that I presently greeted him. I knew that there had been a time when he
+was high in place at the court of his native city, St. Petersburg; I
+knew that he had been prominent in the favor of Czar Alexander, and I
+had no doubt that he was so still, notwithstanding the positive
+assertion once made by him that he would probably never pass the
+borders of Russia again. But this was only another phase of the mystery
+that surrounded him, and it belittled not at all my estimation of the
+man's character, and the power he could sway if he chose to do so. How
+deeply he was, even at that moment, in the confidence of the Russian
+emperor, I was one day to understand, although the moment of
+comprehension was many months distant from me then.
+
+He had dined and so we had cigars served to us in that cozy corner
+where, with a table which held a box of them, together with some liquid
+refreshments and other conveniences, we settled ourselves for an
+uninterrupted chat.
+
+"It is good to see you, old chap," he told me in his frank and hearty
+way; "good to be with you again; to feel the clasp of your hand and to
+hear your hearty laugh. I have been thinking about you considerably of
+late, and this morning when I found that my wandering life had dropped
+me down in your city, I determined to look you up at once. In my
+baggage I found your card which contained this club address; and here I
+am." His big, hearty, infectious laugh rang through the room.
+
+There was no need to tell him of my own delight in his presence. My
+manner of greeting him had demonstrated that without any question of
+doubt. Presently he asked me:
+
+"What is your particular avocation just now, Derrington? Are you still
+at the old game?"
+
+"Still at the old game," I replied, nodding my head solemnly. "I
+suppose I will always be at it in one way or another."
+
+"Your government won't let you go very far away from its reach," he
+said, with a quizzical smile.
+
+"Oh, the government! I have cut it, Alexis."
+
+"What? Left the service?"
+
+"Temporarily," I replied, and he laughed again as loudly as before.
+There was reason for his levity, because placing my resignation in the
+hands of the secretary had become a habit with me. I was periodically
+depressed by the duties of a secret service agent and as often
+determined to leave the service for good. But as often, I had returned
+to it upon the request of one department or another of my government,
+when my services were required in the line of some particular duty
+which officialdom was pleased to assure me could not be so well
+accomplished by any other person of its acquaintance. That was why
+Alexis Saberevski laughed.
+
+"Is your resignation still on file? Or is it only lying on the table
+awaiting action, Daniel?" he asked me, and there was just a touch of
+ironic suggestion in his manner, which nettled me.
+
+"The resignation is a fact this time," I replied. "I have earned a
+period of rest, and I propose to take it."
+
+"Going abroad, Derrington?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Prefer to undergo the process of dry rot, here in New York?"
+
+"Yes; for a time at least."
+
+"Is there nothing on the other side of the water, that attracts you?"
+
+"Nothing at all."
+
+He switched his right leg to his left knee and blew a cloud of smoke
+into the air.
+
+"You're not a lazy chap, Dan," he remarked, as if he were deeply
+considering the verity of that statement. "One wouldn't pick you out as
+a blase individual who is tired of everything the world has to offer.
+You are as filled with energy and nervous force as any chap I ever
+knew; and you are not yet thirty-five."
+
+"Quite true," I admitted.
+
+"Yet, like a craft that has fought its way through stormy seas around
+the world, you sit there and try to assure me that you are content to
+tie up against a rotting wharf, in an odorous slip, and pass the rest
+of your days in inaction. It isn't like you, Dan."
+
+"It looks very enticing to me just now, however."
+
+"The trouble is," he said, "that your American diplomacy and your
+amazing politics over here, offer no opportunities to a man of your
+talents. You should go against the pricks of European intrigue. You
+ought to butt in, as you fellows express it, upon French statecraft
+which leaves nothing to be desired in the way of double dealings. You
+should try Austrian lies, or German brutalities, or Italian and Spanish
+sophistry, or English stupidity. Believe me, one of these would offer
+many points of interest which should interest and engage your
+attention."
+
+"Why not Russian cruelty?" I asked. "That seems to be the only
+important nationality you have omitted."
+
+"Why not?" he repeated after me.
+
+"You seem to have tired of it yourself, Saberevski."
+
+He shrugged his shoulders, leaning back in his chair, and the
+suggestion of a shadow passed across his handsome face.
+
+"Dan," he said with an entire change of tone that startled me into
+renewed interest, "I haven't any doubt that you have always regarded me
+as a queer sort of chap, more or less shrouded by a mystery you could
+not fathom. And you were right."
+
+"I have never----" I began. But he raised a hand to arrest me.
+
+"I know it," he said. "You do not need to assure me of that. You are
+too much of a man, and your character is too broad and deep, for you
+ever to attempt an intimacy which was not invited. But it is my
+pleasure just now, old man, to give you a little bit of my history. It
+may interest you. And it may lead to a change in your views; not
+regarding you, but in connection with myself. I am a much older man
+than you are; fifteen years and more, I should say. All my life, up to
+the time we last parted, has been passed in the personal service of his
+majesty, the czar. I have been as close to him as any man can ever
+obtain, and I am probably the only one who has enjoyed his confidence
+to the extent of retaining it in the face of studied opposition on the
+part of the greatest nobles of the empire. But I have retained it, Dan,
+and to such an extent that I suppose myself to be the only man living
+to-day, against whom Alexander would not permit himself to be
+influenced. There is a reason for it and a good one, but I need not go
+into that."
+
+"No," I said. "You need not tell me this at all, Alexis. I am quite
+glad enough to see you and to have you here, without explanation."
+
+He made a gesture of impatience.
+
+"As if I did not know that," he added; "but as I said a moment ago, it
+is my pleasure to recite some of these things to you, because since I
+came into this room and grasped your hand I have been impressed by the
+idea that there is a great work for you to do; a great duty for you to
+perform. A stupendous obstacle to human development exists in one part
+of Europe to-day, which I believe you could overcome and demolish, if
+only you could be convinced of it. I wonder, Dan, if you would give the
+subject any thought if I were to suggest it to you?"
+
+"Try," I said.
+
+"I wonder if you would seriously consider one of the greatest
+achievements that remains undone in Europe to-day," he added,
+meditatively.
+
+"The obstacle to which you just now referred?" I asked.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"Nihilism."
+
+"Hell!" I replied with emphasis.
+
+But he took me literally, and not even the suggestion of a smile showed
+in his face as he replied:
+
+"That is the fitting word, Dan. It is hell. It is worse than that to
+hundreds of thousands of human beings, from the lowest _mujik__ of the
+steppes, to the czar himself. It is a word which carries with it a
+certain magic which always spells the word death. It is death to those
+who antagonize it, and it is death to them that uphold it. It is death
+to the minister, the governor, the official, and it is death to the
+poor devil who plots in the dark, secretly with his fellows, against
+the powers that rule him. Nihilism is well named, for it means nothing
+and it ends in nothing. _Nihilo nihil fit!_ Whoever named the
+revolutionists of Russia so, builded better than they knew."
+
+I was watching Saberevski with some amazement. I had never heard him
+express himself in such terms before, and I had not supposed him
+capable, sympathetically, of doing so. I was not without a certain fund
+of knowledge regarding the subject he had introduced, for my
+professional duties had taken me more than once into Russia, and I had
+encountered much of the conditions he described. But I regarded them,
+as well as Saberevski himself, with the American idea and from an
+American standpoint. It had always seemed to me so unnecessary that
+conditions should exist as I had heard them described over there. I had
+always believed that if the government of Russia would only go about
+the work differently, it would be so easy to eradicate every phase of
+the so-called nihilism, and especially that branch of it practiced by
+those who are called extremists. Evidently Saberevski entertained
+something of this view himself, although from the standpoint of a
+Russian, for he ended a short silence between us by saying:
+
+"I have not finished what I was going to tell you, Dan. I have served
+Alexander, the czar, many years, and served him faithfully. There are
+reasons now why I can serve him no longer, in the capacity and at the
+places where he needs me most. My life which is of small moment, and
+his who is my royal master, would not be worth the weight of a feather
+if I were to show my face at St. Petersburg again. There is nothing
+remaining for me to do save to sit down quietly in some far country of
+the world, and watch from a distance the passing of events which some
+day, near or far as the case may be, will end in his assassination.
+What my work has been and what it would still be if I could remain near
+to his imperial majesty, you can guess, and I need not give it a name.
+But Dan, if I could succeed in convincing you of the opportunity that
+would be yours if you should go there, and if I could know that you had
+gone, determined to offer your services where they are most needed,
+then that far corner of the world where I would wait and watch events,
+would become a peaceful spot to me, for I know that you could succeed
+where all others have failed."
+
+Alexis Saberevski and I had many such conversations as that one, after
+that, in which we discussed pro and con the suggestion he had made.
+
+It grew upon me and grew upon me until I became obsessed by the idea
+although I did not think that he guessed my eagerness.
+
+He remained in New York, and virtually became my guest at the club,
+during more than two months, and we were as constantly together as was
+possible and convenient.
+
+One afternoon while we were chatting as usual, I called his attention
+to a paragraph I had seen in the _Herald_ of that morning which
+announced the arrival in New York of a Russian princess. The fact had
+not interested me, but recalling at the instant the idea that she was
+most likely known to my friend, I said:
+
+"Saberevski, one of your countrywomen, a princess whose name escapes me
+for I did not notice it particularly, arrived in the city this morning,
+and is at one of the hotels. I mention it because you may not have seen
+the notice, and might like to pay your respects to her. You will find
+her name and a column or more of other information concerning her, in
+this morning's _Herald_."
+
+"Thank you," he said, "I will look it up."
+
+More than a week later while I was walking down Fifth avenue, a hansom
+cab stopped at the curb beside me, and Saberevski's face looked out.
+
+"Jump in, Dan," he said. "I want you to take a ride with me;" and with
+no thought of hesitation, I complied. I did not even ask to be told our
+destination and was somewhat surprised when our conveyance stopped at
+one of the North river steamship piers.
+
+"You are not leaving the country, are you, Alexis?" I asked, as we got
+down.
+
+"No," he replied; "but someone I know is leaving. Will you walk to the
+end of the pier with me, or will you wait here?" I recalled, later,
+that even then he left the choice to me.
+
+I accompanied him to the end of the pier. I asked no question
+concerning the person he had referred to, as sailing that day, and
+thought it rather strange that he seemed to seek no one, and expressed
+no desire to go aboard the vessel then about ready to steam away.
+
+When it had swung into the stream I ran my glance along the decks of
+the vessel from stem to stern, seeking a waving hand or a gesture of
+farewell directed towards my friend. But I saw none to which he seemed
+to respond, until the ship was well into the current, when he suddenly
+raised his hand and waved it.
+
+At the same instant he took me by the arm and we returned to our
+conveyance.
+
+The following day at the club he came to me and placed a sealed
+envelope in my hand. It bore no address or superscription of any kind;
+but he said in giving it to me:
+
+"Dan, I wish you would put this sealed envelope inside one of your
+pockets and carry it with you carefully until the time arrives to open
+it."
+
+"When will that be?" I asked him.
+
+"It will be when, some day in the future, you shall be about to depart
+from the city of St. Petersburg." And as I showed some astonishment in
+my face, he continued: "Fate, or inclination, will take you there
+again, sometime, and the day will naturally follow when you will leave
+it. Count this sealed envelope as one of the mysteries in which I
+delight to wrap myself. But remember what I have asked you to do."
+
+"Repeat it," I said to him.
+
+"When you are about to take your departure from the city of St.
+Petersburg, if you should go there again, break the seal of this
+envelope and read the contents of a message I have written; or if your
+business should detain you there continuously, read it anyhow after six
+months. That is all."
+
+"And if I should not go there?" I asked him.
+
+"In that case, keep the letter until you see me again, and return it
+unopened."
+
+Some months later I was in St. Petersburg.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+IN THE PRESENCE OF THE CZAR
+
+
+I had been in St. Petersburg less than an hour and was still pondering
+over the uncertainty of what first to do in order to begin the
+difficult task that I had set for myself, when I was startled by a
+sharp summons at my door.
+
+It opened before I could respond, and a total stranger entered the
+room. That he was an officer of that mysterious force known as the
+Russian Secret Police I had not a doubt, but I greeted him courteously,
+pretending not to see that there were others with him, who waited in
+the hallway.
+
+"I believe I have the honor of addressing Mr. Derrington," he said in
+perfect English, making use of my true name which however, was not the
+one mentioned in my passports, for I had crossed the border under the
+name of Smith. I bowed and indicated a chair which he declined with a
+wave of his hand but with a smile that was as genial as his face was
+masterful and handsome. "Perhaps you prefer to be called Mr. Smith," he
+continued. "It is, I understand, the name that is mentioned in your
+papers."
+
+"For the present, yes," I replied.
+
+"I regret that I am compelled to place you under arrest, Mr. Smith, but
+such is my unfortunate duty. You will have to take a short drive with
+me. I hope that you will not be detained beyond your patience. Take
+your wraps, and we will go at once if you please."
+
+"Certainly. Shall I leave the keys to my baggage here?" I knew Russia
+and I did not protest.
+
+"Thank you, yes; it will simplify matters. I have friends here who will
+take charge of your rooms until you return, or----" He did not finish
+the sentence but that inimitable smile shone upon me again and somewhat
+assured me, in spite of the fact that my perfect knowledge of Russian
+affairs rendered me thoroughly aware of my peril.
+
+We were presently in the street and driving rapidly away; whither, I
+did not know, for my companion pulled down the curtains so that I could
+see nothing of the scenes through which we were passing. I tried to
+keep note in my mind of the turns we made, and to remember the streets
+we traversed, but it was useless and I was convinced that my conductors
+were purposely confusing me. This conviction forced upon me another;
+that my escort, or the people who had sent him to me, were informed
+regarding my past, and had somehow learned that I knew St. Petersburg
+as well as they did.
+
+During the drive which lasted nearly an hour we remained perfectly
+silent. I knew how utterly useless it would be to question the man at
+my side, and he volunteered not a word. Presently the pace was
+increased until the horses were on a run through the streets; then
+suddenly we flew around a corner at breakneck speed and stopped so
+abruptly that I was thrown forward on my face in spite of the robes in
+which I was swaddled. At the same moment I heard a gate clang shut
+behind us and was respectfully bidden to alight.
+
+Night had just fallen when we left the hotel, and in the grim courtyard
+where I found myself after the ride there was nothing discernible save
+the shadowy forms of my abductors, the champing, foam-flecked horses,
+and the somber walls of a huge building which loomed up on three sides
+of me. I had very little time for thought, for my companion took me
+familiarly by one arm and led me forward until we passed through a door
+which I did not see until it swung open before us. Then it closed as
+silently and as magically as it had opened, and I was led onward
+through darkness that was absolute, through corridors and rooms, at
+last emerging upon a dimly lighted hall, which seemed almost brilliant
+by comparison. There we paused and waited.
+
+"This does not seem like a prison," I said.
+
+"No; but it has often led to one," he replied grimly. "One word of
+advice to you before we proceed."
+
+"I shall appreciate it. Heaven knows I need it."
+
+"Do not on any account ask a single question during the experiences of
+the next half hour. Forget that there is such a thing as an
+interrogation. Perhaps, if you heed what I say, I may have the pleasure
+of riding back to your hotel with you."
+
+I did not have time to reply, for a door opened and we started forward
+again, passing from room to room, each better lighted than the last,
+until finally we entered one that was occupied. A man--a very large
+man--was seated at a desk, and he raised his eyes as we entered his
+presence. Never in my life was I so astonished as at that moment for I
+recognized him at a glance.
+
+I was in the presence of the czar.
+
+There was a very good reason for my astonishment. I had gone to St.
+Petersburg in the hope of obtaining an audience with the Emperor of all
+the Russias, but I had anticipated some difficulty in securing it, nor
+did I even wish for it in such a forcible and unsought manner. It was
+because I desired to keep the object of my visit a close secret that I
+had travelled incognito, and as I had imparted my secret to no living
+human being, I was naturally astounded that my object should be so
+quickly attained. A mental question shot through me in that instant
+when I realized where I was: In what manner could any person have
+learned of the true reason for my visit? and if it had not been learned
+and transmitted to the czar, why was I conducted to the august
+presence? At the same instant I comprehended that it would be the best
+policy for me to appear not to know in whose presence I was, so I
+simply inclined my head in the coldest bow I could master.
+
+"You speak Russian?" he demanded imperiously, advancing a step towards
+me.
+
+"Perfectly," I replied.
+
+"Your name!"
+
+"Daniel Derrington." I purposely made my reply as curt as his question,
+and I saw the shadow of a smile flit across his features. I knew then
+that I had taken the right course with him.
+
+"What is your nationality?"
+
+"I am an American."
+
+"Do you know who I am?"
+
+"I do, your majesty." This time I bowed with more show of ceremony, but
+he waved his hand commandingly, and in a voice much softer than he had
+used before, went on:
+
+"Forget that you do know. It is more than likely that we will have many
+interviews of this kind and I wish them all to be on the plane of
+equals. That, I believe, is a condition which will come quite naturally
+to an American although it would be utterly impossible to a European.
+Are you as well acquainted with the identity of your companion?"
+
+"I regret to say that I am not," I replied, relapsing into my former
+manner.
+
+"Then permit me to introduce you. Mr. Derrington, the Prince Michael
+Michaelovitch Gortshakoff. And now that you know each other, we will
+proceed. But first, be seated."
+
+My business during several years had taken me into astonishing
+situations, but never into one so astounding as this. I racked my brain
+in wondering what it could portend; in conjecturing if it were real, or
+if it were only the "hearty meal before the execution." I longed to ask
+a few questions, but remembering the advice that had been given me just
+before entering the room, I refrained.
+
+"You will be surprised to learn that I am entirely aware of the object
+of your presence in Russia," continued his majesty, "for unless I am
+mistaken you believed your errand to be an inviolate secret. Is that
+true?"
+
+"Quite true."
+
+"And yet it is known to me. The best proof of that is that you are
+here."
+
+I bowed.
+
+"I knew a few hours after you left your own country, that you had
+started. I was fully acquainted with your mission. My eyes, or the eyes
+of those who are in my confidence, have not been off you one moment
+since you arrived in Europe. They followed you to Paris, across
+Germany, and even into the hotel where our friend called upon you and
+where you are known as Mr. Smith." He paused an instant, and turning to
+the prince, added: "Tell him the prospective fate of Mr. Smith,
+prince."
+
+"Siberia," came the reply in one word, uttered calmly and coldly.
+
+"Siberia?" I repeated after him, and shrugged my shoulders; and the
+czar added:
+
+"Siberia."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE NIHILIST SPY
+
+
+The hackneyed simile of the cat and the mouse seemed to me to be
+especially applicable in the present instance. In one breath I was told
+that there would be many interviews of the kind I was then enjoying
+(?), and in the next that my destination was Siberia. It was certainly
+paradoxical and somewhat threatening, but I still refrained from asking
+questions. Presently, as I made no further comment, the emperor resumed
+the conversation.
+
+"What brought you to Russia?" he demanded, but in a tone that was not
+unkind.
+
+"The desire to obtain an interview with you," I replied, remembering
+his caution for me to ignore his rank.
+
+"For what purpose?"
+
+"To enter your service."
+
+"In what capacity?"
+
+"In any capacity for which I seem most fitted."
+
+His majesty smiled broadly as if my replies suited the humor he was in.
+I knew that I had made an impression that was not detrimental to me in
+his eyes, and thought that I began to see through the puzzle. The
+succeeding few moments convinced me that I was not mistaken.
+
+"Whose was the suggestion that determined your visit to Russia?" he
+continued.
+
+"The suggestion came to me a long time ago--more than a year," I
+responded. "Since then it has been constantly in my mind, and at last I
+decided to act upon it."
+
+"That does not answer my question, Mr. Derrington."
+
+"The idea first came to me through an old friend; one whom I used to
+know here, in this country; one who afforded me very great assistance
+when I was here three years ago on a secret mission for my government."
+
+"What is his name?"
+
+"I have forgotten it."
+
+"You are troubled with a poor memory, sir."
+
+"Yes; concerning the names of friends who have assisted me when they
+have been compelled to place their own interests in jeopardy in order
+to do so."
+
+"Do you know Alexis Saberevski?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"Can you tell me where he is now?"
+
+"In New York, I think."
+
+"Did you not have a definite proposition to make to me, in case you
+were successful in securing an audience?"
+
+"I did."
+
+"Very well, you have secured the audience. I will hear the
+proposition."
+
+I hesitated. Here before me ready at my hand was the very opportunity I
+had so eagerly sought and which I had determined to go to many lengths
+to obtain. Already I had undertaken great expense to arrive at this
+moment and to encounter a circumstance very like the one by which I was
+now confronted; and yet I hesitated to take his majesty at his word and
+to render up the proposition he required of me, and which I had
+travelled so far and gone to such pains to submit. But you will admit
+that the circumstance was an unusual one, and that the very manner of
+my introduction to the Czar of all the Russias was calculated to be
+confounding to me and to place at naught my customary determined poise,
+and unswerving self-reliance. The abrupt mention of Alexis Saberevski,
+coupled with other insinuations already brought forward in our
+conversation, confirmed me in the idea already half formed, that my
+apparent arrest at the hotel, my strange and mysterious journey through
+the night, and the threat of Siberia, were all in the nature of what we
+Americans call a "bluff"; were only intended to conceal the real
+purpose of this enforced interview. During that moment of hesitation,
+which was so short that it would not have been noticeable to a
+disinterested party, I decided that the perfectly frank and open course
+would be the best one to adopt with this giant of a man who confronted
+me; a giant not only in physique and stature, and in strength of
+purpose as well as in muscle, but in the wonderful power he swayed by
+the mere exertion of his will.
+
+I glanced upward into his eyes, which were bent half quizzically and
+not at all unkindly upon me, and then in words that flowed easily, and
+which came to me like an inspiration, I stated almost in one sentence,
+and certainly in one paragraph, the concise explanation of my presence
+in St. Petersburg at that moment. I said:
+
+"I believe that I can organize and maintain a secret service bureau in
+your majesty's interest, which will be more effective than all the
+present police force put together. In order to do so I must have my own
+way entirely, must be absolute master of the situation, as far as my
+men are concerned, and can have no superior officer--not even the czar
+himself. My plans have been formulated with care, and I can go into
+minute details whenever I am directed to do so."
+
+"Modesty is not one of your accomplishments, Mr. Derrington."
+
+"Possibly not; but thorough familiarity with the work I would do is
+one. Interference with my duties by any one no matter how high in
+place, would render my efforts impotent, and I should decline under
+such circumstances to undertake the task I have set for myself."
+
+"What is that task?"
+
+"The utter dismemberment and destruction of an organization of
+anarchists known as nihilists against whom I have already been twice
+pitted, and both times successfully."
+
+The czar arose from his chair and crossed the room to the window where
+he stood for some time peering out into the darkness, in the interim
+drumming ceaselessly on the pane with the tips of his fingers. During
+that time there was not a word spoken. Presently he turned and came
+back to the chair where I was seated, towering over me like a veritable
+giant, the most magnificent specimen of masculine humanity I have ever
+seen; and according to his lights, as good as he was great in stature.
+When ultimately the nihilists succeeded in destroying him, they killed
+the best friend that Russia ever had on the throne. They did not, could
+not know it; but I do.
+
+"Mr. Derrington," he said, speaking with great deliberation, as though
+he weighed each word he uttered, "we will end this farce of questions
+and answers. They are unnecessary as far as I am concerned, and are
+unworthy of you. A long time ago I held a conversation in this very
+room with your friend Alexis Saberevski who possesses my entire
+confidence. In that conversation he recommended you to me, and I
+directed him to put the bee in your bonnet that has been buzzing there
+ever since; so you see that I really sent for you, although you did not
+know it. It was necessary that I should first be entirely convinced
+that I could trust you implicitly, before entering into negotiations
+with you. I am convinced. I accept your service. You will sleep in the
+palace to-night, and to-morrow we will discuss your plans in detail.
+Mr. Smith has been arrested as a nihilist, and the morning papers will
+announce that he has started on his journey to Siberia. Mr. Derrington
+will remain in St. Petersburg and to-morrow he will decide what
+disposition to make of himself. The prince will act as your host for
+to-night."
+
+I got upon my feet and bowed to him, but he extended his hand in the
+most cordial manner; and with a genial smile upon his face which
+rendered it handsome, and which won my affection as well as my respect,
+said:
+
+"It will be a pleasure to me to be upon terms of familiarity with one
+who wears no title and who does not wish for one. Henceforth we will
+count ourselves as friends, and forget relative positions and rank.
+Give me your hand."
+
+I was nearly as tall as he but much more slight in build, and my hand
+was almost lost in his great palm when they were clasped together. I
+forgot the czar in the magnificence of the man, and as I gave him my
+hand, I said:
+
+"My life goes with it, sir, if the necessity arises."
+
+"I believe you, Mr. Derrington. In the morning I will send for you.
+Good night."
+
+Then I followed the prince from the room and was presently conducted to
+an apartment which evidently had been designed for me; at least I so
+decided when I had an opportunity to examine it and to familiarize
+myself with all that it contained. The prince found some Russian
+cigarettes on the table, and lighted one while he said laughingly: "I
+see that you are prepared to entertain your guests, Mr. Derrington.
+Shall we chat together a little before we part for the night?"
+
+"If you will be so good as to remain with me, at least until I catch my
+breath, I will esteem it a great favor," I replied. "Is the boycott of
+the interrogation removed?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Then will you please tell me how the dev----"
+
+A hearty laugh interrupted me.
+
+"I know all that you would ask," he said. "Our mutual friend Alexis is
+more in the confidence of his majesty than any other man in the world,
+and this plot to induce you to come here and offer your services to the
+czar, was deliberately planned between them nearly three years ago.
+From time to time Alexis dropped little hints to you which set you to
+thinking, and the thought finally blossomed into action. Had you
+confided your plans to anybody, even to Alexis, your services would not
+have been accepted. As it is, after to-morrow I tremble for you in the
+power that you will have, for in many ways it will be as great as that
+of the czar himself. Shall I give you a bit of history in order that
+you may know something of what is expected of you?"
+
+"If you will do so."
+
+"Peter the Great organized a system of police which still endures,
+though to-day it contains only three members, the emperor, Alexis and
+myself. It is called the Fraternity of Silence. During all these years
+its members have been selected with the greatest care and with
+increasing difficulty so that now it has dwindled to nothing. In the
+mean time the necessity for it has grown greater, for nihilism infests
+the country like a plague. Without nihilism in Russia, Siberia would be
+unnecessary. The very faults which nihilism seeks to remedy are kept
+alive by its existence. If it were eradicated Russia would take its
+place among the liberal nations of the world, and it is the ambition of
+Alexander to perform that service for the empire he controls, just as
+it was his idea to free the serfs. But the character of our people is
+different from that of any other people in the world, and your task is
+not so much to find out and banish those who conspire against the czar,
+as it will be to convert the men who organize such conspiracies. You
+are to reorganize the Fraternity of Silence on a new plan, and the
+power to act upon your own judgment will be absolute. It may seem
+strange to you that considering yourself almost unknown you should have
+been selected for this work, but you must remember that you have been
+recommended by one whose word is entirely respected by the emperor, and
+that you have been under careful espionage for three years. Does the
+outline that I have given you accord with the plans which you thought
+of submitting to the czar?"
+
+"Yes; largely."
+
+"Plots for the assassination of the emperor are hatching every day. Our
+present system is not adequate. You must fill the breach."
+
+"Is the existence of this organization of which you speak known to
+anybody, prince?"
+
+"To nobody save those whom I have mentioned."
+
+"Not to any nihilist?"
+
+"Alexander, Alexis, you and I are the only living beings who ever heard
+of it. No one else has ever known of it."
+
+"Will you pardon me, prince, if I tell you that you are mistaken?"
+
+"Mistaken! Do you mean, Mr. Derrington, that you doubt my word?"
+
+He got upon his feet and I saw that he was angry, believing that I had
+wantonly offended him. I arose also and began to pace up and down the
+room taking care that each turn would bring me nearer to the heavy
+curtains which hung about one of the great windows. The prince repeated
+his question, this time in a louder and angrier tone than before, and
+when I made no reply was about to leave the room; but I made a sign
+that compelled him to pause. At the same instant, being sufficiently
+near the curtain, I made a quick leap forward and with all my strength
+struck with my fist the exact point behind which I thought the head of
+the concealed person should be located.
+
+My aim was true and the blow was sufficient, for the body behind the
+curtain crashed against the hardwood casing of the window and then sank
+to the floor, motionless, and in another instant I had dragged into
+view the senseless form of a man in the livery of the palace
+servants--a man whom the prince instantly recognized as a trusted
+servitor of the czar--one who had been told that a guest was expected
+to occupy that chamber, and who had been detailed to wait upon me--one
+who had been especially selected for his loyalty and discretion.
+
+"That man heard and knew, and to-morrow the nihilists would have heard
+and known. Let us hope that they do not already know more than they
+should," I said, indicating the spy, and smiling up at the prince.
+
+The fellow was evidently not a Russian. He was a tall man, lithe and
+sinewy rather than muscular, but he had a handsome, Patrician face; and
+despite his condition of insensibility, or perhaps because of it, he
+seemed strangely out of place in the predicament in which he was now
+discovered.
+
+It was an extremely fortunate thing that I had become sensible of his
+presence in the room almost from the first, and that I had been able,
+therefore, to direct the conversation and my line of conduct, to the
+point of the present denouement. I could realize just how shocked
+Prince Michael was by the event; just how puzzled his own reasoning
+powers were for the moment, because of this discovery of a spy
+concealed in the private room of the palace, who might, if I had not so
+fortunately discovered him, have betrayed the real purpose of my
+presence there, even before the accomplishment of any results.
+
+I had expected to find a net work of spies surrounding the palace of
+the Czar of all the Russias, as well as inside it, and I knew because
+of my former experiences in the Moscovite capital, with what I would
+have to contend if circumstances permitted me, as they now promised to
+do, to take up and to perform what I considered would be the greatest
+work of my life. There before me on the floor, prostrate and senseless,
+although rapidly returning to consciousness, was the undoubted personal
+proof of the deadly danger of my mission; but as I had foreseen and
+forestalled this incident, so I believed I would be able to foresee and
+forestall others that would be like unto it; and I determined to make
+the most of this one, by using it to an advantage which had instantly
+occurred to me when I saw and read the physiognomy, and behind that,
+the character of the man on the floor. His features and the general air
+of refinement about him, notwithstanding his dress and position,
+suggested refinement, and I believed that I could appeal to him in a
+way that would call forth some response if I were given the opportunity
+to do so. He was lying on his back with his right arm outstretched, and
+while the prince and I stood there regarding him with such different
+emotions, his eyelids fluttered and parted and he once more became
+conscious of his surroundings.
+
+Beside him on the floor, was a long knife, which I have no doubt he
+would have used upon me had my attack been less sudden and violent. As
+it was, he opened his eyes and gazed sullenly upon us, realizing better
+than I did, the fate that was in store for him now. I used the silken
+curtain cords with which to bind him, and when that was accomplished,
+placed him on one of the couches.
+
+"Was it your intention to commit suicide when you entered this room to
+spy upon us?" I asked; but he did not reply. "Prince," I added, turning
+to my companion, "I think if you will leave me alone with this man, I
+will find a way to make him talk. Will you return in half an hour?"
+
+"Would it not be better to----"
+
+"Must I wait until to-morrow for my authority?" I asked, smiling. So
+the prince bowed and left me alone with the spy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+FOR LOVE OF A WOMAN
+
+
+I had discovered at a glance that the spy was not a Russian; and that
+being the case he was presumably engaged in his present occupation for
+pay only, and I believed that I could turn what seemed to 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 government, and that
+nothing short of death can turn him from his purpose. But with the
+foreigners who ally themselves with the fortunes of the
+nihilists--Germans, Frenchmen, Italians, etc.--it is different. They
+are always open to argument--for pay--although they are hardly to be
+relied upon even then, for they will sell out to another with the same
+celerity with which they formerly disposed of themselves to you.
+
+"You are a Frenchman, are you not?" I asked this man, as soon as we
+were alone together.
+
+"Yes," he replied, reluctantly.
+
+"Do you know what is in store for you now?"
+
+"Siberia, or death; one is as bad as the other. I'm only sorry that I
+did not have a chance to use my knife before you struck me; that's
+all."
+
+"I have not a doubt of it. And yet you may escape both, Siberia and
+death, if you are reasonable."
+
+"How? I'll be reasonable fast enough if you can prove that to me."
+
+"Do you speak English?"
+
+"Yes; as well as I do French, and Russian, and German, and half a dozen
+other languages."
+
+"Then you heard and understood everything that passed between the
+prince and me?"
+
+"Certainly. I might have pretended that I did not, if I had thought to
+do so. Still it would have made no difference, any way."
+
+"Not much, that's a fact. Why did you hide in this room?"
+
+"To hear what you said. To get what information I could. I certainly
+did not do it for the fun of the thing."
+
+"Well, my man, I will make a bargain with you. If you will tell me all
+that I want to know and answer truthfully every question I ask, I will
+engage that you shall 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, I will set you free as soon as I can
+afford to do so; if it is not, then Siberia, and the worst that there
+is in that delightful country, too. What do you say?"
+
+"How long will you keep me in prison?"
+
+"A month--six months--a year--as long as I deem it necessary. I shall
+want you near me where I can talk to you frequently, whenever the fancy
+takes me."
+
+"I'll see you damned first."
+
+"Very well. I'm sorry for you. A few months in a comfortable prison,
+with the best of food, books to read, paper and pens at your disposal,
+permission to communicate with your friends as often as you please so
+long as I see your letters before they are sent away, ought to be
+preferable to ending your life in the mines of frozen Siberia; but the
+choice is yours."
+
+"It is."
+
+"Then why don't you accept my offer?"
+
+"Because I don't believe you. You will get all that you want out of me,
+and then I will travel East any way."
+
+"That is a chance that you will have to take." I arose and walked
+across the room to give him an opportunity to think it over. "You look
+to me like one who has seen better days," I said, when I returned. "You
+evidently came from a very good family; 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. Suppose
+that I should keep you imprisoned a year, or even two, what is that to
+the fate that awaits you if you refuse to do as I ask, or to that which
+you would have met, if you had refused to obey the men who commanded
+you to come here? Answer me."
+
+"A joke."
+
+"Precisely. Now, here is another question. If I should let you go free
+after you betray those men to me, what would your life be worth the
+moment you got upon the street, even if I provided you with passports
+out of the country?"
+
+"Nothing."
+
+"They would find you, wouldn't they?"
+
+"To a certainty."
+
+"And kill you?"
+
+"As surely as you stand there."
+
+"On the other hand, if I send you to a prison here in St. Petersburg,
+as I have proposed, you will be thought by them to be dead, or in
+Siberia, which is about the same thing. In the mean time you can write
+to any one whom you wish to have know that you are still alive; you can
+receive replies under an assumed name, and----"
+
+"Enough, sir. I accept. You guessed rightly when you said that I am not
+a nihilist at heart. I am one because I love a woman who is one. That
+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
+would be useless; and perhaps you will grant me a favor if I ask it,
+when you discover that I have not deceived you in what I shall tell
+you."
+
+"You may be quite sure of it, if it is a reasonable one. Now tell me
+your name."
+
+"You do not care about my true name, I suppose?"
+
+"I want the one by which you are known among the nihilists."
+
+"Jean Moret."
+
+"And here, in the palace?"
+
+"The same."
+
+"I shall send you to your prison now. I cannot promise what it will be
+for to-night. To-morrow I will see you and will keep my word in every
+respect. In the mean time I want you to think over all that you have to
+say to me so that we may lose as little time as possible when we meet
+again."
+
+I left him then and went to the door. Outside, waiting in the corridor
+was the prince, and in a few words I explained to him what had taken
+place 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, and in a few moments Jean Moret was placed in his care. After
+that the prince and I smoked another cigarette together and then parted
+for the night.
+
+"Mr. Derrington," he said, as he was about to take his leave, "I am
+more than ever convinced that you are the right man in the right place.
+Tell me how you discovered the presence of that spy. I had no idea that
+he was there, and thought that we were entirely alone."
+
+"I knew he was there the moment we entered the room," I replied. "It is
+my habit to glance at everything in sight whenever I enter an
+apartment, and I do it now without realizing that I do so, if you can
+understand the seeming paradox. When 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 that
+somebody was concealed behind it That is the reason why I rather forced
+the conversation in English. The rest you know. I am convinced that the
+man we captured is the victim of circumstances, and I think I can make
+him very valuable."
+
+"Well," acknowledged the prince, "there might have been a man behind
+every one of the curtains and I would not have thought to suspect it.
+This service alone, Mr. Derrington, is worth all the pay you will draw
+from Russia."
+
+"Yes," I replied, "for I believe that the spy will confess to me that
+he was sent there with orders to murder the czar."
+
+"My God! And even now there may be others of the same sort in the
+palace."
+
+"No; I hardly think that. The nihilists would not be likely to send
+more than one at a time on such a dangerous errand."
+
+Moret confessed to me the following day, and I speedily was convinced
+that my suppositions concerning him were correct. He had not had the
+brutal courage to carry out his orders; and 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 that room awaiting my arrival when he heard me
+approaching with the prince, and had concealed himself behind the
+curtain without any definite purpose other than to hear all that he
+could.
+
+It is hardly necessary, and there is not space, for me to go into the
+details of my subsequent talks with Moret. Suffice it to say that the
+information I gleaned in that way, proved of inestimable value to my
+work. From it I learned the names of all the leading nihilists of St.
+Petersburg and Moscow, their meeting places, their passwords, and
+several of their ciphers. Concerning their plans for the future, beyond
+those in which he was personally engaged, Moret 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 subsequent
+interviews with the emperor. My plans were adopted almost without a
+correction--and most of those I suggested myself--so that by the time I
+had been an inmate of the palace for a week, the reorganization of the
+Fraternity of Silence was well under way, and ere a month had passed it
+was an established fact.
+
+There was one point upon which Moret stubbornly refused to talk, and
+that was concerning the woman who had led him into the difficulty, and
+who, he confessed, was the brains and the real head of the society. I
+questioned him very closely and so decided in 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, believing that ultimately he would denounce her
+to me without knowing that he had done so, and events proved that I was
+right although they also demonstrated that it would have been much
+better for all concerned had he trusted me implicitly in the beginning.
+
+Thus, at the end of a month succeeding the night of my ride from the
+hotel to the palace with the prince, I was prepared to commence work in
+earnest; but it must not be supposed that I had been idle, personally,
+during that time.
+
+In fact I was never so busy in all my life as during those four weeks
+of preparation for the stupendous task I had set myself; and you will
+understand that there were countless things to do, unnumbered details
+to arrange, and a thousand and one ramifications of the work to be
+planned and plotted and thoroughly comprehended, not alone by myself,
+but by the men I would gather around me to work under my direction.
+
+The organization of a secret service bureau, no matter how general may
+be its duties, is at least a monumental task; but the organization of
+such a bureau as this one whose very existence must remain a secret
+from all the world, presented difficulties not to be met with or
+contended against under any other circumstances.
+
+It was necessary that I should become the chief over an army of men,
+and it was equally imperative that not one person among the rank and
+file of that army should know of 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 made
+my mental selection of persons to fill those positions, when I arrived
+in St. Petersburg, and the organization of the several departments was
+to be left in their hands.
+
+I was determined that there should be no phase of Russian life which
+could hide itself away from the skill of my investigating forces; from
+palace to hovel, from the highest official in the Russian diplomatic
+service and in the army to the meanest servant or laborer, my sources
+of knowledge must extend, and every detail of it all must necessarily
+be so complete 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 you who read are only observers
+after all. You are receiving a bit of unwritten history which closely
+concerned the Russian empire and without which the assassination of
+Alexander would undoubtedly have happened many years before it did, for
+I give to myself the credit of having extended the days of that really
+great but much misunderstood Moscovite gentleman.
+
+At the time of my appearance in St. Petersburg the forces of nihilism
+had assumed proportions greater than they had ever attained before or
+will ever attain to again, thanks to my activities. The palace itself
+was a hotbed of conspiracy; the rank and file of the army was so
+disaffected that the officers never knew whom they could depend upon or
+whom they might trust; a secret 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 translated by the words:
+"Are you a nihilist?" and you might understand it and reply to it by a
+returning pressure of acquiescence, or ignore it utterly, as you
+pleased. The pressure itself was so slight, was carelessly given and
+might so readily be attributed to a careless motion of the hand that it
+could not betray the person who made it; nor could the answering
+pressure do so.
+
+I had not been long at the palace before I discovered that many of the
+high officials who had ready and constant access there had become
+inoculated with the nihilistic bacilli and although I 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 association of persons dominated by fanatics
+and by actual criminals whose trade was murder and whose chiefest
+pleasures and relaxation was the study of how best to bring about
+entire social upheaval.
+
+The confession of Moret enabled me to read every sign however slight
+that was made by these persons and the four weeks of my domicile in the
+apartment of the palace that had been assigned to me served me as
+nothing else could have done in this respect.
+
+You have already been told that this was by no means my first
+experience in St. Petersburg and with nihilism; but I must confess that
+extensive as my information had been and was I had never for a moment
+contemplated the vast resources of this revolutionary order, 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 an astounding fact which I had
+not contemplated and which I was ill prepared to receive so soon after
+my arrival. It extended the requirements of my operation; it increased
+ten fold, nay a hundred fold, my obligations to the czar in whose
+service I was now sworn.
+
+It seems difficult to imagine a beautiful woman as being at the head
+and front of such an organization which discusses murder and which
+arranges for wholesale assassination with the same equanimity of
+conscience that a hunting party at an English country estate would
+arrange for the slaughter of rabbits and pheasants.
+
+But I was destined soon to discover that even this could be true. I was
+destined soon to be brought in contact with a beautiful woman who was
+not only high in place and a favorite with the czar himself, but who
+was veritably a leader in the plots against him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE PRINCESS' ORIENTAL GARDEN
+
+
+In order better to carry out the plans I had made it was necessary that
+I should depart from the palace and I secured apartments in a
+respectable but quiet section of the city, where I established myself
+under the name of Dubravnik; and it was generally understood by those
+who came in contact with me that I was a pardoned exile who had been
+permitted to return under stipulated conditions, as such men are
+sometimes, though rarely, allowed to do. In the mean time I had
+gathered around me several certain individuals whom I had known and
+employed in the past, and whom I knew from experience that I could
+trust; and there was not one Russian among them. The Russian may be
+trusted always wherever his heart is involved and his political
+conscience is at rest, but never unless those forces are working in
+sympathy with the employment of his hands and head.
+
+I sent to Paris for Michael O'Malley whose long residence there had
+outwardly transformed him from an Irishman to a Frenchman, and who for
+convenience spelled his name Malet, thus retaining the sound without
+the substance. He opened a cafe, which because of its excellence
+speedily became the resort of the higher officers of the Russian army
+stationed at St. Petersburg. Every one of the waiters in his
+establishment were spies in his employ brought with him from Paris, and
+not one of them knew of my existence. Thus they did their work in the
+dark, but they did it well. Another Irishman, Tom Coyle, who looked
+like a Russian, established a cab stand on the English plan, and he had
+a small army of men under him who worked in the same way as Malet's
+servants. A Frenchman and his wife--their names were St. Cyr--ran a
+high class intelligence office, and furnished valets, maids, cooks,
+coachmen, etc., for the best families at the Russian capitol. I had one
+assistant who taught singing to the nobility, and another who was a
+master at arms and gave lessons in the science of handling all kinds of
+weapons. In the less pretentious quarters of the city I had proprietors
+of fourth rate cafes on my list; also loungers, loafers, seeming
+drunkards, laborers. But more important than these I succeeded in
+securing for one of my best men--an American--the management of the
+city Messenger Service; and one by one he contrived to replace the
+messengers by others of his own selection, until many of them were
+unknowingly members of my staff. Unknowingly, mind you, for therein
+existed much of the secret of my power. My workers did not know what
+they did. Canfield really did great work for me while he held that
+position, and I must not neglect to give him credit for it.
+
+O'Malley, Coyle, the St. Cyrs and Canfield were really therefore the
+several component parts of my immediate staff and those five were the
+only persons among all my hundreds of workers who knew Dubravnik to be
+their chief; and it is a perfectly safe statement to say that in all
+St. Petersburg, nay in all the world at that time, there were but nine
+persons living who had the least knowledge or even suspicion of my
+business; the nine were the czar, Prince Michael, the five already
+named, myself and Moret now in solitary confinement although in a
+comfortably appointed room in one of the prisons.
+
+It is well that I should say a word or two in reference to these
+assistants of mine, in passing.
+
+O'Malley was an Irishman of the finest type of bluff and honest
+manhood. I have known him and tried him through many a difficulty where
+his sterling qualities of character, his rugged honesty of purpose, his
+unfailing loyalty and devotion to me and his uncanny qualities as an
+investigator had endeared him to me both professionally and personally
+beyond the expression of mere words to describe it. I knew that I could
+rely upon him absolutely in all emergencies and that he was utterly
+fearless in the face of any danger that might present itself. By
+opening the cafe described, patronized by the elite of the Russian
+capital he merely followed out a plan long before undertaken in Paris
+for a like purpose and through the workings of his waiters and other
+employees he possessed sources of information and facilities for
+investigation unprecedented in their far reaching possibilities. There
+is many a whispered word and undertoned conversation carried on at a
+supper table over the coffee or a bottle of wine which finds its way
+into the ears of servitors and O'Malley's duties consisted not alone in
+piecing together after they were supplied to him these scraps of
+conversation, but in having his workers spy upon certain personages
+when they appeared at the cafe and so anticipate secrets which they
+might have to unfold. Even he had lesser men in authority under him and
+many of those who were almost directly under his employ believed that
+they were allied to the regular secret police and did not know of their
+employer's official capacity.
+
+Tom Coyle, a huge rough bearded Irishman who in outward appearance
+might have passed anywhere for a Russian, was not less efficient or
+less loved and trusted by me than O'Malley. As a proprietor of a cab
+stand every driver was a minion of his and served him precisely as
+O'Malley's waiters did their chief; and it may readily be determined
+that the power thus exerted for making reports, for knowing the
+distinction and the engagements of certain individuals was far reaching
+indeed. Coyle also had served me in the execution of many delicate
+missions of the past and I could depend upon him almost as absolutely
+as I could upon myself.
+
+The two St. Cyrs, husband and wife, were equally important factors in
+my work; indeed they provided the most far reaching assistance I had,
+for if you will stop to consider a moment and will realize how
+absolutely at the mercy of house servants the ordinary citizen is
+compelled to be, you will understand how an employment agency operated
+for the purposes of espionage can discover and reveal secrets which
+otherwise might never find their way outside the family circle. There
+is no written document, no locked bureau drawer, no hidden pocket, no
+secret hiding place into which the prying eyes and fingers of maid or
+valet, house maid and general servitor cannot penetrate. These people
+did their work for the St. Cyrs and reported to them, knowing nothing
+whatever of why they made those reports or to whom they ultimately
+found their way.
+
+Canfield was also invaluable. As managing director of the Messenger
+Service with many of his employees working as spies, it was a
+comparatively easy matter to intercept letters and messages and to
+obtain a knowledge of the contents of documents through their skilled
+efforts.
+
+I have given this resume of conditions as I established them to avoid
+going into detail respecting the sources of the information I made use
+of, but it will be understood now how thorough was my knowledge
+whenever I chose to exert it.
+
+During the time that passed as I have described, I became a factor in
+St. Petersburg society. Supposed to possess unlimited wealth
+(accumulated, by the way, in Mexican mines, for it sounded well), with
+the crest of a noble family then extinct and half forgotten ornamenting
+my cards and stationery, and introduced by Prince Michael, who was
+known to be high in favor with the czar, palace doors were thrown wide
+open to receive me. I was young then, and women said that I was
+handsome, while men found me genial, companionable, and their master at
+most games and with every sort of weapon; things which men respect even
+if they do resent them.
+
+The regular police systems, even to the mysterious Third Section which
+has no equivalent or parallel in the world, were entirely ignorant of
+the existence of my espionage, and many times during the months that
+followed I fell under suspicion. My power was so much greater than
+theirs that I possessed one abundant advantage, that of knowing their
+spies; and many of these, from time to time, I purposely allowed to
+become inmates of my house, from which they inevitably carried away the
+precise information that I wished them to obtain.
+
+By the time the organization of the fraternity was completed, I had
+information in my possession which if it had gone to the emperor, would
+have created a social upheaval such as has never been witnessed in
+history. But many of the most anarchistic and irrepressible leaders of
+the nihilists were quietly arrested and sent where they would be
+rendered harmless, and others who were less violent, I left undisturbed
+and in seeming security, knowing that they would ultimately lead me to
+the point I wished to attain, the very root of the evil which I had
+determined to eradicate; but it was six months after my arrival in St.
+Petersburg when I met with the adventure which I regarded as the most
+remarkable of my experience, and which is really the reason for this
+story.
+
+"Well, Derrington," the prince said to me one night shortly after our
+return from a function of more than ordinary prominence. He had stopped
+at my rooms for a smoke and a chat before retiring. "Have you received
+an invitation from the princess?"
+
+"What princess?" I asked.
+
+"Zara de Echeveria, the most beautiful woman in Europe." He was smiling
+now, and seemed to take it for granted that I should know to whom he
+referred.
+
+"The name is Spanish," I said; and I vaguely recalled having heard it
+somewhere before that day. But evidently it had made only slight
+impression upon my memory.
+
+"Yes; her father was a Spaniard, but she is a Russian of the Russians.
+Her title is given her by courtesy, from her mother's family. Is it
+possible that you do not know about her?"
+
+"Quite."
+
+"It is not remarkable, after all, for she left the city shortly after
+your arrival and has only just returned. I paid my respects to her
+yesterday, and took the liberty of suggesting that she add your name to
+her list. Look among your cards, and see if she has not sent you one."
+
+It was among the first that my hand lighted upon and naturally we fell
+to discussing her. The rhapsodies concerning her in which the prince
+indulged led me to interpose a remark, for which I was instantly sorry.
+
+"One would think that you were in love with her," I said.
+
+His face fell instantly, and for a moment he was visibly confused, but
+at last, with a conscious smile, he said, boldly:
+
+"Well, why not? I do not know that it is necessary to deny it since she
+is aware of it herself; and so, I think, is the whole city. I am a
+bachelor, and not turned fifty. Twenty-five years is not an impassable
+gulf, is it?"
+
+"Certainly not, my dear prince. My remark was an ill timed pleasantry
+which you must pardon. Is she, then, so young?"
+
+"Twenty-five."
+
+"Let me see; her ball is for to-morrow--or rather, to-night, since it
+is now morning."
+
+"Yes. Will you go with me? I will then have the pleasure of presenting
+you."
+
+"Thank you; yes."
+
+I did not see the prince again until he called for me on his way to the
+house of the princess where we found the parlors thronged, so that it
+was with difficulty that we presently made our way among the massed
+guests to the point where Zara de Echeveria was receiving her friends.
+On our way to greet her, Prince Michael encountered many acquaintances
+who claimed a word with him, so at last he drew me aside and we waited
+until there was a lull in the efforts of the crush around her; then he
+led me forward.
+
+"So glad to know you, Mr. Dubravnik," she said, in my own language.
+"The prince has told me that you have spent a long time abroad, and
+prefer to speak English. I am also fond of conversing in that tongue.
+Will you be seated?" She made a place for me beside her, and we were
+soon engaged in conversation.
+
+The Princess Zara!
+
+It is frequently the case that we meet people who antagonize us the
+moment a glance or a handshake is exchanged, while our inner
+consciousness offers no explanation for the reasonless antipathy; on
+the other hand Fate brings us sometimes in contact with personalities
+which at once appeal to a sixth sense which is unexplainable and
+indefinable, but which seems to comprehend more than the combined five
+educated and trained sensibilities. What is that sixth sense? Who can
+tell? I only know that in one moment I felt as if I had known the
+princess all my life, and I knew instinctively that the same influences
+were affecting her.
+
+I will not attempt to describe her, more than to afford a mere outline
+for something that was indescribable, for the charm which pervaded the
+atmosphere around her was felt rather than seen. It would be unfair to
+call her beautiful, as the prince had done, for that word comprehends
+merely an outward and visible sign, and with the Princess Zara,
+although her beauty was striking, it was the least of her attractions.
+I had thought that I was born and had lived, devoid of that form of
+self consciousness which is called diffidence, although it is only an
+expression of egotism; but for the first time in my life I found myself
+ill at ease, and wondering if I was appearing to advantage. I was
+conscious of myself; and what was stranger still I realized that this
+trained society beauty, the undoubted heroine of unnumbered conquests,
+was as restless as I was.
+
+Princess Zara!
+
+The expression as I write it brings vividly back to me the moment when
+I stood beside her that night amid the throng of guests surrounding us,
+but nevertheless conscious only of her presence. There are some
+occasions in the lives of men which they are not inclined to dwell upon
+or even to speak about; which they preserve jealously, as secrets in
+their own hearts, selfishly indisposed to acquaint others with them
+lest some of the magic of the actual moment, reinduced by
+retrospection, may be lost in the telling. But I could not recite the
+history of my experiences in St. Petersburg at that time without
+uncovering my innermost soul, as it was affected and influenced by Zara
+de Echeveria, whose charm of manner, whose redundant beauty and powers
+of fascination, were beyond all effort at description.
+
+Her eyes were like stars, and yet were not too brilliant. Glowing in
+their depths somewhere beyond visible ken, was the assurance of
+unspeakable promise; and there seemed to emanate from her personality a
+glowing enthusiasm which thrilled whomever came into her presence.
+
+The mere outward description of personal beauty will be forever
+inadequate to describe the emotions that influence a man, when he sees
+for the first time, the feminine perfection of creation which he is
+destined to adore. One may be fascinated, attracted, by any one of many
+qualities, or by all of them combined; one may discover perfection of
+form or feature, and may accept these suggestions as comprising all
+that is necessary to engender that quality within us which we call
+love; but nearly always one finds that the imitation has been accepted
+for the real, and that it has been so accepted and claimed only because
+the genuine has never appeared.
+
+But whenever a man finds the real one, whenever it is his good fortune
+to encounter the genuine article, there remains no doubt in his soul of
+its reality. He sees and feels and knows. There is no denying the
+absoluteness of it. It is a perfect knowledge brought home to him with
+an absoluteness, which for the moment, is almost paralyzing in its
+effect, and the immediate consequences of which are utterly beyond
+comprehension.
+
+Standing there in the presence of Zara de Echeveria, surrounded as we
+were by throngs of guests, interrupted frequently as it was quite
+natural we should be, we two were yet as utterly alone as if we had
+been standing upon a solitary rock in the midst of a waste of waters
+beyond which the vision could not penetrate.
+
+We were utterly alone in a world by ourselves; and the strange part of
+it was that we both seemed to realize the truth, although neither of us
+at that moment could contemplate the understanding of the other.
+
+Until I drove with the prince to that house where she received, my
+whole mind and intelligence had been centered upon the work I had to do
+at the Russian capitol; but having passed the portals of Zara's palace,
+and being taken into her presence, made the whole world appear suddenly
+small indeed, and left all that was great, and good, and worth
+attaining, encompassed in the very small space in which she stood.
+
+There was a sense of completeness to it all which is inexplicable;
+there was a compelling force emanating from her, like the energy of
+radium, unseen but all powerful, which dominated me as surely, though
+nonetheless subtly, as the sun dominates the planets.
+
+I have never remembered the words that passed between us at that first
+interview, for the reason that whatever I said, was uttered
+subconsciously, and became a mere incident in the great event. The
+meeting itself was the event. We had come together from different parts
+of the world. We were born of different nationalities. We had been
+nurtured differently, and every impulse of our respective lives had
+been trained in different grooves, and for different motives; and yet
+out of that chaos of differences had happened the wonderful thing of
+our meeting.
+
+I suppose we talked as other people talk, who meet and part for the
+first time as we met and parted then, if we were to be judged from the
+standpoint and observation of others. To me it was an epoch, focused
+into a moment of time. To her I now know that it was the same.
+
+I was suddenly conscious that there were many others who were waiting
+to claim her attention, and I got upon my feet.
+
+"So soon, Mr. Dubravnik?" she said.
+
+"Necessarily," I replied. "I cannot take to myself all the delight of
+the evening."
+
+"You will return?"
+
+"If I may--when you are less occupied."
+
+I was acquainted with nearly all the guests and was stopped a dozen
+times on my way across the salon to where the prince was conversing
+with a knot of men, and as I glanced backward towards the princess with
+each pause I made, I always met her eyes fixed upon me--unconsciously
+until they met my gaze--even though she was engaged with the people who
+formed the group around her.
+
+I did not seek the prince, after all. I turned aside realizing that I
+would rather be alone with the pleasurable thrill which still pulsed in
+my veins, than to crush it out with society talk, which was my
+particular aversion. I wandered on through the rooms, pausing for a
+moment here and there to exchange greetings with acquaintances, and at
+last emerged upon the glass-covered garden which was a miniature forest
+of shrubbery, palms and floral miracles. It was a spacious place dimly
+lighted by lamps that were shaded by red and green and yellow globes,
+and it was traversed by paths that were carpeted with Eastern rugs, and
+bordered by alluring nooks so daintily arranged and so suggestive of
+all things sentimental as to be indescribable. The garden was an
+Oriental paradise, blooming in the midst of a Russian winter; and I
+thought with a smile, a dangerous place for a bachelor even though he
+were alone--for it set him to thinking. As if to render the contrast
+even greater there was a furious snowstorm raging outside, and I could
+hear the wind howling and shrieking past the house, and the rattle of
+the snow as it hurled itself into fragments against the glass covering
+of the enclosure. I wandered on down the path I had taken as far as the
+extremity of the garden, and then turned into other paths. I paused
+once to light a cigar, and went on again, hither and thither,
+unheedingly; but at last I entered one of the Turkish nooks and
+composed myself comfortably among the cushions. There I gave myself up
+to the deliciousness of the hour, for no other word can describe it.
+There had seemed not to be another soul in the garden when I entered
+it, and I felt all that bliss which solitude lends to perfect
+surroundings. There might have been a thousand persons traversing the
+paths, and I could not have heard them, but I was presently startled
+out of my reveries by hearing my own name--or rather the one by which I
+was known--pronounced in a voice which I had learned, in a few brief
+moments, to recognize.
+
+"Dubravnik," said the princess, evidently in reply to a question
+concerning me. She uttered my name in a manner that thrilled me, too.
+Her companion, a man, responded:
+
+"Bah! A friend of Prince Michael's, and therefore a friend of the
+czar's. It would be a dangerous experiment to sound him, princess."
+
+"Perhaps; we will discuss it another time, Ivan. Shall we go in here?"
+
+They had paused directly in front of the place where I was concealed,
+or rather, only half concealed, for they could have seen me if either
+had chanced to look in my direction. I could see them plainly. As it
+was, I nestled closer among the cushions and closed my eyes, expecting
+discovery; but for some reason--fate impelled, doubtless--they passed
+on a few steps, and entered another of the Turkish bowers which was the
+counterpart of the one that concealed me, and they seated themselves so
+near to me that I could have reached out one hand and touched them had
+it not been for the intervening screen of tapestry which partitioned
+the two enclosures. The few words I had overheard convinced me that I
+was not to listen to confidences of a sentimental nature; otherwise I
+should have made my presence known, and escaped. The sentence that had
+reached me, uttered by the man, suggested another reason for the tryst,
+and I therefore listened, convinced that it was my duty to do so.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+A SECRET INTERVIEW
+
+
+I wondered if they would not detect the odor of my cigar, and thus
+discover that they were not alone in the garden, but the draft carried
+the smoke away from them; and then I became absorbed in what they were
+saying.
+
+"I can give you only a few moments, Ivan," murmured the princess. "My
+guests will miss me. You should have come to me later."
+
+"I know; but it was impossible. There is a meeting to-night, and our
+good friends are very anxious to hear something from you. When can you
+be present to tell them in your own words what you accomplished during
+your journey?"
+
+The tone of the question was masterful, and unconsciously I resented
+it.
+
+What right had any other man to address my princess in that manner? for
+already I found myself regarding her as _my_ princess. I knew now that
+I had wandered into the garden solely for the purpose of being alone to
+think about her, and that in my short journeys up and down the paths,
+finally ending among the cushions of the Turkish bower, I had had her
+with me for a companion. You will discover by this statement that I was
+still mindful of her presence near me, even though I had left her in
+the drawing room while I went away alone; but it is always possible to
+conjure a personal presence if the mind is sufficiently intent upon it,
+and even though that presence be not physical, it is nevertheless real.
+
+The tone of the man who was speaking with her in the adjoining bower
+was masterful, as I have said. More than that it was familiar. It was
+even intimate, I thought, and I was conscious of a silent rage when I
+heard it.
+
+I sensed his words subconsciously, and yet I had thoroughly
+comprehended them. He had spoken of a meeting of their "very good
+friends" and I had no doubt to whom he referred; neither had I any
+doubt at the moment, that this man talking so confidentially with the
+princess, was one of the "marked" members of that rapidly widening
+group of persons whom my busily engaged employees were learning to
+know.
+
+It was with a distinct shock, however, that I realized by virtue of the
+intimate manner of the man, that Zara de Echeveria must also be
+implicated with the nihilists, since he dared to speak to her so
+openly, so masterfully, and with such confident reliance upon the
+manner in which his communication would be received. Her reply
+convinced me sufficiently, had I required added conviction at that
+moment.
+
+"I do not know," she said. "Say that I will send word to them in the
+usual way, and at the earliest opportunity. Say that I was entirely
+successful; that everything in Paris and Berlin is in the most
+excellent condition, and that nothing--absolutely nothing, you
+understand--must be done without my knowledge and permission."
+
+"Our friends are becoming very impatient, Zara."
+
+"Zara!" I unconsciously repeated the name after him, but it was under
+my breath, so that not a sound escaped me. Who could this man be who
+dared to address my princess by her given name, for in my secret soul
+she was my princess still, even though she had already said enough to
+convince me that she was an enemy to the czar whom I was serving.
+
+"Let them. They must wait," she responded, with decision. "I will not
+be hurried. They are sworn to obey me. Tell them to await my pleasure.
+It is enough."
+
+"There are some among them--you know who they are--who chafe under this
+restraint, Zara. I am afraid that they will get beyond your control
+unless something is done speedily."
+
+"Let those who are loyal to me serve _them_ as _they_ would serve
+Alexander, if there is any sign of insubordination," was the haughty
+rejoinder. "Such is my order; and now, Ivan, you must go. Stay though!
+What of Jean Moret?"
+
+"He is dead."
+
+"Dead? Do you know that to be true?"
+
+"No. He has disappeared from the palace, nobody knows whither. He has
+not gone to Siberia and our agents cannot find him in the city prisons.
+We have made every effort. Doubtless he betrayed himself in some manner
+and was quietly put out of the way."
+
+"I will investigate the matter. He might have betrayed us, if caught
+and put to the torture. I can make Prince Michael tell me. Moret was
+more fool than knave, and he might have been induced to talk."
+
+"He might have betrayed _us_; he would never betray _you_, Zara."
+
+"I do not think so; and yet, it may be that I have gone too far with
+him. It is plain that I must make my prince talk."
+
+Her prince! God! How the expression rankled! What revelations this
+overheard conversation was bringing to pass! From being in the seventh
+heaven of bliss, transported there by the few moments I had passed in
+the society of Zara, I was now plunged into the hell of doubt,
+uncertainty, and disillusionment. She spoke of "her prince"--and there
+could be no possible doubt that she referred to Prince Michael--as if
+he were already a mere puppet in her hands, to bow before her and fawn
+at her feet, as she willed it. And the prince, great and noble by
+instinct and nature, who had with such dignity admitted to me his love
+for her, was having his feelings and his affections played upon as a
+skilled performer touches the keys of a piano.
+
+It was a new and unsuspected phase of Zara's character thus unfolded to
+me; and it was a most disquieting one. Standing with her as I had done
+among her guests, seated beside her as I had been for a few moments
+before I left her to go into the garden, I had believed in her as a
+devout worshipper believes in his deity, thinking no evil, believing
+that she could do no wrong, and placing her upon a pedestal that was
+high above all of the petty considerations of ordinary humanity. And
+then, as if to add to the sudden pain that was in my heart, this man
+who dared to address her by her given name, and whom she called Ivan,
+chuckled aloud as he remarked with unwonted intimacy:
+
+"You have only to encourage him a little, Zara. The prince will talk.
+Never fear. Your power----"
+
+"Encourage him!" It is impossible to describe the sense of outrage
+which Zara de Echeveria managed to include in the enunciation of
+those two words. Listening from my place among the cushions in the
+Turkish bower, I was conscious of a feeling of gladness that it was
+so; that she resented the tone of the man, as well as the words he
+had uttered; that she repudiated utterly the insinuation he had
+made. "You use the term as if you thought it were a pleasure to me
+to lead men on, simply because God gave me the beauty and the power.
+I hate it; oh, how I hate it! Suppose that Jean Moret _is_ dead,
+who, then, in God's name is responsible for his death? I, I alone!
+Do you think that I am so heartless that I can look upon such things
+with no pang of self-reproach? I wish that I were old and ugly,
+fortuneless and an outcast--or dead. Then I would not be compelled
+to prostitute my beauty and my talents to conspire with a rabble of
+scoundrels and convicts who discuss murder and assassination as if
+they were pastimes."
+
+"Hush! You do not realize what you say, Zara. Your own life----"
+
+She laughed outright, interrupting him.
+
+"My own life! Do you think I care for that? I wish they would kill me
+and so end all this hateful, horrible scheming to murder and destroy."
+
+"Hush, Zara! hush! You must not talk in that way."
+
+"Not talk that way?" The princess laughed somewhat wildly, I thought,
+from my place of concealment, but still she made no sound that could
+have penetrated much farther than I was distant from their interview.
+"Not talk that way?" she repeated, and this time was silent for a
+spell, as if she were herself considering the reasons why she should
+not do so. There had been more of fright than menace, in the tone of
+the man called Ivan, when he cautioned her, and I could imagine how
+terrorized any member of the nihilistic fraternity must be if there
+were the least danger that disloyal thoughts of theirs might find
+lodgment in unsuspected places. "I will talk that way; I will talk as I
+please; nor you, nor any one, shall stand between me and my liberty of
+action and speech. What care I for all the murderers and assassins who
+form this terrible society of which we are members? Hear me? They could
+only swear my life away as they have done to others in many parallel
+cases. They could only destroy me; and Ivan, sometimes, upon my bended
+knees I pray for death. What matter would it be to me how death might
+come, so long as I am prepared to welcome it? I hate and loathe myself
+when I stop to consider all the contemptible acts I am compelled to
+perform, when I pause to realize the utter prostitution of self-respect
+I am forced to undergo, in order to carry on the plots of our 'good
+friends,' as you call them. Good friends, indeed! To whom, let me ask
+you, do they demonstrate the friendly spirit? Where can you point to a
+friendly act done by any one of them, unless it is to a prisoner
+already condemned, or to an assassin who is in danger of arrest? My own
+life?" she laughed again. "Ivan, were it not that I honestly believe
+that I can, by myself accomplish some great good in this undertaking, I
+would destroy that life with my own hands; for I tell you that it would
+be much easier to drive a poniard through my own heart, or to swallow a
+cup of poison, than it is for me to make sport of the affections of
+such men as the stately, generous Prince Michael, or that poor
+love-sick fool, Moret. Hush! don't say another word to me on the
+subject of warning, for it only angers me, and fills me with a contempt
+which I find it difficult to master."
+
+"But, Zara, you must not talk so. I cannot listen."
+
+"Then leave me. Go. I wish to be alone for a time before I return to
+the salon. Deliver my message, and also the order I gave you."
+
+I heard no more after that, but I knew that he had gone, although there
+was no sound of his departure. Then I listened for the rustle of the
+princess' dress when she should move away. Presently it came. She
+sighed, then rose from the couch where she had been sitting, and I knew
+that she had stepped out upon the path. I closed my eyes, the better to
+think upon the remarkable revelations that had come to me as a result
+of that conversation. One, two, five, perhaps ten minutes I remained
+thus, turning the extraordinary incident over in my mind. But presently
+I opened them again, lazily and slowly at first, and then with a sudden
+start, for they encountered the form of the princess where she stood as
+motionless as a statue but with one arm extended holding back a palm
+leaf which half filled the entrance to my place of concealment.
+
+God knows what impulse it was that had impelled her, in parting with
+her recent companion, to pause at the Turkish bower in which I was
+concealed, and so, to discover me. I had heard no sound whatever. I had
+supposed that both were gone. The shock induced by the revelations I
+had just overheard, the disillusionment I had experienced in regard to
+Princess Zara, had affected me more than I realized, and the act of
+closing my eyes and thinking it over had been the result of the same
+impulse which sends a frightened woman to her own room, to close the
+door behind her in order that she may be alone. By the act of closing
+my eyes, I shut out the world by which I was surrounded--that world
+which had now become so hateful to me because of the work I had to do.
+But nevertheless I looked up steadily into the eyes of the princess,
+wondering at the calmness and grace of her attitude, and amazed that
+she should not show more consternation than she did, at the discovery
+that there was a witness to her interview with the man Ivan. Save for a
+suggestion of pallor which had driven away the natural flushes from her
+cheeks, and perhaps for an added brightness, or rather a different
+brightness, to her eyes, she was the same as ever, although the smile
+which she now bestowed upon me seemed a bit constrained.
+
+[Illustration: I LOOKED UP STEADILY INTO THE EYES OF THE PRINCESS,
+(Page 132)]
+
+"You are not sleeping," she said, calmly, but with conviction. The
+remark was not a question; it was a statement.
+
+"No," I replied, as calmly.
+
+"And have not been asleep?"
+
+"No."
+
+"You heard?"
+
+"Yes, princess, I heard."
+
+She was silent, and minutes passed before she spoke again, so that I
+began to wonder if she had decided to say no more.
+
+"Mr. Dubravnik," she said, and in English, "will you do me one favor in
+regard to this conversation you have overheard? Will you keep my
+confidence till to-morrow?"
+
+I wondered again at the princess' coolness. Realizing the peril she was
+in, as she must unquestionably have done, it was strange that she could
+command herself so well as to remain perfectly in possession of all her
+faculties, in the face of such dire peril.
+
+For a moment I hesitated. It was a very great favor that she asked of
+me so calmly; just how great a favor it was, she could not know; and
+yet there was no reason why I should not grant her request, being what
+I was and who I was. In that interval I wondered what this beautiful
+creature before me would think, or say, if she could have guessed that
+it was the chief of the most remarkable secret service bureau in the
+world whom she was addressing; if she could have guessed that the very
+man among all other men, whom she would least have thought of taking
+into her confidence, was the one before her who had listened to the
+conversation.
+
+"Yes. I will do that," I replied, as deliberately as she had asked the
+question; and I watched her closely as I did so, holding myself well in
+hand, the while, in order that I might not instantly fall again under
+the spell of her fascinations.
+
+"And come to me then? I will expect you at noon."
+
+"Yes, princess."
+
+"I thank you, sir. And now, if you will give me your arm, we will
+return to the drawing room."
+
+I could not help marveling at the wonderful self possession of the
+woman whose life, liberty, honor, happiness, and whose all, had been by
+means of the conversation I had overheard, placed utterly at my mercy.
+Even though I were really what she supposed me to be, an ordinary
+citizen, the danger was no less, for I had but to repeat what I had
+heard, to bring about an investigation which could result in only one
+way. Her composure was absolute as we walked side by side towards the
+house, nor did she once refer to the subject upon which we were both
+thinking so deeply. She was a shade paler than usual, but beyond that
+there was no sign that anything out of the ordinary had occurred; nor
+did she manifest any evidence of the nervous fear which would have
+prostrated most women in such a predicament.
+
+Neither of us recurred to the subject that was uppermost in our minds.
+Indeed we were silent during the moment that was required to traverse
+the length of the garden, and to pass from it into the house where the
+company was assembled.
+
+But I was conscious of a subtle change in the character of my feelings
+towards Zara de Echeveria. The fascination that had enthralled me a
+little while back, was tempered now by a wholesome dread of this
+riotously beautiful creature who could use her God-given feminine
+attributes to attain such deplorable ends. What had seemed to me to be
+a creature of utter loveliness, had now degenerated to a thing that was
+momentarily horrible, because what I had believed to be all purity, and
+all perfection, had suddenly been revealed as something that was akin
+to unmoral.
+
+We parted at the door, she to cross the room and join a group of her
+guests who were clamoring for her while I loitered, with no purpose
+save to avoid comment on the apparent fact that the princess and I had
+been so long a time together in the garden. The prince joined me while
+I stood there. He was accompanied by a man whom he wished to introduce
+to me.
+
+"Ah, Dubravnik," he said. "I have been looking everywhere for you.
+Didn't know but you had gone. This is my friend Alexis Durnief. You've
+each heard me talk about the other, so you should be good friends."
+
+"Captain Alexis Durnief?" I asked, shaking hands with him.
+
+"The same," he replied. "Just returned from one of the far posts in
+Siberia, and I am very glad to be back here again. I haven't had an
+opportunity to greet the princess yet; you kept her in the garden so
+long."
+
+I thought that he gave me a significant glance as he made the laughing
+remark, but as the princess herself joined us at that moment, I did not
+give it a second thought. He gave her his arm, and they went away
+together, leaving the prince and myself alone.
+
+"I think, if you do not mind, I will go," I said. The house of Princess
+Zara had suddenly become hateful to me."
+
+"What! At this hour? Why?" Prince Michael was amazed.
+
+"Oh, there is no reason, other than that I feel like it," I told him,
+shrugging my shoulders and trying to look bored.
+
+"Then stay. Some of the best people are not here, yet. Or did your half
+hour in the garden upset you, Dubravnik?" He essayed a light laughter
+as he asked the question, but it had a hollow sound, nevertheless.
+
+"Not at all," I assured him.
+
+"I can assure you that it is an honor which the princess confers upon
+very few of her friends, and never on new acquaintances. You are the
+only exception I have ever known," he added.
+
+"Indeed? We met in the garden by accident, and in reality were together
+not more than two minutes--the time that it takes to walk the length of
+it, so I do not feel as greatly honored as I might have done if she had
+gone there with me and had given me all that time----"
+
+"I did not have an opportunity, for you never asked me to do so," said
+the soft tones of the princess immediately behind me; and as I turned
+she added: "but these rooms are suffocating, so if you will give me
+your arm now, Mr. Dubravnik, we will lead the way, and perhaps the
+others will follow. I know that the gentlemen are longing for an
+opportunity to smoke."
+
+"Dubravnik was on the point of leaving us," the prince called after
+her. "You arrived just in time, princess. Perhaps you can persuade him
+to change his mind."
+
+"Were you contemplating suicide, Mr. Dubravnik?" she asked laughing;
+but there was an undercurrent of gravity in her question which was
+deeply significant.
+
+"Something very like it," I replied, as gravely, "since I was about to
+leave your presence."
+
+"Supposing you to be serious"--and I felt that her hand unconsciously
+tightened its clasp upon my arm as we moved away--"would it not be
+better for me to do the deed, than for you?"
+
+"I am afraid that the supposition is altogether too foreign to my
+nature for me to entertain it, princess."
+
+We had entered the garden, and a throng of guests were trooping after
+us. I glanced down at my companion, and saw that she was regarding me
+rather anxiously through her lashes.
+
+"Suicide is the only solution for all problems at once," she said.
+
+"Pardon me; it is the solution for only one."
+
+"Only one? What is that?"
+
+"Moral cowardice."
+
+"But there may be circumstances where it offers the only means of
+escape from an alternative that is infinitely worse, Mr. Dubravnik." We
+were in the act of passing one of the little side paths, and I drew her
+into it, noticing that there was just a suggestion of resistance from
+my companion when I did so; but it was only for an instant. Then, as I
+paused abruptly underneath one of the green shaded globes, she added,
+as though she knew that I perfectly understood her: "I have really been
+considering the subject quite seriously."
+
+I looked down at her. The green hue of the light above us seemed to
+have transformed her into a spirit. It had changed the color of her
+dress, of her hair, and it had touched her cheeks as with a magic wand
+which softened and heightened every feature. Instead of transforming
+her into something that she was not, I was convinced that it brought
+her back from what she was not to what she really was. At all events, I
+realized that she was in deadly earnest.
+
+In that moment I felt again all the spell of this woman's charm as she
+stood before me, beneath the glow of that shaded light, looking up into
+my face with her beautiful eyes now widened with serious concern, with
+her full, lithe, graceful body pulsing with life so close to mine,
+while she talked calmly, and seriously I knew, too, of destroying it by
+her own act.
+
+What a place to talk of suicide, there, in the midst of that oriental
+garden, voluptuous with a thousand unspoken suggestions, laden with the
+perfume of flowers, glowing with the many colored lights that illumined
+it, rustling as with the sound of hidden insects as the gowns of
+gorgeously bedecked women brushed against the growing things! Over our
+heads, beyond the glass roof, the storm still howled, although with
+less violence, and the contrast seemed strangely in keeping with the
+condition of my own mind, outwardly so calm and composed, yet torn by
+the thousand conflicting emotions that were induced by the proximity of
+this entrancing creature, and the knowledge of what her fate, and
+therefore mine, must inevitably be.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+SENTENCED TO DEATH
+
+
+To what lengths our conversation on that subject might have gone I will
+never know, for at that instant we were interrupted by Prince Michael,
+who was seeking my companion. I had only time to utter one admonition:
+
+"Extremities should never be resorted to until the necessity arises,
+nor is it wise for one to burn a bridge until it has been crossed;
+besides, you have an engagement at noon to-morrow which should be
+kept."
+
+"Which will be kept," she murmured, in reply. Then Prince Michael came
+upon us.
+
+The prince reported that many of the guests were calling for their
+hostess and so I utilized the opportunity to take my leave, which I
+did notwithstanding the protests of my friend. He told me to make use
+of his _sanka_, which would return and wait for him after it had
+deposited me at my door; but when I left the house the storm had lulled
+almost to stopping and as the distance was not great I decided to walk.
+That decision very nearly cost me my life, and very materially altered
+my views regarding the princess as well as my intentions concerning
+her. As I passed through the house on my way to the street I met
+Captain Durnief, who stopped me for a moment.
+
+"I feel like a boy who is dressed in his first trousers," he said to me
+with a laugh. "You cannot comprehend the delight of returning to this
+place after the experiences I have undergone in Siberia, for even the
+life of an officer there is little better than that of a convict. I
+shall have the pleasure of meeting you often, Dubravnik, for I
+understand that you are frequently at the palace."
+
+"Shall you be there?" I asked.
+
+"Yes; I am detailed to the palace guard. Have you enjoyed the evening
+here?"
+
+"Hugely."
+
+"Of course you have met the princess frequently."
+
+Durnief had a way of half closing his eyes when he talked. He evidently
+intended it to give him the appearance of indifference, but it had a
+directly opposite effect upon me, for it was palpably a mask to conceal
+the intensity of his gaze--to hide the interest he felt in whatever he
+uttered at the time.
+
+"No," I said, "this is my first acquaintance with her."
+
+"Then you should consider yourself greatly honored."
+
+"I do." Possibly my monosyllabic reply was even shorter than it needed
+to have been for he gestured an almost imperceptible shrug, and
+hesitated while he again bestowed upon me that half quizzical glance
+which seemed to conceal a sneer, or which might have been intended to
+suggest that I should have understood some obscure meaning behind his
+words; but I chose not to see it. Then, as we shook hands at parting he
+honored me by a pressure or his thumb which Moret had taught me to
+understand as the very faintest kind of an interrogation. I have
+already mentioned it as often given by a nihilist to one whom he
+believes may be one with him. It was so faint and so uncertain that it
+might easily have been mistaken for an accident, and like the glance I
+permitted it to pass unnoticed.
+
+It was about half past two in the morning when I emerged from the
+house. The air was exhilaratingly cold, and the storm was nearly past.
+The clouds which had hovered over the city all the preceding day and
+night were still in evidence, however, so that the streets between the
+widely separated lamps were dark and lonely. The distance I had to go
+was something more than a mile, and I had traversed more than half of
+it and was in the act of turning a corner when directly beside me, and
+quite near, I saw a flash, was conscious of a loud report, and felt
+that I had received a sharp and telling blow on my head.
+
+When I was again conscious of my surroundings I was in my own rooms,
+while beside the couch upon which I had been placed were my valet, a
+physician, and my faithful coadjutor, Tom Coyle.
+
+"Hello, Tom; what's up?" I asked, feebly.
+
+"Faith, you'd have been up higher than you care to go just yet, Dannie,
+if I hadn't been drivin' wan av me own cabs this night, owin' to the
+sudden death av wan av me min," he replied. "The doctor says the bullet
+didn't hurt ye much, but ye'd have been froze stiff if I hadn't found
+ye whin I did."
+
+"Tell me about it," I commanded.
+
+"Divil a bit there is to tell, more than I've already said. I was goin'
+to the princess' afther me fare, whin I heard a shot. I wint where I
+heard the sound and found you. That's all I know."
+
+"Where did the bullet strike me?"
+
+"Foreninst yer head, Dannie. Ye'll have a bald spot there, I'm
+thinkin'. But it only broke the skin an' hit ye a welt that made ye see
+stars this cloudy night. Now I'm goin'. Maybe I'll have a report for
+you whin I come back. There's snow enough. The blackguard ought to have
+left some tracks."
+
+There is a spot on the back of the head where a very light blow will
+bring about insensibility, and it was exactly on that spot that the
+bullet had struck me, taking off a little hair and skin, but otherwise
+doing no damage; but I could not help connecting the attempt on my life
+with the experiences of the night; in other words, with the woman whose
+guest I had been and whose secrets I had overheard. I had cherished a
+feeling of the utmost charity for her until that moment, but the
+"accident" changed all that, for I had not a doubt in my mind that it
+was by her order that somebody had made the attempt to assassinate me.
+
+After a few hours' sleep I felt as well as ever, and before the time to
+make my call upon the princess I paid a visit to Jean Moret. I had
+neglected to say that the only letter he had sent away since his
+imprisonment was one to his mother, from whom he had received a reply
+addressed through one of my agents, and in explanation of his
+reluctance to send more, he had said: "It is better that the world
+should think me dead." Concerning the woman for whose sake he became a
+nihilist, he never spoke. But the experiences I had passed through at
+the home of the princess, the preceding night, made me wise concerning
+the identity of the woman who had influenced him. Indeed I had had it
+from her own lips that she had played with this man, even as she had
+hoodwinked the prince. What the relations between her and Moret might
+have been, in what manner they had been brought together in the past,
+and by what transformation of individuality he had dared to raise his
+eyes to a princess, I could not even conjecture. There was no doubt,
+however, that she had used him for one of the marionettes in her puppet
+show; and now he, poor devil, because of it, was safer in a prison
+cell, and no doubt happier, too, than he would have been at liberty.
+
+I wanted the man to talk and to talk about her, and I must confess what
+I did not at the moment realize that my desire found its source more in
+personal resentment against any confidential passages that may have
+taken place between those two, than in my plain duty to the cause I was
+serving.
+
+There are many kinds of jealousy, and each kind will find its
+expression through innumerable channels. If I had been charged with
+jealousy at that moment, I would have repudiated the suggestion with
+scorn and contempt; and yet I was jealous.
+
+I had thought rather deeply upon this approaching conversation with
+Moret, while on my way to interview him, but I was no nearer to a
+determination regarding what I should say to him, when I entered the
+room he occupied in the prison, than I had been when the idea first
+occurred to me. Now when I entered the room where he was imprisoned, I
+said:
+
+"Why is it, Moret, that you have never taken any further advantage of
+my promise that you could write and send letters?"
+
+"There is no one with whom I care to communicate," he replied.
+
+"Not even with the princess?" I asked the question idly, watching him
+from between half closed lids.
+
+"With what princess?" he asked calmly, and without a trace of surprise
+or resentment in his perfectly trained countenance.
+
+"Zara de Echeveria," I said, coldly.
+
+"I do not know her."
+
+"No! She knows you."
+
+"Indeed? It is an honor to be known by a princess."
+
+"I have it from her own lips that she is responsible for your presence
+in the palace."
+
+"Then surely there is no need to interview me on the subject." He was
+thoroughly my equal in this play-of-words.
+
+"She was told in my presence that you were dead. Would you not like to
+hear what she said in reply?" I asked him.
+
+"If you care to tell me."
+
+"She said that it was better so; that if you lived you would have
+betrayed all your friends--including her; that in fact you were more
+fool than knave."
+
+"She is not complimentary; but as I do not know her, it makes no
+difference." Nothing could have been more composed than Moret's manner
+was.
+
+"You will not discuss her?"
+
+"I would if I could, but I do not know her, monsieur."
+
+"Well, Moret, I like your loyalty, even to one who has used you as a
+mere tool, and who is now rejoiced to learn that you are dead, and out
+of her way, with the dangerous secrets you possess. I am going to her
+as soon as I leave you; perhaps she will talk about you again."
+
+Moret stared at me unwinkingly, but with a countenance that was like
+marble in its intensity. I knew that he was suffering, and that my
+words were the cause of his agony. I knew that I was prodding him
+deeply and severely, thrusting the iron into his soul with as little
+compunction as a Mexican _charo_ exerts when he "cinches" a heavily
+burdened _burro_. But I was doing it with malice prepense, and I was
+doing it for a purpose.
+
+I wished, somehow, to compel this man to talk freely with me about the
+princess and yet all the time I was reluctant in my own soul to have
+him do it. During that interval Moret was greater than I; more
+chivalrous than I; for he remained loyal to his duty towards her, as he
+saw it, in spite of the terrible accusation I had made against her
+womanliness, and notwithstanding all the insinuations I had put
+forward, respecting her utter disregard and contempt for him.
+
+"Perhaps she will do so," he said; "that is, if she knows aught to say
+of me."
+
+He was silent for a moment after that, and I waited, knowing that I had
+tried this man to the utmost point of his mental endurance.
+
+Presently he raised his eyes again to mine, and said:
+
+"Mr. Dubravnik, at the very beginning of our acquaintance, when you
+made a prisoner of me in one of the rooms of the suite you were to
+occupy in the palace, I told you that I had gone into this business for
+the love of a woman, and it was tacitly, if not literally agreed
+between us at that time, that the woman's personality and name should
+form no part of our future discussions. You have chosen, at this time,
+to mention a princess, to whom you give the name of Zara de Echeveria,
+and I have told you that I know no such person; that the name means
+nothing to me. What you may surmise, Mr. Dubravnik, can have no effect
+upon me, or upon your relations with me, or mine with you. So now I
+tell you once again, that while I am perfectly willing to believe
+myself to be morally free to discuss with you all phases of nihilism,
+I will not discuss this woman you have named, _or any other woman_."
+
+He bowed his head and I could see beads of sweat upon his forehead
+which betrayed the mental anguish he was undergoing. I knew that it was
+far worse than physical torture, and as there was nothing to gain by
+prolonging it, and nothing more to be said, I withdrew.
+
+At the end of another half hour I was announced to the princess.
+
+She received me in a diminutive bower of Oriental luxury. Her
+decorative tastes were decidedly Eastern and lavishly extravagant. She
+knew how to arrange a room with the object of stealing away a man's
+reserve. There is something about the atmosphere of well chosen
+surroundings which intoxicates judgment and murders discretion--which
+bars reason at the threshold and generates madness of thought and deed
+beyond it. A Solon in the princess' drawing room might become a puppet
+in her boudoir; in that fascinating atmosphere a Jove would have
+degenerated to a Hermes, or Mars have cast away his sword and shield
+for the wings of Apollo. To enter it, was like awaking from a vivid
+dream of battle to find the soft arms of love around you, and to feel
+the lethargy of infinite content. Add to this the personality of the
+Princess Zara, her half hesitating smile of welcome in which pleasure
+and dread were equally mingled; suffuse her face with a quick blush,
+and instantly replace it with a touch of pallor; render her manner with
+a suggestion of hauteur, softened by a gesture of timidity and doubt;
+listen to her voice, low-toned and infinitely calm yet vibrating in a
+minor chord of uncertainty and dread; feel the clasp of her hand, cold
+when it touches yours, yet instantly thrilling you with a glow induced
+by the contact, and--remain thoroughly master of yourself if you can.
+Retain, if you have the strength to do so, the opinions you had formed,
+the judgments you have passed. If you succeed, you are a giant; if you
+fail, you are just what I was--a man, and human.
+
+"You are punctual, and I am grateful," she murmured. "If you had been
+late----"
+
+All the hardness I had felt before returned to me then.
+
+"If I had been late you would have known the reason, princess," I said.
+
+"No; but I should have feared it."
+
+"I would have been dead."
+
+"Dead!"
+
+"Yes; but, unfortunately, the attempt upon my life did not succeed,
+thanks to Fate and poor marksmanship."
+
+"The attempt on your life! I do not understand."
+
+I turned my head so that she could see where the plaster hid the wound
+made by the bullet of the would-be assassin.
+
+"A better marksman would have compelled me to break my engagement,
+princess," I said.
+
+She extended one hand and rested a finger lightly upon the wound, as
+though she intended the mere touch to heal it. With the other hand she
+gently turned my face towards hers; yet she did it in a way that was
+devoid of intimacy. Somehow she changed what might have been suggestive
+of familiarity, into a gesture of womanly tenderness; and there was
+undoubtedly horror in her eyes, and a flash of angry resentment, too.
+
+"You think that I am responsible for this?" she asked, releasing me and
+stepping backward.
+
+I bowed, but made no reply.
+
+Impulsively, she crossed the room, and from the floor, where she had
+doubtless thrown it after reading, secured a crumpled wad of paper, and
+after straightening and smoothing it, gave it into my hand.
+
+"Read," she said.
+
+"'Our interview in the garden was overheard by two persons beside
+ourselves,'" I read, aloud. "'One of them, fortunately, was a friend;
+the other may not keep the engagement made with you.'"
+
+"It is from Ivan," she said. "It is because I received that note that I
+would have been anxious if you had been detained. It did not occur to
+me to doubt that you would be prompt until I read that. I did not doubt
+you, Mr. Dubravnik. I might have killed myself, but I would not
+have--ah! To think that you could deem me capable of such an act as
+that!"
+
+"I did not princess, until--well, there was no other theory. At all
+events, I have changed my mind. Who is Ivan?"
+
+"My brother."
+
+"I did not know you had a brother."
+
+"Naturally, since his existence is forgotten. He was sentenced to
+Siberia when he was sixteen. Now he is thought to be dead, but he
+escaped, and is here. He must have brought some one with him last
+night--somebody who listened to everything. Do you know what that note
+means, my friend? It means that you have been sentenced to death. It
+means that the nihilists will surely take your life; and oh, my God,
+there is no escape!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+FOR THE SAKE OF THE CZAR
+
+
+When one is sentenced to death by the nihilists in Russia it sends a
+cold shiver down the back, no matter how brave and self-reliant one may
+be, for those fanatics have an uncomfortable way of carrying out such
+decrees to the bitter end. However, I smiled and assured the princess
+that I thought I could find a way to avoid the consequences of my
+eavesdropping, and then awaited the moment when she would say more. For
+a long time she was silent, and during it I studied her carefully, for
+she was the most complex puzzle that I had ever encountered in the
+shape of a woman. I had heard enough to know that she was not only a
+conspirator against the life of the emperor, but that she was
+ostensibly if not really, the leader among her fellow conspirators; or
+if not _the_ leader, then a leader. I had heard her talk glibly of
+assassination and death, and I had heard her deplore in mental anguish
+the part she was forced to play in the game of Russian politics. In one
+moment I had believed her to be a heartless schemer, a murderess, and
+one who was devoid of compassion; and in the next I was forced to the
+conjecture that she was a victim of circumstances, and that she had no
+love for or sympathy with the cause she advocated. Now, as I watched
+her, the same emotions succeeded each other in my judgment of her
+character, and finally I summed them all up in the decision that she
+was a being who was swayed by impulses. There are seeming paradoxes
+which will explain just what my conclusions were concerning Zara de
+Echeveria. She was deliberately impulsive; calculatingly reckless;
+systematically chaotic. The warm, Southern blood in her veins impelled
+her to deeds which were rendered thrice effective by reason of the fact
+that she applied to them the calculating coolness and method of her
+Russian ancestors. Hence the paradox.
+
+Presently she raised her eyes to mine.
+
+"Dubravnik," she said slowly, "there is one way of escape for you; and
+there is only one."
+
+"What is that?" I asked.
+
+"You must become a nihilist."
+
+"I had thought of that," I returned coolly. For, indeed, I had thought
+of it, although not at all from the motive she understood me to mean.
+
+"You had thought of it?" she cried. "Do you say that earnestly, or only
+to lead me on?"
+
+"Was it not this very point that you were discussing with your brother
+when you entered the garden last night, princess?" I asked, recalling
+the mention of my name between them at that time.
+
+"Yes; I had said to him that you were the kind of a man who should be
+added to our ranks. I think you must have heard his reply."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Do you know what nihilism is, Mr. Dubravnik?"
+
+"No. I have always regarded it as a dangerous organization; morally
+dangerous, I mean. You must not think that I have considered joining it
+for any other reason than to place myself in a position where I will
+feel that it is my duty to respect the confidence that I stole from
+you, rather than to betray it."
+
+"Then you never had such a thought until you knew I was a nihilist?"
+
+"Never."
+
+"And you would join us for my sake?"
+
+"No."
+
+"For whose, then?"
+
+"For the sake of the czar."
+
+"Ah! You would join only to betray them all into the hands of the
+police! That is what you mean."
+
+Zara leaped to her feet. Her whole manner underwent a change and for
+the instant she was completely dominated by a furious scorn which found
+its expression in every single pose of the attitude she assumed. Her
+eyes blazed with the sudden anger she felt at me, brought about more by
+the thought which came to her that I, whom she had stooped to admire,
+was nothing but a spy. A torrent of words rushed to her lips, at least
+her appearance was that she was on the point of denouncing me most
+bitterly; but I raised a hand and interrupted her, bending slightly
+forward, and speaking with sharp decision, although coolly, and with
+studied conciseness of expression.
+
+"No," I said. "If I should become a nihilist, it would be to protect
+the emperor, not to betray your friends."
+
+Again her entire manner underwent a change. As if she thoroughly
+believed me, the fury of scorn left her eyes, the angry glitter of them
+ceased, the rigidity of her attitude relaxed, and I saw that she was
+regarding me with an expression of wondering amazement, in which pity,
+and longing, not unmixed with admiration, were dominant. She was silent
+for the moment, but she kept her eyes fixed upon mine, and gradually
+they began to glow with that fire of enthusiasm which no argument can
+ever hope to overcome. Looking upon her I realized that if she were not
+a nihilist at heart, she had become one by reason of some great mental
+cataclysm through which she had passed. I believed then, and I was to
+know later, that I was correct, and that nothing at present apparent
+could swerve her from her set purpose, or could influence her against
+the cause she had undertaken, and was now upholding, so valiantly. The
+spasms of remorse that rushed upon her at times, and such feelings of
+repugnance as I had heard her express in the garden, were only _oases_
+in the desert of her perverted judgment, engendered in her very soul by
+some terrible calamity through which she had personally passed, or
+regarding which she had been a close observer. When she spoke again, it
+was with low-toned softness, and she glided a step or two nearer to me,
+raising her beautiful eyes, now softened to an appealing quality, and
+clasping her hands in front of her with a gesture of suppliant
+helplessness that was almost overwhelming.
+
+"Do you think that we have no wrongs to right?" she demanded.
+
+"I think you have many, princess, judging from your standpoint; but you
+cannot right them by committing greater ones. Nothing can dignify or
+ennoble deliberate assassination, or wanton, cruel, secret murder. The
+nihilists are assassins, murderers, cutthroats."
+
+"You do not know! You do not know!"
+
+"Perhaps not."
+
+"Having heard what you did--knowing, as you do, my secret--unwilling as
+I know you are, to betray me, what do you propose, Mr. Dubravnik?"
+
+I replied deliberately.
+
+"I have thought of joining the nihilists, but I have reconsidered the
+question as impracticable. Therefore, I have decided that you must
+leave Russia."
+
+"I? Leave Russia? Ordered away by you?"
+
+"Yes, princess."
+
+She laughed wildly, and again this creature of impulse underwent one of
+her lightning changes of which I had seen so many evidences. She was
+indignant now, made so by offended pride, because of the affront my
+words had put upon her social status. She, a princess, high in place,
+to be ordered out of her own country by a man who was a stranger to
+her, was unprecedented.
+
+"Do you think that I am a weak thing to be ordered about like that by a
+man whom I never met until last night? Beware, sir, lest you make me
+regret that the bullet did not do its work more effectively. I am a
+princess; I have wealth, power, influential friends; do not think that
+the czar would believe what you would say, when he heard the story that
+I could tell him."
+
+I shrugged my shoulders carelessly. It was part of my purpose to anger
+her even to the point of madness, for in that way alone could I hope to
+draw her out to the point of revealing herself to me truly. And
+besides, I was again falling under that fascination which exerted such
+strange and compelling power over me.
+
+"If I believed you to be sincere in what you say now, it would make my
+unfortunate duty much more simple," I said.
+
+"Your duty! What is your duty? To betray a woman?"
+
+"Precisely that."
+
+"And you would do that? _You?_"
+
+"If the alternative fails, yes."
+
+Again she rose from the couch upon which she had relaxed. She came and
+stood quite near to me, and with infinite scorn, impossible to
+describe, she said slowly:
+
+"I think our interview is at an end, Mr. Dubravnik, for there is
+evidently nothing to be gained by it. I much prefer to choose my
+friends among those whom you call assassins, than from frequenters of
+the palace--if the others are like you."
+
+I rose also, and bowed coldly.
+
+"As you will, princess," I said. "I promised to keep your secret
+twenty-four hours. You have still ten hours in which to do one of three
+things to obviate the necessity that is now upon me, of betraying you."
+
+"Indeed!" haughtily.
+
+"The easiest one will be for you to notify me of your intention to
+depart from the country. The second, quite as effective, was suggested
+by yourself last night when we talked of suicide. The third will
+perhaps prove more congenial than either of the others; you can have me
+murdered." I bowed, and started towards the door, but she barred the
+way before I could reach it.
+
+"You shall not go!" she cried, extending her arms as if to bar the way
+against my exit, and again her speaking countenance betrayed the
+impulse within her. This time it was terror.
+
+"No? Is your brother Ivan here to complete the work so badly begun,
+princess?" I purposely rendered my question insolently offensive.
+
+For a moment she gazed at me in horror; then, with a sob in her throat,
+she stepped aside and pointed towards the door.
+
+"Go," she said. "I should not have detained you." But as I was about to
+take her at her word she burst into a passion of tears. At the same
+instant she leaped towards me, and seizing me with both hands, drew me
+back again to the middle of the floor.
+
+"No--no--no--no!" she cried. "You shall not go! Don't you know that you
+would be shot down at the door of my house, or at best before you had
+gone a hundred feet away from it? Have you forgotten that your
+appointment with me to-day was known by those who have decided upon
+your death? Will you force me to acquiesce in your murder, even though
+you believe me capable of committing it?"
+
+I knew that what she said was undoubtedly true, for I had neglected my
+usual caution in not providing for an emergency of this kind; but I
+pretended to be incredulous.
+
+"Yet I cannot remain here indefinitely, princess," I said.
+
+"It is the only way to save your life. If you leave here before I have
+seen those who would kill you, you will not live fifteen minutes after
+my door closes behind you. Oh, I beseech you, take the oath; promise me
+that you will take the oath, and let me go and tell my friends that you
+will do so."
+
+She was pleading with me now, with her hands supplicatingly extended,
+and with an expression of such utter terror in her face because of the
+calamity which threatened me, that my soul was for a moment moved to
+pity for this woman, who could pass through so many phases of emotion
+in so short a period of time. But nevertheless it was not my purpose to
+betray that pity, then. I had still to draw her out, more and more;
+there was still much to learn of this complex woman, so beautiful and
+so noble, who yet could find a sufficient excuse to engage in such
+nefarious practices.
+
+I have thought since that I was playing with myself, as well as with
+her, at that time; that I was making a study of Zara's soul, rather
+than of her character; I have believed, and I now believe, that even at
+that moment I was madly in love with this half wild creature, outwardly
+so tamed, and yet inwardly more than half a barbarian, with the blood
+of her Tartar ancestors on the one side coursing hotly in her veins. I
+wanted to know her. I wanted to bring her out of herself. My own
+intuition recognized, and was making the most of a boundless and
+limitless sympathy that existed between us two, although I was not at
+the time conscious of the fact; a sympathy that found voice in Zara's
+heart as well as in mine, and which needed but a touch, as of the spark
+to grains of powder, to fire it into a blaze of love so absolute as to
+sweep every other consideration from its path. My heart recognized
+hers, and I was subconsciously aware that hers recognized mine. It may
+be that I was playing two parts with her at that moment, the one being
+that of my ostensible character, as an agent of the czar; the other
+asserting itself as plain Dan Derrington, an American gentleman who was
+very much in love.
+
+"Do you suppose, even then, that they would believe you, and spare me?"
+I asked, with unconcealed irony, forcing myself even against my will,
+to render my question bitterly offensive.
+
+"Yes, oh, yes! I would give myself as hostage for your honor. My life
+would be forfeited, too, if you should not keep the oath."
+
+I hesitated. The opportunity was an alluring one in a way, for it would
+render the entire organization like an open book to me. But more than
+all else was the communion of interest that would thus be created
+between this peerless woman and me. Still, there were other things to
+be considered. The danger I would thus incur might render impotent the
+entire fabric that I had constructed with so much care; and truth to
+tell I could not bring myself to the point of utilizing a woman's
+confidence in order ultimately to betray her and her friends.
+
+"I cannot take the oath, princess," I said, calmly.
+
+"Think! think!" she exclaimed.
+
+"I have thought. I cannot do it."
+
+"Sit down again, Mr. Dubravnik. There is no danger as long as you
+remain here. I wish to tell you something. I want you to know why I am
+a nihilist; then, perhaps, you may be of a different opinion."
+
+I obeyed her and she resumed her position on the couch, but her entire
+manner had undergone another change. The contempt, the scorn, the anger
+had all died out of her face which now assumed a retrospective
+expression and when she next addressed me her eyes had in them a
+dreamy, far away light, as though she were living in the past while she
+recited the strange tale that thrilled me as nothing else ever had, or
+ever has done.
+
+"I have heard," she began, "that you yourself have seen some of the
+horrors of Siberia, but I doubt it. I do not even believe that you are
+a Russian, and to be perfectly frank I do not believe that your name is
+Dubravnik. I am of the opinion--and I did not think of it until since
+the commencement of this interview--that you are not what you seem to
+be, and that your mission in Russia is in some way connected with the
+Government police; that you are more than a passive enemy of
+nihilism--that you are, in short, an active one. If I am right there
+exists all the more reason why I must appeal to your manhood, your
+honor, your sense of justice, to your bravery and chivalry. Who are
+you, Mr. Dubravnik?"
+
+"I am Daniel Derrington, an American, in the service of the czar."
+
+"And therefore connected with the police."
+
+"No. The police do not know me, save as you know me; not even the
+terrible Third Section."
+
+She scarcely noticed my confession, so absorbed was she by the mere
+thought of the story she was about to relate.
+
+Her eyes were turned towards the window, her hands clasped tightly
+together in her lap, her chin was raised, and she seemed to be looking
+into the past as one might look upon a picture hanging against the
+wall, observing every detail of it minutely, and yet conscious only of
+the whole.
+
+"Fancy yourself, a Russian of noble birth, an officer in the army, a
+favorite at court, the possessor of almost unlimited wealth and happy
+beyond the dreams of heaven," she said, dreamily. "Search your memory
+for the picture of a beautiful girl--she was only a girl, not yet
+twenty, when my story begins--and make this one of whom I speak thrice
+more beautiful than the picture you delineate. She was your sister. She
+_is_ your sister. You are her brother in the story I shall relate to
+you. You two are fatherless and motherless; you are all that is left of
+your family, once famous, and seemingly destined through you to become
+so again. You are a favorite with the czar, and your sister is the pet
+of the royal family. Your influence at court is unlimited. You are on
+the summit of the wave of favor and popularity. Have you drawn the
+picture?"
+
+"I endeavor to do so, princess."
+
+"You and Yvonne--she had a French name--reside in the same palace where
+your fathers lived before you. Your sister is the idol of your heart.
+You worship her with such devotion that it becomes a maxim quoted by
+mothers to their sons. You idealize her, and are proud of her; and she
+is worthy of it all. Ah, sir, follow me with care, for the story will
+touch you, I believe, as nothing else could do."
+
+Zara left the couch and crossed to the window, where she stood staring
+through it for a long period of time, so silent, so still, so like a
+statue in her attitude, that I beheld her with something like awe,
+while I trembled with eagerness for her to speak again. I must admit
+that the story she had begun to relate had thus far made no impression
+upon me, and that it was only the voice of the woman I loved, and the
+changing expressions of its tone, and her beautiful countenance, which
+attracted me then. She was so wholly lovable in every attribute of her
+being; and now, absorbed as she was by the retrospective consideration
+of the tale she had begun to relate, and because her manner was
+entirely impersonal, she became even more compelling in her
+fascinations for me. I forgot, for the moment, that she was a Russian
+princess and a nihilist, and remembered only the one absorbing fact
+that she was a woman. My duties in St. Petersburg and the character I
+had assumed in fulfilling them, the city itself and all my
+surroundings, the environment of the moment and all that went with it,
+faded from my mental view, and left us two there, utterly alone in a
+world of our own, self created by my own conceit of the moment.
+
+I do not know what impulse it was that brought me to my feet with a
+sudden start of resolve, but I had taken three or four strides toward
+her, with arms outstretched to seize her lithe form in my embrace, and
+to crush her against me in a burst of passion which I found myself no
+longer able to control, when I was startled into motionlessness and
+silence by a sudden cry from Zara, who turned about and faced me for an
+instant, and who then seized me by the arm and drew me to the window,
+pointing into the street as she did so.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+WHEN LOVE WAS BORN
+
+
+The streets of St. Petersburg, the city itself, nihilism, Russia, the
+czar had ceased to exist for me, however. Whatever she may have seen
+upon the street that had brought that startled cry to her lips, and had
+made her turn about and grasp my arm, had also brought into her
+countenance an expression of such overwhelming and overpowering concern
+for me, that I knew with a perfect knowledge in that instant, that Zara
+loved me.
+
+Have you ever been swayed by an impulse that is utterly beyond your
+control, and before which all other considerations degenerate to such
+utter insignificance as not to exist at all?
+
+It was such an one that controlled me then.
+
+As she drew me toward the window, and would have directed my gaze
+through it, her own eyes held unflinchingly to mine, and mine held hers
+with a compelling power which she did not seek to resist, and could not
+have controlled, even if she had made the effort.
+
+Whatever it may have been, out there in the street, that had alarmed
+her, she forgot it, and my arms were around her, her lithe, sinuous,
+pulsing body was crushed madly against my own, and our lips had met
+before either of us realized it. We had mutually recognized the strange
+and overwhelming instinct of love, that had asserted its control over
+both at the self-same instant. I forgot the world, the flesh and the
+devil, the czar, Russia, and nihilism, and she forgot even that
+uppermost terror that was tearing at her heart, in that supreme moment
+of the rapturous recognition of love.
+
+We were unconscious of the fact that we were standing directly before
+the window, where we must have been for the moment in full view of
+persons passing in the street; we had forgotten everything, save each
+other.
+
+We were both silent; there was no occasion for words; our souls were
+speaking to each other in a language of their own, God-given and
+complete, which leaves nothing to be understood, which comprehends all
+things.
+
+In such supreme moments as that one was, heart speaks to heart with a
+complete understanding which passeth all human knowledge, and which can
+be understood only by the two who are most concerned, and by God, who
+created such impulses.
+
+Presently we were back again beside the low divan. She was seated upon
+the edge of it, and I was beside her, with one knee on the floor,
+clasping both her hands in one of mine, while the other still encircled
+her body, holding her tightly against me in that rhapsody of love which
+overawes all sense of understanding.
+
+Her head rested lightly upon my shoulder; stray tresses of her hair
+brushed against my temple and my cheek; her half-parted lips, glowing
+like newly opened rose-buds, never attained a distance of more than an
+inch from mine, and for the most part they were together, as lightning
+conductors of every thrill that pulsed through her being and mine.
+
+When our lips were not in contact, our eyes were; they were gazing into
+the utmost depths of each other's soul, reading and understanding all
+that was mutually expressed, charmed and fascinated by the beauteous
+panoramic scenes which flittered in love-phantoms past our prophetic
+vision.
+
+"My love! my love!" she murmured over and over again, as if it were all
+she could utter, and as if with the use of that expression all things
+were said and done; and I replied as inevitably and comprehensively.
+
+It sounds inane enough in the telling of it, but meaningless phrases
+and abrupt expressions may, at certain moments in our lives, express
+everything.
+
+Time became a blank; the world was blotted out; existence was only an
+incident; we, ourselves, with our bodies, our energies, our
+capabilities, had become mere atoms in the immensity of that greatest
+of all God's creations, Love.
+
+There were murderers waiting in the street to do me to death; I thanked
+God for their presence, since because of it, Zara had been brought to
+the confession and expression of her love for me. She was a nihilist
+queen and she had played with the affections of men in order to stupefy
+them to her purposes, as demanded by the cause she served; but I also
+thanked God for that, because its consideration and my deep resentment
+had made plain to me the real power and passion of this abundantly
+glorious woman, now swayed by only one impulse, love for me.
+
+But, however enthralling they may be, all impulses must have an end.
+However complete may be love's expression, there is a limit to its
+continuance; I mean that silent form of expression which proclaims
+itself only in soul communion.
+
+It was a period of almost utter unconsciousness, since we were both
+conscious of only one thing while it lasted; but the reaction came at
+last while she was still relaxed in my embrace, and while yet the
+mystifying magic induced by contact with her, enveloped me, body and
+soul.
+
+"Zara," I said, half whispering the word now so unutterably sweet to
+me, "you will leave Russia now--with me?"
+
+The question brought us both to our senses, with a start, and my
+princess drew away from me a little, and said, with a whimsical smile:
+
+"A little while ago, my love, you ordered me to leave Russia, alone;
+now you order me away again, but under guard. I think I will obey you
+in this last order you have given me. Whenever you will it, I will go."
+
+"And leave behind you all that you have hitherto thought so much about,
+Zara?" I asked, brought back by her statement to a realization of the
+conditions by which we were surrounded. She replied without hesitation,
+and with a finality that was complete:
+
+"Yes."
+
+Ah, what maps of the world have been changed by that word yes. What
+histories have been written because of its utterance, even in a
+whispered tone, as hers was then.
+
+"And your nihilists?" I asked her, still intent upon an even more
+complete capitulation on her part.
+
+"Yes," she repeated.
+
+"And your brother? The cause you have served so intently? The purpose
+of your life? Everything, Zara?"
+
+"Yes," she said a third time, and still with that same emphasis of
+finality which could not be misunderstood, and for which there was no
+qualification.
+
+I was silent and so was she; but after a little I heard her murmuring
+in a tone so low that it seemed as if I scarcely heard it,
+notwithstanding the fact that every word was quite distinct.
+
+"I will leave everything for you, my love, for you are all the world to
+me. There is nothing else now, but you. Nihilism and the cause it
+upholds, has sunk into utter insignificance, and has become a mere
+point in the history of my life, like a punctuating period that is
+placed at the end of a written sentence. Nihilists, great and small,
+have become mere atoms in the mystery of creation, and they can have no
+further influence upon my life. The czar of all the Russias is no more
+a personage to me now, than the merest black dwarf of central Africa,
+and Russia itself has diminuated to a mere island in the sea of
+eternity, a speck on the map of the infinite creation. You,
+Dubravnik----" She paused there and smiled into my eyes with an
+inimitable gesture of tenderness as she reached upward with her right
+hand and brushed back the hair from my temples--"I think I shall always
+call you Dubravnik. The name is yours, as I have known you, and as
+Dubravnik you are mine, as I am yours."
+
+My reply to this was not a spoken word, and it needs no explanation.
+
+"You, Dubravnik," she continued from the point where she so sweetly
+interrupted herself, "have become the universe to me, now. You are the
+infinite space which comprehends all."
+
+It was sweet to hear her express herself so; sweeter still to know,
+that comprehensive as it was, it went but a little way toward
+explaining all that she would have liked to say; and sweetest of all to
+realize that she also exactly expressed my thought toward her, and that
+she knew she did so.
+
+There was a long silence after that, broken only by her breathing, by a
+murmured word of caress, by a gesture of endearment or an occasional
+sigh; but I brought it to an end presently by asking a question which
+brought her out of her reverie with a start of affright.
+
+"What was it, Zara, that you saw through the window when----" I did not
+complete the sentence. It was not necessary. She understood me
+instantly and with the understanding there returned to her a
+realization of all the terrors by which we were at that moment
+surrounded. We could love each other with a rhapsodical completeness,
+in perfect security, so long as we remained together inside that room;
+but beyond the walls of Zara's palatial home death stalked grimly,
+waiting, waiting, waiting, for the moment to strike.
+
+She withdrew from my embrace, slowly and tentatively, but surely, until
+we no longer touched each other, and she gazed appealingly into my eyes
+while the flush of love forsook her cheeks and brow, giving place to a
+pallor of uncertainty and dread for me.
+
+"I had forgotten," she murmured.
+
+"Then continue to forget, my Zara," I whispered.
+
+"No, we must not forget; we must remember." She raised her hand and
+pointed toward the window. "Out there, Dubravnik, death waits for you.
+I had forgotten. I had forgotten."
+
+With a start she gained her feet and stood for a moment palpitatingly
+uncertain, clasping and unclasping her hands, while her bosom rose and
+fell in this stress of an utterly new emotion.
+
+One whom she loved was threatened, now. The maternal instinct of
+womankind is never more prominent than when it is exercised in the
+protection of the man she loves, and who is destined to be the father
+of her offspring. It is a grand and a noble sentiment, and no man lives
+who will ever comprehend it; but when a man loves as I loved then, he
+can appreciate its fullness, even though he may not understand it; he
+can recognize its existence and presence, even though it would be
+impossible for him to define it.
+
+And it was the maternal instinct that governed her in that moment of
+terrorized realization of the dangers which threatened me.
+
+I had suddenly become her charge and care. She saw herself as
+responsible for the conditions that menaced me, and she was like a wild
+partridge sheltering its brood, and which will not hesitate to face any
+peril for their protection.
+
+I was always more or less indifferent, if not insensible, to danger. It
+may not necessarily be bravery that refuses to recognize perils; it may
+be an instinctive quality of dominance, and self-confidence which is
+convinced of its power to overcome them.
+
+I rose and stood beside her, putting my arm around her as we faced the
+window from the opposite side of the room.
+
+"Out there lies danger, Zara," I said smiling, "but here, in this room,
+dwells happiness."
+
+"There can be no happiness with death waiting for you outside," she
+said, with sharp decision.
+
+"Zara, my love!"
+
+She wheeled upon me and clasped her hands together behind my neck,
+looking up at me with trouble-shrouded eyes, and with brows that were
+slightly corrugated by the perplexities of the moment.
+
+"Listen to me, sweetheart," she said, with her face so close to mine
+that I had all I could do to refrain from interrupting her. "We must
+not belittle the perils that lie yonder. There are two lives in danger
+now, for if anything should happen to you, it would kill me also. I am
+selfish now, Dubravnik, in my concern for you, for after all it is
+myself whom I would protect, through you. But we must not belittle the
+danger. I know that you are brave and daring; that you have no fear. I
+realize that you view with contempt the perils that beset you, but oh,
+my love, suppose that you should not escape."
+
+"Why suppose it, Zara? I am here; the danger is there. We need not
+anticipate it. Let us leave it to be met at the proper moment,
+forgetting for this once, that it exists."
+
+"No, no, we must control ourselves. We have been children for an hour
+or more, forgetful of all things save love; but now let us be what we
+are, a man and a woman who have perils to face."
+
+"And who, I trust, have the courage to meet them, Zara."
+
+"Ay, courage; but courage alone does not always accomplish the sought
+for end. Courage alone is not inevitably competent to meet and overcome
+conditions. And we need more than courage, Dubravnik; we need
+resource."
+
+"Resource is something with which we are both moderately well
+provided," I suggested, smiling, and still refusing to accept her words
+as seriously as she intended them.
+
+She stamped her foot impatiently upon the rug, and frowned a little,
+with a touch of petulance in her manner that was the most bewitching
+thing I had yet seen about her.
+
+"Do be your own self for a moment," she commanded me, withdrawing from
+my restraining arm and stepping away out of my reach.
+
+"How can I be myself, when I see and realize only you?" I bantered her.
+
+Then came another transition almost as startling as it was complete.
+
+She threw herself bodily forward into my embrace, clasping her clinging
+arms about me, while she buried her beautiful face between my chin and
+shoulder and burst into a passion of sobs which convulsed her so
+utterly that I was alarmed.
+
+I had tried her too far with my bantering attitude, and my apparent
+indifference to a threatening and terrible fate.
+
+"Zara!" I said. "My love!"
+
+But she only sobbed on and on, and I held her crushed against me until
+the storm should pass, knowing that a great calm would succeed it, and
+that her present expression of emotion was only the safety valve for
+all that had passed between us since the incident when our lips met for
+the first time.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+LOVE WILL FIND A WAY
+
+
+We crossed to the window together, and stood looking through it upon
+the snow clad streets of the city. The storm of the preceding day and
+night had entirely cleared away, leaving only the inevitable traces of
+its violence.
+
+As we stood there, Zara pulled the lace curtains between us and the
+window, so that we were screened from view, while we were enabled,
+ourselves, to see with perfect distinctness, up and down the
+thoroughfare against which her home was fronted.
+
+It might have been a Sunday morning, so peaceful and quiet was the
+scene, and so purely white was everything, in its covering of snow,
+while the crisp atmosphere of that cold but brilliant Winter day,
+sparkled and glinted in the sunshine as if thousands of microscopic
+diamonds were glistening there.
+
+A solitary policeman passed into our view and out of it again, a
+_britzska_ rushed past an adjacent corner with the horse at galloping
+speed; a child played with its father for a moment, within our range
+of vision, and then disappeared; a fur clad pedestrian ran up the steps
+of a nearby residence, and passed inside of it; all these trivial
+incidents of observation, came and went, while we stood there, leaving
+behind them no impression save one of peace, quiet and security. Yet
+they impressed themselves upon my memory indelibly, and I can see
+before me even now, the vision of that afternoon in St. Petersburg,
+with the clinging right hand of my beloved one resting upon my
+shoulder, with my left arm about her warm and pulsing body, with love,
+in all its transcendent qualities, dominating all things real and
+unreal, and filling my heart, and soul, and my intelligence, with a
+perfection of blissful content which words cannot describe, and which
+may never be understood save by him who has experienced it.
+
+What terror had Zara seen through that window, that had startled her
+so, just before we discovered and confessed our mutual love? Whatever
+it may have been, no evidence of it remained, to suggest disquiet in my
+own present sense of security. There was nothing there to menace me,
+and even though Zara's brother Ivan, and others of his kind, fanatics
+all, in their nihilistic tendencies, wild beasts in their blood lusts,
+fiends in their methods, as they were--whatever they might threaten,
+seemed small indeed to me, in that moment of ecstasy. For it was a
+moment of ecstasy; the word "moment" being measured by the rule of
+space, limitless and unconfined.
+
+Zara did not know who and what I was, save only that I was a man, and
+her lover. Beyond that, her imagination had not travelled, and her
+desires had not sought.
+
+She did not understand that I was at the head of a great fraternity,
+organized and established by myself, and that I had under my control,
+if not obedient to my direct command, several hundred individuals
+within the limit of that city, who would serve me instantly, and who
+would fight to the death for me if there were need.
+
+It was to be regretted that I had gone to the home of the Princess Zara
+to keep my appointment that day, with so little thought of the dangers
+I might have to encounter before I should leave it again. It would have
+been so easy to arrange for adequate protection, and to have had at
+that very moment, when I was gazing through the lace curtained window,
+assistance ready at hand in the shape of men prepared to answer to any
+signal I might have agreed upon. A word dropped to O'Malley at his
+cafe, a sign made to big Tom Coyle, a note in cipher to Canfield, an
+indication to anyone of my trusted lieutenants, would have placed about
+me at that very moment, an environment of protection adequate to cope
+with any difficulty that might arise.
+
+But I had not foreseen the present circumstance sufficiently to be
+prepared for it in that manner.
+
+Zara and I were practically alone in that great house, save for the
+servants it contained; and they were not to be counted upon in any
+case, no matter what form individual effort against us might take.
+
+I was conscious, too, while we stood there so silently together, of the
+new responsibility I had taken upon myself during the love scene that
+had just passed; and I was suddenly aware of the danger which
+threatened my beloved, through me.
+
+I did not realize it until that instant. I had thought, selfishly
+enough, only of what she had said about my own peril. I had remembered
+only that I was the object of a planned assassination, because some one
+whom I had not discovered at the time, had overheard the interview in
+the garden to which I had been a witness the preceding night, and had
+also listened to the one that followed it, between Zara and me.
+
+The thrill of alarm that convulsed me, when the full realization of
+this aspect of the affair came home to me, was startling and
+paralyzing. Whatever the friends of nihilism might do to me now, would
+have its crushing effect upon her, also. Nothing could touch me, that
+would not injure her. We had become one, indeed, in the sense of being
+so absorbed in each other, so blended in soul and in thought, that
+whatever affected one, must act with redoubled power upon the other.
+
+Judged from the standpoint of the nihilists themselves, there was no
+doubt that they were logical enough in their determination to kill
+_me_. From their view of the case, I was merely a spy, or at least
+a prospective one, who had overheard a confidence delivered by the
+Princess Zara de Echeveria, which placed her so absolutely in my power
+that I held her life, as the saying goes, in the hollow of my hand; and
+they could not know, would never guess, that now we had learned to love
+each other, and that she was dearer and sweeter to me than all else in
+the world.
+
+They would regard me--they must now regard me, as being like other men
+of their knowledge, who would see in Zara only a beautiful and
+attractive woman, young and gorgeous, who was suddenly fallen into my
+power, almost as absolutely as if she were made my slave. What personal
+sacrifices could I not demand of her, if I were indeed like those other
+men I have mentioned? What indignities could I not visit upon her,
+claiming my right to do so as the possessor of her secret, and
+threatening, not alone her own undoing, but the death of her cause, if
+she should dare to deny me?
+
+Somewhere out there in the snow, Zara's brother Ivan was waiting and
+watching, and although I did not now feel that his affection for her
+included many of the self sacrificing qualities that a brother should
+have for a sister, he was nevertheless her blood kin, and without doubt
+he had loaded his pistol with a bullet for the man whom he believed
+would have it in his power to crush that beautiful sister to the earth,
+even to the point of literal seduction. For judged from the nihilists'
+standpoint again, they understood Zara to be one who would not hesitate
+at any sacrifice, in defense of the cause she served.
+
+"It does not look as if danger, and even death, lurked somewhere yonder
+in the bright sunshine, Dubravnik," she said to me in a low tone, after
+we had stood for a long time in utter silence, together.
+
+"No," I replied.
+
+"It is a peaceful scene," she went on in a dreamy sort of manner,
+staring into the street, and with a half smile upon her lips. "It looks
+as if we might put on our furs and wraps, and go abroad together,
+without the least thought of danger, does it not?"
+
+"Yes, Zara."
+
+"And yet----" she raised one hand and pointed--"probably just around
+that corner, yonder, or behind one of the others, there are waiting
+men, who are intent upon your destruction, no matter what the
+consequences to themselves may be. It is awful to contemplate." She
+shuddered. "I cannot bring myself to believe that it is really true;
+and yet I know it to be so."
+
+She turned to me with a swift gesture, and continued.
+
+"Oh, Dubravnik, what shall we do? What shall be done to escape the
+death that threatens you and me? Tell me! Tell me what can be done? The
+condition is not the same, now, as it was. Everything is different
+since you kissed me. This world in which we live, is a new world, but
+we must nevertheless face the conditions of that old one we have
+deserted. What shall we do? What shall be done?"
+
+I was silent, not because I hesitated to answer her, not because I
+really at that moment had no answer to give her, but because I was,
+myself, intently thinking upon the very problem she had suggested.
+
+"What shall be done?"
+
+Presently, with a slow and methodical motion, she withdrew from me
+again, and returned to the divan, which had been the scene of our
+awakening love, calling upon me to follow her as she went; and I stood
+before her, looking down into her eyes up-turned to mine, waiting for
+her to speak. I knew that she had hit upon some solution of the
+difficulty, and was about to present it to me. I don't think that it
+occurred to me to consider seriously whatever she might suggest, even
+then, for I had not for a moment lost confidence in my entire ability
+to free both of us from the dangerous environment; but I delighted to
+hear the sound of her voice. I loved to drink in her words, as she
+uttered them. I was enthralled in watching the play of expression upon
+her features while she talked; if she had rendered me a dissertation
+upon any theme which absorbed her, my interest would have been the
+same; I was overwhelmed in love.
+
+"There is only one way; only one," she said, unconsciously repeating
+words she had used once before.
+
+"Yes?" I replied, mindful only of the fact that she had spoken;
+unmindful of the import of what she said.
+
+"Only one way," Zara repeated. "You must join the nihilists. You must
+take the oath."
+
+I shook my head with emphasis, brought back suddenly to the intent of
+her words.
+
+"It is impossible, Zara," I said.
+
+"You must do it, Dubravnik."
+
+"No."
+
+"I say that you must do it. You must take the oath. You must become a
+nihilist. It is the only way. I will send a servant from the house,
+with a message which will bring two or three of the leaders here, and
+you shall take the oath."
+
+She started to her feet again, reaching toward the bellcord, and I had
+to spring after her, and seize her arm, in order to restrain the act
+she was about to commit.
+
+"No, Zara," I said, and forced her gently back to the couch, compelling
+her to be seated, and this time dropping down beside her, and putting
+my arm around her. "No, Zara, not that. I cannot take the oath. It is
+utterly impossible. It is much more impossible now, than it was
+before."
+
+"Why?" she asked, in surprise.
+
+"Because I love you, dear."
+
+"Ah," she said smiling, "as if that were not a greater reason for your
+taking it, instead of denying it."
+
+"No, Zara," I said again. "I cannot take the oath of nihilism. I have
+already taken an oath which thoroughly obviates such a possibility."
+
+"Another oath, Dubravnik?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"To whom?"
+
+"To the czar."
+
+"Oh," she exclaimed, and she shuddered. "I had forgotten that you were
+in the service of his majesty." I thought that she drew away from me at
+that, but the motion was so slight as to be almost imperceptible. "I
+had forgotten all that about you, Dubravnik." Again there was a
+shudder, now more visible than before. "You are under oath to the czar;
+to the man, who, because he permits so many wrongs to happen I have
+learned to hate." She straightened her body. "And Dubravnik I can hate
+quite as forcibly as I can love."
+
+"I do not doubt it," I said.
+
+"You must take the oath. You must take it. You shall repudiate that
+other one to the czar."
+
+"It cannot be, Zara."
+
+"It must be! It shall be!"
+
+"No," I said; and there was such calm finality, such forcible emphasis
+in the monosyllable I used, that she drew still farther away from me,
+shuddering again as she did so, and I saw her face grow colder in its
+expression, although I did not believe that it was caused by any change
+in her attitude toward me.
+
+"Can nothing move you, Dubravnik? Can nothing change you from this
+purpose of yours? Must you, because you have given your word to a
+tyrant, remain loyal to him? Must you, in spite of the great love you
+have for me, remain true to him who is my enemy?"
+
+"I must; for your sake as well as for mine."
+
+"For my sake!" she laughed, and it was not a pleasant laugh to hear,
+especially at that moment, and following as it did upon all the
+tenderness that had passed between us. "For my sake! Why Dubravnik, it
+is for my sake that I ask you to take the oath."
+
+"Zara," I said, choosing my words deliberately, "last night in the
+glass covered garden, where the colored lights were glowing, I heard
+you utter words which I can never forget, and which I have thought upon
+many times since I heard them. You repudiated, with all the intensity
+of your soul, the methods which these nihilists employ to attain their
+ends. You called them murderers, assassins, scoundrels, cutthroats,
+defamers of character, and many other things which I need not name.
+What you did not accuse them of, in words, you charged them with, by
+implication; and now you ask me to become one with them; and not only
+that, to deny my manhood and my honor by repudiating my oath to
+another."
+
+"I asked you to protect yourself and me," she said, simply, but with a
+coldness and a suggestion of hardness in her tone, that had been
+entirely absent from it until that instant.
+
+"I will do that, Zara. I will save you, and I will save myself. I will
+save you from yourself. There will be a way. I have not yet determined
+upon what it will be, but I will find a means."
+
+Suddenly she slipped to the floor, upon her knees before me, and with
+clasped hands upraised, in an attitude of supplication, she cried aloud
+in a very agony of intensity.
+
+"Oh, my love, do as I ask you to do. Take the oath of nihilism."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE SCORN OF A WOMAN
+
+
+It seemed at that moment as if I could not deny her. Every impulse of
+my soul cried out to me that it would be a very little thing to do,
+after all.
+
+It was not the danger which threatened, that influenced me, not at all
+that; it was her own supplication. The danger, and our own necessities,
+were very real for her, even if I, in my secret heart, made little of
+them.
+
+For a moment I think I was undecided, but then the full force of what
+such an act would mean, the full realisation of what I would become in
+my own eyes by so stultifying myself, brought me back to energy, and I
+reached forward, grasping her, and drew her to her feet; I rising,
+also.
+
+"Zara," I said with deliberation, "once and for all, and for the last
+time, we must not discuss such a thing. If I should take the oath of
+nihilism, if I should even consider doing so, I could not look into my
+mirror, save with horror. I am a man in the employ of his majesty, the
+czar. I have given him my word of honor, as an American gentleman, to
+do and perform certain things, and I will and must do and perform them
+all. I should say, too, that he did not seek me, but that I sought him.
+That is to say, he did not seek me with any knowledge on my part that
+he did so, and I sought him while I was entirely ignorant that he even
+guessed at my intent. Seeking him, I was brought into contact with him.
+I have found him to be a man who is worthy of much admiration; a man
+for whom I have infinite respect and esteem, notwithstanding the
+charges you make against him, and the things of which you deem him
+guilty." She made a gesture of repulsion, but I took no notice of it,
+and went on. "I find now, Zara, in the light of what has occurred here
+between us, and in the glory of our great love, that I must tell you
+who and what I am, and how it happens that I am here with you, at this
+moment." She bowed her head in acknowledgment of my statement, but made
+no reply in words. She had changed wonderfully in the last few minutes,
+and she was cold now, and distant, shocked, I thought, by this new
+difficulty that had come between us at the very moment of our greatest
+happiness. "I am Daniel Derrington, an American. I have been, for many
+years in the past, in the service of my government as a diplomatic
+agent and secret service officer; something very much after the
+character of what you would call over here, a spy. Yet, in my country,
+Zara, we have no spies, as you understand the term. My employment has
+been an honorable one, and no man can defame it." She shrugged her
+shoulders, and I went on rapidly. "In the operation of my duties, I
+have visited St. Petersburg several times. From a distance, and as an
+observer only, I have studied nihilism and the nihilist. Some time ago,
+a friend of mine whose name perhaps you will recognize, came to me and
+made a suggestion, which, having followed, has ended by my being here."
+
+"Who was that man?" she asked.
+
+"Alexis Saberevski."
+
+She nodded.
+
+"I know him," she said simply.
+
+"In coming to St. Petersburg and seeking audience with his majesty,
+acting thereby under the suggestion made by my friend, I proposed to
+the czar the organization of a certain band of men whose duty it has
+been, and is, and will continue to be until it is successful, to drive
+organized nihilism out of Russia."
+
+"You can never do that," said Zara, with fine contempt.
+
+"I can do it. It shall be done."
+
+She tore herself from my grasp and leaped to her feet, darting across
+the room and placing the table between us, with a motion so quick that
+she was beyond my reach before I could detain her. I had expected from
+her violent action, an outburst of words; but it did not come. Instead,
+she stood calmly beyond the table, leaning gently upon it with one
+hand, and gazed across the space that separated us, while she said,
+coolly, and not without contempt:
+
+"Complete your story, Dubravnik. It interests me. I shall be glad
+indeed to hear it, finding as I now do, that I have permitted myself to
+fall in love with a professional spy."
+
+[Illustration: "I HAVE PERMITTED MYSELF TO FALL IN LOVE WITH A
+PROFESSIONAL SPY" (Page 208)]
+
+God! how her tone hurt me! How the words she uttered pierced me! How
+the contemptuous scorn in her voice and manner, tore to shreds the
+fabric of a beatific existence I had created in my imagination! A
+moment ago, confident of her love, her admiration, and her esteem, I
+saw now, when it was too late, that the very announcement of my
+profession had destroyed it, with a stroke as deadly as the knife of an
+assassin in the heart of his victim.
+
+And I understood, also, why my statement should have had such an effect
+upon her. Reared as she had been, in the society of St. Petersburg;
+taught from her cradle to hate and despise, as well as to fear, a spy;
+educated in utter abhorrence of everything that pertains to that class,
+at the Russian capital, she could look upon me, now, only with horror
+and loathing. I was that thing she had most despised. I was that
+monstrosity of creation, which, calling itself a man, was, according to
+Zara's lights, without principal, honor, integrity, or manhood.
+
+I stood before her, not with bowed head, as perhaps I might have done
+had my true feelings been expressed, but with bowed and stricken heart,
+suddenly aware that I had gained the glory of her love only to lose it,
+and in a manner which carried with it no redress.
+
+"I have completed an organization of men, Zara," I went on, calmly, and
+in a tone which I endeavored to render as monotonous as possible, "that
+has for its purpose the undoing of nihilism, as it is now practiced.
+That body of men extends, in its ramifications, throughout St.
+Petersburg, and even to other cities of Russia. Its purpose, primarily,
+is not to send conspirators to Siberia to suffer exile there, with all
+the other horrors that go with it, but to----"
+
+"Enough!" she interrupted me. "I have heard quite enough, Dubravnik!
+What you say to me now, is meaningless twaddle. You are like all the
+others who pit themselves against the silent body of men and women who
+are engaged in seeking the freedom of their country. If you knew
+anything of the horrors of Siberia, to which you so glibly refer, you
+would shudder when you mention them, and you would fly with horror from
+any act of your own that might commit a person to Siberia, and exile."
+
+She came half-way around the table, and stood facing me, somewhat
+nearer. "If you had taken a journey through Siberia before you offered
+your services to the czar, you would have strangled yourself, or have
+cut out your tongue, rather than have gone to him with any such
+dastardly proposition as you confess yourself to have fathered. _You_
+prate of stultifying yourself by taking the oath of nihilism, and
+repudiating your word to Alexander. YOU! YOU! A PROFESSIONAL SPY!" She
+threw back her head and laughed aloud, not with glee, but with utter
+derision of spirit, and I shrank from the sound of it as I might have
+done from a blow in the face.
+
+Again she was a creature of moods and impulses. Again the wild Tartar
+blood, leaping in her veins, controlled her. With a sudden move she
+came nearer to me, and bending forward, looked into my face intently,
+as if searching for something which had hitherto escaped her notice.
+
+"What are you doing, Zara?" I asked her; and she replied.
+
+"I am searching for the man whom, but a moment ago, I thought I loved.
+I am seeking to find what it could have been that I saw in your eyes,
+or your face, or your manner, that has so '_stultified_' ME. It is an
+apt word, Dubravnik."
+
+"Seek further, and perhaps you will find."
+
+"No," she said. "He is gone, if he ever was there;" and she shrank
+slowly away from me, backward, across the room, until the table was
+again between us, and she stood leaning upon it with both hands this
+time, peering at me with widened eyes that might have belonged to a
+child in the act of staring between the bars of a cage at some wild
+beast confined within it.
+
+It is impossible to describe her attitude and the expression of her
+face, at that moment. Horror, repulsion, contempt, loathing, even
+hatred, were depicted there. I recognized the fact with shuddering
+despair. I was that one thing which she most despised.
+
+It is strange how the light of the world went out, for me. In realizing
+the great calamity that had fallen upon me, I forgot all else; but
+strangely enough I did not once think of appealing to her. Slowly I
+turned away, and with slow strides approached the door which would
+admit me to the corridor, and so permit me to pass from the house to
+the street.
+
+I reached it; I drew it open. I did not turn my head to look at her
+again, lest I should become unmanned, and degrade myself by pleading
+with her for the impossible. I passed into the hallway and pulled the
+door shut behind me, and then, somehow, I got as far as the balustrade,
+which, by following it, would lead me to the bottom of the stairs at
+the house entrance.
+
+My foot was upon the first step of the stairs when I heard rushing
+footsteps behind me, and instantly was caught by clinging arms around
+my neck, and I felt her hot and quick breath upon my cheek.
+
+She did not speak; she only clung to me. I did not speak; but I turned
+about with restored strength, and with my spirit renewed. I seized her
+in my arms. I crushed her against me, violently. I raised her from her
+feet, holding her as if she had been a child, and then, bearing her
+with me, I strode backward through the doorway, and into the room I had
+just left. I carried her to the divan, and I seated her upon the edge
+of it, still retaining my grasp upon her; and I said:
+
+"Zara, you are mine. Nothing short of death shall take you from me. In
+the last few moments I have experienced all the horrors of a separation
+from you. A little while ago you loved me. Only a few moments ago, we
+were all there was in creation. For a moment which has seemed an
+eternity, I believed that I had lost you, but when you followed me to
+the landing of the stairway, I knew that I had not lost you, even for
+that instant. You love me, Zara, and you shall be mine. Before God, you
+shall be!"
+
+For a moment I thought she intended to struggle again, to escape me.
+Indeed, I was certain that she was on the point of doing so, and I
+tightened my grasp upon her while I dropped upon one knee, and added:
+
+"Zara, let me hear you say once again that you love me."
+
+Her answer was a burst of tears, and for a time she could find no other
+expression for her emotions; and while these lasted, she clung to me
+the more tightly, so that when, at last, the storm did come to an end,
+her lips were closely against my ear, and I heard the whispered words:
+
+"I do love you."
+
+But instantly she started away from me, and she cried out.
+
+"Wait! wait, Dubravnik! I remember, now, that I had begun to tell you a
+story. I was telling you what made me a nihilist."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I will finish the story, if you will let me."
+
+"Finish it," I said; "but do so while my arm is around you, and with
+your head resting against my shoulder. Let me hold you here, where you
+are, so that I may know I will not lose you again. You are a creature
+of such changing impulses. That half-wild nature of yours is sometimes
+so violent in its conclusions. Tell me the story, Zara. I will listen
+to it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE MURDER OF A SOUL
+
+
+Zara did as I requested. She seated herself upon the divan, and I sat
+beside her, with my arm around her. She rested her head against my
+shoulder, and in a low and dreamy tone she began, as if there had been
+no hiatus, the continuation of that story which was to thrill me as
+nothing else of the kind had ever done.
+
+You must understand that she was pleading for my life, as she believed,
+in the relation of this bit of history which I was soon to learn had
+touched her so closely. She believed that my life could be saved only
+by means of my joining with the nihilists, in consenting to take their
+oath, and to become one with them. I have often, at retrospective
+moments, gone back again to that hour, and lived it over in thought,
+wondering how I could still resist her when I listened to the passion
+of her utterances, and to a recital of the terrible wrongs that had
+been visited upon those whom Zara loved, in the name of the czar.
+
+As before, she told the story as if I had been the participant in it;
+as if the young woman whose history it touched most closely, had been
+my own sister.
+
+In the retelling of it, I purposely render it as concise as possible,
+but I am utterly incapable of imparting to it the dramatic effect of
+her recital, heightened and added to by her warm sympathies.
+
+"Remember," she said, "that I am representing you as the brother of
+this poor girl, Dubravnik. You, and your sister Yvonne, orphaned in
+your youth, occupied together the great palace of your father's, and
+were waited upon by an army of servants, many of whom had been in the
+employ of your family before either of you were born.
+
+"Among your acquaintances there is another officer, one who is as great
+a favorite at court; and within the palace of the emperor, as you are.
+He is of good family, handsome, accomplished, and rich. Nevertheless,
+you dislike him, principally because he is in love with your sister and
+you know that he is, in every way, unworthy of her. She shares the
+aversion which you feel for this man, declining all his advances, and
+at last refuses to receive him. Beginning with that time, he persecutes
+her with his attentions, to the point where you are led to interfere;
+but this man has already been to the czar, and has secured his royal
+approval of the marriage. He laughs at you when you remonstrate. You
+also go to the czar, who listens attentively to all that you have to
+say, finally consenting that Yvonne shall not be forced into the
+marriage against her will. This officer, when he hears of it, is
+furious, and one night, at the club, he publicly insults you, so that
+you have no other course than to challenge him. He is a practiced
+duelist, and believes that he can kill you easily; thus he would leave
+the coast clear for his further machinations. In the affair which
+follows, you surprise everybody by wounding your adversary quite
+seriously; and during a few months that succeed the duel, you are
+relieved of further anxiety concerning the matter. But he recovers; he
+returns to his former position at the palace; and misjudging his power
+and influence, insults you again, almost in the presence of the
+emperor. For that, he is banished from the palace, and degraded in the
+army; and quite naturally he attributes his misfortunes to you, upon
+whom he vows vengeance. You hear of his threats, but laugh at them--and
+forget them. He does not.
+
+"This man becomes a nihilist and a dangerous one. He plots and plans
+for your overthrow, and for the possession of your sister whom he
+continues to persecute in many ways. She does not tell you these
+things, fearing the consequences if you were to fight another duel. At
+last, however, more or less of it comes to your attention, and the
+consequence is that you publicly horsewhip him, for which act you are
+suspended from attendance at the palace for thirty days. During that
+interval a horrible thing occurs. It is at the time when the extremists
+among nihilists are rampant, and when the secret police does its deadly
+work unquestioned; a time five years ago. People are arrested and
+spirited away, from among the highest and the lowest. Victims are found
+in the palace as well as in the hovel. No person is sacred from these
+mysterious arrests; no tribunal hears a victim's defense; no official
+dares to interfere. Even you may at any moment become a victim of this
+awful method. A complaint is lodged against a wholly innocent person,
+no matter by whom; it may even be anonymous. In the dead of night
+police from the Third Section visit the house of the person complained
+against, a search is made, and if incriminating documents are found,
+that person disappears forever. Where? nobody knows save those who
+carry out the secret decree. I will not worry you with the useless
+details; in fact you have had sufficient introduction to the story
+already.
+
+"Twice each week since your expulsion from the palace you are compelled
+to remain on duty over night, and at last the morning comes when you
+return to your home after one of these vigils to find yourself face to
+face with a horror which you knew existed, but which you had never
+before comprehended. Ah, it is pitiful; but listen. You find when you
+arrive, that all is excitement. The servants are running hither and
+thither; they whisper among themselves, and at first you can get no
+explanation from them. In vain you call for your sister. Frightened
+glances, sobs, and groans, are the only replies you get, and you rush
+to her apartment, only to find that it is empty--that she is gone. The
+room is in the utmost disorder. Clothing is scattered everywhere.
+Yvonne's most sacred treasures are strewn upon the floor. The contents
+of her dressing case are tumbled in confusion upon the furniture.
+Chairs are overturned. The cushions of the chairs and couches are
+ripped open. The bed is a ruin, dismembered, torn apart, and heaped in
+a corner. The carpet has been pulled from its fastenings, and is rolled
+and tumbled into a mass in the middle of the floor. The pictures are
+torn from the walls; vases have been overturned; even the French clock,
+on the mantel, has been ruined in the awful search, and the very walls
+of the room are dented by the hammer which has pounded them in the
+effort to find a secret hiding place. You know only too well what has
+happened, and yet you do not realize it. You are dazed. You think that
+you will awake and find that it is all a dream. You cannot believe that
+it is the sleeping room of your own sister that has been thus invaded
+and desecrated. At last from one of the older and more trusted servants
+you hear the truth, and while he speaks, you listen dumbly,
+wonderingly."
+
+Zara left her place beside me on the divan, and stood facing me, near
+the center table, and in the intensity of her story, lowered her voice
+perceptibly. She bent forward a little, unconsciously throwing over me
+the same sort of spell that now dominated her. In my own eagerness I
+leaned forward, my right elbow resting upon my knee, and with bated
+breath, waited for her to continue. When she did resume, it was with a
+suppressed intensity that is indescribable.
+
+"This is what the old servant told you: An hour after midnight there
+was a peremptory summons at the door, and when he opened it he
+discovered beyond the threshold, one of those terrible details of
+fiends which the Third Section sends out on its foulest errands; but he
+did not dream that they were after your sister; he only thought that
+you were in trouble. The officer in charge went straight to the door of
+your sister's room, as if he were as familiar with the internal
+arrangements of the house, as were its regular inmates. He threw the
+door ajar without warning, and followed by the scoundrels who
+accompanied him, entered the room where your sister was in bed.
+Sleeping innocence was aroused by a brutal command. Your sister, as
+pure, as sweet, as guiltless of wrong, as beautiful in spirit as the
+angels in heaven, was dragged from her bed by the rough hands of those
+human devils. Her shrieks and cries, were answered by jeers. Her
+piteous appeal that they would leave the room until she clothed
+herself, was refused with curses. She was compelled to dress in their
+presence, underneath the blazing glare of every light in the room, and
+before the eyes of those inhuman wretches whose gloating, bloodshot
+gaze befouled her sweet purity, as a drop of filth will befoul a limpid
+spring."
+
+"If you had entered the room at that moment, and the czar had been
+there, would you have killed him, Dubravnik? Have you a sister? Answer!
+Would you have killed the czar, if he had been there? THE CZAR WAS
+THERE!"
+
+Zara raised herself to her full stature as she cried aloud this
+statement. Her right hand was raised high above her head; her attitude
+was one of righteous denouncement, and the wrath of an outraged goddess
+glowed like living fire, in every attribute of her being. Then she came
+a step nearer to me, and continued:
+
+"He was there in the spirit of the outrage. He creates and upholds the
+law which permitted it. Yes, you would have killed him, and you would
+not have called it murder. You would have given the deed another name;
+you would have called it retribution. I see it in your face; it flashes
+in your eyes. I am not telling you a romance, in order to excite your
+compassion, or to create sympathy. I am relating an actual occurrence.
+I am telling you the story that made me a nihilist."
+
+What a woman Zara was at that moment! She seemed the embodiment of
+vengeance--of righteous retribution; the personification of the cause
+she so splendidly advocated. I looked upon her almost with awe, at the
+same time realizing that I was thrilled almost into active acquiescence
+to her demands. She continued:
+
+"There are not words to describe the emotions that sweep over you, as
+you listen to the servant's story. You become benumbed, dazed. You hear
+it through to the end, and there is not much more.
+
+"You learn from him that papers of incriminating character were found
+among your sister's effects; that a letter was there, which told that
+she was engaged in a conspiracy to assassinate the czar, by poison;
+that she, being a welcome guest at the imperial palace, had agreed to
+put poison in the wine that he should drink on the following day--a
+deadly poison--cyanide of potassium; that the poison itself was found
+with the letter--a harmless looking powder, but a deadly one. You are
+told that Yvonne was dragged away by those men, and taken--ah, the
+servant could not tell you where they took her; but he could tell you
+how she sobbed, and moaned, protesting her innocence, repudiating all
+knowledge of the things they had found, crying out for you, in her
+agony; and how one of the men struck her a brutal blow in the face,
+because she would not be quiet. That is all the servant could tell you.
+Yvonne was gone. That one truth glared at you from every hideous corner
+of the desecrated room. Hours--many of them--have passed since then.
+You laugh wildly, insanely, as you brush the servant aside, and dash
+from the house in pursuit.
+
+"'The czar is my friend! He is her friend! He will save her!' That is
+what you cry aloud as you run along the streets towards the palace,
+forgetting your _britzska_, in your haste, and agony. You forget that
+you have been suspended from attendance at the palace, and that the
+guards have been ordered not to admit you, but you are made to remember
+it when you arrive. They stop you. You cannot get past them. In vain
+you tell them of the arrest of your sister, and that you must see the
+emperor, but you only give them an added reason for keeping you out.
+They order you away. You refuse to go. They attempt to force you, and
+you strike one of them, knocking him down."
+
+"Then all your pent up agony is loosed. You have the strength of a
+dozen men. You scatter the guards around you like flies, and rush past
+them, straight for the cabinet of the emperor, where you have always
+been a welcome guest. You tell yourself that he loves you--that he
+loves your sister; that as soon as he hears the truth, he will correct
+the awful wrong that has been done; that the men who outraged the
+sanctity of your sister's sleeping room, will be punished. Ah! You do
+not know the czar--that man whom you call your friend; who is God's and
+man's worst enemy!
+
+"But you are soon to know him better. You are soon to discover what
+manner of man it is to whom you have given your soul and body, your
+allegiance and your worship, all the years of your life. You are soon
+to know--and oh, how bitter is the awakening.
+
+"You dash unannounced into his presence. In a wild torrent of words,
+you pour forth the awful tale. You laugh, you cry; you implore, you
+demand; he only frowns, or smiles derisively. You rave; he calls the
+guard. You find that he _does_ know; that others have been there before
+you, and that the letter supposed to have been found in the possession
+of your sister, has already been read by him. With horror, you realize
+that he believes--that there is no hope for the sister you love so
+tenderly, who was placed in your arms by your dying mother; whom you
+swore to guard, and protect.
+
+"That terrible man, who commits thousands of murders by proxy every
+year, frowns upon you, who have been almost like a son to him. He
+sneers at your agony. He believes all that has been told to him against
+your sister--he is even willing to believe that you are a party to her
+supposed misdeeds.
+
+"'Forget your sister. She is dead to you, and to me,' his majesty
+commands you, coldly. 'I can forgive you for your present excitement.
+Forget her.'
+
+"FORGET HER!! God! Forget your sister? Forget the little girl who was
+put into your arms when a child? Forget the glowing, gorgeous,
+beautiful young woman she has become? Then you loose another torrent of
+words. You curse your emperor. You revile the sacred person of the
+czar. You go mad; you even try to strike him. Ah! It is awful, your
+agony. The guard seizes you. The straps are torn from your shoulders.
+The buttons are cut from your coat. The czar himself uses his great
+strength to break your sword across his knee, and so far forgets his
+dignity that he strikes you in the face with his open hand; and then
+you are hustled to the palace gate, and thrust into the street,
+disgraced, helpless, insane." Zara paused an instant, then continued,
+monotonously:
+
+"Then begins months of hopeless waiting. Every day you beg admittance
+to the palace. Every day you are refused. You write letters, begging
+that you may be told where your sister is detained, that you may go to
+her; that you may share her exile. They are unheeded. You know that she
+is in Siberia, but Siberia is a vast place--greater than all Europe.
+You petition men and officers who used to fawn upon you when you were
+in favor, for information concerning her. They will not even speak to
+you. They have been ordered not to do so. At last, when nearly five
+months have passed in this way, friendless and alone, for your property
+has been taken from you, you join the nihilists."
+
+Zara crossed to the divan and seated herself beside me, clasping one of
+my hands in hers, and clinging to it as if she were herself in danger
+of being torn from my side, or of losing me. For a time she pressed my
+hand between hers, or stroked it gently, and when she resumed speech,
+it was in a softly-spoken voice.
+
+"Then you find friends," she said, gently. "Through their agents, the
+nihilists ascertain where your sister has been taken. You learn that
+she is a prisoner on the unspeakably horrible island of Saghalien. Yes,
+and they tell you more, these new friends and helpers whom you have
+found among the nihilists. They know about the plot that sent her
+there. They know that the very man who pretended that he loved Yvonne,
+bribed one of your servants to place those awful papers among her
+things, that they might be found there by the police. You search for
+him, but he is abroad, so you seek out, and find, the servant who was
+bribed; and him, you strangle. After that, you disappear. The nihilists
+report that you are dead. St. Petersburg believes it. But you are not
+dead. You are on your way to Saghalien. Your new friends assist you
+with disguises; they aid you on your long journey; they provide you
+with money; and somehow--you never know how--you reach Saghalien, only
+to find that Yvonne is not there; that she has been transferred. Then
+you begin a weary search which consumes months; so many of them, that
+they swell into two long years. You go from prison to prison, from town
+to town, from hope to despair, from despair to hope, and at
+last--YOU FIND HER!"
+
+Zara dropped to her knees before me. I knew that the climax of her
+story was at hand. Her beautiful eyes, widened, and speaking dumbly of
+infinite sorrow, sought mine, and held them. I bent forward, and kissed
+her on the forehead. Then she resumed:
+
+"You find her in a far away prison in the north. You find her half
+clothed, lost to all sense of modesty, the sport, the victim, the THING
+of the inhuman brutes who are her guards. You find her body; her
+beautiful soul has fled. She is not dead, but she gazes at you with a
+vacant stare of unrecognition. She laughs at you when you tell her that
+you are her brother. She does not know you. She has forgotten her own
+name. She taunts you with being another brute, like the men she has
+known there, in that foul haunt of unspeakable vices. Then you go quite
+mad. You clasp her in your arms, and draw her slender body against you.
+When you release her, she falls at your feet, dead, for you have buried
+your knife in her heart. Never again will she be the sport of brutal
+men. You have dealt out mercy to your suffering sister, and the agony
+you have endured gave you the necessary strength of will. You are God's
+agent in the deed."
+
+I could feel that Zara was shuddering with the horror of the scene she
+had described; not at the deed of that brother who stabbed his sister
+to death to save her, but because of the awful fate of that poor girl,
+which the tragic act of her brother brought to an end. I drew Zara
+tenderly into my arms, and held her so for a long time, while she wept
+softly, with her head pillowed against my shoulder; and after a time
+she resumed, haltingly:
+
+"When you turned away from your tragic deed of mercy, you killed the
+guard who tried to stop you. You made your escape; how, you do not
+remember; but you found your way back here--here, to St. Petersburg.
+Nobody recognized you. Your hair was white, your face was the face of a
+corpse. You had one more purpose; the death of two men, the czar and
+the conspirator. And so you went again to your friends, the nihilists.
+Hush! I am not through yet. There is more--much more, much more!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE MOMENT OF VENGEANCE
+
+
+Zara's intensity of passion during her dramatic recital, had imparted
+itself to me, so that when she ceased speaking for a moment, I felt
+myself glowing and throbbing with all the excitement that absorbed her.
+It seemed almost as if I were, indeed, the person who was concerned in
+the story she had related, and my nerves were strung to the point where
+I felt that I could go out and kill the czar for the wrongs that had
+been committed in his name; if not at his connivance, certainly with
+his permission, and with the presumption of his approval. She withdrew
+from me and crossed to the window, where she stood looking out upon the
+snow clad street; suddenly she started, and turned to me. How beautiful
+she was and how I loved her at that moment!
+
+"Come here, Dubravnik," she said. I obeyed, and in an instant was at
+her side at the window.
+
+"What is it?" I asked.
+
+"There; look yonder. Do you see that _karetta_, just beyond the
+corner?"
+
+"Yes. I see it."
+
+"It has all the appearance of waiting for a passenger who is supposedly
+within one of the adjacent houses, has it not?"
+
+"It certainly has," I replied, smiling.
+
+"My love, I recognize that _karetta_, and the man in charge of it. It
+belongs to--never mind whom. That does not matter. But the man incased
+in fur, who seems to be the driver, is a nihilist; within the
+enclosure, there is certainly one, and possibly there are two more men.
+Each of them has sworn to take your life at the cost of his own, if
+need be. They will wait there until you leave me. Then they will do
+their work. Do you still doubt that you have been sentenced to death?"
+
+"I have not doubted it, sweetheart."
+
+"But do you doubt their ability to carry out the decree?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"Ah, Dubravnik, you little know the men with whom we have to deal."
+
+How sweet it was to hear her include herself with me, against them.
+"They are like bloodhounds on a trail. They never leave it, nor tire.
+They are indefatigable. When one falls, another takes his place. They
+number thousands, and you are one."
+
+"WE are one," I corrected her, smiling. "I do not doubt their
+intentions, but I have not lived till now, and found you, to be killed
+by the nihilists."
+
+She gazed at me a moment in silence, and then, slowly, she added:
+
+"Do not think that I sought to frighten you by what I just said. I
+already know you much too well for that. My intention was to warn you."
+
+"I understood you, dear, perfectly."
+
+She turned away from the window again and faced me, and her eyes were
+glowing with the light of love. Again for the moment we were face to
+face with the perils that menaced us from the outside, and before that
+consideration, all else faded to nothingness with Zara. A little while
+ago she had repudiated me, but all-conquering Love had stepped in
+again, had overpowered her, enthralled her, and I could see that she
+was more than ever mine own, now.
+
+For a space we looked into each other's eyes across the short distance
+that separated us. We were reading each other's souls, and both saw and
+understood all that the heart of love could desire. It was an
+undiscovered country to each of us, upon which we trod just then; a new
+creation that was the sweeter because of its strangeness.
+
+"I love you!" Zara whispered; and she came nearer until her hands
+rested upon my shoulders, until her face was close to mine so that I
+could feel her sweet breath against me. Her lips were parted slightly
+in a half smile, and I knew that she had forgotten the waiting
+_karetta_ with its freight of assassins.
+
+I took her in my arms, slowly, tenderly, firmly. I held her pressed
+closely against me for a moment and then my lips sought hers, and hers
+sought mine. It was a oneness of desire, a singleness of purpose that
+brought us together in the kiss of perfect love; and we remained so
+while minutes sped. I closed my eyes and held her the more tightly
+against me, so that I could feel the throbbing of her heart and the
+quivering eagerness of her lithe body, warm against my own. We forgot
+the dangers and perils that surrounded us; forgot the world and all it
+contained; forgot life and death, czars and their empires, nihilists
+and their plots, remembering nothing, in that great spasm of adoration.
+We did not speak. There was no occasion for words. There came no
+opportunity to utter them. But we breathed, and breathed together. Our
+hearts throbbed in unison. Our souls communed, intermingled, blended
+into one. We sighed together, thought together, until my own senses
+reeled under the strain of it, and I knew that Zara was more than half
+unconscious of all things save her present contact with me. Ah, heaven,
+the greatness of it! The magnificence of that moment! The rapture of
+her caress, and the great joy of mine to her!
+
+Presently I felt her clinging arms relax and I guided her tenderly
+toward a huge chair. I lifted her as if she were a child and put her
+softly down among the cushions; and I dropped to my knees, still
+holding her, still with my arms wound tightly around her.
+
+For a long time after that we were silent, and Zara was the first to
+rouse from our mutual revery.
+
+"Dubravnik," she said, and you can have no idea how sweetly that name
+was made to sound by her utterance of it, "I have not yet completed the
+story I was telling you; but there is only a little more, and you must
+hear it."
+
+"Yes," I replied. "As you will, Zara. I am content. But need we go
+more deeply into the sorrows of that poor girl and her suffering
+brother? Let us rather talk of the great joy that has come to us.
+There seems to be nothing but joy in the world, when I look into your
+eyes. Ah, little one, it is sweet indeed to be loved by you."
+
+"And sweeter still to love you," she retorted, smiling and rousing
+herself. "Sit here in this chair," she added, rising and forcing me to
+do the same; and when I had complied she drew a large hassock toward
+me, and seating herself upon it while she rested one shapely arm across
+my knees, with her face upturned to mine, she continued the story.
+
+"Shall I continue to represent you as being the embodiment of the
+character I am describing?" she asked.
+
+"If you prefer it so."
+
+"Listen, then, for I think I do prefer it so. I want you to hear the
+story to the end, for it will make you understand many things which are
+now obscured; and if I give you the part of the great actor in this
+tragedy, that also is for a purpose."
+
+"Yes, dear."
+
+"You returned to St. Petersburg intent upon two things, and only two.
+After those two duties should be accomplished, you meant to take your
+own life; and in that purpose you were upheld by those among your
+friends who knew your story.
+
+"You meant to kill the man who had betrayed your sister into the hands
+of the police, and after that to destroy the real author of all her
+misfortunes and yours--the czar. You had changed so that you needed no
+disguise. Had your sister been alive and well, and had she met you on
+the street she would not have known you. Your once tall form so erect
+and soldier-like, was bent, and your former quick tread had become
+unsteady. Your hair, black as the wing of a raven when you went away,
+was now white, like the snow that is heaped out there in the street.
+None of your old friends recognized you although you met and passed
+many of them on the avenues and streets in the full light of the day.
+Even your fiance who loved you better than she did her life, saw you
+and passed you by unheeded. She saw your wistful glance, and looked
+upon you wonderingly; but she, like others, believed that you were
+dead, and although she felt that her heart leaped to her throat and
+that a spasm of sorrowful recollections convulsed her when she glanced
+into your eyes, yet she did not know you. And you--you thanked God that
+she did not, for you knew that she would have flown into your arms then
+and there--would have risked Siberia with all its horrors for one more
+word of love from you. So you passed each other on the street so nearly
+that her furs brushed against you, and she never knew--never
+knew--until long after you were dead, when those friends who had helped
+you when all others failed, went to her and told her."
+
+"You were an invalid when you returned to St. Petersburg, and you
+waited for health and strength before completing your work. You had
+learned patience during those weary months of searching and waiting in
+Siberia. Then, too, that same Russian officer whom you had sworn to
+kill, was absent, and you wished him to return. Your friends told you
+that he had been restored to favor with the czar, that he had been sent
+to a post in Siberia; but when you arrived he was expected back within
+the month. He was to take the very place and assume the same official
+rank that you had once filled in the palace, next to the sacred person
+of the czar. Ah! If you could only find them together, and destroy them
+at the same time! Such a climax would be sweet indeed. It was for that
+that you waited and hoped. But he did not come; you waited, and he did
+not come.
+
+"During all this time you were like a child in the hands of your
+friends. You did precisely what they told you to do, no more, no less.
+You were absorbed by the one idea. You could not see nor reason beyond
+that. You even forgot your fiance and your love for her, save on that
+one day when the sight of her on the street brought her vividly before
+your mind; but the following morning even that recollection was gone.
+At last your madness changed to a type more morose and sullen. The
+delay fretted you, and one day without consulting your friends, you
+resolved to act. You had reason enough left to know that your mind was
+growing weaker and you feared that it would be altogether shattered;
+that you would never avenge the fate of your sister unless you acted at
+once. You told nobody of your intention, but you armed yourself with a
+pistol and started for the palace. You had determined to kill the czar
+before your reason fled utterly."
+
+"Regarding the two hours that passed between the time you were last
+seen by your friends, and the events that happened in the palace that
+day, nothing is known. What streets you traversed on your way there;
+how you gained admittance to the palace, which was guarded as strictly
+as it is now; how you passed the guards and gained access even to the
+cabinet of the emperor, are mysteries which have never been solved, and
+never will be this side of the grave. All that is known is that you
+ware your old uniform, the same one from which the czar once tore the
+buttons, and it is possible that it had something to do with passing
+you through. At all events you did pass them all, and you did reach the
+person of the emperor himself. Ah, it must have been grand! I would
+that I could have been with you then! I would that I could have seen
+and heard all that took place there at that time--the only time when
+the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth has been told to
+his august majesty. There was one of our agents there who heard it all;
+that is how I know about it now."
+
+"The emperor was alone when you entered, and you had closed and locked
+the door of the cabinet before he discovered your presence. He did not
+know that you were there until a sharp command from you caused him to
+raise his head; but it was only to see you standing there with the
+pistol in your hand aimed at his head, and to hear you say that if he
+uttered one cry for assistance, or attempted to call for help in any
+way, you would shoot."
+
+Zara leaped to her feet and strode rapidly across the room twice,
+wringing her hands. She paused, confronting me.
+
+"Oh, my God!" she cried. "To think, if you had only told your friends
+of the errand, and of the plans you had made for reaching the presence
+of the czar, that it would have succeeded and you would have killed
+him--_killed him_."
+
+She rushed again to my side, and seized me by the shoulders, so that
+she turned my face until it exactly confronted hers.
+
+"Dubravnik," she cried. "I can almost believe that I am indeed talking
+to him--to the man whose history I am relating--when I look at you. In
+some ways you are like him, so like him! But I will still deceive
+myself with the idea that I am really talking to him about himself. It
+is easier so. Oh, my love, be patient with me. I must forget for the
+moment that you are the man I love. I must compel myself to believe
+that I am talking to him--to the brother of Yvonne."
+
+"Alexander was always a coward, and he proved it then. He thought that
+his hour had come, and that a just vengeance for all the lives that he
+had taken, was about to fall upon him.
+
+"'Do not shoot,' he pleaded. 'You shall have any demand you wish to
+make. Everything you desire shall be granted.' You only laughed at him.
+
+"'Do you know who I am?' you cried.
+
+"'No,' he replied. 'Who are you?'
+
+"You told him your name, and he cowered lower in his chair, begging for
+mercy as a hungry dog begs for food; and all the time you laughed,
+repeating at every pause he made, those words so terrible for him to
+hear: 'I have come to kill you because you killed Yvonne.'
+
+"Once he attempted to leave his chair, but you warned him to remain
+seated. You rehearsed the evils he had done, and was doing. You told
+him of the night when your sister was arrested. You related how the
+police had invaded her room. You went over again, the story of your
+pleading with him. You repeated how he had torn the buttons from your
+coat, and disgraced you because you loved your sister. You left no
+detail unrecited concerning that time of weary waiting you had
+undergone, while seeking tidings of your sister. You described the long
+journey to Saghalien, and the disappointment that awaited you when you
+arrived. And all the time he cringed lower and lower in his chair,
+expecting each moment that you would work yourself into the additional
+frenzy that was necessary to make you pull the trigger of your weapon.
+Ah, you made him suffer tortures such as he never endured, before or
+since, even if you did not succeed in killing him. Then, slowly, and
+with deadly earnestness, you related the story of the months of
+wandering over Siberia searching for Yvonne, and finally you came to
+the climax, where you told of her discovery and her death, at your own
+hands. You had approached nearer and nearer to him during the recital.
+Twice there had been a summons at the door of the cabinet, but each
+time, threatened by your pistol, the czar had ordered that he was not
+to be disturbed. Now, as you came to the end of all you had to say--as
+you told how you had returned to St. Petersburg, and why you had waited
+so long before the killing, hoping also to find the other and to kill
+him, too, you put the pistol almost in Alexander's face, and with a
+loud laugh of exultation--for you were mad, then, mad--you pulled the
+trigger."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+LOVE, HONOR AND OBEY
+
+
+The princess paused and bent her head until it almost touched me. I
+waited, wondering how it could be that the czar still lived. When death
+was so near, within a few inches of his face, what could have saved
+him?
+
+"Hush!" she continued. "The end is not yet--not quite yet. You pulled
+the trigger, but the charge in the pistol did not explode. That is what
+you thought, when you leaped backward and raised the hammer for another
+trial. But it was even worse than that, for there was no charge to
+explode; the pistol was not loaded. Your poor mind, so overburdened,
+had forgotten the most necessary thing of all, and you had not prepared
+your weapon for the work it had to do. You discovered your error too
+late; but the czar had discovered it also."
+
+"He was bigger and stronger than you. With a bound he was upon you. He
+seized the pistol and tore it from your grasp, and then, while he held
+you--for you were still weak and he always was a giant--he struck you
+with it, bringing it down again and again upon your unprotected head,
+until your brains were battered out, and were spattered upon the floor,
+the walls, and even the ceiling of the room. And then, when you were
+quite dead, killed by the hand of the czar himself, when he for once in
+his life was spattered with real blood, with blood that he had shed in
+person and not by deputy, His Imperial Majesty staggered to the door,
+called for assistance, and fainted."
+
+Again she left me, this time crossing the room and throwing herself
+upon a couch, where she cried softly, like one who has an incurable
+sorrow which must at times break out in tears. After all, tears are the
+safety valves of nervous expansion, and there are times when they save
+the heart and the brain from bursting. I knew that, and I left her to
+herself. But I also believed that she had not yet told me quite all;
+that there must be a sequel to all this, and I was soon to hear it.
+After watching her for a long time, I left my seat and went to her.
+
+She raised her head from the pillow, and looked at me, and I have never
+seen such a combination of emotions expressed in one glance, as there
+was in her eyes at that instant. Love for me, sympathy for the fate of
+the man whose story she had told, sorrow for that poor sister.
+
+"There is more?" I asked.
+
+"Very little more. I have not yet told you why I am a nihilist, and
+that is what this story is for. Yvonne was my most intimate friend. I
+loved her as I would have loved--no,--better than I could have loved a
+sister. Her brother Stanislaus, was my betrothed. We were to have been
+married within the year when Yvonne was taken away. Now you know all";
+and she turned her head away again. I could see that she had dreaded
+this confession.
+
+"No, not all, yet," I said. "What became of the officer who made all
+the trouble?"
+
+"He returned," she replied, without again raising her eyes.
+
+"Where is he now?"
+
+"He is here."
+
+"Here? In St. Petersburg?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Do you know him? Do you see him?"
+
+"Yes, frequently. He was here last night."
+
+"Will you tell me his name?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Shall I tell it to you?"
+
+"Shall you tell it to me! Do you mean to say that you know it?"
+
+"I can guess it."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"He is a nihilist. He has just returned to the city. All these years he
+has been absent, and had Stanislaus waited for his coming your story,
+and mine also, would have had a different ending. But Stanislaus did
+not wait. The man you mean is Captain Alexis Durnief."
+
+She started bolt upright.
+
+"You knew it? You knew it?" she cried. "Tell me how you knew it?"
+
+"I guessed it only just now. I guessed it from the expression of your
+eyes when you greeted him last night, that is, coupling that expression
+with the recital of to-day, and with one or two hints of his character
+that I gleaned from him. He is the man?"
+
+"Yes. He--is--the--man!!!"
+
+"And you receive him here?"
+
+"I cannot help it. My hands are tied."
+
+"How are they tied?"
+
+"You have already said."
+
+"Yes? How?"
+
+"He is a nihilist. He does not know that I am aware of all his foulness
+and villainy. He has been assured that I do not know it! And"--here she
+leaped to her feet and confronted me like an enraged tigress--"he has
+the effrontery to pretend that he is in love with me, and to believe
+that I can love him. Pah!"
+
+"And you?" I asked.
+
+"I?"
+
+She crossed the room, but turned and retraced her steps, reseating
+herself upon the couch. She was smiling now. Her composure had returned
+though she was still pale, and there were deep rings under her eyes
+which told of the suffering she had undergone.
+
+"Until you came I had thought that I would marry him," said she,
+calmly. I was more utterly amazed than I could have supposed possible.
+
+"Indeed?" I remarked, raising my brows, but otherwise not showing the
+surprise I felt. Here was still another phase of the character of the
+woman I loved so madly. But I could see that she spoke in the past
+tense; of something no longer considered.
+
+"Yes; I thought that. Why not? It seemed the only way by which I could
+secure the revenge I believed I must have. I could have obtained it in
+that way. Long ago he sheltered himself from anything that I could do,
+under the cloak of our order. I could have married him, and in six
+months have tortured him into the grave; or, if that had failed, I
+could have poisoned him. Ah! did you ever hate--truly hate--anybody? If
+you never did, you cannot imagine the rage that has been in my heart
+against those two men. No, they are not men; they are beasts,
+reptiles." So she spoke of Alexis Durnief and Alexander, the czar. I
+could scarcely recognize this woman who could hate others with such
+intensity.
+
+"Do you think, princess," I said, slowly, "that if Stanislaus were
+alive, he would approve of such a method of taking revenge for the
+wrong done to him, and to his sister?" I asked the question
+impersonally, and without any resentment in my tone, or manner. Indeed,
+I felt none. We were referring to a possibility that was now as far in
+the past as were the incidents of the story she had related. But I
+desired to probe that other side of her, the vengeful one, as deeply as
+possible, and when she did not reply, I added: "Do you think he would
+have rested contentedly in his grave, if you had become the wife of the
+man who wronged him most, no matter what your purpose might be?"
+
+"No," she said. "I do not. But I had not thought of it in that light. I
+remembered only Yvonne--and him."
+
+"Zara, did you love Stanislaus?"
+
+She sighed deeply. She raised her eyes to mine, and she stretched forth
+a tentative hand for me to clasp, and hold. My touch gave her a sense
+of personal protection.
+
+"How you probe the innermost secrets of one's heart, Dubravnik," she
+smiled at me. "I will tell you the truth, and the whole truth. It is
+because I never loved him, because I never knew and appreciated his
+worth, until he was dead, that I believed that I could not live and
+bear the thought that he should continue unavenged, while Alexis
+Durnief, the perpetrator of such outrages, appeared boldly here at St.
+Petersburg, and even dared to make love to me. I was a girl then, and I
+did not appreciate all the love that was lavished upon me. I am a woman
+now, and you have taught me what love is. I am not the same creature,
+now, that I was a few short hours ago. You have changed the world for
+me, for you have made what was once a hell, a heaven of sweet
+thoughts."
+
+"Zara, had you already abandoned the insane idea of becoming Durnief's
+wife, before we referred to it, now?"
+
+"Yes, I never really entertained it. It only occurred to me as a means
+of accomplishing an end. I hate the man so, for all he did to Yvonne;
+and when he dared to raise his hopes to me, knowing that I had been her
+nearest and dearest friend, knowing also that I was once pledged to
+Stanislaus, I was filled with a bitter hatred more terrible than words
+can describe. Oh, if you knew the bitterness of one who is used only
+for a tool, because she happens to possess beauty. But you cannot know;
+you cannot guess."
+
+"True, I do not know; but I can guess. Remember, I heard what you said
+to your brother, on this same subject, in the garden."
+
+"Ah!"
+
+Like a flash of light through the darkness, my own peril returned to
+her.
+
+"You! What are you going to do?" she exclaimed.
+
+"I am going about my daily duty just as though nothing had happened," I
+replied.
+
+"Those men out there are waiting to kill you. Come! Let us see if they
+are there still."
+
+We went to the window together and peered out. The _karetta_ was
+still waiting.
+
+"Tell me your true name again," she demanded, rather irrelevantly I
+thought, as we drew back. "You told me, but I have forgotten. To me you
+are Dubravnik; but I suppose I must learn the other one."
+
+"You must learn how to answer to it, also, for it is to be yours as
+well as mine." Then I mentioned it, and she repeated it after me
+several times, under her breath.
+
+"Do you know of any way, no matter how, to escape those men who are
+waiting outside?" she asked.
+
+"Yes," I replied, "I know of one."
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"I can have them arrested where they are--every one of them; that is,
+if one of your servants can be induced to carry a message a short
+distance, for me."
+
+"He would be stopped. The message would be taken from him, and read."
+
+"He would be permitted to go on again, for the message would mean
+nothing to those who stopped him. It would be in cipher, and assistance
+would not be long in coming, once it were delivered. Men in whom I can
+implicitly trust would soon clear the streets for us. We would have
+nothing to fear after that."
+
+"Then you _are_ connected with the police, Dubravnik." But when she
+made the statement I noticed with joy that there was no suggestion of
+her former displeasure. There was no indication now that she would love
+me the less because I was associated with the powers she had been
+taught all her life to abhor.
+
+"No, Zara, not with the police. I have nothing to do with them, nor
+with any department of that service. The men I shall send for are not
+even Russians; and they serve me, not this government. They will serve
+you, as well."
+
+"I believe you, dear one; forgive me. You shall have the messenger."
+
+"You have forgotten one thing, princess."
+
+"What?"
+
+"Your own danger."
+
+She shrugged her shoulders and laughed at that. It was a return to the
+Zara I had first known. "I have forgotten much since you came," she
+said. "In what way am I in danger?"
+
+"If those men are arrested, they will know that you have betrayed them
+to me. Their friends will know it, also."
+
+"You mistake. I had not forgotten that. But I have remembered that you
+are here to protect me, Dubravnik. What have I to fear when you are
+near me?" It was sweet indeed to hear her say such words, sweeter still
+to realize the full import of them. But there was a phase of our
+present dilemma which had not yet claimed her attention, but regarding
+which it was necessary to remind her. Her brother Ivan was doubtless
+one of the assassins, waiting outside.
+
+"What of Ivan, your brother?" I asked her.
+
+She raised her eyes and looked at me, startled, and they were suddenly
+moist with unshed tears. There was that same indescribable pain in
+them, that I had noticed several times since our interview began; that
+same expression which I could not fathom. But the explanation was
+ready.
+
+"I have found that there comes a time in a woman's life," she said
+slowly, "when all her pet theories fall flat and useless, and when
+every idol that she has worshipped is demolished. Let us not talk of
+the danger to me. Let us not even speak of my brother, until the
+message is prepared for my servant to carry."
+
+"No, Zara," I told her, with decision. "I do not understand what you
+meant, just now, when you referred to the demolition of your pet
+theories. But it is imperative that we should speak of your brother."
+
+"What of him?"
+
+"Is it not more than possible that he is one of the men out there who
+are waiting for me?"
+
+"Yes, it is. I had forgotten that. But----"
+
+"He would be caught in the net with the others. He would suffer the
+same fate that fell to them. Are you willing to run the risk of his
+being there? He has been to Siberia once, you tell me. Are you willing
+that he should go there again?"
+
+"No, oh, no!" she cried. "No; that must not be."
+
+"You see, then, how impossible it is for you to give me a messenger,
+unless you can promise for Ivan as well as for yourself."
+
+"Promise? And for Ivan? What promise need I make for him? If he is
+there shall he not take his chance with those who are with him? But no,
+no. You are right, Dubravnik. I cannot let him be captured, perhaps
+killed, in this way," she said brokenly. "I cannot sacrifice Ivan.
+Cannot you see how I am suffering? Even though I try with all my
+strength to conceal it, can't you see it? Is there not some other way?
+Is there not something that can be done? Will you not help me? Great
+God! Must my brother be sent back to the hell of Siberia--or must
+you----"
+
+"Zara," I interrupted her, deliberately taking a step backwards and
+putting my hands behind me, fearing that I might clasp her in my arms
+in spite of my resolution to remain calm and to continue to be master
+of the situation, "I think there is another way; I believe that
+something can be done; I will help you; I do see why you suffer. You
+are torn by so many conflicting desires, child; you do not know which
+way to turn. Here am I, your lover; out yonder, waiting to kill me, is
+your brother. But, dear, if you will trust to me, and will obey me
+implicitly in all that I direct you to do, there is a way, and neither
+you nor your brother shall come to harm. Will you trust to me?"
+
+"Yes, oh, yes," she cried unhesitatingly. "What am I to do?"
+
+"Call the servant who is to take the message."
+
+She turned to the door without another word, and disappeared beyond it.
+The moment she was gone, I took a fountain pen and a pad of paper from
+my pocket, and wrote rapidly--or seemed to write, for the pen left no
+trace upon the paper.
+
+My invisible note was completed and I was writing with another pen upon
+a second sheet of paper when the princess reentered the room. This time
+the writing was plainly visible, and while I asked her for an envelope
+I passed it to her to read.
+
+It was addressed to my friend Canfield who had charge of the messenger
+service, and merely instructed him to "forward the packages that had
+been left with him that morning" to their several addresses without
+delay. It was signed, "Dubravnik."
+
+"Is this the note my servant is to take?" she asked, incredulously.
+
+"Yes."
+
+I folded the apparently blank sheet with the other and placed them both
+in the envelope which I had already addressed.
+
+"You see there is no harm in that note, even if the men outside should
+read it," I added, when the servant had departed. "Your man, who is of
+course a spy, will read the note, which I purposely left unsealed, as
+soon as he is out of sight of the house. In an hour every man who is
+waiting to take my life will be in prison. If your brother is among
+them, he will not be harmed and you----"
+
+I hesitated, and she raised her eyes to mine and said:
+
+"Well, and I?"
+
+"You will have to do as you have agreed to do, obey me." I hesitated
+again and then with a desperate courage, added: "Love, honor, and obey
+me."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+THE POWER OF THE FRATERNITY
+
+
+The princess did not start--she did not even look surprised when I
+uttered the strange sentence, but her great round eyes welled up in
+tears, and she caught her breath in a half-sob once. Then, without
+uttering a word, she extended her hand and placed it in mine, and we
+remained thus, for a moment silent. Presently, in a low whisper, I
+heard her repeat after me, the words, "Love, honor, and obey;" and she
+added: "As long as we both shall live."
+
+With a quick gesture that was purely feminine, she withdrew her hand
+from mine and thrust the clustering hair away from her temples. Then
+she went to the window and gazed upon the snow clad city, and thus she
+remained for several minutes.
+
+Presently she returned and came back to where I was standing.
+
+"It is strange, is it not, Mr. Derrington?" she asked in a low voice.
+"I do not think that I am myself to-day. It is hard to realize that
+this is Zara de Echeveria who speaks to you now. I am like another
+person; it is as though another spirit had entered my body, and I seem
+to act without a will of my own. It began last night when you first
+entered my presence. It was evident to me when I saw you apparently
+asleep in the garden, knowing that you had overheard the conversation
+between my brother and myself; it asserted itself when we stood
+together under the green light later in the evening, when you told me
+that I must keep the engagement made with you to-day, and when you
+entered this room a few hours ago, it seemed as though you belonged to
+me--as though you had stolen away my will--as though I had no right to
+act without your sanction. Can you explain it?"
+
+"No," I replied, "nobody can explain it. It is a secret that is known
+only to God, and His ways are immutable. But we have each recognized it
+from the first."
+
+We said nothing of love then. The subject seemed out of place at that
+moment. We both knew all that the other would have said, or could with
+truth say, and there was no need to do what would seem like repeating
+it.
+
+"When will you hear from the note that you have sent?" she asked
+presently.
+
+"Very soon, now," I replied. "If your servant has delivered the
+message, there should be a reply within a few minutes. Let us go to the
+window and watch."
+
+So we stood there by the window, silently communing with each other
+without speaking. Her left hand was clasped within my right one, and
+the minutes came and went until I raised my other hand and pointed
+silently toward a large, double _britzska_ that was approaching. I
+had recognized the huge proportions of Tom Coyle, holding the reins,
+and I knew that underneath the covering were trusty followers of mine
+who would make short work of the waiting assassins.
+
+"There comes the answer to my note," I said, "Watch that _britzska_."
+
+"I see it," she replied.
+
+It dashed up on a run straight for the point where the other one was
+still waiting, and came to a stop with a suddenness that threw the
+horses back upon their haunches. At the same instant there dashed from
+beneath the covering a half dozen men, and while some seized the horses
+of the waiting _britzska_, and others pulled the man from the driver's
+seat, still others jerked open the curtains and sprang inside. From our
+post of observation we could see that a severe struggle was taking
+place, and twice we heard the reports of pistols; and then the smaller
+carriage drove away, while the larger one, that which Tom Coyle had
+been driving, dashed straight for the door of the princess' house.
+
+"The other contained the prisoners," I said to my companion.
+
+"This one is coming here. Remember now, Zara, that you promised to
+trust me implicitly. No matter what happens, remember that."
+
+"I will remember," she replied.
+
+Then there came the summons at the door, and the voice of Tom Coyle
+requesting an audience with the Princess Zara de Echeveria. She looked
+at me inquiringly, and I nodded. In a moment more, Tom, followed by two
+men, entered the room where we were awaiting them.
+
+"Your name is Dubravnik?" said one of the men, addressing me.
+
+"Yes," I replied.
+
+"And may I ask if this is the Princess d'Echeveria?"
+
+"That is my name," replied Zara.
+
+"I am very sorry to disturb you, but I must request you both to go with
+me, in the name of the Czar."
+
+Zara started violently, and turned one distrustful glance upon me; but
+I remained calm and unmoved.
+
+"Do you mean that we are arrested?" she inquired indignantly, returning
+her gaze to the officer.
+
+"Temporarily, princess. We were forced to make an arrest in the street
+near this house just now, and from one of the men taken we learned that
+we had to come here. I can say no more. You will come with us without
+resistance?"
+
+"Arrested in the name of the czar," murmured Zara blankly. "I did not
+anticipate this. Yes, I will go with you. Is my house to be searched?"
+
+"I have no such orders, madame."
+
+Then he turned to me.
+
+"And you, sir?" he inquired.
+
+"I am at your service," I said.
+
+"One moment----" began Zara, who evidently doubted the regularity of it
+all, but I interposed.
+
+"Princess," I said. "I do not think that these men mean to treat us
+unkindly. It is evidently some official inquiry brought about by the
+arrest that he had mentioned. I think it decidedly best to go without
+question."
+
+Her face flushed and she said nothing more, but having had her wraps
+brought to her, followed me into the street, and we were soon driving
+rapidly away. The men were thoughtful enough to give us the interior of
+the vehicle to ourselves, and as soon as we were seated Zara turned her
+wistful eyes towards me.
+
+"What does it mean?" she asked.
+
+"It means that you are to be protected from the hands of your friends,"
+I replied. "It means that I know that the nihilists would take your
+life as soon as they know that betrayal of those who were waiting for
+me came from your home. I do not propose that they shall have such an
+opportunity. It means that I am going to place you for a time where no
+harm can come to you, and that not one of them will know where you
+are."
+
+"But how, how have you the authority to do all this?"
+
+"Did I not tell you that I am in the service of the czar?"
+
+"Of my worst enemy, yes."
+
+"Is it not wise to compel your enemies to do your service?"
+
+"Can I accept a service from one whom I hate as I do him?"
+
+"I think so, if your life and mine are both dependent upon that
+service."
+
+"But where are we going?"
+
+"To the Vladek prison."
+
+"I? Zara de Echeveria, to _prison_?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And you?"
+
+"To the same place."
+
+"How long are we to be detained there?"
+
+"Only a sufficient time for us to pass through it and take our
+departure by another door, to enter another carriage, and to be driven
+to the house of a friend."
+
+"Ah! I begin to understand. To whose house, then?"
+
+"To the house of Prince Michael."
+
+"I cannot go there! Oh, indeed, I cannot go there!"
+
+"You must disappear for a time, Zara. The prince is my friend and
+yours; more than that, he loves you, and better than all, he is a
+prince among men as well as a Prince in rank. Will you not still trust
+me?"
+
+She sighed and said no more, but as the _britzska_ dashed onward she
+nestled closer to me, as though she found comfort in the thought that
+the authority was taken out of her hands, and when at last we came to a
+stop before the prison doors, she whispered:
+
+"I trust you. Do with me as you will. I will obey."
+
+Within the prison, I found Canfield awaiting me, and I gave him and
+Coyle a few hurried instructions; but we were soon on the road again,
+and in due time arrived at the house of the prince, we passing in by a
+side entrance. Presently, courtly and grave, but as white as mental
+suffering can render the face of a man, he came to us.
+
+"You are welcome," he said, extending his hand, first to her and then
+to me. "The house is at your disposal, princess, and I need not say
+that there are no servants here to spy on you. I know them all, and
+your presence will be as secret as the grave."
+
+She thanked him, and was proceeding to explain some of the
+circumstances which had brought us there when he stopped her with a
+gesture.
+
+"It is true that I do not understand," he said, "but Dubravnik is my
+best friend and he will tell me all that is necessary to tell. In the
+meantime, I am commanded by his majesty, the czar, to remain at the
+palace for a few days. Let me entreat you to regard everything here as
+your own."
+
+"Twenty-four hours will suffice, prince," I said. "After that time the
+princess can return in safety to her own home."
+
+"Then, if you will excuse me," he murmured, bowing low over Zara's
+hand, "I will proceed at once to the palace, where I am even now
+expected. I will await you there, Dubravnik," he added, and the glance
+that he cast upon me made me wonder if I had not, perhaps, trusted--or,
+rather, tried--this chivalrous man too far, in taking the princess to
+his house.
+
+Zara saw and correctly interpreted the glance, for as he left the room
+upon my assurance that I would follow him at once she put her hands in
+mine and said:
+
+"Are you indeed assured of your own safety, Dubravnik? Ah, yes, I shall
+always call you by that name. Are you assured of your own safety? Tell
+me truly."
+
+"Perfectly; and of yours, also. Have no fears."
+
+Then I raised her hands to my lips, and kissed them both, first one and
+then the other, again and again; and she, standing on tiptoe, pressed
+her lips to my forehead.
+
+"Love, honor, and obey," I murmured; and she repeated after me:
+
+"Love, honor, and obey."
+
+Then I left her.
+
+It was still early in the day, but at that time of the year darkness
+settles over the earth while yet the day is young, and night was
+already abroad in the streets. I had much to do ere the dawn of another
+day, for the time had come when the power of the Fraternity of Silence
+must be asserted; when I felt that the work that I had agreed to do for
+the czar was nearly completed. My drag net was ready, and the time had
+come to cast it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+PRINCE MICHAEL'S ANGER
+
+
+Nobody but myself in all Russia was familiar with the secrets and the
+mysteries of the Fraternity of Silence. In organizing it, I had
+anticipated just such a moment as the one that faced me now; that is,
+an emergency where I would have to depend entirely upon the loyalty of
+my men, and my own superior knowledge of who and what they were, for my
+safety.
+
+The partial description already given of that organization conveys only
+a faint idea of its perfection and completeness. The different
+departments were thoroughly under the control of their several heads,
+and those heads were all men whom I could implicitly trust, and I knew
+that I might even dare to snap my fingers at the power of the police
+system itself, so great was my own. I had men everywhere; and my gift
+of remembering names and faces, a gift the Almighty had bestowed upon
+me, gave me the advantage of knowing nearly all of them by sight,
+although there was not a score, all told, who knew me; and those were
+every one importations of my own, upon whose devotion I could
+thoroughly depend, even in the face of regular police opposition. More
+than that, I had men within the ranks of the police, even within the
+fold of the mysterious and dreaded Third Section.
+
+I realized fully the danger to my own person in going upon the street
+at that hour, when I had within so short a time been condemned to death
+by the extremists--the most implacable element among the nihilists.
+They do not dread death themselves so long as they accomplish the death
+of him who has been condemned, and one who has fallen under the ban of
+their disapproval is in as great danger in broad daylight, among a
+hundred companions, as he is on dark streets and among unfrequented
+byways. I thought it best, therefore, to provide as well as possible
+against another attempt to assassinate me, and therefore sought my own
+apartments before going to the palace. I intended to adopt a disguise
+of some kind, and, moreover, I had given orders for several of my
+leaders to meet me there, and I knew that I would find them waiting.
+
+They were there when I arrived--Coyle, Canfield, Malet, St. Cyr, and
+with them several of their lieutenants. There was another one there
+also, whose hands were tied behind him, and whose feet were fastened
+together, while, by way of additional security, he was tied to the
+chair in which my friends had seated him. That man was Ivan, the
+brother of Princess Zara. I did not glance at him as I entered, but
+notwithstanding his presence, proceeded at once to business,
+instructing my men in exactly what they were to do that night. And he
+listened intently, first with anger and even rage, then with scorn and
+contempt, but finally with wonder and genuine fear. I had arranged the
+affair for the purpose of teaching Ivan de Echeveria a moral lesson. I
+had determined to save him, even against himself--for Zara's sake.
+
+In order to convey some idea of the moral effect that the meeting had
+upon him, I must outline a part of it. One by one my men read off lists
+of the nihilists under their jurisdiction, accurately describing them,
+as well as the several disguises that they were in the habit of
+wearing, the meeting places of the different branches of the society,
+and where the members of those branches were to be found at certain
+hours. Included in the lists were names of many prominent people in the
+city, officers in the army, policemen on duty, spies in private
+families, in hotels and cafes, in the palace, at the barracks, in the
+prisons, and, in fact, everywhere. As name after name was read off,
+until the number amounted to many hundreds the face of Ivan de
+Echeveria became as pale as death, and when, at last, his own sister's
+name was read, and I remarked grimly that she was already a prisoner,
+and would be on her way to Siberia within the week, he broke out in
+curses and threats, to which, of course, not one of us paid the
+slightest attention. When he found that we did not notice him in any
+way, but proceeded quietly with our business, he relapsed into a moody
+silence, and I knew that my moral lesson was working. I knew that I
+could save Zara's brother, for that is what I meant to do. When the
+lists were completed, and I had given my orders regarding who was to be
+arrested that night, and who was to be spared, having directed that
+certain of them be told that they could obtain passports out of the
+country under certain conditions, I dismissed my leaders, and at last
+stood alone in the presence of Ivan.
+
+"Now, sir," I said coldly, "what do you think of it?"
+
+"I think that this night will see the end of our cause, until other
+children are born who will grow up to know the wrongs to which the
+people of Russia have to submit. You may crush out nihilism to-day, but
+you cannot crush it out forever. It will spring up again like----"
+
+"Like the poisonous weed that it is. I expect that, but this present
+growth will be cut down to-night. You do not ask what is to be done
+with you, Ivan."
+
+"Why should I? I know."
+
+"I am afraid that you do not."
+
+"One who would send my beautiful sister to Siberia--Bah! I will not
+talk with you."
+
+"Have I been unmerciful except to those who are confessed murderers,
+and those who are only awaiting a chance to kill?"
+
+"No," he replied, reluctantly.
+
+"Do you not see how impossible it is to accomplish what your people
+want to do, by the commission of crimes? You, who were one of the men
+waiting to kill me as soon as I came out of the house of your
+sister--what was your first thought when my men fell upon and arrested
+you? Did you not think that your sister had betrayed you all to me?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Did you not say so?"
+
+He hung his face in shame and answered:
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Is that not the thought among your friends at this moment, and would
+the life of your sister be safe from them if she were in her own house
+to-night?"
+
+"It would not."
+
+"And yet, you call such people your friends--those who would without
+question put her to death on mere suspicion--to a death to which you
+have helped to condemn her by your own foul suspicions and the more
+foul utterance of them. Shame on you, Ivan de Echeveria! Shame on you!"
+Pain contorted his face, and he was silent. "Did you fire the bullet
+that so nearly killed me?" I asked.
+
+"No, I did not do that, but I directed that it be done. You would not
+have escaped if I had held the pistol."
+
+"Perhaps not. It is unimportant, any way. Have you not wondered why I
+brought you to this house?"
+
+"To torture me; that, at least, is what you are doing."
+
+"I brought you here to save you."
+
+"To save me!"
+
+"Yes; from the folly of your youth. You are a man in years, but a boy
+in every act you commit. Have you manhood enough left in you to want to
+save your sister, who now, thanks to you, has two enemies to face?
+Russia would send her to Siberia, and the nihilists would murder her.
+She would have sacrificed herself for you--she offered to do so. Are
+you willing to sacrifice yourself for her?"
+
+"God knows that I am."
+
+"Will you prove it?"
+
+"Oh, that I might!"
+
+"You shall have the chance. I cannot quite trust you, Ivan, or, for her
+sake, I would loosen your bonds and set you free now. But you would
+hasten to your friends and warn them of their danger, and by that act,
+you would destroy your sister forever--by that act you would kill her.
+She is safe and will be safe, if they are not warned of what is to
+happen to-night. Shall I set you free, and trust to your honor not to
+go to them?"
+
+"No--no--no! For God's sake, no! Leave me bound! Tie me more tightly!
+Do not let me go! Kill me if you will, but do nothing to injure her.
+Oh, are you telling me the truth?"
+
+"The whole truth, Ivan. I will leave you as you are until I return. I
+do not think you will escape; I do not think that you will try to do
+so. But you must understand one thing: This night forever ends your
+connection with nihilism. That is the sacrifice you must make to save
+your sister. Will you make it?"
+
+"If it will save her, I will make it. But will it?"
+
+"If I find you here when I return, and if you are still in the same
+mood, I will take you to her, and she shall reply to that question for
+herself."
+
+I left him then, and having altered my appearance sufficiently so that
+I would not be recognized in the darkness, and being assured that the
+orders that I had given respecting the work of my men for that night
+would be carried out, I hastened to the palace. I knew that I had a
+difficulty to face, for although I had unlimited confidence in the
+chivalry and generosity of Prince Michael, I also knew that he had an
+ungovernable temper, and I began to fear that my delay in following him
+might have led him to say something to the emperor, which would
+encompass me with puzzling conditions. As soon as I arrived at the
+palace I was told that the prince was awaiting me in his apartments,
+and I hurried to him. He rose as I entered the room, and, bowing
+stiffly, without extending his hand as was his invariable habit, said
+coldly:
+
+"You are late, Mr. Derrington. I expected you an hour earlier, at
+least."
+
+"I am very sorry, prince," I replied; "more sorry than I can say, to
+have kept you waiting, but I have been unavoidably detained."
+
+"May I ask if it was at my house?"
+
+"I was at my own apartments."
+
+"Ah!"
+
+It was evident that he did not believe me, and that he meant me to
+understand that he did not, but I was determined not to quarrel with
+him. Therefore I remained silent.
+
+"May I venture to ask an explanation of the extraordinary proceedings
+of the evening?" he asked, icily.
+
+"Yes; I think I owe you that much. But would it not be better if I
+first offered my respects to the czar? Then I can return here, and we
+can enjoy a long chat together."
+
+"His majesty knows that you were to come to me first. After I have
+heard you, we will go to him together."
+
+"Am I to understand, prince, that you have told his majesty of the
+occurrences of to-night?"
+
+"You are to understand exactly that. I have told him all; at least all
+that I could tell."
+
+"Indeed! In that case, we will go to him together. Such explanation as
+I have to make will be made in his presence. Whatever explanations
+there are to make are entirely in the princess' behalf, and I regret
+that I took you at your word and supposed that you would wait for me.
+She can offer you her own thanks at a more opportune time."
+
+I saw that he was endeavoring with all his strength to control himself,
+but the veins on his forehead swelled until I thought that they would
+burst. For a full minute we stood facing each other thus, both silent,
+and then he turned and led the way in the direction of the official
+cabinet.
+
+"Prince," I said, just before we entered, "you have no cause to quarrel
+with me. Remember that in the interview that is to come."
+
+He stopped short, and turned and faced me before the door of the czar's
+cabinet.
+
+"Are you quite sure of that?" he demanded.
+
+"I am quite sure. I remember another interview of this kind, when you
+advised me what not to do. You have no warmer friend in Russia than
+Daniel Derrington, prince."
+
+For a moment he pondered. I saw that he was hesitating, for I knew that
+he really liked me. But I also knew that he loved the princess, and
+that he was jealous, for I had done an unprecedented thing in taking
+her to his house under the circumstances. For a woman to commit herself
+to the care of a man in the way the princess had trusted herself to me,
+meant much more in Russia than it does in New York. The prince could
+find no excuse for the act; still less for my delay in following him
+when he left his own house in our possession. Presently he spoke. His
+words came slowly and with careful deliberation.
+
+"What I say now, Mr. Derrington, you may accept in whatsoever spirit
+you please, but upon my soul _I do not believe you_!"
+
+I bowed, and we entered the cabinet together.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+IN DEFIANCE OF THE CZAR
+
+
+In all the interviews I had had with the czar during the many months of
+my association with him he had maintained the condition that he had
+himself made at the beginning, which was that we should meet on the
+basis of friends and equals. Whenever we were alone together he
+commanded me to forget that we were other than two friends who were
+enjoying an opportunity for a chat with each other, and as at such
+times we invariably conversed in French, he always insisted that I
+should address him by the simple term "monsieur." When the prince was
+with us, as was nearly always the case, the degree of familiarity was
+slightly, though hardly perceptibly modified, and I must say that I had
+learned to enjoy such occasions exceedingly.
+
+For Alexander I had begun to feel a sincere affection. I doubt if there
+was any other man in Russia who understood him so thoroughly as I did.
+During these familiar hours we had passed together he had told me many
+things concerning himself, his ideas, and his hopes; and these
+confidences had revealed the real man--that is, the man behind the
+czar--to me, and I knew that of the thousands of crimes attributed to
+him only a few had ever come to his knowledge until it was too late for
+him to interfere, or too impolitic for him to do so. Intellectually, he
+was not preponderant; indeed he was rather deficient in this respect;
+but he was naturally a kindly disposed man, and at the beginning of his
+reign, and indeed through more than half of it, he proved that fact to
+the people. It was just before the time of my arrival in St. Petersburg
+that he allowed himself to fall more and more into the power of the
+nobles who in reality ruled the empire, and who do so still. Easily
+influenced by those in whom he trusted, thousands of crimes were
+committed in his name of which he had no knowledge and of which he had
+never known. At all events, I liked him, and moreover, I had thorough
+faith in my own influence over him.
+
+In like proportion to my familiarity at court and to the emperor's
+fondness for my society, I was cordially hated by the nobility; but as
+they feared me quite as much as they hated me, and as my real standing
+among them remained a mystery, I was constantly fawned upon to a degree
+that was nauseating. Even the story I had so lately heard from the lips
+of the princess had not materially lessened the liking I felt for
+Alexander, for I could understand much better than she could, all the
+influence that had been brought to bear upon the emperor not to pardon
+the woman in whose possession had been found cyanide of potassium
+intended for his wine. I did not believe he had intended that she
+should go to the island of Saghalien; I did not believe that he could
+be held accountable for the evils that befell poor Yvonne in the
+isolated garrisons of Siberia. He had been convinced that she intended
+to poison him, and he banished her; there his part of the evil ceased.
+The awful things that happened in the garrison he did not know about,
+could not hear about, for I believe that among all his friends, I was
+the only one who dared to tell him the truth. Even the prince lied to
+him, for I had often heard him do so.
+
+As to the killing of Stanislaus, who could blame the czar for that? The
+man had endeavored to kill him; had twice snapped a pistol in his face
+and still held it in his hand when the emperor tore it from his grasp
+and struck him on the head with it. Who would not do the same? I repeat
+all this as my excuse for still feeling that affection for him which
+our intercourse had taught me. The real criminal in the case of the
+story of Yvonne was Durnief. Him I hated, and his name was on one of
+the lists that had been read off to me before going to the palace that
+night. There were special orders concerning him, too--but that will be
+dealt with later.
+
+Now, as I entered the cabinet with the prince, I confess that I had
+some doubts concerning my reception for I had no idea what the prince
+had said to his majesty, and I knew only too well the inclination of
+the czar to listen to anything that had a suspicious side to it,
+particularly if that suspicion concerned one of his closest and most
+intimate associates. I could at any time, within five minutes, have
+poisoned the mind of the czar against the prince; and I did not doubt
+that he could accomplish the same delicate attention for me. The prince
+preceded me; the czar rose as we entered.
+
+His majesty was alone, and I advanced at once with extended hand, as he
+had often requested me to do when I discovered him thus; but he bowed
+coldly, feigning not to see it. I halted, drew myself up, and returned
+his bow in the same manner that he had given it. Then I waited for him
+to speak.
+
+"You are late, sir," he said. "You have kept me waiting."
+
+"I was not aware that your majesty expected me," I replied. "Otherwise
+I should have been here sooner."
+
+"The prince expected you and led me to do the same."
+
+"Had the prince done me the honor to tell me he intended to receive me
+in your cabinet, I should have understood. The prince--perhaps
+unintentionally--deceived me."
+
+Prince Michael flushed hotly, but said nothing. The czar smiled grimly.
+
+"What detained you?" he demanded.
+
+"The same business which detains me in Russia, your majesty."
+
+"Ah; you were concerned in the work of our fraternity?"
+
+"I was."
+
+"I understood that you were much more pleasurably employed."
+
+"Whoever gave you so to understand that either did not know, or lied."
+I turned so that I half faced the prince, and I saw that he made a
+motion as if to spring upon and strike me; but he did not dare to
+commit such an act in the czar's presence, and long training got the
+better of his temper.
+
+"Why, sir, did you take Princess Zara d'Echeveria to the house of
+Prince Michael?" continued the czar.
+
+"Because I believed him to be an honorable man who would stand ready to
+protect her good name, and who would conceal from all the world, even
+from your majesty, the fact that she was there. Because he had told me
+that he loved her, and I was innocent enough to believe that his love
+was unselfish; and further, because I regarded him as my friend. There
+are three reasons, your majesty, any one of which seems to me to be
+sufficient."
+
+"But why was it necessary to take her anywhere?"
+
+"That, your majesty, is a question which I must answer to you alone."
+
+"Do you mean that you will not tell the prince?"
+
+"I mean that it was my intention to tell the prince as soon as I
+arrived at the palace, but that now I deem it unnecessary. He has
+taught me a lesson in hospitality that is as new as it is unique."
+
+"Perhaps she will explain the strange affair herself."
+
+
+"I have no doubt that she will, your majesty."
+
+"I have sent for her. She will remain here in the palace as long as
+danger threatens her. She should be here by now."
+
+"May I inquire of your majesty whom you sent?"
+
+"The captain of the palace guard."
+
+"Captain Durnief?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+I looked at my watch, replaced it in my pocket, and then said calmly:
+
+"Captain Durnief will not return with the princess, your majesty."
+
+Then I saw the heavy frown of rising anger. I knew my man, for kings
+and emperors are less than men of the world when it comes to studying
+them. Their own opportunities for observing others are so much more
+limited. The czar angry, was a much easier man to influence than the
+czar satirical.
+
+"What do you mean?" he demanded. "Why will Durnief fail to carry out my
+personal orders? Dare the princess refuse to accompany him?"
+
+"She most certainly would not have the bad taste to refuse, and if she
+did so, the captain would doubtless bring her by force; but Captain
+Durnief has the misfortune to be, by now, a prisoner."
+
+"Durnief a prisoner! The captain of my personal staff arrested! By your
+order, sir?"
+
+"By my order, your majesty."
+
+"You have dared to do this?"
+
+"I would dare to arrest the prince, or your own son, if I found either
+of them inimical to your majesty's interests, and I beg you, sir, to
+understand that I gave the order before I knew that your majesty had
+sent him on the errand so treacherously suggested by Prince Michael." I
+was angry at the prince for involving my affairs so meanly. I could not
+withhold the thrust.
+
+"It is a lie!"
+
+It was the prince who spoke; but before I could reply to the
+accusation, the czar waved his hand and commanded silence.
+
+"Was it the princess who informed you that Durnief was a nihilist?" he
+asked calmly, the smile returning to his face.
+
+"No," I replied, understanding the motive behind the question. For I
+could read the czar like a book, and I already knew much concerning the
+villainy of Durnief; "but it was he who informed your majesty that SHE
+was one."
+
+"By heaven, Derrington, you know too much! I begin to think that the
+days of your usefulness are past, in St. Petersburg. There seems to be
+no limit to the authority you assume, and now you have begun to dictate
+to me. I will not have it. I command that you tell me why you thought
+it necessary to take the princess from her own house to-night."
+
+I knew that the crucial moment had come. I knew that if I weakened now,
+I was lost. The only possible escape for me, was to see the czar alone,
+and that I determined to do. The manner of the prince, upon my arrival
+at the palace, his conduct in the cabinet, the greeting accorded to me
+by the czar and his bearing towards me since then, led me to a shrewd
+guess which I determined to hazard. I decided to play my last card by
+making one bold statement.
+
+"Your majesty," I said, deliberately, "has never until now, had less
+than perfect confidence in me. The prince, being jealous, and too
+impatient to await an explanation at my hands, has prevailed upon you
+to order me under arrest, for a time, in order that I may not return to
+his house where I have left the princess. If I do not mistake, he now
+has such an order, signed by you in person, in one of his pockets.
+Permit me to inform your majesty, and him, that there is another reason
+why he procured that order; he has guessed that my men, at this moment,
+have instructions to place him under arrest. He only sought to
+anticipate me, that is all. Order Prince Michael to his apartments, and
+direct him to remain in them, your majesty; for unless I am free to act
+as I see fit, this night, I would not give that"--and I snapped my
+fingers--"for the life of a single member of the royal family."
+
+Then I folded my arms, and waited.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+ONE EVENTFUL NIGHT
+
+
+A nihilistic bomb exploded in the cabinet of the czar would scarcely
+have created more consternation than did my statement. The emperor
+himself started back in amazement, and then turned his face which was
+white with rage and terror, upon Prince Michael.
+
+The prince, instead of shrugging his shoulders and laughing at the
+charge I had made, committed the mistake of turning deathly pale, and
+at once protesting his innocence. It was that protest which decided the
+battle of wits in my favor. Always ready to doubt those who were
+nearest to him, the czar remembered instantly that I could gain nothing
+by playing the traitor. He recalled also many instances, small in
+themselves but sufficiently prominent now, when the prince had deceived
+him. That, he knew I had never done. I had always possessed the courage
+to tell him the truth even when it was unpleasant. The habit of
+truthfulness told, then. He believed me, and he doubted the prince.
+More than that, I seemed to him to know everything, for it proved to be
+true that the prince had persuaded him to sign an order for my
+temporary arrest--or rather, my detention in the palace. It had been
+done when they were alone in the cabinet together, and how I could have
+learned of it was a puzzle which he could not fathom. The more the
+prince protested, the more certain the czar became that I had spoken
+the truth, and while he glowered upon the unhappy man who became paler
+and more uncertain in his speech with every effort, I stood calmly by
+with my arms folded, not enjoying the situation, but determined to win
+the fight.
+
+"Michael," said his majesty at last, "give me the order to which Mr.
+Derrington refers." I knew then that I had won, and while the prince
+tremblingly produced it, I waited. The czar passed it to me with the
+words, "You may destroy it, Mr. Derrington," and then added: "Prince
+Michael, you will retire to your apartments and remain there until I
+send for you. I will spare you the indignity of an arrest until I know
+more. Go!"
+
+I did not look at the prince as he left the room, and I have always
+regretted it, for if I had done so and had I seen the agony that must
+have been written on his face I might have saved him. I did not believe
+the charge against him when I made it, and there was no such thing as a
+direction to any of my men to arrest him. I charged him with complicity
+with the nihilists solely to get rid of him, and by that means to save
+myself and Zara, knowing that later I could save him, also; that he
+would ultimately forgive me, and that I could bring the emperor to
+regard it as a most excellent joke, for the czar dearly loved a joke if
+it were at the expense of some other person. Indeed I intended before I
+left the emperor's presence, partially to allay his fears concerning
+the prince by assuring him that my information amounted to nothing more
+than a mere suspicion which had been strengthened by his effort to
+detain me in the palace. But events demonstrated the fact that in
+making the charge I had builded better than I knew. I loved the prince,
+and that episode is one of the greatest regrets of my life. If ever a
+man was guilty without crime, he was. But I anticipate.
+
+"Derrington," said the czar as soon as we were alone; he addressed me
+in French by which I knew that I was restored to favor; "you have
+startled me to-night in a way that I shall not soon forget. Is it true
+that Michael--ah, no, I cannot believe it, for if he is unfaithful,
+whom can I trust?"
+
+"You must not cease to trust him entirely, yet, monsieur," I replied.
+"The charge against him is based upon evidence that may be disproved;
+but my drag net is out to-night, and the dawn will see nearly every
+nihilist in St. Petersburg in prison, or on the way out of Russia. If
+you had been prevailed upon to detain me I tremble for what might have
+happened."
+
+"Tell me----"
+
+"Do not, I beg of you, detain me now, monsieur. Every moment is
+precious. My men are swarming over the city, and even now the prisons
+are filling up. I must get to work, for this is a matter to which I
+must personally attend."
+
+"And Michael?"
+
+"Leave him where he is, in his apartments, until I return."
+
+"When will that be?"
+
+"Soon after daylight."
+
+"Then come to me at once. Have me awakened if I am sleeping; but I
+shall not be."
+
+"I will do so."
+
+"One word more. What of the princess?"
+
+"She would have been murdered to-night by the nihilists had I not
+arrested her as one, conducted her through the prison, and thence on to
+the house of the prince."
+
+"Why did you not bring her here and place her in my care?"
+
+"She would not wish to come here, monsieur. Princess Zara once had a
+lover who became crazed, and was killed here in the palace by one of
+the guards, I believe, so----"
+
+"Yes--yes, I understand. You did right. Stop! One word more before you
+go. This conspiracy to which you referred, against the whole royal
+family; are you sure that you have got at the root of it?"
+
+"As sure as I am that I am here in the presence of the Czar of Russia."
+
+"You have never failed me yet, Derrington;" and he grasped me by the
+hand.
+
+"And I never will, monsieur."
+
+"Well, go. I shall expect you soon after daylight."
+
+In reality there was little for me to do that night, more than I had
+already done, and yet it was impossible that I should be shut up in the
+palace with so much taking place throughout the city, immediately under
+my direction, and over which it was imperative that I must retain
+supervision. I knew that there would be frequent demands upon me for
+authority to do and perform certain things, and it was important that I
+should be on hand. I was always provided with the necessary papers for
+anything in the official line that I might be called upon to perform.
+This had been arranged in the beginning, the better to preserve the
+secret of my business in St. Petersburg. I had innumerable imperial
+passports signed and sealed in blank, and there was no outside
+authority exercised by any official of the realm which I was not
+prepared to meet. In short, my power was in many respects greater than
+that of the czar himself for I was always prepared for whatever I might
+have to do in any or all of the departments of the empire.
+
+The wholesale arrests which I had ordered for that night, I had long
+had under consideration, and that I had decided to make them a little
+sooner than was my first intention, was due in part to the danger
+surrounding the princess; in part to my own suddenly formed
+determination to complete my business there and return to the United
+States; and lastly, to the fact that the last few reports that I had
+received so nearly completed the knowledge I had striven to attain,
+that I came to the conclusion that my work was about done, and that it
+was time to draw the net. My salary was enormous, and already amounted
+to a competence, and I knew that if I remained in Russia, sooner or
+later somebody would find me out; and then there would be short shrift
+for me, between the nihilists on one hand, and the jealous nobility on
+the other, for the latter saw in me nothing but an interloper who had
+stolen their prerogatives.
+
+My first business on leaving the emperor, was to call upon Jean Moret,
+for now his usefulness was past, and the time had come for me to keep
+my word with him, and set him free. Somewhere in the world he would be
+able to find a safe haven of shelter from the enemies who would claim
+vengeance; and now, after my net was drawn this night, there would be
+few active nihilists remaining to seek his life.
+
+"Well, Jean," I said, as I entered the room where he was confined,
+"would you like to leave prison and Russia?"
+
+"Indeed I would, sir," he replied. "There is nothing that would make me
+quite so happy as that. Has the time come to let me go?"
+
+"I think so. Are you quite sure that there is nothing that would make
+you as happy as permission and passports to leave the country?"
+
+"Quite."
+
+"Not even----"
+
+"No, not even that to which you refer, or are about to refer. I have
+had plenty of time for thought, since you brought me here, and I have
+unraveled the fact that I made a consummate fool of myself. I will not
+deny that I still love her, or that I probably always will love her,
+but I know that she never did, and never will, love me. That ends it,
+you see, and so I am glad to get away."
+
+"Was it the princess, Jean?" I asked.
+
+"You have been very good to me, Mr. Derrington, and I ought to deny you
+nothing. Still I hope you will not ask me to tell you anything
+concerning the woman I was foolish enough to love so madly."
+
+"I honor you for that expression, Jean, and I will ask you only one
+question. You can reply to it readily enough. Do you love her still,
+and well enough, so that you wish her every happiness? So well that you
+cherish no ill will against her for what she did to you?"
+
+"I would give up my liberty, now, to be assured that she might always
+be happy; yes, even to know that she has broken with the nihilists; for
+sooner or later they would lead her to Siberia. Will you answer one
+question for me, Mr. Derrington?"
+
+"Willingly."
+
+"Has she been arrested?" He did not appreciate the confession involved
+in his question.
+
+"No; and she will not be. She has also broken with the nihilists. And,
+Moret, I wish you to know that I honor you for not telling me her name.
+I know to whom you refer."
+
+He was silent a moment, until with some confusion in his manner, he
+said:
+
+"I would like to shake hands with you, Mr. Derrington. You are a good
+man, and in whatever country Jean Moret finds a home, there you will
+always find a friend of yours."
+
+We had some other conversation, and then I gave him his passports,
+together with sufficient money for his needs. I personally conducted
+him from the place of imprisonment, and we finally parted in the
+street. That was the last I ever saw of Jean Moret, but whatever his
+ultimate fate, I knew him to be a man of sterling qualities.
+
+From there I made my way to the office of my friend Canfield, where it
+was arranged that I should receive the reports of my men, and there,
+closeted with Canfield, I remained until daylight. Messengers were
+coming and going constantly, and I knew long before dawn that every
+plan that I had laid had worked out just as I intended it should. I
+knew that when the sun rose, there would not be a half dozen real
+nihilists at liberty in St. Petersburg, and that the order would be
+paralyzed and broken throughout the empire. To just one portion of the
+night's work, I paid particular personal attention, and that was to the
+arrest and disposition of those who knew Zara and Ivan, personally, and
+who were aware of her condemnation to death by the order. Many of those
+who were arrested that night, were sent to Siberia for life, and
+others, for long terms of imprisonment; but I could not be criticised
+for that, for they one and all deserved to go. I was yet to meet with
+an adventure before I returned to the emperor, however.
+
+After leaving Canfield I sought an interview with O'Malley. I found
+that without going out of my way, I could pass the residence of the
+prince, where I believed Zara to be peacefully sleeping, for I knew
+that Durnief must have suffered arrest before there was opportunity for
+him to carry out the czar's order. I had taken the precaution to
+instruct Coyle, early in the evening, to place a good watch on the
+house, fearing there might be a chance that one of the spies of the
+nihilists had succeeded in following us, and that they might attempt an
+attack upon her, there. Of Durnief, I had not thought again, for when
+the czar told me that he had been sent after the princess, I had every
+confidence that the man would be arrested before he could gain
+admittance to Zara's presence. Later, at Canfield's office, I had
+received the report that he had been taken.
+
+It was just breaking day as I approached the house, and I could see
+that a light was burning in the room where I had left her. I decided at
+once that she had determined to remain in that room, and had probably
+not thought of retiring. I could not criticise such a reluctance, under
+the circumstances; and while I was congratulating myself upon the fact
+that she would not have to pass such another night as this one, I saw
+the front door swing suddenly open, and the form of a woman in whom I
+instantly recognized Zara, ran down the steps and leaped into a waiting
+_droshka_, which had hitherto escaped my notice. Instantly the horses
+started away at a gallop. I was two hundred feet distant. There was not
+a person in sight, for Coyle, believing, doubtless, that all danger was
+past, had withdrawn his guard.
+
+There are times in our lives when peril, in threatening a loved one,
+brings out the best there is in a man, and renders him suddenly capable
+of coping with any emergency. I knew of but one way to stop those
+horses, and I used it. Always a good shot, I drew my revolver, aimed it
+at the nearest horse, and pulled the trigger. Then, before the sound of
+the first report had lost itself along the street, I fired again. One
+of the horses pitched forward, shot through the brain, I knew; the
+other fell upon the first, and I ran forward at all speed, towards the
+wrecked and overturned _droshka_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+THE COMBAT IN THE SNOW
+
+
+As I ran, I saw an officer in uniform leap from the interior of the
+_droshka_, and draw his sword in preparation for my attack, while his
+_yemschik_, whip in hand, scrambled from the snow, and assumed a
+place beside him. They evidently supposed the attack to be of a very
+different character than it really was. The wounded horse was
+struggling and kicking, and I found time to think of the grave danger
+that its hoofs might injure Zara, whom I judged to be unconscious from
+fright, or because of the shock; and so, heedless of my own necessities
+in undertaking an assault upon the two men who now faced me, I fired a
+third bullet into the maddened animal. Then, as I sprang to the attack,
+I saw and recognized the man who confronted me, and my heart bounded
+with thanksgiving that I had taken that route to the palace. I
+recognized Alexis Durnief.
+
+The report of his arrest had been false, or he had managed in some way
+to escape; and even then, in that instant of rushing onward upon the
+two men, I could not help wondering by what means he had managed to
+entice Zara from the house in which she had taken refuge. I had two
+bullets remaining in my revolver; at least I thought so, and I raised
+it, and pulled the trigger a fourth time, thus placing the _yemschik_
+effectually out of that combat, and rendering it impossible for him
+ever to engage in others; and then, when barely ten feet away from the
+scoundrelly captain, I leveled the weapon at him and ordered him to
+throw down his sword. He laughed derisively, for he was not a coward,
+and he knew that death would be far preferable to the fate that would
+be his, if he were captured alive.
+
+"So! It is my friend Dubravnik, is it?" he said, insolently, but in a
+tone as cool as though he were greeting me in a ballroom. "You have
+killed my horses, and my _yemschik_; why not do the same for me?"
+
+I hesitated.
+
+To shoot a man like that, was against every impulse of my soul; and yet
+he was armed with a weapon as deadly as mine, if once I should get
+within reach of its point. I possessed none with which to meet him on
+even ground. But, inside the _droshka_, was unquestionably the
+unconscious form of the woman I loved. The occasion was a crisis. There
+could be no temporizing. Zara must be rescued.
+
+"Throw down your sword, or I will certainly kill you!" I commanded him,
+again.
+
+"Kill," he replied, laconically. There was no other way, and I pulled
+the trigger.
+
+There was no report. Durnief did not fall, as the horses, and his
+_yemschik_ had done. He stood unharmed, for the cartridge was bad,
+or the chamber of my revolver was unloaded. Instantly he understood
+that he had me at his mercy, and with a deadly smile upon his face he
+leaped forward to run me through.
+
+As he sprang towards me, I hurled the pistol with all my strength
+towards him. It struck him squarely in the breast, staggering him, and
+forcing him off his guard. Then, before he could recover, I sprang past
+the point of his weapon. I seized his sword arm, by the wrist, with my
+left hand, and threw my other arm around his body. We were as evenly
+matched as though we had trained at weights and measurements for the
+combat, and for a moment we struggled madly together, while I exerted
+all my strength to bend his wrist backward, so that he would be
+compelled to drop his sword.
+
+It seems strange that such a struggle, taking place in the streets of a
+great city immediately following upon the four reports of my pistol,
+had not attracted attention and drawn somebody to the scene, but the
+passing night had been one of terror; policemen had been called away
+from their posts, and at that hour, just after dawn, when everything
+was quiet, nobody heard, or if they heard, feared to come. In using all
+my effort to compel him to drop his weapon I neglected the other
+necessary points of the struggle, and although I succeeded in my
+design, he forced me backwards at the same instant so that I fell
+beneath him, but I still had my right arm tightly clasped around him,
+and I hugged him to me with all the strength that I could master. With
+Durnief, it was a struggle for life, liberty, and everything that he
+possessed, and he fought with all the desperation of a madman. With me,
+it was life, and the woman I loved, and I fought coolly, knowing that
+he could not get away from me, believing that I could tire him out, and
+satisfied that I could prevent him from securing his sword again. He
+managed to wrench his hand from my grasp, and he struck me a savage
+blow on the head with his fist, but I threw the other arm around him
+then, and hugged him all the tighter, so that he was unable to repeat
+the blow.
+
+It was a strange combat. A person ten feet away could not have heard
+it, for there was no sound save our heavy breathing. The snow deadened
+every noise that might have been made otherwise. The air was bitterly
+cold.
+
+Presently I became conscious of the fact that my opponent was striving
+with all his might to force me in a certain direction, and I correctly
+conjectured that he had been able to discover the location of the sword
+and was making an attempt to reach it. So I bent my energies to
+avoiding his effort. My life had been largely one of adventure, and I
+had taken part in many combats, but never before in one like this where
+it was simply a matter of endurance, where neither party to the fray
+was suffering injury, and where the hope of success was so evenly
+divided. Odd as it may seem, while pinioning him thus so that he could
+not act on the offensive, I began to conjecture how long we might hold
+out, and the probability of assistance arriving to end it; and it was
+the uncertainty of the nature of that assistance that concerned me
+most.
+
+I have said that there were not half a dozen confessed nihilists
+remaining at liberty in St. Petersburg, but there were hundreds, ay,
+thousands of nihilistic sympathizers, and there were hundreds of others
+who had become allied to the nihilists in some extrinsic way, who were
+in sympathy with the order, even if only passively so. If one or more
+of such were to happen along the assistance would surely be upon the
+side of my enemy, and certain defeat and death would be my portion. If
+a mere citizen were to interfere, the captain who still wore his
+uniform, would secure the proffered aid, not I. He would be believed,
+not I, and hence I understood that whatever advantage there might be in
+the way of interference, was on his side. Appreciating these facts, I
+exerted my strength to the utmost to turn the tide of battle in my
+favor, but I could accomplish nothing. He was as strong as I, though
+not more powerful, and so I relapsed again into the mere effort to hold
+him helpless, and to take the chances of wearing him out before
+assistance should come.
+
+It seemed to me as though an hour passed thus; in reality, it may have
+been only a few moments, for minutes are long under such circumstances;
+and then there came an interruption--and a strange one.
+
+"With whom are you struggling, Captain Durnief?" I heard a voice say.
+
+"Zara!" I exclaimed, before Durnief could reply.
+
+"With an assassin who has shot our horses, murdered the _yemschik_, and
+who would assassinate you, princess," panted Durnief.
+
+"Zara!" I called to her again. "It is I--Dubravnik."
+
+I heard her gasp, and although I could not see her, I was conscious
+that she deliberately walked around us, probably to obtain a better
+view of me; and in that moment I think I doubted her; but I tightened
+my grip around the man I held, and waited grimly for events to shape
+themselves.
+
+"Dubravnik?" she said, in a low tone, as if she were not convinced; but
+I did not speak again; and the captain also remained silent. Minutes,
+which seemed like hours, passed in another deathlike silence, broken
+only by the panting of Durnief. I wondered if Zara had fainted, or had
+gone for help, or what! There seemed to be no good reason for the
+silence, and the waiting. Why did she not grasp the sword, and send its
+point through one of us? It did not much matter to me, then, which one
+she might choose for its sheath.
+
+Soon, however, I heard a sound directly above me--a sound which a stick
+might make in smiting the ground, and I felt that Durnief shuddered. In
+another instant it came again, and his arms relaxed, but only to
+tighten about me the more convulsively. Then a short pause, which was
+followed by the thudding sound of a blow heavier than its predecessors,
+and instantly following it, the tensioned muscles of Durnief relaxed.
+His arms fell from their clasp around me. I pushed him aside as though
+he were dead, and for a moment believed that he was; then springing
+upright, to my feet, I was just in time to catch the tottering form of
+my princess, who, though not unconscious, had spent her last remaining
+strength in that third blow. Her left hand held Durnief's sword. In her
+right was the _mujik's_ whip, and I saw that she had used the stock of
+it to aid me.
+
+"I stood for a long time, with the sword pressed against his back,
+where it would have pierced his heart," she murmured in my ear, while
+she clung to me. "I wanted to kill him, but I could not do it. Then I
+found the _yemschik's_ whip, but I had not the strength to strike. Do
+you wonder why I left the house? The _yemschik_ came to get me. He
+brought a note, signed by you. It said that my brother had been
+wounded, and was at my house; that it was safe for me to go there now.
+I hastened. I ran to the _droshka_, and sprang inside before I knew
+that it was occupied. Durnief was there. He seized me. Something was
+wrapped around my head, and I lost consciousness, I think. Then I heard
+sounds, as if men were fighting, and I crawled from the overturned
+_droshka_, and saw you two struggling together, in the snow. I was
+dazed, frightened, and very weak. I did not remember what had happened;
+I did not recognize you. I thought, at first, that it was Durnief whom
+I should assist, and I stood there, watching the struggle for a long
+time, trying to remember. Then recollection came, for I heard your
+voice. It recalled to me my senses. I remembered who Dubravnik was. Is
+it not strange that I should have forgotten? Even for a moment, is it
+not strange that I should have forgotten?"
+
+"No, dear, no," I replied.
+
+"Then I found the sword, in the snow. I remembered that I wanted to
+kill Durnief, and I put the point against his back. But I could not
+press upon it. I tried, but I could not do it. It was horrible,
+Dubravnik, horrible. I tried a second time, and the point of the sword
+was actually piercing his clothing, when my eyes fell upon the whip. I
+secured it. There! See! He is reviving. Seize him, for he must not
+escape."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+WHAT THE CZAR FORGOT
+
+
+I took Zara back to the house of the prince, where I was well known to
+every servant of the establishment, for I had been a constant and an
+honored guest, there. From it I despatched messengers to O'Malley, and
+to Coyle, and presently sent Durnief away to prison, in charge of the
+former, while the latter brought a conveyance which took Zara and me to
+the home of my princess. It was a much quicker return than I had
+anticipated, at the time we departed from that house together, but the
+condition in which we found it, told only too plainly what might have
+been my sweetheart's fate, had I trusted to appearances, and left her
+there. The nihilists had lost no time in searching for her, when they
+were made to believe that she had betrayed them. The place was almost a
+wreck. It had been searched, and the searchers had not hesitated to
+become despoilers, also. Nevertheless it was a happy homecoming for
+Zara, for looking upon the devastation that had been wrought in her
+absence, she turned to me with a smile, and said:
+
+"I have lost much, this past night, Dubravnik, in shattered idols and
+broken toys, but I have gained the whole world, too, for I have found
+you."
+
+When I had seen Zara safely inside her own door, and had given her
+every assurance of her entire safety, I had myself driven to the
+palace.
+
+Although I had promised to see the emperor as soon as I arrived, I felt
+that it was my first duty to interview Prince Michael, in the hope that
+the events of the preceding day might be reviewed in a better spirit.
+Accordingly, I proceeded at once to his apartments, after the captain
+of the guard had assured me that his majesty was still sleeping, not
+having retired until nearly daylight. When I rapped upon the door of
+the room occupied by the prince, as a sleeping apartment, there was no
+response, and I repeated the summons, more loudly than before. Still I
+waited in vain, and at last, feeling some misgivings, and being assured
+by the guard in the corridor that the prince had not left the room
+since he had gone to it the preceding evening, I turned the handle and
+entered.
+
+I found him there. He was seated in a chair near one of the great
+windows through which the lately risen sun was shining full upon him;
+and the moment my eyes discovered him I started with horror, for I saw
+that he was dead. Instantly I stepped back through the door, and told
+the guard to call his captain, pointing out the lifeless form of the
+prince, and ordering him to tell nobody but his superior officer of the
+fact. Then I reentered the room and approached the body of my former
+friend. There was a pistol beside him on the floor where it had fallen
+from his nerveless grasp after the fatal deed was performed, but he
+reclined as easily in the chair as though he had dropped asleep
+naturally, for a short nap instead of forever.
+
+"Poor Michael!" I murmured. "Did I drive you to this? Would that I had
+not spoken."
+
+I turned to glance around the room, professional instinct getting the
+best of me even in that moment of sorrow, and I quickly espied a letter
+upon the table. It was addressed to his majesty, the emperor, and was
+tightly sealed, so I placed it in my pocket and started to leave the
+room. At the door I met the captain of the guard with two of his men,
+and them I instructed to keep watch, but on no account to touch
+anything without his majesty's permission. Then I sought the czar.
+
+"Well, Derrington?" he asked, as soon as I was admitted to his
+presence. "What of the night? Is the conspiracy crushed, and have you
+been successful?"
+
+"Entirely so. Nihilism is effectually crushed for many years to come.
+My work in St. Petersburg is really done, I think. At least I can
+assure you that you will have no cause to fear the hand of an assassin
+for a long time; until this weed starts up anew."
+
+"We are safe, then. Thank God for that."
+
+"You are perfectly safe. The prisons are full to overflowing. I have
+sent many of the less guilty ones over the border with instructions not
+to return for many years to come. You will miss a few faces at court.
+You will be forced to fill a few vacancies in the army. The next
+caravan across Siberia will be a larger one than the last, and the
+population of this city will be depleted by nearly three thousand souls
+counting all that I have enumerated."
+
+"This is glorious news to awaken to--glorious! I cannot repay you the
+debt I owe you, Derrington."
+
+"Now that you have heard the good news, can you bear to hear some that
+is not so good, monsieur?"
+
+"What! Is there bad news also?"
+
+"Necessarily, there must have been some fatalities."
+
+"Ah! Some one was killed? Some friend of mine?"
+
+"Yes. Some one has killed himself."
+
+"Durnief?"
+
+"No. He is a prisoner."
+
+"Why keep me waiting? Tell me at once."
+
+"I greatly fear, your majesty, that I am responsible for this death.
+Here is the letter he left. Read it. I do not know what it contains. I
+only just now discovered the body."
+
+"_Michael!_" He exclaimed as soon as he saw the handwriting. I made no
+reply and he broke the seal and read the last words of his lifelong
+friend. Presently he returned it to me.
+
+"Read," he said, and I read.
+
+    _My Friend_,--
+
+    In death, qualities of rank cease, hence I address you as I have
+    always felt towards you--as my friend. Derrington was right; he
+    told the truth, and I lied. I am not now and have never been a
+    nihilist in spirit, but it is true that I am one in fact. I joined
+    them in a moment of folly, to protect a friend whom I knew to be
+    one. I have never allied myself to them, and have never attended
+    one meeting of theirs. The friend for whose sake I joined has been
+    generous, and no demands have been made upon me; nevertheless, I am
+    guilty. Yet, believe me my friend, when with my last breath I
+    assure you that I have never harbored one disloyal thought towards
+    you or yours, and I should unhesitatingly have betrayed the
+    nihilists had I ever known of a single circumstance inimical to
+    you. But I can live no longer under this disgrace, so I die. I
+    beseech you let not the truth of my dishonor be known abroad. I was
+    unjust to Derrington, and I crave his pardon. I loved him as a
+    brother, and as brothers quarrel at times, so did we. He is
+    faithful; trust him. May God lead you in the right; may He preserve
+    your life and your empire, and may He have mercy upon me.
+
+                                       MICHAEL.
+
+Alexander was true to his friendship for Prince Michael. He mourned him
+sincerely, and nobody ever knew the true cause of the prince's death.
+The emperor respected that last wish of his dead friend. There was yet
+more mischief to be done, however, by that arch villain Durnief, for
+while we were still occupied with the care of Prince Michael's remains,
+the czar sent for me in haste.
+
+"This is a day of surprising missives," he said. "Here is another
+letter for you to read." I took it in my hand and glanced at the
+signature.
+
+"Durnief," I said, with a sneer. "Why should I read it? The man cannot
+tell the truth."
+
+"Because I desire you to do so."
+
+The note began in the usual form of addresses to the emperor, and was
+as follows:
+
+    You have ere this been informed, and supplied with ample proof,
+    that I am among the ranks of your enemies, the nihilists. I confess
+    it, but I became one of them for selfish motives, not for political
+    ones. Never mind that. It is not my intention to intercede for
+    mercy, for I know that your heart is a stranger to that quality. It
+    is to tell you a truth that you should know. It is to tell you that
+    the one most dangerous of all nihilists, is to go free; is to
+    remain in Russia; is to have access to your palace; is spared by
+    your trusted spy, Dubravnik; is upheld by him. This nihilist to
+    whom I refer, has been, ever since the death of my one time rival,
+    Stanislaus, the most dangerous of all the extremists. This nihilist
+    leader is a woman, and her name is Zara de Echeveria. Dubravnik
+    will spare her; he will spare her brother who is as violent as she
+    is.
+
+    One last word. I will never go to Siberia for I have the means to
+    cheat you out of the pleasure of sending me there, and when you
+    read this, I shall have been an hour dead.
+
+                                       ALEXIS DURNIEF.
+
+"Well," demanded his majesty, "what have you to say?"
+
+"Nothing."
+
+"Nothing!"
+
+"No."
+
+"Have you arrested her?"
+
+"I have not."
+
+"Where is she now?"
+
+"In her own home. I took her there this morning. Listen for a moment,
+and I will tell you how that occurred."
+
+Then I related in detail the story of my struggle with Durnief, the
+rescue of Zara, her heroism in assisting me, and I told of the final
+capture and imprisonment of the captain. But his majesty shook his head
+in a doubt.
+
+"I believe Durnief's letter. She is a nihilist," he said. "She must be
+arrested." I shook my head, but he did not see the motion and
+continued: "I believe that the princess is the friend to whom poor
+Michael referred. He was in love with her and nothing short of the love
+of a woman could have made him disloyal to me. Yes, I believe that she
+is what Durnief says she is. I order you to place her under arrest at
+once."
+
+"She shall not be arrested," I said, coldly.
+
+"What!" he cried, "you dare to disobey me?"
+
+"Yes," I replied, "I _dare_ to disobey such an order as that. It shall
+not be."
+
+"Are you a traitor, also? Was Michael right?"
+
+There was that sneering smile upon his face now, but I held my ground.
+
+"I am not a traitor, but I will not carry out your request, and I will
+not permit it to be carried out." He was aghast at my effrontery. He
+could only gaze at me in amazement, too greatly confounded for speech;
+and I continued: "Listen to me one moment, your majesty."
+
+"I will not listen to you. The road to Siberia may be traveled by you
+as well as by the friends whom you apprehended last night, and by
+heaven, you shall follow it!"
+
+"You forget one thing," I said. "You have forgotten----"
+
+"What have I forgotten?"
+
+"The Fraternity of Silence."
+
+"Bah!"
+
+"I foresaw this moment, your majesty, and my men have their orders to
+meet it. If I am molested, every nihilist who was arrested last
+night--every one who was in prison in the city before that time--will
+be liberated in an hour, and you have not soldiers nor policemen enough
+to stop the tide that will flow against you then. Your empire will
+crumble like dust, and your life will go out like the snuffing of a
+candle. For the present, I am the Czar of Russia, and you are only
+Alexander Alexandrovitch." He sat still and looked at me with staring
+eyes. "You are only a man, after all, monsieur," I continued more
+softly. "In your fears for the safety of your family, for your empire,
+and for yourself, you are led to do unjust things. Only an hour ago you
+said that you owed me a debt that you could never repay. You do owe me
+a debt, and you can repay it if you will forget for a moment that you
+are a monarch, and remember that you are a man. You can repay all you
+owe me, and more, if you will still be my friend, and forget that this
+scene has occurred; and when you have done that, I will tell you that
+Zara de Echeveria is to be the wife of Daniel Derrington; is to leave
+Russia forever with her husband, and were she the worst nihilist in the
+empire--and I know that she is not--she will be far away from any
+temptation to do you harm, and under the guidance of one who has proven
+his devotion to you. I will tell you more: I will leave the direction
+of the affairs of the fraternity in the hands of one of my men who is
+as expert as I am, and who is in every way as worthy of your
+confidences as I have proven myself to be--Canfield."
+
+The czar rose unsteadily to his feet and came towards me with his right
+hand extended.
+
+"Derrington," he said, slowly, "I have been unjust. If I had other
+friends like you, who dared to tell me the truth as it is, and not
+distort it out of all recognition--if there were others here who dared
+to defy me when defiance alone will make me see things in their right
+light, Russia would be the better for it. Go to Zara d'Echeveria. Tell
+her that I wish her to come here. Tell her that the Czar of Russia will
+ask her forgiveness for an act that he could not avoid committing. She
+will understand. You shall be married in the palace, and you will both
+remain in Russia."
+
+Then he put his arms around me in Russian fashion and bade me go.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+SABEREVSKI'S PROPHECY
+
+
+All this time I had forgotten Ivan, whom I had left, bound and
+helpless, at my rooms, and who, I knew, must be suffering untold
+tortures of doubt and dread, concerning the happenings of the night. So
+now I hastened to him with all speed. Poor chap, he was nearly done for
+by the strained position he had been compelled to maintain for so long
+a time, but I have always believed that it did him good, and that
+without it he might have been less tractable, when the time came for a
+reconciliation with his sister. It gave him an opportunity for the
+right sort of meditation, which, perhaps, he had never enjoyed before.
+Every time the temptation came to him to break his bonds and make his
+escape, he remembered that he must remain where he was, for the sake of
+the sister he loved so well, whose life would be forfeited so easily,
+if he should carry to his nihilistic friends the knowledge he
+possessed. I found him weak, and worn, but still firm in the
+determination to await my coming. I unbound him, gave him food and wine
+and as soon as he was sufficiently recovered ordered my droshka and
+took him to Zara's house.
+
+I made him wait until I had gone to her, and told her of my last
+interview with the emperor, and I succeeded in securing her reluctant
+consent to go to the palace with me that day. Then I called to Ivan,
+and when I saw the brother and sister clasped in each other's arms, I
+left them alone together. What passed between them, I have never been
+told, and I never thought it necessary to ask. I only know that when I
+was presently called into the consultation, Ivan offered me his hand,
+tenderly, and I grasped it, warmly.
+
+"You are to be my brother," he said; "and Zara tells me that you two
+are going to America, to live. May I go with you, Dubravnik? Will you
+take me, also, out of this hell of plotting and scheming, and this
+chaos of exile and death? Will you make an American of me, and let me
+be your brother, indeed?"
+
+After that, we three passed a very happy hour together, after which I
+hurried away, with the assurance that Zara would accompany me into the
+presence of the czar, that evening. I had not told her of the death of
+Prince Michael, for the knowledge of it, and why he had killed himself,
+could only cast a shadow over the great joy she was now experiencing;
+afterward, there would be a time and place for the telling, and I did
+not want the knowledge of it to come upon her with a shock, just now.
+
+Weeks afterward, when we were on the deck of the steamer that was
+taking us to my own country, as we stood together, overlooking a
+moonlit sea, she reached up, and with one of her soft, fair hands,
+turned my face towards hers with a gesture that was characteristic; and
+I loved it.
+
+"Dubravnik," she said--she still insists that she will always address
+me so, because it is the name by which she first knew me--"I do not
+know myself, any more. I am not the same woman who was once so
+vengeful. Love has taught me how to forgive. Love has made me over
+again. I am no longer the same Zara."
+
+"No," I said lightly, "for now you are Zara Derrington."
+
+"Tell me," she asked, after another interval of gazing across the
+waters, "shall we see Alexis Saberevski, over there, where your home
+is?"
+
+I did not answer the question, for upon the instant she mentioned the
+name of my friend, it recalled to me the circumstance of my last
+parting with him. I remembered the sealed envelope he had given me, and
+the instructions that came with it. I had forgotten it entirely, until
+that moment; but now, without replying to her question, I drew the
+missive from my pocket and broke the seal.
+
+What I read there seems wonderfully prophetic to me, even now, and I
+read it over a second time, in my amazement. Then I gave it to Zara.
+
+"Read," I said, "for there is the answer to your question."
+
+And this is the letter Zara read aloud to me, while we two leaned
+against the rail of the vessel that was bearing us to our home across
+the sea. The man in the moon was looking down, and smiling upon our
+happiness, and shedding sufficient light for my sweetheart-wife to see
+Saberevski's written words. They were:--
+
+    Derrington, these written words are to make you and Zara de
+    Echeveria known to each other. Months will pass, and many of them
+    may do so, before you will read what is written here; and it may
+    be, it likely will be, that you are standing side by side when you
+    break the seal of the last communication, written or oral, which I
+    shall probably ever submit to you. For our paths, henceforth, will
+    lead us widely apart, Derrington. You are a free agent, the arbiter
+    of your own destiny; I am one who can take no initiative regarding
+    the paths I must tread. But this letter is not to speak of myself,
+    but is to tell you about her, if, perchance, when you read these
+    words, you have never met.
+
+    Yesterday, when a ship sailed away from its pier in the North
+    River, you accompanied me to the dock, amazed that I should ask you
+    to do so, and doubtless wondering all the while why I made no
+    effort to see, or to speak with any person, there. But when the
+    ship had swung into the stream, you saw me wave my hand in farewell
+    to some person among those who thronged her decks. That person was
+    Zara de Echeveria, the princess to whose presence in New York you
+    lately called my attention, but respecting which I was already
+    informed; for at the moment of your communication I had already
+    seen her, and talked with her, and we had parted as you and I will
+    do when I place this letter in your hands--forever.
+
+    You are going upon a mission, Derrington, although it may be that
+    you have not decided in your own mind to do so; but the decision is
+    there, awaiting your recognition of it. Your mission will take you
+    to Russia, to accomplish the great work I have suggested to you. I
+    have willed it that you must go, and go you will. You will serve
+    the czar as faithfully as I have done; but better, because you are
+    not a Russian, and you have not the inborn awe of title and rank.
+
+    And you will have been successful in that mission when you have
+    read these written words, for I shall instruct you not to break the
+    seal until you are ready to take your departure from that country,
+    which you will never do without having attained success. You are to
+    serve the czar, and for him and in his name, will achieve the
+    disruption of the nihilist societies of St. Petersburg, and
+    therefore of the empire. I know your thoroughness, and I anticipate
+    that very many among the prominent revolutionists will soon be
+    known to you. Among them you will find the name I have written
+    here--Zara de Echeveria.
+
+    I present her to you, Derrington, by this letter, as if we three
+    were standing together in the form of formal introduction. I am a
+    fatalist, and I know that you two will meet, and read your
+    destinies in each other's souls. If you are already together, there
+    will be no need of this letter, save to tell you how thoroughly and
+    how well I love you both. God has written your futures on the same
+    page of the book of destiny, and I have read the writing. You are
+    created for one another, and as surely as God's love watches over
+    us all, just so surely has He put the seal of enduring human love
+    upon you both. Why it will be so, and how it will come about, I
+    have not the skill to tell, but my prophetic vision looked into the
+    futures of you both, when I talked with you, one after another,
+    yesterday; and I saw you passing down the declining years of life,
+    hand in hand, and heart with heart, like one.
+
+    If Zara be not with you, seek her.
+
+    The name will be familiar to you, by reason of your late
+    employment, even though she may have escaped your personal
+    recognition till now. Therefore, I repeat, if Zara be not with you
+    now, turn about and seek her. I charge you so.
+
+    But something tells me that you will be together, standing side by
+    side, happier in the great love that has come to you both, than all
+    your dreams have ever promised. Therefore, I bless you and may the
+    good God who made you for each other, hold you in his keeping
+    always.
+
+                                       SABEREVSKI.
+
+Zara and I were both strangely silent after the reading of the letter,
+but I took her quietly in my arms, and she pillowed her head against my
+shoulder while we looked out across the moonlit sea, praising God, and
+insensibly calling down blessings upon the name of our good friend.
+
+"Saberevski knew me to be a nihilist, and warned me against it that
+day," she said to me.
+
+"He was the dearest friend I ever had," I replied; and she murmured:
+
+"He was a good man."
+
+Who can tell how Alexis Saberevski could have foreseen this meeting of
+the ways, between Zara and me? What was it that directed his prophetic
+vision across the mystery of many months, to discover us two, standing
+side by side, when we perused his letter? What was it that told him
+that we would love and wed?
+
+Many years have passed since that night on the steamship's deck, and we
+have never seen nor heard from Saberevski since.
+
+He was a mystery to me when I knew him; he remains a mystery still.
+
+But the greatest mystery of all is love.
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+BOOKS ON NATURE STUDY BY
+
+CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS
+
+Handsomely bound in cloth. Price, 75 cents per volume, postpaid.
+
+                     *      *      *      *      *
+
+THE KINDRED OF THE WILD. A Book of Animal Life. With illustrations by
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+
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+
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+RED FOX. The Story of His Adventurous Career in the Ringwaak Wilds, and
+His Triumphs over the Enemies of His Kind. With 50 illustrations,
+including frontispiece in color and cover design by Charles Livingston
+Bull.
+
+A brilliant chapter in natural history. Infinitely more wholesome
+reading than the average tale of sport, since it gives a glimpse of the
+hunt from the point of view of the hunted. "True in substance but
+fascinating as fiction. It will interest old and young, city-bound and
+free-footed, those who know animals and those who do not."--_Chicago
+Record-Herald._
+
+                     *      *      *      *      *
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, Publishers, New York
+
+
+
+
+FAMOUS COPYRIGHT BOOKS
+
+IN POPULAR PRICED EDITIONS
+
+Re-issues of the great literary successes of the time, library size,
+printed on excellent paper--most of them finely illustrated. Full and
+handsomely bound in cloth. Price, 75 cents a volume, postpaid.
+
+                     *      *      *      *      *
+
+NEDRA, by George Barr McCutcheon, with color frontispiece, and other
+illustrations by Harrison Fisher.
+
+The story of an elopement of a young couple from Chicago, who decide to
+go to London, travelling as brother and sister. Their difficulties
+commence in New York and become greatly exaggerated when they are
+shipwrecked in mid-ocean. The hero finds himself stranded on the island
+of Nedra with another girl, whom he has rescued by mistake. The story
+gives an account of their finding some of the other passengers, and the
+circumstances which resulted from the strange mix-up.
+
+
+POWER LOT, by Sarah P. McLean Greene. Illustrated.
+
+The story of the reformation of a man and his restoration to
+self-respect through the power of honest labor, the exercise of honest
+independence, and the aid of clean, healthy, out-of-door life and
+surroundings. The characters take hold of the heart and win sympathy.
+The dear old story has never been more lovingly and artistically told.
+
+
+MY MAMIE ROSE. The History of My Regeneration, by Owen Kildare.
+Illustrated.
+
+This _autobiography_ is a powerful book of love and sociology. Reads
+like the strangest fiction. Is the strongest truth and deals with the
+story of a man's redemption through a woman's love and devotion.
+
+
+JOHN BURT, by Frederick Upham Adams, with illustrations.
+
+John Burt, a New England lad, goes West to seek his fortune and finds
+it in gold mining. He becomes one of the financial factors and
+pitilessly crushes his enemies. The story of the Stock Exchange
+manipulations was never more vividly and engrossingly told. A love
+story runs through the book, and is handled with infinite skill.
+
+
+THE HEART LINE, by Gelett Burgess, with halftone illustrations by
+Lester Ralph, and inlay cover in colors.
+
+A great dramatic story of the city that was. A story of Bohemian life
+in San Francisco, before the disaster, presented with mirror-like
+accuracy. Compressed into it are all the sparkle, all the gayety, all
+the wild, whirling life of the glad, mad, bad, and most delightful city
+of the Golden Gate.
+
+                     *      *      *      *      *
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, Publishers, New York
+
+
+
+
+FAMOUS COPYRIGHT BOOKS
+
+IN POPULAR PRICED EDITIONS
+
+Re-issues of the great literary successes of the time, library size,
+printed on excellent paper--most of them finely illustrated. Full and
+handsomely bound in cloth. Price, 75 cents a volume, postpaid.
+
+                     *      *      *      *      *
+
+CAROLINA LEE. By Lillian Bell. With frontispiece by Dora Wheeler Keith.
+
+Carolina Lee is the Uncle Tom's Cabin of Christian Science. Its keynote
+is "Divine Love" in the understanding of the knowledge of all good
+things which may be obtainable. When the tale is told, the sick healed,
+wrong changed to right, poverty of purse and spirit turned into riches,
+lovers made worthy of each other and happily united, including Carolina
+Lee and her affinity, it is borne upon the reader that he has been
+giving rapid attention to a free lecture on Christian Science; that the
+working out of each character is an argument for "Faith;" and that the
+theory is persuasively attractive.
+
+A Christian Science novel that will bring delight to the heart of every
+believer in that faith. It is a well told story, entertaining, and
+cleverly mingles art, humor and sentiment.
+
+
+HILMA, by William Tillinghast Eldridge, with illustrations by Harrison
+Fisher and Martin Justice, and inlay cover.
+
+It is a rattling good tale, written with charm, and full of remarkable
+happenings, dangerous doings, strange events, jealous intrigues and
+sweet love making. The reader's interest is not permitted to lag, but
+is taken up and carried on from incident to incident with ingenuity and
+contagious enthusiasm. The story gives us the _Graustark_ and _The
+Prisoner of Zenda_ thrill, but the tale is treated with freshness,
+ingenuity, and enthusiasm, and the climax is both unique and
+satisfying. It will hold the fiction lover close to every page.
+
+
+THE MYSTERY OF THE FOUR FINGERS, by Fred M. White, with halftone
+illustrations by Will Grefe.
+
+A fabulously rich gold mine in Mexico is known by the picturesque and
+mysterious name of _The Four Fingers_. It originally belonged to an
+Aztec tribe, and its location is known to one surviving descendant--a
+man possessing wonderful occult power. Should any person unlawfully
+discover its whereabouts, four of his fingers are mysteriously removed,
+and one by one returned to him. The appearance of the final fourth
+betokens his swift and violent death.
+
+Surprises, strange and startling, are concealed in every chapter of
+this completely engrossing detective story. The horrible fascination of
+the tragedy holds one in rapt attention to the end. And through it runs
+the thread of a curious love story.
+
+                     *      *      *      *      *
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, Publishers, New York
+
+
+
+
+
+MEREDITH NICHOLSON'S
+
+FASCINATING ROMANCES
+
+Handsomely bound in cloth. Price, 75 cents per volume, postpaid.
+
+                     *      *      *      *      *
+
+THE HOUSE OF A THOUSAND CANDLES. With a frontispiece in colors by
+Howard Chandler Christy.
+
+A novel of romance and adventure, of love and valor, of mystery and
+hidden treasure. The hero is required to spend a whole year in the
+isolated house, which according to his grandfather's will shall then
+become his. If the terms of the will be violated the house goes to a
+young woman whom the will, furthermore, forbids him to marry. Nobody
+can guess the secret, and the whole plot moves along with an exciting
+zip.
+
+
+THE PORT OF MISSING MEN. With illustrations by Clarence F. Underwood.
+
+There is romance of love, mystery, plot, and fighting, and a breathless
+dash and go about the telling which makes one quite forget about the
+improbabilities of the story; and it all ends in the old-fashioned
+healthy American way. Shirley is a sweet, courageous heroine whose
+shining eyes lure from page to page.
+
+
+ROSALIND AT REDGATE. Illustrated by Arthur I. Keller.
+
+The author of "The House of a Thousand Candles" has here given us a
+buoyant romance brimming with lively humor and optimism; with mystery
+that breeds adventure and ends in love and happiness. A most
+entertaining and delightful book.
+
+
+THE MAIN CHANCE. With illustrations by Harrison Fisher.
+
+A "traction deal" in a Western city is the pivot about which the action
+of this clever story revolves. But it is in the character-drawing of
+the principals that the author's strength lies. Exciting incidents
+develop their inherent strength and weakness, and if virtue wins in the
+end, it is quite in keeping with its carefully-planned antecedents. The
+N.Y. _Sun_ says: "We commend it for its workmanship--for its
+smoothness, its sensible fancies, and for its general charm."
+
+
+ZELDA DAMERON. With portraits of the characters by John Cecil Clay.
+
+"A picture of the new West, at once startlingly and attractively true.
+* * * The heroine is a strange, sweet mixture of pride, wilfulness and
+lovable courage. The characters are superbly drawn; the atmosphere is
+convincing. There is about it a sweetness, a wholesomeness and a
+sturdiness that commends it to earnest, kindly and wholesome
+people."--_Boston Transcript._
+
+                     *      *      *      *      *
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, Publishers, New York
+
+
+
+
+BRILLIANT AND SPIRITED NOVELS
+
+AGNES AND EGERTON CASTLE
+
+Handsomely bound in cloth. Price, 75 cents per volume, postpaid.
+
+                     *      *      *      *      *
+
+THE PRIDE OF JENNICO. Being a Memoir of Captain Basil Jennico.
+
+"What separates it from most books of its class is its distinction of
+manner, its unusual grace of diction, its delicacy of touch, and the
+fervent charm of its love passages. It is a very attractive piece of
+romantic fiction relying for its effect upon character rather than
+incident, and upon vivid dramatic presentation."--_The Dial._ "A
+stirring, brilliant and dashing story."--_The Outlook._
+
+
+THE SECRET ORCHARD. Illustrated by Charles D. Williams.
+
+The "Secret Orchard" is set in the midst of the ultra modern society.
+The scene is in Paris, but most of the characters are English speaking.
+The story was dramatized in London, and in it the Kendalls scored a
+great theatrical success.
+
+"Artfully contrived and full of romantic charm * * * it possesses
+ingenuity of incident, a figurative designation of the unhallowed
+scenes in which unlicensed love accomplishes and wrecks faith and
+happiness."--_Athenaeum._
+
+
+YOUNG APRIL. With illustrations by A. B. Wenzell.
+
+"It is everything that a good romance should be, and it carries about
+it an air of distinction both rare and delightful."--_Chicago Tribune._
+"With regret one turns to the last page of this delightful novel, so
+delicate in its romance, so brilliant in its episodes, so sparkling in
+its art, and so exquisite in its diction."--_Worcester Spy._
+
+
+FLOWER O' THE ORANGE. With frontispiece.
+
+We have learned to expect from these fertile authors novels graceful in
+form, brisk in movement, and romantic in conception. This carries the
+reader back to the days of the bewigged and beruffled gallants of the
+seventeenth century and tells him of feats of arms and adventures in
+love as thrilling and picturesque, yet delicate, as the utmost seeker
+of romance may ask.
+
+
+MY MERRY ROCKHURST. Illustrated by Arthur E. Becher.
+
+"In the eight stories of a courtier of King Charles Second, which are
+here gathered together, the Castles are at their best, reviving all the
+fragrant charm of those books, like _The Pride of Jennico_, in which
+they first showed an instinct, amounting to genius, for sunny romances.
+The book is absorbing * * * and is as spontaneous in feeling as it is
+artistic in execution."--_New York Tribune._
+
+                     *      *      *      *      *
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, Publishers, New York
+
+
+
+
+FAMOUS COPYRIGHT BOOKS
+
+IN POPULAR PRICED EDITIONS
+
+Re-issues of the great literary successes of the time, library size,
+printed on excellent paper--most of them finely illustrated. Full and
+handsomely bound in cloth. Price, 75 cents a volume, postpaid.
+
+                     *      *      *      *      *
+
+THE CATTLE BARON'S DAUGHTER. A Novel. By Harold Bindloss. With
+illustrations by David Ericson.
+
+A story of the fight for the cattle-ranges of the West. Intense
+interest is aroused by its pictures of life in the cattle country at
+that critical moment of transition when the great tracts of land used
+for grazing were taken up by the incoming homesteaders, with the
+inevitable result of fierce contest, of passionate emotion on both
+sides, and of final triumph of the inevitable tendency of the times.
+
+
+WINSTON OF THE PRAIRIE. With illustration in color by W. Herbert
+Dunton.
+
+A man of upright character, young and clean, but badly worsted in the
+battle of life, consents as a desperate resort to impersonate for a
+period a man of his own age--scoundrelly in character but of an
+aristocratic and moneyed family. The better man finds himself barred
+from resuming his old name. How, coming into the other man's
+possessions, he wins the respect of all men, and the love of a
+fastidious, delicately nurtured girl, is the thread upon which the
+story hangs. It is one of the best novels of the West that has appeared
+for years.
+
+
+THAT MAINWARING AFFAIR. By A. Maynard Barbour. With illustrations by E.
+Plaisted Abbott.
+
+A novel with a most intricate and carefully unraveled plot. A naturally
+probable and excellently developed story and the reader will follow the
+fortunes of each character with unabating interest * * * the interest
+is keen at the close of the first chapter and increases to the end.
+
+
+AT THE TIME APPOINTED. With a frontispiece in colors by J. H. Marchand.
+
+The fortunes of a young mining engineer who through an accident loses
+his memory and identity. In his new character and under his new name,
+the hero lives a new life of struggle and adventure. The volume will be
+found highly entertaining by those who appreciate a thoroughly good
+story.
+
+                     *      *      *      *      *
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, Publishers, New York
+
+
+
+
+FAMOUS COPYRIGHT BOOKS
+
+IN POPULAR PRICED EDITIONS
+
+Re-issues of the great literary successes of the time. Library size.
+Printed on excellent paper--most of them with illustrations of marked
+beauty--and handsomely bound in cloth. Price, 75 cents a volume,
+postpaid.
+
+                     *      *      *      *      *
+
+THE CIRCULAR STAIRCASE, By Mary Roberts Reinhart
+
+With illustrations by Lester Ralph.
+
+In an extended notice the _New York Sun_ says: "To readers who care
+for a really good detective story 'The Circular Staircase' can be
+recommended without reservation." The _Philadelphia Record_ declares
+that "The Circular Staircase" deserves the laurels for thrills, for
+weirdness and things unexplained and inexplicable.
+
+
+THE RED YEAR, By Louis Tracy
+
+"Mr. Tracy gives by far the most realistic and impressive pictures of
+the horrors and heroisms of the Indian Mutiny that has been available
+in any book of the kind. * * * There has not been in modern times in
+the history of any land scenes so fearful, so picturesque, so dramatic,
+and Mr. Tracy draws them as with the pencil of a Verestschagin of the
+pen of a Sienkiewics."
+
+
+ARMS AND THE WOMAN, By Harold MacGrath
+
+With inlay cover in colors by Harrison Fisher.
+
+The story is a blending of the romance and adventure of the middle ages
+with nineteenth century men and women; and they are creations of flesh
+and blood, and not mere pictures of past centuries. The story is about
+Jack Winthrop, a newspaper man. Mr. MacGrath's finest bit of character
+drawing is seen in Hillars, the broken down newspaper man, and Jack's
+chum.
+
+
+LOVE IS THE SUM OF IT ALL, By Geo. Cary Eggleston
+
+With illustrations by Hermann Heyer.
+
+In this "plantation romance" Mr. Eggleston has resumed the manner and
+method that made his "Dorothy South" one of the most famous books of
+its time.
+
+There are three tender love stories embodied in it, and two unusually
+interesting heroines, utterly unlike each other, but each possessed of
+a peculiar fascination which wins and holds the reader's sympathy. A
+pleasing vein of gentle humor runs through the work, but the "sum of it
+all" is an intensely sympathetic love story.
+
+
+HEARTS AND THE CROSS, By Harold Morton Cramer
+
+With illustrations by Harold Matthews Brett.
+
+The hero is an unconventional preacher who follows the line of the Man
+of Galilee, associating with the lowly, and working for them in the
+ways that may best serve them. He is not recognized at his real value
+except by the one woman who saw clearly. Their love story is one of the
+refreshing things in recent fiction.
+
+                     *      *      *      *      *
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, Publishers, New York
+
+
+
+
+FAMOUS COPYRIGHT BOOK
+
+IN POPULAR PRICED EDITIONS
+
+Re-issues of the great literary successes of the time. Library size.
+Printed on excellent paper--most of them with illustrations of marked
+beauty--and handsomely bound in cloth. Price, 75 cents a volume,
+postpaid.
+
+                     *      *      *      *      *
+
+THE SHUTTLE, By Frances Hodgson Burnett
+
+With inlay cover in colors by Clarence F. Underwood.
+
+This great international romance relates the story of an American girl
+who, in rescuing her sister from the ruins of her marriage to an
+Englishman of title, displays splendid qualities of courage, tact and
+restraint. As a study of American womanhood of modern times, the
+character of Bettina Vanderpoel stands alone in literature. As a love
+story, the account of her experience is magnificent. The masterly
+handling, the glowing style of the book, give it a literary rank to
+which very few modern novels have attained.
+
+
+THE MAKING OF A MARCHIONESS,
+
+By Frances Hodgson Burnett
+
+Illustrated with half tone engravings by Charles D. Williams. With
+initial letters, tail-pieces, decorative borders. Beautifully printed,
+and daintily bound, and boxed.
+
+A delightful novel in the author's most charming vein. The scene is
+laid in an English country house, where an amiable English nobleman is
+the centre of matrimonial interest on the part of both the English and
+Americans present.
+
+Graceful, sprightly, almost delicious in its dialogue and action. It is
+a book about which one is tempted to write ecstatically.
+
+
+THE METHODS OF LADY WALDERHURST,
+
+By Francis Hodgson Burnett
+
+A Companion Volume to "The Making of a Marchioness."
+
+With illustrations by Charles D. Williams, and with initial letters,
+tail-pieces, and borders, by A. K. Womrath. Beautifully printed and
+daintily bound, and boxed.
+
+"The Methods of Lady Walderhurst" is a delightful story which combines
+the sweetness of "The Making of a Marchioness," with the dramatic
+qualities of "A Lady of Quality." Lady Walderhurst is one of the most
+charming characters in modern fiction.
+
+
+VAYENNE, By Percy Brebner
+
+With illustrations by E. Fuhr.
+
+This romance like the author's _The Princess Maritza_ is charged to
+the brim with adventure. Sword play, bloodshed, justice grown the
+multitude, sacrifice, and romance, mingle in dramatic episodes that are
+born, flourish, and pass away on every page.
+
+                     *      *      *      *      *
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, Publishers, New York
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Princess Zara, by Ross Beeckman
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRINCESS ZARA ***
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