Part 20 (1/2)

”Ah, Yakowleff! I had quite forgotten, General! How foolish of me!” cried the monk. ”The concession for the gambling casino at Otchakov has been granted to him, but we must have it. It will be a second Monte Carlo, and a mine of wealth for us.”

”I quite agree, my dear Gregory. And it lies entirely with you whether we stand in Yakowleff's place or not,” exclaimed the woman who was the evil genius of the Tsaritza.

The fact was that a rich financier, Ivan Yakowleff, who had offices in Petrograd and in London, for certain personal services rendered to the Tsar--the buying off of an unwelcome female entanglement, it is said--had been granted a concession to establish public gaming-rooms at Otchakov, on the Black Sea, not far from Odessa. The financier, who was elderly, had recently married a young and rather pretty wife, and being a friend of Count Vorontsof Dachkof, was in the happiest circ.u.mstances, well knowing that a huge fortune awaited him.

”At the moment Yakowleff is in London, I hear, forming a syndicate to take over the concession,” the general remarked.

Rasputin smiled evilly, and after a pause said:

”Anybody who puts money into the venture will never see that money again.

I will take care of that.”

”Good!” laughed His Excellency the Minister, flicking some dust from the sleeve of his uniform. ”We must have that concession for ourselves. But ought not we to know what is in progress in London--eh? Shall we get Protopopoff to send instructions to his agents in England?”

”No. Something might leak out. I do not trust the Okhrana in London,”

replied the wary woman, Vyrubova. ”Have you forgotten the Meadows affair, and how they betrayed me and very nearly caused a scandal by their bungling? No, if we are to watch Yakowleff, let us do it ourselves. Why should you not go, Feodor?” she suggested, suddenly turning to me.

”I? To London!” I exclaimed, in no way averse to the journey, for I had been in England on three occasions previously.

”Yes,” said Rasputin. ”You shall go. Start to-morrow. Telegraph to Madame Huguet. She will help you, for she is not suspected, and all believe her to be French. Besides, she is pretty, and therefore useful.”

”As a decoy, you mean?” I exclaimed.

”Of what other use is a woman?” laughed the scoundrel, whose unscrupulousness where the fair s.e.x were concerned was notorious. He rose, and, unlocking a drawer, took out a book in which were registered many addresses of those who were in his pay, and hence under his thraldom.

I searched the pages eagerly and found the address, together with notes of certain payments. Madame, I saw, lived in a flat in Harrington Gardens, South Kensington.

There and then I received instructions to leave next day by the through express to Ostend, seek the lady, and then watch the movements of the Russian, who was busily forming the syndicate for the new Monte Carlo.

”If we are to strike against him we cannot know too much of his doings.

Besides, when we do strike we must not blunder--eh, General?” laughed the monk, after which he opened a bottle of champagne, of which we all drank.

A week later I was in London, and one afternoon called upon Madame Huguet, who was expecting me. She was a vivacious, dark-haired young Frenchwoman, who had been one of the Father's sister-disciples in Petrograd, and whom he had sent to London upon some secret mission, the purpose of which was not quite clear to me. She had lived for some years in London before, and was well known in certain go-ahead circles of society. Seated in her cosy, well furnished drawing-room, with its silken curtains and bright chintzes in the English style, I told her exactly what Rasputin and Anna had instructed me to say.

”The Father wishes you to lose no time in becoming acquainted with the financier Yakowleff,” I said. ”He has offices in Old Broad Street, and he lives in Fitzjohn's Avenue, Hampstead, when in London.”

”He is there now,” she said. ”I saw something about him in the papers three days ago--something concerning a concession for a gaming casino.”

”Oh!” I cried. ”Then it is in the papers--eh?”

She obtained the copy of the newspaper, and I saw it was announced that an ”Establishment” was about to be constructed at Otchakov, which was to be a formidable rival to Monte Carlo, and that Monsieur Yakowleff, of Petrograd, was the originator of the scheme.

Fortunately Yakowleff did not know me by sight; therefore, while Madame Huguet set to work to sc.r.a.pe acquaintance with him, I spent my days watching his movements when he came to his City office, and noting his constant and busy peregrinations to and fro. Certainly his scheme was attracting around him many influential and wealthy men, to whom the prospect of huge profits proved alluring.

He was short, stout, rather Hebrew in appearance, unscrupulous no doubt, or he would not have stooped to do such dirty work as he did for Nicholas; nevertheless, he seemed highly popular in financial circles. He had left his wife in Petrograd; therefore the life he was leading was, I found, a pretty gay one. Each day he lunched at the best restaurants with his business friends, and discussed the great Otchakov scheme, and each night he took one of his lady friends out to dinner, the theatre, and the Savoy, Ritz or Carlton afterwards.

Within ten days of my arrival in London I found that his guest at dinner at the Ritz one night was the sprightly young Frenchwoman, Julie Huguet!

Next day she called me by telephone to Harrington Gardens, and said: