Part 30 (1/2)

”_Secret Instructions._--(1) You are to double the promised payment to Nicholas Meder and Irene Feischer for the blowing up of the works at Vologda and Bologoye, on condition that the affair is carried out within fourteen days of the receipt of this. If not, arrange with your friend P. [Protopopoff] to have both arrested with incriminating papers upon them. They may become dangerous to us unless implicated.

”(2) As you have failed to carry out the plans against Generals Brusiloff and Korniloff, then you must adopt other means against both generals, and thus ensure a lull upon the frontier. We note that the attempt made by Brusiloff's body-servant, Ivan Sawvitch, has unfortunately failed.

”The bearer of this will hand you a small packet. It contains two tubes of white powder. Peter Tchernine, who has succeeded Sawvitch as the general's servant, is to be trusted. You will send the tube marked No. 1 to him in secret at General Headquarters, with orders to mix the contents with the powdered sugar which the general is in the habit of taking with stewed fruit. The slightest trace of the powder will result in death from a cause which it will be impossible for the doctors to identify.

”(3) A young dancer at the Bouffes named Nada Tsourikoff, living in the Garnovskaya, will call upon you for the tube marked No. 2.

She is a close friend of General Korniloff, and is about to join him at headquarters at our orders. She has already her instructions as to the use of the tube. The two deaths will be entirely different, therefore doctors will never suspect.

”At all hazards the offensive must be ended. Greetings.

”S.”

After I had read the instructions Hardt produced a box of Swedish safety matches, which he emptied upon the table, and among them we saw two tiny tubes of gla.s.s hermetically sealed, one containing a white chalk-like powder and numbered ”1,” while the other was half filled with pale green powder and marked ”2.” These he handed to the monk, saying:

”I will use your telephone, if I may? I have to ask the young woman Nada Tsourikoff to call here to see you.”

The monk having granted permission, Hardt, pa.s.sing into the study, was soon speaking with the popular young dancer of the Bouffes.

”You will call here at noon, eh?” he asked, to which she gave a response in the affirmative.

Punctually at twelve I was informed that a young lady, who refused her name, desired to have an urgent interview with the Starets, and on going to the waiting-room, wherein so many of the fair s.e.x sat daily in patience for the Father to receive them, I found a tall, willowy, dark-haired and exceedingly handsome girl, who, after inquiring if I were Feodor Rajevski, told me that her name was Tsourikoff and that she had been sent to see the Father.

Without delay I introduced her to the ”holy” man, who stood with his hands crossed over his breast in his most pious att.i.tude.

”My daughter, you have, I believe, been sent to me by our mutual friend,”

he said. ”You wish for something? Here it is,” and he produced a small oblong cardboard box such as jewellers use for men's scarf-pins. Opening it, he showed her the tiny tube reposing in pink cotton wool. ”It is a little present for somebody, eh?” he asked with a sinister laugh.

”Perhaps,” replied the girl as she took it and placed it carefully in the black silk vanity-bag she was carrying.

”You have already received instructions through another channel?”

inquired Rasputin.

”I have, O Father,” was her reply.

”Then be extremely careful of it. Let not a grain of it touch you,” he said. ”I am ordered to tell you that.”

She promised to exercise the greatest care.

”And when you have fulfilled your mission come to me again,” he said, fixing her with his sinister, hypnotic eyes, beneath the cold intense gaze of which I saw that she was trembling. ”Remember that!--perform what is expected of you fearlessly, but with complete discretion, and instantly on your return to Petrograd call here and report to me.”

The girl promised, and then, kissing the dirty paw which the monk held out to her, she withdrew.

”Good-looking--extremely good-looking, Feodor,” the monk remarked as soon as she had gone. ”She might be very useful to me in the near future.”

Then after a pause he added: ”Ring up His Excellency the Minister of War and ask where Brusiloff is at the present moment.”

I did so, and after a short wait found myself talking to General Soukhomlinoff, who told me that the Russian commander was that day at headquarters at Minsk.

When I told the monk, he said: ”You must go there at once, Feodor, and carry the little tube to the Cossack Peter Tchernine, who is now Brusiloff's body-servant.”