Part 4 (1/2)
”But tell me,--dear Mr. Place, he is a great friend of yours, I suppose?”
”I can hardly claim the honor of his personal friends.h.i.+p,” I replied, rather lamely. ”But I have always known and admired him as a public man.”
”Ah! He is so good, is he not? So generous, so confiding, so great a friend of our dear Russia. You know Mr. ----?”
The name she uttered was that of the politician referred to above.
She slipped it out swiftly, with the action of a cat pouncing.
I shook my head with an air of distress.
”I am afraid I am not important enough to know such a great man as that,” I said with affected humility.
The Princess hastened to relieve my embarra.s.sment.
”What is that to us!” she exclaimed. ”You are an Englishman, you are benevolent, upright, truthful, and you esteem our country. Such men are always welcome in Russia. The Czaritza is waiting for me; but you will come back and dine with me, if not to-night, then to-morrow, or the next day. I will send an invitation to your hotel. My friends shall call on you. You are staying at the----?”
I mentioned the name of the hotel, murmuring my thanks.
”That is nothing,” the beautiful woman went on in the same eager strain. ”I shall have good news for you when we meet again, believe me. Yes--” she lowered her voice almost to a whisper--”our dear Czar is going to take the negotiations into his own hands. So it is said.
His majesty is determined to preserve peace. The odious intrigues of the War group will be defeated, I can a.s.sure you. You will not be disappointed, my dear Mr.----” she s.n.a.t.c.hed the editor's letter from her m.u.f.f and glanced at it--”Mr. Sterling, if I tell you that you are going to have your journey for nothing. You will have a good time in Petersburg, all the same. But believe me when I tell you so, your journey will fortunately be for nothing!”
And with the repet.i.tion of these words, and another bright bow and look which dazzled my senses, the wonderful creature swept past me to where the chamberlain stood ready to hand her into her carriage.
For nothing?
CHAPTER III
THE HEAD OF THE MANCHURIAN SYNDICATE
No reader can have failed to notice one remarkable point in the interview between the Princess Y---- and myself. I refer of course to her invitation to me to dine with her in the course of a day or two.
Unless the etiquette of the Russian Court differed greatly from that of most others in Europe, it would be most indecorous for a lady-in-waiting, during her turn of service, to give entertainments at her private house.
I felt certain that this invitation concealed some trap, but I puzzled myself uselessly in trying to guess what it could be.
In the meantime I did not neglect certain other friends of mine in the city on the Neva, from whom I had some hope of receiving a.s.sistance.
Although I have never gone so far as to enroll myself as an active Nihilist, I am what is known as an Auxiliary. In other words, without being under the orders of the great secret committee which wages underground war with the Russian Government, I have sometimes rendered it voluntary services, and I have at all times the privilege of communicating with it, and exchanging information.
While waiting for the next move on the part of the Princess, therefore, I decided to get in touch with the revolutionists.
I made my way on foot to a certain tavern situated near the port, and chiefly patronized by German and Scandinavian sailors.
The host of the Angel Gabriel, as the house was called, was a Nihilist of old standing, and one of their most useful agents for introducing forbidden literature into the empire.
Printed mostly in London, in a suburb called Walworth, the revolutionary tracts are s.h.i.+pped to Bergen or Lubeck, and brought thence by these sailors concealed in their bedding. At night, after the customs officers have departed, a boat with a false keel puts off from a quay higher up the Neva, and pa.s.ses down the river to where the newly arrived s.h.i.+p is lying; the packages are dropped overboard as it drifts past the side and hidden under the bottom boards; and then the boat returns up the river, where its cargo is transferred to the cellars of the tavern.
The host, a namesake of the Viceroy of Manchuria, was serving in the bar when I came in. I called for a gla.s.s of vodka, and in doing so made the sign announcing myself as an Auxiliary.