"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.