I found closeted with his Majesty. My reasons for disturbing him
at such a moment were of the greatest urgency. As I left he told me
you would be sending for me, and that if I saw you first I was to tell
you everything that I had told to him and the Emperor."

For the second time he related in full the details of that momentous
interview with Ivan the outlaw.

The General smiled triumphantly when the narrative was concluded. "So
this fellow has been lying hid in St. Petersburg all this time, has
he? Well, I think my spies ought to have hunted him out. Still, as it
turns out, it is better they didn't. Desperado and robber as he has
been, I frankly admit he has fully earned the free pardon which you
were shrewd enough to get for him."

He mused a few moments before he proceeded. "The information you have
given me may materially alter our plans. I cannot decide positively
till I have talked with his Excellency. But I doubt if we shall move
till we get some positive information from you. In the meantime, I
will tell you to what extent I have unravelled the plot against
yourself."

Needless to say that Nello was all attention. He had his own
suspicions, which were very close to the truth, but Beilski was
probably on the track of the truth itself.

"On the afternoon of the day that you were kidnapped, I received a
letter couched in cautious and guarded language to the effect that a
carriage, starting from St. Petersburg somewhere about midnight or
later, would halt at Pavlovsk. There was a plot on hand to deport a
certain person well known in artistic circles. That person would be
found in the carriage when it stopped at the first stage on the road
to Moscow."

Nello shuddered. How well he recalled the incidents of that memorable
evening--the Prince's apparent cordiality, the Princess's almost
officious offer of a carriage to convey him home, the short walk
through the silent streets, the sudden appearance out of the dark of
the four sinister figures, the waking in a room of the little country
inn.

"There was a certain significance in the fact that the writer of that
anonymous letter, evidently a woman, had not told us where the
carriage was to start from. It was evident that while she wished to
protect the victim, she also wanted to shield, so far as she could,
the perpetrators of the outrage."

"It was Madame Quero who wrote that letter?" suggested Nello quickly.

"No, my friend, it was not, although it would