e whole truth out of her. Well, perhaps, not
quite the whole truth," admitted the General reluctantly, "for,
woman-like, although she has no love for her brother, she did not want
to give him away, to render certain the punishment which he richly
deserves."

"And her story, your Excellency?" asked the young man eagerly.

"Briefly it was this. Madame Quero called upon her to report
that there was a plot to decoy you and convey you to an unknown
destination--she did not know, or pretended she did not know, your
ultimate fate, neither did she know where the carriage was to start
from; she was only sure that the first stoppage was to be at Pavlovsk.
This of course was Nada's version. It at once occurred to me that
these ladies, if they knew so much, would know a little more. They
were not both of them ignorant, but, of course, one might be. Which
was the ignorant one?"

"The Princess, of course," said Corsini at once. "La Belle Quero knew
where the carriage started from, but did not want to implicate
Zouroff, as it was drawn up so close to his residence. She pretended
ignorance."

The General leaned back in his chair and laughed genially. He was very
pleased with himself, for what he was about to relate was really his
own master-stroke. It owed nothing to the more inventive genius of
Golitzine.

"That is, of course, what would occur to you, what would occur to, I
dare say, ninety-nine persons out of a hundred. I am the hundredth,
and I have had great experience." The General spoke with an air of
profound wisdom. "La Belle Quero had only certain suspicions, fostered
by some random remark dropped by Zouroff in a moment of intense rage
and irritation. As a matter of fact, she knew no details. She did not
know of a carriage at all, and consequently she was ignorant of where
it started from or where it was going to."

"The Princess, then----!" interrupted Nello, in a voice of the most
intense surprise.

"The Princess, then----!" repeated Beilski. "I saw that poor little
Nada's story was lame and halting; of course I guessed the reason why.
I pressed her with the question why, if La Belle Quero, from whom she
got her information, knew where the carriage was going to, she did not
know where it started from. Both her answer and demeanour were too
evasive to deceive me. I could not break her any more on the wheel; I
saw she had had about as much as she could stand. I selected another
victim."

"Madame Quero, of course,"