remember that a Tartar is a person who
owns no master, rides like a jockey, and drinks as much as he pleases
with impunity, the imputation is not serious. None of you Western people
understand the Russian. None of you understand that we are men in a very
big sense of the word--men with none of your feminine Western
weaknesses--great fighters, splendid lovers, fine drinkers. You preach
civilization instead--and we point to your Whitechapel, your Belleville,
your Bowery. Just think of it, your upper classes, as you yourselves
admit, are utterly decadent, alike in brains and in morals; your middle
classes are smug hypocrites--your lower classes starve in filthy dens.
This is what you desire to bring about in Russia under the name of
freedom and liberty. Do you wonder that those of us who have travelled
will have none of it. Are you surprised that we fight your civilization
with the whip--as we are fighting it outside at this moment. If we fail,
very well, we shall know how to fail. But do not tell me that it would
be a blessing for this country to imitate your institutions, for I could
not believe you if you did."

He laughed upon it as though disbelieving his own words and, giving
Alban no opportunity to reply, fell to talk of that which they must do
and of the task immediately before them.

"We are better in this hotel than at the Palace Zamoyski, my kinsman's
house," he said, "for here no inquisitive servants will trouble us.
Naturally, you think it a strange thing to be brought to a great city
like this and there asked to identify a face. Let me say that I don't
think it will be a difficult matter. The Chief of the Police will call
upon me in the morning and he will be able to tell us in how many houses
it would be possible for the girl Lois Boriskoff to hide. We shall
search them and discover her--and then learn what Herr Gessner desires
to learn. I confess it amazes me that a man with his extraordinary
fortune should have dealt so clumsily with these troublesome people. A
thousand pounds paid to them ten years ago might have purchased his
security for life. But there's your millionaire all over. He will not
pay the money and so he risks not only his fortune but his life. Let me
assure you that he is not mistaken when he declares that there is no
time to lose. These people, should they discover that he has been aiding
my Government, would follow him to the ends of the earth. They may have
already sent an assassin af