ut it baldly, that she had intended to rob
him herself, if opportunity occurred, rose before her like an accusing
ghost. "I shall never undertake anything like this again," she cried
to herself, "never, never," and now she resolved to make reparation to
the man she had intended to injure. She would watch for him until he
came down the passage, and then warn him by relating what she had heard.
She had taken off her hat on entering the room; now she put it on
hurriedly, thrusting a long pin through it. As she stood up, there was a
jolt of the train that caused her to sit down again somewhat hurriedly.
Passing her window she saw the lights of the station; the train was in
motion. "Thank Heaven!" she cried fervently, "he is too late. Those
plotting villains will have all their trouble for nothing."

She glanced upwards towards the ceiling and noticed a hole about an inch
in diameter bored in the thin wooden partition between her compartment
and the next. Turning to the wall behind her she saw that another hole
had been bored in a similar position through to Room B. The car had been
pretty thoroughly prepared for the work in hand, and Jennie laughed
softly to herself as she pictured the discomfiture of the conspirators.
The train was now rushing through the suburbs of St. Petersburg, when
Jennie was startled by hearing a stranger's voice say in French,--

"Conductor, I have Room A; which end of the car is that?"

"This way, Excellency," replied the conductor. Everyone seemed to be
"Excellency" with him. A moment later, Jennie, who had again risen to
her feet, horrified to learn that, after all, the messenger had come,
heard the door of his room click. Everything was silent save the purring
murmur of the swiftly moving train. She stood there for a few moments
tense with excitement, then bethought herself of the hole between her
present compartment and the one she had recently left. She sprang up
on the seat, and placing her eye with some caution at the hole, peered
through. First she thought the compartment was empty, then noticed there
had been placed at the end by the window a huge cylinder that reached
nearly to the ceiling of the room. The lamp above was burning brightly,
and she could see every detail of the compartment, except towards the
floor. As she gazed a man's back slowly rose; he appeared to have been
kneeling on the floor, and he held in his hand the loop of a rubber
tube. Peering downwards, she saw that it was