ment was as logical as Haber's."

In the letter Wilhelm found, beside Bhani's poem, written in delicate
Sanscrit characters on yellow paper, a cutting from an English
newspaper, in which he read that a Nihilist of the name of Barinskoi,
in St. Petersburg, had for some time excited the suspicions of his
confederates by his luxurious and showy style of living. In order to
discover the source from which he drew the money for it, they appointed
one of their female members to be his mistress. She had shared in his
extravagances, and soon obtained proofs that he was in the service of
the police, and sold his fellow Nihilists. A secret court condemned him
to death, and a few days ago he had been found dead in his rooms, his
throat cut, and his body literally hacked to pieces.

In January Wilhelm received an unusual visitor. It was a leader of the
workingmen of Altona, who told him, without further circumlocution,
that the Socialists had kept their eye upon him, had found out where he
was living, and now sent him, the Altona man, to see if anything could
be made of him.

"What do you mean by that?" asked Wilhelm in astonishment.

"I mean," returned the visitor, who had introduced himself as
Stonemason Hessel, "whether you could not be persuaded to join us
openly."

As Wilhelm did not answer at once, Hessel resumed--"Our party needs men
like you, who are independent and bold, have a university education,
and speak well. You are all that, as we know. By banishing you from
Berlin they have, in point of fact, made you one of us. So go a step
further, Herr Doctor; defend yourself, take up the fight the government
has forced upon you. You have a million of determined workmen at your
back, who will gladly accept you as their leader."

"Excuse my frankness," said Wilhelm at last, "but I really cannot think
you are serious in your proposal."

"It is a very serious matter to us," cried Hessel. "I speak in the name
of the heads of the party, and have means of convincing you of the
reality of my proposal if you have any doubts about it."

"But how do you come to know about me?"

"That is very simple. You are not, perhaps, aware how well organized we
are, and how we follow up everything that may be of use to us
afterward. We know what you did for our party in Berlin, and that you
are suffering for it now. We know your circumstances, and that you have
a considerable sum of money at your disposal, and, I repeat, we want
educated