own men in
the gold-mining industry." Here Kovroff mentioned a well-known name.
"He is now in St. Petersburg. Well, a few days ago he suddenly came to
me as if he had something weighing on his mind. And I have had
business relations with him in times past. Well, what do you think? He
suddenly made me a proposal, secretly of course; would I not take some
gold dust off his hands? You must know that these trusted employees
every year bring several hundred pounds of gold from Asia, and of
course it stands to reason that they cannot get rid of it in the
ordinary way, but smuggle it through private individuals. It is
uncommonly profitable for the purchasers, because they buy far below
the market rates. So there are plenty of purchasers. Several of the
leading jewelers" (and here he named three or four of the best-known
firms) "never refuse such a deal, and last year a banking house in
Berlin bought a hundred pounds' weight of gold through agents here.
Well, this same employee, my acquaintance, is looking for an
opportunity to get rid of his wares. And he tells me he managed to
bring in about forty pounds of gold, if not more. I introduce this
fact to illustrate the difficulties put in the way of enterprise by
our intelligent government."

Shadursky did not greatly occupy himself with serious questions and he
was totally ignorant of all details of financial undertakings. It was,
therefore, perfectly easy for Sergei Antonovitch to assume a tone of
solid, practical sense, which imposed completely on the young prince.
Young Shadursky, from politeness, and to prove his worldly wisdom,
assented to Kovroff's statements with equal decision. All the same,
from this conversation, he quite clearly seized on the idea that under
certain circumstances it would be possible to buy gold at a much lower
price than that demanded by the Imperial Bank. And this was just the
thought which Kallash and Kovroff wished to sow in the young prince's
mind.

"Of course, I myself do not go in for that kind of business," went on
Kovroff carelessly, "and so I could not give my friend any help. But
if some one were going abroad, for instance, he might well risk such
an operation, which would pay him a very handsome profit."

"How so? In what way?" asked Shadursky.

"Very simply. You buy the goods here, as I already said, much below
the government price. So that to begin with you make a very profitable
bargain. Then you go abroad with your wares and there