reach without notice. At present I
dare not leave Russia, as Her Majesty will not hear of it.

"It would be as well to make the next payment through the
Aktiebank in Abo. They would not suspect.

"Do not fail to impress upon both Sukhomlinoff and Miassoyedeff
the necessity for the utmost caution. Till we meet."

When I had typed this at his dictation I handed it to him, and he managed
painfully to append his illiterate signature.

Then I placed the sheets in an envelope and gave them to Hardt to convey
in secret to the headquarters of the German Secret Service in the
Koeniggraetzerstrasse in Berlin.

"And, friend Hardt," Rasputin said, as the Kaiser's emissary placed the
letter carefully in his wallet, "please impress upon Number Seventy what
I have said about money. All this costs much. Tell him that sometimes
when inordinate demands are made upon me--as you know they are often
are--I have to use my own funds in order to satisfy them. Smith in London
receives unlimited funds through the Deutsche Bank, I know, so please
tell our friend from me that I expect similar treatment in future."

The Starets was one of the most far-seeing and mercenary scoundrels. He
had accounts in different names in half-a-dozen banks in Petrograd and
Moscow, into which he constantly made payments as the result of his
widespread campaign of espionage and the blackmailing of silly women who
fell beneath his uncanny spell.

When Hardt had left, the saint opened another bottle of champagne and
drank it all from a tumbler, afterwards consuming half a bottle of
brandy. I was busy with three days' accumulation of letters, and did not
notice it until, an hour later, I found him dead asleep on the floor of
the dining-room--a pretty spectacle if presented to the millions of our
patriotic Russians who believed in the Tsar as their "Father" and in the
divinity of the "holy man" who directed the Empire's affairs.

The saint filled me with increasing disgust, yet I confess I had become
fascinated by the widespread and desperate conspiracies which he either
engineered himself or of which he pulled the most important strings.

In the plot against Stolypin, though none dreamed of it, he had been the
most active agent. Stolypin, a purely honest and loyal Russian, who, on
taking office as Prime Minister, was actuated by a firm determination to
do his level best for the Empire, was an unwanted statesman. He was too
honest, and,