rly pulled the strings of Germany's
diplomacy in the Near East, and had now been recalled to Berlin and
placed at the helm of the Fatherland's double-dealing with the Powers,
spoke little. He seemed to be learning much of the Kaiser's duplicity.

"The Emperor William, I can tell you frankly, Father, is displeased," von
Wedel said to Rasputin reprovingly. "Only by an ace has the whole of our
arrangements with your Empress, and with yourself as our agent, been
suppressed from Downing Street. And that by steps taken by our friend
here, Monsieur Azef. But we are not yet safe. I tell you quite frankly
that though you are a good servant of ours, yet your habit of taking
intoxicants is dangerous. You boast too much! If you are to succeed you
must assume an attitude of extreme humility combined with poverty. Be a
second St. Francis of Assisi," added the Count, with humour. "You can act
any part. Imitate a real saint."

"It surely is not through a fault of mine that any secret has leaked
out," the monk protested.

"But it is," the Count declared severely. "I am here to-night at the
Emperor's orders to tell you from him that, though he appreciates all
your efforts on his behalf, he disapproves of your drunkenness and your
boastful tongue."

"I am not boastful!" the monk declared. "Have you brought me here to
Berlin to reprimand me? If so, I will return at once."

And he rose arrogantly from his chair, and crossed his hands over his
breast piously in that attitude he assumed when unusually angry.

Von Wedel saw that he was going too far.

"It is not a matter of reproof, but of precaution," he said quickly.
"Happily the truth has been suppressed, though a certain agent of Downing
Street--a man known by the nickname of 'Mac'--very nearly ascertained the
whole facts. Fortunately for us all he did not. But his suspicions are
aroused, together with those of Krivochein."

"Cannot this man Mac--an Englishman, I suppose--be suppressed?" asked
Rasputin. "If he is in Russia I can crush him as a fly upon the
window-pane."

"Ah! but he is not in Russia," replied the Count. "He is a very elusive
person, and one who tricks us every time. 'Mac the Spy,' as they call him
at Whitehall, is the first secret agent in Europe--next, of course, to
our dear Steinhauer."

"I disagree," interrupted the Foreign Secretary. "The man Mac is
marvellous. He was in Constantinople and in Bucharest recently, and he
learned secrets of our Embassy and Leg