that one committed to
memory. Hence no code-book need ever be carried. The cipher message, in
its introduction, told its recipient the number of the sentences being
used--a most ingenious mode of correspondence.

With the paper before me I discovered that in sentence number eight I
would find the key. The sentence in question, a proverb something like
"Faint heart never won fair lady," I wrote down, and then at once began
to decipher the cryptic message from Berlin.

And I read out the following:

"MEMORANDUM NO. 43,286.

"From No. 70 to the Holy Father.

"If the blowing up of the Okhta Munition Works is successful,
endeavour to get your friend C. [Chevitch] to do similar work at
the new explosive factory at Olonetz, where a sub-inspector named
Lemeneff is one of our friends. Tell this to C. and let them get
into touch with each other.

"We approve of C.'s suggestion to destroy the battleship
_Cheliabinsk_, and it is suggested that this be carried out at
the same price paid for Okhta.

"From what we are informed you are in some danger from a man
named Naglovski, who has shown himself far too curious concerning
you of late. Steps should be taken against him.--Greetings, W."

The initial, I knew, stood for von Wedell, one of the directors at the
Koeniggraetzerstrasse.

Rasputin heard me through, and, taking the cipher message, applied a
match to it, after which Hardt, having swallowed a glass of vodka, left
us.

But the monk, as a result of that message, was at once aroused to evil
activity, and by means of a clever ruse invited Ivan Naglovski to dinner
next day. He accepted, hoping, of course, to discover more concerning the
monk, and quite unconscious that Rasputin knew of his hostile intentions.
To dinner there were invited the Prime Minister, Boris Stuermer, and a
sycophant of his named Sikstel. Stuermer was in uniform and Sikstel in
civilian attire. Naglovski, I found, was a youngish man, who, when I
introduced him, appeared highly honoured to meet at Rasputin's table the
Prime Minister of Russia, while the monk went out of his way to
ingratiate himself with his enemy. Naglovski and his friends had been
preparing a plot either to expose or assassinate the monk, hence the head
of the conspiracy was congratulating himself that the plot was
unsuspected by anybody.

The dinner passed off quite merrily until, of a sudden, Stuermer,
addressi