ng his fellow-guest, said:

"News has been conveyed to the holy Father that you and your friends have
formed a plot against him. Is that true?"

Naglovski started and turned pale. For a moment he was taken entirely off
his guard.

"Ah!" went on Stuermer in his deep, thick voice, Rasputin having risen to
go to the sideboard, "I see it is true. Now, what can you gain by
endeavouring to belittle the efforts of our dear Father for the salvation
of Russia? Think. Are you patriots? No. Well," he went on, "the reason
the Father has invited you here to-night is to come to terms with you.
For a list of your friends--a secret list that will be afterwards
destroyed--the Starets will pay you twenty thousand roubles, and,
further, I will give you a diplomatic appointment in one of the embassies
abroad--wherever you desire."

"What!" cried the young man. "You ask me to betray my friends to that
blasphemous rascal!" and he pointed his finger at Rasputin, who moved
aside. "Never! I refuse! And, further, I tell you," he shouted, rising as
he spoke, "I intend to expose the mock-saint and his conjuring tricks;
the criminal miracle-worker who, according to secret information I have
just received, was the actual instigator of the terrible disaster at
Okhta. This is what my friends, when I reveal to them the truth, will
expose."

As Ivan Naglovski uttered his biting condemnation Rasputin had crept up
behind him, and drawing his revolver suddenly cried in a loud voice:

"Enough! You don't leave this house alive. Gregory Rasputin knows how to
crush his enemies, never fear. All your friends will share your fate.
Take that!"

And he fired, the bullet striking the unfortunate man in the back, where
it entered a vital spot.

Two hours later the body of Ivan Naglovski was discovered on some waste
ground out at Kushelevka, on the other side of the city. Though the
Director of Secret Police guessed what had occurred, he pretended that it
was a complete and unfathomable mystery--and a mystery it has ever
remained until this present exposure.

CHAPTER XI

POISON PLOTS THAT FAILED

BY the spring of 1916 Rasputin, though constantly revealing himself as a
blasphemous blackguard, had become the greatest power in Russia.

His name was whispered by the awe-stricken people. All Russia, from the
Empress down to the most illiterate mujik, accepted him as divine and
swallowed any lie he might utter.

The weekly meetings of the "sister-di