small
oblong cardboard box such as jewellers use for men's scarf-pins. Opening
it, he showed her the tiny tube reposing in pink cotton wool. "It is a
little present for somebody, eh?" he asked with a sinister laugh.

"Perhaps," replied the girl as she took it and placed it carefully in the
black silk vanity-bag she was carrying.

"You have already received instructions through another channel?"
inquired Rasputin.

"I have, O Father," was her reply.

"Then be extremely careful of it. Let not a grain of it touch you," he
said. "I am ordered to tell you that."

She promised to exercise the greatest care.

"And when you have fulfilled your mission come to me again," he said,
fixing her with his sinister, hypnotic eyes, beneath the cold intense
gaze of which I saw that she was trembling. "Remember that!--perform what
is expected of you fearlessly, but with complete discretion, and
instantly on your return to Petrograd call here and report to me."

The girl promised, and then, kissing the dirty paw which the monk held
out to her, she withdrew.

"Good-looking--extremely good-looking, Feodor," the monk remarked as soon
as she had gone. "She might be very useful to me in the near future."
Then after a pause he added: "Ring up His Excellency the Minister of War
and ask where Brusiloff is at the present moment."

I did so, and after a short wait found myself talking to General
Soukhomlinoff, who told me that the Russian commander was that day at
headquarters at Minsk.

When I told the monk, he said: "You must go there at once, Feodor, and
carry the little tube to the Cossack Peter Tchernine, who is now
Brusiloff's body-servant."

"I!" I gasped, startled at the suggestion that I should be chosen to
convey death to our gallant commander.

"Yes. And pray why not? Someone whom I can trust must act as messenger.
And I trust you above all men, Feodor."

For a moment I hesitated.

Then I thanked him for his expression of confidence, but he at once
noticed the reluctance which I had endeavoured to conceal.

"Surely, Feodor, you are not hesitating to perform this service for the
Fatherland? Think of all the sacrifices we are making to bring the
benefit of German civilisation into Russia," added the pious scoundrel.

"I will go--certainly I will go," I said. "But I cannot leave to-day. I
shall require papers from the Ministry ere I can travel."

"His Excellency the General will order them to be furnished to you," he
s