a present of 'em. All I ask is, if you find
out whether that fellow 'Fox' grabs the peacherino from the Metropole
or the one called 'Maria' you'll send me an invitation."

The bargain was struck. Then the question was asked: "Any idea who
wrote this diary--the one written in a quick running hand?'

"Sounds like some fellow with a grouch against Kerensky and Lvov. I
know enough Russian to make out that much--"

"Evidently one of the Revolutionary officials?"

"Seems so," the Captain said. "You'll notice what he has to say about
the mixup with the Russian Royal family at Tobolsk and Tumen. There's
a lot of our fellows who don't take any stock in that assassination
business at 'Katerinburg."

"I began to read: 'I had walked from Euston Station to Madame
Tussaud's, when the messenger jumped from his motorcycle and rushed up
to me--' Your diarist starts out in London, I see."

"Yes, he is some globe trotter--"

"'"Go to Birdcage and walk slowly back to Queen Victoria Memorial.
As you pass Buckingham, observe the heavily veiled lady wearing white
lace wristlets who will follow on behind. Let her overtake you. If she
utters _the correct phrase_, go with her at once to Admiralty Arch
and follow the Life Guard to the War Office. Meet number ... there;
receive a small orange-colored packet, _wear the shirt he gives you_,
and cross the Channel at once"'--I see! From Buckingham Palace to the
War Office; sounds interesting."

"It is; that fellow is all there!" complimented the Captain.

"'The meeting at the _Huis ten-Bosch_ points to Wilhelmstrasse.
Nothing can be done here. They suspect Downing Street.'--Ah, at The
Hague, and at the _ten-Bosch_ too, where the Czar and Andrew Carnegie
held their first Peace Conference in 1899; this looks significant!"

"Keep going," said the Captain; "that fellow's got 'The Man in the
Iron Mask' brushed off the map."

"Here is something singular about Berlin. Your man walks through the
lines like a wraith--"

"Not always. As you get into his stuff you'll hear things sizzle."

And thus the Imperial dead return to life through the pages of these
stolen diaries.

While the temptation is great to revise the manuscript, so as to make
it read more smoothly, it has been decided not to alter a line or
letter. Truth will be better served by publishing what is prudent,
under the complicated political circumstances of our times, _word_ for
_word_ as it was written by its daring author.