here they have
failed in their service. I have appeased them with money."

"Yes, and tell me the whole truth, madame. You have directed them not to
go far away, but to remain near the villa so as to watch it as closely
as possible."

She reddened.

"It is true. But they have gone, nevertheless. They had to obey you.
What can that paper be you have shown them?"

Rouletabille drew out again the billet covered with seals and signs and
cabalistics that he did not understand. Madame Trebassof translated it
aloud: "Order to all officials in surveillance of the Villa Trebassof to
obey the bearer absolutely. Signed: Koupriane."

"Is it possible!" murmured Matrena Petrovna. "But Koupriane would never
have given you this paper if he had imagined that you would use it to
dismiss his agents."

"Evidently. I have not asked him his advice, madame, you may be sure.
But I will see him to-morrow and he will understand."

"Meanwhile, who is going to watch over him?" cried she.

Rouletabille took her hands again. He saw her suffering, a prey to
anguish almost prostrating. He pitied her. He wished to give her
immediate confidence.

"We will," he said.

She saw his young, clear eyes, so deep, so intelligent, the well-formed
young head, the willing face, all his young ardency for her, and it
reassured her. Rouletabille waited for what she might say. She said
nothing. She took him in her arms and embraced him.

II. NATACHA

In the dining-room it was Thaddeus Tchnichnikoff's turn to tell hunting
stories. He was the greatest timber-merchant in Lithuania. He owned
immense forests and he loved Feodor Feodorovitch* as a brother, for they
had played together all through their childhood, and once he had saved
him from a bear that was just about to crush his skull as one might
knock off a hat. General Trebassof's father was governor of Courlande at
that time, by the grace of God and the Little Father. Thaddeus, who was
just thirteen years old, killed the bear with a single stroke of his
boar-spear, and just in time. Close ties were knit between the two
families by this occurrence, and though Thaddeus was neither noble-born
nor a soldier, Feodor considered him his brother and felt toward him
as such. Now Thaddeus had become the greatest timber-merchant of the
western provinces, with his own forests and also with his massive body,
his fat, oily face, his bull-neck and his ample paunch. He quitted
everything at once--all his affair