ervation.

"But in that case we cannot be involved, surely?" he objected.

"I cannot undertake to keep you from attacking Russia," I explained
grimly.

"But we should not dream of attacking her--without provocation," he
returned, bewildered.

"I fancy you will have a good deal of provocation," I retorted.

"Why? What makes you think that?" he demanded.

I suspected that Lord Bedale was either sounding me, or else that he
had not been taken into the full confidence of those for whom he was
acting.

I responded evasively:

"There are two personages in Europe, neither of whom will leave one
stone unturned in the effort to involve you in war with Russia."

"And they are?"

Even as he put the question, Lord Bedale, as though acting
unconsciously, raised one hand to his mustache, and gave it a
pronounced upward twirl.

"I see your lordship knows one of them," I remarked. "The other----"

He bent forward eagerly.

"Yes? The other?"

"The other is a woman."

"A woman?"

He fell back in his chair in sheer surprise.

"The other," I repeated in my most serious tone, "is a woman, perhaps
the most formidable woman now living, not even excepting the Dowager
Empress of China."

"And her name?"

"Her name would tell you nothing."

"Still----"

"If you really wish to hear it----"

"I more than wish. I urge you."

"Her name is the Princess Y----."

Scarcely had the name of this dangerous and desperate woman passed my
lips than I regretted having uttered it.

Had I foreseen the perils to which I exposed myself by that single
slip I might have hesitated in going on with my enterprise.

As it was I determined to tell the Marquis of Bedale nothing more.

"This business is too urgent to admit of a moment's unnecessary
delay," I declared, rising to my feet. "If your lordship has no
further instructions to give me, I will leave you."

"One instant!" cried Lord Bedale. "On arriving in Petersburg you will
go straight to report yourself to her majesty the Empress Dagmar."

I bowed my head to conceal the expression which might have told his
lordship that I intended to do nothing of the kind.

"Your credentials," he added with a touch of theatricality, "will
consist of a single word."

"And that word?" I inquired.

He handed me a sealed envelope.

"I do not myself know it. It is written on a piece of paper inside
that envelope, and I have to ask you to open the envelope, read the
word, and then destroy