.

I glanced my eye down the list in search of some name likely to be
that of an emissary of the Syndicate. It was with something like a
shock that I came upon the conspicuous entry--

"The Princess Y----, lady-in-waiting to H. I. M. the Dowager Empress,
passenger to Port Arthur, on a visit to her uncle, commanding one of
the forts."

Stamping my foot angrily, in order to impress the railway official, I
said--

"Order a pilot engine immediately to take me to Moscow. Tell the
driver he is to overtake the express, and enter the Moscow station
behind it."

There was some demur, of course, and some delay. But I wore the
livery of the dreaded Third Section, and my words were more powerful
than if I had been the young man who wears the Russian crown.

By dint of curses, threats, blows and an occasional ruble note, I got
my way. Indeed, I managed things so well that the railway officials
did not even ask me for my name. I showed them my official badge; but
when they made their report in the morning they would only be able to
say that an inspector of the Secret Police had ordered a pilot engine
to take him to Moscow in pursuit of the midnight express.

The impression which I was careful to convey, without putting it into
words, was that I was on the track of an absconding Nihilist.

Within half an hour of my arrival at the terminus a light but
powerful locomotive drew up on the main line of rails, with
everything in readiness for an immediate start.

I leaped into the driver's cab, where I found the driver himself and
two stokers hard at work increasing the head of steam, and gave the
order to go.

The driver touched the tap, the whistle rang out once, and the wheels
began to revolve. Ten seconds later we were beyond the station lights
and facing the four hundred miles of frozen plain that lay between us
and Moscow.

Every one has heard the story of this famous piece of road. The
engineers of the line, accustomed to map out their routes in other
countries with reference to the natural obstacles and the convenience
of commerce, waited upon the great autocrat, Nicholas I., a very
different man from his descendant, and asked him for instructions as
to laying out the first railway in the Russian Empire.

The Czar called for a map of his dominions, and then, taking a ruler
in his hand, drew a straight line between the old and new capitals.

And so the line has been made, a symbol to all who travel on it of
the irre