he wench? Take her
away--and let it be done at once."

The poor condemned girl, blanched to the lips and trembling from head to
foot, turned quickly to me, and in a few words in French thanked me and
again kissed my hand, with the brief words, "Farewell, you have done
your best. God will reward you!"

Then, with one accord, we all turned, and together went mournfully forth
into the street.

A lump arose in my throat, for I saw, as the General pointed out, that
my pretended ukase did not extend beyond my own person. Luba was a
Russian subject, and therefore under the Russian martial law.

Of a sudden, however, just as we emerged into the roadway, the
unfortunate girl, at whose side I still remained, turned, and raising
her tearful face to mine, with sudden impetuosity kissed me.

Then, before any of us were aware of her intention, she turned, and
rushed back into the room where the General was still sitting.

The Cossacks dashed back after her, but ere they reached the chamber
there was a terrific explosion, the air was filled with debris, the back
of the building was torn completely out, and when, a few minutes later,
I summoned courage to enter and peep within the wrecked room, I saw a
scene that I dare not describe here in cold print.

Suffice it to say that the bodies of Luba Lazareff and General Stephen
Krasiloff were unrecognisable, save for the shreds of clothing that
still remained.

Luba had used her bomb in revenge for Gustave's death, and she had freed
Russia of the heartless tyrant who had condemned her to die.

An hour later I found the blackened ruins of the house of Countess
Alexandrovsky, but hearing no news of Bindo I returned to the car, and
set out again towards the Austrian frontier.

Yes, that brief run in Russia was full of excitement.

CHAPTER IX

CONCERNING THE OTHER FELLOW

Last spring Count Bindo again renewed his lease of the furnished villa
on the Viale dei Colli, that beautiful drive that winds up behind the
Arno from the Porta Romana, in Florence, past San Miniato. It was a fine
old place, standing in its own grounds, and was the German Embassy in
the days when the Lily City was the Italian capital.

There were reasons for this. Sir Charles Blythe was living at the Grand,
and Henderson was at the Hotel de la Ville. A _coup_ was intended at one
of the jewellers on the Ponte Vecchio--a place where it was known that
there were a quantity of valuable pearls.

It was no