Arthur Train

“ True, it would not be by her hand that the Czar would meet his death, yet view it from whatever angle she might it was nothing less than murder. She had only to drug Tarnowski on the night before the Czar's arrival in Warsaw and the plot would take care of itself, Everything would be done by others, without the possibility of her being implicated, even if Tarnowski himself should confess everything! The tiny bottle containing the brown powder that made men sleep was hidden almost at her elbow. ”

“ A squad of mounted police trotted down through Sigismund Square and turned what traffic there was to one side. Every house was gay with bunting and the Radziwill Palace was covered with flags. She too had flags upon the façade of her house,—an emblem made of the entwined standards of Russia and Poland—for when the Czar's automobile should be exactly abreast of these, the assassin had been told that he was to discharge the catapult which held the bomb. ”

“ Sobieski gave him a single look,—and struck a single blow with the flat of his sword. The Chief of Police reeled and pitched headlong down the marble stairs.
“Arrest that man!” shouted the aide-de-camp to the Cossacks below. “He is guilty of high treason!” Then to Nikolai. “That was Tarnowski—the man they have been looking for! We have stumbled into a nest of nihilists. Tongeroff fooled Potoki into believing that the plot was a sham instead of a real one. ”

“ It is a suburb of New Praga, just across the Alexandrovsk Bridge. Rents are much cheaper there. I can get a room for two roubles. Here in Warsaw the same room would cost me three.”
“Dear me!” exclaimed Lily, “what a saving! And is life in Tiraspol exciting?”
“Not very,” answered the girl. “The lives of the poor are almost always dull. Mine is like all of them. I have only one half-holiday a month. Sometimes I go to a concert.”
“But have you no lovers?” inquired the Countess, removing her bodice.
Sophie turned away, and a dark red spread itself over her neck and cheeks. ”

“ Tarnowski grunted impatiently.
“It is childishly simple! You know that I have my men everywhere,—that nothing goes on without my knowledge. I have agents provocateurs in every nihilist group in Warsaw.”
“BUT suppose one of these agents should betray you?” she demanded. “You know what it would he, eh?” She nodded toward the Prefecture. “A corner of the courtyard over there at three in the morning, a firing squad, and a new chief of police of Warsaw.”
“You don't seem to understand!” he replied with some irritation. “Nobody could ever connect me with it. I shall do it all through Tongeroff. ”

“ Anyhow, it is something of a relief to know that the only person who is going to be blown up will be M. Tarnowski himself.”
“As the great English poet Shakespeare puts it, 'Hoist on his own petard,'” remarked Potoki, sententiously.
“But how do you know that the fellow they have put up to do the job will not actually throw the bomb?” inquired Sobieski. “Aren't you taking a good deal of a chance in relying on what Tongeroff says Tarnowski intends to do?” ”

“ The young soldier leaned upon his rifle ogling her insolently.
“You don't expect to find him here, do you, sweetheart?” he queried. “The Chief has much too important business to attend to to-day. He's at the railroad station welcoming his Imperial Majesty. I guess it's me you want to see! Just wait a few minutes till my tour is over and——”
But Sophie, oblivious of all else, heard only his statement that Tarnowski was absent.
“I must see whoever is in command here!” she cried hysterically. “There is a plot to kill the Czar! He must not come through the streets!” ”

“ You will be given the other twenty thousand on your arrival in Kiev. A motor will call for you at the leather-maker's with passports and identification papers——”
“Good!” nodded Lavorski. “And how soon can I return to Warsaw? I've got a girl here, you know.”
“You will not return,” replied the agent provocateur. “You can send for the young lady afterwards. Good luck to you. By the way, could you give me a glass of vodka?”
“With pleasure!” exclaimed Lavorski, glad to do something for his supposed benefactor, and producing a large bottle. “Take all you want.” ”

“ In the garret room, on the other side of the Avenue, Lavorski sat tilted back in his chair with his feet on a wooden table, smoking one cigarette after another. It was nearly midnight and time had begun to hang heavily. Moreover, it is not particularly pleasant while you are waiting to kill somebody if you have nothing to drink. It was a low trick taking away his bottle of vodka! There were ten hours before he could earn his money. ”

“ It was nine o'clock on the evening before the Czar's visit to Warsaw. The Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaivitch, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Armies, and Uncle of His Imperial Majesty, was standing at the door of his tent smoking a Turkish cigarette in an amber holder, not because he did not like the taste of tobacco against his tongue but on account of the inconvenient size of his beard. ”

“ Warsaw is a very dull town! Go to bed, Sobieski! Surely, if anybody wanted a mark I offer a good one!” And he lifted himself to his full height and stretched his great arms into the air so that he looked like a giant pine between two small spruces. “Good-night, gentlemen!”
IV AT approximately the same time that Nikolai Nikolaivitch was thus conversing with his officers two other scenes were being enacted in the forty miles distant capital in two houses not a hundred yards from each other in the Krakowskie Przedmiescie. Both were equally significant. ”

“ As it cleared away Lily saw that the Lithuanians had forced back the crowd leaving an oprn space in front of the house, and that the Grand Duke was carrying the apparently lifeless body of the young girl across the sidewalk toward her door. Her first thought was to make her escape, but she realized immediately that neither she nor Tarnowski could possibly get away from the house undetected. Yet how could she explain his presence there,—were it discovered? Meantime, however, the Grand Duke, followed by his staff was coming up the steps. She would have to bluff it out,—make the best of it. ”

“ Worry kills people much oftener than gunpowder or dynamite,—by the way, has anybody found that copy of the London Times I was asking for?”
VI THE roofs of Warsaw were white with sunlit snow as Sophie joined the crowd hurrying across the bridge. From the spires on the other side of the Vistula the chimes of the Cathedral rang cheerfully through the clear atmosphere. In this great world of flags and music and soldiers, her own insignificance appalled her. What could she do,—an ignorant little seamstress? ”

“ Accompanied by his staff he will arrive in a special train at ten o'clock and will proceed by automobile down the Krakowskie Przedmiescie to Sigismund Square and the Cathedral. It will be a great occasion! I shall say to Tongeroff, 'I purpose to save the Czar's life. But in order to do that I shall have to save him from something, and that something you must supply. But lest your inventive faculties should prove insufficient I will furnish the brains in the affair. ”

“ I don't know how he discovered the fellow, but he did,—right at hand, anxious to prove to some girl that he was a hero and glad to pocket enough money to marry her afterwards. The house where he is concealed is just across the way. ”