d the game for a short time, then his eyes closed, and he
knew nothing more until Mr. Robson shook him and shouted, "Pull yourself
together, Godfrey. Here we are at St. Petersburg."

Three days later, when Ivan Petrovytch came in to breakfast at eleven
o'clock--for the inmates of the house had a cup of coffee or chocolate
and a roll in their rooms at half-past seven, and office work commenced
an hour later--Godfrey saw that he and his wife were both looking very
grave. Nothing was said until the servant, having handed round the
dishes, left the room.

"Has anything happened?" Godfrey asked.

"Yes, there is bad news. Another plot against the life of the Czar has
been discovered. The Nihilists have mined under the road by which he was
yesterday evening to have travelled to the railway-station. It seems
that some suspicion was felt by the police. I do not know how it arose;
at any rate at the last moment the route was changed. During the night
all the houses in the suspected neighbourhood were searched, and in the
cellar of one of them a passage was found leading under the road. A mine
was heavily charged with powder, and was connected by wires to an
electric battery; and there can be no doubt that had the Czar passed by
as intended he would have been destroyed by the explosion. It is
terrible, terrible!"

"Did they find any one in the cellar?" Godfrey asked.

"No one. The conspirators had no doubt taken the alarm when they heard
that the route was changed, and the place was deserted. It seems that
the shop above was taken four months ago as a store for the sale of coal
and wood, and the cellar and an adjoining one were hired at the same
time. There was also a room behind the shop, where the man and woman who
kept it lived. They say that arrests have been made all over the city
this morning, and we shall no doubt have a renewal of the wholesale
trials that followed the assassination of General Mesentzeff, the head
of the police, last autumn. It is terrible! These misguided men hope to
conquer the empire by fear. Instead of that, they will in the end only
strengthen the hands of despotism. I have always been inclined to
liberalism, but I have wished for gradual changes only. For large
changes we are not yet fit; but as education spreads and we approach the
western standard, some power and voice ought to be given to all
intelligent enough to use it; that is to say, to the educated classes. I
would not--no one in his sen