uch to be able to read Shakespeare," Petroff said. "I
have heard his works spoken of in such high terms by some of our friends
who have studied your language, and I have heard, too, from them of your
Dickens. They tell me it is like reading of another world--a world in
which there are no officials, and no police, and no soldiers. That must
be very near a paradise."

"We have some soldiers," Godfrey laughed, "but one does not see much of
them. About half of those we have at home are in two military camps, one
in England and one in Ireland. There are the Guards in London, but the
population is so large that you might go a week without seeing one,
while in very few of the provincial towns are there any garrisons at
all. There are police, and plenty of them, but as their business is only
to prevent crime, they naturally don't play a prominent part in novels
giving a picture of everyday life. As to officials, beyond
rate-collectors we don't see anything of them, though there are
magistrates, and government clerks, and custom officers, and that sort
of thing, but they certainly don't play any prominent part in our
lives."

So they chatted for an hour, when at short intervals two other men came
in. One was a tall handsome fellow who was introduced by Petroff as the
son of Baron Kinkoff, the other was a young advocate of Moscow on a
visit to St. Petersburg. Both, Godfrey observed, had knocked in a
somewhat peculiar manner at the door, which opened, as he had noticed
when they came in, only by a key. Akim observed a slight expression of
surprise in Godfrey's face at the second knock, and said laughing:

"Our remittances have not come to hand of late, Godfrey, and some of our
creditors are getting troublesome, so we have established a signal by
which we know our friends, while inconvenient visitors can knock as long
as they like, and then go away thinking we are out."

Godfrey chatted for a short time longer, and then got up to go. Akim
went to the door with him. As it opened there was a sudden rush of men
from outside that nearly knocked him down. Of what followed he had but a
vague idea. Pistol shots rang out. There was a desperate struggle. He
received a blow on the head which struck him to the ground, and an
instant later there was a tremendous explosion. The next thing he knew
was that he was being hauled from below some debris. As he looked round
bewildered he saw that a considerable portion of the ceiling and of the
ro