ent to Paris for Michael O'Malley whose long residence there had
outwardly transformed him from an Irishman to a Frenchman, and who for
convenience spelled his name Malet, thus retaining the sound without
the substance. He opened a cafe, which because of its excellence
speedily became the resort of the higher officers of the Russian army
stationed at St. Petersburg. Every one of the waiters in his
establishment were spies in his employ brought with him from Paris, and
not one of them knew of my existence. Thus they did their work in the
dark, but they did it well. Another Irishman, Tom Coyle, who looked
like a Russian, established a cab stand on the English plan, and he had
a small army of men under him who worked in the same way as Malet's
servants. A Frenchman and his wife--their names were St. Cyr--ran a
high class intelligence office, and furnished valets, maids, cooks,
coachmen, etc., for the best families at the Russian capitol. I had one
assistant who taught singing to the nobility, and another who was a
master at arms and gave lessons in the science of handling all kinds of
weapons. In the less pretentious quarters of the city I had proprietors
of fourth rate cafes on my list; also loungers, loafers, seeming
drunkards, laborers. But more important than these I succeeded in
securing for one of my best men--an American--the management of the
city Messenger Service; and one by one he contrived to replace the
messengers by others of his own selection, until many of them were
unknowingly members of my staff. Unknowingly, mind you, for therein
existed much of the secret of my power. My workers did not know what
they did. Canfield really did great work for me while he held that
position, and I must not neglect to give him credit for it.

O'Malley, Coyle, the St. Cyrs and Canfield were really therefore the
several component parts of my immediate staff and those five were the
only persons among all my hundreds of workers who knew Dubravnik to be
their chief; and it is a perfectly safe statement to say that in all
St. Petersburg, nay in all the world at that time, there were but nine
persons living who had the least knowledge or even suspicion of my
business; the nine were the czar, Prince Michael, the five already
named, myself and Moret now in solitary confinement although in a
comfortably appointed room in one of the prisons.

It is well that I should say a word or two in reference to these
assistants of mine, in pass