mising document. He knows that all his rooms
will be secretly searched for it, so he puts it in a torn envelope and
sticks it up where any one can see it on his mantel shelf. The result is
that the woman who is ransacking the house to find it looks in all the
unlikely places, but passes over the scrap of paper that is just under
her nose. Sometimes the papers and packages they give us to carry about
Europe are of very great value, and sometimes they are special makes of
cigarettes, and orders to court dressmakers. Sometimes we know what we
are carrying and sometimes we do not. If it is a large sum of money or a
treaty, they generally tell us. But, as a rule, we have no knowledge of
what the package contains; so, to be on the safe side, we naturally
take just as great care of it as though we knew it held the terms of
an ultimatum or the crown jewels. As a rule, my confreres carry the
official packages in a despatch-box, which is just as obvious as a
lady's jewel bag in the hands of her maid. Every one knows they are
carrying something of value. They put a premium on dishonesty.
Well, after I saw the 'Scrap of Paper' play, I determined to put the
government valuables in the most unlikely place that any one would
look for them. So I used to hide the documents they gave me inside my
riding-boots, and small articles, such as money or jewels, I carried
in an old cigar-case. After I took to using my case for that purpose I
bought a new one, exactly like it, for my cigars. But to avoid mistakes,
I had my initials placed on both sides of the new one, and the moment
I touched the case, even in the dark, I could tell which it was by the
raised initials.

"No one knew of this except the Queen's Messenger of whom I spoke.
We once left Paris together on the Orient Express. I was going to
Constantinople and he was to stop off at Vienna. On the journey I told
him of my peculiar way of hiding things and showed him my cigar-case. If
I recollect rightly, on that trip it held the grand cross of St. Michael
and St. George, which the Queen was sending to our Ambassador. The
Messenger was very much entertained at my scheme, and some months later
when he met the Princess he told her about it as an amusing story. Of
course, he had no idea she was a Russian spy. He didn't know anything at
all about her, except that she was a very attractive woman.

"It was indiscreet, but he could not possibly have guessed that she
could ever make any use of wh