d garrets teem with evil men."

"But the police----" she began.

"The police cannot shelter you, Highness, as they do in our Russia."

"I must warn the Grand Duke," she said thoughtfully, "and"--she
hesitated, and a shadow passed over her face--"and the Prince. Is it not
him they hate?"

Kensky shook his head.

"Lady," he said humbly, "in my letter I told you there was something
which could not be put on paper, and that I will tell you now. And if I
speak of very high matters, your Highness must forgive an old man."

She nodded, and again her laugh twinkled in her eyes.

"Your father, the Grand Duke Yaroslav," he said, "has one child, who is
your Highness."

She nodded.

"The heir to the Grand Dukedom is----" He stopped inquiringly.

"The heir?" she said slowly. "Why, it is Prince Serganoff. He is with
us."

Malcolm remembered the olive-faced young man who had sat on the seat of
the royal carriage facing the girl; and instinctively he knew that this
was Prince Serganoff, though in what relationship he stood to the Grand
Ducal pair he had no means of knowing.

"The heir is Prince Serganoff," said the old man slowly, "and his
Highness is an ambitious man. Many things can happen in our Russia,
little lady. If the Grand Duke were killed----"

"Impossible!" She sprang to her feet. "He would never dare! He would
never dare!"

Kensky spread out his expressive hands.

"Who knows?" he said. "Men and women are the slaves of their ambition."

She looked at him intently.

"He would never dare," she said slowly. "No, no, I cannot believe that."

The old man made no reply.

"Where did you learn this, Israel Kensky?" she asked.

"From a good source, Highness," he replied evasively, and she nodded.

"I know you would not tell me this unless there were some foundation,"
she said. "And your friend?" She looked inquiringly at the silent Hay.
"Does he know?"

Israel Kensky shook his head.

"I would wish that the _gospodar_ knew as much as possible, because he
will be in Kieff, and who knows what will happen in Kieff? Besides, he
knows London."

Malcolm did not attempt to deny the knowledge, partly because, in spite
of his protest, he had a fairly useful working knowledge of the
metropolis.

"I shall ask the _gospodar_ to discover the meeting-place of the
rabble."

"Do you suggest," she demanded, "that Prince Serganoff is behind this
conspiracy, that he is the person who inspired this idea of
assassinatio