ou should
trouble. She says that you, being sent as Russia's saviour, are immune
from bodily harm."

"Ah! but remember when that young fellow shot at you and grazed two of
your fingers at Minsk," remarked the conjurer with a grin.

"Yes, quite so. I don't like this fellow Naglovski and his friends. I
will see Kurloff."

Now, Kurloff was another treacherous bureaucrat, a creature of
Rasputin's, who sat in Protopopoff's Ministry of the Interior, and who
later on collected the gangs of the "Black Hundred," those hired
assassins whom he clothed in police uniforms and had instructed in
machine-gun practice--those renegades who played such a sinister part in
the first Revolution.

I then gave the monk the urgent message from the Empress.

"Very well," he replied, "I will be back by Saturday; not because I obey
the woman, but became I must see Kurloff, and I must take active steps
against this Ivan Naglovski and his accursed friends."

Half-an-hour later, when alone in the bare little room allotted to me, I
took out the Empress's letter to the Starets and re-read it. It was as
follows:

"HOLY FATHER,--It is with deepest concern that from your trusted
Feodor I hear of the plot against you. That you can be harmed I
do not believe. You, sent by God as Russia's guide to the bright
future of civilisation which Germany will bring to her, cannot be
harmed by mere mortal. But if there are any who dare dispute your
divine right, then, with our dear Stuermer, take at once drastic
steps to crush them.

"We cannot afford to allow evil tongues to speak of us; neither
can we afford the vulgar scandal that some would seek to create.
If you, O Father, feel apprehensive, then act boldly in the
knowledge that you have your devoted daughter ever at your side
and ever ready and eager to place her power as Empress in your
dear hands. Therefore strike your enemies swiftly and without
fear. Lips prepared to utter scandal must be, at all costs,
silenced.

"Our friend Protopopoff has returned from England and tells me
that Lloyd George and his friends are exerting every effort to
win the war. Those British are brave, but, oh! if they knew all
that we know--eh? They are in ignorance, and will remain so until
Germany conquers Russia and spreads the blessing of civilisation
among the people.

"Nikki is returning. A seance is to be h