after taking some brandy and soda-water, the
conference ended.

The devilish ingenuity of the whole scheme appalled me. The sowing of
cholera germs by means of infected fruit had happily failed, but now
Germany intended to strike a blow at the civil population of Russia upon
a scale more gigantic than I had ever imagined.

Next day, a man who gave the name of Emil Doellen brought Rasputin a
letter, which I opened.

It was, I found, a code message which had been received at the great
German wireless station at Nauen, having been dispatched from Petrograd,
ostensibly to the warship _Petropavlovsk_ in the Baltic, as Rasputin had
arranged before he left Russia.

When I decoded it, I found it to be from the Minister Protopopoff,
containing certain further instructions, as well as a message from the
Tsaritza--which necessitated the monk having a second audience with the
Kaiser.

In reply--while the secret messenger Doellen retired for an hour--I sat
down and wrote, at the monk's dictation, a long dispatch, in which he
made brief allusion as to the proposed dissemination of disease, and
stating his intention to remain some days in Stockholm.

"All is well," he dictated. "The Emperor William sends his best
greetings and acknowledgments of your dispatch of the 3rd inst.
It has been found necessary to recall the troops who have been
held ready at Hamburg and Bremen for the invasion of Britain. The
German General Staff have, after due consideration, decided that
an invasion before Russia is crushed might meet with disaster,
hence they are turning their attention to submarine and aerial
attacks upon Britain in order to crush her. I have learnt from a
conversation with the Kaiser that London is to be destroyed by a
succession of fleets of super-aeroplanes launching newly devised
explosive and poison-gas bombs of a terribly destructive
character. Urge S. [Stuermer] to disclaim at once all knowledge of
the Rickert contracts. The action taken against General S. is
again ordered to be dropped. See the Emperor and persuade him.
Blessings upon you.
"GREGORY."

Then I proceeded to put it into the special code which Rasputin and
Protopopoff alone used, and when Doellen called it was ready for
transmission from Nauen back to the Russian battleship, to which I had
addressed it, to be "picked up" by the wir