the object of which
remains unknown?"

"He did."

"And have the police lost trace of him since?"

"No, sire; for an offender only becomes really dangerous from the day he
has received his pardon."

The Czar frowned. Perhaps the chief of police feared that he had gone
rather too far, though the stubbornness of his ideas was at least
equal to the boundless devotion he felt for his master. But the Czar,
disdaining to reply to these indirect reproaches cast on his policy,
continued his questions. "Where was Ogareff last heard of?"

"In the province of Perm."

"In what town?"

"At Perm itself."

"What was he doing?"

"He appeared unoccupied, and there was nothing suspicious in his
conduct."

"Then he was not under the surveillance of the secret police?"

"No, sire."

"When did he leave Perm?"

"About the month of March?"

"To go...?"

"Where, is unknown."

"And it is not known what has become of him?"

"No, sire; it is not known."

"Well, then, I myself know," answered the Czar. "I have received
anonymous communications which did not pass through the police
department; and, in the face of events now taking place beyond the
frontier, I have every reason to believe that they are correct."

"Do you mean, sire," cried the chief of police, "that Ivan Ogareff has a
hand in this Tartar rebellion?"

"Indeed I do; and I will now tell you something which you are ignorant
of. After leaving Perm, Ivan Ogareff crossed the Ural mountains, entered
Siberia, and penetrated the Kirghiz steppes, and there endeavored, not
without success, to foment rebellion amongst their nomadic population.
He then went so far south as free Turkestan; there, in the provinces of
Bokhara, Khokhand, and Koondooz, he found chiefs willing to pour their
Tartar hordes into Siberia, and excite a general rising in Asiatic
Russia. The storm has been silently gathering, but it has at last burst
like a thunderclap, and now all means of communication between Eastern
and Western Siberia have been stopped. Moreover, Ivan Ogareff, thirsting
for vengeance, aims at the life of my brother!"

The Czar had become excited whilst speaking, and now paced up and down
with hurried steps. The chief of police said nothing, but he thought to
himself that, during the time when the emperors of Russia never pardoned
an exile, schemes such as those of Ivan Ogareff could never have been
realized. Approaching the Czar, who had thrown himself into an armchair,
he a