ly the presumption that certain
circles are more interested in misleading than in satisfying the
public mind.

To those schooled in the methods and objects of international
propaganda during the Great War it is evident that, in a period of
revolution, when thrones and dynasties become unpopular within the
area of hostility and discontent, the adherents of Royalty may not
be unwilling to appease the demand for vengeance by some theatrical
display of meeting it with a pretense or an artifice until the
passions of the populace have subsided and sober toleration resumes
its sway over the sated revolutionary mind.

That such may be the fact will seem convincing from a careful study of
the incidents narrated in the following rudimentary story of "Rescuing
the Czar." In a technical sense it is not a story. Nevertheless, while
partaking of the nature of a simple diary, it reads like a romance of
thrilling adventure upon which a skilful novelist may easily erect a
story of permanent interest and universal appeal. But it is this very
lack of art--this indifference to accomplished technique--that makes
"Rescuing the Czar" so interesting and so convincing a rebuttal of the
Royal Executioners' Case.

There have been many periods in the progress of society when such an
original piece of work as "Rescuing the Czar" would have been welcomed
by the historian of serious events. The preservation, discovery and
the piecing together of the various scraps of first-hand information
by the actual participants in the tragic scenes narrated in these
diaries, by the compiler of this book represent a work of so
discriminating a judgment that its contribution to the historical
wealth of the period involved will assume an increasing, if not a
prophetic, value as time goes on, either to explain the mystery or
authenticate the evidence revealed. While apparently no connection
is evident between the two authors of the First and Second Parts of
"Rescuing the _Czar_," the discriminating reader will be impressed
by the independent way each of them, operating unconsciously of
the other, sustains the manifest conclusion that both are recording
international secrets that never were intended for the public eye.

Imbedded in the national consciousness of many European States the
historian finds everywhere the shadowy outlines of "nobility" and
"aristocracy" delineated on the surface of traditionary pretense and
political desire. It forms the inheritance o