friends and the young Frenchman, had gone
for a turn along the gulf. Koupriane had left his carriage at the
datcha, and taken the shortest route after them.

He was a fine man, large, solid, clear-eyed. His uniform showed his fine
build to advantage. He was generally liked in St. Petersburg, where
his martial bearing and his well-known bravery had given him a sort of
popularity in society, which, on the other hand, had great disdain for
Gounsovski, the head of the Secret Police, who was known to be capable
of anything underhanded and had been accused of sometimes playing into
the hands of the Nihilists, whom he disguised as agents-provocateurs,
without anybody really doubting it, and he had to fight against these
widespread political suspicions.

Well-informed men declared that the death of the previous "prime
minister," who had been blown up before Varsovie station when he was on
his way to the Tsar at Peterhof, was Gounsovski's work and that in this
he was the instrument of the party at court which had sworn the death
of the minister which inconvenienced it.* On the other hand, everyone
regarded Koupriane as incapable of participating in any such horrors and
that he contented himself with honest performance of his obvious duties,
confining himself to ridding the streets of its troublesome elements,
and sending to Siberia as many as he could of the hot-heads, without
lowering himself to the compromises which, more than once, had given
grounds for the enemies of the empire to maintain that it was difficult
to say whether the chiefs of the Russian police played the part of the
law or that of the revolutionary party, even that the police had been at
the end of a certain time of such mixed procedure hardly able to
decide themselves which they did.

* Rumored cause of Plehve's assassination.

This afternoon Koupriane appeared very nervous. He paid his compliments
to the general, grumbled at his imprudence, praised him for his bravery,
and then at once picked out Rouletabille, whom he took aside to talk to.

"You have sent my men back to me," said he to the young reporter.
"You understand that I do not allow that. They are furious, and quite
rightly. You have given publicly as explanation of their departure--a
departure which has naturally astonished, stupefied the general's
friends--the suspicion of their possible participation in the last
attack. That is abominable, and I will not permit it. My men have not
been