u, my old friend, you
are president of the Black Hundred. Your fate is sealed. Yesterday you
were condemned to death by the delegates of the Central Committee at
Presnia. Say your prayers." The man reached for champagne. He never
finished his glass. The dvornicks carried him out stricken with
apoplexy. Since the time she saved the little grand-duchesses the police
had orders to allow her to act and talk as she pleased. She had been
mixed up in the deepest plots against the government. Those who lent
the slightest countenance to such plottings and were not of the police
simply disappeared. Their friends dared not even ask for news of them.
The only thing not in doubt about them was that they were at hard labor
somewhere in the mines of the Ural Mountains. At the moment of
the revolution Annouchka had a brother who was an engineer on the
Kasan-Moscow line. This Volkousky was one of the leaders on the Strike
Committee. The authorities had an eye on him. The revolution started.
He, with the help of his sister, accomplished one of those formidable
acts which will carry their memory as heroes to the farthest posterity.
Their work accomplished, they were taken by Trebassof's soldiers. Both
were condemned to death. Volkousky was executed first, and the sister
was taking her turn when an officer of the government arrived on
horseback to stop the firing. The Tsar, informed of her intended fate,
had sent a pardon by telegraph. After that she disappeared. She was
supposed to have gone on some tour across Europe, as was her habit,
for she spoke all the languages, like a true Bohemian. Now she had
reappeared in all her joyous glory at Krestowsky. It was certain,
however, that she had not forgotten her brother. Gossips said that if
the government and the police showed themselves so long-enduring they
found it to their interest to do so. The open, apparent life Annouchka
led was less troublesome to them than her hidden activities would be.
The lesser police who surrounded the Chief of the St. Petersburg Secret
Service, the famous Gounsovski, had meaning smiles when the matter
was discussed. Among them Annouchka had the ignoble nickname,
"Stool-pigeon."

Rouletabille must have been well aware of all these particulars
concerning Annouchka, for he betrayed no astonishment at the great
interest and the strong emotion she aroused. From the corner where he
was he could see only a bit of the stage, and he was standing on tiptoes
to see the s