Peter and Paul fortress that is all ready for her."

"You are going to throw Natacha into a dungeon!"

"The Emperor's order, Monsieur Rouletabille. And if you see me here in
person it is simply because His Majesty requires that the thing be done
as respectfully and discreetly as possible."

"Natacha in prison!" cried the reporter, who saw in horror all obstacles
rising before him at one and the same time. "For what reasons, pray?"

"The reason is simple enough. Natacha Feodorovna is the last word in
wickedness and doesn't deserve anybody's pity. She is the accomplice
of the revolutionaries and the instigator of all the crimes against her
father."

"I am sure that you are mistaken, Excellency. But how have you been
guided to her?"

"Simply by you."

"By me?"

"Yes, we lost all trace of Natacha. But, as you had disappeared also,
I made up my mind that you could only be occupied in searching for her,
and that by finding you I might have the chance to lay my hands on her."

"But I haven't seen any of your men?"

"Why, one of them brought you here."

"Me?"

"Yes, you. Didn't you climb onto a telega?"

"Ah, the driver."

"Exactly. I had arranged to have him meet me at the Sestroriesk station.
He pointed out the place where you dropped off, and here I am."

The reporter bent his head, red with chagrin. Decidedly the sinister
idea that he was responsible for the death of an innocent man and
all the ills which had followed out of it had paralyzed his detective
talents. He recognized it now. What was the use of struggling! If
anyone had told him that he would be played with that way sometime,
he, Rouletabille! he would have laughed heartily enough--then. But now,
well, he wasn't capable of anything further. He was his own most cruel
enemy. Not only was Natacha in the hands of the revolutionaries through
his fault, by his abominable error, but worse yet, in the very moment
when he wished to save her, he foolishly, naively, had conducted the
police to the very spot where they should have been kept away. It was
the depth of his humiliation; Koupriane really pitied the reporter.

"Come, don't blame yourself too much," said he. "We would have found
Natacha without you; Gounsovski notified us that she was going to embark
in the Bay of Lachtka this evening with Priemkof."

"Natacha with Priemkof!" exclaimed Rouletabille. "Natacha with the man
who introduced the two living bombs into her father's house! If she is
w