o holds you responsible for the
checks he has suffered in this affair."

"Monsieur Koupriane is right," replied Rouletabille, "and His Majesty
should believe him, since it is the truth. But don't fear anything from
me, Monsieur le Grand Marechal, for I shall not inconvenience Monsieur
Koupriane any further, nor anybody else. I shall disappear."

"I believe Koupriane is already directed to vise your passport."

"He is very good, and he does himself much harm."

"All that is a little your fault, Monsieur Rouletabille. We believed we
could consider you as a friend, and you have never failed, it appears,
on each occasion to give your help to our enemies.

"Who says that?"

"Koupriane. Oh, it is necessary to be one with us. And you are not one
with us. And if you are not for us you are against us. You understand
that, I think. That is the way it has to be. The Terrorists have
returned to the methods of the Nihilists, who succeeded altogether
too well against Alexander II. When I tell you that they succeeded in
placing their messages even in the imperial palace..."

"Yes, yes," said Rouletabille, vaguely, as though he were already
far removed from the contingencies of this world. "I know that Czar
Alexander II sometimes found under his napkin a letter announcing his
condemnation to death."

"Monsieur, at the Chateau yesterday morning something happened that is
perhaps more alarming than the letter found by Alexander II under his
napkin."

"What can it be? Have bombs been discovered?"

"No. It is a bizarre occurrence and almost unbelievable. The eider
downs, all the eider down coverings belonging to the imperial
family disappeared yesterday morning."*

* Historically authentic.

"Surely not!"

"It is just as I say. And it was impossible to learn what had become
of them--until yesterday evening, when they were found again in their
proper places in the chambers. That is the new mystery!"

"Certainly. But how were they taken out?"

"Shall we ever know? All we found was two feathers, this morning, in
the boudoir of the Empress, which leads us to think that the eider downs
were taken out that way. I am taking the two feathers to Koupriane."

"Let me see them," asked the reporter.

Rouletabille looked them over and handed them back.

"And what do you think the whole affair means?"

"We are inclined to regard it as a threat by the revolutionaries. If
they can carry away the eider downs, it would be quite