chette came to
receive my instructions.

I told her that I did not intend to wait for my jailer's return. We
discussed the best way for me to slip out, without obstruction from
the servants, and I decided to take advantage of the superstition of
the Russian illiterate class, by enacting the part of my own ghost.

The report that I had been buried without any funeral service had
already reached the household, and had prepared them for any
supernatural manifestation.

Fauchette first brought me a little powdered chalk, with which I
smeared my face. I then put on a long flowing cloak and a sombrero
hat, part of the wardrobe accumulated by the Princess in the course
of her gaieties.

I slipped a damp sponge into my pocket and directed the girl to lead
the way.

She went down-stairs a few yards in front of me, turned into the
servants' part of the house and threw open the back door, which led
out into a courtyard giving on a street used only by tradesmen's
carts. At this hour of the day it was deserted.

I followed cautiously in Fauchette's wake, and got as far as the back
door without meeting any interruption.

But at that point, the porter, who must have been roused by an
unfamiliar step--though I understand he swore afterward that the
passage of the ghost had been absolutely noiseless--came out and
stood in the doorway.

Without hesitating for an instant I assumed an erect posture and
advanced swiftly toward him with my whitened face well displayed.

The fellow gave vent to a half-articulate call which died down in his
throat, and bolted back into his room uttering yell after yell.

Fifteen seconds later I was out in the street, sponging the chalk
from my face.

And five minutes after that I was comfortably seated in a hired
droshky, on my way to a certain little house in the seafaring quarter
of the city, which possessed, among other advantages, that of
commanding an exceedingly fine view of the Admiralty Pier.

CHAPTER XXIV

A SECRET EXECUTION

I now come to a part of my chronicle which I plainly foresee must
expose me to grave criticism.

To that criticism it is no part of my purpose to attempt any reply.

In the long run, I have found, men's minds are not much affected by
argument and advocacy. Facts tell their own story, and men's
judgments are usually the result of their personal prejudices.

For that reason I shall confine myself to relating facts. I have
already told the story of my