The officer was fairly staggered. He had heard, of course, of the French alliance, and no doubt some rumour as to the recent rescript had penetrated to the secret camp, but without its scope being very well understood.
‘I know that it is my duty to arrest you, at the very least,’ he persisted.
‘As to that, you will do as you please. It will sound well in Paris that every prospector who ventures into Siberia with a view of developing the resources of the country exposes himself to the treatment of a spy. M. Witte will find it takes some persuasion to secure another French loan.’
It is needless to give further details of a conversation in which the ignorance of the Russian gave me a very great advantage over him. I am vain enough to plume myself on having made use of the treacherous rescript to out-manœuvre its authors. In saying that, of course, I do not refer to Nicholas II., who perhaps did not even know of the existence of the hidden camp.
In the end the Cossack officer decided to escort me back to the town where I had left the train, and hand me over to the civil authorities, a decision which was assisted by the usual methods of persuasion in the East. My friend the Prefect, already predisposed in my favour, required a somewhat heavier bribe, and finally I made assurance doubly sure by resuming my journey eastward, and leaving Russian territory by way of the Chinese frontier.
It was from the first telegraph station in the Celestial Empire that I sent the cipher despatch to Constantinople which was destined to render abortive the much-talked-of Conference at the Hague:
‘Russia preparing enormous concealed camp in Siberia, beside railway, to hide forces when nominally disbanded. I have seen it.’
Abdul Hamid was too shrewd to take any open part in opposing the Russian proposals, but when I saw the firm stand made against them by the German representatives, I knew that he had not thrown my telegram into the waste-paper basket.
It only remains to add that the Russian Government, realising that its secret had been betrayed, stealthily set to work to efface every sign of the concealed camp; and that, if my latest information be correct, the mysterious valley is again given over to silence and to solitude.