“It is a lie. I am here by the orders of the Minister himself, as you must know well. You are acting against us, whoever you are.”
“I am acting by order of the Czar,” I responded.
She smiled scornfully.
“I expect that is another lie. You could not have got so far as you have unless you had some one else behind you. Poor Nicholas!—Every one knows what he is, and that he has less power than any other man in Russia. Are you Witte’s man, I wonder?”
“You are a bold woman to question me,” I said. “How do you know that I am not going to arrest you for stealing and destroying the Czar’s letter?”
“I should not remain long under arrest,” was the significant answer. She gave me another searching look, and muttered to herself, “If I did not know that he was safe in the hands of my friends in Petersburg I should think you must be a certain Monsieur ——”
She broke off without pronouncing my name, and turned away.
At Mukden, the next stopping place, the Princess Y—— left the train, no doubt intending to travel back to Russia and report her success.
In the meantime, I had reason to think she had notified her friends in Manchuria to keep an eye on me.