"… If these lines should ever come to light I want to record right now, in justice to that apparently besotted creature, that I am under unutterable obligations to him for assigning to me the most diabolical piece of brutality that has been conceived during this period of moral leprosy and unrepenting malevolence…. I shall do my work well."
22. Then the following odds and ends appear:
"… The Métropole performer is a Baroness sure enough…. She knows a Syvorotka but declines to give his rank or whereabouts…. She tells me that this place was founded by Count Tatischshev in 1721 … when Catherine was a baby…. The Monastery of 'Our Lady of Tikhvin' looming up before me is a very graceful compliment to the Mosque of St. Sophia it resembles in so many ways…. fine place to radio from to friends at Odessa … especially if the NUN has been obeying orders…. Lvov is out of the way, over in the city prison, cooking, where he can't betray the prisoners at Ipatiev's…. When I was alone with my Imperial prisoner I tore the patch off from my shirt sleeve and handed it to him…. 'Sa lettre!' he exclaimed in an undertone…. His manner was exceedingly polite…. 'Ouvrez, lisez,' I advised…. 'Oui, oui, je sais! je sais!' he said softly, 'mais malheureusement cela est impossible!'… 'Soak it in water', I replied…. 'Et vous, monsieur, êtes-vous américain ou français?' he came back…. 'Je suis né a Paris, mais je suis américain, and if the prisoner has no objection I'd rather speak in English.'… 'That will be delightful,' he said; 'I shall do as you say.'… He ran back to the bathroom. In a moment he returned holding the patch up before him…. 'Ah!' he continued aloud, 'this merely says that the Heir Apparent will make a cruise of the world in a man-of-war; what does that signify?'… 'If you recognize the writing,' I replied, 'you will, doubtless, remember the methods of its author when extending an invitation.'… 'Yes, yes, I see; how clever of you! Had you been a subject of mine I should have made you an ambassador!'… 'That would imply infinite wisdom on my part, Sire! I bowed very humbly…. It made a hit with my prisoner."
This entry follows:
"Alice will give up her wheel chair when the NUN gives the word … she is worrying about my prisoner's sister, Olga, and her two companions, who insist on offering their services to the poor in the Crimea … and well she may!… 'Facing the East,' they are likely to travel south!… I must get rid of this old valet, Parafine Domino, who makes a nuisance of himself hovering around my prisoner like a hawk…. Gallipoli says he'll get rid of Alice's physician before the TENTS arrive,—substituting a fake doctor from the Red Guard, who'll tell me when the prisoners are fit to travel…. As 'Captain' of this Soviet Guard I am as cold-blooded as Gallipoli before the spies and hangers-on…. 'Captain?'… that title seems to stump the old Russian soldiers,—they claim that there is no such animal…. The Sergeant has suggested that I put the prisoners under a SMALL GUARD when we take them to the Ural District Soviet Court of Workmen…. Nice trap to catch me…. If I agreed to this I'd be in the same category as Denikin or Dutov or Ekhart and be shot by the gang outside by mistake, so as to fulfill the prophecy of my lady of Buckingham…. My answer was to order the guard on the balcony to keep their guns pointed at the prisoners whenever they appear in the garden … this will satisfy the eavesdropper in the red brick across the way and scare the wits out of old Parafine, besides giving him something to talk about when we get away…. To satisfy that suspicious Sergeant that there is no Japanese money secreted by the prisoners I have ordered my men to use their bayonets against the walls and ceilings … even the frame of the bathroom is not to escape!… Gallipoli is growling around that I'm doing my work too damned well to seem reasonable!… The poor boob! His idea of being reasonable seems to consist in spreading rumors that the prisoners have been disposed of in a dozen different ways…. When Maria and Tatiana mounted the truck in the yard this confiding swaggerer started the gossip that they were being loaded up to be taken out of town and shot…. Now I am told by some of the excited guard that that report is TRUE because they heard some one in the attic of the red brick yelling: 'The baggage is at the station!'…
"When I asked them what we wanted with 'BAGGAGE' they went away growling that I wasn't playing fair!… To my somber-robed lady of Buckingham, who seems to have deserted me, as well as the slender guard at the Huis ten Bosch, as well as those at the Wilhelmstrasse and Odessa, who are part of this 'BAGGAGE,' my guard's agitation will assume the humorous character of unconscious prophecy…. Suspicion is in the air!… This undisciplined gang of cutthroats under that half-baked Sergeant are demanding HOSTAGES from me for my conduct of this business … they want 'the Grand Dutchess Olga,' her two companions, and FIFTY other women!… AT LAST!… the planes are buzzing in the sky…. The Ikon of Holy Nicholas is being wrapped up…. The NUN has copies of the letters to Oldenburg and Gendrikov…. It's time to say to my prisoner: Come with ME to the U.D.S. of W.A.R.A.D.'…. If he has the code from Odessa he will ask: 'Are you taking me to be shot?'… 'RUNMOBS'…. I'll have the guard go through his pockets to find the letters that'll turn him over to my 'vengeance' … then for Ekhart's tunnel and OBLIVION!"
23. Then this entry follows. It seems to be sufficiently circumstantial to justify its reproduction here:
"Murder, like jealousy, in this country is a disease," begins the narrative. "My part in this international murder will paralyze the politician and mystify the sober mind of intelligent belief…. History will not be satisfied, however, without a VICTIM, and I must furnish a victim that will satisfy the mob outside!… The Order has been given…. There are celebrations among the banditti…. there are moistened eyes among many peasants; there are strong men and gallant men among the gang out yonder whose very looks betray the HATRED they entertain for the suspected executioner of their former ruler and his excited family…. They fear, they try to avoid me; and I can see in their looks that, given a favorable opportunity, they will hang me to the highest electric wire pole in the city!…
"I am not so certain, though, that EVERYONE outside will accept my theatric 'slaughter' as the Gospel truth.
"Diagonally across the way there has been a Red Cross nurse eternally peeking through her window in this direction…. If we go out into the courtyard she can see us plainly behind the other buildings, for there is nothing to obstruct her vision…. and she seems mighty anxious to keep tab on all proceedings in the yard…. I have tried to figure out a resemblance between this nurse and the capricious Métropole Baroness, but the nurse seems much older…. Perhaps she is disguised…. If she ever reveals her identity she will remember me as the man who tipped my cap to her after posting the two sentries in front of the palisade between the telephone poles and the British Consulate…. If she remembers me she will also recall the drillings I gave my awkward squad for the few days I kept them parading after my prisoners in the yard…. and if anything happens to me she will KNOW that I did my job well up to the minute I write this…. In a few hours more the future political history of the world may be changed forever…. To blot out seven lives is all…. Dokónchet the Romanoffs!"