"Then I shall be ready to travel with you, Father," declared the professor; and then, after taking some brandy and soda-water, the conference ended.
The devilish ingenuity of the whole scheme appalled me. The sowing of cholera germs by means of infected fruit had happily failed, but now Germany intended to strike a blow at the civil population of Russia upon a scale more gigantic than I had ever imagined.
Next day, a man who gave the name of Emil Döllen brought Rasputin a letter, which I opened.
It was, I found, a code message which had been received at the great German wireless station at Nauen, having been dispatched from Petrograd, ostensibly to the warship Petropavlovsk in the Baltic, as Rasputin had arranged before he left Russia.
When I decoded it, I found it to be from the Minister Protopopoff, containing certain further instructions, as well as a message from the Tsaritza—which necessitated the monk having a second audience with the Kaiser.
In reply—while the secret messenger Döllen retired for an hour—I sat down and wrote, at the monk's dictation, a long dispatch, in which he made brief allusion as to the proposed dissemination of disease, and stating his intention to remain some days in Stockholm.
"All is well," he dictated. "The Emperor William sends his best greetings and acknowledgments of your dispatch of the 3rd inst. It has been found necessary to recall the troops who have been held ready at Hamburg and Bremen for the invasion of Britain. The German General Staff have, after due consideration, decided that an invasion before Russia is crushed might meet with disaster, hence they are turning their attention to submarine and aerial attacks upon Britain in order to crush her. I have learnt from a conversation with the Kaiser that London is to be destroyed by a succession of fleets of super-aeroplanes launching newly devised explosive and poison-gas bombs of a terribly destructive character. Urge S. [Stürmer] to disclaim at once all knowledge of the Rickert contracts. The action taken against General S. is again ordered to be dropped. See the Emperor and persuade him. Blessings upon you.
"Gregory."
Then I proceeded to put it into the special code which Rasputin and Protopopoff alone used, and when Döllen called it was ready for transmission from Nauen back to the Russian battleship, to which I had addressed it, to be "picked up" by the wireless station in Petrograd.
The "holy Father" greatly enjoyed himself in a quiet way in Berlin. Indeed, he purchased a ready-made suit of clothes, and, attired in them, he went out on two occasions and did not return till dawn, and then half intoxicated. On the second occasion the baron called and remonstrated with him, pointing out that he was running great risk.