“But does not Hartwig know all this?” I asked quickly, much surprised.
“Probably not. General Markoff keeps his own secrets well. Hartwig, being head of the criminal police, would not be informed.”
“But he might find out, just as you have found out,” I suggested.
“He might. But my success, sir, was due to the merest chance, remember,” Tack said. “Hartwig’s work lies in the detection of crime, and not in the frustration of political plots. Markoff knows what an astute official he is, and would therefore strive to keep him apart from his catspaw Danilovitch.”
“Then, in your opinion, many of these so-called plots against the Emperor are actually the work of the Kazan shoemaker, who arranges the plot, calls the conspirators together and directs the arrangements.”
“Yes. His brother is a chemist in Moscow and it is he who manufactures picric acid, nitro-glycerine and other explosives for the use of the unfortunate conspirators. Between them, and advised by Markoff, they form a plot, the more desperate the better; and a dozen or so silly enthusiasts, ignorant of their leaders’ true calling, swear solemnly to carry it out. They are secretly provided with the means, and their leader has in some cases actually secured facilities from the very police themselves for the coup to be made. Then, when all is quite ready, the astute Danilovitch hands over to his employer, Markoff, a full list of the names of those who have been cleverly enticed into the plot. At night a sudden raid is made. All who are there, or who are even in the vicinity are arrested, and next morning His Excellency presents his report to the Emperor, with Danilovitch’s list ready for the Imperial signature which consigns those arrested to a living grave on the Arctic wastes, or in the mines of Eastern Siberia.”
“And so progresses holy Russia of to-day—eh, Tack?” I remarked with a sigh.
The secret agent of British diplomacy, shrugging his shoulders and with a grin, said:
“The scoundrels are terrorising the Emperor and the whole Imperial family. The killing of the Grand Duke Nicholas was evidence of that, and you, too, sir, had a very narrow escape.”
“Do you suspect that, if the story of the woman who recognised Danilovitch be true, it was actually he himself who threw the bomb?”