The Argosy, Vol. XXV, No. 3 — page 120: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

504 THE ARGOSY. grand duke’s special animosity. Add that, however, and the result was as certain as that night alternates with day. If I was to escape, therefore, it must be by a shrewd stroke dealt by myself alone, and for myself alone. And such a stroke it was that sug- gested itself in the course of that ride. Briefly, it was to allow everything to go forward, right to the very supreme moment, and then by personal effort to save the emperor’s life by my own hand in such a way as to draw the imperial attention directly on myself, | I thought I saw how it could be done; and when I turned my horse’s head homeward I rode at a slower pace, iisditatine all the details of the plan with the closest attention. The Nihilists had told me enough to show me how to act, and my sense of fair play urged me to use the knowledge for my sole advantage, and without involving a single Nihilist in danger by open denunciation. Iwas a Nihilist against my will; and though I had been forced into the plot, I was altogether opposed to telling what had been told to me in this spirit of confidence. At the same time I was a Russian officer, almost equally against my own seeking, and so long as I preserved the emperor’s life I need not regard other matters as a Russian officer would. By the time I reached my rooms I had my plans shaped and my scheme developed, and my accustomed mood of calm, wary self possession had returned. I changed my suit and went to iin club. The place was crammed with the officers stationed in Moscow and their friends who had been sent into the city on special duty in connection with the Czar’s visit on the following day. Hvery one was in the noisiest spirits. Good news had come of the prospects of war. All believed that on the next day the Little Father would make a ringing war speech that would render peace impossible; and many of the men were talking as though the sword had already leaped from the scabbard, and a million men, tramping warwards, were already driving the scared Turks before them like husks before the winnowing fan. I lounged about the place, exchanging a word now and then with one or another of my acquaintances, and I saw some of the youngsters stop their war babble as I passed and whisper to their companions, and the latter would turn and look in my direction. Iwas fool enough to be pleased at these little indications of the changed feelings with which, in scarcely more than a month, I had made my fellow officers think and speak of ‘‘ that devil, Alexis.’’ More than once I smiled to myself as I thought what a bombshell would be exploded in the room if they were all told the hazardous secret which filled my thoughts just at that moment. The contact with the crowd helped in a way to strengthen the decision I had made. I was one against all these thousands ; fighting by myself for my own hand against all these desperate odds, and with none to help me in a single detail. When I reached my rooms I went at once to bed, knowing that every minute of rest had its value as a preparation for the work of the following day. Ihad made my resolution, formed my plans, thought out even the Eomichbooks (©)