The Argosy, Vol. XXV, No. 3 — page 122: what you’re looking at

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

506 THE ARGOSY. But I found the whole piace in complete confusion and uproar; and the first words I heard were that the whole plan of the day’s work had been altered ; that the troops had been changed and interchanged in a most per- plexing manner; that regiments and companies and even odd files of men had been mixed up in the greatest apparent confusion ; and that not one of _ the original commands remained unaltered. I hurried to the colonel for my orders, and found him cursing volubly and with tremendous energy at the infinite confusion the alterations had caused. But he found me my orders readily—he was a splendid disciplin- arian—and when I read them I marveled indeed at the extraordinary exact- ness with which the Nihilists had been able to anticipate matters. | My command was changed to the guarding of the three mile stretch of line outside the Vsatesk station and commencing a thousand yards to the north of that point. I was to train out at once; post my men at twenty five yards’ distance ; and allow no one to approach the line for two hours before the coming of the imperial train and until half an hour after it had passed ; the time of its passing being given confidentially as 2:45—two hours later than had been originally fixed for the actual arrival in Moscow. More than that, the men under my command were not to be drawn solely from my own regiment, but from no less than three others, all specified, who were to meet me at the station. As I read these instructions I saw in them the influence of some one who must be both near to the throne and intimately acquainted with the whole Nihilist plot. The object of classing together under one command men taken suddenly from different regiments was a master stroke of treachery for this particular work. Apparently it prevented any collusion among any disaf- fected regiments, but in reality it opened the way for the five assassins to get into the ranks without the least suspicion; while the meeting at the railway station, probably urged as a necessity to save time at the moment when the plans had been all changed, must have been in fact designed solely for the purpose of the plot. : He who was secretly behind all this was no ordinary man. ‘That was clear. And I saw that in pitting my wits against his, seeing that he already had the imperial ear, I should have to be wary indeed, if I wished to avoid a fall. But I did not shirk the contest, and now that I knew I was really to have the chance, I clenched my teeth in desperate resolve. After incalculable trouble and much irritating delay, I got together the small company that came from my own regiment and marched them to the railway station, where I halted them and looked round for the detachments that were to join me. I posted my men in a place that would lend itself well to the Nihilist scheme. ‘The three detachments of men reported soon after my arrival, each in charge of a sergeant; and when I had ascertained the train by which we were to travel—a matter of no small difficulty in the indescribable confusion that prevailed—I moved the whole two hundred to the platforms. . I had seen nothing of the Nihilists so far, and this caused me some sur- prise. But on the platforms the order of the ranks could not be maintained, Eomicbooks (S@)