Rescuing the Czar | Page 8

little while before asking, 'When do I
start?'... 'There's another thing,' he said. 'I suppose you know we retain
one-third of your fee for the benefit of your family in the event of any
trouble.'... I merely nodded and said, 'All right.'"
In a moment a clerk brought in a check for 400, which Colonel Z----
S---- gave me, saying: 'This is your first month's allowance for
expenses; your retainer will be paid quarterly.'... 'How do you KNOW I
won't swindle you?' I asked, being a perfect stranger to him. 'I am
taking my ORDERS from above,' he answered.... '_Who?_' I asked.
'Young man!' he thundered, 'learn this QUICK--don't ask questions;
keep your ears and eyes open and your mouth SHUT.... Be here at 10
tomorrow.'
5. The next entry of interest read as follows:
"I met Colonel Z---- S---- at 10 today. My head was not clear. Guess I
had too much at Kempinsky's last night.... A saturnalia of spending on
the theory that the Allies will pay.... Even the ride in the Grunewald
this morning didn't clear the cobwebs away. I was constantly thinking
of that girl at the Métropole with her long eyelashes and dimpling smile;
resembles the veiled lady at Buckingham,--and I was trying to make

out why she managed to occupy a seat at the next table to mine at the
Admiral's Palace an hour or two later. She seems to know some of the
performers who mingled in the audience, especially the energetic
dark-eyed Circe with the Greek nose, and said to be some sort of a
Baroness, who so often approached my table. I wonder what the
connection is between these two.... There is certainly some sympathetic
tie between those girls! This I know, for when I had breakfast at the
Cafe Bauer, U.d.L., they were BOTH there, slightly disguised, and
occupying the same table!... Who is Syvorotka? Her lover?... I wonder
what the game is.... Come to think about it, the titled performer of the
Métropole looks like a twin sister of Marie Amelia, Countess of
[Cszecheny] Chechany, a perfect composite of Juno and Venus and
Hebe all rolled into one.... These enigmatical personages crowded
everything else out of my mind as I walked into Colonel Z---- S----'s
office....
"... Without any preliminaries he said, 'Come with me!'... We entered a
cab and a few minutes later I entered the Wilhelmstrasse and was in the
presence of that tall, iron-gray, wiry gentleman with eyes like a
searchlight and the manners of a Chesterfield. 'Thank you, Colonel,' he
said. The Colonel sprang to attention, bowed, saluted and backed away.
We were ALONE!... 'In ten minutes,' he said, 'you will be conducted to
another room. When you arrive advance to the middle, make a right
wheel and stand at attention facing the portière. Maintain perfect
silence, answer all question,--make NO inquiries--understand?'... I was
taken downstairs, along a wide corridor to a solid-oak door guarded by
two sentries and an attendant in the Royal livery. The door was opened
by an officer of the Erste Garde; I entered a large room, advanced to the
center and faced the divided portières of an adjoining chamber! There
sat the man whose nod shook the earth!... Behind a heavy,
old-fashioned desk, in a dim light, apparently absorbed in writing, sat a
deeply tanned, lean-faced, blue-gray-eyed counterpart of Frederick the
Great,--the very embodiment of Majesty!... Eyes that blazed in their
defiant depths with a steady and consuming fire--the kind of eyes that
seem to defy the world.... I stood there fully five minutes before I heard
the sharp, high-pitched voice pierce through the portière saying: 'Adell,
I will see the C----'... I was conducted to within six feet of the man at

the desk and in the same shrill voice asked how familiar I was with
Russia, with Turkestan, India, and the Far East.... My answers seemed
to convince my questioner.... Handing me a note he said: 'No one
besides ourselves is to know that you are to undertake the mission
outlined in that note.' Then he sat forward abruptly, his elbows resting
on the desk, his head between his hands, his eyes fixed on space.... I
began to study the note.... I was dumfounded!... I had thought all along
that this man was the mortal enemy of the persons this note
commanded me to rescue from danger.... I could not understand HOW
there could be the slightest co-operation between this man and the other
great ones of the earth that note commanded me to call upon for
assistance in case I should need it. It was utterly incomprehensible! Yet
THERE were the directions in plain black and white.... And I could not
ask a solitary question!... In the same shrill voice the man asked: 'Have
you memorized it?' I had!