The Emperors Candlesticks | Page 7

sat, his powerful
fist clutched on the table, in his eyes a dark, lurid fire that told of
dangerous thoughts.
"There is one person whom, I think, the committee have omitted to
consider," said a voice at last, breaking the silence, that had lasted some
minutes, "and that is Lavrovski."
"Pardon me," said the president, "we have, I think, all thought of that
incompetent, though, at the present moment, important personage, and
all reflected as to what his possible attitude would be throughout."
"I have not the slightest doubt," said a voice from the further end of the
table, "that it will take Lavrovski some days before he will make up his
mind to communicate with his own government."
"Yes," assented another, "I have met him in Petersburg once or twice,
and he always given me the idea being a weak and irresolute man."
"Whose first feeling, when he realises - and it will take him some days
to do that - that the Tsarevitch has effectually disappeared, will be one
of intense terror, lest the blame for the disappearance be primarily laid
on him, and he be dispatched to Siberia to expiate his negligence."
"And the fool puts up with being treated a mere valet to a dynasty who
would treat him with such baseness and serving a government which, at
the first opportunity, would turn on him and whip him like a cur,"
muttered Mirkovitch wrathfully.
"We have, therefore, every chance that in our favour," resumed the
president, "that Lavrovski will not communicate with Petersburg, at
any rate for the first few days, whilst he will be busying himself in
trying to obtain some clue or idea as to his charge's whereabouts."

"He may probably," suggested someone, "employ some private
detective in this city, and, until that hope has failed him, endeavour to
keep the Tsarevitch's disappearance a secret from the Russian
government."
"Be that as it may," concluded the president. "I think we may safely
presume that our messenger will get a few day's start on that slowly
moving courtier, and that three days is all he will need to seek out
Taranïew, who will lose no time in seeing that the letter reaches its
proper destination."
"You are, of course, presuming all the time," now said a voice- an
elderly man's voice, sober and sedate- "that Lavrovski, thinking only of
his own safety, will at first merely endeavour to keep the matter of the
disappearance of his charge's much of a secret as possible; those of our
friends who know him best, seem, by judging his pretty well known
dilatoriness, to have arrived at this conclusion, which no doubt is the
right one. But we must all remember that there is one other person-
shall I say enemy- whom Lavrovski may, in spite of his fears, choose
for a confidant, and that person is neither dilatory nor timorous, and has
moreover an army of allies of every rank in Vienna to help he speedily
and secretly - you all know who I mean."
The question was not answered. What need was there of it? They all
knew her by reputation, the beautiful Madame Demidoff, and all
suspected and feared her; yet who dared to say she was a spy or worse,
this grande dame who was one of the ornaments of Viennese society.
"I spoke to her at the opera ball to-night," said Ivàn Volenski, who up
to this point had taken very little part in the discussion.
"She was there then?" queried an anxious voice.
"She is everywhere there is a brilliant function," replied Ivàn, "and it is
just possible that she may have had instructions to keep her dainty ears
open, whenever she came across any of her compatriots; when I met
her, it was just after Maria Stefanowa had driven off in the fiaker,
Madame Demidoff was wanting her carriage, and asked me to help her

in finding it."
"No doubt she is our greatest danger," said the president, "for if
anything did rouse her suspicions to-night, she certainly would not
hesitate to employ a whole army of private and police detectives, and
may force our hand before our brothers in Petersburg have had time to
play the trump card."
"After all," said Mirkovitch, "if we find that she is exerting her powers
too much, it is always within our means to give her a warning, that the
Tsarevitch's life is in actual danger through her interference."
"Anyhow, my friends," now concluded the president, "it is well that,
knowing our foes, we keep a strict watch on them. After all, let us
always remember that, though we risk our lives and liberties, they, in
their turn, must first see that the Tsarevitch is quite safe. We hold the
most precious of hostages; for once we