The Secret of the Night | Page 6

policeman statuesque before the
setting sun.
"No one knows that - not even my husband."
"So M. Koupriane told me. Then it is you who have arranged for these
ten police-agents?"
"Certainly."
"Well, we will commence now by sending all these police away."
Matrena Petrovna grasped his hand, astounded.
"Surely you don't think of doing such a thing as that!"
"Yes. We must know where the blow is coming from. You have four
different groups of people around here - the police, the domestics, your
friends, your family. Get rid of the police first. They must not be
permitted to cross your threshold. They have not been able to protect
you. You have nothing to regret. And if, after they are gone, something
new turns up, we can leave M. Koupriane to conduct the inquiries
without his being preoccupied here at the house."
"But you do not know the admirable police of Koupriane. These brave

men have given proof of their devotion."
"Madame, if I were face to face with a Nihilist the first thing I would
ask myself about him would be, 'Is he one of the police?' The first thing
I ask in the presence of an agent of your police is, 'Is he not a Nihilist?'"
"But they will not wish to go."
"Do any of them speak French?"
"Yes, their sergeant, who is out there in the salon."
"Pray call him."
Madame Trebassof walked into the salon and signaled. The man
appeared. Rouletabille handed him a paper, which the other read.
"You will gather your men together and quit the villa," ordered
Rouletabille. "You will return to the police Headguarters. Say to M.
Koupriane that I have commanded this and that I require all police
service around the villa to be suspended until further orders."
The man bowed, appeared not to understand, looked at Madame
Trebassof and said to the young man:
"At your service."
He went out.
"Wait here a moment," urged Madame Trebassof, who did not know
how to take this abrupt action and whose anxiety was really painful to
see.
She disappeared after the man of the false astrakhan. A few moments
afterwards she returned. She appeared even more agitated.
"I beg your pardon," she murmured, "but I cannot let them go like this.
They are much chagrined. They have insisted on knowing where they
have failed in their service. I have appeased them with money."

"Yes, and tell me the whole truth, madame. You have directed them not
to go far away, but to remain near the villa so as to watch it as closely
as possible."
She reddened.
"It is true. But they have gone, nevertheless. They had to obey you.
What can that paper be you have shown them?"
Rouletabille drew out again the billet covered with seals and signs and
cabalistics that he did not understand. Madame Trebassof translated it
aloud: "Order to all officials in surveillance of the Villa Trebassof to
obey the bearer absolutely. Signed: Koupriane."
"Is it possible!" murmured Matrena Petrovna. "But Koupriane would
never have given you this paper if he had imagined that you would use
it to dismiss his agents."
"Evidently. I have not asked him his advice, madame, you may be sure.
But I will see him to-morrow and he will understand."
"Meanwhile, who is going to watch over him?" cried she.
Rouletabille took her hands again. He saw her suffering, a prey to
anguish almost prostrating. He pitied her. He wished to give her
immediate confidence.
"We will," he said.
She saw his young, clear eyes, so deep, so intelligent, the well-formed
young head, the willing face, all his young ardency for her, and it
reassured her. Rouletabille waited for what she might say. She said
nothing. She took him in her arms and embraced him.

II
NATACHA

In the dining-room it was Thaddeus Tchnichnikoff's turn to tell hunting
stories. He was the greatest timber-merchant in Lithuania. He owned
immense forests and he loved Feodor Feodorovitch* as a brother, for
they had played together all through their childhood, and once he had
saved him from a bear that was just about to crush his skull as one
might knock off a hat. General Trebassof's father was governor of
Courlande at that time, by the grace of God and the Little Father.
Thaddeus, who was just thirteen years old, killed the bear with a single
stroke of his boar-spear, and just in time. Close ties were knit between
the two families by this occurrence, and though Thaddeus was neither
noble-born nor a soldier, Feodor considered him his brother and felt
toward him as such. Now Thaddeus had become the greatest
timber-merchant of the western provinces, with his own forests and
also with his massive body, his fat, oily face, his bull-neck and his
ample