A Secret Service: Being Strange Tales of a NihilistLe Queux, William
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A Secret Service: Being Strange Tales of a Nihilist
Le Queux, William
Nihilism -- Fiction; Russia -- Politics and government -- 1801-1917 -- Fiction
A week later Guibaud had recovered from the blow I had dealt him, and
I was again “shadowing” him. He was walking along the Strand, in the
direction of Trafalgar Square, when I passed him and appeared to suddenly
recognise him. After a few minutes’ conversation I found he was going
into Oxford Street, therefore I proposed that he should accompany me
along Shaftesbury Avenue, and call at my chambers for a whisky and soda,
an arrangement to which he made no objection.
Soon afterwards he sat before my sitting-room fire admiring the artistic
decorations of my little flat, while I stood upon the hearthrug smoking
a cigarette, watching him with anxious expectation. He was foolishly
unsuspicious, or he would not have drunk the liquor I offered him.
Almost immediately after emptying his glass he became dazed.
“I—I don’t know how it is—but—I feel strangely unwell,” he exclaimed,
with an attempt to laugh, at the same time drawing his hand across his
brow. “_Dieu!_—my head is swimming—I—I——”
And after struggling to rise, he fell back in the armchair unconscious.
Unbuttoning his coat, I quickly abstracted the contents of his pockets.
There were only several letters and a well-worn pocket-book. Carefully
examining the entries in the latter, I found they consisted of the
names, addresses, and descriptions of various Russian refugees. Some of
the names had a cross against them, evidently denoting that they were
revolutionists. In the cover of the book was a letter on thin foreign
paper, which had been carefully preserved. Eagerly reading through the
communication, I discovered that the writer had betrayed our secret, and
gave a detailed outline of the conspiracy.
It was written in Russian by a person who gave his address at 88, Rue
Royale, Dieppe, and signed with the initials “P. P.” But the caligraphy
was unmistakable, for I had had a number of communications in that
handwriting, which I recognised as that of Antìp Patrovski, a prominent
member of the Paris Circle. A number of members of that branch of the
Organisation had recently been arrested and sentenced to imprisonment,
and now, from the letter I had discovered, it was clear that this
traitor to our Cause was in the pay of the Secret Police. Taking a
pencil and paper, I scribbled out a copy of the evidence of Patrovski’s
treachery.
It was his death-warrant!
After I had made myself acquainted with the contents of the other
letters, I replaced them all in the pockets of the insensible man, and
then endeavoured to restore him to consciousness.
When at last he opened his eyes and roused himself, I treated the matter
jocularly, attributing the result to the strength of the whisky combined
with the heat of the room. Almost the first thing he did was to feel
in his breast pocket. Finding both pocket-book and letters safe, his
suspicions were apparently allayed, and after drinking a little brandy he
pulled himself together and took a cab home.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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