When I re-entered the sitting-room she was lying just as I had left her. I placed my hand in the bodice of her gown, and as I did so a spray of tuberoses fell to the floor. Feeling crisp paper inside her bodice, I drew it forth. It was an envelope, the contents of which I immediately examined. I discovered that it was the report for which I had been searching. Breathless with excitement, I read it through from beginning to end. Our plot was completely exposed! Moreover, it gave names and descriptions of the Executive and prominent members resident in London, myself included. When I had devoured the contents, I placed it carefully in my pocket, afterwards turning to cast a farewell glance at her. With alarm I noticed that in the few minutes during which I had been reading an ashen pallor had overspread her countenance. I laid my hand softly upon her breast. The heart had ceased to beat! Then the terrible truth dawned upon me. I had administered an overdose! Vera Kovalski was dead, and I had murdered her! For a moment my senses reeled, so overcome was I by the mingled odours of chloroform and tuberoses. But I managed to recover myself and creep noiselessly out. Is there any wonder why I have never since been able to endure the combined sickly scents of chloroform and tuberoses. I can smell them now! Faugh! CHAPTER X. AN IMPERIAL SUGAR PLUM. The incident at Borki, when the train in which the Tzar Alexander and Tzarina were travelling was wrecked and partially burned, will no doubt be remembered by the majority of readers. Although generally attributed to a Nihilist plot, the perpetrators of the outrage have never been discovered. It is true that thirty-seven persons of both sexes were arrested at Kirsanoff and Atkarsk and sent to the Kadainski silver mine in Eastern Siberia as a “precautionary measure,” but all were innocent, and notwithstanding the strenuous efforts of the Russian “Security Section,” aided by the police of the whole of Europe, the matter has always been regarded as a mystery. Now, for the first time, I have resolved to explain the manner in which that attempt was made, the cause of its failure, and the means employed by the conspirators to effect their escape.