She shrugged her shoulders, replying, "We have followed him here because he is not so closely guarded as in Petersburg. If we succeed, there will be no heir-apparent, for the Grand Duke George is already dying in the Caucasus, and the days of the autocrat Alexander are numbered. He will die sooner than the world imagines." The flippant manner in which she spoke of death appalled me; nevertheless, when I bade her farewell, I was deeply in love with her, and promised to be in the vicinity of the scene of the tragedy on the morrow. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ I knew all the details of this desperate plot to kill the Russian heir-apparent--then on a brief visit to London with his _fiancee_--yet I dared not inform the police, for the terrible vengeance of the Circle was always swift and always fatal. Helpless to avert the calamity, I passed the long day in breathless anxiety, dreading the fatal moment when the blow would be struck. By some strange intuition, I felt that my every action was watched by emissaries of the Nihilists, who feared treachery on my part, for, as a journalist, I was personally acquainted with a number of officers at Scotland Yard. Hour by hour I strove to devise some plan by which I might prevent the foul murder that was about to be perpetrated; but, alas! no solution of the problem presented itself. The plans had been laid with such care and forethought, that undoubtedly the Tzarevitch would fall a victim, and Russia would be plunged into mourning. At length twilight deepened into night, and as I walked from Charing Cross down the noisy, bustling Strand, the gas lamps were already alight, and the _queues_ were forming outside the theatres. On passing the steps leading to Exeter Hall, I was startled by a hand being laid upon my arm, and found beside me an elderly woman, poorly-clad, wearing a faded and battered bonnet, with a black, threadbare shawl wrapped around her. "You have not failed, then?" she exclaimed in low tones, that in an instant I recognised. "You, Sonia? And in this disguise!" I cried. "Hush! or we may be overheard!" she said quickly. "The choice fell upon me, but--but I have had a fainting fit, caused by over-excitement, and I cannot trust myself;" and she caused me to walk back and turn up Exeter Street, a short and practically deserted thoroughfare close by. "Think, are not the risks too great?" I urged. "Why not abandon this attempt?" "I have sworn to make it," she answered determinedly. "And the others--where are they?" "An alarm has been raised. Baranoff, the chief of the Third Section, suspects, and is in London in search of us. We have all left England, with the exception of Karamasoff, who remains to witness the attempt, and make a report to the council."