It could not be a coincidence that officers who met Soloviev in Tiumen were arrested by the Reds and “disappeared.” Two such cases are recorded in the _dossier_. It is certainly more than a coincidence that before and after the fall of the Kolchak Government he was in mysterious association with persons who were strongly suspected of being German agents, and could give no satisfactory account of the source of his income since he had been cut off from the supplies of X. N. A. Sokolov found him and Matrena at Chita, enjoying the confidence and support of Maria Mihailovna, the so-called “Queen of Diamonds,” who presided over the destinies of the Ataman’s household and had a decided finger in the Trans-Baikalian pie. The “Queen” bore a striking likeness to a certain Jewess who had spied on the Russian South Western front in the days of the war. She came in person to release the Solovievs from the House of Detention to which they had been relegated by Sokolov’s legal order. Sokolov himself had to flee from Chita to avoid worse consequences. The priest Vasiliev was of another stamp. His antecedents should have dispensed him from ecclesiastical office. He had killed the sexton of the church where he had previously served. The plea of accident, of which he availed himself to secure a nominal punishment of “penitence,” could not engender a proper recognition of his responsibilities. The man was a self-seeker; he saw in the captivity of the Romanovs an opportunity to advance his own and his son’s interests. He indulged in all manner of demonstrations of “loyalty”--bell-ringing and prayers--without regard to their effect upon the captives and their gaolers. As a matter of fact, they did much harm to the family. The accusation brought against him by Soloviev appears to be borne out in part by the discovery of a certain quantity of articles belonging to the Imperial family in his (Vasiliev’s) house. The Czech pharmacist Gaida, commanding their rearguard when they were stopped by orders from Berlin and Moscow, who afterwards entered the service of the Omsk Government, played a sorry part in the investigation of the Tsar’s murder. Immediately after the occupation of Ekaterinburg by the Whites, Gaida requisitioned Ipatiev’s house for his personal use and took for himself the room in which the Tsar and his wife had lived. The judiciary begged him not to do so, explaining that it was most necessary that the house should not be disturbed, in the interests of justice. They were brushed aside. Gaida threatened violence if they did not leave him alone. They drew up a _procès-verbal_ on the matter. It is in the _dossier_.