All this I knew, and much more. I knew that Ivan Manuiloff, who was now secretary to Stuermer, had begun his lucrative career as the agent and catspaw of Ratchkovsky in Paris. But he intrigued against his chief, and was then transferred to Rome. Of that man and his dastardly doings I will tell more later. Suffice it to say that the Emperor so deeply believed in him that one day he gave him a gold cigarette-case with his initials in diamonds "as a mark of his esteem"! Having listened attentively to the conversation between the two scoundrels, I at last came to the conclusion that they were conspiring against some mysterious person named Krivochein. After the pair had consumed a bottle of champagne, Azef rose and, shaking his friend's dirty paw, said: "I hope to have everything arranged when we meet. I would not yet mention the matter to the Empress." "Of course I shall not," remarked Rasputin, with that crafty grin of his. "She would only worry over it--and just now she is greatly troubled over the Tsarevitch. He has had another attack." The monk did not mention the fact that the cause of the attack was one of Badmayev's secret drugs which Anna Vyrubova had dissolved in his milk! After Azef had left, Rasputin flung himself into his easy chair, and as he lit a cigarette remarked to me: "Ah, Feodor! What a man! There is nothing he is unable to accomplish." "He is very daring," I remarked. "No, it is not daring--it is deep cunning. He has the police at his back; I have Alexandra Feodorovna--so we win always. But," he added, with a snarl, "we have enemies, and those must be dealt with--dealt with drastically. I hear they are setting about more scandals in Petrograd concerning me. Have you heard them?" he asked. "Gossip is rife on every hand, and all sorts of wild stories are being circulated," I said. "Bah! Let the fools say what they will of Gregory Rasputin," he laughed. "It only makes him the more popular. It is time, however, that I performed some more miracles among the poor," he added reflectively. "Let us arrange some, Feodor. Do not forget it." The miracles were arranged a fortnight later. With the assistance of a clever German conjurer named Brockhaus, from Riga, who with others helped the mock saint on the occasions when he imposed upon the credulity of the mujiks, he pretended to "heal" a child of lameness, while a female assistant of Brockhaus, having posed as a blind peasant, was restored to sight. The miracles took place out at Ligovo, a village outside Petrograd, and like wildfire the news was spread that the Holy Father had again taken compassion upon the people. Hundreds of men and women now flocked round him to kiss the edge of his ragged robe, and as he passed in the streets everyone crossed themselves. By such means did Rasputin retain the favour of the people and of the Empress herself. One night he received a telegram in cipher, which he gave me to decode. It had been despatched from Paris and read: