"Good. Let us attend to the Emperor's telegram at once." And a quarter of an hour later we were discussing the Kaiser's inquiry in a clean, comfortable, but out-of-the-way cottage in which "Willie" had established himself so as to be near the pretty girl for whom he had conceived that passing fascination. Until to-day Violet Hewitt has been entirely ignorant of the identity of the man who, like herself, was so addicted to opium. These lines, if they meet her eye, will reveal to her a curious and, no doubt, startling truth. SECRET NUMBER TEN HOW THE KAISER ESCAPED ASSASSINATION "The Emperor commands you to audience at once in the private dining-room," said one of the Imperial servants, entering the Kaiser's study, where I was awaiting him. It was seven o'clock on a cold, cheerless morning, and I had just arrived at Potsdam from Altona, the bearer of a message from the Crown-Prince to his father. I knew that the Emperor always rose at five, and that he was breakfasting, as was his habit, alone with the Empress in that coquettish private dining-room of the Sovereigns, a room into which no servant is permitted, Augusta preparing and serving the coffee with her own hands. It was the one hour which the All-Highest before the war devoted to domesticity, when husband and wife could gossip and discuss matters alone and in secret. As I passed downstairs to the room, to which entrance was forbidden even to the Crown-Prince himself, I naturally wondered why I had been commanded to audience there. On tapping upon the mahogany door of the little private salon the Empress's hard voice gave permission to enter, whereupon I bowed myself into the cosy little place, hung with reseda silk and with pictures by Loncret, Perne and Watteau. Upon one side of the room was a beautiful buhl cabinet, and at the little round table placed near the window sat the Imperial pair. The Empress was reading a letter, but His Majesty rose as I entered. He was wearing a grey tweed suit, a well-worn and, no doubt, easy one, in which nobody ever saw him, for he always changed into uniform before he went to his study. "Have you any knowledge of the contents of the letter which you have brought from the Crown-Prince?" he asked me bluntly, and I saw by his eyes that he seemed somewhat mystified. I replied in the negative, explaining that I had been with His Imperial Highness to Kiel, and afterwards to Altona, where the Crown-Princess had performed the opening ceremony of a new dock. "Where are you going now?" he asked suddenly. "There are other engagements, I believe?" "To Thorn. His Imperial Highness inspects the garrison there on Thursday," I said. "Ah! of course. I intended to go, but it is impossible." Then, after a pause, the Emperor looked me straight in the face and suddenly said: "Heltzendorff, have you any knowledge of any man called Minckwitz?" I reflected.