The weeks passed without bringing any new information. I then decided to return to Tioumen, the cost of living at Ekaterinburg being very high. Before starting, however, I obtained from Serguéief a promise that he would recall me if any new fact of importance came to light in the course of the enquiry. At the end of January, 1919, I received a telegram from General Janin, whom I had known at Mohilef when he was chief of the French Military Mission at Russian G.H.Q. He invited me to join him at Omsk. Some days later I left Tioumen, and on February 13th arrived at the Military Mission sent by France to the Omsk Government.[73] Admiral Koltchak, realising the historic importance of the enquiry into the disappearance of the Imperial family, and wishing to know the result, had in January charged General Ditériks to bring him from Ekaterinburg a copy of the evidence and all the clues that had been found. On February 5th he summoned Nicholas Alexiévitch Sokolof, “Examining [Illustration: IPATIEF’S HOUSE, FROM THE VOSNESSENSKY STREET. On the ground floor, the window between two trees is that of the room in which the murders took place. Above it is the window of the Grand-Duchesses’ room. The four windows in pairs at the angle of the upper floor are those of the room occupied by the Czar, the Czarina, and the Czarevitch. ] [Illustration: THE CZARINA’S FAVOURITE LUCKY CHARM, THE “SWASTIKA,” WHICH SHE DREW IN THE EMBRASURE OF ONE OF THE WINDOWS IN HER ROOM AT EKATERINBURG, ADDING THE DATE, 17/30 APRIL, 1918. On the left, photograph of the inscription under glass with four seals. On the right, the inscription. {_Facing page 276._] Magistrate,”[74] for business of particular importance, and invited him to conduct the enquiry. Two days later the Minister of Justice appointed him to carry on Serguéief s work. It was at this juncture that I made the acquaintance of M. Sokolof. At our first interview I realised that his mind was made up and that he had no further hope. I could not believe such horrors. “But the children--the children?” I cried to him. “The children have suffered the same fate as their parents. There is not a shadow of doubt in my mind on that point.” “But the bodies?” “The clearing must be searched; that is where we shall find the key to the mystery, for the Bolsheviks cannot have spent three days and nights here simply to burn a few clothes.” Alas! these conclusions were soon to be borne out by the deposition of one of the principal murderers, Paul Medvedief, who had just been taken prisoner at Perm. As Sokolof was at Omsk it was Serguéief who interrogated him on February 25th at Ekaterinburg. He admitted formally that the Czar, Czarina and the five children, Dr. Botkin, and the three servants had been killed in the basement of Ipatief’s house during the night of July 16th-17th. He could not, however, or would not, give any hint as to what had been done with the bodies after the murder.