The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 8, 1904, Page 2

HIS is the first install- ment of “By a Hair’s Breadth,” a novel of rare interest just at the present time, while the eyes of the world are focused on St. Pet- ershurg. It tells of the plot and counterplot that keep the Czar in constant jeopardy and. how marvelously he is safeguarded by the dreaded “Third Section.” D ead & Rights Reserved CHAPTER 1 Co.—All the private room the Nevski Prospect. e w as bu laid down his nd-bell on the he in- swered the is in the wait- was the reply. the chief’s the reply s. “My be largely gnized cross- ions which would g or postponement replied Vol- absence of n suspected everything al state of his Majesty, ¢y finger on no e warning, and excite- bac; have been d to furnish rea ppesrance of dan ger ers whose work ne utside risdiction presents it- diligent search failed to find olborth. “Wel. Krasnovitch, and Anna ave, to all seeming, van- e face of the earth. And the arch-plotter, and active of those still in as quiet as a sucking ‘ectly open in his com- The closest watching d to trace him to suspicious saddle him with the eipt of treasanable let- this connection, General, an ey have appointed & new exe head — some individual against whom no breath of suspicion has ever blown, even from this.office,” said Voit h earnestly. “If they were er nd coup, it would orth their while to y for the purpose of it would account for Pet- rof’s present quietude. In order to let the blow come from an entirely unex- pected quarter, he may have surren- 5 his authority to unseen hands, even remaining in ignorance of subordinates, of every- is a startling theory—that of a of the utterly unsuspected,” d the chi rising and pacing uneasily. “Unceasing vigi- r their Meajesties’ persons ne save them from such peo- ve not only to protect 1 must spare them the hor- attempt. How can we coun- such a danger, Volborth, pre- suming it to exist?” I have dy endeavored to coun- teract it s the reply. “That is to say, for & month past I have made a point of pecting every one—entirely, 1 repeat ithout result,” For over a minute there wi in the r silence m, and then Granovitch, halt- ing € ily, faced sbout and con- fronted Volborth, who was still stand- ing by the desk friend,” he said. “there is no one better fitted for this task than your- self. You must accompany his Majesty as the chief agent of the section, though not openly as such. Existing arrangements will stand. Restofskl will act as the visible head of the po- lice who are to travel en suite, but he will be at your orders, He is absolute- ly to be depended on, and has done good work under you before. You shall g0 in the character of official historian of the tour. That will be in keeping with your avowed occupations.” “I am at the disposal of the section sald Volborth' calmly. “I should wish to stipulate that my real capacity is known to as few of the suite as possi- ble—say, to Prince Lobanof and the chief a -a “A wise precaution, and it shall be attended to,” said Granovitch. “I will send for Restofski at once and explain e situation to him. For yourself, it t be well if you tock a last look round I shall be busy between now and the hour of departure. to-morrow,” an- swered Volborth significantly. “I shall see you before we leave? Good! Then, for the present, farewell, General.” The moment he was gver the thres- hold of the private room his gait changed to a shambiing slouch, in hee g with his dress Passing through the antechambers and hall, he bowed cringingly to several officials, » were well aware of his high posi- n the section, but who treated 1 to the stony stare, and in one or two instances to the curse, they would have accorded to the genuine moujik. It was 1 but it was possible, that ever the precincts of the bureau th ght be sharp eyes pry- ing on those whose one duty it was to pry Volborth passed through the swing doors on to the broad flight of steps that leads to the.street level, and half- way down he met-a man who was as- cending with evident intention of entering the buildir The one glanee that Volborth shot from wunder his haggy, false evebrows told him that v »n bureau was n nor a Russian, tailoring being ish or Ameri- xion was florid ud estive of a B His comp! and his clean-shaven and good-natured pped and accosted Vol- t er was conscious of a curious dilatation of the smiling eyes. § can you inform me if this is the American consulate?” he inquired, in a language and accent that left no doubt as to his nationalit But Volborth, whe, speaking six lan- guages like a native, upderstood him merely shdok'his head, and tely, proceeded on With a shrug of hig shouplders stranger entered the swinging and was 108t to view e is either & very guileless or a specimen of the traveling muttered Volborth, as he loitered a‘little way off to see- what would happen. “A moujik, especially one of my forlorn appearance, would hardly be expected by a pane person to speak English. I wondef how seon he will discover his mistake—if mistake it was. Ah! he has been .already enlight- ened—and shown the door.” For the American had reappeared on the top of the steps in the company of an official, who by his gestures was evi- dently pointing out the desired direc- tion. Having apparently thanked his informant, the seeker for the tonsulate came leisurely down the steps and be- came merged in the throng of foot passengers on the payement. “Let me see,” said Volborth to him- self, “cld Bratski is on duty in the hall of the bureau. He may be trusted to do the right thing and verify that ‘error.” Ah! that is well; there goes the shadow A pondescript dividual had come out of the buildi and had followed in the direction taken by the Ameri- can. Having satisfied himself that the spy of the section had picked up the trail, Volberth shambled on, and, pass- ing into the poorer quarter of the city, dived at length down a.dark alley, where he entered a wretched house that was little better than a hovel. He remained but a short time within, for the house was only one of several lairs he kept in different parts of the city for the purpuse of changing his disguises when on his way to or from the bureau. When he came out it was by a back exit leading into another alley behind, and now it was in the garb of a petty shopkeeper that he re- traced his way to more aristocratic re- gions. So much store did he set on preserving the secret of his connection with officialdom that he always took the precaution of a double change be- fore approaching the bureau. His own residence, where he lived openly the life of Paul Volborth—man of birth, man of fashion and man of letters—was on the Michael Strasee, and even here he went through the pantomime of ringing the bell and par- leying with the confidential servant— himself an agent of police—who opened to him. Had watehful eyes been on the master of the house they would have seen nothing but a shabby tradesman applying for admission that was tar- dily granted. Once inside, Volborth hastened to his dressing-room and set about metamor- phosing himself into his own proper person preparatory to the “last look round” suggested by the chief of the Third Section. While donning the clothes of a Russian gentleman, he busied his brain with mapping out the few hours at his disposal. “Yes,” he thought, as he surveyed himself in the glass, “the fair Palitzin must have a visit, if some seemingly more important ones are left unpaid. T am due to offer her my respects so- cially, even were there no other reason. Bah! it isn't a reason, and yet—I don't know. There is something vague and shadowy about that woman—an atmos- phere, shall I call it?—that stimulates my instincts, and my instincts have yielded reasons before now. Tarasch,” he added aloud to the grave man- servant who was aiding his change of attire, “did you take that note to Cap- tain Dubrowski . of ‘the Imperial Guard?” “I did, monsieur, and the Captaln begged you to excuse him,” was the re- ply. “He was too pressed to write a note, being up to the eyes in prepara- ticns for his departure with their Ma- ties to-morrow. He desired me to say that he was engaged to dine at the Princess Olga Palitzin’s to-night.” To ascertain that, my Tarasch, wae the object of ‘'my invitation to him,” said Volborth to himself. He trusted implicitly, but it was charac- of him that not'till an hour be- he started would he confide the fact of own approaching departure. He placed a sprig of gardenia in his button-hole, fik'ked a spmeck of dust from the silken lapel of his frock coat, and, taking his hat and ' cane from Tarasch, descended into the street. No one would have dreamed that the well- groumed Russian gentleman of the modern “Frenchified” type was the most trusted agent of the secret police, starting on the fitst stage of the most terrible responsibility ever confided to man, In age, perhaps, nearing forty, clegn-shaven save for a carefully trained mustache, and with a face showing, to a marked degree, when in repose, the impassive ccldness of ‘his race, he would never have been credited with his most deadly, attributes—an alertness that never slumbered, a swift- ness that struck sure, and an inexor- able disregard for feeling that never spared. In a word, Paul Volborth's success had hitherto been due to 'a devotion to duties for which, by temferament and choice, he was pre-eminently fitted. Had he loved his work less, he would still have done his work well from this sheer ability; wedded to it as he was," he became the most potent factor in the councils of the Nihilists, who had to make allowance in all thefr schemes for an unknown force that seemed ever in their midst—penetrating their seeret souls and yet utterly untraceable. To such a man the gensation of being “a]l at sea,” and that at such a crisis as the present, with the Emperor’s life depending on his knowing the set of every undercurrent, came as a bracing nerve-tonic. While dressing, he had rapidly surveyed the _revolutionary combinations in the capi®1, and he had decided mot to fritter away his few hours in fishing waters already well explored. Rather would he act on the theory which he had imparted to Gran- ovitch, and try for a thread to the “new grouping” which a growing con- viction told him existed. “Take me to the house of the Prin- cess Palitzin,” was the instruction he gave to the droschki driver, who drew up in response to his hail. A few minutes later he was mounting theé staircase of a splendid mansion on the Great Morskaia, escorted by two Swiss lackeys in the canary and red Palitzin liveries. Arrived on the first Janding, be was conducted some wWay THE - SAN FRANCISCO SUND CALL. S PI. IE down a corridor hung with piiceless art gems to a curtained door which the senior servant flung wide, at' the same time announcing the visitor. “Ah, Monsleur Volborth, truant and man of bad faith. So at last, after many days, you delgn to visit poor me?" was the playful greeting accorded him by a lady who came forward with outstretched hand. “Only five days, Princess,” said Vol- borth, raising the hand to his lips with easy gallantry. “But you are right—to me, at any rate, the days have seemed as years.” Here he became conscious that the room had another occupant—a man standing at one of the windows gazing down the street. Volborth had the knack of seeing without looking, and he added quite naturally, and without allowing his hostess to per- ceive that the sight of that silent fig- ure was the cause of the addition, “I ‘have been very busy, and I am only here now because I am come to make my adieus.” “You are leaving Petersburg, then? Ah! gay one, for Paris, without doubt?” said the Princess with no more sem- blance of interest than politeness re- quired. ,“For Paris later; but to-morrow for Vienna in the train of their Imperial Majesties,” said Volborth, speaking rapidly, so as to gain the advantage of surprise. “Congratulate me, my dear Princess; I have been appointed re- corder of their Majesties’ wanderings, and am to travel en suite.” For the fraction of a second a gleam blazed up in the fine eyes of the Prin- cess, though it might well have been due to what was, as it stood, an inter- esting announcement. Then she broke into a ripple of merry. laughter. “You are one of Fortune's .spolled chiidren,” she said gayly. “I do, in- deed, congratulate you, and their Ma- jesties also. With such a bright butter- fly as our own Paul for its historian, the journey will surely yield no tragio records. But I am forgetting my dutfes. Let me present to you a friend of mine from America, traveling for pleasure. Colonel Delaval, come hers and make the acquaintance of one al- ready distirguished and about to add to his laurels. This is Monsieur Vol- this Restofskl However loyal one is, one cannot know & policeman, but he struck me as being fit for the work—if prying impertinence is a qualification.” The American was listening with the air of the knowledge-gathering for- eigner. “But surely,” he chimed in, “these borth, who is.ebout to accompany the #precautions of your officlaldom are Emperor on his tour.” She had been conversing with Vol- borth in ench—the language of po- lite Petersburg. But {n addressing the man at the window she spoke in Rus- slan, and in obedience to her behest he turned toward the room, presenting the broad, florid face of the American who, not two hours before, on the steps of the Third Section bureau, had accosted the seeming Russian moujik in English. “Deep waters,” thought Volborth, who had recognized his fellow-visitor the moment he entered. “If he knew our language, why did he not use it then? It is curious, too, for an Amer- fcan to speak, Russian and not French.” The two men bowed, and were soon in the thick of an animated conversa- tion on the Tsar's tour, the American evincing a natural but exceedipgly ill- informed curlosity about the topic of the hour, and the Princess chiming in with light persifiage. She was a striking personality—the Princess Olga Palitzin, daughter of one of Russia’s noblest houses. Though she must have been fully twenty-seven years of age, she had kept a rare, al- most childlike, freshness of complex- ion. Her features were fine and clear- ly cut, and her face knew how to vary its expression according to the feelings ghe wanted to show. She had soft, full lips, and steel blue eyes that gazed in- tently and yet gave no sign of how much they could comprehend. All her movements were graceful, and she had a singularly even voice, that produced a strange impression. It was exceedingly soft and melodious, but at the same time so quiet and indifferent that it seemed as if {ts owner could never love or hate, or indeed feel any intense emotion. The Princess, being {o the mgnner born, moved in the very highest of Petersburg society, and she was equally at home in Paris and Vienna. “You will have to behave yourself, you naughty Paul” said she in her Parisian manner, but still speaking in Russian. “They tell me that the tour will be little better than a progress of policemen, with our august sovereigns as a centerpiece. The name of the Third Section man in charge has been kept very dark, but a little bird whis- pers me that it is Restofski who goes in command of the army of spies.” Volborth nodded a careless assent. “I know it to my cost already,” he said, with a grimace of amused disgust. “I was no sooner selected for my liter- ary mission than I was hauled before Granovitch to have all my antecedents turned inside out in the presence of somewhat stagey and superflous? THis Restofski now, and his myrmidons— they are more for the purpose of im- perial show, I take it, than for any real services they are likely to render?” Volborth laughed gayly. “You must not expect me to dispar- age the most cherished of our institu- tions, Colonel Delaval,” said he, with just enough latent sarcasm in his tone to hint at no great fondness for the po- lice. “Seridusly, though, the answer to your question must depend on two con- tingencies—whether any need for Res- tofski's services will occur, and, sec- ondly, whether he will be competent to deal with it if it does. I am not com- petent to offer an opinion on either point.” He laid the faintest possible stress on the personal pronoun—so faint that it would not be noticed but by one con- scious of a merited innuendo. This scarcely perceptible emphasis was one of those baits which he habitually threw out in the course of his wily fish- ing; but, keenly as he watohed, he could “detect no sign either that the American or the Princess rose to it. Not by the quiver of an eyelid did they show that they possessed the knowledge which Volborth disclaimed, much less that they suspected him of implying that they had it. Olga Palitzin was toying with a jew- eled paper-knife, and with it she stabbed playfully at Volborth. “Of course you know nothing of such things, Paul,” she laughed. “How should you, when Colonel Delaval is probably right, and there is nothing to Know? But come, let us discuss some- thing more interesting than vulgar fry like Nihilists and police agents. What fun you will have on the journey, Paul! You should gather materials for a comedy in watching the pretty idy! be- tween those fondest of betrothed lovers, Boris Dubrowski and his mald-of. honor. Was there ever such luck as for them both to be of the suite? No parting, no tears, no possible cause of Jealousy.” Volborth raised his eyebrows and re- garded her with a significant smile. No social rumorg escaped him, and well he knew that the fair Ilma Vassili had found her cause of jealousy already— in the beautiful woman who spoke thus lightly of her betrothal to the Tsar's handsome aide-de-camp. The imminent breach between the two afflanced members of the royal house- hold, owing to Dubrowski's sudden in- fatuation for Olga Palitzin, was on every lip. Volborth had already taken steps to test the depth of that infatu- ation by ascertaining that the captain ‘was to spend u: 1ast evening In Peters- nder that roof. bt?;o-uom' natures the Wmmvot not always satisfying,” remar ks borth. “Possibly our friend, the Jw - aide-de-camp, having the moon 'b- him on his travels, may c&¥ for the a sent sun.” » “Ah! you have » the clubys?" sald Olga, clearly mue‘ilt_ pleaged with the hint of her con;t;om “He is a foolish fellow, our dear ome dangling here ;o. iml Ienvln‘z tith thelr w-wtj: morrow, I should bave had to drive - away. It would never do for [:hwb»- said at court that I was luring ;Ahi- trothed of the Tsarina’s favorite - of-honor to break faith. Boris is su! an impetuous boy." “Captain Dubrowski o Guards!” announced a lackey, open the door. With jingle ¢ the Imperial throwing of spurs and clank ?! sword the subject of their l'mllfl talk entered, gorgeous in fhe glittering uniform of the Household troops. That the Princess was not expecting him was plain to the ceaseless vigilance of Voi- borth. Equally plain was it that ahs was ready for the amergencd for even as she rose to greet her latest visitor she tossed the American a side glance which distinctly said “Go!™ and to Vel- borth himself accorded a deprecatory shrug suggestive of compulsory adieus. Colonel Delaval obediently bowed him- self out, but Volborth, nodding with friendly famillarity to the new-comer, held his ground. He did not intend to be hampered with a companion on leav- ing the room. The young officer’s usually bright and handsome face was clouded as he grasped the hand of his hostess. “I am desolate, my dear Princess,” he began. have only ten minutes at your disposal, and, alas! I must use them for saying farewell!” “What! you do not dine with me to- night?” exclaimed Olga, and for once Volborth thought' he could catch a metallic snap In her generally even tones, “Unfortunately, no,” replied Dubrow- ski ruefully. “His Majesty has com- manded the attendance of an extra aid-de-camp this evening, and I am next for duty. I cannot help myself in such a case, as you know. I can only obey—ahd hate my luck.” Polite usage offered only one course to Volborth. He rose and took leave of the Princess, with a cheery Au revoir to Dubrowski, who was, however, far too perturbed to care about or under- stand his meaning. Olga’s adleus were abundantly civil, but they were spoken with a rapidity that scarcely velled the satisfaction she felt at his departure. “l must take advantage of this change of plans,” Volborth said to him- self as he closed the door behind him. “Whatever object she had In asking him to dinner to-night she will en- deavor to go.n now—in the next few minutes.” He cast a quick glance up and down the corridor, and after taking half a dozen steps toward the head of the staircase, quietly went back on the tips of his patent leather shoes to the door. It was veiled with a heavy por- tiere, and, gliding behind the velvet folds, he applied his ear to the panel.