he desires, and all capable of giving the greatest help to the movement. The real secret will be in as few hands as possible. When he knows more it will be too late for him to interfere," he said with a smile.
"That will be the hour of danger," I returned.
"Rather the hour of triumph. Think what it must mean in a country like ours to have, say, five hundred young men in this city, each influencing many more, drawn from all classes, high and low, all joined by the strongest ties for one common object, and all looking upon one man as their leader—"In the Name of a Woman." You will wield a tremendous power, Count. God grant you use it wisely," he said, earnestly. "But I have no doubt of that. I should not be here if I had."
"I shall wield it only for the one object."
"It will turn the scale in any crisis," said Spernow.
"It will free the country," said Zoiloff.
I said nothing, but was thinking of the help it would render to my Princess.
One thing troubled me. The General had declared that he would not permit me to remain in the country unless I pledged myself to join him; and give that pledge I would not. Neither would I leave the country. And when my two companions had left, I sat pondering a way out of the difficulty. There was but one way that I could see—to have him satisfied by some indirect means that I had espoused the cause of the Princess, and leave him to draw the inference for himself that in serving her I intended to serve him and his party also.
In this connection I thought of Spernow. He was the General's agent specially told off to sound me, and it would be quite possible for him to give a report suf-
