some very important communication to make to me. As I descended the stairs into the reception-room, where I usually received visitors, I found no one there and, on asking the hall man on duty, was told that a gentleman had been waiting for me but had stepped out on the terrace to smoke. I followed to the terrace but found no one. Looking carefully around, I made out some figures hiding in the shrubbery that grew in front of the Railway Club, where we held our meetings. Understanding what sort of guests I had, I drew my revolver from my pocket and advanced toward them. It is difficult to know just what would have occurred among the shrubs, powdered with snow, if Vlasienko, learning that I was outside, had not come bolting out with two companions and swooped down in my direction with loud shouts. Frightened by this clever show of force, the men behind the bushes broke and fled with Vlasienko's trio in pursuit, though, unfortunately, my callers managed to slip away among the huts and shops to the south of the open space beyond the Railway Club.
Vlasienko returned in a rage over the fact that he had recognized one of the fleeing men as the anarchist Ivanoff. Recounting to the Committee what had happened, he requested permission to be allowed to arrest the leaders of the reactionary groups known to us in the hope that he might find among them this anarchist agent of the political police.
Some days later, while working at home, I noticed a distinct smell of smoke, called my man-servant and ordered him to find out where the fire was. Before he had time to leave the room, I saw smoke coming up through the crevices in the floor and ran down with him into the cellar to find a large bundle of kaoliang stalks, which had been put in through a cellar window and
