"Then you have of course seen the private workshop and arsenal?"
"I have been over them both more than once."
"It is still, I suppose, entirely unsuspected by the police?" continued my interrogator.
"Entirely," I replied.
"Can you tell us how it is that so large a concern is kept so completely secret?"
Here was a poser; but my native impudence and the brandy seemed to come to my aid.
"That is information," I replied, "which I do not feel justified in divulging even here. In withholding it I am acting under the direction of the chief commissioner."
"You are right—perfectly right," said my original friend Petrokine. "You will no doubt make your report to the central office at Moscow before entering into such details."
"Exactly so," I replied, only too happy to get a lift out of my difficulty.
"We have heard," said Alexis, "that you were sent to inspect the Livadia. Can you give us any particulars about it?"
"Anything you ask I will endeavour to answer," I replied, in desperation.
