"Siberia?" I repeated after him, and shrugged my shoulders; and the czar added:
The hackneyed simile of the cat and the mouse seemed to me to be especially applicable in the present instance. In one breath I was told that there would be many interviews of the kind I was then enjoying (?), and in the next that my destination was Siberia. It was certainly paradoxical and somewhat threatening, but I still refrained from asking questions. Presently, as I made no further comment, the emperor resumed the conversation.
"What brought you to Russia?" he demanded, but in a tone that was not unkind.
"The desire to obtain an interview with you," I replied, remembering his caution for me to ignore his rank.
"In any capacity for which I seem most fitted."
His majesty smiled broadly as if my replies suited the humor he was in. I knew that I had made an impression that was not detrimental to me in his eyes, and thought that I began to see through the puzzle. The succeeding few moments convinced me that I was not mistaken.
"Whose was the suggestion that determined your visit to Russia?" he continued.
"The suggestion came to me a long time ago--more than a year," I responded. "Since then it has been constantly in my mind, and at last I decided to act upon it."
"That does not answer my question, Mr. Derrington."
"The idea first came to me through an old friend; one whom I used to know here, in this country; one who afforded me very great assistance when I was here three years ago on a secret mission for my government."
"You are troubled with a poor memory, sir."
"Yes; concerning the names of friends who have assisted me when they have been compelled to place their own interests in jeopardy in order to do so."
"Did you not have a definite proposition to make to me, in case you were successful in securing an audience?"
"Very well, you have secured the audience. I will hear the proposition."
I hesitated. Here before me ready at my hand was the very opportunity I had so eagerly sought and which I had determined to go to many lengths to obtain. Already I had undertaken great expense to arrive at this moment and to encounter a circumstance very like the one by which I was now confronted; and yet I hesitated to take his majesty at his word and to render up the proposition he required of me, and which I had travelled so far and gone to such pains to submit. But you will admit that the circumstance was an unusual one, and that the very manner of my introduction to the Czar of all the Russias was calculated to be confounding to me and to place at naught my customary determined poise, and unswerving self-reliance. The abrupt mention of Alexis Saberevski, coupled with other insinuations already brought forward in our conversation, confirmed me in the idea already half formed, that my apparent arrest at the hotel, my strange and mysterious journey through the night, and the threat of Siberia, were all in the nature of what we Americans call a "bluff"; were only intended to conceal the real purpose of this enforced interview. During that moment of hesitation, which was so short that it would not have been noticeable to a disinterested party, I decided that the perfectly frank and open course would be the best one to adopt with this giant of a man who confronted me; a giant not only in physique and stature, and in strength of purpose as well as in muscle, but in the wonderful power he swayed by the mere exertion of his will.
