and said to be some sort of a Baroness, who so often approached my table.  I wonder what the connection is between these two....  There is certainly some sympathetic tie between those girls!  This I know, for when I had breakfast at the Cafe Bauer, U.d.L., they were BOTH there, slightly disguised, and occupying the same table!...  Who is Syvorotka?  Her lover?...  I wonder what the game is....  Come to think about it, the titled performer of the Metropole looks like a twin sister of Marie Amelia, Countess of [Cszecheny] Chechany, a perfect composite of Juno and Venus and Hebe all rolled into one....  These enigmatical personages crowded everything else out of my mind as I walked into Colonel Z——­ S——­’s office....

“...  Without any preliminaries he said, ’Come with me!’...  We entered a cab and a few minutes later I entered the Wilhelmstrasse and was in the presence of that tall, iron-gray, wiry gentleman with eyes like a searchlight and the manners of a Chesterfield.  ‘Thank you, Colonel,’ he said.  The Colonel sprang to attention, bowed, saluted and backed away.  We were ALONE!...  ‘In ten minutes,’ he said, ’you will be conducted to another room.  When you arrive advance to the middle, make a right wheel and stand at attention facing the portiere.  Maintain perfect silence, answer all question,—­make NO inquiries—­understand?’...  I was taken downstairs, along a wide corridor to a solid-oak door guarded by two sentries and an attendant in the Royal livery.  The door was opened by an officer of the Erste Garde; I entered a large room, advanced to the center and faced the divided portieres of an adjoining chamber!  There sat the man whose nod shook the earth!...  Behind a heavy, old-fashioned desk, in a dim light, apparently absorbed in writing, sat a deeply tanned, lean-faced, blue-gray-eyed counterpart of Frederick the Great,—­the very embodiment of Majesty!...  Eyes that blazed in their defiant depths with a steady and consuming fire—­the kind of eyes that seem to defy the world....  I stood there fully five minutes before I heard the sharp, high-pitched voice pierce through the portiere saying:  ’Adell, I will see the C——­’...  I was conducted to within six feet of the man at the desk and in the same shrill voice asked how familiar I was with Russia, with Turkestan, India, and the Far East....  My answers seemed to convince my questioner....  Handing me a note he said:  ’No one besides ourselves is to know that you are to undertake the mission outlined in that note.’  Then he sat forward abruptly, his elbows resting on the desk, his head between his hands, his eyes fixed on space....  I began to study the note....  I was dumfounded!...  I had thought all along that this man was the mortal enemy of the persons this note commanded me to rescue from danger....  I could not understand HOW there could be the slightest co-operation between this man and the other great ones of the earth that note commanded me to call upon for assistance in case I should need it.  It was