"Can you give me a light? Thank you!" I struck a match, drew a puff of smoke, and handed him back the box. Then I walked on board, the gangway was drawn in, and the j.a.panese steamer headed out to the open sea.

On reaching Tokio I experienced some difficulty in obtaining an audience of the j.a.panese ruler.

I was obliged to announce my name. It will hardly be believed, but the chamberlain whom I had entrusted with the important secret, brought back the answer that the Mikado had never heard of me!

"Tell his imperial majesty that there is no monarch of Europe, and only two of Asia, who could say the same. I am here as the confidential plenipotentiary of the Czar, with an autograph letter addressed to the Mikado, and I respectfully ask leave to present it in person."

Such a demand of course could not be refused. But even now the haughty j.a.panese did not receive me in the privacy of his own cabinet. On the contrary, I found myself introduced into the State Council-Room, in which his majesty was seated at a table surrounded by his chief advisers.

In particular I remarked the venerable Yamagata, conqueror of China, and the round bullet-head of Oyama, the future overthrower of Kuropatkin.

On the table was spread out a large map, or rather plan, of the entire theater of war, including Manchuria, Korea, j.a.pan and the seas between. A man in naval uniform was standing beside the imperial chair, with an expectant look on his face.

All eyes were turned upon me at my entrance. The Mikado beckoned to me to approach him.

"Is it true that you bring me a letter from the Russian Emperor?" he asked abruptly. "We have received information that such a letter was on its way, but that the bearer was murdered on the Manchurian railway four days ago."

"Your majesty's information is substantially correct," I answered.

"The messenger, a Colonel Menken, was seduced into parting with his despatch, and committed suicide in consequence."

"Well, and what about yourself?"

"Foreseeing that the unscrupulous men who have been trying to force on a war between his Russian majesty and your majesty would leave no stone unturned to intercept this despatch, the Czar wrote a duplicate with his own hand, which he entrusted to me, in the hope that I might baffle the conspirators."

"Where is it?"

"I endeavored to conceal it by unst.i.tching the front of the shirt I am wearing, and sewing it up between the folds.

"Unfortunately I was drugged at a dinner party in Petersburg just before starting. I was unconscious for an hour and a half, and I fear that the opponents of peace have taken advantage of the opportunity to find and rob me of the letter. But I will see, with your majesty's permission."

The Mikado made no answer. Amid a breathless silence, with all the room watching my movements, I tore open my shirt-front and extracted a paper.

It was blank.

"So," commented the j.a.panese Emperor, sternly, "you have no such credentials as you boasted of having."

"Pardon me, sire. Antic.i.p.ating that the War Party would suspect the object of my mission, and would resort to some such step to defeat it, I purposely provided them with a doc.u.ment to steal, believing that when they had robbed me of it they would allow me to proceed unmolested. My real credentials are here."

I drew out my cigarette case, found the partially smoked cigarette I had had in my mouth when I ran the gauntlet of the spies at Dalny, and proceeded to cut off the paper. On the inner surface these words were written in the hand of the Czar:

The bearer of this, M. V----, has my full confidence, and is authorized to settle conditions of peace.

NICHOLAS.

As I respectfully placed the sc.r.a.p of paper, with its charred edges, in the Mikado's hand, I was conscious of a profound sensation in the room. Aged statesmen and brilliant commanders bent eagerly across the table to learn the character of the message thus strangely brought to its destination.

His majesty read the brief note aloud. It was received with a murmur, not entirely of satisfaction I was surprised to note.

Seeing that the Mikado made no remark, I ventured to say:

"I hope that the extreme character of the measures adopted by the Czar to a.s.sure your majesty of his peaceful sentiments will have the effect of convincing you that they are genuine."

The Emperor of j.a.pan glanced around his council board as if to satisfy himself that he and his advisers were of one mind before replying:

"I appreciate the zeal and the extraordinary skill with which you have carried out your mission. I regret that I cannot give you a favorable answer to take back to your nation."

I was thunderstruck at this exordium. Slightly raising his voice, the Mikado went on:

"Tell the Emperor of Russia that I do not distrust his sincerity, but I distrust his power. The monarch who cannot send a letter through his dominions in safety; who has to resort to stratagems and precautions like these to overcome the opposition of his own subjects, is not the ruler of his empire.

"Why, sir, do you suppose that if I had a message to send to my brother in St. Petersburg I should have to stoop to arts like these?

That any subject of mine would dare to plot against me, to seduce my messengers, to drug and rob them? Incredible! The tale you have told me completely confirms everything I and my advisers have already heard with regard to the Russian Government. It is a ship without a captain, on which the helm is fought for and seized by different hands in turn. To-day the real rulers of Russia are the men who are bent on war--and who, while we are talking, have actually begun the war!"

I gazed around the Council-Room, unable to believe my ears.

"Yes," the stern sovereign continued, "while you, sir, were entering the Inland Sea, charged with this offer of peace"--his majesty tossed the precious piece of paper on the table with a look of disdain--"a Russian gunboat, the _Korietz_, was firing the first shot of the war at one of my squadrons off Chemulpo."

The glances directed by those present at the naval officer behind the imperial chair convinced me that he had just brought the fatal news to the Council.

"And now," added the Mikado, "I will give my reply to the real masters of Russia--to the directors of the _Korietz_."

He nodded to the naval officer, who walked across the floor to a box on the wall like a telephone receiver, and pressed a b.u.t.ton.

"That," his majesty explained, "is the signal for a flotilla of torpedo boats to enter the harbor of Port Arthur and blow up the Russian fleet."

I think a faint cry of remonstrance or misgiving must have escaped me. The j.a.panese monarch frowned, and his voice took a still sterner ring.

"Go back to your unfortunate master, and tell him that when he can send me a public envoy, in the light of day, to ask for peace, and to undertake the fulfilment of the pledges which his Ministers have broken, I will grant his request."

CHAPTER XI

WHO SMOKED THE GREGORIDES BRAND

I left the presence of the j.a.panese Emperor deeply disheartened.

It is true I had myself foretold this failure, and that his j.a.panese majesty and his advisers had been good enough to compliment me in almost extravagant terms on the energy and resourcefulness I had shown in baffling the enemies of peace.

But I am unaccustomed to defeat, no matter what are the odds against me, and I felt that the first point in the game had been scored against by the formidable woman whose beauty and strangely composite character had fascinated me, even while I was countermining her.

For my work was not yet over. Indeed, it had but just begun.

I had not succeeded in averting war between the two great Powers of Asia. But I hoped to thwart the efforts which I feared would be made to extend the conflagration to Europe.

As soon as I had found myself once more on civilized ground, I had despatched a cable to my Paris office, announcing my whereabouts and asking for information.