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certainly the case that there are probably dozens of persons spying on a Prefect of Police. He does nothing which is not reported unofficially. Although not a word had been said, in the morning many persons knew that overnight he had come into possession of a remarkable pearl star. Yashvin here is an example of the spy who is to the manner born. A spy himself, he is in communication with spies who spy for him. It seems that someone came along and told him about that star. He jumped at a conclusion in a moment, that it was possible that somehow the Prefect had got hold of the star the Romanoff pearls. He caused certain inquiries to be made which convinced him that he was right. He went with his story to the Princess Kitty. In the evening of the following day the Prefect was murdered in the open street. It is not for us, at this moment, to attempt to apportion the blame; it was said that the crime was the work of Nihilists. Where Russia is concerned, 'Nihilist' is a word which covers a multitude of things. It may be mentioned that on the previous night a burglary had been committed at the Prefect's apartments. It was not stated what the burglars were looking for, but it was generally understood that they went empty-handed away. Some of the persons who had been connected with that burglary were in some way associated with the murder. When the Prefect fell, a person in uniform was standing close by. He came to the Prefect's assistance, unbuttoning his tunic to learn where the wound was. Whether he did learn is not known. When inquiries came to be made later, this individual seemed to have vanished off the face of the earth; his identity has never been discovered and no pearl star was found on the Prefect's person or in his apartment. This may be said to be the point at which I first came upon the scene; but before passing to my personal association with the matter, I will pause to ask Mrs. Van Groot seriously to consider if at least a certain part of the responsibility for this long catalogue of crime, and even blood
