Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 June 1910 — THE FIVE CONSPIRATORS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE FIVE CONSPIRATORS.

They Laid a Plot For Assassination and Were Betrayed. By PETER SCAREZOFF. [Copyright, 1910, by American Press Asso- ' -' elation.j ■ : ' Prince Treboutskoi, minister of the ipterior to the czar of Russia, sat in his office examining police reports. “This,” he said to himself, “notes a conspiracy that gives no particulars. This charges one supposed to be cfevoted to the government with being implicated in a plot to assassinate the emperor on his coming trip to meet the kaiser of Germany.” At this moment an attendant entered and announced that a young girl wished to speak with his highness on a matter of great importance to him. “Are you sure she has no weapon concealed under her clothes?” asked the minister. “We can search her.” “Do so. Then if you are satisfied admit her.” Presently a girl of twenty, with the light hair and blue eyes of the north, entered. She was trembling. “What do you wish?” asked the prince. “To warn your highness of a conspiracy,” “What object have you in warning me ? Do you act purely from loyalty ?” “No. I love one of the conspirators.” “What is the conspiracy?” “A plot to assassinate you. There are five of them. They will station themselves at the bridge across the

Neva between your office and your home. One will give warning of your coming, another will throw a bomb under your carriage, a third will be ready at the other end of the bridge to shoot you in case the bomb fails; the fourth and fifth will be ready to act in case you escape all of the first three.” The minister paled. He stared at the girl, waiting for her to proceed. “I will give you the names of these men,” she continued, "on condition that you follow a plan I have conceived whereby one of them whom I love will live, while the others may be executed. They have persuaded him to join them and given him the most dangerous position. 1 am willing that they should die, but 1 wish to save him.” “What is your plan?” “I must protect him as well from his associates as from you. If he receives immunity they will kill him, believing that he has betrayed them. Therefore when you arrest them arrest him as well. Sentence them all to be shot, but at him fire d blank cartridge.” “Upon my word.” said the prince. “What a head you have for such matters! But supposing I prefer to punish these men in my own way.” “Then my lips are sealed.” “I can' send you to Siberia.” “That would not move me." The prince arose from his desk and walked the floor in deep thought, then, turning to the girl, said: “I accept your terms. I presume you wish some guaranty that 1 will caflty out my part of the contract.” “No. If you suffer my lover to be harmed I shall take it upon myself to relieve the state of your tyranny.” “But suppose I put you where you will be powerless.” “There are two others to carry out what you would prevent my doing. If the first fails the second will take up the work. If both fail there will be a third and a fourth to carry it bn.” “Very well. Now tell me the rest of this plot.” • The girl gave she information required and had no sooner left the minister than the prince notified the police to locate every one of the conspirators and when this was done to arrest them simultaneously. That night they were taken to the fortress of St. Peter. Trials occur in Russia when it is deemed expedient to satisfy the people who are cognizant of the case. But in this. instance no trial was needed. The name of the man to. be spared was Krikoff, and the police had a description of him. so that there should be no

mistake made concerning him: The orders were to take the men separately into the prison yard, stand them up against a wall and proceed in accordance with the secret orders given the governor of the fortress. At the same moment that the conspirators were arrested the police appeared at the home of Vera Seerevich, the girl who had given the information, and took her into custody. This something on which she, had nctT'cminted. She thought she had laid her plans so well that the minister would not dare to suffer harm to come either to her or to her lover. This move on his part filled her with alarm. Moreover, the police came upon her so suddenly that she had no time to communicate a word to any one. She was taken to the same fortress as the conspirators. In the morning, hearing a drumbeal under her window, she looked out between the bars and saw one of the men she had betrayed led across the prison yard. Several soldiers with muskets on their shoulders accompanied him. He was white as a sheet. Indeed, it was evident that he was going to his execution. The party disappeared behind a wing of the prison. Vera listened and presently heard a volley. Then she knew it was all over with the condemned man. 'She shuddered For the first time the fearful selfishness of her treacherous act came to her in its full force. Another drumbeat recalled her to the window. She would not have gone, but she wished to see if her lover would pass. No; it was another of the conspirators whom she had handed over to his death. He, too, was followed by a firing party. lie. too, was deadly pale. Like his predecessor, he was soon lost to view behind the prisou wing. There was a horrible interval—a volley. In like manner Vera saw four of the conspirators marched by tier prison window. They disappeared—the interval of suspense, the volley. Every time one of the condemned men passed she vowed that she would not go to the window to see the next man marched to the death she had prepared for him. But every time she was impelled to go lest the man should be her lover. By the time the fourth man had passed she had been thrown into a mental condition bordering on insanity. Surely she was being punished for her infamous act. She had lost all expectation that the minister would keep faith with her as to sparing Krikoff. When for the fifth time the drum sounded she saw her lover marched past her window. He looked up. and she saw au expression of loathing on his face at recognizing her. By the movement of his lips she knew that he cursed her. She gave a wild shriek. She knew* that he had been told what she had done. She heard the volley. Hardly had the echoes of the shots died away when again came the tap of the drum. She started. She had counted those who had passed, and there were five 1 — all those concerned in the conspiracy, all the names she had given. For whose execution could this drum tap be the signal? Suddenly the door of the room in which she was oonfined was thrown open, and there stood an officer of the prison. “Come!” Terror stricken, she arose and staggered out with him. He led her down a staircase and out into the prison yard. There stood a firing party. Supported, for she was unable to walk alone, she was marched around the wing behind which the others had disappeared. On reaching a certain spot she was placed with her back to the wall; her eyes were bandaged; she heard the words “Aim! Fire!” There was a volley. Consciousness left her. and she fell forward on her face. Then she knew that she was not dead, for she felt herself shaken over paving stones. She was in a carriage. Gradually her full consciousness came back to her. She felt for a wound, but found none. She had not been executed after all. The carriage stopped before the house to which she had gone the morning before to inform the minister of the conspiracy. A man got down from the box and. opening the door, commanded her to alight. She did so and tottered to the door, which stood open. An attendant conducted her to the office of the minister., He sat at his desk writing. Standing in a row near him were the five conspirators whom she had seen going to execution, every man alive. One of them was her lover. He did not look at her. The men stood rigid; the minister went on writing. The waiting for what should next come seemed as much of a suspense to Vera as the intervals between the disappearance of each one of these men and the sound of the volley that was supposed to have ended his existence. Finally the prince ceased writing, looked up and said to her: “You see that I have more than kept faith with you.” There was no reply. “I have not only spared your lover;, I have spared his associates.”* Still there was up reply, merely a vacant stare. The minister turned to the conspirators. a “I am considered by you to be one whom it is your duty to put out of the way, but you must admit that I am not devoid of justice. I could not bring myself to spare one of you equally guilty with the rest and execute the other four. You will be conducted to the frontier under guard. If any one of you ever returns to Russian soil he will stand again before a firing party, but not armed with blank cartridges.” As the men filed out Krikoff turned his back to Vera. She fell in a heap on the floor. $

SAW ONE OF THE MEN SHE HAD BETRAYED.