The age-herald., 1901-11-10
I'm the Secret Service.

for the far North on a trading expedi- ton in skins and furs As far as he can ascertain-and on this point he Is practically positive-the brig never re- turned; it seems to have vanished as completely as the man. Bouteneff has. however. obtained information which leads him to believe that the vessel might have been caught in an ice-1oe and frozen up. She was too far North for the time of year. and when she was last spoken in Davis Strait, where she would be shut off from any outside com munication. he is of opinion that-unless she has already gone to pieces-thsre may be a chance of her being released with the warmer weather which is now approaching. In which case he has worked out, by studying the tides and currents, she would probably drift down towards the Azores. I cannot give you the scientific explanation he gave me l have not his knowledge-but think you may rely on his facts and premises"
 But what. then, has become of the Count and his companions?" 1 asked. Has Monsieur Bouteneff formulated some theory to account for their disap- pe5rance?"
 He presumes that they would natural ly have stayed on the vessel as long as there. was any chance Of succour or of the ice relaxing its grip, but when this hope was gone, and the long Arctic win ter stared them in the face, with death from starvation or cold, they would abandon the ship and make a struggle to reach land and find some human hab- 1tation. Such a struggle in such a re- zion would be almost hopeless from the beginning, particularly for a man like the Count, who has never roughed 1t. The probability Is that all the crew have perished-particularly as nothing has IAaN NG -Ir 1t may be taken for granted that Don- hof Is dead"
 ''1n which case.'' I said, what becomes of any chance of recovering the papers?'
 "Bouteneff maintains-and in this I agree with him-that it Is most unlikely that the Count would have burdened himself with any but absolute necessaries on such a difficult and dangerous under taking as an attempt to reach land. You must remember that the papers would have made rather a bulky package con ssting, as they did, of the rules of the Brotherhood to which he belonged, and of which he was President, with the va- rious pamphlets. etc.. through which the society propagated it's doctrines. He left St. Petersburg In such haste that he could not have had time to destroy any thing, and yet no paper of importance was found, which goes to prove that he took them with him. He would probably consider the documents safer on board than on his person, for an ice-bound ship should surely make a secure hiding place."
 You do not think it likely he would have destroyed any discriminating writ ings during the voyage or before leaving the vessel?'
 ''I should say not from what Bouteneff tells me. There must have been some papers of importance. which could not be replaced and by means of which the society could keep it's hold on any mem- bers whose enthusiasm for the cause showed signs of abating. Besides. Don hoff was careless to the verge of reckless ness. If he had had time he might have destroyed any dangerous matter when 1t came to leaving the ship, but the prob- ability is that they left in haste at the last, and the horrible death that stared them in the face would have occupied all their attention"
 What was the name of the society, do you know?"
 ''The Hidden Hand signifying, I pre- sume, their habit of striking secretly and in the dark It is a most dangerous and powerful association, consisting chiefly of members of the upper classes with money or influence who know neither fear nor remorse. The Brotherhood