The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1911-11-25

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excitedly,
"He Is in charge Of the general Of
this division" answered Captain Ala
nasjeff. "He ordered me to consider
myself under arrest for being asleep
while on duty. He also placed my
men under arrest. His charge is most
unjust, but | had to obey his orders"
The truth Of the situation dawned
upon me Immediately Captain Ala
nasjeff had been tricked by Bogroff's
friends, who had disguised themselves
as gendarmes and by a clever ruse
taken his prisoner away. Undoubted-
ly his revolutionist friends in War
saw had wired to their confederates
in Brest Litovsk that he was on the
Nord express and they had no difficult
ty in stopping the train and spiriting
him away l discovered later that
that was exactly wnat had been done.
A dozen bold revolutionists at Brest
Litovsk had hurried to little station
half dozen miles from the town and
with the aid of a red lantern had no
difficulty in Tagging the express. While
the train was proceeding slowly they
had jumped off in the darkness with
BogroH, who was soon released from
his chains.
did not waste any time upbraiding
Captain Afanasieff. l knew he would
be severely punished for his loss of
his prisoner. In fact, if he had not
been nephew of Durnovo, Minister
of the Interior, he would have been
shot within twenty-four hours. AS
it was he was dismissed from the SER
vice.
l inquired when the first train left
for Brest Litoysk, and finding there
was an express within the hour I set
off on what promised to be wild
goose chase. I had spent several
weeks in Brest Litovsk some months
before and l was familiar with the
leading revolutionists there. From Cap
tain Afanasjeffs description of the
general of gendarmes l felt certain
he was one of two revolutionists | had
had under surveillance, and l deter
mined to keep my eyes on them in
the hope of getting some clue to Bog
roff's whereabouts.
| changed my uniform for the dress
of a Russian student and started for
the homes Of the revoutionists. Brest
LitOvsk is one of the smaller cities
of Russia, about five hours from st.
Petersburg, and l had no trouble in
finding them. An hours investigation
revealed the fact that they had been
away from their homes the night be-
fore. To complete the chain of evil
dence, l obtained copies of all the
kilograms that had been received at
the local telegraph office, and among
them ! found a message addrest to
Nicholas Kurloff one of the revolu-
tionsts l suspected announcing the
death of his brother in Warsaw. Evi.
IDENTIFY it was code message inform
ing him that Bogroff was on the Nord
express.
My American readers may think it +.
strange that | did not notify the local
police, but when one has lived in Rus |
STA one yer trusts any one Had
called upon the head of the Brest .
Litovsk police to arrest the men | sus-
pactad tho ravolutiOniSt epiog or,0pu
his own men would have notified the .
suspects first, and it would have been
impossible to arrest them. Bogroff .
himself was a spy in the employ of
the secret police and at the same time
was aiding the reyolutionists. He was
supposed to be guarding Premier Stoly-
pin when he shot him in the opera
house at Kief. The mistake the pres
ent Minister of Police made was that
he had nobody watching him.
Persitz never took chances, he says,
but, when he wanted man. went aft
er him himself. He did not doubt that
his own movements were spied upon
by the Minister of Police, and to have
requested aid of spies employing
spiers" would have been fatal. But
reverting to his story, he says:
had located the leader of the raid
or the Nord express and every indica-
ton seemed to point to Bogroff being
hidden close by. To surround the
homes of the revolutionists. would be
useless, as they were undoubtedly con- I
nected with underground passages, and
any demonstration by the police would
put Bogroff on his guard.
So l decided to employ a ruse to
bring him out of his hiding place. 1t
was a desperate undertaking, but if
he were hiding in the home of Nj
cholas Kurloff I would have him in
the fortress of st. Peter and st. Paul
before another twenty-four hours. My
ruse was nothing more or less than
to set fire to the house adjoining the
home of Nicholas Kurloff
Fortunately l had no trouble in en-