Holbrook argus., 1912-07-16

'If we could substitute a double for the czar, to appear in council on Tuesday morning and send the dis patch to Servis in his name-'
 Who is there?" cried the king wincing, thought. But had gone too far to hesitate.
 His royal highness, the Prince of Wsles." I answered.
 The king clapped his hand>to his forehead. Sir Edward Grey seemed lost in astonishment. Yet, who else7 The resemblance between 4rince George end his cousin the ezar fS no- torious. Even membeEs of their own! families find difhculty in telling one from the other. Besides, who but the prince could gain admission to thsr Russian court? Yet, once there, the substitution could be made easily. It was daring scheme, but fraught with little risk. The consptrators would never dare lay violent hands upon the prince. And after much thought the king fell in with my scheme. A tele- phonio message wes sent to the princess house at Richmond, requesting his immediate presence at the palace, with the expectation of leaving for St. Petersburg.
 In little more than an hour he came hurrying in. Prince George was trained to be a sailor. When told of 1t he laughed, swore, refused and acqui- esced. We were to take the noon train for Harwich. reaching Hamburg that Iof fo fvr k~ okAh &h4 transcontinental mail, which would land us in St. Petersburg on Monday about midday. Hastily we debated the scheme. The prince suggested that he should allow himself to be Kidnapped in place of the czar, thus leaving the czar free to follow his own counsel on the morrow. "And," he added, "once l get those rascals out in the forest I'll jolly we'll skin the hide of them" But eventually 1t was decided that this plan left the czar too much initi- ative. The conspiratms might dis cover the substitution in time and hit upon some other scheme in order to frustrate our plans. It would be better actually to allow Nicholas to be kid naped and then for Prince George to substitute himself at the last moment, When Philippe, Kaulbars and the grand dukes were confident that the czar was miles away.r
 1twas essential that the princes de parture should not be known Accord ingly he disguised himself in blue spec tacles and tourists costume, and we set oil together for St. Petersburg im- mediately, catching the train for Har- wich. Our plans were, to a certain extent, dependent upon circumstances; our general scheme, however, was that the prince should gain access to the czar and should remain in the palace until the need arose for him to take the place of the czar himself.
 Your royal highmess will have shrewd minds at work against yeu,' hazarded as we sped into Berlin and changed cars for the frontier.
 The vu1tures will be gathering for the feast" he answered. But we'll best 'em, Adams; we'll best 'em.'' !
 When we got into the train. how ever, and leaned out from the win dow, taking a farewell view of the scene, I suddenly perceived some thing which most unpleassnlty affected me. Strollins leisurely along the coaches, away from ours, was Stspf- haus, the German agent, with whom had more than once crussed swords before, especially in the case of the North sea incident, already reoounted. He had passed us; had he detected the prince and myself? From his non chslant air, his absence of all dis guise, It was evident that he deemed himself secure from all danger. I saw him swing round on his heel and come back slowly. I had just time to mo tion to the prince to draw himself up | into corner behind his newspaper when Stapfhaus approached and recog- nized me. He clasped my hand cor dially, then shook his finger in mock warning.
 "Off to St. Petersburg to urge the czar to fight?' he observed mockingly. "oh, my dear Adams. Your notions are so childish and elemental! Now I-'
 You're going as the German agent" replied.
 That goes without saying" he said lightly. However, Adams, no blood is likely to be shed on this journey, so why should we not be frank and cry let the best man win?'" At. that moment the train began to move. and Stapfhaus ran to his own : coach, which he entered, leaving me somewhat disconcerted and considers i ply chagrined, and only hoping that he h9d not recognized Prince George. Suddenly the prince propounded 2 question which. absurd as it may seem had not occurred to me.
 How am going to get into the pal ace unless I announce myself?" he de manded.
 He had been so used to having the unrestricted entree of any court tha he had still thought of himself il af M