Chapter 31
The Kiel CanalIt was impossible to resist the
conclusion suggested by the absence of the sixth submarine.
I was not the only person who had been authorized, or rather
instructed, to carry out the design against the Baltic Fleet. My
august employer had thought it better to have two strings to his
bow.
Who, then, was the person by whom I had been anticipated?
To this question an answer suggested itself which I was tempted
to reject, but which haunted me, and would not be dismissed.
The Princess Y—— had arrived in Berlin twelve hours before me.
She had come, fully believing that Petrovitch was dead, and
prepared to take his place.
She had interviewed Finkelstein, as I knew. Was it not possible
that she, also, had been received in the crypt at Potsdam, had been
shown
