house and knowing official secrets, it was not wise to put him in
against the regular machinery of elimination. So Zastrov was
challenged to a duel. He killed the first man the Service chiefs sent
against him, yet no sooner was that duel over than he was challenged
again. In half an hour Zastrov was dead.

Yes, your own employers often think it advisable at times to eliminate
a too clever or knowing member of their service, unless that same
member has procured for himself a solid good "life insurance" in the
nature of documentary evidence of such character that to meddle with
him brings danger of disclosure. Of late there have been no attempts
on my life.


Chapter III. Into the East


Reclining in my deck chair on the N. D. L. liner _Bayern_, bound for
Singapore, I was smoking a pipe and idly speculating. I had
cultivated the acquaintance of my table neighbor, a Japanese, Baron
Huraki, and was at the moment, expecting him to come up the
companionway and take his place in his deck chair beside me. Instead
came two officers of the Second Siberian Rifles, strolling along the
deck. It was obvious that, although it still lacked three hours of
noon, these gentlemen had been quite frequently to the shrine of
Bacchus. I had no fault to find with that, as long as they did not
interfere with my own personal comfort. When they began tacking
along, talking at the top of their voices on that part of the deck
known by experienced travelers to be reserved for repose and reading,
however, they began to irritate me. When one of them threw himself