"Your government won"t let you go very far away from its reach," he said, with a quizzical smile.
"Oh, the government! I have cut it, Alexis."
"What? Left the service?"
"Temporarily," I replied, and he laughed again as loudly as before.
There was reason for his levity, because placing my resignation in the hands of the secretary had become a habit with me. I was periodically depressed by the duties of a secret service agent and as often determined to leave the service for good. But as often, I had returned to it upon the request of one department or another of my government, when my services were required in the line of some particular duty which officialdom was pleased to a.s.sure me could not be so well accomplished by any other person of its acquaintance. That was why Alexis Saberevski laughed.
"Is your resignation still on file? Or is it only lying on the table awaiting action, Daniel?" he asked me, and there was just a touch of ironic suggestion in his manner, which nettled me.
"The resignation is a fact this time," I replied. "I have earned a period of rest, and I propose to take it."
"Going abroad, Derrington?"
"No."
"Prefer to undergo the process of dry rot, here in New York?"
"Yes; for a time at least."
"Is there nothing on the other side of the water, that attracts you?"
"Nothing at all."
He switched his right leg to his left knee and blew a cloud of smoke into the air.
"You"re not a lazy chap, Dan," he remarked, as if he were deeply considering the verity of that statement. "One wouldn"t pick you out as a blase individual who is tired of everything the world has to offer.
You are as filled with energy and nervous force as any chap I ever knew; and you are not yet thirty-five."
"Quite true," I admitted.
"Yet, like a craft that has fought its way through stormy seas around the world, you sit there and try to a.s.sure me that you are content to tie up against a rotting wharf, in an odorous slip, and pa.s.s the rest of your days in inaction. It isn"t like you, Dan."
"It looks very enticing to me just now, however."
"The trouble is," he said, "that your American diplomacy and your amazing politics over here, offer no opportunities to a man of your talents. You should go against the p.r.i.c.ks of European intrigue. You ought to b.u.t.t in, as you fellows express it, upon French statecraft which leaves nothing to be desired in the way of double dealings. You should try Austrian lies, or German brutalities, or Italian and Spanish sophistry, or English stupidity. Believe me, one of these would offer many points of interest which should interest and engage your attention."
"Why not Russian cruelty?" I asked. "That seems to be the only important nationality you have omitted."
"Why not?" he repeated after me.
"You seem to have tired of it yourself, Saberevski."
He shrugged his shoulders, leaning back in his chair, and the suggestion of a shadow pa.s.sed across his handsome face.
"Dan," he said with an entire change of tone that startled me into renewed interest, "I haven"t any doubt that you have always regarded me as a queer sort of chap, more or less shrouded by a mystery you could not fathom. And you were right."
"I have never----" I began. But he raised a hand to arrest me.
"I know it," he said. "You do not need to a.s.sure me of that. You are too much of a man, and your character is too broad and deep, for you ever to attempt an intimacy which was not invited. But it is my pleasure just now, old man, to give you a little bit of my history. It may interest you. And it may lead to a change in your views; not regarding you, but in connection with myself. I am a much older man than you are; fifteen years and more, I should say. All my life, up to the time we last parted, has been pa.s.sed in the personal service of his majesty, the czar. I have been as close to him as any man can ever obtain, and I am probably the only one who has enjoyed his confidence to the extent of retaining it in the face of studied opposition on the part of the greatest n.o.bles of the empire. But I have retained it, Dan, and to such an extent that I suppose myself to be the only man living to-day, against whom Alexander would not permit himself to be influenced. There is a reason for it and a good one, but I need not go into that."
"No," I said. "You need not tell me this at all, Alexis. I am quite glad enough to see you and to have you here, without explanation."
He made a gesture of impatience.
"As if I did not know that," he added; "but as I said a moment ago, it is my pleasure to recite some of these things to you, because since I came into this room and grasped your hand I have been impressed by the idea that there is a great work for you to do; a great duty for you to perform. A stupendous obstacle to human development exists in one part of Europe to-day, which I believe you could overcome and demolish, if only you could be convinced of it. I wonder, Dan, if you would give the subject any thought if I were to suggest it to you?"
"Try," I said.
"I wonder if you would seriously consider one of the greatest achievements that remains undone in Europe to-day," he added, meditatively.
"The obstacle to which you just now referred?" I asked.
"Yes."
"What is it?"
"Nihilism."
"h.e.l.l!" I replied with emphasis.
But he took me literally, and not even the suggestion of a smile showed in his face as he replied:
"That is the fitting word, Dan. It is h.e.l.l. It is worse than that to hundreds of thousands of human beings, from the lowest _mujik__ of the steppes, to the czar himself. It is a word which carries with it a certain magic which always spells the word death. It is death to those who antagonize it, and it is death to them that uphold it. It is death to the minister, the governor, the official, and it is death to the poor devil who plots in the dark, secretly with his fellows, against the powers that rule him. Nihilism is well named, for it means nothing and it ends in nothing. _Nihilo nihil fit!_ Whoever named the revolutionists of Russia so, builded better than they knew."
I was watching Saberevski with some amazement. I had never heard him express himself in such terms before, and I had not supposed him capable, sympathetically, of doing so. I was not without a certain fund of knowledge regarding the subject he had introduced, for my professional duties had taken me more than once into Russia, and I had encountered much of the conditions he described. But I regarded them, as well as Saberevski himself, with the American idea and from an American standpoint. It had always seemed to me so unnecessary that conditions should exist as I had heard them described over there. I had always believed that if the government of Russia would only go about the work differently, it would be so easy to eradicate every phase of the so-called nihilism, and especially that branch of it practiced by those who are called extremists. Evidently Saberevski entertained something of this view himself, although from the standpoint of a Russian, for he ended a short silence between us by saying:
"I have not finished what I was going to tell you, Dan. I have served Alexander, the czar, many years, and served him faithfully. There are reasons now why I can serve him no longer, in the capacity and at the places where he needs me most. My life which is of small moment, and his who is my royal master, would not be worth the weight of a feather if I were to show my face at St. Petersburg again. There is nothing remaining for me to do save to sit down quietly in some far country of the world, and watch from a distance the pa.s.sing of events which some day, near or far as the case may be, will end in his a.s.sa.s.sination.
What my work has been and what it would still be if I could remain near to his imperial majesty, you can guess, and I need not give it a name.
But Dan, if I could succeed in convincing you of the opportunity that would be yours if you should go there, and if I could know that you had gone, determined to offer your services where they are most needed, then that far corner of the world where I would wait and watch events, would become a peaceful spot to me, for I know that you could succeed where all others have failed."
Alexis Saberevski and I had many such conversations as that one, after that, in which we discussed pro and con the suggestion he had made.
It grew upon me and grew upon me until I became obsessed by the idea although I did not think that he guessed my eagerness.
He remained in New York, and virtually became my guest at the club, during more than two months, and we were as constantly together as was possible and convenient.
One afternoon while we were chatting as usual, I called his attention to a paragraph I had seen in the _Herald_ of that morning which announced the arrival in New York of a Russian princess. The fact had not interested me, but recalling at the instant the idea that she was most likely known to my friend, I said:
"Saberevski, one of your countrywomen, a princess whose name escapes me for I did not notice it particularly, arrived in the city this morning, and is at one of the hotels. I mention it because you may not have seen the notice, and might like to pay your respects to her. You will find her name and a column or more of other information concerning her, in this morning"s _Herald_."
"Thank you," he said, "I will look it up."
More than a week later while I was walking down Fifth avenue, a hansom cab stopped at the curb beside me, and Saberevski"s face looked out.
"Jump in, Dan," he said. "I want you to take a ride with me;" and with no thought of hesitation, I complied. I did not even ask to be told our destination and was somewhat surprised when our conveyance stopped at one of the North river steamship piers.
"You are not leaving the country, are you, Alexis?" I asked, as we got down.