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In fact I was never so busy in allthose four weeks

of preparation for the stupendous task I had set myself; and you will

understand that there were countless things to do, unnue, and a thousand and one ramifications of the work to be

planned and plotted and thoroughly coather around anization of a secret service bureau, no eneral may

be its duties, is at least a anization of

such a bureau as this one whose very existence must remain a secret

from all the world, presented difficulties not to be ainst under any other circumstances

It was necessary that I should become the chief over an army ofthe rank and

file of that army should know of my existence, as it was related to

them With the chiefs of departments and sections, it was necessary

that I should have intercourse and interviews, but I had already made

my mental selection of persons to fill those positions, when I arrived

in St Petersburg, and the organization of the several departments was

to be left in their hands

I was determined that there should be no phase of Russian life which

could hide itself away fro forces; frohest official in the Russian diplomatic

service and in the are must extend, and every detail of it all must necessarily

be so complete as to render it not only exact, but absolutely under my

personal control and direction, without however in any way creating the