Page:Ossendowski - From President to Prison.djvu/163

 CHAPTER XIV

THE FICKLENESS OF POWER

NONYMOUS letters reminded us with ever-increasing frequency of the approaching danger of death at the hands of the reactionaries and anarchists, informed us of the death sentences already pronounced against us in St. Petersburg or put us on guard by giving us information with reference to the days fixed for the attacks against us. We were always armed and had Vlasienko with his group for our guard. The appointed days passed and left me quite unhurt, though I often noticed that I was being shadowed. Mysterious individuals appeared to be constantly on my trail, though there seemed no need for so much hiding of their movements.

In just a few days I had proof of some of these threatened activities in what occurred at my office. Something jingled, as though a stone had struck the window pane, while in the opposite wall a whitish spot of chipped plaster appeared. Evidently the marksman was not very skilful; but, quite as evidently, another and better shot could easily be found and then there would be three holes instead of two. In spite of the fact that a similar attempt took place at Lepeshinsky's residence, the work of the Five was not interrupted.

During one of the Committee's sittings I was called out at about ten o'clock in the evening by an attendant, who presented me with the card of a gentleman who had 151