lma Heath is here--in this grim fortress! Why?"

"Ah, m'sieur, how can I tell? By reason of family secrets, perhaps. They
account for so much, you know."

"That is exactly my opinion," I said. "She has been brought here against
her will."

"Most probably. This is not a cheerful place, as you see. We have five
months of ice and snow, and for four months are practically cut off from
civilization and see no new face."

"Terrible!" I gasped, glancing round at those dark stone walls that
seemed to breathe an air of tragedy and mystery. The old castle had, I
supposed, been turned into a convent, as many have been in Germany and
Austria. Back in feudal times it no doubt had been a grand old place.
"And have you been here long?" I asked.

"Seven years only. But I am leaving. Even I, used as I am to a solitary
life, can stand it no longer. I feel that its cold silence and
dreariness will drive me mad. In winter the place is like an ice-well."

The fact that the Baron was ruler of Finland amazed me, for I had
half-expected him to be some clever adventurer. Yet as the events of the
past flashed through my brain, I recollected that in Rannoch Wood had
been found the miniature of the Russian Order of Saint Anne, a
distinction which, in all probability, had been conferred upon him. If
so, the coincidence, to say the least, was a remarkable one. I
questioned my companion further regarding the Baron.

"Ah, m'sieur," she declared, "they call him 'The Strangler of the
Finns,' It was he who ordered the peasants of Kasko to be flogged until
four of them died--and the Czar gave him the Star of White Eagle for
it--he who suppressed half the newspapers and put eighteen editors in
prison for publishing a report of a meeting of the Swedes in
Helsingfors; he who encourages corruption and bribery among the
officials for the furtherance of Russian interests; he who has ordered
Russian to be the official language, who has restricted public
education, who has overtaxed and ground down the people until now the
mine is laid, and Finland is ready for open revolt. The prisons are
filled with the innocent; women are flogged; the poor are starving, and
'The Strangler,' as they call him, reports to the Czar that Finland is
submissive and is Russianized!"

I had heard something of this abominable state of affairs from time to
time from the English press, but had never taken notice of the name of
the oppressor. So the uncle of Elma Heath was "The St