nurse them; that is all."

"And who is the commandant of this fortress?"

"Colonel Smirnoff. If he knew that I had admitted you, you would never
leave this place alive. This is the Schusselburg of Finland--the place
of imprisonment for those who have conspired against the State."

"The prison of political conspirators, eh?"

"Alas, m'sieur, yes! The place in which some of the poor creatures are
tortured in order to obtain confessions and information with as much
cruelty as in the black days of the Inquisition. These walls are thick,
and their cries are not heard from the oubliettes below the lake."

I had long ago heard of the horrors of Schusselburg. Indeed who has not
heard of them who has traveled in Russia? The very mention of the modern
Bastille on Lake Ladoga, where no prisoner has ever been known to come
forth alive, is sufficient to cause any Russian to turn pale. And I was
in the Schusselburg of Finland!

I turned over the sheet of paper and wrote the question--

"Did Baron Oberg send you here?"

In response, she printed the words--

"I believe so. I was arrested in Helsingfors. Tell Lydia where I am."

"Do you know Muriel Leithcourt?" I inquired by the same means, whereupon
she replied that they were at school together.

"Did you see me on board the _Lola_?" I wrote.

"Yes. But I could not warn you, although I had overheard their
intentions. They took me ashore when you had gone, to Siena. After three
days I found myself deaf and dumb--I was made so."

Her allegation startled me. She had been purposely afflicted!

"Who did it?"

"A doctor, I suppose. They put me under chloroform."

"Who?"

"People who said they were my friends."

I turned to the woman in the religious habit, and cried--

"Do you see what she has written? She has been maimed by some friends
who intended that the secret she holds should be kept. They feared to
kill her, so they bribed a doctor to deliberately operate upon her so
that she could neither speak nor hear. And now they are driving her to
suicide!"

"M'sieur, I am astounded!" declared the nun. "I have always believed
that she was not in her right mind, yet assuredly she seems to be as
sane as I am, only willfully mutilated by some pretended friend who
determined that no further word should pass her lips."

"A shameful mutilation has been committed upon this poor defenseless
girl!" I cried in anger. "And I will make it my duty to discover and
punish the perpetr