h purple velvet bearing the double-headed eagle
embroidered in gold. The apartment was splendidly decorated, and in the
center of the parquet floor, with his back to the light, was the thin,
wiry figure of an elderly man in a funereal frock-coat, in the lapel of
which showed the red and yellow ribbon of the Order of Saint Anne. His
hands were behind his back, and he stood purposely in such a position
that when I entered I could not at first see his face against the
strong, gray light behind.

But when the footman had bowed and retired and we were alone, he turned
slightly, and I then saw that his bony face, with high cheek-bones,
slight gray side-whiskers, hard mouth and black eyes set closely
together, was one that bore the mark of evil upon it--the keen, sinister
countenance of one who could act without any compunction and without
regret. Truly one would not be surprised at any cruel, dastardly action
of a man with such a face--the face of an oppressor.

"Well?" he snapped in French in a high-pitched voice. "You want to see
me concerning that mad English girl? What picturesque lies do you intend
to tell me concerning her?"

"I have no intention of telling any untruths concerning her," was my
quick response, as I faced him unflinchingly. "She has told me
sufficient to--"

"She has told you something! Ah! I guessed as much. I expected this!"
And I saw that his thin, crafty face went pale, while his eyes glanced
evilly upon me. He believed that she had revealed to me her secret. He
placed his hand upon the back of a chair wherein was concealed an
electric button, and next instant a little stout man in shabby black
appeared as though by magic through a secret door hidden in the dark
paneling of the audience chamber--the man who was his personal guard
against the plots for his assassination.

His Excellency spoke, and the words he uttered staggered me. I stood
aghast.

"Seize that man!" he cried, pointing to me. "He is armed! He has just
threatened to kill me! He is the man against whom we were recently
warned--the Englishman!"

"Ah!" I cried, standing before the thin-faced official of the Czar, the
unscrupulous man who had crushed Finland beneath the iron heel of
Russia, and who, by his lying allegation, now held me in his power. "I
see your object, Baron Oberg! You intend to arrest me as a conspirator!"

"Search the fellow. He has a revolver there in his hip-pocket," declared
the Governor-General, and in an ins