replied. "It is evident
that they feared him, for they took every precaution against being
followed. In fact, they fled leaving a big party of friends in the
house. The man Woodroffe, now at the Hotel de Paris, is a friend of
Leithcourt as well as of Chater."

"He was not a guest of Leithcourt when this man representing Santini was
assassinated?" asked Kampf, again stroking his beard.

"No. As soon as Woodroffe recognized me as a visitor he left--for
Hamburg."

"He was afraid to face you because of the ransacking of the British
Consul's safe at Leghorn," remarked the Princess, who, at the same
moment, took Elma's hand tenderly in her own and looked at her. Then,
turning to me, she said: "What you have told us to-night, Mr. Gregg,
throws a new light upon certain incidents that had hitherto puzzled us.
The mystery of it all is a great and inscrutable one--the mystery of
this poor unfortunate girl, greatest of all. But both of us will
endeavor to help you to elucidate it; we will help poor Elma to crush
her enemies--these cowardly villains who had maimed her."

"Ah, Princess!" I cried. "If you will only help and protect her, you
will be doing an act of mercy to a defenseless woman. I love her--I
admit it. I have done my utmost: I have striven to solve the dark
mystery, but up to the present I have been unsuccessful, and have only
remained, even till to-day, the victim of circumstance."

"Let her stay with me," the kindly woman answered, smiling tenderly upon
my love. "She will be safe here, and in the meantime we will endeavor to
discover the real and actual truth."

And in response I took the Princess's hand and pressed it fervently.
Although that striking, white-headed man and the rather stiff, formal
woman in black were the leaders of the great and all-powerful movement
in Russia known through the civilized world as "The Terror," yet they
were nevertheless our friends. They had pledged themselves to help us
thwart our enemies.

I scribbled a few hasty words upon paper and handed it to Elma. And for
answer she smiled contentedly, looking into my eyes with an expression
of trust, devotion and love.

CHAPTER XV

JUST OFF THE STRAND

A week had gone by. The Nord Express had brought me posthaste across
Europe from Petersburg to Calais, and I was again in London. I had left
Elma in the care of the Princess Zurloff, whom I knew would conceal her
from the horde of police-agents now in search of her.

The