Page:In the name of a woman (1900).djvu/145

 merely making a shrewd guess?" he asked. "I cannot think of any man among us who would turn blabber. But if I find him" He left the sentence unfinished, but the threat was the more expressive.

"Yes, yes, there are twenty ways of dealing with a man," said I; "but a woman is different."

"A traitor is a traitor, never mind the sex; and I see no cause for mercy for one more than another," he growled into his beard, his look very set and stern. "But what is your plan?"

"That we prepare a couple of rooms here in my house, and keep her until we can find some other place equally safe and secret."

"Is this secret? Are you sure of your servants? May we not look for the leakage among them?"

"Spernow found them for me," was my answer.

"Would you change them?"

"Every man and woman to-morrow, if you can fill their places."

"I can do that," he assented quickly. "Wait—better—can you let me see them all? I may spot the traitor, or at all events separate the sheep from the goats."

I rang the bell and sent for my steward. When he came I told him to get the servants all together, and send them in to me one at a time, as I wished to question them separately about a certain paper which I said had been mislaid.

They came in one by one, and we so arranged the position that each stood in a strong light for Zoiloff to be able to watch them as I put a short string of questions. He put a black mark against three whom he regarded as suspicious. The rest, he declared, were above question.