Page:William Le Queux - The Czar's Spy.djvu/276

258 friend," I said, you will assist Miss Heath to escape this man, who desires to hold her prisoner in that awful place. They are driving her mad."

"I will do my best," he answered, shaking his head dubiously. "But you must recollect that Baron Oberg is Governor-General of Finland, with all the powers of the Czar himself."

"And if Elma again falls into his unscrupulous hands, she will die," I declared.

"Ah!" he sighed, looking me straight in the face, "I fear that what you say is only too true. She evidently holds some secret which he fears she will reveal. He wishes to re-arrest her in order — well ——" he added in a low tone, "in order to close her lips. It would not be the first time that persons have been silenced in secret at Kajana. Many fatal accidents take place in that fortress, you know."