Page:William Le Queux - The Czar's Spy.djvu/297

Rh in his rage. "Recollect, m'sieur, that you have insulted me. Recollect that I am Governor-General of Finland."

"If you were Czar himself, I should not hesitate to spare you as the tyrant and mutilator of a poor defenceless woman."

"And to whom, pray, will you tell this romantic story of yours?" he laughed hoarsely. "To your prison walls below the lake at Kajana? Yes, M'sieur Gregg, you will go there, and once within the fortress you shall never again see the light of day. You threaten me — the Governor-General of Finland!" he laughed in a strange, high-pitched key as he threw himself into a chair and scribbled something rapidly upon paper, appending his signature in his small crabbed handwriting.

"I do not threaten," I said in open defiance, "I shall act."

"And so shall I," he said with an evil grin upon his bony face as he blotted what he had written and took it up, adding: "In the darkness and silence of your living tomb, you can tell whatever strange stories you like concerning me. They are used to idiots where you are going," he added grimly.

"Oh! And where am I going?"

"Back to Kajana. This order consigns you to confinement there as a dangerous political conspirator, as one who has threatened me — it consigns you to the cells below the lake — for life!"

I laughed aloud, and my hand sought my wallet wherein was that all-powerful document — the order of the Emperor which gave me, as an imperial guest,