Page:William Le Queux - The Czar's Spy.djvu/321

Rh prisoner, into the very midst of peril. It was true that her passport was in order, yet I remembered that an order had been issued for her transportation to Saghalien, and now once arrested she must be lost to me for ever.

This thought filled me with fierce anxiety. She was in Petersburg, that city where police spies swarm, and where every fresh arrival is noted and his antecedents inquired into. No attempt had been made to disguise who she was, therefore before long the police would undoubtedly come and arrest her as the escaped criminal from Kajana.

For several hours I sat at my window watching the life and movement down in the street below, my mind full of wonder and dark forebodings. Was Martin Woodroffe playing her false?

Just after half-past six o'clock the waiter entered and handing me a note on a salver, said —

"Mademoiselle has, I believe, only this moment been able to write in secret."

I tore it open and read as follows : —

— ''I am so surprised. I thought you were still in Abo. Mr. Woodroffe has an appointment at eight o'clock on the other side of the city, therefore come to me at 8.15. I must see you and at once. I am in peril.'' —

My love was in peril! It was just as I had feared. I thanked Providence that I had been sent to help her and extricate her from that awful fate to which "The Strangler of Finland" had consigned her.